# FutureShop - Intel Dual-Core add



## zarquon (May 24, 2005)

This is from the new FS flyer. Notice the highlight ( mouseover ) text over the computer 



"Chat with your best friend while burning a dvd in the background"

How long has os x been able to do this?
Hope it puts a smile on other faces like it did me.

Z.


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## gnatsum (Apr 10, 2005)

Agreed it's lame, 

but don't you think apple also has some lame marketing techniques?

come on, you're telling me the purpose behind a shuffle is for the shuffle mode?

gimme a break...i have shuffle on my 1 inch thick sony discman which my dad got when the Discman was first sold. 

So, no point in criticising, 

but if you'd like some food for thought, how long has os x had a dual core processor to use like a wintel can?


just supporting the opposite side from you...


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## ArtistSeries (Nov 8, 2004)

I saw the add and was taken a back at the low prices for what is offered - try that Apple....


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## NBiBooker (Apr 3, 2004)

ArtistSeries, 

Wow, stop with the cheap complaints. Literally. 

They PC's are cheap because they come with a garbage OS and crap software. Is that really what you want? Is it really such a good deal?

I don't think so.


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## Guest (Jul 15, 2005)

zarquon said:


> "Chat with your best friend while burning a dvd in the background"


hehe, I'm surprised it doesnt have a ** after it with some small print 


** may not work in all configurations at all times, Futureshop doesn't warrant windows functionality in any way and user experiences may vary


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## NBiBooker (Apr 3, 2004)

LOL... too funny


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## CN (Sep 3, 2004)

hehehe mguertin, they really SHOULD have a disclaimer like that, they may get sued for false advertising. Similarly, they could put
**You won't actually be able to chat online, because your computer will be so bogged down with spyware and viruses that you'll be lucky to be able to do anything, much less burn a DVD at the same time.


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Man.. you all nitpick so much. So you found a lame ad. Apple's ads half the time are lame too and for the longtest time MacOS multitasked worse than windows 3.1. OSX can multitask because its BSD.. fine. PCs have run BSD, linux and windows flavours for ever and they all multitask great. I've used PCs for as long as I remember in addition to a mac classic I had an an old B&W G3 I have. Mac OS is the last one to multitask anything so maybe its all new to you and you're all excited but just remember that you're the last one in the game.... Incidentally I support Macs and PCs at work and we have anything from G3s to Dual 2.5 G5s and I must say that I'm not very impressed at either multitasking or the rate of hardware failires. Hardare failiures for our Macs compared to our HP P3 and P4 systems is about 4:1 and thats me being very generous. 

And to the person that said its a garbage OS. Well guess you dont really know how to use it then  I may seem Pro-PC here but thats because I am. I've used macs and owned a couple of them them but I chose PC as my main system for the fact that I've had way less hardware issues, I can choose to build mine any way I wish and run what ever OS I wish and do so for 1/3 the price. As for the garbage crappy OS that cant multitask... well here you go...

http://powerthings.com/pics/stresstest.jpg
I'm burning a DVD with Nero, while extracting a DVD using shrink at the same time from another DVD ROM, playing Doom3 on high detail at 1024x768, while having photoshop open with 30 pics I took from the zoo that are 3-4 megs each. Outlook is open because it always is and messenger because I chat lots with my friends and of course winamp because I love my music. Incidentally, I'm managing over 60fps in Doom3 while doing all this AND using less than 40% CPU usage.

http://powerthings.com/pics/stresstest2.jpg
Ripping two DVDs at the same time while playing Doom3 at 60+ FPS

...so please be educated that as much as you hate windows, it multitasks well and did so way before any of Apple's OS's did. Heck NT 3.51 anyone  

There, my rant is over......


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## theonly_bandever_ (Jun 7, 2005)

How much money did you spend to have your PC do that?


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## thejst (Feb 1, 2005)

hey, it's a mac-centric site...what do you expect?

ease of use, virtually no configuration problems...no registry or IE, no bloatware needed...minimal downtime/maintenence...eye candy...great RAID performance, awesome networking...well executed code...non destructive developer tools for those interested, included for free...a great, loyal user base that is extremely welcoming, great service and warranty coverrage, virtually no driver issues ( xcept w/ M$ peripherals ), well-thought out OS features (like Faxing and PDF creation, for free)...itunes and the itunes music store...
the list goes on and on..
I'll take Macintosh and OS X anyday.
(in fact the sole benefit of the Wintel platform is an abundance of "free" software)


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

This is what it cost me - mind you I chose my pieces carefully and of course my time and effort in researching components is a cost as well but free to me...

Case - Chenbro SR107 server case with three 120mm variable speed fans - $229
Antec - 550W 24pin server power supply - $136
Asus NCCH-DL dual xeon mainboard - $289
2x Xeon 3.0 800FSB cpus - $720 (for both)
Pioneer 16x +/- DVD burner - $89
Toshiba 4x -R DVD burner -$40 (use it as a DVD ROM - very fast read speeds)
Adaptec 39160 dual channel U160 scsi controller w/cables - $199
3x Fujitsu 36gig U160 15,000RPM drives - $540 (for all 3 drives)
ATI X800XT PE - $699
M-Audio 2496 sound card- $159
4xDDR400 - $200 (for the 4 sticks) cheapo brand but passed memtest for 24hrs
XP Pro OEM - $169

So the system the way it is right now all brand new components cost me $3469+tax

That sounds very steep but it is an all SCSI 15,000RPM dual xeon system with 2gig RAM and a top of the line vid card and add on sound card (pretty good one too). Also, the system is nearly 5 months old now...

and to thejst... I happen to love IE and I like the registry (never had any issue and I can go in and find anything I want and change it..like a giant preference file), I have no downtime and I dont worry about maintenance because anything I need to do is scripted to run either on startup or shutdown (like virus scan or spyware ..etc). Networking is fast and I have no issues, I have a great loyal user base like forums at arstechnica or all my friends who have PCs as well, no driver issues either because I didnt buy crap parts. I have great free tools including 100% free PDF creation tools and other things. I dont like itunes because its huge and bloated and use winamp and my list goes on. I also have Norton Ghost which is far better than any cloning tool on a mac such as carboncopycloner or others i've tried. 

PS. I dont care about OS eye candy and I have better raid support because not only do I have raid on software but the mainboard has both PATA and SATA raid support. Two PATA channels and 4 SATA channels. The ugly server case I picked up has incredible cooling and its quiet AND can hold 8 hard drives and 3 optical drives.


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## _Outcast_ (Oct 17, 2003)

Wow, another pissing contest. Great.

Jerry


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Oops..forgot to mention the memory above was 4x 512mb of DDR400. I rarely need to go beyond a gig but since memory was cheap, I figured why not...

Also I have some ugly UGLY pics I took of the system (sorry for the poor quality photos) but here they are. I could have gone with a black case but my dual Dell 21" Trinitron monitors are beige and my favorite keyboard (old IBM Clicky) is alsy beige so I figured I'd have everything match...all ugly 


http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/1.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/2.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/3.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/4.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/5.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/6.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/7.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/8.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/9.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/10.jpg
http://powerthings.com/pics/chenbro/11.jpg

I know its hideous and believe me if I could get a beautiful case like the G5 tower with the expandability of this case I would, but for me its function over form so I went with it. I'm real happy too. Thick steel so I dont hear the drives or fans once its closed up. Fans turn very slow until the temps go beyond what I set in the Bios anyway.


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## Paperweight (Jul 2, 2005)

gurgle-gurgle *flush*


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

I should actually appologize. I was thinking about it and I think I might have come on strong. This is a pro mac site and while I primarily have a PC, I visit this site and some others because I work with macs at work and have a test box which is a G3 so sometimes I read up on thing. Comments made were probably meant to be more light hearted (from you guys)...towards the dual core ad.

The point I was trying to make is that most mac users think all PCs are built using garbage parts and have no performance ability or stability or no multitasking when this is entirely not true. There are servers that run on windows and workstations, 3D design stations..etc. Any properly maintained box be it mac or PC can be very solid or horrible depending on who uses it. The box I built myself suits my needs but may be insane for someone else or too much $$ or too big or what ever but for my situation, I find it very stable and very fast.... I guess I should have said it like that but I itemized components and such because someone asked for the box details.


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## zarquon (May 24, 2005)

contoursvt said:


> I should actually appologize. I was thinking about it and I think I might have come on strong. This is a pro mac site and while I primarily have a PC, I visit this site and some others because I work with macs at work and have a test box which is a G3 so sometimes I read up on thing. Comments made were probably meant to be more light hearted (from you guys)...towards the dual core ad.
> 
> The point I was trying to make is that most mac users think all PCs are built using garbage parts and have no performance ability or stability or no multitasking when this is entirely not true. There are servers that run on windows and workstations, 3D design stations..etc. Any properly maintained box be it mac or PC can be very solid or horrible depending on who uses it. The box I built myself suits my needs but may be insane for someone else or too much $$ or too big or what ever but for my situation, I find it very stable and very fast.... I guess I should have said it like that but I itemized components and such because someone asked for the box details.


Actually, all I was tring to point out was a really dumb ad. Not necessarily for windows, or what ever peices were in the box. Just a dumb ad. I know that BOTH mac and win boxes have been capable of this feat for quite some time, all the more reason to find it odd that some one would think it a good marketing point. ( Although I do know many people - in both OS's - that beleive that you shouldn't do anything else when burnning a disc )

Z.


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

I've probably had too much coffee today and missunderstood your post  I see now what you were trying to say and I agree. I have people in the office who are designers - we just switched them from G4 667's to Dual 2.5s and OSX instead of OS9 and I've been showing them that they can pretty much do what they want when burning (heck thats what burnproof and things like that are now...which the drives and software support), yet I find them so many times scared to do anything else.

Same goes for some of our users who just got brand new HP 3.4Ghz P4s with a gig of RAM. I'm like "use the damn box!!!"  If it does fall on its face, then we shoot it


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## ice_hackey (Aug 13, 2004)

contoursvt - your posts have been a breath of fresh air, thanks.


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## Paperweight (Jul 2, 2005)

I'm looking forward to the day when I can build my own custom mac from standard x86 parts, like this fellow did for his XP box, and get dual G5 power for like $750. Mmmm... standard x86 parts...


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Well I had realized I overreacted bigtime but I was trying to be informative - hopefully  See now if I could build my own Mac, I'd love that too. I'd have my Mac and PC. Its just that currently the kind of Mac I want is too far out of my reach...well especially now considering how much I spent on this box


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## jdurston (Jan 28, 2005)

ArtistSeries said:


> I saw the add and was taken a back at the low prices for what is offered - try that Apple....


 I agree, Apple styling is nice but all I really want is functionality. With the Intel switch Apple will have no excuse for premium prices they charge today on a lot of their hardware.


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## CN (Sep 3, 2004)

"The point I was trying to make is that most mac users think all PCs are built using garbage parts and have no performance ability or stability or no multitasking when this is entirely not true"

Alright, its okay if you want to tell us your opinion, and sure, PCs are better than Macs for some things, with the opposite being true in some cases as well. But try not to make huge generalizations about Mac users that are not all that accurate (I'm pretty sure your statements don't apply to "most mac users"). Most informed Mac users will agree that PC parts are just as good as Mac parts (especially if you build yourself); and PCs can perform very well (most of us have seen the benchmarks).

I would love to be able to build my own totally customized Mac too 

Thats a pretty sweet setup...for a PC (just joking)


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Ok no more general statements  I think I was all hyper at the time! Well I gotta go research some very low cost options for one of my Mac friends who wants a cheap PC gaming box. He's on a super tight budget but wants to play some of the latest games such as Battlefield 2, HL2, Doom3..etc. I think he's also making a big mistake. He's going to get rid of his G4 500Mhz and get a Mac Mini for photoshop/illustrator and quark. I think he's better off finding a used dual quicksilver box since at least he can put some 7200RPM IDE drives in there and probably more RAM but maybe I'm wrong.... Anyway this is best for another thread anyway


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## gnatsum (Apr 10, 2005)

Thank you for bringing the light here. it was much needed. 

People, so we've seen the hardware and performance numbers from contoursvt...woah, just realised what your name is, fast car?

from his/her PC. 

now about all your software issues, Spyway, viruses, dont just come naturally to windows. 

avg. people are very bad at handling computers and treat them poorly. thats why they crap up a lot. 

but honestly, let me see a mac do all that was listed in that first post. 


sorry, no open GL optimisation for macs, no gaming performance. 

Macs are work machines. and i would say that Macs are quite limited to hot hardware...

and must we remind mac users of System crashes, os 9 and down wasn't good for multitasking becuase if one thing busted, the whole system did. 

little round black bomb anybody?



i've been using macs and pc's ever since was 3 or 4?
it's been a decent amount of time......from LC and iivx's to a 7100, to mac clones, to a 9500 to my sawtooth. been through a few...


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Hi Gnatsum  Yes my name is my car. Its not a very fast car but fun enough for now. Its got full exhaust from manifold back and a drop in filter... No big modifications. http://powerthings.com/pics/mysvt.jpg Its making about 220HP right now... anyway I'm getting off topic. Oops 

I think you're right. Most people are very bad at maintaining their system which is why for people that dont know what they are doing, I wouldnt recommend a PC due to viruses or spyware, unless I'm willing to troubleshoot their system all the time. For example, I wouldnt give my mother a PC unless I'm willing to go over once a week and keep it running right. Well I could install OS/2 or Linux or BeOS or something then no spyware or viruses but also less software options.

As for my system, well I spent a lot of $$ on it but I am a computer nerd so I had to have it  Now that the dual core systems are coming out, it will be interesting to see the performance vs price. I could have waited but I wanted something with PCI-X for my SCSI controller. I dont think the new dual core systems will have PCI-X which is why I just went for a full out dual CPU system on a workstation board.

I cant wait to see the intel based Macs and see what prices will be like and/or if it will be easily upgradable or not. Maybe I will be able to afford one no prob!


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## theonly_bandever_ (Jun 7, 2005)

I wish Microsoft would release the current version of MSN Messenger on windows, for OS X, that would be great.

I'm really thinking about buying a Mac, but now I'm considering waiting a year until the Intel chips, then perhaps I could dual boot with Windows XP, that would be great, because I've been using Windows for the past 10 years, and I've still got some games and apps I would like to use.


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## PosterBoy (Jan 22, 2002)

jdurston said:


> I agree, Apple styling is nice but all I really want is functionality. With the Intel switch Apple will have no excuse for premium prices they charge today on a lot of their hardware.


You make it sound like the CPU dictates the price of the machine, which isn't true.

Although switching to more common processors will take some of the mystique out of future Macs.


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

A little off topic - but since I see we have a Ford fan, here's my Mustang (even though I had to sell it, I still consider it mine )

It put down 580HP to the rear wheels, thanks in large part to the Procharger


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## contoursvt (May 1, 2005)

Ah, a 5.0 guy  I used to have a 5.0 - not a mustang but a Capri. Sold it but I miss it. Should have kept it. Dynoed at around 320hp at the flywheel but the car needed 24lb injectors. The 19's were not cutting it. Had stock ported heads, E303 cam, cobra intake, 1.7 rockers, 75mm mass air, 70mm throttle body, suspension work, slightly better brakes and 3.73 gears. Bottom end was 10:1 - 306.

It would get killed by your car which looks great (I see you have 5 lug all the way around)  .... but here is a pic non the less. http://powerthings.com/pics/capri.jpg


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## Sybersport (Jun 7, 2005)

Your car looked slick  I've always liked the Capri.

Ya, I did the 5 lug conversion - baer brakes all around too (I know, overkill, but I had more money than brains for a while there...)

I had a 306 built up with ported brodix ST5.0 heads, a custom cam ground (pretty aggressive, my brakes incidently sucked because I had very little vacuum...) holley intake, 42lb injectors, Aeromotive fuel system, Lentech AOD, Procharger D1 (I was seeing 10psi boost) with 3 core intercooler...

It was a stout setup and I had a local tuner burn me a chip, so it was dialed in quite nicely. Didn't have a chance to hit the track, but I did have an old 92 coupe with stock motor and an S trim that went 12.62 at 110mph. That was on a set of nitto drag radials - what a great invention those drag radials are!

I dunno, I have always been lucky with my cars, they have all been quick


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## tikibangout (Jul 19, 2005)

Damn Sybersport, that thing looks nice.


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