i just played with imac/dell/alienware pricing and the iMac is the same or cheaper. the 27" monitor nails it every time.
with laptops everyone has LED backlit screens these days and you can configure a $1200 Dell Studio laptop with similar specs to a $2000 MBP. back in June the pricing favored Apple, but they have kept their prices steady while Dell and others passed on cost savings from technological progress
My next Apple purchase will most likely be a 27" iMac i7 "after" the Q2 update/refresh. My 3-year old battle-ax MBP C2D 2,2 has more than enough horsepower for the road and (hopefully) plenty of life left in it.
A iMac i7 will clearly outperform a MBP i7. Coupled with my Dell 2407 monitor -- and my untethered MBP -- I'll have a 2 monitor desktop and a wireless laptop HO.
Well, I'm looking to getting my new Imac 21.5 with the ATI. When is the next refresh gonna be? Should I wait till January or what.. I don't wanna buy a Core 2 Duo if what I heard about i3 i5 stuff is true?
Your right!, I forgot and their suppose to be released in Jan (meaning those chips) but again with intel it always comes down to graphics...even-though when they showed off the chips this past June, they were running WoW on low end laptops with no problem.... I guess it comes down to need.
I'd wait and see.... And beside Apple has delayed shipping for 2wks on the 27" imacs for (whatever reason) even though I know your looking at the 21" ...Apple may surprise us with a quiet specs bump in Jan like they did in 2008 for the Mac Pro's in Jan ..... I'd wait and see
Your right!, I forgot and their suppose to be released in Jan (meaning those chips) but again with intel it always comes down to graphics...even-though when they showed off the chips this past June, they were running WoW on low end laptops with no problem.... I guess it comes down to need.
I'd wait and see.... And beside Apple has delayed shipping for 2wks on the 27" imacs for (whatever reason) even though I know your looking at the 21" ...Apple may surprise us with a quiet specs bump in Jan like they did in 2008 for the Mac Pro's in Jan ..... I'd wait and see
I would hate to buy a Core 2 duo and then have an i3 in Jan. And I just read that it said i3's are actually shipping right now, ahead of schedule!
I have the feeling the current 21.5 is just a stop gap product it had to be put out but the good stuff wasn't ready yet.. and now the i3's are chillen.
The 9600M GT Is the State of the Art in Mobile graphics
Are you being serious!? The 9600M GT is middle-of-the-road at best, and was at release (though it probably offered a decent price/performance/power consumption ratio, i.e. it was balanced not state-of-the-art):
Personally, an Nvidia GTS 250M with 96 cores at only 5W more TDP than the 9600M is much more my idea of a dedicated mobile GPU for "professional" laptops! We're still waiting for the ATI 5xxx series mobile GPUs which may be even more competitive.
Apple are always behind the curve when it comes to graphics:
Why has it taken them so long to support hardware H.264 decoding for the graphics cards they use in their machines (which saves battery, improves quality)? Many NVidia / ATI cards they build into their Macs have supported it for years, Apple haven't.
Why such klunky 9400/9600 switching and why no hybrid SLI / OpenCL support for dual GPUs in the MBP?
Why no OpenGL 3 yet?
Why the OpenGL performance regressions in Snow Leopard?
Why are professional NVidia cards so much less optimised for graphics professionals compared to Windows drivers (see the Ars Technica review)?
Blu-ray is just now starting to do okay home use as plays have come down to under 200.00. However even for Windows computers I don't see many of them yet even though the price isn't that bad.
spec for spec the price of the MBP is way too much compared to something similar from Dell or HP. iMac's are in line. at some point Apple is going to have to upgrade the graphics or the recent sales gains will vanish. especially with hardware accelerated flash coming to Windows PC's next year
Quote:
Originally Posted by Zep
i tend to agree with this.
macs would be better received if they had some bigger horsepower behind the graphics cards for the gamers. i can build a rig that costs about $1k less and has more graphics power.
I don't have strong opinions about the competitiveness of Apple's hardware, but it seems worth pointing out that these exact sentiments have been getting expressed, every few weeks, for the last five years or so. Apple is always just moments away from losing market share, or forgoing market share that's there for the taking, because their machines cost more and are poorly specced.
Apple has been doing nothing but outpacing the growth of the PC market in general during this time period, so maybe it's not entirely true.
I don't have strong opinions about the competitiveness of Apple's hardware, but it seems worth pointing out that these exact sentiments have been getting expressed, every few weeks, for the last five years or so. Apple is always just moments away from losing market share, or forgoing market share that's there for the taking, because their machines cost more and are poorly specced.
Apple has been doing nothing but outpacing the growth of the PC market in general during this time period, so maybe it's not entirely true.
something to always keep in mind. 1% growth for apple is much easier to obtain than 1% pc market.
the biggest issue i have with apple's hardware is their terrible lack of getting a decent graphics card in their machines for the price that you pay. they build a great box and a good OS, but the price is way out of line for what is in there.
Comments
with laptops everyone has LED backlit screens these days and you can configure a $1200 Dell Studio laptop with similar specs to a $2000 MBP. back in June the pricing favored Apple, but they have kept their prices steady while Dell and others passed on cost savings from technological progress
A iMac i7 will clearly outperform a MBP i7. Coupled with my Dell 2407 monitor -- and my untethered MBP -- I'll have a 2 monitor desktop and a wireless laptop HO.
Thermal Design Power (TDP).
Number of cores.
Now, the real revolution will come when cores can turn on/off as required on real time, being on only when needed, thus saving energy and heat!
i'd love to buy an new macbook pro with matte screen and Blu-ray
wonder if apple will ever support blu-ray ? getting frustrating at this point.
More frustrating, considering that Apple is on the Blu-ray association's board of directors.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/mar/10blu-ray.html
As such, shouldn't Apple be doing more to promote Blu-ray rather than trying to undermine it?
More frustrating, considering that Apple is on the Blu-ray association's board of directors.
http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2005/mar/10blu-ray.html
As such, shouldn't Apple be doing more to promote Blu-ray rather than trying to undermine it?
Blu-ray is a Bag of hurt. Not that big of a deal.
Me
Apple uses Xeon in the MacPro.
Historically, yes. They'd also historically only used laptop processors in the current form factor of the iMac -- until the new line-up.
I have doubts, too, but I wouldn't bet against i5 or i7 Mac Pros.
As such, shouldn't Apple be doing more to promote Blu-ray rather than trying to undermine it?
You can hook a Blu-Ray player up to the new iMacs...? :1
Well, I'm looking to getting my new Imac 21.5 with the ATI. When is the next refresh gonna be? Should I wait till January or what..
Buy the current iMac's theirs nothing wrong with them, a wait until "refresh" isn't necessary.
Buy the current iMac's theirs nothing wrong with them, a wait until "refresh" isn't necessary.
What about the rumored i3's?
What about the rumored i3's?
I'd wait and see.... And beside Apple has delayed shipping for 2wks on the 27" imacs for (whatever reason) even though I know your looking at the 21" ...Apple may surprise us with a quiet specs bump in Jan like they did in 2008 for the Mac Pro's in Jan ..... I'd wait and see
I'd wait and see.... And beside Apple has delayed shipping for 2wks on the 27" imacs for (whatever reason) even though I know your looking at the 21" ...Apple may surprise us with a quiet specs bump in Jan like they did in 2008 for the Mac Pro's in Jan ..... I'd wait and see
I would hate to buy a Core 2 duo and then have an i3 in Jan. And I just read that it said i3's are actually shipping right now, ahead of schedule!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i3
I would hate to buy a Core 2 duo and then have an i3 in Jan. And I just read that it said i3's are actually shipping right now, ahead of schedule!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Core_i3
Thanks for this
The 9600M GT Is the State of the Art in Mobile graphics
Are you being serious!? The 9600M GT is middle-of-the-road at best, and was at release (though it probably offered a decent price/performance/power consumption ratio, i.e. it was balanced not state-of-the-art):
http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-...GT.9449.0.html
Personally, an Nvidia GTS 250M with 96 cores at only 5W more TDP than the 9600M is much more my idea of a dedicated mobile GPU for "professional" laptops! We're still waiting for the ATI 5xxx series mobile GPUs which may be even more competitive.
Apple are always behind the curve when it comes to graphics:
Thanks for this
would a january update be reasonable? I just sold my Macbook and don't really have a ton of patience
i7 Intel CPU + brand new NVidia GPU
would be enough for me (I think so)
Blu-ray is a Bag of hurt. Not that big of a deal.
Me
Blu-ray is just now starting to do okay home use as plays have come down to under 200.00. However even for Windows computers I don't see many of them yet even though the price isn't that bad.
spec for spec the price of the MBP is way too much compared to something similar from Dell or HP. iMac's are in line. at some point Apple is going to have to upgrade the graphics or the recent sales gains will vanish. especially with hardware accelerated flash coming to Windows PC's next year
i tend to agree with this.
macs would be better received if they had some bigger horsepower behind the graphics cards for the gamers. i can build a rig that costs about $1k less and has more graphics power.
I don't have strong opinions about the competitiveness of Apple's hardware, but it seems worth pointing out that these exact sentiments have been getting expressed, every few weeks, for the last five years or so. Apple is always just moments away from losing market share, or forgoing market share that's there for the taking, because their machines cost more and are poorly specced.
Apple has been doing nothing but outpacing the growth of the PC market in general during this time period, so maybe it's not entirely true.
I don't have strong opinions about the competitiveness of Apple's hardware, but it seems worth pointing out that these exact sentiments have been getting expressed, every few weeks, for the last five years or so. Apple is always just moments away from losing market share, or forgoing market share that's there for the taking, because their machines cost more and are poorly specced.
Apple has been doing nothing but outpacing the growth of the PC market in general during this time period, so maybe it's not entirely true.
something to always keep in mind. 1% growth for apple is much easier to obtain than 1% pc market.
the biggest issue i have with apple's hardware is their terrible lack of getting a decent graphics card in their machines for the price that you pay. they build a great box and a good OS, but the price is way out of line for what is in there.