iBook vs x86 Laptops in PREFORMANCE - I wanna see real evidence

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Supaiku

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So I'm thinking about getting an iBook whenever I get around to buying a laptop. I recently started using linux on my desktop (PC) and it's the best thing since sliced bread. So then I found out that Gentoo runs fine on the ibook (with all the features). That, and the fact that OSX is a pretty nice OS, better than windows for sure, got me thinking...

So I wandered on over to apple.com and checked out their laptops. I really only like the 12in iBook since I want the small size and the 12in powerbook looks like a waste of money. After seeing a friend of mine's iBook, and reading a lil about em', they are really nice. Very well designed and have a lotta features I like. So now I started comparing 12in laptops, from the looks, similar setups are about the same price BUT don't include the memory, wireless or bluetooth that I would get, and on top of that, it's not integrated, and they don't have the looks.

But one thing I havn't found yet is how the G4 laptops (specificly the 1.2Ghz, iBook processor) fare against the Pentium-M, which is kinda badass CPU. So I was wondering about good places to look for mostly unbais, let me say that again, unbias. Wait... one more time: unbias comparisions. Even if it's just a good laptop (or, if it's the same thing desktop G4) processor comparisions to P4/AMD stuff, cuz I can find the other and figure it out myself. They don't have to be perfect (they won't be, and really can't be because of the software limitations) but I don't want anything that just uses the most Mac favored benches on teh planet and then has skewed graphs and defaults to a mac win.

Feel free to post about you experiences w/ the speed and anything else about the iBook that makes it great. I'm curious about hte battery life while say: Watching a movie, playing games (say WC3 and WoW - and how well they might run on an iBook), music, and using wireless.

I'm a big time computer geek and I wanna be able to completly justify or at least understand the badness (if it's there) in this purchase. if I do enough research it's garuenteed to shut up just about anyone. And I wanna know the differnce in speed too.
 
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I've basically given up on finding unbiased benchmarks with which to compare Macs and Intel/AMD systems. There are too many different ways to do it, and either way, someone will scream <I>"that's not fair!"</I>. Program A might run faster on computer X, while program B will run faster on computer Y. It's just too complicated, and there's too much bias on both sides.

I think the iBook is a functional system, with all the features anyone could want. Solid and well made. Maybe not the fastest laptop, but fast enough. Real-world battery life in the 2.5-4.5 hour range, depending on what you're doing.
 
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cadsmn

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I am not sure there is such a thing as an unbiased opinion but I think that I am pretty open minded when it comes to Windows vs. Mac OS X vs. Linux. I have two laptops: 1)Dell Inspiron 8100 1 GHz PIII M 2)15" G4 PowerBook 1.25 GHz. I loved my Dell until I got my PowerBook. Now I am selling my Dell.

In my opinion and from my own personal experiences an iBook or PowerBook will run circles around a comparable x86 system.
 
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Supaiku

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Alright, then how about good bias ones.

And I'm looking at how a 1.2Ghz iBook does agains say... 1.5/1.8Ghz Pentium-M
 
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Supaiku

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Those are all way too old :/ I'm deffinatly having a hard time finding any even decent comparisions.

http://www.gamepc.com/labs/view_content.asp?id=dothandesktop&page=9
From the looks of this comparison, the Pentium-M hangs well with almost identical systems. Even the 1.7Ghz runs hardly below, and somtimes above ~3ghz P4's... To be honest I HIGHLY doubt that a 1.2Ghz G4 can even get close to that.
And almost comparably priced PC laptops run that same processor, though I'm sure it's not quite as good in a laptop since it's a laptop motherboard harddrive and video card, but still, I doubt it can keep up. http://www.newegg.com/app/ViewProductDesc.asp?description=34-146-061&depa=0

And I'd say that comparing your Powerbook to your 1Gig Dell is a joke. Of COURSE the powerbook is gonna win. That PC is ancient.

It sorta seems like the PC's are gonna be the not so well defined winnner in preformace, so now I'm just wondering about how well the 12in iBook will play WoW...
 
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mate im more or less the exact same as you i mean look at my avatar and tell me what OS im using now :p

TBH ive been reading about macs for quite a while and this is what ive come to, so everyone can feel free to correct me, appluase or even abuse me with this.

apple is PPC which as we all know is totally different from x86

PPC is a highly optimised system as it comes in one configuration (ie, all the ram is the same spec etc)
x86 is about freedom so thats why they have reached 3+Ghz and apple hasnt

apple know that their H/W is expensive so all their SW works on old machines provided it has the ram and its all gurarenteed

x86 is dependant on the type of program as to weather it will run or not

macs look so much bettter then most x86 machine (my preference)

Linux comes at the end as its all the same more or less the same on different platforms if you use the same disto

Last thing, im a winblows/MDK user who wants a mac but doesnt have the funds. They appeal to me because there Unix based and Tiger promises more (so ive read). I want a computer that works when i want to work and has good HW support, yea i know linux has good support but some stuff is a real terminal moment of commands to get it working and there can be dependancy after dependancy and at the end its too much like effort.

All in all its courses for hourses and personal choice
 
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flonejek

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Well comparing to a desktop p4 3.2 ghz (overclocked from 2.8 with 1 gig of ram) encoding the movie Secret Window in Xvid with all options on, 2-pass and at 2072 kbps takes 6 hours while on my 1.2 ghz iBook (with 768 megs of ram) it took 10 hours (on both i used mencoder, the pentium was running gentoo, and my iBook was running Panther), so i must say my iBook performed quite well
 

rman


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I guess 14 hours to encode a video on my 500Mhz Ti powerbook with 768mb of memory isn't bad at all. :)
 
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Which system you should get all depends on what is more important to you. It is well known, even by the majority of Mac users, that PCs offer higher performance. With the Dothan Pentium M, they offer higher performance, and equal, or better battery life. Of course, this is no help to you if you want to use Mac OS X, or any other Mac software. If you are just going to wipe either system clean to install Linux, you'd be better off with a PC, but the iBook will look prettier.
 
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Okay on my Toshiba M205 Tablet PC which is at 1.5Ghz Centrino, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, and GeForce 5200fx 32MB, it runs World of Warcraft perfectly fine at default settings. This is probably due to the fact that the Centrino processor has a whopping 2MB cache.

On the iBook G4 12" with 1.25Ghz, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9200.... NOPE. Won't even run proplerly at all.

All I can say is, a Mac is definitely not meant for gaming.
 
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Ok, I have both the pentium 4m and the G4 powerbook. I will let you know, the p4m proccessor is faster then the g4 in the powerbook. The issue is that, the sofware on the p4m(windows) does not allow it to use all of its functinality because it gets "cloged" quickly. In the month that i had the p4m it eventually stoped working and i got fusterated and got the mac, i had wanted one along time before but wanted to stay with what the major companies in corprate America were using. I have been using my G4 for a while now, and it is still running like the day i got it and i have not exactly been not using it to ist fullest compacity, I have done video editing, dvd burning, downloading, using my ipod with it, and so-on. It still works MAGNICICANTLY-->spelled wrong i think. So that is my take on the two processors, slightly slanted.. maybe, but i can't help it the G4 processor is deffinatly better.
 
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Supaiku

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soulreaver99 said:
Okay on my Toshiba M205 Tablet PC which is at 1.5Ghz Centrino, 512MB RAM, 60GB hard drive, and GeForce 5200fx 32MB, it runs World of Warcraft perfectly fine at default settings. This is probably due to the fact that the Centrino processor has a whopping 2MB cache.

On the iBook G4 12" with 1.25Ghz, 512MB RAM, ATI Radeon 9200.... NOPE. Won't even run proplerly at all.

All I can say is, a Mac is definitely not meant for gaming.

You sure it won't run it? I would have guessed it'd run it just fine at lowish settings...

And I'm not exactly planning on just ditching OSX, I was planning on dual booting...
 
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PowerBookG4 said:
Ok, I have both the pentium 4m and the G4 powerbook. I will let you know, the p4m proccessor is faster then the g4 in the powerbook. The issue is that, the sofware on the p4m(windows) does not allow it to use all of its functinality because it gets "cloged" quickly. In the month that i had the p4m it eventually stoped working and i got fusterated and got the mac, i had wanted one along time before but wanted to stay with what the major companies in corprate America were using. I have been using my G4 for a while now, and it is still running like the day i got it and i have not exactly been not using it to ist fullest compacity, I have done video editing, dvd burning, downloading, using my ipod with it, and so-on. It still works MAGNICICANTLY-->spelled wrong i think. So that is my take on the two processors, slightly slanted.. maybe, but i can't help it the G4 processor is deffinatly better.


What the heck are you doing to make it get "clogged?" And what exactly do you mean by that?
 
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Supaiku said:
You sure it won't run it? I would have guessed it'd run it just fine at lowish settings...

And I'm not exactly planning on just ditching OSX, I was planning on dual booting...

Too slow to be playable.
 
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awolkoff

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Avid6eek said:
If you are just going to wipe either system clean to install Linux, you'd be better off with a PC, but the iBook will look prettier.

Exactly.
 
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I just prefer OS X much as I love Linux on my PC :alien:
 
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soulreaver99 said:
What the heck are you doing to make it get "clogged?" And what exactly do you mean by that?

by "clogged" i mean a whole bunch of crap that gets into the system folders as if "magicly" apearing from no where. It starts running procceses that just slow the computer down. by "clogged" i mean if the proccessor was a series of pipes and the stuff you wanted to do, and normal operating system funtions were the water, programs that serve no purpose (such as presision time, weather bug, and save, programs that are embedded in other programs so that the owners of those programs,such as aim, can profit from these adware programs) those programs would be in the the "pipes" cloging the system up. That term has been around for so long, can't believe you have never heard of it.
 
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)(*

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heres how i see it:

Imagine Mac as the luxury cars of our world. Dependable, beautiful, comfortable, lovable.

And Windows as the cheap import cars of our world. Cheap, expandable, configurable, mod-able.

see where im coming from?
 
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)(* said:
heres how i see it:

Imagine Mac as the luxury cars of our world. Dependable, beautiful, comfortable, lovable.

And Windows as the cheap import cars of our world. Cheap, expandable, configurable, mod-able.

see where im coming from?

Deffinately see where you are coming from, learned how to drive in a school malibu, came home and drove a lincoln ls what a difference, if you have the money spend the money, same thing for computers
 

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