[jfpoole]

Ever since the PowerMac G5s were announced and the PowerMac G4s dropped in price, I've been debating whether or not to get a cheap PowerMac now, or wait and get a fast PowerMac later.

Today I gave into instant gratification and picked up a PowerMac G4 DP 867. I'm currently installing Panther on it, and hopefully it'll be as sweet as I think it will be.

Just thought I'd share

 

[RicktheChemist]

LUCKY BAS####.. I would love to get one of those puppies..

Cheers,

RtC

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[MasterBlaster]

a

 

[PosterBoy]

I still think that if you were considering a G5, you should have spent the same money and bought 2 G4s. I bet the extra horsepower would come in hand when distributing a compile over your home network.

Whee!

--PB

 

[jfpoole]

PosterBoy,

I'm already under pressure to sell one of my other computers now that I've brought a new one into the house. If I brought in two new computers I'd have to sell a computer I actually used!

I still say a G4 and a G5 would be better than two G4s.

 

[PosterBoy]

Two G4s and one G5 would be a whole lot better still!

--PB

 

[jfpoole]

You know what would be even better? Two G4s and two G5s. Heck, why not go whole hog and get a rack full of Xserves? That way my compiles would be super fast.

I'd be single, but my compiles would be fast.

 

[used to be jwoodget]

jfp,

I think the idea of a home X-serve cluster ain't such a bad idea. It's incremental. Buy one. Buy another. Buy the RAID module with two drives. Buy more drives. Nothing is thrown away/sold. The only problem (apart from price) is where to put the rack as it isn't exactly a silent runner. Apple is offering developers 25% discounts on the G4 X-serves.... If I had a spare $10K and I'd already bought that Boxster (or the Crossfire) and the holiday in Hawaii......

Of course, we're all totally jealous of your horse-power right now, but at least you do more than email and Photoshop with your cpu cycles....

 

[Heart]

jfpoole :

Were you also lucky enouph to get an iSight at WWDC?

 

[jfpoole]

MasterBlaster,

I got a developer preview of Panther at WWDC. I've been using it on my PowerBook for the last week, and it's been ... interesting.

 

[monokitty]

Today I gave into instant gratification and picked up a PowerMac G4 DP 867.

If you don't mind me asking, what did you pay for that?

 

[Chealion]

jfp, congrats on your new box! I'm still waiting for those new 15" PBs to be updated, the updates are very overdue. I have until September though to wait and save more money.

 

[PosterBoy]

jfp said:
You know what would be even better? Two G4s and two G5s. Heck, why not go whole hog and get a rack full of Xserves? That way my compiles would be super fast.

I'd be single, but my compiles would be fast.


Dude! You're a Mac developer! Your love life should be taking a back seat to the betterment of the platform!

[/zealot mode]

--PB

 

[MannyP Design]

I meant to ask Jfp, what do you think of Panther? I know it's a developer copy, but is it faster than Jaguar in your opinion? Thoughts?

The fact that it comes with Font book is the biggest draw for me.

 

[Heart]

Panther Tests
Date: Tue, 1 Jul 2003 19:04:07 -0400
From: [MacInTouch reader]
Subject: ....benchmarks of Panther Preview on Pismo

Thought you would be interested in seeing some Xbench tests of Panther Preview vs. OS X 10.2.6. As you can see below, Quartz is now supported on the Pismo (ATI Rage Mobility).

Installation:
Installation was perfect, no problems. New Finder, Expose, and FAst Switching worked well. Only hitch, the "cube-effect" didn't work on the Pismo during Fast User Switching.Perhaps, its not supported on the Pismo yet.

Pismo Configuration: 400MHz, 1Gb RAM, Toshiba 40GAX

Panther Preview
Results: 42.68
CPU Test: 45.60
Thread Test: 35.05
Memory Test: 32.84
Quartz Graphics Test: 50.85 (Supported at last!)
OpenGL Graphics Test: 38.64
User Interface Test: 66.93
Disk Test: 44.20

OS X 10.2.6
Results: 32.88
CPU Test: 33.07
Thread Test: 24.61
Memory Test: 24.62
Quartz Graphics Test: None (Not supported)
OpenGL Graphics Test: 35.49
User Interface Test: 38.25
Disk Test: 59.92

Observations on Pismo:

Quartz is now supported on the Pismos (ATI Rage Mobility)

Panther is about 40% faster on the CPU tests.

User Interface is over 50% faster than OS X 10.2.6!

Only test where OS X 10.2.6 does better than PAnther is the Drive Test, over 30% slower than OS X 10.2.6. Probably due to Journelling. I'm sure this will speed up with final release.

Only have to say one thing, this Panther Preview rocks bigtime!

 

[jfpoole]

mannyp,

Panther doesn't feel faster than Jaguar on my PowerBook (G4 667 DVI), but I'm pretty happy with the performance of Jaguar. I've not run Jaguar on my PowerMac at all, so I've no idea how much of a boost Panther gives it. Now if only one of the CPUs hadn't died on my PowerMac *sob*.

As for the new features in Panther, I think they're worth the cost of the upgrade. A lot of them only really appeal directly to developers, but will enable developers to create more useful and powerful applications. However, features like Expose, the new Finder, and the new File Open/Save panels make using Mac OS X a lot more pleasant; after using Panther I'm not sure I could go back to Jaguar.


PosterBoy,

You're a BAD INFLUENCE. BAD!