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Intel PowerMac - What can we expect?

aswitcher

aswitcher

macrumors 603
Original poster
Oct 8, 2003
5,338
14
Canberra OZ
I am toying with the idea of getting an Intel PowerMac (MacMac or whatever it gets called) when they appear (likely August?) and wanted to know what people expect for specs and price. Would really like to hear advice from anyone to my questions because it may stop me buying an iMac or a Macbook if I think the intel powermac will be worth waiting for...

1) Will the price for the low end intel model drop signficantly? (I figure I can only justify the low end with upgrades and I am palying this off what I will be getting in an iMac) Do people think given the 20" iMac specs and price, that the low end intel powermac will be cheaper that it?

2) What changes in features can we expect (802.11n/UWB/HDMI/Bluray etc)?

3) When will the Mac Mini gets a real graphics card - this year? (I figure thats a significant reason I am not interested in the Mac Mini but interested in an intel powermac)

4) Is there room for a screenless intel mac between the Mac Mini and the Intel Powermac, or is this a pipe dream...
 
aswitcher said:
I am toying with the idea of getting an Intel PowerMac (MacMac or whatever it gets called) when they appear (likely August?) and wanted to know what people expect for specs and price. Would really like to hear advice from anyone to my questions because it may stop me buying an iMac or a Macbook if I think the intel powermac will be worth waiting for...

1) Will the price for the low end intel model drop signficantly? (I figure I can only justify the low end with upgrades and I am palying this off what I will be getting in an iMac) Do people think given the 20" iMac specs and price, that the low end intel powermac will be cheaper that it?

2) What changes in features can we expect (802.11n/UWB/HDMI/Bluray etc)?

3) When will the Mac Mini gets a real graphics card - this year? (I figure thats a significant reason I am not interested in the Mac Mini but interested in an intel powermac)

4) Is there room for a screenless intel mac between the Mac Mini and the Intel Powermac, or is this a pipe dream...
Click to expand...


I would hold out if you don't need a new computer. I am waiting for the Rev. B Intel PowerMacs. We all know they are definately gonna be worth the wait.

Answers to your questions,

1) I think you should buy the most powerful model you can afford, then upgrade as you go along. The re-sale value will be higher, instead of buying the low end and upgrading. It'll probably work out the same anyway.

2) 802.11n is a no, unless you need it for powerful networking, you will be fine with 802.11g, and Blu-Ray is probably a no again, it is still a while away and the hardware is too expensive. More than likely to have faster Dual Layer drives. The others, i wouldn't like to make an assumption.

3) That is a big step up in terms of performance, Mac Mini to PowerMac. Do you really require a PowerMac if you are contemplating the Mac Mini? It sounds as though you will be best suited to an iMac. The Mac Mini has an integrated graphics card, because of it's target audience. Switchers who don't require too much power. I hear it's an acceptable chip though, and integrated technology is improving greatly.

4) That is a pipe dream. They cover all bases at the minute.


Rich.
 
fatsoforgotso said:
3) That is a big step up in terms of performance, Mac Mini to PowerMac. Do you really require a PowerMac if you are contemplating the Mac Mini? It sounds as though you will be best suited to an iMac. The Mac Mini has an integrated graphics card, because of it's target audience. Switchers who don't require too much power. I hear it's an acceptable chip though, and integrated technology is improving greatly.

Rich.
Click to expand...


Yeah, but I dont need a screen - this thing will be running my LCDTV as its monitor for much of the time. It will have several things to do at any one time, which is why I dont thinka mini is the best choice; music; photos; dvd/movies; 24/7 phone answering service; net etc - light stuff a mini could probably handle well;
but it will also acting a server for wireless network security camera(s), running xp/vista and games for periods when a new game comes out; home video editing imovie/idvd; avi to dvix rendering; 2-4 way iChat video conference hosting; running a seperate LCD screen from time to time in addition to lcdtv...
 
You need a PowerMac. :)

Yeah, for what you describe you will be best suited to the PowerMac and it's array of upgrades.

Rich.
 
1GB RAM standard and hopefully a slight price drop. :) 802.11n would be a great feature. I'd like to see the ATI X1900 range on the high-end and maybe a slightly smaller case because I doubt the Intel chips would run as hot as G5s.

And on the Mini, I remember reading somewhere that there's not enough space for a dedicated graphics card so maybe they'd use the G965 (on par with an X300) that's coming up soon.
 
BlizzardBomb said:
1GB RAM standard and hopefully a slight price drop. :) 802.11n would be a great feature. I'd like to see the ATI X1900 range on the high-end and maybe a slightly smaller case because I doubt the Intel chips would run as hot as G5s.

And on the Mini, I remember reading somewhere that there's not enough space for a dedicated graphics card so maybe they'd use the G965 (on par with an X300) that's coming up soon.
Click to expand...

And how powerful would a x300 be for games? Just as a yardstick?
 
BlizzardBomb said:
1GB RAM standard and hopefully a slight price drop. :) 802.11n would be a great feature. I'd like to see the ATI X1900 range on the high-end and maybe a slightly smaller case because I doubt the Intel chips would run as hot as G5s.

And on the Mini, I remember reading somewhere that there's not enough space for a dedicated graphics card so maybe they'd use the G965 (on par with an X300) that's coming up soon.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing, as they've given us the opportunity to properly boot Windows on a Mac, they will now start to consider gamers in their hardware. So yeah, expect a hot graphics card!

Rich.
 
generik said:
And how powerful would a x300 be for games? Just as a yardstick?
Click to expand...

Quite rubbish actually :p An obvious step-up from the G950 though as it includes Pixel + Vertex shader support. The X300 is ever so slightly better than a Radeon 9600. So most new games would work on lower settings (and the Core Duo would give an extra BOOOOST!).
 
I am thinking that they will completely redesign the case, since they'll be beginning what is essentially a new product line and will want to distinguish the new intel machines from the G5s. Somehow I doubt they'll just slap a new processor inside the same G5 case and update the other components and specs. Mind you, that's what they did with the iMac, so who knows?

At least, I'm kinda hoping they redesign the case. I'd like to see something with a slightly shorter profile and something truely "whisper quiet".
 
Thunderbird said:
I am thinking that they will completely redesign the case, since they'll be beginning what is essentially a new product line and will want to distinguish the new intel machines from the G5s. Somehow I doubt they'll just slap a new processor inside the same G5 case and update the other components and specs. Mind you, that's what they did with the iMac, so who knows?

At least, I'm kinda hoping they redesign the case. I'd like to see something with a slightly shorter profile and something truely "whisper quiet".
Click to expand...

Mmm, I think your right, they should tweak the box - maybe smaller if thats possible.
Well I hope they can double the number of ram slots to take into account the dual/quad core future over the next few years - Dual quad is 8 processors and it would be nice to feed them 16x512mb ram sticks to keep the price down.
 
aswitcher said:
Mmm, I think your right, they should tweak the box - maybe smaller if thats possible.
Well I hope they can double the number of ram slots to take into account the dual/quad core future over the next few years - Dual quad is 8 processors and it would be nice to feed them 16x512mb ram sticks to keep the price down.
Click to expand...

Next year there will be a bunch of Quads coming out from Intel I think, some project codenamed kentfield or something. Quad G5 performance on a single chip, all of a sudden the PowerPC architecture looks pathetic to say the least :rolleyes:
 
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