A dilemma - Should I sell my Mac?

[gekko513]

As a reply to Mav451 and Jiggelicious.

When comparing processors I agree with Mav451 in that price/performance should not be forgotten in the discussion.

The G4 is still in general a lot faster per clock than the P4 as is AMDs processors. The G4 and the G5 has similar per clock performance and the dual G5 @ 2GHz generally beats a dual P4 @ 3GHz.

But the fastest G4 is just 1.5GHz which isn't enough to compete in performance with any of the other top-of-the-line processors. I'm just talking performance here, because I know the G4 at 1.5GHz is fast enough for most uses and that other considerations are more important when it comes to computer choice.

But back to performance. It isn't correct to claim that the P4 regained the general performance lead with the 3,2GHz model, but was then again beat by the AMD FX-51.

The P4 will have the best performance for some tasks.
The AMD models will have the best performance for some tasks.
The G5 will have the best perfomance for some tasks.

These three processors are all excellent modern processors, but I think we need a faster G5 soon.

Oh .. and for those of you with separate gaming PCs ... You should let that PC fold proteins when it is idle. See my signature.

 

[Mav451]

As a reply to Mav451 and Jiggelicious.

When comparing processors I agree with Mav451 in that price/performance should not be forgotten in the discussion.

The G4 is still in general a lot faster per clock than the P4 as is AMDs processors. The G4 and the G5 has similar per clock performance and the dual G5 @ 2GHz generally beats a dual P4 @ 3GHz.

But the fastest G4 is just 1.5GHz which isn't enough to compete in performance with any of the other top-of-the-line processors. I'm just talking performance here, because I know the G4 at 1.5GHz is fast enough for most uses and that other considerations are more important when it comes to computer choice.

But back to performance. It isn't correct to claim that the P4 regained the general performance lead with the 3,2GHz model, but was then again beat by the AMD FX-51.

The P4 will have the best performance for some tasks.
The AMD models will have the best performance for some tasks.
The G5 will have the best perfomance for some tasks.

These three processors are all excellent modern processors, but I think we need a faster G5 soon.

Oh .. and for those of you with separate gaming PCs ... You should let that PC fold proteins when it is idle. See my signature.

You are indeed correct...SSE 2 and other damn optimizations still make P4's win out in certain multimedia tasks

I should have been more specific--AMD won back the crown (on the PC side) in overall GAMING with the introduction of the FX-series. It was even more hilarious at how much of a paper launch the P4EE's were until more recently. Before the FX, however, AMD struggled to beat P4's in gaming b/c the Athlon XP had reached its chipset limitations...the 3200+ was good and all but still no match for the 3.2P4 in gaming. Ironically AMD themselves had been struggling with paper launching a lil over 2 years ago with the 2700/2800+ series vs. the 533fsb 2.6 and 2.8ghz P4 models.

*and that was the introduction of the nForce2/TBred combo*
Probably the most successful chipset/cpu synergy, and at a time when AMD had needed it desperately...KT400/KT333 just weren't enough anymore *_*

 

[gekko513]

I should have been more specific--AMD won back the crown (on the PC side) in overall GAMING with the introduction of the FX-series.

I sort of suspected you were talking about the gaming side of performance. In that respect, your argumentation seems valid. I'm more into the programming/compiling/cryptography side of performance. For most problems in those areas the old G4 shines clock for clock because of it's short pipelines. The G5 and the AMD processors are also good, but the P4 is terrible.

 

[Digidesign]

I would just like to agree with the fact that hardcore gaming is life wasting. I used to be among the best player in EQ on my server and wasted over 24 PLAYED DAY in 14 months to this game! Thats about 17% of my life during this period. I had no life. I guess your case is not as extreme as mine but once I droped my gaming habit my life improved by 200%.

Preach it brotha!

I used to play FFXI - great game, unfortunately terribly addicting as well. The thing I had to realize about MMORPGs is that they're there to drain you of your money, and they do it by forcing you to spend ridiculous amounts of time in-game to acheive anything.

Once I quit, my quality of life also improved.

 

[Ph4lynx]

I would just like to agree with the fact that hardcore gaming is life wasting. I used to be among the best player in EQ on my server and wasted over 24 PLAYED DAY in 14 months to this game! Thats about 17% of my life during this period. I had no life. I guess your case is not as extreme as mine but once I droped my gaming habit my life improved by 200%.

First of all, I lost weight and complete my master thesis. Then, I got a mac which confirmed my desire to stop playing and I finaly understood the real use of computer: creating content! I now spend most of my computer time playing with digital photography, making film (final cut) or programming. So when I go to sleep I can say to myself that I truly did something PRODUCTIVE while working on the computer. And the best part of it is that its fun to do! I scanned and digitaly restored all the pictures of my parents when they were kids. Seeing how happy they were when I showed them the pics, it really worthed it all.

Of course, I still play a bit but mostly on PS or XBox. And on the mac, I mostly play turn based strategy game so my computer is way fast enough.

So for a week or two, try to not play any games and go out have fun and the next time you are in front of the computer, ask yourself how you could do your creativity to do something. Just dont turn your brain off by playing games, there are way enough idiots in the streets already!

Thank you for making on of the most thoughtful and heartwarming posts I have read in a long time. You have really inspired me and now I realize that creating content really is the key to a fun and rewarding experience.

 

[Grokgod]

Happy to see that a few people agree with my feeling that gaming is sometimes an addiction and as an addiction its not healthy for your life.

There are plenty of enough games that work on the mac, enough to get your jones a little fix and forget about playing around and put the time and energy into your life! and create or work or love,baby!

I got C&C for my powerbook, runs great,
I play manybe once a week for a few hours, gets me to remember just how much of a bad thing can ruin your life.

 

[Jigglelicious]

Hmm, well, if I was going to sell it, can anyone recommend a good place to do it? I'd like to avoid eBay at all costs, as i've never bought/sold anything there, and thus have no feedback.

 

[wPod]

just sell it here in the forum. post it for sell then let people privatly e-mail you to work out the details. that way you avoid the costs involved in e-bay. but i would see what you could do about cramming 2 computers onto your desk. i have a peecee and my PB (with 19" external monitor) crammed together. i dont use the peecee very much. but it works when i need it. ill probably be upgrading my peecee when the new matrix game comes out (PC only. . . cant even get it for my PS2) so ill only turn the pc on to play. . . the rest of the time ill use my PB b/c its more stable and much more fun to use (and portable!)

 

[nyprospect]

Why dont you like ebay? its better that way.whoever bids has to pay you first via paypal or moneyorder or check if you want to spare your self of paypal fees ask they to pay money order.also to: wpod what are your pc specks and how does the powerbook hold up to the pc.

 

[0490043]

If I were you, I would keep the eMac for now and see how much you use it.

 

[Anticipat3]

I think many of us have been in this kind of situation.

A couple years ago I sold my big gaming PC and bought a 12" powerbook, and I really loved the powerbook to death. I'd been big on linux, and had been kind of in a lul for games.

However, 5 months later I got the itch to play some games, sold the powerbook, and bought a gaming PC and an iMac that both sat on my desk. This worked out pretty well, but I saw tasks that had formerly been better on my Mac slowly shift to the PC -- Thunderbird evolved as a great mail client, I discovered Gaim for windows, I got Adobe Photoshop Album to replace iPhoto... and basically, I just leaned more and more toward using the PC, and the Mac became the IM box and the file/web server.

Needless to say, having around a $1000 file server wasn't really worth it, so I sold the iMac a few months ago. Now all I have is a PC, though I work on Macs all day.

Do I miss having a Mac? You betcha, but the only Mac that could really meet most of my needs is a G5 -- and a G5 that's powerful enough to game is simply far too expensive; much moreso than keeping around a gaming/serving PC and a Mac for daily tasks. Thus, I'm going to keep my PC, and get a powerbook to use for daily tasks.

Apple games have gotten a lot better, but they still fail to draw all of the major titles -- Having Doom 3 and UT 2004 and WoW will be a help, but they haven't drawn Halflife 2 or any of the Battlefield games, and as long as the hardware is so expensive, it's going to be hard to draw the PC gaming crowd.

 

[Calvinatir]

I only use my PC for partypoker...hehe