Interesting Observation - SR Macbooks

[Wild-Bill]

So I was in the Apple Store today killing time before a haircut appointment and I wanted to test drive the new Macbooks as I'm trying to convince my sister to go Mac with a Macbook.

So I check "About this Mac" to make sure they've got the x3100's on display and not the old ones. This particular (black) model happend to have 2 gigs of memory in it. Ok.

So, I decide to simultaneously open iMovie 08, iPhoto, and iDVD at the same time to test the responsiveness, and to see how well the iDVD theme preview looked when entering Expose. The Macbook became unresponsive for a while, beachball, and I didn't bother with Expose.

Opened up Activity monitor and noticed two services not responding. One was "Clip Render Service" and the other one I can't remember. Hmm... Odd.

So I try the same thing on the black Macbook next to it. Sure enough - same thing happened. Same two responsive services.

Do you think this a standard problem or is it just because the Apple Store Macs are loaded up with all kinds of "rich media" junk???? Can someone test this out on their new Santa Rosa Macbook and report your results??? I'd hate to hear my sister bitch at me because I convinced her to go Mac and she got a shoddy Macbook.

Thanks.

 

[TheStu]

So I was in the Apple Store today killing time before a haircut appointment and I wanted to test drive the new Macbooks as I'm trying to convince my sister to go Mac with a Macbook.

So I check "About this Mac" to make sure they've got the x3100's on display and not the old ones. This particular (black) model happend to have 2 gigs of memory in it. Ok.

So, I decide to simultaneously open iMovie 08, iPhoto, and iDVD at the same time to test the responsiveness, and to see how well the iDVD theme preview looked when entering Expose. The Macbook became unresponsive for a while, beachball, and I didn't bother with Expose.

Opened up Activity monitor and noticed two services not responding. One was "Clip Render Service" and the other one I can't remember. Hmm... Odd.

So I try the same thing on the black Macbook next to it. Sure enough - same thing happened. Same two responsive services.

Do you think this a standard problem or is it just because the Apple Store Macs are loaded up with all kinds of "rich media" junk???? Can someone test this out on their new Santa Rosa Macbook and report your results??? I'd hate to hear my sister bitch at me because I convinced her to go Mac and she got a shoddy Macbook.

Thanks.

On my MacBook (see sig for specs) I just opened all those apps, it took about 5 seconds for the 3 of them to open up, and since it was the first time that I had opened iMovie08 and iDVD08 so they pestered me at first, it took another 5-10 seconds or so before they were usable. So either the store ones are cluttered, or there is an issue with the new SR MacBooks. Until we have someone else chime in, nothing can be known for sure.

 

[noodle654]

Every time I go into the Apple Store, there are so many programs on the computer. I think there are over at least 30 programs. I just tested how my 2.16GHz MB handles and it takes about 15 seconds to open all three (with Safari and Adium opened) and 2GB of RAM. I would think that the new 2.2GHz with 2GB memory and 800MHz bus could handle all that load. Did you try any of the other MB there??

 

[noodle654]

I just re-did my test and it takes less than about 4 seconds to open them. I think it was because I haven't opened iDVD and iMovie yet because I just upgraded to Leopard so they have the "Take the Tour of iMovie" so it takes longer. Weird how a 2.2GHz has problems like that.

 

[Jschultz]

On my MacBook (see sig for specs) I just opened all those apps, it took about 5 seconds for the 3 of them to open up, and since it was the first time that I had opened iMovie08 and iDVD08 so they pestered me at first, it took another 5-10 seconds or so before they were usable. So either the store ones are cluttered, or there is an issue with the new SR MacBooks. Until we have someone else chime in, nothing can be known for sure.

Just tried it on my new SR mb.

iPhoto and iMovie opened instantly, while iDVD took about 15 seconds. I wouldn't exactly call it 'hanging'

I just checked activity monitor, and everything is responding properly. I'm going to have to assume that the MB's there are chock full of stuff that causes them to bog down, or people have messed them up. Who knows?

 

[noodle654]

Are the computers in the store running off of a OS X Server? Like when it boots it runs OS X through the network or something? Just a guess.

 

[Jschultz]

Ok, retested, and everything smoothly opens in less than 5 seconds.

 

[Wild-Bill]

Did you try any of the other MB there??

Yes. I tried it on the Macbook sitting right next to it. Before I tried this test, no other applications were running. Thanks for the feedback, and keep it coming!!