Which dual did YOU buy?

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  • Reply 181 of 207
    [quote]Originally posted by Xaqtly:

    <strong>

    I also ran some benchmarks and got some interesting results. I used two free benching programs, CocoaBench and SpeedRun. In both cases, my tower got higher marks than any other Mac previously tested, including the Quicksilver dual 1 GHz. Check out the screens: this is my results in CocoaBench, and then comparitive results from their web site.



    </strong><hr></blockquote>



    Contratulations on your new machine! I should be getting mine today (finally). The obvious answer regarding your benchmarking question is that you are running Jag and the older machines were not. Either way, the new boxes have a few advantages the older ones didn't. I'm sure you have a nice machine, I'll find out just how nice very soon!



    Steve
  • Reply 182 of 207
    I bought the Dual-Ghz SDRAM just before MacWorld New York on the advice of several friends who are insiders at Apple. They strongly hinted that the changes were not earth-shattering and the current models (SDRAM) would be similar in performance. I was using a much-upgraded B&W and getting desperate for a dualie. I looked at used DP 533 machines, but the prices just seemed too high compared to the new Macs at almost twice the processor speed. I couldn't give a rat's ass about one model of Dual-Gig being a little faster than the other - I'm just thrilled with the new speed!



    I had said I wouldn't buy a new PowerMac until the vaunted G5 materialized, but I realized that a DP GHz machine would be more than enough computer for an "inspired amateur" like myself, and by waiting for vaporware like the G5 I was simply depriving myself of the Mac I wanted and deserved. Hey, if you don't treat yourself right, who will? I paired the new QS with a 22" Cinema Display and I'm a happy guy!



    [ 09-07-2002: Message edited by: rambo47 ]</p>
  • Reply 183 of 207
    Glad to hear you're so pleased with your new system, Rambo47. Too bad though that you had to pay $500 US more for that machine over the new DDR one . Didn't your friends know that the price of the Dual GHz model would fall drastically considering that it would now be the mid-range model?



    -Daul 867



    [ 09-07-2002: Message edited by: Dual 867 ]</p>
  • Reply 184 of 207
    I got mine for a hair over $2800 plus tax. Yeah, they said prices would come down with the intro of new models adn I was indeed planning to wait, but I had waited long enough. Another day would have put me in a bell tower with a high-powered rifle. I've always been the kind of person to research a product, hem and haw about which model and when to buy, then suddenly go berserk and buy the top one, all options, gotta-have-it-now. More money than brains? Could be, could be...



    [ 09-07-2002: Message edited by: rambo47 ]</p>
  • Reply 185 of 207
    Rambo47...Heh I know what you mean. I've been known to do the same. I always end up happy either way, though, like I'm sure you do.



    BTW, as of 8:30pm local time, my computer is shipped!!!!







    -Dual 867
  • Reply 186 of 207
    [quote]Originally posted by Xaqtly:

    <strong>iTunes will rip CDs to MP3 at 192 kbps as fast as 23x... I tend to think it's limited by the SuperDrive's read speed, too. I plan on getting a super fast burner for my second optical bay at some point, it'll be interesting to see how much it changes the rip speed in iTunes.



    oh yeah, and AltiVec Fractal tells me I'm pushing 7050 megaflops, in 1.9 seconds. I got nothing to complain about. </strong><hr></blockquote>



    I ran a few tests myself on my new dual Gig box. First I converted a file to .wav (so I could run on PC as well), then I converted to iTunes (160 kps). The song converted at 38x +. A 4:20 minute song converted in less than 7 seconds! By comparison, my PIII 1 GHZ (using Musicmatch) did it in 18 seconds and my iMac G3 500 took 55 seconds.



    Quartz extreme works well in 10.2 with the Geforce 4 TI card. Anyone that thinks Macs or OS X is slow, hasn't used one of these machines! I've been able to play multiple movies, download stuff from the internet, while burning a CD and playing iTunes. I haven't even come close to over taxing the CPUs yet. Q3 plays great at the highest settings (1280x1024 - 17" flat panel, max textures, max geometry, etc. stays above 90fps). Using high quality settings (32bit, etc... at 640x480), I've been able to get 225fps (with minor tweaks such as r_smp, s_chunksize, soundmixahead, etc.). Still, playing max quality at the monitor's native resolution is nice and 225fps doesn't look or feel any faster than 100fps.



    After I do some more software installs, I'll test Photoshop, etc.



    Steve
  • Reply 187 of 207
    Steve, you nailed it - these new duals are frickin FAST. Jaguar combined with this new hardware (faster bus, faster disk I/O, faster memory etc) makes for a killer combination... you have to use it to fully appreciate how fast they are.
  • Reply 188 of 207
    hey i think i am going to make you mad. i am typing from my new dual 867. i still cant believe its mine when i look at it. but i ordered it on the 28th and it shipped out on the 30. but due to labor dayand having to drive it from home to the dorm, i didnt really get it till this sat.
  • Reply 189 of 207
    Yesterday, I came back from a vacation and found a message on my cellphone: My new Dual 1GHz was delivered in the mean time. I'm typing this on my new machine which will replace my old B&W G3 300. So far everything looks fine, except one strange display problem:



    When I connect it to my Iiyama AS4431D (a 17,4" LCD display) via the DVI-VGA-Adapter, the picture is fine. When I connect it directly to the DVI port (the monitor has an analog and a digital port), I get a disturbance: Some areas show flickering pixels, typically some lines thick and several centimeters wide (but sometimes also patches with several single pixels). The appearance seems to be connected to the displayed picture.

    Example: On a DVD movie, the disturbance is very noticable on several patches. When the Desktop is displayed, the amount and area of the problem can change with the position of the cursor. E.g. often there's a line of flickering pixels just in the middle of the menu bar when the mouse is at the end of the last menu item. When I move the mouse some pixels to the right, the length of the disturbance decreases drastically.



    Anyone else got this problem or better: a solution?
  • Reply 190 of 207
    [quote]Originally posted by Kali:

    <strong>Capt. Obvious :

    Written documentation is an admission of failure!!



    Man, this is so true !!!</strong><hr></blockquote>

    Ironic, really; this, IIRC, was tossed out in the heady days before the Mac appeared onstage (pre-Lisa, even - '82 or '83?); there was a lot of talk about 'moving beyond the command line'...none of it coming from Apple.



    I believe the biggest noisemaker was Epson (! (but maybe not)), who were touting a bit of software they were working on, called (I think) Voyager.



    The claims and descriptions for it were dazzling - stupifying, really, because nobody knew WHAT all this talk about intuition and paradigms and interface meant.



    In response to some kind of backlash (the usual harrumphing of the that's-not-possible crowd?), one of the Voyager(?) people shot back w/ 'written documentation is an admission of failure'.



    God, that made me laugh - cause it WAS/IS so true, and because it was so far from being a reality (in the sense of being a real design principle @ the time). I loved it, used to taunt my best friend (1st programmer I ever knew, & one of the best) with it.



    Then Lisa hit the streets, then the Mac, Epson(?) closed down their project, and Voyager(?) was never heard from again.



    Second historical note: because the hype and hoopla (and believe me, amigos, THAT was hype) that surrounded Voyager(?) was so fantastic, and became a hot topic in geek circles for months, the complete and utter disappearance of the subject matter stunned a lot of people; the reaction was so profound that a new word was coined to describe the phenomenon.



    The word? Vaporware - a product that exists only as a sales pitch; a 'believe it when I see it' scenario specific to the software industry.



    Just in case anyone cares.



    For myself, every time I have to resort to a manual to understand the basic concepts of an app, I think to myself, 'someone's not doing their job'!



    [ Geez, you'd thnk I'd be able to spell by know ]



    [ 09-10-2002: Message edited by: Capt. Obvious ]</p>
  • Reply 191 of 207
    Heh, I already know the serial number of my new machine(from the mailed-out invoice) but I don't even have the darned thing yet!! Sheesh! FedEx sure takes their time. Here's hoping for tomorrow.



    -Dual 867
  • Reply 192 of 207
    [quote]Originally posted by GSpotter:

    <strong>When I connect it directly to the DVI port (the monitor has an analog and a digital port), I get a disturbance.



    Anyone else got this problem or better: a solution?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Try a new cable.
  • Reply 193 of 207
    My dual 1 Ghz is "being assembled"...

    I can't wait!

  • Reply 194 of 207
    I just got my dual 867!! I spent 3 friggin weeks trying to get it. I live in Japan and my limit on my card, in the states, is $3005. Well, first off they lost my computer. Then they finally get it in but my credit limit in Japan is only 100,000 yen or about $900. Then, they forgot to order my monitor(17inch flat panel). So finally I decided just to pay cash for it. The ATM will only let me take out 50,000 yen at a time so it has taken like 5 days to get all the money together! But I finally I got it today, and I get the moniter tomorrow. I is a happy camper.
  • Reply 195 of 207
    g-newsg-news Posts: 1,107member
    Can't you just personally go to a bank and get as much as you have?

    We also have limits on our cards here, although somewhat higher, but I could go to the bank and get all my money any day. Now that's not too much for me, but you could also get several 100'000$ if you show up personally and announce it.



    G-News
  • Reply 196 of 207
    [quote] Yours was the only one running Jaguar. install 10.1.5 and then look at the difference. You will be sadly dissapointed. <hr></blockquote>



    You really think Jaguar has any bearing on a CPU test? Or an FPU test? Or a disk I/O test? Did it ever occur to you that maybe the reason my disk I/O results were better than the others was because for the first time the Power Mac has ATA-100 and NOT because I'm running Jaguar?



    Maybe if I had been running benchmarks on window compositing you would have a point. But you didn't think this through very well, and your point is not a very good one and would certainly be proven wrong. But I'm not going to go back to 10.1.5 just to prove it... use some common sense instead.
  • Reply 197 of 207
    [quote]Originally posted by wfzelle:

    <strong>



    Try a new cable.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Further investigation revealed that the problem only appears after I wake the machine from sleep. After a fresh boot, everything is fine. Only after sleep mode, the display shows these errors.
  • Reply 198 of 207
    ... and now my dual gig has shipped! I'm going to tackle the FedEx guy when he gets here!
  • Reply 199 of 207
    Wooohoooo Our new DDR Dual Ghz just arrived and it is FAST!! And I dont know what the issue with all the noise is about Its not louder than my 733 Quicksilver....so ?!?!? <img src="graemlins/hmmm.gif" border="0" alt="[Hmmm]" /> :confused: what the big deal?
  • Reply 200 of 207
    I set up my new dual-867 yesterday. I had upgraded my old dual-450 with a Geforce card for Jaguar and it was pretty responsive but this new box is FAST. The biggest change I see is application booting. The Adobe apps are still slow but at least tolerable now; Word pops open before I can move my cursor to the top of the page to start typing. iTunes and system prefs open almost immediately, faster than I can get to them. New windows and menus are fast. Even iCal, which took eight bounces before, opens in two. I'm really pleased, the change is bigger than I expected.



    Has anyone else mentioned an issue with the startup chime? It's earsplitting even when I turn the sound all the way down. I assume this is a bug.
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