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AidenShaw said:
A Dell Precision Workstation 490 (mini-tower) with 1 GiB 1333MHz FB-DIMM (dual channel 667 MHz), 250 GB SATA drive, DVD-RW and 128 MiB Quadro NVS card is:
  • $2300 - 1.60 GHz
  • $2800 - 2.33 GHz
  • $4200 - 3.00 GHz
  • $8200 - 3.00 GHz w/ 16 GiB FB-DIMM
  • $34,400 - 3.00 GHz w/ 32 GiB FB-DIMM

Add about $500 for a 256 MiB Quadro FX graphics card.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1725&s=biz
___________________

In contrast a PW 380 with a single socket dual-core is about $1900 for the top speed processor (not Conroe yet, but the prices should be similar).

That makes a Conroe about $350/GHz, and the 1.6 Woody about $360/GHz (5.32 GHz vs 6.4 GHz) at theoretical perfect scaling. In real life, most applications would be quite a bit faster on the Conroe.


So, will Apple sell a really slow Woody at a price that's much higher than a much faster Conroe?

I suspect a lot of attention will be had around Apple finally reaching 3.0 GHz in the new MacPro...

Max.
 
mdntcallr said:
Hah! i have a powerbook, there are alot of things they can improve at apple:

1- Blu-Ray Drive So we can read and write HD, with dvd+/-R burning capability.
(if you think this is far fetched, Sony has already released a laptop with this)

2- Bigger hard drive option for purchase. I need as much room on my laptop in storage as possible, so i really want and need to upgrade to a 160gb drive. Apple should make this happen and allow the custom apple building with 160GB Seagate Momentus Hard Drive 2"5

3- faster wifi with better range

4- 2 mouse buttons. a right and a left one. cmon at this point this is just dumb.

5- the fastest available laptop graphics chips. the current ones are a bit slower than the best ones on the market. so cmon apple.

6- laps that don't burn cause of the heat! it is a known fact that the current macbook pro's run HOT as hell.

7- battery life that runs a bit better.

8- firewire 800

9- cheaper market priced additional ram for the computer. so i dont have to buy ram elsewhere and not have it covered by apple warranty

Don't get me wrong i love my computer, but the new macbook pro should offer cutting edge technology. The tech we have grown to love from apple.

These are the options i really want and need.

Apple, please listen

I think it's pretty obvious the OP was referring to the MacBook Pro's enclosure, not its technology. And I have to agree, where do they go from here? If you do black you blur the lines between the pro and consumer lines (the MacBook just went black for pete's sake!); anything gray will look dull compared to the current cases. Chrome?? :confused:
 
AidenShaw said:
A Dell Precision Workstation 490 (mini-tower) with 1 GiB 1333MHz FB-DIMM (dual channel 667 MHz), 250 GB SATA drive, DVD-RW and 128 MiB Quadro NVS card is:
  • $2300 - 1.60 GHz
  • $2800 - 2.33 GHz
  • $4200 - 3.00 GHz
  • $8200 - 3.00 GHz w/ 16 GiB FB-DIMM
  • $34,400 - 3.00 GHz w/ 32 GiB FB-DIMM

Add about $500 for a 256 MiB Quadro FX graphics card.

http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=555&l=en&oc=MLB1725&s=biz
___________________

In contrast a PW 380 with a single socket dual-core is about $1900 for the top speed processor (not Conroe yet, but the prices should be similar).

That makes a Conroe about $350/GHz, and the 1.6 Woody about $360/GHz (5.32 GHz vs 6.4 GHz) at theoretical perfect scaling. In real life, most applications would be quite a bit faster on the Conroe.


So, will Apple sell a really slow Woody at a price that's much higher than a much faster Conroe?

I think we're more likely to see the high end Mac Pro centered around the E6700 than a Woodcrest, or even the Core 2 Duo Extreme Edition (X8600). The EE is obviously more for gaming which is an area that Apple doesn't necessarily need to have in order to succeed. That's not a knock on Apple machines not playing games, or Apple (or their customers) not wanting games, but I'm just saying...they'd pay a premium (at street prices, over 2x more) for an EE cpu which could (for all intents and purposes) be equally useful as a normal C2D E6700 cpu if gaming isn't in the equation. Now, yes, everyone knows (or should know by now) that Conroe isn't meant to be put into a dual (physical) cpu environment, whereas Woodcrest is, but in all reality - they could get away without going "Quad anything" in the top of the line Mac Pro and they'd probably fare just as well.

Me personally - I think anything Quad-based is still years away from being not only technologically sound, but also useful. I think the Quad G5 was more of a "ha! we did it! 4 cpus in a computer!" thing, but who knows. I do know that most software companies are still trying to grasp the idea of a single physical cpu with 2 cores, so doubling that is probably making their heads spin and not doing much else. AFAIK nothing is optimized for Quad (anything) yet.

mdntcallr said:
Hah! i have a powerbook, there are alot of things they can improve at apple:

1- Blu-Ray Drive So we can read and write HD, with dvd+/-R burning capability.
(if you think this is far fetched, Sony has already released a laptop with this)

And I guarantee you that it ups the cost of the machine at least $500 (which is seriously a lowballed guess; I'd say more likely it's around $650). Last I heard, BluRay players would retail around $1000 for a desktop model. Sorry, but I don't think that BluRay is even worth having at this point in time. A year from now - possibly. Besides, I think we're going to see a lack of support with both BluRay and HD-DVD because it's a split format and vendors won't know what to support because they won't want to alienate the owners who have "the other one". (ie they release a BluRay disc, well what do the HD-DVD owners do?)

Sony's known for proprietary formats (see also: Betamax, Memory Stick, UMD) and all of their proprietary formats a) are not widely accepted and b) are usually phased out in favor of "the concensus' choice". Don't put too much stock in BluRay just yet.

mdntcallr said:
5- the fastest available laptop graphics chips. the current ones are a bit slower than the best ones on the market. so cmon apple.

I'd like to see higher end gpus, because it could help sway/attact some of the PC game companies into going dual-platform (and simultaneously releasing a game on both Mac and PC). But I can see the argument on the other side of the fence, which is that - you could be giving people a piece of hardware that isn't all that utilized, therefore it goes wasted and then you have people complaining about higher prices and unnecessary hardware. Catch-22.

mdntcallr said:
9- cheaper market priced additional ram for the computer. so i dont have to buy ram elsewhere and not have it covered by apple warranty

Computer manufacturers ALWAYS mark up RAM a good 50% above street prices; sorry, I don't think we'll ever see this change. Corsair ValueSelect works for me. :) Just remember - sure, Apple may not cover that RAM under warranty, but depending upon what type of RAM you buy - most of the reputable companies these days (like Corsair) have lifetime warranties on their RAM. The way I look at it is - a warranty is a warranty. :rolleyes:
 
Hey Brian and Zero2,

thanks for the response. I understand where you are coming from.

But as someone in the music and tv world, having the blu-ray drive for HD is vip. right now yes it is new technology. but we already get tons of HD content, via cable and satellite. Why not want to be able to save a program as a consumer. or if you shoot it in HD, edit it in HD, you should want to be able to play it in HD.

This is where apple seems to be headed with the editing programs they have.

and it is the right time to allow people to burn media to actually use HD properly on the pro-sumer level. and i do not mean waiting for the future. the future is now. really! there are alot of creative professionals using HD right now. and who are among the best buyers and supporters of apple hardware? these professionals. so the time is now for a blu-ray computer on tower and a blu-ray option on laptops.

so, i think it is vip to have a high end laptop with blu-ray. it is actually vip for me and my professional life. so is having more hard drive space within the laptop. so getting a 160 gb seagate drive would really help.

well, i like the current enclosure for the macbook pro, but i think it is time to come up with a fresh, cool concept. to differentiate the intel laptops from powerpc. and to make them less scratch prone. and more sturdy.

i would love a black laptop. but it's everyone's personal choice.

as for the ram, i can always dream of it being a one stop shop from apple. hell if they just come down to reasonable pricing i would buy more ram from them. and they could still profit. they currently are just crazy priced. really. and we know they get huge volume discount deals on the ram, so they could pass along some better pricing and sell more of it.

i just want the cutting edge macbook pro. i know the blu-ray drive will cost more. but they do not have to included it in all of the line. it could initially be just in the top of the line 15" and 17" or as an option, with a retail config of it as well.

Apple would sell alot of them, blu-ray will end up on top. apple already is part of the blu-ray group. so yes sony is leading the pack, but so is samsung and many other companies. so apple can lead along with them.
just an idea, but i think a good.
 
Apple should be including the 802.11n compatible cards in their computers soon. I work at CompUSA and the 802.11n routers are already on the shelves.
 
mdntcallr said:
so the time is now for a blu-ray computer on tower and a blu-ray option on laptops.

so, i think it is vip to have a high end laptop with blu-ray. it is actually vip for me and my professional life. so is having more hard drive space within the laptop. so getting a 160 gb seagate drive would really help.

One more thing I forgot to mention -
since BluRay is primarily a Sony product, I don't know if any other manufacturers have released drives yet. I always see Sony drives with BluRay, and HD-DVD drives by Toshiba ('cause Toshiba is the company behind the HD-DVD format). Only time will tell who the technology is leased out to...I think at this point we're more likely to see Apple have HD-DVD because in Sony's case with the BluRay, Apple would be competition with their [Sony's] computer division, so they might be less likely to loan Apple the schematics. And since Toshiba doesn't manufacture computers anymore, only parts - Apple isn't a competitor to them.

Looking at prior history of Sony and their proprietary formats...how many companies made Betamax players? Memory stick devices? UMD players?

One company only - Sony. /shrug :(

penter said:
what??? lol

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_22_(logic)
 
Orange-DE said:
OK, dad will now explain how it will be like :D :

home-mac:

- plastic enclosure, smaller
- single Conroe whatever
- up to 8GB ram
- 1 HD slot, occupied
- 1 optical drive
- passively cooled ATI graphics
- 160GB HD
- 1GB RAM installed
- remote control
- 1100,- (because of the 1250,- imac including a monitor)

I am sure those two configurations above will be diversified by price and parts installed.

i think thats realistic, opinions?

BT/Wifi/Gigabit Ether standard.
2xFW400,4xUSB2,optical audio in/out - maybe with additional audio out and USB mounted at front.
Full sized DVI.

And I would hope for one PCI slot, maybe two. TV tuners, extra graphics cards/HDMI cards, ethernet ports etc could all be catered for.
Also room for 2HDD would really make this a nice machine.

If not a muscle machine but it needs to have some flexibility to enter the PC word of modding to make media centres and games machines.
 
zero2dash said:
Looking at prior history of Sony and their proprietary formats...how many companies made Betamax players? Memory stick devices? UMD players?

One company only - Sony. /shrug :(

Sanyo made Betamax players.
Sandisk & Lexar make Memory Stick media.
I've owned them.
 
Apple is not including the 802.11n cards in the computers because its way too early. 802.11n isn't even certified yet. Some of the brands are just jumping the gun.

JackSYi said:
Apple should be including the 802.11n compatible cards in their computers soon. I work at CompUSA and the 802.11n routers are already on the shelves.
 
A cube, perhaps?

Too late to the contribution scene, I know, but damn! WHAT A GREAT OPPORTUNTITY TO UPDATE A CLASSIC DESIGN AND MAKE IT WORK THIS TIME! DO IT AGAIN APPLE! WE KNOW YOU WANT TO!

NeXTcube.jpg
PowerMac_G4_Cube.jpg
 
Sleix said:
Too late to the contribution scene, I know, but damn! WHAT A GREAT OPPORTUNTITY TO UPDATE A CLASSIC DESIGN AND MAKE IT WORK THIS TIME! DO IT AGAIN APPLE! WE KNOW YOU WANT TO!
QUOTE]

I've never owned a Mac but I've been drooling over the thought of owning a Mac Pro since attending last years Apple WWDC. However, I hope to jaisus the case looks better than the filing cabinet and cheap looking paper shredder shown above.
-grimley
 
grimleyj said:
However, I hope to jaisus the case looks better than the filing cabinet and cheap looking paper shredder shown above.

I resent that remark. The latter was best used as a tissue box holder, dear sir!
 
I think making a Blu Ray burner an option would be great. As a videographer looking to switch over to HD in the near feature it would be a great option to have.
 
zero2dash said:
One more thing I forgot to mention -
since BluRay is primarily a Sony product, I don't know if any other manufacturers have released drives yet. I always see Sony drives with BluRay, and HD-DVD drives by Toshiba ('cause Toshiba is the company behind the HD-DVD format). Only time will tell who the technology is leased out to...I think at this point we're more likely to see Apple have HD-DVD because in Sony's case with the BluRay, Apple would be competition with their [Sony's] computer division, so they might be less likely to loan Apple the schematics. And since Toshiba doesn't manufacture computers anymore, only parts - Apple isn't a competitor to them.

Looking at prior history of Sony and their proprietary formats...how many companies made Betamax players? Memory stick devices? UMD players?

One company only - Sony. /shrug :(



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Catch_22_(logic)


I'm surprised no one else has called you on this, but Apple is a primary member of the Blu-Ray certification group. It's not a Sony product, even if they're a big mover within the group. Apple will not have HD-DVD in their system, not until having both becomes widespread (if indeed it ever does). Blu-Ray will be their preferred choice for some time.

jW
 
skywalker said:
I'm surprised no one else has called you on this, but Apple is a primary member of the Blu-Ray certification group. It's not a Sony product, even if they're a big mover within the group. Apple will not have HD-DVD in their system, not until having both becomes widespread (if indeed it ever does). Blu-Ray will be their preferred choice for some time.

jW

your right. Sony is just one member of the group. SAMSUNG is the first one to market with hardware on it.

so this isnt betamax.
 
True the design of MBs and MBPs is nice.... BUT

azzurri000 said:
I know cars are in a completely different boat than computers, but I think Apple should stick to its beautiful designs and only make minor changes to the models' formfactors like Porsche would do. If you've got a great thing, why completely obliterate it?

There's always a but..;) As I mentioned on another thread, it is time for Aple to technically redesign the books. For one, there are a few engineering faults in the design, the wobbling screens of all MBPs (PBs), something I never experienced on any other laptops/notebooks. The plate which encloses the keyboard is plastic (!) AND gets scratched quite easily... I have friends who have the THIRD screen on their PBs...
So, apart from a very good OS, the hardware has quality issues. But now even software issues occur in conjucntion with some hardware, which has so far prevented me from buying an APPLE:( I think Mr. Jobs and Co. have to get their act together to attract WINdoof users.
It is maybe time for APPLE to go carbon... A nice material, which is not more costly in production then the aluminum used now.

:D
 
DeVizardofOZ said:
There's always a but..;) As I mentioned on another thread, it is time for Aple to technically redesign the books. For one, there are a few engineering faults in the design, the wobbling screens of all MBPs (PBs), something I never experienced on any other laptops/notebooks. The plate which encloses the keyboard is plastic (!) AND gets scratched quite easily... I have friends who have the THIRD screen on their PBs...
So, apart from a very good OS, the hardware has quality issues. But now even software issues occur in conjucntion with some hardware, which has so far prevented me from buying an APPLE:( I think Mr. Jobs and Co. have to get their act together to attract WINdoof users.
It is maybe time for APPLE to go carbon... A nice material, which is not more costly in production then the aluminum used now.

What?! They switch the material of the wrist rest to plastic on the new MBPs?! Last time when I had a PBG4 it was alumiunium! :mad:
 
DeVizardofOZ said:
There's always a but..;) For one, there are a few engineering faults in the design, the wobbling screens of all MBPs (PBs), something I never experienced on any other laptops/notebooks.

I've actually owned two Powerbooks (12") and the hinge is njot a problem with these or any other Powerbook I've seen.
 
"The plate which encloses the keyboard is plastic (!) AND gets scratched quite easily... I have friends who have the THIRD screen on their PBs... "

You're nuts - I'm on a RevA MBP 2.0G and the entire machine is aluminum - outer case, top faceplate, keys bezel. The only plastic are "gasket" pieces between the Aluminum and the antennae space on the hinge...
 
But I thought this was the Super Intel group of chips!

generik said:
ReanimationLP said:
Hint, when an electronic component consumes electricity, it doesn't just consumes it and have it vanish.. it also ***** heat! That laptop won't even power up before it melts into goob :D


But we were told by the god, Steve Jobs that new Intel chips would be super low power consumption so thus this computer sounds like the entry model by all of the words that Steve Jobs has told us.

In reality these Intel chips will still get hot, they are not always & faster than the G4/G5 that they are replacing. All this was revealed to us after Steve Jobs had a new vision which changed Intel from the bad guy to the super good guy. That IBM & Motorola were really the bad guys. Sounds like some of the visions seen by a few of our religions.

In reality this could be built. It may end up too big to be called a transportable if you installed the 50-75 lb car/truck sized battery pack. At 2.1 GHz it wouldn't be as fast as some of the newer Intel Mac machines & slower than just carrying one of the current PowerMac G5's.

Bill the TaxMan
 
Larger Case

AidenShaw said:
How about this laptop with a 115 watt TDP chip?

attachment.php


If those innovators at Dell/Alienware can figure out how to cool a laptop, certainly those clever folks at Apple could too....

(Oh wait, gotta go - this MBP is starting to melt :eek: )
.
.
.


For one thing everyone else uses a thicker, larger form factor for their portables. I would rather hav a thicker Mac so that we could also have some of these mentioned things. The 1" thickness limitation for the 17" Intel MacBook Pro & the 15" Intel MacBook SemiPro both suffer from lack of ports, lack of an internal modem & for the 15" SemiPro model even the lack of a DL DVD burner.

The 1" Mac portable may look nice, but it really limits what we can have in an Intel MacBook Pro. Maybe a 23" Intel MacBook Pro would give enough room for a large enough battery & different drives & ports we'd like to have.

I'd trade my 17" PowerBook in if Apple would make the portable be more like the above mentioned models. By time I add all of the things that I need to add to my 6+ lb PowerBook the weight must be up to 30 or so lbs.

Bill the TaxMan
 
mdntcallr said:
Hah! i have a powerbook, there are alot of things they can improve at apple:

4- 2 mouse buttons. a right and a left one. cmon at this point this is just dumb.

5- the fastest available laptop graphics chips. the current ones are a bit slower than the best ones on the market. so cmon apple.

6- laps that don't burn cause of the heat! it is a known fact that the current macbook pro's run HOT as hell.

7- battery life that runs a bit better.

8- firewire 800


Don't get me wrong i love my computer, but the new macbook pro should offer cutting edge technology. The tech we have grown to love from apple.

These are the options i really want and need.

Apple, please listen

Are you serious? Have you not heard of the mighty mouse?

So you want an ultra-powerful laptop with long battery life that doesn't get hot?

The 17" MBP has fw800.

Some of those things you asked for are ridiculous.
 
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