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You are here: MacNN Forums > Hardware - Troubleshooting and Discussion > Mac Notebooks > the "new" books...let the ranting begin...

the "new" books...let the ranting begin... (Page 2)
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iomatic
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Oct 19, 2005, 10:18 PM
 
Goodbye! Enjoy your Windows machine.

See you later.
     
Tesseract
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Oct 19, 2005, 10:18 PM
 
Pathetic, but I needed a PB, so I bought one.
The increased resolution and the $300 or so price drop are nice.
     
jhogarty
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Oct 19, 2005, 10:55 PM
 
Which one you get Starman? Ones I saw were $2700+

They ugly and heavy. It isn't only about clock speed. I still have my Dell laptop too, but I'm so tired of it, and Windows. Well at least I skinned it so it looks more like OS X. :-)

J.
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gkorsgard
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:00 PM
 
I ordered the new 17" since my other one had been destroyed. Online it says preparing shipment. Does anyone know if these machines are ready immediately, or wait a while?
     
twong
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:04 PM
 
Originally Posted by inkhead
I just bought the new powerbook 15" the resolution is much much better! bought I actually walked into the Apple Store in Los Angeles, where they had just got a shipment and bought one :-) !!!
Hey inkhead, is the screen really that much brighter than the last 15"?

I went to my local Apple Store today and they told me they had them in the back but wouldn't put them on the floor until Friday because they are short staffed.
     
starman
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:13 PM
 
I got the Inspiron 9300. Only cost $1450.

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robertj
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by gkorsgard
I ordered the new 17" since my other one had been destroyed. Online it says preparing shipment. Does anyone know if these machines are ready immediately, or wait a while?
They are ready immediately and reportedly are in-store as of today (Wednesday)! Shipping 1-3 days stock or 2-4 BTO.
     
gkorsgard
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:51 PM
 
Originally Posted by robertj
They are ready immediately and reportedly are in-store as of today (Wednesday)! Shipping 1-3 days stock or 2-4 BTO.
Thanks
     
jhogarty
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:52 PM
 
Starman did u have coupons or something? I see that model, looks nice, but prices start at $1250 and go up to $2179. I would think the top of the line would need to be the one to compare with the 17" PB, no?

Let me go look and try different configs. /shrug.

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photoeditor
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Oct 19, 2005, 11:52 PM
 
I think Apple's update to the 15 inch model is quite good -- just the right choice of screen resolution (1680 is just too much for a 15 inch display), a nice chunk of VRAM, digital audio in and out, improved SuperDrives, DDR2 RAM which is cheaper than the older DDR, and more energy efficient components. But I am disappointed they did not finish the job with the 7448 processor, which would have pushed them much farther with the energy efficiency thing and brought a little extra speed as well due to the bigger cache. I would not be surprised to see a 7448 update soon (e.g. January); the update they have now to the 15, nice as it is, should have been out in July.

The update to the 17 is less substantial, but I am most disappointed by the lack of any boost to the 12 inch model. It should at least have had the iBook's logic board with 512 MB soldered on instead of 256. And let's hope the 12 inchers now being manufactured are shipping with the iBook's LCD backlight; it is not acceptable for the Powerbook display to be dimmer and less color neutral (to my eyes at least) than the iBook one. It's a shame because the 12 inch keyboard and case are so good and so solid for a subnotebook, and yet these important yet cheap-to-address details like the backlight and RAM are serious dealbreakers for me and I'm sure a lot of others.
     
starman
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:03 AM
 
Yeah, I used a coupon from (I think) couponmountain.com.

I have to look at the invoice but I believe the final tally was $21xx and I got $7xx off which brought it down to $1450. Tax and shipping were more (of course) but if you want to talk about bang for the buck, I'm VERY hard pressed to suggest getting a Powerbook now.

Put it this way...I don't want to get a Dell, I had to. I feel that I have to sell my PB while it still has some value to it. Once the Mactels some out, I'm afraid the PPC machines will drop in value. Perhaps not immediately, but there's that confusion about Universal Binaries, etc...and what if <big named app> only works on Intel?

So this Dell I got is more like an interim laptop than a long-term investment. I'll definitely be getting a Mactel laptop the day they're announced.

Mike

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Randman
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:07 AM
 
Boo-hoo. Such whining from people.

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jhogarty
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:11 AM
 
Understood. BTW love your guys podcast. Just wish you were Horde. ;-)

Still, I think I will buy a 17" for myself, wrap it up for my wife and let her give it to me for christmas. Sound good?

I converted alot of Windows apps to OS X. And I should be picking up FC Studio here in a week or so. I see for at least 1yr, I will be working on the PowerPC platform. I'm sure my apps written for PPC will run faster natively than running thru emulation on the macs with intel inside. Maybe I'm wrong.

Thanks for the info though. I may be more open about things.

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reemas
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:14 AM
 
Boo-hoo. Such whining from people.
Thats what a forum is for too. At least they're complaining about the powerbooks. You're busy complaining about them.
     
teney7
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:14 AM
 
I am not in the market for a new PB, but I think the 12'' got shafted. There is a lot to be said for ultra-portability (much moreso than the 15 an 17), and to me it seems that Apple wants to force us to buy the higher-priced PBs...

I expect a classy 12/13'' PB of some kind when the Intels come out.. not that I'll be in the market for that either...
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vinster
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:19 AM
 
Originally Posted by reemas
my current 1.67 will be fine until the 2nd or 3rd gen of intel pb's. i think those who own a fairly recent pb, 1.5ghz and up are in the best position. buying a 2nd or 3rd gen intel pb, will be the real deal.
I concur. I have a 1.67Ghz 15" model and intend to keep it until at least revision 2 of the Intels and probably revision 3, depending on how long it takes for the major apps to be released for Intel-based Apples.
     
starman
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:22 AM
 
Don't forget that there will be Universal Binaries from some companies.

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reemas
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:35 AM
 
yeah. i got my first apple during the switch from os 9 to os x. os x was already out, but for a switcher i can say it was a nice disaster.

definately 2nd or 3rd rev.
     
alphasubzero949
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Oct 20, 2005, 12:49 AM
 
Originally Posted by iomatic
Goodbye! Enjoy your Windows machine.

See you later.
You've heard of Linux, right?
     
iomatic
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Oct 20, 2005, 03:54 AM
 
Is that some kind of water-fowl?

     
CatOne
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Oct 20, 2005, 01:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by alphasubzero949
I thought I read somewhere that these drives did support dual-layer. I may be wrong.

Either way, this is indeed a crappy "upgrade." What bugs me more is the price considering the age of the CPU and GPU.

Might as well hang on to your existing PB and upgrade your HD, optical drive, and memory and call it a day. My Rev. A is still getting the job done considering its age (three displays and three batteries later).

PS **** you Apple for setting the bar for Aperture at 1.25 GHz!
It's your video card, dude. Aperture does ALL its effects with the GPU, and setting the bar at 1.25 GHz is their way of ensuring you have a vid card that doesn't suck.
     
bleee
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Oct 20, 2005, 02:04 PM
 
I'm also relieved that my 12 inch 1.5ghz powerbook will go that much further. Although I'm kind of puzzled as to why Apple even bothered with this update since is so mediocre. What was the point it obviously didn’t wow very many powerbook owners that are looking to purchase. I was actually hoping they’d increase the resolution on the 12inch but oh well…
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gkorsgard
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Oct 20, 2005, 03:17 PM
 
I just got one of the new 17". I will let ou know what the screen is like when I get it home.
     
jaydon34
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Oct 20, 2005, 04:22 PM
 
Originally Posted by starman
The $1200 difference wasn't a factor??

I bought a Dell the other day. I'm sick and tired of waiting for a G5 and/or Intel laptop from Apple.

Why did I buy the Dell?

Price
17" at TRUE HD resolution (1920x1200)
Dual-layer DVD burner
Much better 802.11g range than my Powerbook
Much faster processor (come on, a G4 POWERbook? no)

Believe me, I love my PB, but it's time I sell it and wait for the Mactels.

Mike
Dells are cool and all but you will probably lose half your productivity fighting off virus's and other windows crap. Other than that the specs are great. Os x is what keeps me on my mac.
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B Gallagher
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Oct 21, 2005, 01:58 AM
 
I just ordered one yesterday. I needed a laptop, now, and the 15" PB was the best thing I could find, and at the most that I wanted to spend.
Sure, the updates may not be on par with the recent iMac updates (in terms of moving forward, technology wise), but they seem to me to be about as good as Apple could hope to do with a dying processor. I'm happy enough with the updates. Sure, they're not great, but they are good.
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mduell
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Oct 21, 2005, 02:31 AM
 
Originally Posted by Thain Esh Kelch
Have you ever tried reading anything on a 1900x1200 17" screen?
Reading pages of text on a 15" 1920x1200 screen is bliss. It looks so good, the characters are so crisp.
     
John123
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Oct 21, 2005, 12:34 PM
 
Originally Posted by jaydon34
Dells are cool and all but you will probably lose half your productivity fighting off virus's and other windows crap. Other than that the specs are great. Os x is what keeps me on my mac.
That's bull...the kind of thing a Mac user who has little to no experience with PCs says. PCs are pretty easy to use, and you can be very productive on one.

There are plenty of arguments for a Mac over a PC, but that virus/operations/productivity one is totally bogus.
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technomaster
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Oct 21, 2005, 01:47 PM
 
Compared to the previous models, the 15" benefits the most--- DL Superdrives by default, higher res screen, perceptively longer battery life. It probably gets a 5-10% boost in speed because of the faster ram. To top it all off, there was a fat price drop ($500-ish) for a similarly spec'd model from the Jan 2005 release.

Typically, Apple computers seem to depreciate at roughly $30/month between upgrades, so a comparable model should have been $300 less, so the price drop is significant.

I think the screen resolution upgrade is just right-- they didn't take it too far. I don't know how Dell pretends that 1900x1200 or whatever resolutions on a 15" screen are truly usable for anyone but 3D artists!... Browsing the web becomes a bizarre experience on these relatively small but high res screens, w/ text scaled up, but with small (in resolution images)... OR... scaled up images. In any event, you don't see websites the way they're intended to look. Perhaps moving forward that'll be a legacy flaw of "older" websites and the standard 72dpi screen resolution.

In the end, I think I'll get one of these new models in the next month, that way I get the longest possible value before the next upgrade in 9-10 months.

Buyers in the computer market need to do a little more research before making their purchases--- and be aware of Apple's new product schedules. IE... don't go buying a computer 8 months in unless you want a good reason to be cranky.

Apple did a good job for educational buyers over the summer--- on top of their educational discounts, they gave away a free iPod mini or credit toward a bigger iPod until mid September.

The people that bought Powerbooks in that 1 month period in-between were going to get shafted regardless.
     
dennisuello
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Oct 21, 2005, 03:45 PM
 
I have been waiting for a G5 Powerbook several years now. Instead, last year I upgraded my Sawtooth, but I still would like a portable.

I know slim form-factor is a selling point of PB but I wonder how many people wouldn't mind a thicker PB if it came with G5?
     
amazing
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Oct 21, 2005, 04:38 PM
 
I have a question about speed/performance while on battery: can someone measure performance differences between plugged in and battery?? (I know everyone questions xbench results, so use whatever you like.)

xlr8yourmac.com is quoting Developer Doc about the radical powerstepping of both cpu and graphics chip while on battery. That's how Apple can claim better battery life when in reality both this rev and the previous rev have a 50 watt-hour battery. Here's the quote:

"Processor Power Management
To lower power consumption and heat generation, the 15-inch PowerBook G4 incorporates an automatic power management stepping technique. Stepping is designed to run at full, half, or quarter processor speed and voltage to meet the demands on the processor. The processor speed will switch between 1670 MHz and 833 MHz at 1.28 V for divide by 2 and between 1670 MHz and 417 MHz at .93 V for divide by 4. The memory bus speed is not shifted.
If the 15-inch PowerBook G4 detects a system temperature that is high, due to high ambient temperatures or other factors, it will immediately force the system to quarter speed mode....

Graphics Power Management
For additional power savings and reduced heat generation, the 15-inch PowerBook G4 incorporates a dynamic graphics power management technique. When required, the graphics processor runs at a reduced voltage and slower clock rate, similar to stepping on the central processor. "
     
cpac
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Oct 21, 2005, 05:42 PM
 
Originally Posted by dennisuello
I know slim form-factor is a selling point of PB but I wonder how many people wouldn't mind a thicker PB if it came with G5?
Probably about as many as would want an even thinner PB even if it had to keep the G4.

The thing is, most users computing tasks are not all that speed intensive. My Rev A TiBook 500 is (finally!) starting to feel a bit long in the tooth, but it still works just fine for all my web surfing, email, text, music, photo, and money needs.

Apple prides itself on sexy hardware, and they're not about to let that go down the drain just to rush a faster chip out the door.

The current models a pretty damn nice machines, if you didn't get your hopes all up ahead of time.

Regardless, the G5 things is a moot point as the intel transition will literally change everything. It'll be interesting to see what Apple does to compete once their engineering has to have the same basic guts as Sony et. al....
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avaughs
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Oct 21, 2005, 06:38 PM
 
The current upgrades were nice, but, dissappointing. What would have sealed the deal" for me would have been some king of CPU improvement (faster speed, larger L2 cache or both). The only value for me in upgrading from my current 17 inch to the current one is the higher re-sale value the new 17 inch will command over the previous one. The 1680x1024 screen and Dual Layer Burner keep this update from being a complete dissappointment. I can't wait for the benchmarks to judge the effect of the PC2-4200 memory system over the previous revision's PC3200 memory system. As for the reported extra hour of battery life; if you believe Apple's claim, I've got some Ocean Front property to sell you in Nevada.

The 15 inch got the best enhancements. A display resolution slightly better than the previous revision PowerBook 17 inch. It (15 inch) also received the optical audio system that was exclusive the the former 17 inch. The default CPU speed and Video subsystem is, again, teh same as the previous 17 inch powerbook. And of course, the Dual Layer DVD Burner (faster RAM and alleged longer battery life).
     
83caddy16v
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Oct 21, 2005, 09:23 PM
 
I was hoping to replace my 1.25mhz 15" PB with something that would run the Final Cut Studio apps better than what I've got and pass on this PB to someone in the family.

Would one of the new G5 iMacs be a better alternative to any of the Powerbooks, if the video card requirements are met for certain apps? Or has Apple detuned the iMac just enough to prevent such a situtation?
     
Helmling
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Oct 21, 2005, 09:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by Sakino
Go price me a laptop with all the options that the current powerbook offers, then get back to me. I'm talking about quality laptop makers not some cheap ****.
You've got that right, man. I wanted a mobile video-editing platform for my computer lab, but the school district no longer supports Mac so they won't let us buy from Apple. I literally could not find a decent laptop that had all the features of a PB for video editing. If it had firewire, then it had cheap Intel graphics. If it had a decent hard-drive, then there was no DVD burner. Etc.

I settled for a Gateway POS that might just work once I buy an external burner, but yet again, I was convinced that my switch three years ago was the right move.
     
Helmling
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Oct 21, 2005, 09:37 PM
 
Originally Posted by John123
That's bull...the kind of thing a Mac user who has little to no experience with PCs says. PCs are pretty easy to use, and you can be very productive on one.

There are plenty of arguments for a Mac over a PC, but that virus/operations/productivity one is totally bogus.
Not from my point of view, buddy. My main machine in my computer lab--the one that runs the remote desktop software that is so vastly inferior to Apple's that it routinely and mysteriously looses whole portions of its functionality--has now started running like molasis in January.

Why?

The techies found spyware a plenty. I know one of my students visited some stupid game site when I left the room during lunch one day, and anywhere you go just outside of the mainstream on the net does those hidden downloads--the ones we Mac users watch helplessly drift onto our desktop, inert as argon. So the techies clean it and what happens?

Some file trace left buried deep in the caverns of Windows labyrinth file system reinfects it. it's doing the same thing again, just like two other PC's they supposedly fixed last week.

Calling out PC's and Dells for how horrible they are doesn't require any hyperbole. Trust me, I manage 50 of the damned things...well, actually less, since between 2 to 4 of them are down at any given moment.
     
photoeditor
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Oct 21, 2005, 09:45 PM
 
About that prime Nevada oceanfront lot . . . The way Apple seems to have tweaked it is by putting much more sophisticated power management on the processor. The previous generation (January 2005) powered down to half speed whenever it could get away with it but could not back off any further. The new one powers down to a quarter, according to the Apple developer notes. So it is sitting there idling at 417MHz, then you run that Photoshop filter, it sprints up to 1.67MHz and then reverts to the slow setting. If you're running a mildly demanding application it might spike to half speed.

What's irritating is that the 7448 processor drains about the same amount of power at 1.4GHz as the 7447 drains at 417MHz; just over nine tenths of a volt (the 7448 at 1.4GHz is about 10 watts; I'm not sure about the 7447 at 417). In other words, a 7448 would attain five hours of battery life or more even with heavy Photoshop use. And with the bigger L2 cache it would be doing so significantly faster than the 7447 at the same clock speed. This implementation of the 7447 will attain the 5.5, I am reasonably confident, running MS Office crapware, but not even close with something seriously demanding.

Being imminently in the market for a new notebook, I hope very much that Apple sticks the 7448 in at the first opportunity. It is after all pin compatible with the 7447; with the DDR2 memory, Apple has done everything they need to do -- I think all they'd have to do is just plug in the new processor. Easy for a quickie update in a month or two.
     
mduell
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Oct 21, 2005, 10:30 PM
 
Originally Posted by photoeditor
What's irritating is that the 7448 processor drains about the same amount of power at 1.4GHz as the 7447 drains at 417MHz; just over nine tenths of a volt (the 7448 at 1.4GHz is about 10 watts; I'm not sure about the 7447 at 417). In other words, a 7448 would attain five hours of battery life or more even with heavy Photoshop use. And with the bigger L2 cache it would be doing so significantly faster than the 7447 at the same clock speed.
This is an incredible claim. Can you provide a link to your source?
Given the figures you provide, the CPU alone would drain the battery in 5 hours; this ignores the draw from the rest of the system (logic board, hard drive, screen, etc).
     
TheGreatButcher
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Oct 21, 2005, 11:41 PM
 
Wow, what a bunch of whiners. They upped the resolution on the 15", added digital audio in/out (which I actually wanted) and the dual layer 8x will be better than 1x single layer burning for me. This'll hold me till a 2nd revision MacTel easily.
     
sbc
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Oct 22, 2005, 09:08 AM
 
Originally Posted by TheGreatButcher
Wow, what a bunch of whiners. They upped the resolution on the 15", added digital audio in/out (which I actually wanted) and the dual layer 8x will be better than 1x single layer burning for me. This'll hold me till a 2nd revision MacTel easily.
This update is finally the first update where I'd feel comfortable buying a PB. With only 86 days to another SF apart of me thinks should I wait, but I really need another system. I'm working off of a Win PIII 800 Mhz...

Nevertheless, I've never considered Apple to pack upgrades that are mind blowing. To me this upgrade is better than previous upgrades on the same generation machine. A Vid Graphics upgrade would have been nice but it may have been a heat or power consumption issue. 9700 is still a good card for most work.

I'm EXCITED about the higher res screens and happy the burner is D/L. Add the audio inputs and cheaper price (me thinks)...this is great. I had no interest in buying the first release of the MacTel. So as the above poster, this should carry well into the second revision. As long as software is compatible, I'm a-okay!
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photoeditor
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Oct 22, 2005, 10:48 AM
 
mduell -- the voltage and what not is culled from the Apple Developer notes and Freescale processor specifications which are freely available on the Apple web site and Freescale Semiconductor web site respectively.

As for the "five hours with heavy Photoshop" claim -- that is a semi-scientific wild-a@@ed guess, or SWAG for short, put out there on the basis that a processor that runs 1.4GHz at 10 watts -- or a bit less than half the power usage at that level of a 7447 -- is going to result in some truly dramatic gains in battery performance for power users. And, of course, that bigger Level 2 cache will help the processor along faster even at times when the clock is downrated by the power management.

Hope this helps. I'll look back through my web archive and try and find the link to the developer notes -- unfortunately, while the new Powerbook notes are posted (and I got there through a link from some kind of Mac site), they are not yet with everything else on the ADC web page.
     
photoeditor
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Oct 22, 2005, 11:11 AM
 
For mduell and anyone else interested -- I found the relevant Apple developer notes (they are not easy to find, unlike the Freescale specs, so I am posting the links) and here they are. First, the MacFixIt item that links to them . .

http://www.macfixit.com/article.php?...51021083036371

And now for the notes themselves

http://developer.apple.com/documenta...kG4/index.html
http://developer.apple.com/documenta...kG4/index.html

UPDATE -- I should add that what Apple appears to have done is to get around the power hogging characteristics of the 7447 by downrating it to the bare minimum except when it is literally in the fact of running something like a Photoshop filter or a big Excel or Stata or SPSS calculation. So as things stand there is still going to be an enormous difference between what scribblers and e-mailers get (close to the 5.5 hours) and what power users get (two or three hours if you're lucky). It's logical to expect that a processor that uses half the power of the 7447 at a reasonable setting (1.4GHz) is going to have a far greater impact on the battery life of power users than it will on lightweight users (unless of course it is also halving power usage at that minimal 417 MHz setting, which I have trouble believing -- there's a certain minimum overhead in there somewhere). It is logical that if the power usage of a 7448 at 1.4GHz is about the same as a 7447 at 417 MHz (i.e. its minimum setting newly put in there to achieve 5.5 hours), even power users are going to see that five hour figure in practice.
( Last edited by photoeditor; Oct 22, 2005 at 11:21 AM. Reason: More information)
     
davidahn
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Oct 22, 2005, 11:49 AM
 
The rumor sites were predicting little if any speed bumps. For me, 1.67 with faster DDR2 RAM will be a HUGE improvement over my current 1.25. But mainly, I'm looking forward to the battery life boost and the increased screen real estate. Optical audio out is huge, too, since I have optical-capable speakers (I can get rid of the hiss!). If you already have a 1.67, yes, a little harder to justify... but for the rest of us, it's a pretty decent upgrade. I agree they'll probably switch to the 7448 soon, but probably not until March, though MacWorld SF is always a remote possibility.

David
     
jkdsteve
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Oct 22, 2005, 12:36 PM
 
Originally Posted by davidahn
The rumor sites were predicting little if any speed bumps. For me, 1.67 with faster DDR2 RAM will be a HUGE improvement
David
Can someone please explain to me where the RAM speed benefits are coming from? The tech specs clearly state it is running the new DDR2 ram at the same speed as the old DDR1 powerbook - i.e. 333MHz although in theory th PC2-4200 RAM could run faster - (533MHz?) or did I miss something?

Steve
     
mduell
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Oct 22, 2005, 01:33 PM
 
Originally Posted by jkdsteve
Can someone please explain to me where the RAM speed benefits are coming from? The tech specs clearly state it is running the new DDR2 ram at the same speed as the old DDR1 powerbook - i.e. 333MHz although in theory th PC2-4200 RAM could run faster - (533MHz?) or did I miss something?
DDR2 burns about 30% less power than DDR. For those of us with 2GB RAM, the power usage is non-trivial. The performance difference should be negligible.
( Last edited by mduell; Oct 22, 2005 at 01:57 PM. )
     
mduell
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Oct 22, 2005, 01:56 PM
 
Originally Posted by photoeditor
mduell -- the voltage and what not is culled from the Apple Developer notes and Freescale processor specifications which are freely available on the Apple web site and Freescale Semiconductor web site respectively.

As for the "five hours with heavy Photoshop" claim -- that is a semi-scientific wild-a@@ed guess, or SWAG for short, put out there on the basis that a processor that runs 1.4GHz at 10 watts -- or a bit less than half the power usage at that level of a 7447 -- is going to result in some truly dramatic gains in battery performance for power users. And, of course, that bigger Level 2 cache will help the processor along faster even at times when the clock is downrated by the power management.

Hope this helps. I'll look back through my web archive and try and find the link to the developer notes -- unfortunately, while the new Powerbook notes are posted (and I got there through a link from some kind of Mac site), they are not yet with everything else on the ADC web page.
As I pointed out in my last post, your "5 hours of heavy use with a 10W CPU" figure is bogus. The battery is only 50Wh, so the CPU alone would drain the battery in an hour. Would you like to run a logic board, hard drive, and screen too?

As for MPC7448 why would Apple go back to 1.42Ghz when they've worked so hard to get to 1.67? On page 13 of this PDF from Freescale they say the 1.7Ghz MPC7448 uses 21W (typical) to 30W (maximum), which is the same as MPC7447A at 1.42Ghz. Now perhaps you can refresh my memory, but I don't think the 1.42Ghz PowerBooks had great battery life at full tilt.
     
John123
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Oct 22, 2005, 02:12 PM
 
Originally Posted by Helmling
Not from my point of view, buddy. My main machine in my computer lab--the one that runs the remote desktop software that is so vastly inferior to Apple's that it routinely and mysteriously looses whole portions of its functionality--has now started running like molasis in January.

Why?

The techies found spyware a plenty. I know one of my students visited some stupid game site when I left the room during lunch one day, and anywhere you go just outside of the mainstream on the net does those hidden downloads--the ones we Mac users watch helplessly drift onto our desktop, inert as argon. So the techies clean it and what happens?

Some file trace left buried deep in the caverns of Windows labyrinth file system reinfects it. it's doing the same thing again, just like two other PC's they supposedly fixed last week.

Calling out PC's and Dells for how horrible they are doesn't require any hyperbole. Trust me, I manage 50 of the damned things...well, actually less, since between 2 to 4 of them are down at any given moment.
Now you are really stretching. Too funny!

First, in terms of raw performance, Microsoft's Remote Desktop Connection kicks the crap out of Apple's Remote Desktop software. You have more admin options with Apple's, yes -- but ARD is still based on the (open-source) VNC code. MS's RDC isn't, and it performs much, much better. I use it to connect to many machines each day and use them remotely, and I always hate having to ARD into Macs.

As for spyware, download AdAware. It's --- free ---. It takes all of about 5 minutes to download, install, and run. Gee, that's not hard....

And if you're thinking that the problem is with the "Windows file system" being a "labyrinth," that just shows that you don't really know what you're talking about. It's no more complex than the Mac. I think what you really were talking about were registry keys, but AdAware can detect any junk in there. And spyware for the most part doesn't cause performance problems anyway.

It sounds like the problem with your Dells is that you don't know enough about them. Maybe they should hire someone who knows even the basics of working with PCs to get operations back up to where they should be.
MacBook Pro 15" -- 2.2Ghz, 4GB, 200GB 7200rpm
iPod Nano 2G -- 8GB
     
photoeditor
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Oct 22, 2005, 04:14 PM
 
mduell -- do you really think PS CS2 use on a laptop would have the processor running 1.4GHz all the time? If that were the case, you'd be lucky to get one hour of Photoshop use out of the current battery given 20 watt-plus power consumption at maximum clock speed. As bad as the current battery life is, it isn't THAT bad. Even in Photoshop the processor, in practice, is clocking down a lot of the time, and simply revs up for filters or tasks such as opening a file. As indeed it would even with a processor that is actually efficient. The point is that if the best of the improvement on a 7448 over the current power management regime on a 7447 comes in that 1.4GHz area, power users are going to see proportionally very big benefits on that processor. Even on 50 watt hours.

UPDATE -- see message below. mduell found something alarming in the Freescale documentation that I missed.
( Last edited by photoeditor; Oct 22, 2005 at 04:17 PM. Reason: improve the tone :-))
     
photoeditor
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Oct 22, 2005, 04:16 PM
 
mduell -- apologies on my part for not catching the last part of your message. I will go and check the Freescale site when I get the chance. If the 7448 processor hits the wall like that above 1.4GHz, no question that is a big disappointment.
     
photoeditor
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Oct 22, 2005, 04:27 PM
 
OK, now I'm really confused -- having just looked at one small section of the Freescale documentation comparison between the various G4 processors, one thing stands out like a sore thumb -- thermal control on Page 8. Apparently the 7447A does not support dynamic frequency switching divide-by-four mode, while the 7448 does. So how did Apple get what is apparently, judging from the size of the L2 cache, still a 7447A, to run in divide-by-four?

Over and out for now, I'll be looking forward to the responses.
     
iomatic
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Oct 22, 2005, 04:57 PM
 
Don't know; the max speeds of the publicly listed 7447A chips are 1.42MHz, so it's likely that Apple can get custom CPUs made for them. Go figure. Just a guess; don't flame
     
 
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