Re: comparing x86 and powerpc laptops
On Wed, 2003-04-09 at 02:55, Patrick Baltz wrote:
> However, you really need to look at the price/performance to make your
> decision. I would figure out which powerpc laptop you want, and then
> look at x86 laptops with comparable features (multimedia, size, weight,
> display, etc.). MHz really is a myth in most computers on the market
> now, because it is very rare that the CPU is the bottleneck in your
> system. I've think I've heard that the speed comparison is 1 to 1.5 for
> powerpc to intel, but I can't give exact figures. What you really want
> to do is make sure the laptop has a sizable caches (L1, L2, etc.), a
> significant amount of RAM that is expandable to probably at least 1GB,
> the fastest system bus you can get, and a HD that is big enough to meet
> your needs. Also, if you can get wireless with it great. Gigabit
> ethernet is nice too, but rare to find a Gigabit network and probably
> overkill for a laptop anyways.
I would add that currently, avoid nVidia based ones as the chip is
much less supported than ATI chips (less 2D accels in X, no DRI 3D
support, no sleep support) and chose the 15" tipb with ATI Radeon M9
while it still exist on Apple catalog (this is really a great machine
with a very good video chip).
I may have a way to get sleep working on the nvidia based ones in
the future, depending if we manage to write an Open Firmware emulator
and figure out a few other issues with the new chipset, but this will
definitely take time.
Same problem with Airport Extreme in the new models, it's a Broadcom
chipset BCM94306 (PCI ID 4320) and Broadcom is well known to _not_
provide specs nor drivers to the linux comunity...
Ben.
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