As always I could be wrong, but i believe there are no actual core differences on the current mobile chips. In the past, I believe it has never been economic to make different versions of cores for mobile and desktop. I also do not believe that current intel mobile cpu's are able to power down parts of the core. It may be that certain parts or functions of the core were connected or wired up so to speak on certain versions (but this is common enough and there are plenty of examples of geeks who have the knowledge to place a bit of soloder here and there to turn one chip into another and release hidden capabilities). Of course Banias (now called Centrino) IS a dedicated mobile core, although I'm not sure what it specific capabilities are.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
12inch and 17inch Powerbooks Released
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
As always I could be wrong, but i believe there are no actual core differences on the current mobile chips. In the past, I believe it has never been economic to make different versions of cores for mobile and desktop. I also do not believe that current intel mobile cpu's are able to power down parts of the core. It may be that certain parts or functions of the core were connected or wired up so to speak on certain versions (but this is common enough and there are plenty of examples of geeks who have the knowledge to place a bit of soloder here and there to turn one chip into another and release hidden capabilities). Of course Banias (now called Centrino) IS a dedicated mobile core, although I'm not sure what it specific capabilities are.
12" Combo Drive Question
Does anyone have the speeds for the new 12" PB combo drives? I looked on the Apple's website and I can't seem to find them. Thanks for the help!
Does anyone have the speeds for the new 12" PB combo drives? I looked on the Apple's website and I can't seem to find them. Thanks for the help!
They use different slots, so there's no chance for it to fit unless there was an adapter or something. I'm not 100% sure, though.
True, hence my original comment about the Fujitsu being the closest competition, since it has an internal optical drive. Basically, the Fujitsu is smaller and lighter, but also more expensive, and of course running Windows vs. OS X.
As to you second comment: alloy, schmalloy, I'll take the iBook's construction over that of any PC maker's anyday!! Macs are DURABLE. My iBook is my first Mac, and what really turned me on to macs was looking at my girlfriend's Beige G3. She bought her 266MHz G3 around the same time that I bought a Toshiba Infinia Pentium 200. I junked my Toshiba about three years ago. Her G3? It's running OS 10.2.3 like a champ! Of course, over time I helped her upgrade her Beige G3 with a 500MHz G4 ZIF CPU upgrade, 784 MB RAM, a 40GB hard drive, a DVD-ROM drive, a USB/Firewire card, and an ATI Rage 16MB card.
And I though that was pretty impressive UNTIL she pulled out her 1994-vintage PowerBook 520c. I was dumfounded that such a machine could be 7 years old (at the time). It was small, light and felt SOLID. Even by today's standards that was a beautifully designed computer. The 10.6" 640x480 color screen was pretty sharp considering when the laptop was built. Just for fun, I upgraded the laptop to OS 8.6. Soon I was surfing the web with freakin' IE 5 on the thing!!! In fact, when my girlfriend wanted to borrow my Dell (for the larger screen size), I could work fine on her PowerBook. I'm a database/web developer, so everything I run is on the server side. I found a good text editor, FTP program, and SSH client and I was good to go!
So anyway, that whole experience with her Beige G3 and PowerBook convinced me that my next computer purchase was going to be a Mac. I think my iBook is an elegant, rugged, worthy successor to the PowerBook lineage exemplified by the 520c, and I see no reason why I can't still be using my trusty little iBook for the rest of this decade. It does everything I need to do, it's a great size and weight, and I'm in nirvana being able to run all my Unix tools natively.
it's really a shame that they made the old airport incompatible with extreme at the hardware level--as in, i can't upgrade my powerbook to it. they're going to have to do something about that. someone will. it's so ironic how they tout it on that PR page with a bunch of smiling people using 15 inch powerbooks (because they are still the most prcatical for typical mobile usage while still being honking fast, heh), which will, according to apples tech info, never be able to utilize airport extreme.
of course, there is no apparent reason to care, for me. i mean, shoot, 54 Mbps still balks huge when compared to 100Mbps from my 100BaseTX. with 11 Mbps i am getting my full internet bandwidth, so i don't need extreme there. and then, i consider that whenever i want to do high speed LAN transfers, like a network backup, heck, that takes a long time on any connection, but plugging it in to my LAN increases the transfer speed by 10x. with airport extreme, we are talking still a 2x speed advantage on wired, so it's still behind. i can understand that Airport extreme is desirable, but when i think about it, it would be a waste for me even if i could get it, because i'd plug my laptop into my lan the only time i would see a benefit from AE.
of course, there is no apparent reason to care, for me. i mean, shoot, 54 Mbps still balks huge when compared to 100Mbps from my 100BaseTX. with 11 Mbps i am getting my full internet bandwidth, so i don't need extreme there. and then, i consider that whenever i want to do high speed LAN transfers, like a network backup, heck, that takes a long time on any connection, but plugging it in to my LAN increases the transfer speed by 10x. with airport extreme, we are talking still a 2x speed advantage on wired, so it's still behind. i can understand that Airport extreme is desirable, but when i think about it, it would be a waste for me even if i could get it, because i'd plug my laptop into my lan the only time i would see a benefit from AE.
PB 12 inch CD-R 24x CDRW-10X DVD Read-8x CD read 24x
Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW); reads DVDs at 8x speed; writes CD-R discs at 24x speed; writes CD-RW discs at 10x speed; reads CDs at 24x speed (12-inch model)
Hope that helps
As for the ibook case its not "Plastic" its this thing called Plexiglass....In case u never herd of it you have proabaly seen it on TV...its the stuff they make bullet proof windows out of... and the plexiglass is on a metel Frace.... Magnesium.......Trust me the Ibook is stronger than any dell even that allow one you where talking about it, its also alot stronger than the 15 inch Tibooks i dont know about the new Alubooks..........
As for the dell inspiron 4150 i dont know see where u getting those numbers i am at the dell sight now
Lets compare
Dell
1.7 GHZ P4 with 512k L2
256megs ram
ATI RADON 7500 with 16megs VRAM
40 Gig HD
CD-ROM-Drive/DVD-Drive/CD-RW- Combo add 80 bucks.....
WiFi Ready Card cost $89 for internal or $69 for external
Windows Xp Home-Pro Add $79
Total Price with internal Wifi Card
1,500-50 dollar rebate.(thats with Combo,Xp Pro, and wifi card) not includeing tax if dell charges tax
14inch Ibook From Macmall
800mhz G3 with 512k L2
640 Megs of Ram
ATI RADON 7500 with 32megs VRAM
30 Gig HD
Combo Drive
Airport at $79
Total Price $1,612.99 (with airport) No TAX
Looks like the Ibook cost 100 more but it comes with 384megs of more ram. A 1.7 GHZ P4 is about equil to a 900mhz P3 which is about equil to a 800mhz G3 so the Processor is about the Same. The Ibook has ALOT MORE RAM and twice the video ram. I would say the Ibook would probably win in terms of speed because of the better video card and ram, not the Dell......humm
(i know windows XP Pro is not needed but Xp Home is horrid i had it on my PC and i just could do alot of stuff i needed to do(networking and system control as well as combo drive but the Ibook has a combo so i figured the dell needed one......)
Final Conclusion the 14 inch ibookis better but why u would get one i dont know... THERE HUGE compared to the 12.(oh yea to get 640 ram add 450 to price of dell)
PS. Dell claims the Battery Last 2-5 hours so lets put that 3 hours and ibook claims 6 hours so lets put that at 5(my friend gets more than 5 on his 14 inch about 5 1/2)(my 12 inch ibook gets 4 1/2 consistently)... The Dell wont do u anygood when it has no battery.... hummm
Combo drive (DVD-ROM/CD-RW); reads DVDs at 8x speed; writes CD-R discs at 24x speed; writes CD-RW discs at 10x speed; reads CDs at 24x speed (12-inch model)
Hope that helps
As for the ibook case its not "Plastic" its this thing called Plexiglass....In case u never herd of it you have proabaly seen it on TV...its the stuff they make bullet proof windows out of... and the plexiglass is on a metel Frace.... Magnesium.......Trust me the Ibook is stronger than any dell even that allow one you where talking about it, its also alot stronger than the 15 inch Tibooks i dont know about the new Alubooks..........
As for the dell inspiron 4150 i dont know see where u getting those numbers i am at the dell sight now
Lets compare
Dell
1.7 GHZ P4 with 512k L2
256megs ram
ATI RADON 7500 with 16megs VRAM
40 Gig HD
CD-ROM-Drive/DVD-Drive/CD-RW- Combo add 80 bucks.....
WiFi Ready Card cost $89 for internal or $69 for external
Windows Xp Home-Pro Add $79
Total Price with internal Wifi Card
1,500-50 dollar rebate.(thats with Combo,Xp Pro, and wifi card) not includeing tax if dell charges tax
14inch Ibook From Macmall
800mhz G3 with 512k L2
640 Megs of Ram
ATI RADON 7500 with 32megs VRAM
30 Gig HD
Combo Drive
Airport at $79
Total Price $1,612.99 (with airport) No TAX
Looks like the Ibook cost 100 more but it comes with 384megs of more ram. A 1.7 GHZ P4 is about equil to a 900mhz P3 which is about equil to a 800mhz G3 so the Processor is about the Same. The Ibook has ALOT MORE RAM and twice the video ram. I would say the Ibook would probably win in terms of speed because of the better video card and ram, not the Dell......humm
(i know windows XP Pro is not needed but Xp Home is horrid i had it on my PC and i just could do alot of stuff i needed to do(networking and system control as well as combo drive but the Ibook has a combo so i figured the dell needed one......)
Final Conclusion the 14 inch ibookis better but why u would get one i dont know... THERE HUGE compared to the 12.(oh yea to get 640 ram add 450 to price of dell)
PS. Dell claims the Battery Last 2-5 hours so lets put that 3 hours and ibook claims 6 hours so lets put that at 5(my friend gets more than 5 on his 14 inch about 5 1/2)(my 12 inch ibook gets 4 1/2 consistently)... The Dell wont do u anygood when it has no battery.... hummm
I priced that Dell up a week or so ago, several special deals, rebate etc. The price that you are getting is obviously whats available right now, although you may have missed linking through somewhere corrdctly to get the minimum price available. But if you have any experience of Dell you'll know how their prices change on a daily basis, often by large amounts (if you link through the special deals correctly). Its a bit silly but there you are.
For anyone at all price conscious, buying a memory maxed-out system from either Dell or Apple would be nuts, its so easily available from elsewhere so cheap, so lets not quible about that, it is fairly irrelevant.
I don't know where you get the idea that a .13 micron 512k cache 1.7ghz P4 is equivalent to a 900mhz P3, that's pure fantasy (er....no offense meant..). I don't know the figures exactly, but I do know that when the mobile P4 launched at 1.6 ghz it was benching just about identically to the fastest P3 then available - the 1.2ghz .13 micron 512k tualatin P3. (DOn't forget the original P4 was .18 micron, 256k cahce and a fair bit slower)
The 4150 IS available with 32mb r7500m, so video is the one area with absolute parity.
You have also convenietly chosen to entirely ignore the clear cut superiority of the Dell's memory subsystem.
If you want to get bitchy about battery life, then remember that the 4150 is capable of running 2 batteries simulteaneously - giving at least 6 hours running time (granted the second battery will cost you about 80 bucks)
Obviosuly i'm not well versed on what the iBook is actually made of, but I have used both the 4150 and the iBook, and the iBook was better made, but the difference wasn't that huge (and the DellX400 is better than either, but of course the powerbooks spank everyone flat)
Don't get me wrong I'm an Apple fan as much as the next guy, but I'm realistic enough to admit that Apple have fallen behind in raw performance terms, and quite badly at that. In teh last 18 months the PC platform has moved on enormously, whereas Macs have edged forward.
eh all i know is that i read that intel made the p4 like a 4 cilinder Engine running at 10000 rpms where as the p3 is 8 cilinders running at 5000 rpms there the same speed but one has a much higher clock, thats where i got that from.............
ya i duno went to dell and click one 4150 and thats what came up with the clicked the one with the base price u mentioned but dells computers change minute to minute i did see one witha 32megs of VRAM but it cost like 1400 i think or something i duno, the dell sight is more confusing than my girlfriend.....eather way the apple with 640 megs of ram far outbeats the dells more powerful mem subsystem with only 256........ and the processors are about the same with a slight advantage going to the dell..... g3 sarah .13 micon 512k l2 vs p4 .13 with 512k L2
ya i duno went to dell and click one 4150 and thats what came up with the clicked the one with the base price u mentioned but dells computers change minute to minute i did see one witha 32megs of VRAM but it cost like 1400 i think or something i duno, the dell sight is more confusing than my girlfriend.....eather way the apple with 640 megs of ram far outbeats the dells more powerful mem subsystem with only 256........ and the processors are about the same with a slight advantage going to the dell..... g3 sarah .13 micon 512k l2 vs p4 .13 with 512k L2
Re: Ruggedized?
****************
You guessed better than I did
Turns out (as per Apple web site), the Little
Al actually DOES have rubber-mounted HD and is said to be "rugged".
Now, if they got the lids to close straight
without lop-sided fit or gull wing warp like
my new iBook has (HELP !) I will surely begin to stalk one for myself , on the next upgrade. I noticed that the Big Al has two latches instead of one --- there is hope. And the hinge on the Little Al seems a bit wider, so maybe it will be easier to center it at the factory.
---gooddog
****************
You guessed better than I did
Turns out (as per Apple web site), the Little
Al actually DOES have rubber-mounted HD and is said to be "rugged".
Now, if they got the lids to close straight
without lop-sided fit or gull wing warp like
my new iBook has (HELP !) I will surely begin to stalk one for myself , on the next upgrade. I noticed that the Big Al has two latches instead of one --- there is hope. And the hinge on the Little Al seems a bit wider, so maybe it will be easier to center it at the factory.
---gooddog
GoodDog Call Apple, and in its newer than a year send it back them and they will fix it good as new......
quick question
anyone know why they didnt include the 2x dvd burner in the 15 inch tibook when it came out a couple months ago? they're both an inch thick... did they just come out with a new drive? or is there more room in the Albook so it can run hotter or something?
anyone know why they didnt include the 2x dvd burner in the 15 inch tibook when it came out a couple months ago? they're both an inch thick... did they just come out with a new drive? or is there more room in the Albook so it can run hotter or something?
my guess would be both, and probably there waiting on volume production of the burner for the 17, thats why it ships in like 2 months.... but hey i duno
Ick XP, ive used it a bit too but i got soo fed up with the problems i canned the dual boot and have been running nothing but linux for 6 months. I will NEVER go back. As much as i love linux ive used OSX a bit and I find it even better. Its UNIX, nothing to date beats unix. The ease and style of apple only adds to the package. Now when M$ plans on becoming practical and making an OS with featuers that some of us will acually use then I wont use it.
Yes there is a lot more to the G4 then just a G3 with altivec... int performance floating point calcs.. all wonderful stuff.. along the same lines that make an Athlon XP better then a P4....
802.11g is backwards compatable with 802.11b, so I don't see what your problem is.
The old and new base stations and the old and new cards work with each other.
Re: Sorry to tell you but. . .
i'm sorry, i was well aware of that. i was talking about the issue on a much higher level than that, namely practicality. i wasn't talking about the technical issues, which don't interest me more than i have already read up on, which has already been discussed extensively in this thread.
i'm sorry, i was well aware of that. i was talking about the issue on a much higher level than that, namely practicality. i wasn't talking about the technical issues, which don't interest me more than i have already read up on, which has already been discussed extensively in this thread.
Re: quick question
Its the year of the laptop of cource... Desktop sales are lagging. To make up for the diminished sales of the desktops they introduce a line of awesome laptops... and then, a few months later, RE-introduce it with a superdrive, and then a few weeks later, RE-introduce it AGAIN with new screen sizes! (They're making up for lagging sales this way.) Apple figures they'll get Mac User's minds off the desktop, off the looming ppc970... hit them with laptops hard, get sales up..make as much money as possible off of laptops because no one is going to buy a desktop in the next 6months.
About September they'll hit us with news of the ppc970 and boost sales yet again. This is all a distraction technique.. but it is a fun one.
Its the year of the laptop of cource... Desktop sales are lagging. To make up for the diminished sales of the desktops they introduce a line of awesome laptops... and then, a few months later, RE-introduce it with a superdrive, and then a few weeks later, RE-introduce it AGAIN with new screen sizes! (They're making up for lagging sales this way.) Apple figures they'll get Mac User's minds off the desktop, off the looming ppc970... hit them with laptops hard, get sales up..make as much money as possible off of laptops because no one is going to buy a desktop in the next 6months.
About September they'll hit us with news of the ppc970 and boost sales yet again. This is all a distraction technique.. but it is a fun one.
If you are right then Apple won't be selling many desktops before the end of the year - I don't see how Apple can survive like this its very strange. I can't see the 17" powerbook selling in huge volumes, iMac sales have gone pretty bad, perhaps the 12" powerbook will sell pretty well - but surely thats not enough to support the company. Of course Jobs conveniently decided not to talk about apple's G4 tower sales in his speech, they haven't been great for a while. I suppose its the lower profile, high margin products like the iPod that are keeping Apple afloat, who knows.