On Sat, 17 May 2008 14:10:32 +0100, wildrover.andy@[EMAIL PROTECTED]
(Andy Hewitt) wrote:
>I was thinking of future proofing myself for as long as possible at the
>time.
I've never bothered doing that for several reasons .. two of which are
that doing so is normally dispro****tionately expensive and that you
never know what's round the corner that may suit your needs better?
> Although my G5 doesn't hold a candle to even the slowest Mac now,
>it still performs perfectly well for *me*, and I have no other reasons
>for wi****ng to change, other than trying to save a bit of leccy costs.
Understood.
>It handles even HD video well enough, and performs as well as some of
>the early Intel Macs with things like Aperture.
Ok.
>
>I edit RAW images too, and even iPhoto can manage those without any
>performance issues. In fact my iPhoto library is over 14000 images, and
>a hundred or so movies.
Ok.
>
>> > I actually paid £1800 for the G5,
>>
>> Was that new then Andy?
>
>Yes, and a newly released model too (only a minor facelift type of
>thing).
K ..
>
>> >plus about
>> >another £500 for extras (LCD monitor, RAM, and Applecare).
>>
>> Plus £100 for a PSU ...? ;-)
>
>Yes, although I've probably added another £100 of kit to the cheap PC I
>do have here too.
But not a £100 PSU I bet (and I know you can spend that on a PC PSU
etc etc). ;-)
Both Jenny and I now (built) Core 2 Duo PC's but neither of us have
actually replaced our existing single core AMD powered boxes with
them? Why, for me because this old one is still working well enough
(and I've had other distractions) and her because she tends to sit
with us (rather than in her room) on the EeePC atm. She's even got an
un-installed Sims2 addon sitting here! ;-)
>
>The cheap PC is a 2.8GHz box, with a GeForce 5500 card in it (which is
>supposedly better than the one in my Mac), but it doesn't come anywhere
>near performing as well as the G5 Mac at 1.8GHz (OK, so there's 2
>processors, but they don't always both get used by all apps).
Ok. But the OS will still use both won't it?
>
>In fact I'd go as far as to say that this PC is only just about on a par
>with the old 400MHz G4 I gave my brother-in-law.
Ok.
>
>> > I priced up a
>> >Dell at that time, trying to meet as best I could build quality,
>>
>> What does that actually mean though please Andy? I mean, I have built
>> probably 100's of PC's in my time so I guess am responsible for the
>> 'build quality' and I have never, ever, suffered because that wasn't
>> always the best even I could manage. At the end of the day it really
>> doesn't matter if say a cable doesn't run in the most perfect
>> geometric and neat manner, as long as it does it's job electrically
>> and doesn't interfere with anything else then AFAICS, it's 'built'?
>
>It means I was trying to make as fair a comparison as possible - i.e.
>ready built machines, or at least BTO (the Dell would have been BTO, the
>G5 Mac was off the shelf at the same spec).
Ok ...
>
>Building a Mac isn't easy, at least not using new components, so a
>self-build option was not used for comparison.
Understood, but as you are a clever chap you could have easily built
your own PC at the time (not that you wanted to etc) and it could have
been cheaper so could have been considered as a comparison couldn't
it? Maybe you could have done 3 price comparisons?
> Even then, I suspect it
>wouldn't have been cheaper, taking into account the standard of
>motherboard needed (twin processor, AGP 8X graphics and PCI-X slots)
>plus Buying two processors to match a pair og 1.8GHz G5s. Remember this
>was four years ago.
Understood, but if anything I understand Apple have reduced the price
differential over that period?
>
>> I *have* seen some PC's that have been 'built' by PC shops or
>> individuals and some of them have been disgusting, but that's not the
>> fault of the boxes (one POS was bought off Fleabay and the builder had
>> re-used an old Compac PC, built it into a new case and had used very
>> long self tapping screws to hold things like the HDD in. Now whilst it
>> wasn't elegant or correct (in the purest sense) as long as said screws
>> didn't interfere with any other component then there was no actual
>> 'issue'. I 'sorted it' for them (CPU heatsink not attached properly)
>> and it's been fine ever since).
>
>Indeed, so already be have a comparison that doesn't match, as I said,
>'as near as possible'.
Eh, that wasn't intended to 'match exactly' <waves, it's *me* Andy!>,
it was just some general questions / observations. And you started it
by bringing PC's into the conversation!
I was asking in the last bit what you mean by 'build quality' and I
don't think you have answered that bit yet? I wouldn't add any value
to Apples 'build quality' because I believe I can achieve the same
(functional) standard without paying the Apple premium?
All the best ..
T i m
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