Why is it laughable? Because you think I was comparing an Apple to a PC laptop to see which one was "better?" Again, for the third time, I'm talking about internal components because I feel that the PowerBook is lacking; I'd love to have both an SATA 7200rpm hard drive and DDR400 RAM in a laptop.
Do some research before run that condescending mouth of yours:
Apple 17" PowerBook
-58-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (17-inch model)
-Weight: 6.9 pounds (3.1 kg) with battery and optical drive installed
Alienware MJ-12m 5500
-Primary Battery: 12 Cells, 8800 mAH Long Battery Life: 12 Cells for ~2.2hrs
-Weight: 7.6 pounds
Granted, the MF-12m 5500 is a little heavier than the PB (not ??twice as much??), and the battery life is quite a bit shorter than the PB (but not ??half an hour??). Having said that, I feel those setbacks in the Alienware MJ-12m 5500 are worth having a better video card, faster RAM, a faster hard drive, and the possibility of having a second hard drive. Yet again, I use and prefer Apple, and all I?m saying is that I feel the current PowerBooks are quite behind in their hardware specifications; they could and should be better.
I feel like it's almost frivolous to compare a 1.6" short-lasting loud and hot 15.4" hairdrier with very good computing specs to a quiet, larger, longer-running, *lap*top, i.e. the 17" powerbook. I have a 1" thick 12.1" screen Athlon XP-M laptop that I can't hear at work because the other apparatus in my lab is too loud. It's just like the alienware, fast'n hot, with better specs and tech than my wife's iBook G4 (except the video card), but on the go, her iBook beats my beloved Averatec anytime in terms of lap-friendliness and mobile usability. (hot, loud fans, air-intake on the bottom, etc.) I think in terms of *mobile* computing, Apple is hitting the best compromise they can at this point. And they just aren't into desktop replacements, which I see a P4 being. The new tech will come, and probably not in the too far distant future. However, DDR400 (or DDR2) with the current processor doesn't make sense. SATA doesn't until there is a larger number of SATA drives out which will lower the price and which will justify the chip set redesign. Until then, lacking a mobile G5, what you can get is the best they can do without producing hairdriers... .
Why is it laughable? Because you think I was comparing an Apple to a PC laptop to see which one was "better?" Again, for the third time, I'm talking about internal components because ...
Your comparison is between a laptop and a portable desktop. You should compare the PowerBook to something like a Sony Vaio laptop with a Centrino M-type processor. (This comparison may not make the Apple look so good either.) 7200RPM drives are real hot power hogs, and two of them will consume power like mad.
Furthermore, I have seen Powerbooks run for over 4 hours on battery. I have seen PC laptops that claimed 2 hours go black in less than one. Anyone who takes manufacturer specs (including Apple's) on battery life as fact is heading for disappointment. Everything depends on what you run.
I'm not convinced that a g5 would be a benefit to a laptop except for higher bus speed. I still see them sucking more battery, I still see them around the same clock speed with the same cache... I'm not a professional hardware guru... but all of these things point towards disappointment. Even if there WERE a g5 in a powerbook... really, how beneficial would it be?
Even if there WERE a g5 in a powerbook... really, how beneficial would it be?
As has been said before, A 1.6 GHz Powerbook G5 compared to a 1.6 GHz Powerbook G4 will on average have about the same integer performance, about the same Velocity Engine performance, and about 50% more floating point performance. For spaghetti code, the G4 will perform better. For streaming code, the G5 will perform better. One other significant feature made possible with a G5 is AGP 8x.
The value proposition is that Apple could ship a 1.8 to 2 GHz Powerbook G5 by compromising on mobility. It could be 50% thicker (1.5") than a Powerbook G4. A thicker laptop would mean it could have a battery twice as large with twice as much power. So faster MHz compared to the G4 means faster performance overall, especially in floating point. Thicker laptop means a larger battery could be used to offset the increase in power usage of a G5 system.
So really the biggest differences would be the FSB...
AGP8x could easily be added to the current powerbook motherboard. So really what would be the holy grail of laptops is a dual core g4. Lower power consumption, bit faster FSB, and another proc to take over.
I just decided I'm done waiting for a g5 powerbook.
So really the biggest differences would be the FSB...
No. The single biggest difference will be that the 970 will have 50% better floating point performance at the same clock rate. That's quite a bit of an improvement and needed for many professional applications. For memory bandwidth limited code, yes, the 970 FSB advantage will give it a performance increase, not sure how much. Maybe 2x on some apps.
Quote:
AGP8x could easily be added to the current powerbook motherboard.
Why?
Quote:
So really what would be the holy grail of laptops is a dual core g4. Lower power consumption, bit faster FSB, and another proc to take over.
Even if apple is hitting "middle" range this is not what I expect from a 3,000 machine. If people want middle range then Apple should deversify and offer lower consumsion laptops, and power user laptops (it is the POWERbook after all). Many people use a mobile machine is their MAIN computer.
Have to agree, am typing this on a Win98SE 300mhz 40gig hard drive 8mb vid card box.
However, I have to agree, incremental upgrades are simply no fun. Apple has been doing good things with their updates of the iMac's and PowerMacs, but they seem to have released only incremental upgrades on their notebooks. Powerbook is roofing the ibook. I would love to see G5 Powerbook running tiger with a geforcego 6600, and a G4 ibook 1.6ghz geforcego 6200, both running tiger at next Macworld.
I hope so, the real stuff hasn't been updated in a while. The past macworld was a whole "lets get real small" fiasco (mini, shuffle). So lets just pray this macworld becomes a power user day (powermac, powerbook, tigger) :-D
I really think WWDC will be a big 64-bit/G5 event. Huge. Massive. Not only Tiger but new PowerMac G5 and PowerBook G5 models to run it on.
I have been saying this all along.
Apple is been very quiet for long time regarding Powermac and Powerbooks. Last powerbook upgrade was very small and we are waiting forever for G5 on Powerbooks. Powermac are in huge need of a big upgrade.
Once again, Steve loves to kick ass at his keynotes. he's not going to just talk about Tiger at WWDC. He has something big to announce. He loves the buzz events like that creates. So be prepare!
Once again, Steve loves to kick ass at his keynotes. he's not going to just talk about Tiger at WWDC. He has something big to announce. He loves the buzz events like that creates. So be prepare!
Have to agree. Anyone remember the famous "oh, yeah, just one more thing" line Jobs gave as a couple of years ago. That line ended in iPod mini.
Apple cant go any smaller. Time to go very, very big. Classic california aproach.
PS California is a great state, but seriously, who rights Hollywood on a freakin mountain. Only part of america without funny acent
Comments
Originally posted by 00100011
Why is it laughable? Because you think I was comparing an Apple to a PC laptop to see which one was "better?" Again, for the third time, I'm talking about internal components because I feel that the PowerBook is lacking; I'd love to have both an SATA 7200rpm hard drive and DDR400 RAM in a laptop.
Do some research before run that condescending mouth of yours:
Apple 17" PowerBook
-58-watt-hour lithium-ion battery (with integrated charge indicator LEDs) providing up to 4.5 hours of battery life (17-inch model)
-Weight: 6.9 pounds (3.1 kg) with battery and optical drive installed
Alienware MJ-12m 5500
-Primary Battery: 12 Cells, 8800 mAH Long Battery Life: 12 Cells for ~2.2hrs
-Weight: 7.6 pounds
Granted, the MF-12m 5500 is a little heavier than the PB (not ??twice as much??), and the battery life is quite a bit shorter than the PB (but not ??half an hour??). Having said that, I feel those setbacks in the Alienware MJ-12m 5500 are worth having a better video card, faster RAM, a faster hard drive, and the possibility of having a second hard drive. Yet again, I use and prefer Apple, and all I?m saying is that I feel the current PowerBooks are quite behind in their hardware specifications; they could and should be better.
I feel like it's almost frivolous to compare a 1.6" short-lasting loud and hot 15.4" hairdrier with very good computing specs to a quiet, larger, longer-running, *lap*top, i.e. the 17" powerbook. I have a 1" thick 12.1" screen Athlon XP-M laptop that I can't hear at work because the other apparatus in my lab is too loud. It's just like the alienware, fast'n hot, with better specs and tech than my wife's iBook G4 (except the video card), but on the go, her iBook beats my beloved Averatec anytime in terms of lap-friendliness and mobile usability. (hot, loud fans, air-intake on the bottom, etc.) I think in terms of *mobile* computing, Apple is hitting the best compromise they can at this point. And they just aren't into desktop replacements, which I see a P4 being. The new tech will come, and probably not in the too far distant future. However, DDR400 (or DDR2) with the current processor doesn't make sense. SATA doesn't until there is a larger number of SATA drives out which will lower the price and which will justify the chip set redesign. Until then, lacking a mobile G5, what you can get is the best they can do without producing hairdriers... .
Originally posted by 00100011
Why is it laughable? Because you think I was comparing an Apple to a PC laptop to see which one was "better?" Again, for the third time, I'm talking about internal components because ...
Your comparison is between a laptop and a portable desktop. You should compare the PowerBook to something like a Sony Vaio laptop with a Centrino M-type processor. (This comparison may not make the Apple look so good either.) 7200RPM drives are real hot power hogs, and two of them will consume power like mad.
Furthermore, I have seen Powerbooks run for over 4 hours on battery. I have seen PC laptops that claimed 2 hours go black in less than one. Anyone who takes manufacturer specs (including Apple's) on battery life as fact is heading for disappointment. Everything depends on what you run.
Originally posted by emig647
Even if there WERE a g5 in a powerbook... really, how beneficial would it be?
As has been said before, A 1.6 GHz Powerbook G5 compared to a 1.6 GHz Powerbook G4 will on average have about the same integer performance, about the same Velocity Engine performance, and about 50% more floating point performance. For spaghetti code, the G4 will perform better. For streaming code, the G5 will perform better. One other significant feature made possible with a G5 is AGP 8x.
The value proposition is that Apple could ship a 1.8 to 2 GHz Powerbook G5 by compromising on mobility. It could be 50% thicker (1.5") than a Powerbook G4. A thicker laptop would mean it could have a battery twice as large with twice as much power. So faster MHz compared to the G4 means faster performance overall, especially in floating point. Thicker laptop means a larger battery could be used to offset the increase in power usage of a G5 system.
AGP8x could easily be added to the current powerbook motherboard. So really what would be the holy grail of laptops is a dual core g4. Lower power consumption, bit faster FSB, and another proc to take over.
I just decided I'm done waiting for a g5 powerbook.
Originally posted by emig647
So really the biggest differences would be the FSB...
No. The single biggest difference will be that the 970 will have 50% better floating point performance at the same clock rate. That's quite a bit of an improvement and needed for many professional applications. For memory bandwidth limited code, yes, the 970 FSB advantage will give it a performance increase, not sure how much. Maybe 2x on some apps.
AGP8x could easily be added to the current powerbook motherboard.
Why?
So really what would be the holy grail of laptops is a dual core g4. Lower power consumption, bit faster FSB, and another proc to take over.
What about a dual-core Antares?
Originally posted by THT
What about a dual-core Antares?
sounds power consuming
Originally posted by johnq
Whiney b#tches.
I'm still on a 700MHz iBook.
Shut your spoiled pie-holes.
Have to agree, am typing this on a Win98SE 300mhz 40gig hard drive 8mb vid card box.
However, I have to agree, incremental upgrades are simply no fun. Apple has been doing good things with their updates of the iMac's and PowerMacs, but they seem to have released only incremental upgrades on their notebooks. Powerbook is roofing the ibook. I would love to see G5 Powerbook running tiger with a geforcego 6600, and a G4 ibook 1.6ghz geforcego 6200, both running tiger at next Macworld.
Originally posted by 1984
I really think WWDC will be a big 64-bit/G5 event. Huge. Massive. Not only Tiger but new PowerMac G5 and PowerBook G5 models to run it on.
I have been saying this all along.
Apple is been very quiet for long time regarding Powermac and Powerbooks. Last powerbook upgrade was very small and we are waiting forever for G5 on Powerbooks. Powermac are in huge need of a big upgrade.
Once again, Steve loves to kick ass at his keynotes. he's not going to just talk about Tiger at WWDC. He has something big to announce. He loves the buzz events like that creates. So be prepare!
Tiger in a month...
Then make everyone understand ibooks aren't just geared towards education :-)
Originally posted by emig647
iBook?
Originally posted by gugy
Once again, Steve loves to kick ass at his keynotes. he's not going to just talk about Tiger at WWDC. He has something big to announce. He loves the buzz events like that creates. So be prepare!
Have to agree. Anyone remember the famous "oh, yeah, just one more thing" line Jobs gave as a couple of years ago. That line ended in iPod mini.
Apple cant go any smaller. Time to go very, very big. Classic california aproach.
PS California is a great state, but seriously, who rights Hollywood on a freakin mountain. Only part of america without funny acent