The *cough* mac *cough*

[old.[GA] Shovel]

I read with intrest the gamespy report on mac gaming (as on BW news yesterday) and it does seem that (at long last) M$ are going to have to start trying to get Windozemore usable (eg spending more time up than down).

The hardware looks intresting (especially with the faster G4s), and the graphics will be v intresting when the new 3Dfx cards are shipped. the DVD standard, flashy looks, firewire, quality OS (well, OS 10 will, aparently), it all looks beautiful (well, at least it does now that they have it in black, would anyone really have wanted to redecorate to fit in with an "apricot" coloured one?)

however, I go to apples webby to look up full specs, news, prices etc. and discover the one thing which is, at the end of the day, still going to hold them back, price.

The new G4s are listed at stupid prices. starting at 1100 quid, you get a 400, 64 meg, 10gig HD, no backup drive at all, and some other pants stuff.
For a 500, the price is 2,500....

When entering the "custom spec" page (shoose your own), building a stanadard-ish system (500mhz, 128meg, zip drive, 10 gig, 56k modem, 17" monitor) the price came to a ridiculous £3000.

It is a shame really that they couldn't have realied where the problems lay, and reduced price accordingly, because, at the end of the day, you are not going to beat a market leader (aka the PC) by selling machines which will be slower, for twice the price, even if it does has a coloured case.

 

[bigbigt0]

Shovel

I think you're forgetting that a G4 500 is X times faster than a P3 600

hehe, don't want to start a PC-Mac flame war (although it would WARM things up

) Every Mac I have had the misfortune to work on/with has had an AOL connection, urgh

I think I'll stick with PCs

bigt

 

[old.[GA] Shovel]

fair point, but even so, they're reporting massive profits (well, massive for apple!

) and they are nto taking advantage of it.
the iMacs (sameprice as PCs) however, cannot compete at all.

My main reason for posting this, was to bring to peoples attention just how wasted technology is with the companies that develop it. Be it Microsoft, Intel or in this case Apple. There is always a way to screw it up. M$ are there, taking advantage of people with their monopoly, and Apple, gradually taking back market share, are not beinging it properly to consumers (even if thatr is mostly microsofts fault).

Persoanlly I don't like Apple that much (any company which saves itself from bankrupcy by introducing coloured boxes should be destroyed until they find a good selling point in my opinion) but apartfrom the first time buyers and colour mugs, there is very little evidence to suggest that they are trying to attack microsoft and really push back, expecially when M$ are about to release the most troublesome piece of OS ever(aka Win 2k, run any game as long as it is Quake) and Apple are not pushing things particually hard? Why? they cant be content just to die away again, but yet they must know, especially after the exampleAMD have led, that you can beat people on price on quality, then put the price up (K6... pants -> K6-2/3 revelation -> K7 ooo, look at this profit)

.

I have a fear that, when companies have the biggest chance to knock M$ off their perch (or at least tohop on with them), they are not doing it, meaning that M$ will simply continue to produce poor quality software with bugs and faults, rather than pushing us into a world of better quality software and seemless operations.

this may sound like ramblings of a tired and stressed student that wants a G4 just to piss off microsoft, but I think I have a point, people are backing down to microsoft and are trying to find other ways into the under markets rather than try to battle in elsewhere.

I fear that the future is not going to bear the great quality that we once hoped for. bugger.

 

[old.venturer01]

why do g4's have handles
so you can , get a better purchase ( buy a pc and play with all the internals / peripheral devices ) to throw them away.
uses 100 mg of ram to run a pc emulator
why emulate , just think of the pc u could get for £2500 with a monitor and a floppy ?

 

[old.Mikey]

Tep we've just had 70 G4 Macs delivered at the Uni. and as I work on IT we've been able to stress them more than usual

But I must say I'm mighty impressed, and would consider getting one. But like others here said the price is a bit mad!


Mikey out!!

------------------
Music is the answer!!
Danny Howells in Southampton on 4th March!!

C ya there!!

See ya on the dance floor!

Roll on Homelands!!

 

[old.TUG]

Can u overclock mac's? If so, Ill sell overclocked ones

speeeeeeeeeking of overclocking, gonna be adding overclocked athlons and celeron 366's at 550 to me site this weekend...

athlon 550's at 750, 800 and a few athlons with 750MHz cores that will do an easy 850 and maybe 900 with an athlon 'goldfinger' overclocking card, which i can also supply

Prices have still gotta b decided

www.clockspeed.co.uk

 

[xane]

Lessee, I mix'n'match a few top grade pseudo-PC parts, design my own 2nd rate OS, give the case a lick of paint, and flog em for £2K apiece - sounds good ? Thats exactly what Apple do.

Apple produce the most overhyped and overpriced desktop paperweight in the world. Apple don't "design" any hardware, its all proprietory; Motorola CPU, SCSI, Firewire, its all bought-in. Yet we see Apple as a "technology" company, the reality is they are a marketing company and thats it.

And they are very good at marketing...

Lets face it, what can you do on an iMac that can't do on a £250 Dreamcast or PSX2 ?

FAO: Tug. If you are doing Athlons are you going to be doing the decent heatsinks for them also (like the Alpha P7125) ? I have a K7/750 on order and am thinking of getting one later.


------------------
[UKSG]camazotz

 

[old.[GA] Shovel]

Intresting,

I never realised how little technology apple did!

However, I've done some morehunting around the apple webby and came across more "stuff", which, with comments taken into account, get almost laughable.
1) they use the same benchmarks to show their processor speeds everywhere. however, at one point, I followed the smallprint and discovered that the iMac ws 35% faster at loading photoshop than a Pentium.... doh.
2) they list a game benchmark (yes, game,apple have realised their existance) of Q3a fps. 27fps on a 400Mhz iMac with ATi 128.
the PC comparison was, 23fps on a 500Mhz PIII but with ATi rage pro.... spot the descrepincy

)))

BTW TUG, those macs could do with a bit of overclocking

)) max of 500Mhz atm...

while I think of it though, does anyone know if anyone makes PCs with coloured cases? (they exist, but I don'tknow if they come as a package), or, better still, if someone sells em in black, because at the end of the day, woudl you rather have a "tangerine" coloured machine, or a black one?
no contest

 

[old.venturer01]

done it m8
took all the plastics and casings of my machine
got some coloured shrink rap and heated it
got some anodised (spelling) counter sunk allen screws
and glued them to the shrink rap
looks even better then a mac

 

[old.[GA] Shovel]

must have black flatscreen PC.... if only for looks.... as long as it plays Quake3a/UT and costs less than 50p.....

/me wakes up

 

[kryt]

Shovel mate
I sell coloured cases at work, 48 quid tho
called iCute - in blue orange and red colours
they look shite and very much alike Irons (anyone remember that thread from way back in old BW board?)
Which is a bad thing.
What I want is a COMPLETEY clear as glass case. That would, frankly, 0wn.

anm^Kryten

 

[old.TUG]

camatoz - goto www.overclockers.com.au and check out the globalwin VOS32 heatsink - i can get these next week along with their 80mm exhaust fan/housing

50ish quid tho :/ but they are BEASTS!

U r prob ordering athlons from where i work...

 

[Embattle]

<BLOCKQUOTE><font size="1" face="Verdana, Arial">quote:</font><HR>they're reporting massive profits<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>
Only compared to there own past results, next to other comapnies they don't even represent 1 months

.

Its not only the cost of the Mac that puts it out of touch, the idea of having to get all my apps for it again, argh.

Use an Emu, Why didn't I just keep the PC then .