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awcopus · 08:53 AM

Apple's CFO suspects that there is pent-up demand for new PowerMacs.

DUH!

Let's quantify that demand in terms of our expectations of the new PowerMac we'd be willing to buy.

:XI: · Apr 19, 2003, 09:24 AM

Another year or two with my 933.
Unless we get a 970 based mac at the end of the year and I have the money.

awcopus · Apr 19, 2003, 05:06 PM

I have the 933 also. Lovely machine for the $1500 price tag last fall. But I'd gladly spend twice as much gladly for a dual 970.

Preliminary plan is to upgrade as soon as Apple releases a post-G4 Mac. I would only wait for a second-gen version of the new motherboard if reports on the stability/reliability of the new motherboard are negative (unlikely).

The money is already earmarked...just need Apple to release hardware that lives up to OS X.

Echoes of Jobs' statement that this will be the "YEAR" of the laptop still freak me out though. I love the new PowerBooks (the 17" is crashed alien spaceship quality), but I hope the love is spread around to the desktops before year's end. I honestly cannot imagine how Apple could possibly release yet another incremental upgrade to this line without resulting in a jihad against Cupertino.

Apple is hemorrhaging pro users, and not because of a lack of money available for upgrading. It's the fact that the current line is not that much faster than the last QS line.

C'mon Apple, put the 'Power' back in PowerMac!

The Placid Casual · Apr 19, 2003, 05:53 PM

I have made a vow not to buy another G4...

Although my next machine will be a laptop. 15 Alu Powerbook 970. Mmmmmm.

rambo47 · Apr 19, 2003, 06:17 PM

No more G4 for me. And I'll probably wait for the second generation of any 970-based machine as well.

I've looked at the 17" PowerBook and while it certainly is radical, it's not for me. I was disapointed that the new mega-book debuted with the same 1 GHz processor that's in the 15" TiBook. I had hoped, perhaps irrationally, for something better. With the 12" at 867 MHz, the 15" at 1 GHz, I wanted to see the 17" at 1.2 GHz or so. The sweet spot in the PowerBook line up, IMHO, remains the 15". I have a PowerMac desktop machine (Dual-Gig SDRAM) so I don't need a desktop replacement like the 17" figures to be. Plus I have some concerns about the durability of the 17" screen and it's flexibility. In the mean time my 15" is the best blend of portability and screen real estate, and still turns heads at Starbuck's.

eno · Apr 20, 2003, 10:59 AM

I've got a dual-1.25 for now.

If Apple releases dual-970 machines I'll do just about anything to get one (unless, of course, it's like the time their first introduced the G4 ie. at a slower clockspeed than the G3).

Of course, if it comes to the end of the year and the 970s still aren't here, I'll be itching to get a new machine... I like to upgrade once per year. If Apple drags its heels too much (eg. mid-2004) before giving us the 970 then I might just upgrade to the latest G4 out of sheer impatience.

AJ · Apr 25, 2003, 04:44 AM

Well, i recently broke down and bought a second-hand dual-867 from a friend. I am happy with the machine, and will not upgrade when the 970s come our way.

Two reasons:
1. I'll let the early adopters sort out the (almost guaranteed) rev 1 problems
2. I don't really need the extra power right now anyway

AJ

Shaktai · Apr 25, 2003, 05:00 AM

I'm glad I am too broke to upgrade right now. That way I have to wait until something better comes along. I need more then what my 800 single does, but my next tower will be top of the line, so that it can last awhile. I've got faster PC's, but I really don't like working with them.

So I will have to wait for the 970, or whatever is next, and will probably have to wait for the second generation to get what I want. Maybe it is good that money is tight right now, otherwise I would have a dual 1.42.

chris v · Apr 25, 2003, 09:20 AM

My debate here lately has been whether to buy a middle of the line (1.25) to replace the aging Sawtooth 450 in my art room, or to upgrade the CPU and video card.

I think I'm going to go with the Powerlogix 1 GZ CPU upgrade and a Radeon 9000 and save the bucks to replace it with a G-Whatever in maybe another year.

Consider my demand to be pent.

CV

dfiler · Apr 25, 2003, 02:22 PM

Of course, we've all been drooling over 970 hardware for a long time...

Yet I'll probably stick with my dual450 for another year or two.

It is my home computer and I use it primarily for email, web-browsing, word-processing, iTunes, DVD playback, iPhoto, photoshop, and web-development. Since all my photoshop work is for screen based images, rather than high-res print-fidelity work, the speed of my machine is more than adequate.

I'd have to start using my computer for completely new and processor intensive tasks to really justify purchasing a new powermac. If jaguar makes my machine more responsive, then there will be even less incentive to upgrade.

Then again... I'll probably be so awestruck by the new 970s that I'll eat these words, hop in my car, not bother to stop the webcast, drive straight to Cupertino, and camp out on their loading dock.

Zoom · Apr 26, 2003, 01:33 PM

I'm sure that the readers of this forum are not the average Apple demographic, so this poll won't exactly prove much. But I voted. I'm pent. I'm waiting for the 970, as well, hopefully a second generation (even a Rev B of the first release product). I've upgraded just about everything on my Sawtooth that can be upgraded: video, DVD-R (4x), CD-RW (52x), CPU (800MHz), RAM (768MB), hard drive (120GB). All of that was way cheaper than a new Mac, unfortunately. So I figure I can use this for another year or so.

I hope Apple feels this pressure to get that 970-based Mac out. It damn well should feel it. Macs have been too far behind for way too long. Jobs should have nixes Motorola a long time ago. Given his penchant for covering his bases (NVidia/ATi), I'm really surprised it took this long. I'll bet we see this in September with the release of Panther, possibly with a delayed ship date.

katorga · Apr 26, 2003, 03:58 PM

If the AMD 64bit opteron performs as well as it seems to in early benchmarks, Intel will go clockspeed crazy to try and keep users on 32-bit Xeon servers.

I expect Intel to be at 4Ghz by Christmas, maybe higher on the desktop line of chips. That also means an 800Mhz system bus and massive memory bandwidth.

Apple not only needs dual 970s, they need them soon and running faster than 2Ghz. Otherwise no one is going to use Mac's for anything work related. of couse that could be the plan. Jobs could want to turn the mac into a media appliance that does "basic" computing on the side.