06.07.05
My Continuing Mac Dilemma
I want a new Mac but I don’t want an orphan.
Within two years Apple will have completed it’s transition to Intel CPUs. They will continue to support older PowerPC based Macs for years to come but new development efforts will be on the Intel Macs. To think otherwise would be foolhardy. One of the things I considered doing in the interim was to buy a faster CPU card for my PowerMac and I just realized that at some point in the future I should be able to buy an Intel CPU upgrade card for my PowerMac. I know this because there are a lot of PowerMacs in the market that could be upgraded and if I was in the business of making upgrade cards I would be doing one. However, the only Macs that can be upgraded are the G4 PowerMac towers, not the G5 towers nor the iMac or PowerBook/iBook laptops. (as far as I know)
I can also upgrade by buying a Mac mini which at $500 is not as big a commitment as spending $2K and I could use the mini for other things after the transition to Intel such as a file server or media center. At the moment I’m leaning that way. I could buy a beautiful Apple 20″ Cinema display (LCD monitor) for $800 that would work with future Intel Macs and use it with the Mac mini. That would be an upgrade from my current system which at only $1,300 fits well under my theoretical $2K budget. Before the Intel news I was leaning towards a G5 iMac with the thought of upgrading my iBook next year. I have a feeling that the first Intel Macs may be a laptop. Why?
The current PowerBooks are G4’s because IBM has been unable to make a laptop G5 CPU and Apple lags behind in laptops because of this. Laptops make up more than half of new computer sales so making an Intel laptop the first out of the gate next year makes sense. With that in mind I have decided not to buy a PowerBook now despite the fact that I would dearly love to have one.
In any and all cases I’m going to wait a few weeks for more details to come out and things to settle down before I do anything.