My Take on the MacBook Pro

by Anand Lal Shimpi on 1/10/2006 3:50 PM EST
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  • jpmills - Tuesday, January 17, 2006 - link

    What do you think of http://www.techreport.com/onearticle.x/9288">this Anand?

    My personal opinion is that it is too soon to say how great the Intel powered Macs are. They are better when compared to the G4/G5 machines, from the benchmarks I have seen, but so what, Apple will be happy with which ever computer you buy from them.

    There is something else for mac zealots to keep in mind: the new Intel Macs are PCs in pretty clothes, that is all. All the new shiny innards weren't developed exclusively for the Mac, they were just the next step in the evolution of Intel products. There is no more we are better than you, you have been adopted by the PC family. Welcome home.

    The way Intel has treated PC OEMs could come back and bite them. If AMD can produce enough processors and the dual-core Turions be as efficient and fast as the Core Duo then Intel could have a fight on their hands. Could you imagine Dell running AMD processors, hopefully the rumblings about Dell being open to using AMD processors are true. Dell was Intel's favorite child until the Apple deal, that has to hurt.

    Just some thoughts
  • tjahn79 - Saturday, January 14, 2006 - link

    The new intel Macs supports Target Disk Mode, Netboot, and all of the
    previous features with the exception of booting into open firmware.

    EFI will be implemented in Vista. We've done it in 10.4.4. Apple -- still
    ahead after all these years. :-)
    If you haven't already taken a look, do so at Intel's web site:
    http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/">http://www.intel.com/technology/efi/

    SNAG KEYS
    Booting on an external hard drive only works over FireWire, not USB. You
    will still have boot key functionality similar to an OpenFirmware password
    called password/security mode. These are called SNAG KEYS:
    Snag keys currently implemented in firmware on Intel-based Macs are below.
    "Snag Keys" are keys held down during system startup to affect the system's
    behavior. Some are detected by the firmware, while others are detected by
    the operating system loader.
    1. The "T" Key
    Boot computer into Target Disk Mode. Disabled when password/security mode
    is enabled.
    2. The "C" Key
    Boot from the first optical device found with bootable media. Disabled when
    password/security mode is enabled.
    3. The "D" Key
    Boot from the first optical device found with a valid, bootable diagnostic
    booter on it. (The path to this file is "Blessed
    Folder"/.diagnostic/diag.efi) Disabled when password/security mode is
    enabled.
    4. The "CMD-OPT-P-R" Keys
    Clears all NVRAM variables. Disabled when password/security mode is
    enabled.
    5. The "N" Key
    Pass in model property of machine booting and BSDP net boot from the most
    appropriate BSDP server found. Disabled when password/security mode is
    enabled.
    6. The "OPT-N" Keys
    BSDP net boot using "default" boot image set up on the BSDP server.
    Disabled when password/security mode is enabled.
    7. The "F1" Key
    BSDP net boot using diagnostic boot image set up on the BSDP server.
    8. The "OPTION" Key
    Brings up the Picker interface. If security is enabled, it brings up a
    dialog box to enter the security password before dropping into the Picker.
    Pressing the "N" Key in Picker Searches for available NetBoot servers.
    9. Mouse Button, F12, or Eject Key
    Eject the optical drive media. Not disabled when security is enabled.

    Snag keys implemented in the OS loader as of Tiger:
    Command-S: boot to single user mode.
    Command-V: boot in verbose mode with a text console log.
  • monsoon - Friday, January 13, 2006 - link

    apart from the dual boot thingy ( i'm really waiting for a VPC, DARWINE / VINE, VMware solution instead ), which i would love to know more about as well...

    ...what really would make me happy is a direct comparison to same spec'd hardware sold under a different brand ( ok, i guess you'll have to install XP to test the same programs face to face ), and how it would compare to itself ( tests under OSX compared to same tests under XP ).

    Also, since did not release the Mac Mini, i'm refreshing your home web page to find a review of the AOpen Yonah when it's done.

    Obviously, a comparison of the AOpen to the Macbook would add awesome value to the diagram the likes of me...

    ...so, in the end, i'd love to see your review of the MacBook Pro complete with benchmarks of :

    MacBook Pro under OSX
    MacBook Pro under XP
    PC laptop with same innards
    AOpen PC mini ( with same innards or else )

    heh, i guess that would be a lot of work, but you must be excited as we all are from Yonah and your new toys, right ?

    GO ANAND GO !=)
  • srawal - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link

    It would not be wise for Apple to switch the desktop chips to Pentium D's. The performance of the Quad G5's is out of this world in workstation and creative applications. Heck similarly spec'd-out machines from IBM using the PowerPC processor cost in excess of $17,000.

    I'm sure gaming would be faster on the Intel, but no one is going to drop the dough needed for a Quad G5 only for gaming; heck if that was the case then Apple would have been better off with AMD. AMD could surely produce enough chips for a small company like Apple.

    As for switching to the Core Duo on the MacBook, that was a great move. On the other hand, I feel that the G5 in the iMac was doing fine.
  • srawal - Thursday, January 12, 2006 - link

    Oh and as for the Dell, apply a 20-30% off coupon; it makes 'em a lot cheaper! ;)
  • GoatHerderEd - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    I bought one, I told my self I would buy a Apple laptop as soon as they went x86. Maybe I should cancel my order. These are not 64 bit? I thought they are. It is funny there is no mention of the battery life on apple.com.
  • ninjit - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    No they aren't 64-bit.

    But unless you're working with ridiculously large datasets that need huge memory spaces (which wouldn't be doing on a laptop anyways), you won't miss 64-bit on your laptop.

    Also, Apple has said they aren't locking the hardware so that you can only use Mac OSX on them.
    Which means you can take your new MacBook Pro laptop and install windows onto it.

    And considering the announced specs, this maybe be the best Core Duo laptop you can buy even compared to the currently expected PC versions.

    HAHA, I just speced out the equivalent dell E1750 to match a loaded Mac Book Pro.
    the MacBook came out to $3248
    the Dell came out to $3629 - $300 current instant rebate promotion = $3329

    Almost exactly the same components, even including 3 year warranty and a media remote.
    The only differences are The Dell has a 17" screen (Mac is 15.4"), Dell has a 256MB Nvidia 7800 GO (mac has 256MB ATI Mobility X1600), and the Dell DVD burner is Dual-layer (the Mac is only single-layer which I'm curious as to why they didn't go with a dual-layer).

    yes you could argue that those pros for the dell make it a better value, but then you also have to consider the macs magnesium casing vs Dell's crappy plastic, etc.

    heck I'd still go with the mac for the possibility of having a dual boot system - mac OS X for the most part, and Win Xp (or vista later) for those times when you need windows (i.e. many games).

    oooh, man this sounds better and better the more I think about it... Now all I need is $3000 to blow - how much is a kidney going for these days on the black market??
    ;)
  • SLCentral - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    Apple never said they would lock OS X on it. Steve Jobs has said (and said yesterday) that he will not block the attempts to install Windows on the new Intel systems. Driver support is another story.
  • Eug - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    The grapevine states that so far the WInXP install discs are not working, which would make sense because of the EFI-ness of the new Macs.
  • gnumantsc - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    I wouldn't be surprised to see Mac OS X X86 running on any piece of hardware. I find it a bit strange that Apple did not cut the strings on its hardware selling and just focus on OS X as a third OS in the competition.

    And might I still say Apple is stupid for going with Intel over AMD. Ok, I'll give Intel the one up on the Intel dual core for now, but AMD overall for their desktop performance will beat Intel at anything.

    Funny how Apple used part of AMD's Dresden plants to manufacture G4/G5 and decided to go to Intel for their products, then again Apple is 32 bit not 64 bit so people with 8GB of memory will not exist anymore since 4GB is the limit with 32 bit OS.
  • ProviaFan - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    You evidently don't know what you're talking about. Apple's desktop systems have been 64 bit, and my humble and inexperienced but logical opinion is that Apple can't/won't release Intel-based desktop systems until Intel's 64-bit enhanced version of Yonah is released, because that would be a downgrade. Since their laptops have never been 64 bit, going to Intel's current 32 bit offerings is quite a step upward from the G4s that the Powerbooks used, and isn't really a disadvantage - tell me, are any Turion 64 laptops capable of holding more than 4GB of RAM (let alone more than 2GB)?
  • slashbinslashbash - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    The iMac G5 was 64-bit (right? All G5's should be 64-bit?) and they just moved the iMac to the 32-bit Intel processor. So there's your downgrade, although overall performance increased quite a bit.

    It's my guess that we'll see the Power Mac successor relatively soon, using Intel's desktop chips (Presler Pentium D) in the 3+ GHz range. Apple can get away with normal cooling options (no need to water-cool the Presler like the high-end G5) and still get the highest possible performance with Intel chips, probably with a large marketing focus on floating-point and HyperThreading (and maybe even dual-socket dual core like the high-end PowerMac G5's). But yeah, I agree with you that Apple probably won't ship PowerMac replacements with anything other than a 64-bit CPU.

    Also, look at what Apple has done with the clock speeds on the announcements today. We all know that clock speed means jack crap when comparing different architectures, but simplistic perception still counts somewhere in the marketing hype. Clock speeds have not gone down. iMac G5 was offered at 1.8GHz and 2.0GHz; iMac Core Duo at 1.83GHz and 2.0GHz. PowerBook G4 at 1.5 and 1.67GHz, now at 1.67 and 1.83GHz. My guess is that Apple is trying to stay as close as possible to the old clock speeds (iMac) or "speed-bump" them like a normal upgrade (PowerBook/MacBook, which didn't receive a bump in clockspeed during its last upgrade). So I doubt we'll see a high-end desktop Mac with a speed less than 2.5GHz. Also there's the aforementioned 64-bit issue. So I really think they'll end up using Presler.
  • Eug - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    The G5 iMacs were/are 1.9 GHz and 2.1 GHz.
  • SLCentral - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    AMD probably does not have the capacity to pump out enough chips for Apple at this point.
  • GTaudiophile - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    Anand: As soon as you get one, try to get to the nuts and bolts of it. Try installing XP or some Linux distro? What about dual-boot? Heck, could you somehow burn the X86 version of OSX to CD and see if it will take on PC hardware? These are the questions we need and want answered!
  • nlr_2000 - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    Anyone know if Apple has enabled hardware acceleration feature Tiger had for GUI speed-up using the ATI Radeon x1600?
  • nlr_2000 - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    Related to Core Graphics?
  • ninjit - Tuesday, January 10, 2006 - link

    He can't do that.
    Apple would reign all hell down on any established publication that showed the public how to run Mac OS X on anything other than Apple hardware.
  • ViRGE - Wednesday, January 11, 2006 - link

    Eh, it's not like Apple has taken a particular interest in AT in the first place, I doubt them reigning hell on it would be much of a problem.

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