05-14-2007, 08:26 PM

Im thinking about buying a computer and i looked into what Mac got to offer in powerfull hardware, Is it true that its only 3Ghz?
I understand Mac got much design to its schassie but it do cost alot its almost x2 the price compared with a equaly fast PC.
Is there eny flaw in my investigation?

05-14-2007, 08:34 PM

No I think you should stick with a Power WinBox, personally.

05-14-2007, 09:03 PM

yes, there is a flaw. You've fallen victim to the "megahertz myth". well, not all 3 ghz processors were created equal. First of all, the 3ghz Mac Pro (i dont think they made 3ghz powermacs) has 2 processors. Its not like a having a 6ghz processor, but two processors are much better than one. And second, its the way that the machine uses its ram and CPU that determines the speed. Im sure u will find that a 3ghz Mac Pro with 2gb RAM will preform much faster than a dell with the same specs. Mac OS X is just a really great operating system, and everything runs so darn fast.

05-14-2007, 09:08 PM

Originally Posted by Tenkikun

I understand Mac got much design to its schassie but it do cost alot its almost x2 the price compared with a equaly fast PC.
Is there eny flaw in my investigation?

Yes, there is a flaw. Equally equipped Macs and Windows machines cost the same. Do a comparison and you will see.
You could also search the forum and find dozens of threads disproving this myth that Windows machines cost less.

05-14-2007, 09:09 PM

Originally Posted by Tenkikun

Im thinking about buying a computer and i looked into what Mac got to offer in powerfull hardware, Is it true that its only 3Ghz?
I understand Mac got much design to its schassie but it do cost alot its almost x2 the price compared with a equaly fast PC.
Is there eny flaw in my investigation?

No they don't cost 2x the price. Go configure a a Quad Core Mac Pro and then go configure a Quad core (spec for spec as close as you can get) Dell or Sony and see what you get. You can find cheap PC makers who make cheap boxes, but you get what you pay for.

Yes, you can build your own box cheaper, but we are not talking about a hand built job here and that is not a good comparison.

05-15-2007, 06:30 AM

Originally Posted by Tenkikun

Im thinking about buying a computer and i looked into what Mac got to offer in powerfull hardware, Is it true that its only 3Ghz?
I understand Mac got much design to its schassie but it do cost alot its almost x2 the price compared with a equaly fast PC.
Is there eny flaw in my investigation?

Buy a PC if you want to run Windows.

Buy a Mac if you want to run OSX.

Hardware price comparisons are irrelavent unless you are buying a Mac to run Windows.

05-17-2007, 09:36 PM

The megahertz myth. Conventional wisdom: 1.0 G5 GHz = 1.5 Pentium GHz. I find that this information proves out fairly consistently in performance test after performance test. Hence, a 2.0 GHz G5 is pretty equivalent to a 3.0 GHz Pentium.

05-18-2007, 04:26 AM

Thing is, the G5 only beats a 3Ghz Mac Pro when both are running the same executable.

The G5 wins simply because the Intel is running PowerPC emulation.

When a 3Ghz Intel CPU is running native code they completely smoke the G5.

05-18-2007, 05:43 AM

The Core 2 Duo line of processors are the fastest consumer CPUs out there, regardless of what machine they are in.

A 1.8Ghz Core 2 Duo PC is much faster than a 3.0Ghz Pentium 4. Have a look at http://www.tomshardware.com to see how Mhz are irrelevant in comparing different processors.

05-18-2007, 05:55 AM

Indeed, it's all to do with pipelines. The P4 has a 20 stage pipeline which allows for high clock speed.

Intel intended to clock the P4 up to 10Ghz but it became clear the heat dissipation and power requirement would have been too much of a problem.

So they scrapped the P4 and went to the Pentium M architecture.