Apple may have shipped 2.5 million Macs in spring thanks to Vista

[techbeck]

Offtopic, but are you thebeck on Basenotes?

nope :)

[Cara Veteran]

I think you are understating the hardware issues here. Judging by your response one would assume that it's peaches and that you can get anything you want for a Mac. That's simply not true.

Mac certified ram for the new 2008 Mac Pro .. the FB-DIMMs are extremely expensive. I was looking for 8gb in 2gb flavors and Cruicial's pricing was $1050. Newegg has 4 times cheaper price for PC memory of same type. The two are not compatible.

Graphics cards simply don't work.. you are extremely limited with the choice. You can't use anything but what's approved by Apple and at best today we have 8800GT cards or the ATI 3870 I think. There is no SLI per se, there's really nothing.. anything you do also voids your warranty so you are pretty much stuck.

This is in general a major problem with Apple hardware and closed up platform..even though they have the appearance of using PC parts the only real PC part you can use is the hard drives and you are kind of limited there because there are some restrictions based on how you plug the drives and what connectors they have.

With this you actually end up paying more money for hardware then you should on a lower performing product as you really have no other choice.

I for example have 2 PC 8800GT cards in my mac pro 2008 and had to hack them and flash them with BIOS to make them work as Mac versions of the same card. The money I saved? $120 per card. You know, that's A LOT of money per card you would've had to pay for no reason whatsoever.

What makes Mac problematic for enthusiast makes it better for regular schmo.. the thing is, even today, Mac will never be a gaming machine. It will never be "upgradable" as PCs and will always cost more because of all the agreements, testing and other stuff that apple has to do themselves to make it work without problems for everyone.

The Mac Pro does not require Apple Certified memory, just Fully-Buffered memory which is a standard, admittedly it's expensive but that is across the board and not Apple Specific. That style of memory is required to insure the fastest possible performance from the Mac Pro system which, as it has been pointed out, is a Workstation and not a Desktop.

Graphics cards, I find no fault in what you said there. :) That being said, Optical Drives, Memory, Keyboards, Mice, Monitors, Hard Drives...all standard hardware that can be purchased off the shelf of any computer store on the planet, nothing closed about that. I don't know what you mean by specific connectors, SATA is SATA...

You are right, the current generation Macs are very specific in their orientation, that is what people tend to like about them. Enthusiasts are being left out in the cold due to this, however I'd venture a guess that most people that get a Mac do not use what they purchased to it's full potential, some of us do, but not the majority so why would Apple design it's equipment to fit the minority's desires when the Majority is happy and spending money hand over fist for the current product lines.

Not saying I agree with those thoughts, I want a Mini-Tower darn it, but I can understand the logic behind it.

"The good of the many, outweighs the needs of the few..." ;)

[39 Thieves]

Im making my first leap into the world of all things Apple 1st August. Getting myself 24" iMac and the girlfriend the black macbook.

I cant wait. Im sick and tired of vista and its got nothing to do with the argument "people who complain about Vista don't know how to use it". Because I can safely say ive been using computers for over 15 years and never once sat down to use a Mac. Yet I have no qualms about switching.

Tick tock, bye bye Vista.

You're not "taking a leap" into the world of all things Apple. You're buying a cleverly marketed, nicely packaged garden variety PC built with off-the-shelf mid-range hardware, and with a proprietary OS. That's it. Nothing special at all. If you want to get right down to it, the iMac is essentially a laptop-on-a-stick. I have one, didn't find Jesus or Allah when I pulled it out of the packaging...its...just...a...computer.

I know many Apple fanatics feel the need to hype up the fact that they're buying a new PC, but that is ultimately all they are doing. Even though by their own accounts, they sound like they're running off to join some religious cult...

[techbeck]

I question Apple's marketing strategy as well. Their ads where they have a Apple guy and a MS guy standing side by side and all they do is bash Windows and basically Microsoft. To my knowledge, i could be wrong, MS has never run any adds bashing Apple like that.

Edited July 10, 2008 by techbeck

[techbeck]

Graphics cards, I find no fault in what you said there. :) That being said, Optical Drives, Memory, Keyboards, Mice, Monitors, Hard Drives...all standard hardware that can be purchased off the shelf of any computer store on the planet, nothing closed about that. I don't know what you mean by specific connectors, SATA is SATA...

You are right, the current generation Macs are very specific in their orientation, that is what people tend to like about them. Enthusiasts are being left out in the cold due to this, however I'd venture a guess that most people that get a Mac do not use what they purchased to it's full potential, some of us do, but not the majority so why would Apple design it's equipment to fit the minority's desires when the Majority is happy and spending money hand over fist for the current product lines.

I like the way the new Mac Pros are and how the HD bays are designed. There are no cables and the HDs directly plug in to a board that connects to the main board. The bays are out in front, easy to remove, and there are 4 of them.

A lot of people dont use their systems to their full potential regardless if it is a PC or Mac.

[1759]

You're not "taking a leap" into the world of all things Apple. You're buying a cleverly marketed, nicely packaged garden variety PC built with off-the-shelf mid-range hardware, and with a proprietary OS. That's it. Nothing special at all. If you want to get right down to it, the iMac is essentially a laptop-on-a-stick. I have one, didn't find Jesus or Allah when I pulled it out of the packaging...its...just...a...computer.

I know many Apple fanatics feel the need to hype up the fact that they're buying a new PC, but that is ultimately all they are doing. Even though by their own accounts, they sound like they're running off to join some religious cult...

There is no real off-the-shelf parts in Macs, outside of things like RAM or HDs - the Mac Pro is sort of close, but other than places like newegg, it's hard to order up some server 771 CPUs, mobos, and RAM (and I don't want to built a server either). There are primarily PCs under the pretty clothes, but they all use custom boards and EFI, and not very many PC motherboards support EFI yet.

OSX is Apple's grace, but the hardware and software are leaving me wanting sometimes - if all I did was graphics/web design, I'd have no problem, but I don't, so I use my PCs for the other apps I need. Neither OS is perfect from my experience, as were MS has problems with security or software compatibility, Apple makes up for it with less software and hardware options.

[ANova]

The Mac Pro does not require Apple Certified memory, just Fully-Buffered memory which is a standard, admittedly it's expensive but that is across the board and not Apple Specific. That style of memory is required to insure the fastest possible performance from the Mac Pro system which, as it has been pointed out, is a Workstation and not a Desktop.

The Mac Pro uses the Xeon processor, which requires a certain chipset, which is only designed for buffered memory because the Xeon system is designed for servers. Buffered memory is designed for data integrity, not speed, thus why it is expensive.

Graphics cards, I find no fault in what you said there. :) That being said, Optical Drives, Memory, Keyboards, Mice, Monitors, Hard Drives...all standard hardware that can be purchased off the shelf of any computer store on the planet, nothing closed about that. I don't know what you mean by specific connectors, SATA is SATA...

True, except you void your warranty with Apple if you open up your system.

[Mr. Gibs]

And Vista prob sold like 20 million in that time... gg.

I like the part about macs being similar prices to a pc....really?

I can build a better laptop for $1000 cheaper than a similarly specced macbook pro, I can build a better laptop for $600 cheaper than a similar specced macbook. GG.

Edited July 11, 2008 by / -Razorfold

[»X«]

You're not "taking a leap" into the world of all things Apple. You're buying a cleverly marketed, nicely packaged garden variety PC built with off-the-shelf mid-range hardware, and with a proprietary OS. That's it. Nothing special at all. If you want to get right down to it, the iMac is essentially a laptop-on-a-stick. I have one, didn't find Jesus or Allah when I pulled it out of the packaging...its...just...a...computer.

I know many Apple fanatics feel the need to hype up the fact that they're buying a new PC, but that is ultimately all they are doing. Even though by their own accounts, they sound like they're running off to join some religious cult...

Yes I am. I could say the same about Linux, taking a leap. Its something new to me.

And nowhere did I say that I will fall to the iMacs feet and weep tears of joy.

I'm not getting it because of the adverts or that in todays internet world its "cool" to own one. It suites my needs for what I want, I don't game on the PC anymore.

If anything I hate the obsession with Apple. The stories about people lining up around the block days before the new iPhone is released makes me so angry. I don't understand the thinking. Isn't it just 3G in a new PLASTIC case? Oh yea, sorry GPRS, like that's the be all end all. I just don't get it.