A mac fan boys reply
08/09/07 15:45 Filed in: Hardware
My reply to some points raised by Toms Hardware.
Okay so I am a self confessed apple fan boy, but even
so I still think I have some valid points to reply to
in this article
on gear digest (part of the ever growing Tom's Hardware site).
The reviewer (Anthony Celeste) does have valid
points too.
The first of these is that the mac mini doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse. Yes I think that this is slightly odd too, however given my feelings about the current apple keyboard and I've never really liked apple mice either, maybe this fact is a blessing. After all the choice of keyboard and mouse is a highly personal thing, well it is for me at least, I do like them to be comfortable in use. I've seen some people put up with awful keyboards and mice just because thats what they where given.
Having said this it would be nice to get the mini up and running with out having to worry about getting a separate keyboard and mouse, but then again it wouldn't all fit in side that cute little box then!
Next we have criticisms of the video card in the in the mini. Yes okay I admit it's not very good, compared with the current state of the art, but these top end cards are massive, massively over powered for anything other than the very latest games and expensive. All of these facts mean that there is no way the mini could have such a beast in it. The graphics engine in the mini is more than sufficient for all of the uses, such an entry level machine is likely to be put to.
A similar criticism is also leveled at the rather old video card fitted to the mac pro. Now here in a top end machine there is more reason to expect a top end card, this I admit, but I point you to my argument about the massive power of these cards. Only the very latest of games really stretch these cards and on the mac, there are no such games. Now this could be a chicken and egg situation, that no one wants to develop games for a platform with such 'limited' capabilities. I however don't think this is the case, porting a modern game to a different platform is very expensive and there are so many these days (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and maybe PS2) and they are all so different that it is like starting form scratch. This is why we don't see games on the mac. And does this bother me? Not in the least, I still have my trusty Xbox for games.
Also just because there are these hugely fast cards doesn't mean we have to use them any more that just because you can buy a car capable of doing 160 miles per hour doesn't mean we are all driving around in super cars! Okay there is more of a cost argument when it comes to cars. The car analogy works well here, yes we could spend money on real speed demons and buy Farrari's, hey you can even by a Farrari branded PC, but I see us mac users as the types the would buy a Rolls Royce. It's not as fast, but it's a lot more stylish and comfortable!
Okay maybe I'm getting off point here, so lets return the points raised about comparisons between the new iMacs and the mac pro's and the fact that these lower end machines can be upgraded to a higher spec that the pros. True, but I would point out that the pros haven't been updated for 6 or so months. Now this might be the best argument, but it is true (it's also true that it is probably time for an update to the pros).
The final point is one that I totally agree on, there is a hole in the middle of the apple range, between the lower end iMacs and the 24 inch iMac and the pros. I think that it's been there for a while so I'm guessing that maybe apple don't see it there. I wonder who is right?
Any way to end on a high note it's nice to hear that the dual G5's are still holding their value. So when I up grade the silver box currently sitting under my desk I might recover it's cost (I got it second hand for an absolute snip!)
The first of these is that the mac mini doesn't come with a keyboard and mouse. Yes I think that this is slightly odd too, however given my feelings about the current apple keyboard and I've never really liked apple mice either, maybe this fact is a blessing. After all the choice of keyboard and mouse is a highly personal thing, well it is for me at least, I do like them to be comfortable in use. I've seen some people put up with awful keyboards and mice just because thats what they where given.
Having said this it would be nice to get the mini up and running with out having to worry about getting a separate keyboard and mouse, but then again it wouldn't all fit in side that cute little box then!
Next we have criticisms of the video card in the in the mini. Yes okay I admit it's not very good, compared with the current state of the art, but these top end cards are massive, massively over powered for anything other than the very latest games and expensive. All of these facts mean that there is no way the mini could have such a beast in it. The graphics engine in the mini is more than sufficient for all of the uses, such an entry level machine is likely to be put to.
A similar criticism is also leveled at the rather old video card fitted to the mac pro. Now here in a top end machine there is more reason to expect a top end card, this I admit, but I point you to my argument about the massive power of these cards. Only the very latest of games really stretch these cards and on the mac, there are no such games. Now this could be a chicken and egg situation, that no one wants to develop games for a platform with such 'limited' capabilities. I however don't think this is the case, porting a modern game to a different platform is very expensive and there are so many these days (PC, PS3, Xbox 360, Wii and maybe PS2) and they are all so different that it is like starting form scratch. This is why we don't see games on the mac. And does this bother me? Not in the least, I still have my trusty Xbox for games.
Also just because there are these hugely fast cards doesn't mean we have to use them any more that just because you can buy a car capable of doing 160 miles per hour doesn't mean we are all driving around in super cars! Okay there is more of a cost argument when it comes to cars. The car analogy works well here, yes we could spend money on real speed demons and buy Farrari's, hey you can even by a Farrari branded PC, but I see us mac users as the types the would buy a Rolls Royce. It's not as fast, but it's a lot more stylish and comfortable!
Okay maybe I'm getting off point here, so lets return the points raised about comparisons between the new iMacs and the mac pro's and the fact that these lower end machines can be upgraded to a higher spec that the pros. True, but I would point out that the pros haven't been updated for 6 or so months. Now this might be the best argument, but it is true (it's also true that it is probably time for an update to the pros).
The final point is one that I totally agree on, there is a hole in the middle of the apple range, between the lower end iMacs and the 24 inch iMac and the pros. I think that it's been there for a while so I'm guessing that maybe apple don't see it there. I wonder who is right?
Any way to end on a high note it's nice to hear that the dual G5's are still holding their value. So when I up grade the silver box currently sitting under my desk I might recover it's cost (I got it second hand for an absolute snip!)
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