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New MacBook Dual Core 2 Benchmarks
ApolloX writes "New Macbook Pro Benchmarks are now available. From the article:
'Like the iMac before it, Apple's MacBook Pro underwent an upgrade highlighted by a chip swap — the Core Duo processor that used to power Apple's pro laptop is gone, replaced by the next-generation Core 2 Duo. And as with our iMac benchmarks, these updated Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro models show a modest performance gain when compared to older systems running on Core Duo chips with the same clock speeds.'
As expected, the new 15-inch Intel Dual Core 2 (2.33Ghz/2GB RAM) is the new king of Apple portables, with results for the 17-inch model still pending."
(Sorry this turned out long. You can skim large paragraphs tho, except the first.)
"Apples" to apples is only relevant if one is considering the smaller set of OEM computers. Those who are like myself who builds his own computer does so to get a cheaper price and to allocate my money to specific quality parts and away from others (eg. spend $100CAD less on the video card and get nicer ram or the better Core 2 Duo). (I don't care much about overclocking and the act of putting things together.) But if I knew what OS X were like, I might want to get an Apple system for it, and I would hope they do choose quality parts given they are called "Premium" so often.
So let's see what Apple offers at $1700 (dual core, 2x1GB fast ram, and high-end video card, expandability): The closest Mac Pro was $2600. But I had to go for the cheaper ram than what I wanted for price, and was forced to spend money on PC5300 instead of my choice of PC4200 (could be getting a deal there tho). I was forced to buy a second CPU so I got the cheapest one, again to help the price; I would guess the Xeon's are more expensive than the Core 2 Duo I wanted, but I couldn't find the price quickly so ignore this. I was forced to buy a hard-drive--I have one already at home. The video card isn't quite the one I wanted but I'll ignore that. Like with the hard-drive, I would gut my computer for its DVD writer, but I have to buy one again from Apple. $900 more for something that may be faster in some regards, but isn't even exactly what I want. The case looked to be pretty damn nice though.
So obviously, the Mac Pro is not for me.
The 20" iMac looks to be close feature-wise. In customization I was forced to buy a hdd again, I picked the better cpu which seemed overpriced compared to the prices floating around in my head from yesterdays shopping/research/planning of my next computer. Of course I must be paying more for the LCD I don't want, since I have a 19" CRT at home which is just fine. I couldn't pick the right video card, so I'm stuck paying for one to be replaced. How exactly do you install a video card into this thing though? I guess I'll choose the better but still poor one instead. Oh, and there is roughly zero expandability. OK, it comes to $2400 for a underpowered computer I don't want. $700 more than the one I'm planning to build/buy, which is faster in it seems every regard. Slower to hook up that video cable I suppose.
So obviously, the iMac is not for me.
IIRC, Dell lets you do very extensive customization. When going Apple there isn't much variation you can do. I guess Apple is missing the price-point that I hang out at.
And I don't even know if I would like OS X or not. But it's a bit moot when they don't make a computer for me.