[fortepianissimo]

http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html

Looks like the new PB 15" beat even the iMac G5 in CPU tests!

[amazing]

Originally posted by fortepianissimo:
http://www.macintouch.com/perfpack/comparison.html

Looks like the new PB 15" beat even the iMac G5 in CPU tests!

The problem with looking at graphs that have no accompanying figures is that you don't know if they're rendered correctly. I've see very misleading graphs of differing lengths on some "well-known" speed test sites: the accompanying figures are exactly the same but the bar graphs are of different lengths.

For example, the file duplication test shows that the 5400 rpm HD in the new PB performs the same as the Apple 80 GB 4200 rpm HD in the mini. The mini with the 7200 rpm 60 GB HD performs much better than the PB--but the eMac easily outperforms everything, even the iMac G5 in high-mode--in fact, only the PM with RAID is faster. In the MPEP4 conversion, the mini and the eMac perform better than both the iMac G5 and the PB in auto-mode. They're bested by the iMac and PB in high-mode, though.

Overall, the iMac G5 performs better than the PB, when comparing high-mode to high-mode.

I'd say that the real import of those graphs is that the mini performs surprisingly well. How cool is it that the $600 mini performs very well compared to an 1.8 iMac G5 and a new 15" PB? Can you imagine what you'd do with 3 or 4 minis for the price of either of the other 2?

[Lukas]

but the eMac easily outperforms everything, even the iMac G5 in high-mode--in fact, only the PM with RAID is faster.

You might want to read the comments as well. Quote:
"What's going on? We finally got an explanation from a former Apple engineer (who also noted understaffing issues in Apple engineering). To summarize, Apple apparently made some design errors in low-level hardware priorities for the custom controller chips, starving the I/O system for memory bandwidth to feed the fast G5 processors. As a result, the much-slower G4 systems actually perform better in disk operations."

[RonnieoftheRose]

I want to add that on the new 12" I opened and ran the following applications simultaenously and hit expose to test the system's stability and power...

1.Word
2. Final Draft
3. Keynote
4. Pages
5. Safari
6. Firefox
7. Internet Explorer
8. Mail
9. Address Book
10. iTunes, playing with visualizer on
11. iPhoto
12. iMovie, rendering KB effect to a selection of photos
13. iDVD, playing the front end of a theme
14. Calculator
15. Quicktime, not playing
16. DVD Player, not playing
17. GarageBand, looping a riff
18. Activity Monitor

Expose animation was pretty good. iMovie, GarageBand and iDVD didn't stutter once they ran for half a minute. iTunes playback didn't stutter but visuals were around 10fps. Websites loaded in the different browsers without a problem. And finally, I still had 7MB of memory free out of 512!

[Eug Wanker]

Just play with a PowerBook 1.5 and an iMac 1.6 in the store for a few minutes, in iLife.

The usability of the iMac is obviously MUCH better, mainly because of the hard drive speed.

[amazing]

Originally posted by Lukas:
You might want to read the comments as well. Quote:
"

Well, I could have been clearer in my earlier post where I was referring to the one test on file duplication, which measures the HD speed. I found it amazing that the IDE drive in the eMac beat everything except the PM using RAID. As Eug points out, the 5400 rpm drive in the AlPB doesn't show very well...

Doesn't anyone find it funny that the iMac G5 didn't do better in those tests?

"Comparing iMac G5 vs. PowerBook G4 is interesting. The PowerBook actually has higher CPU and Thread scores! However, the iMac G5 wins in memory speed (a major G5 design feature), graphics and internal disk performance, especially in "Highest" processor mode."

In other words, if you could put the 7500 rpm 60 GB HD in the PB, you'd be pushing the G5 iMac?

In my Ti, I loved the fact that the user could replace the airport card and the HD. I'm pretty disappointed that now both the HD and the wireless card are no longer user serviceable. I replaced both of those in my Ti, giving the airport card to an iBook so I could use a wireless pc-card, switching to a different HD.

Can't do that, no more, no more.

[Eug Wanker]

No, the Xbench tests are simply not very good estimates of performance on the G5.

For instance, The CPU test on my Cube 1.7 GHz G4 (203) outruns a G5 2.0 GHz G5 (194), but in the real world, the G5 is significantly faster on average.

[fortepianissimo]

Originally posted by amazing:

In other words, if you could put the 7500 rpm 60 GB HD in the PB, you'd be pushing the G5 iMac?

In my Ti, I loved the fact that the user could replace the airport card and the HD. I'm pretty disappointed that now both the HD and the wireless card are no longer user serviceable. I replaced both of those in my Ti, giving the airport card to an iBook so I could use a wireless pc-card, switching to a different HD.

Can't do that, no more, no more.

There is a detailed tutorial for replacing HD on an AlBook 15" here:

http://pbfixit.com/Guide/54.9.0.html

[amazing]

Originally posted by fortepianissimo:
There is a detailed tutorial for replacing HD on an AlBook 15" here:

http://pbfixit.com/Guide/54.9.0.html

Yep, sad to say, if you leave obvious traces then that's a good way to void your Applecare, whereas in the Ti, taking the back off was perfectly OK as far as applecare was concerned.

Even replacing the HD in the mini is a lot simpler than that, and look at how modular they've made the iMac G5! PC laptop manufacturers have conceded the reality that you're going to replace the HD, so why is Apple going the other way??

And, even Macintouch admitted that the wireless range in their new 15" PB wasn't so good (they didn't say it stinks, but that what it sounded like.) Why aren't people talking about that?

It used to be that you'd tell people to open up the bay on the bottom and check that the antenna connection was seated properly. Now, since the wireless card is no longer accessible, you can't even do that. Your only recourse is to take it to an Apple Store, where the Genius will shrug his shoulders, and maybe, perhaps, give you a new one. If the Genius suggests sending it off to Applecare for the inevitable days away from home, with your brand-new, dearly covetted PB, what're you gonna say?

Seems silly, design-wise.

[fortepianissimo]

Originally posted by amazing:
And, even Macintouch admitted that the wireless range in their new 15" PB wasn't so good (they didn't say it stinks, but that what it sounded like.) Why aren't people talking about that?

It used to be that you'd tell people to open up the bay on the bottom and check that the antenna connection was seated properly. Now, since the wireless card is no longer accessible, you can't even do that. Your only recourse is to take it to an Apple Store, where the Genius will shrug his shoulders, and maybe, perhaps, give you a new one. If the Genius suggests sending it off to Applecare for the inevitable days away from home, with your brand-new, dearly covetted PB, what're you gonna say?

Yes I agreed. For the airport range I think this is the inevitable consequence of using metal as the casing. Look at iBook and how much better its reception is.

[markponcelet]

Originally posted by fortepianissimo:
There is a detailed tutorial for replacing HD on an AlBook 15" here:

http://pbfixit.com/Guide/54.9.0.html

Thank you!!

I have been looking for a better guide to opening up my laptop now for a couple of months, and that fits the bill.

(Prior to reading this post, I had been assuming that changing out my hard drive on a new PBG4 17" computer would be as hard as doing it on a 15" computer. Thanks to your guide, I see that there are no clips under the DVD drive.

Phew!

Thank you SO much!

[markponcelet]

Originally posted by amazing:
Yep, sad to say, if you leave obvious traces then that's a good way to void your Applecare, whereas in the Ti, taking the back off was perfectly OK as far as applecare was concerned.

Well, just be careful. I had ripped my G3 300 mhz iBook apart many times (and I do mean ripped -- have you seen how hard it is to replace a hard drive in that thing?) and Apple never batted an eye when I asked them to replace the screen right before the end of my warranty. In fact, they replaced a screw I had stripped.

I've even heard stories that Apple has asked people to "remove the third-party hard drive and try it with the OEM one" during support. Can't vouch for that one, but Apple did treat me well despite my playing around inside the laptop.

Originally posted by amazing:

And, even Macintouch admitted that the wireless range in their new 15" PB wasn't so good (they didn't say it stinks, but that what it sounded like.) Why aren't people talking about that?

People are. I've posted some replies myself regarding using a third-party high-power PCMCIA wireless card as a workaround.


But I will admit: being user-serviceable is good. For now, there are enough guides and help out there to walk even a n00b through taking a computer apart. I wish it were easier, but after opening up that G3 clamshell a dozen times, I will never complain that a computer is hard to open again.