Also this is bothering me, the correct word is emulator, not simulator. Oh I also find it ironic how apple uses PC servers in addition to Mac OS ones (for there websites), and I find it a bad admition on there part that they switched to Pentiums.

 

[ol][*]The Base Mac Pro ($2400) is a Dual Dual Core Processor system, meaning 2 2.66GHz Dual Core Intel Xeon Processors. Meaning it's quad core from the get-go. The upgrade to quad core gives you an 8 core machine. Meaning, it's all ready a server grade board, and is ready to expand in that capacity. Not to mention, you're not likely to find a board that will support 4 PCI-E graphics cards (up to 8 24" screens or 4 30" screens).[*]Leopard runs on a processor as slow as a PPC G4 867MHz or faster with 512MB of RAM. Your brother's dual processor system more than meets the minimum requirements for Vista, as it's dual processor. not to mention at the time of his purchase, his system would have been the top of the line processor at 1GHz to begin with. meaning he would have spent way more on his system than Joe Schmoe who's now trying to upgrade his 6 year old POS dell to Vista.[*]Go price out a machine equivalent to a 20" iMac, including Screen, keyboard, mouse and operating system and tell me if it's equal to or less than the cost of the mac. Note, the iMac uses Samsung LCDs, so be sure to include that premium in your cost factors, and don't forget, you'll need some version of Vista Premium to meet the equivalent features of OS X. Now don't forget to factor in the cost of some sort of warranty for all of those self bought parts, and the potential hassle of having to deal with the manufacturer of 5 or 6 different parts if something goes wrong. Oh, don't forget the premium aluminum encloser for above said PC.[*]The base $1100 MacBook has a Combo CDRW/DVD drive, it does not have a super drive, but to be honest, I'd expect that to change with the next revision of the hardware.[*]it's not an emulator, it's a virtual machine. a simulator is like MS Flight sim, a program designed to simulate some other experience. an emulator uses software to act as the hardware portion of a OS/machine combo. a virtual machine is a software program that allocates hardware resources to run an operating system natively.[*]I'm not sure where you got the information that Apple uses PC based servers for their websites, but last I had heard, apple was using strictly XServes to run all of their systems. They do have pc based servers within their system, as they use them for test purposes, just as microsoft has a mac lab to test their software on (http://davidweiss.blogspot.com/2006/...s-mac-lab.html), btw Microsoft is owner of one of the largest Apple hardware collections ever. I think 2nd to the US government.[*]Apple switched to intel because the powerpc architecture wasn't able to handle the continuing loads people were placing on them, and was at the end of it's technological ability to advance. the logical decision was to swap to a stable, high speed, dual core, mobile based processor. You'll note, the first thing to make the swap was the laptops, meaning they were looking for something that wouldn't run hot, and could optimize the power consumption.[/ol]again, as I said before

 

I agree with agent of darkness. :-)

 

[/ol]No they use PC on a few of there webserver systems, not for test purposes for webservers.

Here is my source: http://uptime.netcraft.com/

Its a site that queries different webservers and tells all kinds of information about them, the domain, owner, everything. Its pretty cool cause it can tell pretty much what any site is running and what webserve software they are using. They don't use it on there main site (that would obiously look really bad) but if you query some of the other domains, like ipod.com, which are running Solaris and open BSD or even apple.co.uk, which appears to be running Windows 2000 server, lol.

 

--delete this

 

Here is an interesting artical:
http://apple.qj.net/iMac-lockups-due.../49/aid/107254

Plus, who said that the PPC architecture was a failure? I think in Macs case it was, because the PS3 is a PPC:



I don't see macs having a 3.2GHz dual core...

 

note, the domain owner of apple.co.uk is not apple computer inc. visting the site, shows that it's not even related to computers for christ's sake.

apple's uk site is apple.com/uk., which using that site, shows a domain holder of apple computer inc, and a primarily Solaris 8 OS, and apache (darwin) for the server.

Also note, a XServe and any other mac can all run any version of unix or linux with 0 hassles, hence the solaris. and querying what OS a server is running, in no way dictates what the hardware is. being that OS X Server is not the best OS for hosting web services, it doesn't surprise me that they rely upon Solaris to do so using Apache (Darwin) port, which is of course, the apple version of apache. so in otherwords, even though they are running solaris as an os (which is probably one of the better, if not best version to run), it's likely on a piece of apple hardware. So unless you've personally physically seen a X brand server in Apple's campus (which unless you work for Apple's internal IT dept, I doubt you have, and if you do, where the hell is your brand loyalty), you really can't say they use a PC based server to run anything other than software testing or network testing.

As for PowerPC in the PS3, the processor in the PS3 is a descendent of the PowerPC design. It uses the Power Architecture, but not the rest of the design, as PPC's are not dual core. Pretty much every gaming console uses some derivative of the PPC architecture anyway (Gamecube, Wii, Xbox 360). Most devices with embeded processors use some form of the IBM Power Architecture. The point was, Apple decided it was wiser to move to another structure for the heart of their systems. One that had a larger potential for the future.

For the hardware failures causing lockups, yes, once in a while you might find a system that's buggy, and needs to be taken back to apple to be repaired. There's this concept called manufacturing, and once in a while, something that doesn't meet the proper quality requirements makes it's way out there. But that's true in any field, car, computer, hell, even basic things like pencils get screwed up once in a while. note most people believe the graphics card to be the culprit, as they experienced graphical artifacting, which would be a problem on ATI's end with the graphics processor, and not something to do with apple's design.

i'm in no way saying apple is perfect, it just drives me nuts when people try to compare apples to apples, when they're looking at an apple and an orange.

it also drives me nuts when people just blanketly say "macs are crap, get a pc" when they've either never used one, don't own one, or don't try to evaluate the actual needs and resources of the person asking. Also annoying is that very few people here, have actually given the OP a response to his question based on actual experience like he was first asking. note, no one has given him a "oh I have this brand laptop and it works great for this" experience either.

 

A 20" iMac comes with 2.0GHz Core 2 Duo, 1GB of RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, 8X super drive and an ATI 2400XT w/128MB. $1200
EVGA nForce 680i SLI Motherboard $200
Intel Quad Core X3320 2.4GHz $300
Corsair XMS2 (2x1GB) $100
Hitachi Deskstar T7K500 $75
CoolerMaster CM690 Case $56
ULT31848 ON PS $56
GForce 8800 $300
Vista 64 Bit Ultimate $200
DVD-RWs are cheap, I have a couple around my house so I wouldn't bother buying one anyway.

Thats $1300 w/o the monitor. However, you get twice as much ram, 100GB more hard drive space and a 2.4GHz Quad core processor and a better V-card than the iMac. On top of that, the motherboard I have selected is very good and you can install 2 PCI-E video cards(SLI) and a physics card. You don't get a 20" display but the machine is much faster than the iMac. You would have to pay $2300+ for the 24" iMac with the 2.4GHz Core 2 extreme, 2GB of RAM, and 500GB hard drive. My parts list is very crude because I did this in about 15 min. But all the main components of a PC should be there. I do ocassionaly use macs at work. I work in a computer lab with macs so I end up having to help users with the problems with the macs so its not like i've never used one before. I actually make an effort to use the iMac at work whenever I can so I can help users better. That bieng said, OSX still drives me nuts.

 

things you're missing:

20" Samsung LCD Screen $250-$300
Keyboard $15-$100 depending on quality ($50 for apple)
Mouse $15-$100 depending on quality ($50 for apple)
Webcam $75 for equivalent logitech (1280x1024)
Bluetooth adapter $30 for a trustworthy external one
Wireless N card $60
Super Drive $50


20" samsung will easily kill the $300 difference to step up to the 2.4GHz processor, and the keyboard, mouse, wireless etc will easily satisfy the $150 to upgrade to 2GB of ram... so in other words, you'd be paying a premium of $100 to not have to build your own. ($100 to upgrade to 500GB). (also, you'd probably almost pay that in shipping anyway, plus tax in some states, v free shipping from apple, and tax if they have a store in your state)

but then you'd have to factor in your time to assemble, install the OS, and trouble shoot any driver/hardware issues. not to mention the whole building your own concept means that you have to go to 8+ people to deal with warranty or hardware issues, instead of 1.

to me, seems like a fairly easy decision to make. Now if you're a student, that difference goes away with the student discount (10%) on macs if your college has access to the apple education store, and you end up paying more for a similar spec PC than for the iMac.

Yes, after using windows for almost your entire life, it does take some getting used to OS X, but when I beta tested Vista, I found that a lot of the features of Vista were very similar to OS X. After using strictly OS X for a couple of days, even my wife (adamant mac hater) got accustomed to it.

After showing people the math, it's pretty easy to get them to switch. now it's hard to convince someone who'll go out and buy the $300 pile of crap dell to switch to the $700 mac mini, simply because they're not bright enough to recognize the difference between a steaming pile of dog crap, and their own right hand... but you can't help everyone, and everyone is entitled to make their own mistakes and have their own opinions.

 

I like mac's because they always a nice stylish style. Usually mac's are moreuser friendly, (however, if your started using PC's as your first computer,there is no doubtthat switching to a macis going to seemdifficult or strange at first or vice versa)


I'm running a linux distro on my xbox. I was actually thinking of usingit asmy computer for college since I didn't want to spend any money on a computer or laptop if my xbox could do it . Also, I used to type my comments on herewithmy xbox when I first became a member, now I just used the laptop that my brother gave me.