Looking for a bit of buying advice here and trying to gauge which is the best value. For instance, is a four core 2.93Ghz slower than an eight core 2.26Ghz bearing in mind how many apps actually take advantage of the 8 core technology? Is a four core 2.26Ghz faster than the Harpertown 8 core 3Ghz?
Mind you, I’m used to a G4 MDD 1.25Ghz so whatever I get will be an improvment.
Forget to ask…there are a few new dual 2.8 & 3Ghz on various eBay dealers. Would Apple honour the guarantee on a new machine that didn’t come from an Apple Approved Reseller?
Wow, the same jump I made late last year. You will be startled by the
difference at first, then in two weeks it will seem normal again. But
that’s only because you’ve been throwing harder work at it – because
you can!
I got the mid-range model – the 8-core 2.8GHz – and I’m very happy
with it. The new-new ones have faster busses internally, and the
processors have a different cache setup. In benchmarks I’ve seen, the
slowest of the new-new Pros is nearly as fast as the fastest old-new
Pros.
As far as the warrantee goes, in my experience if you buy a new-in-box
Mac and are the first to set it up and register it, Apple will honor
the warrantee (unless they have the serial number on a watch list or
something). I’ve bought a lot of Apple gear on eBay over the years.
Walter
On Mar 18, 2009, at 4:11 AM, Kryten wrote:
Looking for a bit of buying advice here and trying to gauge which is
the best value. For instance, is a four core 2.93Ghz slower than an
eight core 2.26Ghz bearing in mind how many apps actually take
advantage of the 8 core technology? Is a four core 2.26Ghz faster
than the Harpertown 8 core 3Ghz?
Mind you, I’m used to a G4 MDD 1.25Ghz so whatever I get will be an
improvment.
Very helpful Walter, thank you and encouraging too. Think I’ll probably go for the Quad 2.93Ghz, but it seems buying from Apple is more expensive that say, MacWarehouse, Jigsaw or Cancom for example, in the UK certainly.
In my experience Apple warranties (including AppleCare) are based on
serial numbers and they don’t care who bought, sold or registered a
computer, Except for laptops, though, it may only apply in the country
of purchase. Oh, and Florida is a special case.
You can sometimes pickup a bargain here at the Apple Refurb store (UK):
They are all warranted. The last two of our Macs came from here.
Although looks like there are no Mac Pros at the moment.
On 18 Mar 2009, at 13:10, Kryten wrote:
Very helpful Walter, thank you and encouraging too. Think I’ll
probably go for the Quad 2.93Ghz, but it seems buying from Apple is
more expensive that say, MacWarehouse, Jigsaw or Cancom for example,
in the UK certainly.
David Owen :: Freeway Friendly Web hosting and Domains ::
I’ve been meaning to come to the UK to collect all the virtual beers I’ve gathered over the last decade+. I imagine I’ll need to buy a second seat for the return flight…
I imagine I’ll need to buy a second seat for the return flight…
Now I’m laughing!
Walter, you know you’d be very welcome any time. Just remember
Blighty’s not as small as we make it out to be, so you may find you’re
travelling a fair bit between beers.
I know, the last time I was there I was 12 (and in a boy’s choir), and I remember a very long bus ride from Heathrow to Crystal Palace where our “hotel” was, and another from there to Coventry, where we sang, and another to Calais and an interminable hovercraft ride to France…
If you look on a map, Britain appears to be roughly the size of Wisconsin, but I think Mr. Mercator has some ‘splainin’ to do.
I have to admit an association for many years with New Internationalist and
now on their advisory board, but way back they championed the Peters
Projection, a grossly deformed in relation to Mercator’s Projection, but
equal area representation of the world: