Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

When do we bite the intel bullet?

To each his own...

I you wanted an Intel Mac go on and buy it...

But leave PPC users by themselves and enjoy what they have. (That includes me). Most of the time, we the avid PPC Mac users are tinkerers, and we love to tinker with the innards of those old machines.

"Aged wine tastes better..."

It is not all about speed, it is about how you like it to be.
 
Nameci said:
I you wanted an Intel Mac go on and buy it...

But leave PPC users by themselves and enjoy what they have. (That includes me). Most of the time, we the avid PPC Mac users are tinkerers, and we love to tinker with the innards of those old machines.

"Aged wine tastes better..."

It is not all about speed, it is about how you like it to be.
Click to expand...

That is so true, I love to tinker with my G4's But I don't see why we have to have PPC Vs. Intel wars. They're Macs. That all that should matter.
 
Nameci said:
I you wanted an Intel Mac go on and buy it...

But leave PPC users by themselves and enjoy what they have. (That includes me). Most of the time, we the avid PPC Mac users are tinkerers, and we love to tinker with the innards of those old machines.

"Aged wine tastes better..."

It is not all about speed, it is about how you like it to be.
Click to expand...

Spoken like a true geek.
 
zen.state said:
Spoken like a true geek.
Click to expand...

X2. I'm a tinkerer as well. Every Mac I have except the 1.0 DP MDD and the eMac have been completely ripped apart, cleaned and reassembled. They all look like new... except for the yellowing on the front of the 7100/80AV and the minor scratch on the 5500/250.
 
One good analogy, why do people, and not ordinary people collect old cars? Like for example a '69 mustang or an oldsmobile. They don't run as fast and don't have much horsepower as the latest 2011 models.

There is individuality on everything that is old and not run off the mill.

I don't say that current Intel Macs are run off the mill, but it seems to me that they are targeted for consumer market rather than the special crowd.

You wanted to be the same as others or standout in the crowd as an individual? "Think different."
 
Nameci said:
One good analogy, why do people, and not ordinary people collect old cars? Like for example a '69 mustang or an oldsmobile. They don't run as fast and don't have much horsepower as the latest 2011 models.

There is individuality on everything that is old and not run off the mill.

I don't say that current Intel Macs are run off the mill, but it seems to me that they are targeted for consumer market rather than the special crowd.

You wanted to be the same as others or standout in the crowd as an individual? "Think different."
Click to expand...

The only exception Id make to that is the Mac Pro... which still stands out and is targeted at professionals, even if the cheesegrater design is getting a little boring after nearly 8 years (Hence the "Oh we can charge 8 times as much as a consumer PC" attitude). The rest all are consumer targeted. Personally, I like the QuickSilver and MDD Design (Your setup Nameci is the pinnacle of design really in my opinion - High-end G4 with the acrylic cinema - just beautiful, and really really stands out. I will have to get the Cinema for my MDD, it just looks so damn good)
 
I love my old PPCs so much, I hooked up my 5500/250 to post this particular post.

No, I'm not kidding, I have proof.... in a few minutes...the 5500 doesn't have USB ports of course.

Proof -

b94e2da8.jpg
 
Last edited:
WGoins88 said:
I love my old PPCs so much, I hooked up my 5500/250 to post this particular post.

No, I'm not kidding, I have proof.... in a few minutes...the 5500 doesn't have USB ports of course.
Click to expand...

One of my former Mac favourites is the 6400 from the same era as the 5500. I bought it from a friend that bought it new in late 96 and hardly ever used it for about 14 months. I bought it in early 98 with the max RAM of 136 MB (8MB onboard and 2x64MB) and soon after bought the 512KB L2 upgrade. I loved the 603ev 180MHz CPU a lot also. I think the 5500 also used the ev chip rather than the e right? Many don't know this but the 603ev was what powered the space shuttle computer for about 4 years in the mid to late 90's

This was also during the big zip disk phase. I had the external SCSI drive and about 28 disks haha.

Those were the days man. I miss that Mac so much. Many good memories.
 
Yeah, it has the 603ev. It's not bad for older games, but the web is very sluggish on it. But it's also only a 250MHz 603ev with 96MB Ram and a 4GB HD.
 
For some people, never. My neighbor still uses a Mac Classic with ClarisWorks for writing his lectures for the high school chemistry classes he teaches. If does what you need, you don't have to say goodbye.
 
WGoins88 said:
Yeah, it has the 603ev. It's not bad for older games, but the web is very sluggish on it. But it's also only a 250MHz 603ev with 96MB Ram and a 4GB HD.
Click to expand...

Do the 5500 take the same L2 CPU upgrades the 6400/6500 can? I have seen some G3 250's and 300's on ebay in the past for as little as 40. A G3 250 would smoke a 603ev 250.
 
To be honest if my PowerMac G5 wouldn’t have died (it all started with the front dead USB ports issue) then I would not have bought the Intel mini like I did. I say it today like I used to say it: The PowerMac was much faster than Mac Mini in absolutely everything sae for the lamest benchmark of all - Flash playback.

This is to say I still have a PowerBook G4 which will serve me for as long as it can. And possibly longer.
 
chrismacguy said:
The only exception Id make to that is the Mac Pro... which still stands out and is targeted at professionals, even if the cheesegrater design is getting a little boring after nearly 8 years (Hence the "Oh we can charge 8 times as much as a consumer PC" attitude). The rest all are consumer targeted. Personally, I like the QuickSilver and MDD Design (Your setup Nameci is the pinnacle of design really in my opinion - High-end G4 with the acrylic cinema - just beautiful, and really really stands out. I will have to get the Cinema for my MDD, it just looks so damn good)
Click to expand...

Thanks Chris for the appreciation, I started off with base CPU and full ram. Then cinema display, followed by gfx card, then apple pro speakers, then iSub sub woofer which by the sounds so damn good with a low bass tone, and finally slim keyboard and magic mouse. I still have the white keyboard and pro mouse though, I swap most of the time if I get tired of the slim keyboard and magic mouse.

I will keep this system, it is a beauty both in and out. I would be buying Intel or maybe not? soon not because I wanted to bite the bullet but because of a necessity. My hackintosh is showing signs of aging, some of the plastics already broke and the battery does not last that long. It will only have to take care of daily emails. iPad or MBA? It seems that I am inclined towards iPad. Sorry for the out of topic.

Having an intel as far as I am concerned is not biting the bullet. It is just how life is. But bashing PPC machines because they are inferior to intels? Seems so inappropriate and insulting. Goes back to analogy of a car.

We as PPC users know the limitations of our machines and what it can do. Let appreciate what it can and cannot. Intel Macs have flaws as well. Nothing is perfect.
 
WGoins88 said:
I love my old PPCs so much, I hooked up my 5500/250 to post this particular post.

(...) Proof - (image)
Click to expand...

btw. why is my IE not working under OS9 anymore, and yours is? But never mind (I know there is Classilla, but I use OS X + Firefox though).

-------------

Someone told me I was negligent (security-wise), because I still used Tiger+firefox for everything on the internet. So I guess I am just stupid and lucky no one has ever stolen my passwords etc. *knock on wood*

For me its partly the fear of the unknown things that I know will be different under Lion (or whatever Intel-only OS), but at the same time don't know exactly how they are different. I fear I loose things I would miss from Tiger and get new things I would not care for. I know I am irrational. Sorry.
 
You're not risking your security by using Firefox. FFS! As long as it's a recent build lol.

I'll keep using my G5 and G4 till I can afford to replace em. :)
 
I'm considering biting the bullet when the iMacs get updated. But what will seal the deal for me is if I want to get an iPad or a new iPhone, and they require a version of iTunes that won't run on PPC.
 
ascii42 said:
I'm considering biting the bullet when the iMacs get updated. But what will seal the deal for me is if I want to get an iPad or a new iPhone, and they require a version of iTunes that won't run on PPC.
Click to expand...

iTunes still fully supports PowerPC in the newest version so I guess you just assumed that it didn't. Assumptions are foolish.

From this page:
"Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor"

iTunes 10 runs great on my machine.
 
zen.state said:
iTunes still fully supports PowerPC in the newest version so I guess you just assumed that it didn't. Assumptions are foolish.

From this page:
"Mac computer with an Intel, PowerPC G5 or G4 processor"

iTunes 10 runs great on my machine.
Click to expand...

A little harsh, zen. Ascii's statement rests on an "if." Right now, iTunes 10 supports PPC and requires Leopard. When Leopard is dropped as a supported OS version for iTunes (or, if the PPC build of Leopard is dropped), then a purchaser of an iPad or an iPhone will need to upgrade if they want to synch to his or her computer.

As to the main thread...

My G5 iMac was the computer that brought me back from the outer darkness that was Dell/Windows (an abysmal experience with an Inspiron 5100 finally convinced me to come back to Apple). It still sits in our den, happily chugging away with 10.5, handling the web surfing and light office tasks for which my wife and I utilize it. As long as it keeps running and doing it's job, I see no reason to part with it. I'm wondering how many people are in the same boat as me, with a mixture of Intel and PPC computers? For me, it comes down to what gets the 'job' done, and as long as my G5 still works, I won't part with it.
 
There are still so many people who are not decided yet to part with their PPC Macs, when that time comes, they would become so cheap and I would splurge shopping.... yahoo!

:D
 
:D nice thought.
the question is whether they will get costly collectors items then (like the Macintosh Plus and these models or the Ti Book) or the opposite...
 
I use Intel where I have to, but I'll switch my PowerPC Macs to Linux before I toss them into a landfill. The reason people keep PowerPC comps ultimately comes down to being educated about what kind of computing power is actually necessary to do most common tasks (word processing, web browsing, email) versus what's being marketed to people. Ultimately, it's about not feeling really stupid about buying something new just to have something new, or being gullible enough to buy into the hype when you know if an iPad can do 99% of what most people need done with a PC a G3-G5 can easily do that as well, out of date software notwithstanding.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back