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Kid Red

macrumors 65816
Dec 14, 2001
1,428
157
Yea, and yourdailymac has never been right about anything, hahaha

Don't put too much into this one.
 

psymac

macrumors 6502a
Jul 17, 2002
548
153
I think Macrumors has also confirmed 32mb ram for new iBooks (New iBook thread). Let's hope they're right, the perfect laptop, at least until the next revision. :p
 

Boomer Mac

macrumors newbie
Nov 4, 2002
4
0
Canada
What's the deal with variable bus timing?

What's the deal with variable bus timing?

I could be wrong here but maybe some of the techies
can correct me:

Isn't variable bus timing the same (or similar) to
speedstep technology on the higher end Pentium mobile
processors?

Speedstep technology determines what you are running (in terms
of active applications) at a given point in time and adjusts
the computing cycles so the processor draws less power when running relatively non-power hungry programs and therefor
battery life is prolonged.

How is this different from variable bus timing as it has been explained in preview articles?

Please give me some insight.

Boomer Mac
 

gopher

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 31, 2002
1,475
0
Maryland, USA
Originally posted by Kid Red
Yea, and yourdailymac has never been right about anything, hahaha

Don't put too much into this one.

You were saying? I've got some stock in crow if you like :)
 

SilvorX

macrumors 68000
May 24, 2002
1,701
0
'Toba, Canada
well the new ibooks have a 32 mb processor so i guess they were right :p lol...some of the specs sound pretty sweet tho
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
i think the $999 ibook is the best value, dollar for dollar, of any mac right now

and for someone who wants a little more, as in gaming and storage, the 1299 ibook is probably the best value along with the low and mid level lcd imacs

for all of you who thought the 999 ibook was not a possibility due to apple's traditional high margins, this ibook's for you
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,487
1,572
East Coast
Originally posted by jefhatfield
i think the $999 ibook is the best value, dollar for dollar, of any mac right now

and for someone who wants a little more, as in gaming and storage, the 1299 ibook is probably the best value along with the low and mid level lcd imacs

for all of you who thought the 999 ibook was not a possibility due to apple's traditional high margins, this ibook's for you
jef,

Weren't you asking for a $700 iBook? ;)

Anyways, I think the $1300 iBook is a better value for what you get.
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by ftaok
jef,

Weren't you asking for a $700 iBook? ;)

Anyways, I think the $1300 iBook is a better value for what you get.

i dunno

but it's a real tossup

for me, a non hard core gamer, the $999 model fits me just fine

but for someone who wants a better gaming experience, i say $1299 is not bad for a laptop with 32 MB of video RAM
 

TopGear

macrumors member
Oct 22, 2002
56
2
I just got back from a week of Macrumors-free vacation and I finally got the news. Totally dig it: $1300 for something better than I was gonna spend $1500 on just about a month ago. IMHO, the 12" 800 mhz with combo drive is the way to go. Glad this time the rumors turned out to be (better than) right!

I'm buying.
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by TopGear
I just got back from a week of Macrumors-free vacation and I finally got the news. Totally dig it: $1300 for something better than I was gonna spend $1500 on just about a month ago. IMHO, the 12" 800 mhz with combo drive is the way to go. Glad this time the rumors turned out to be (better than) right!

I'm buying.

rumors that get a lot of talk here are more often correct than not

but as to "when" something comes out, that is a different issue

at one point in the past, we all knew that the imac was going to move up to a G4 processor, but rumors thought it was right around the corner many months before apple delivered

i think the G4 ibook is on the way, but my hope is in the first half of 2003, but apple may deliver that a whole year from now

the G3's life is nearing its end, maybe, but i also agree, that only $1299 for a machine with a 800 mhz G3 and combo drive AIN'T bad
 

ninjachild

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2002
34
0
Originally posted by jefhatfield


i think the G4 ibook is on the way, but my hope is in the first half of 2003, but apple may deliver that a whole year from now

the G3's life is nearing its end, maybe, but i also agree, that only $1299 for a machine with a 800 mhz G3 and combo drive AIN'T bad

i was reading something that the G3 is faster in megaflops than the non-altivec enhanced G4,

not saying anything crazy like its a better chip but for everyday things that are non-altivec enhanced the 800 mhz G3 is IMHO better than a 667 G4,

you're right we will see a G4 ibook (or whatever they will call it)
but maybe not until the G5 is portable? ala the current tibooks?
 

ftaok

macrumors 603
Jan 23, 2002
6,487
1,572
East Coast
Originally posted by ninjachild
i was reading something that the G3 is faster in megaflops than the non-altivec enhanced G4,

not saying anything crazy like its a better chip but for everyday things that are non-altivec enhanced the 800 mhz G3 is IMHO better than a 667 G4,

you're right we will see a G4 ibook (or whatever they will call it)
but maybe not until the G5 is portable? ala the current tibooks?
ninjachild,

The thing is, that many everyday tasks are alti-vec enhanced. Stuff like iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie all benefit from alti-vec. And OS X is optimized as well.
 

MacBandit

macrumors 604
Re: What's the deal with variable bus timing?

Originally posted by Boomer Mac
What's the deal with variable bus timing?

I could be wrong here but maybe some of the techies
can correct me:

Isn't variable bus timing the same (or similar) to
speedstep technology on the higher end Pentium mobile
processors?

Speedstep technology determines what you are running (in terms
of active applications) at a given point in time and adjusts
the computing cycles so the processor draws less power when running relatively non-power hungry programs and therefor
battery life is prolonged.

How is this different from variable bus timing as it has been explained in preview articles?

Please give me some insight.

Boomer Mac

Do a search for this. There is already a thread about it.

Simply put Powerbooks have had speed stepping for at least 8 years. Maybe longer. This also means that all iBoos have it also. Speed stepping adjusts the CPU's clock speed only. Variable Bus Timing controls the system bus which results in an overall system control. Everything in the system connected to the system bus slows down including the cpu. This results in a much larger power savings then just speed stepping the cpu.
 

iMac

macrumors member
Nov 15, 2002
34
0
Pennsylvania
I know this sounds really stupid coming from someone who has been on computers and in the Mac Community for a decade, but what is VRAM? Is it like some kind of visual thing? I never did understand those ATA graphicy things! Please enlighten me.
 

SilvorX

macrumors 68000
May 24, 2002
1,701
0
'Toba, Canada
Originally posted by iMac
I know this sounds really stupid coming from someone who has been on computers and in the Mac Community for a decade, but what is VRAM? Is it like some kind of visual thing? I never did understand those ATA graphicy things! Please enlighten me.
im not too sure what its technical name is but i think it means video ram, its basically the ram thats in the video card (the more the VRAM, the better the graphics (frames per second and quality))
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by SilvorX

im not too sure what its technical name is but i think it means video ram, its basically the ram thats in the video card (the more the VRAM, the better the graphics (frames per second and quality))

and in some cases the video card shares ram with the computer's main system ram..but that is in the lower end video cards

for many basic tasks, you won't notice a difference, but for gaming, the better ati and nvidia cards really shine
 

lmalave

macrumors 68000
Nov 8, 2002
1,614
0
Chinatown NYC
Originally posted by gopher
Yep, VRAM is what is the nickname for Video-RAM.

16MB of VRAM is minimum required for QuartzExtreme, and recommended is 32MB. So the new iBooks finally all fall within those specs. QuartzExtreme also runs better if the graphics card bus is AGP based. For more info visit

http://www.apple.com/macosx/jaguar/quartzextreme.html

But remember, the graphics card has to be an ATI Radeon or NVidia GeForce. The ATI Rage cards in the older models don't cut it, for example, even if they have 16MB VRAM.
 

HasanDaddy

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2002
586
27
Los Angeles
Dudes,

The new iBook is great!................but after using a 500 mhz Ti and a 32mb VRAM iBook, I can definitely confirm that the Ti's, even the older ones, run FCP and other video apps MUCH better................

The new iBook is great, but if you're doing serious editing, then go with the Ti....especially now that its only around $2000! (and don't forget to buy AppleCare....an additional purchase that you should NEVER question getting)
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by HasanDaddy
Dudes,

(and don't forget to buy AppleCare....an additional purchase that you should NEVER question getting)

never?

what if you are like [some] users who get machines every year or so and give away or sell the used machines?

three years applecare is good if you keep a machine that long or well over two years
 

gopher

macrumors 65816
Original poster
Mar 31, 2002
1,475
0
Maryland, USA
AppleCare is transferable...read your agreement. So if you are going to sell the machine within a year, it would be a nice added value to include.
 

MacBandit

macrumors 604
Originally posted by HasanDaddy
(and don't forget to buy AppleCare....an additional purchase that you should NEVER question getting)

I don't buy AppleCare when I buy the machine. I wait and see if I the machine has any common problems. When I receive my notice at the end of the first free year of AppleCare I decide then to sign up for it or not.
 

jefhatfield

Retired
Jul 9, 2000
8,803
0
Originally posted by gopher
AppleCare is transferable...read your agreement. So if you are going to sell the machine within a year, it would be a nice added value to include.

i am in the high tech field and i have never once seen a person sell a mac with applecare time still on it

when someone buys applecare, they intend to keep the machine the full three years

you know, after all, applecare is expensive
 

anthonymoody

macrumors 68040
Aug 8, 2002
3,079
1,161
well with all due respect, many of the apple computers sold on ebay, particularly tibooks and ibooks, come with remaining applecare, usually of the 3 years - age of laptop variety. i know b/c i monitor the used market carefully, always looking for the auction that slips through the cracks and gets down to the wire without being bid up.

TM
 
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