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Am I missing something?

James Philp

James Philp

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 5, 2005
1,493
0
Oxford/London
PowerMac Single 1.8GHz:
£999.00
(£850.21 ex VAT)

1.8GHz PowerPC G5
600MHz frontside bus
512K L2 cache
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI Slots
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem

iMac 17" 2GHz:
£999.00
(£850.21 ex VAT)

17-inch widescreen LCD - Add like £300!
2GHz PowerPC G5 - Faster!
667MHz frontside bus - Faster!
512K L2 cache - Same
512MB DDR400 SDRAM - Twice as much!
160GB Serial ATA hard drive - Twice as large!
Slot-load 8x SuperDrive - Same
ATI Radeon 9600 (Worse?)
128MB DDR video memory - Twice as large!
56K internal modem - Same

So, for the same price you loose 67MHz on the FSB, get half the RAM, half the HD, half the VRAM, NO screen, but you do get 3 PCI slots! - WTF are you up to Apple?
 
pdpfilms said:
ooh, ouch..... i wonder if they're aware of this.... James, your tar fits the post quite well!
Click to expand...
not sure if I understand! is that a compliment or sarcasm?
Sorry to doubt you if you're genuine
 
and for £50.00 more you can get a

a smaller display
slower CPU
smaller hard drive
and slower video card

Also known as a 12" powerbook. Three different machines, three different target markets, three very similar price points...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

WhyTF are you posting this crap anyway?
 
kingjr3 said:
and for £50.00 more you can get a

a smaller display
slower CPU
smaller hard drive
and slower video card

Also known as a 12" powerbook. Three different machines, three different target markets, three very similar price points...
Click to expand...

Hmm, a good point made my James. If someone was in the market for a new computer and debating the 1.8 PM verses the iMac, this might be something they should know. It also shows how the professional PowerMac is behind the consumer iMac. Hmm...you're right, 3 different machines, 3 different markets, but it does it make sense for the PM to be less powerful than the consumer machine? No, and I expect Apple will fix this in the future by dropping the 1.8. It's just a tired set-up now.
 
kingjr3 said:
and for £50.00 more you can get a

a smaller display
slower CPU
smaller hard drive
and slower video card

Also known as a 12" powerbook. Three different machines, three different target markets, three very similar price points...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

WhyTF are you posting this crap anyway?
Click to expand...

It's good he posted something like this...it makes me very pleased I have my Powerbook and not some old PM PoS that I can't haul around anywhere...:D
 
kingjr3 said:
Three different machines, three different target markets, three very similar price points...

:rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

WhyTF are you posting this crap anyway?
Click to expand...
I'm not sure.
Aren't the PM and iMac both desktops? I see the markets as: laptop, low desktop, mid desktop and pro desktop.
If two machines are BOTH DESKTOPS and have the SAME PRICE, i would say they are in the SAME MARKET (ie the one that wants a desktop for around £1000.)
How many PM users use the PCI slots?
And what's with all the :rolleyes:
Crap? Thanks, but some people have found this interesting. Sorry you do not.
 
James Philp said:
I'm not sure.
Aren't the PM and iMac both desktops? I see the markets as: laptop, low desktop, mid desktop and pro desktop.
If two machines are BOTH DESKTOPS and have the SAME PRICE, i would say they are in the SAME MARKET (ie the one that wants a desktop for around £1000.)
How many PM users use the PCI slots?
And what's with all the :rolleyes:
Crap? Thanks, but some people have found this interesting. Sorry you do not.
Click to expand...

I agree, it is very interesting. They are both desktops, have the same price, and the consumer computer beats out the professional in many more ways that one. This is something I did not realize and I appreciate the fact the poster took the time to share this.

Its not crap. Its something everyone should be aware of.
 
James Philp said:
I'm not sure.
Aren't the PM and iMac both desktops? I see the markets as: laptop, low desktop, mid desktop and pro desktop.
If two machines are BOTH DESKTOPS and have the SAME PRICE, i would say they are in the SAME MARKET (ie the one that wants a desktop for around £1000.)....
Click to expand...

Actually these two machines are addressing two different markets......there's the "I HATE the all-in-one concept" market and the "I love the all-in-one" market.

Having the two machines at around the same price point is merely addressing the different preferences of buyers who are wiling to spend similar amounts of money.

Anyway, I think that people often try to draw the line between "Pro" and "Consumer" a little too finely.
 
And you just noticed this? :p

I think we noticed a couple of weeks ago when the new iMacs were released and the lowend PowerMac remained un-updated (and the same price at that). The single G5 is a suckers bet against an iMac, unless you must have PCI slots and already have a monitor. Even then. Me thinks that's the point. Apple wants you to buy the iMac.

To answer your question... no you are not missing anything. Lowend P'Mac sucks at this point. Hopefully it gets at least a modest speed bump in a few months.
 
I'm sorry this thread offends so many of you!
I just thought, given this evidence, no-one would really see the 1.8 as a good deal, and would make the fork-out to a higher model.
I was simply trying to point it out for people who hadn't maybe thought about it.
Again, sorry for causing such offense!
 
Especially considering the buying advice on this very site says:
PowerMac
Last Release: April 27, 2005
Days Since Update: 17 (Average = 197)
Recommendation: Buy Now! - Product just updated
Special Notes: none.
I think a special not would be that the 1.8 sucks right!? Especially seeing as everyone seems to "know" this!
 
Wow! Really interesting! Thanks James... I have a PowerMac G5 and I never intend using the PCI slots anyway!

Thing is, I have the Best Single CPU 1.8 G5... the VERY first!

8 Ram slots, 8GB max, 160gb ram, 900mhz FSB.

I'm very proud of it.
 
kingjr3 said:
WhyTF are you posting this crap anyway?
Click to expand...
It's not crap :rolleyes:

iMac an PM both sit on your desk and stay there, a laptop doesn't conform to that rule, and so is completely separate.

I hadn't really noticed this before...the entry level PM is now a complete rip-off when compared to what you can get (from the same company no less) for the same money.
 
Apple has done this before just pushing imac to the edge of Powermac performance. Its clear this model Powermac if anything gets dumbed down at every update. Apple wants product lines to compete with theirselfs rather then just selling machine people want. I still say many would love a tower half the size of powermac running 1 fast cpu and many have no need for a power consuming 2nd cpu that doesnt do much most of the time. Apple will not sell this machine, its either the 2 cpu game or its the monitor game. Funny when you think about it. This is done to get people on the fence or over the fence to the holygrail powermac. In my view it sometimes chases off people to get a PC so they can spec it to exactly what they want and not play this game. Cant tell you how many times i wrestled with Powermac vs iMac through the years.
 
James Philp said:
How many PM users use the PCI slots?
Click to expand...

There are more differences then that..

1) PCI slots.
2) PM can have 2x as much RAM
3) PM can hold MANY more internal disks

Dispite the similarities, the PM line is the 'professional' line. The iMac is the 'home user' line.
 
yellow said:
There are more differences then that..

1) PCI slots.
2) PM can have 2x as much RAM
3) PM can hold MANY more internal disks

Dispite the similarities, the PM line is the 'professional' line. The iMac is the 'home user' line.
Click to expand...


I thought the G5 PM's could only fit 2 internal HDs in them?
 
yellow said:
1) PCI slots.
2) PM can have 2x as much RAM
3) PM can hold MANY more internal disks

Dispite the similarities, the PM line is the 'professional' line. The iMac is the 'home user' line.
Click to expand...
True, but i wonder how many people there are that buy the PM just because it is "better" (surely it is!?) and NEVER open it up! I think my thread was just trying to point out that this is not always the case.
I want a powermac for my next comp for sure (unless i succumb to replace my PB G3 Pismo), but definitely WONT be buying the 1.8GHz from this evidence - it's a bum deal for sure!
That's what i'm trying to say - the 1.8 is a really badly specced machine, it's worth considering the Dual 2 at least if you're going for a PM.
 
yellow said:
Dispite the similarities, the PM line is the 'professional' line. The iMac is the 'home user' line.
Click to expand...
Plus:
OUT OF THE BOX the iMac would be a better professional tool!
I was comparing UNMODIFIED models, not specced out machines
 
junior said:
I thought the G5 PM's could only fit 2 internal HDs in them?
Click to expand...

You can get 3rd Party mods to fit in more disks. However, Apple sells this machine as taking 2 Hard disks. They wont support modifications.
 
James Philp said:
I was comparing UNMODIFIED models, not specced out machines
Click to expand...

To me that makes no sense. You're not taking everything into account. But it's your thread, steer it where you want to.
 
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