Re: comparing x86 and powerpc laptops
On Wed, Apr 09, 2003 at 11:54:52PM +1000, Ross Vumbaca wrote:
> Sven Luther wrote:
> My price includes tax (which we call GST of 10%). I like PowerPC (I have
> an 800Mhz 7451 on an ATX board), but I find it hard to accept that a P4
> 1.6 is similar in speed to an 800Mhz G4, I think it would be rather faster.
Gotta get those Seti@home blocks done!
> Yes.. I just read that iBook has no PCMCIA ports, and no expansion
> options - is this correct?? That is very limiting for a laptop overall.
USB, 1394, and maybe MiniPCI on the new ones. PCMCIA was dropped for
strong reasons to do with it's crapulence (ISA speed and reliability, where
do I sign up!) CardBus, maybe. Even then you have to deal with the
haphazard nature of PCMCIA/cardbus device drivers what don't even work on
half the strains of Windows still in use. That's a very stark contrast to
vendor-neutral device classes in USB & 1394.
Things could be better, but you still have a much better chance of
J-random-device "just working" with USB/1394, on MacOS, XP, or Linux.
Anyway, where was I going with this?...
> >Wrong, if you look at it really, this is not the case, you pay what you
> >get for, and the ibook are rather cheap for the price point. The only
> >negative point is that they have smaller screens, but that only means
> >that apple can spend more money on other stuff.
>
> If you read reviews and look at the hardware you are getting, Apple
> machines are always going to be less value for money than an x86
> machine. The same tends to apply for laptops. I have taken a better look
> at iBooks, and they are really rather poorly speeced for the price in my
> opinion. The iBook costs approximately $2700-3000 AUD here (around
> 1350-1500 Euro), but for that money, I can get a very powerful x86
> laptop from a good company like IBM or Asus or some other.
Oh, that's what.... I just priced out a couple of ThinkPads.
* 12.1" Small form factor (Makes a big difference in price)
* base model CPU (PIII 1.066)
* 256M of RAM
* Minimal HD (20-30G)
* DVD/CDR
* WiFi
Hmm, I think IBM's site bungled my search because now it's showing me the
same laptop twice, oh well. I also priced out an iBook & AlBook similarly
speced for comparison sake:
Laptop: Price (USD)
ThinkPad X30: $2,186.00
iBook 800Mhz $1,378.00
AlBook 867 $1,898.00
Apples to apples doesn't look to good for the PC laptop with poor power
management under Linux. The ThinkPad does get some browie points for being
lighter(3.7lbs vs. 4.9), but it doesn't include the combo drive
I'd look at the Asus's you mentioned, and the Sony's, maybe even some
HPaqs if it wern't so late. I didn't think BigBlue would come out that far
behind. Oh well, maybe they'll be more competetive when I get around to
replacing my 500Mhz iBook in 2-4 years.
- Nick Lopez
spamtrap@glowingmonkey.org
-- Randomly selected signature --
> yer money, presumably US $ is backed by what ?
Daisy Cutters... silly!
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