Switching...

[massfrequency]

I am a Computer Science student at Virginia Tech. Sadly for the past 4-5 years of my life I have used Microsoft Windows XP as my predominant operating system, only to be greeted with massive headaches and various OS reinstalls. As a child I can remember using Mac OS 5-8 and never having major computer issues. (right now my relatively new [it's only 9 months old!] ACER TravelMate 8104 has had a motherboard replaced TWICE, a hard drive failure, and RAM failure... luckily i have a 3yr warranty) Not to mention the problems which Windows XP brings to the table by itself... (but i need not go into detail... we all know how poor Windows is)

My dad on the other hand is an avid Mac user and has never used Windows unless he *had* to. After dealing with ACER's BS and Windows nonsense I think I'm ready to switch...

Although I don't want another laptop (i paid 3 grand for this POS and I plan on using it 2 more yrs at least) ... and I already have a 19 inch LCD... so... what would you guys recommend? What is the future of the PowerMac? (I'd love to have a fast desktop because between the department of Computer Science here, my internship at NASA, and my work at the Collegiate Times I need that kind of power..) Are the PowerMacs coming anytime soon???


Although I don't want another laptop (i paid 3 grand for this POS and I plan on using it 2 more yrs at least) ... and I already have a 19 inch LCD... so... what would you guys recommend? What is the future of the PowerMac? (I'd love to have a fast desktop because between the department of Computer Science here, my internship at NASA, and my work at the Collegiate Times I need that kind of power..) Are the PowerMacs coming anytime soon???

 

[Chundles]

The current PowerMac is a powerful and very capable machine - especially the Quad.

The PowerMac in the future is likely to use either Conroe or Woodcrest processors from Intel - I think Woodcrest being more likely as it is able to be used in multi-chip systems. Conroe can't support more than one chip and as such could not replace the Quad.

Intel PowerMacs will be out by the end of this year at the latest, there are two dates being thrown around at the moment: July - the date Intel has said it's Core-based desktop chips will be available, or August - the date of the WWDC, Apple's premier professional event.

I think we will see PowerMacs sooner rather than later - Apple now has to keep up with the competition who will jump on the opportunity to leave NetBurst behind. The problem is with an early release of an Intel PowerMac means that professional applications (although this means Adobe and Office as by then all of Apple's ProApps will be Universal) will have to run in Rosetta. If you don't use Adobe's stuff you should be ready to go. Office will run just fine and will be Universal next year.

August will see Intel's Core-based mobile processor released (Yonah is noot a Core processor despite the name) and combined with a thorough preview of 10.5, the update of the MBPs to 64bit Core processors should form the main focus of the show.

 

[miniConvert]

Hey!

Sorry to hear about your laptop woes. I've been relatively lucky, touch wood, in that my Windows machines all perform admirably and I've never had to do a reinstall of Windows for 3 years at the least.

Well, no Intel PowerMac's are expected for a little while yet, but if a powerful desktop system is what you need then certainly consider the G5's! If I hadn't only got myself a dual Xeon workstation a year ago I'd definitely get a G5 system - it's not like PowerPC support is going to die any time soon.

Another option, should you want to wait, would be to go for a Mac mini to use with your display until the new Intel PowerMac's arrive. Though the integrated graphics make them pretty poor for any taxing graphical work, my Core Duo with 2GB's of RAM is tonnes of fun.

So I guess really it's not an ideal time to buy... but a PowerMac G5 system wouldn't disappoint!