None Blacker*

Last week I got round to picking up my new lap top. The dear old T-Book was fine, but getting a bit long in the tooth. The spec is still fairly impressive.

Hardware Overview:
CPU Type: PowerPC G4 (3.3)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 256 KB
L3 Cache (per CPU): 1 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 133 MHz
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 55.89 GB
Available: 21.8 GB

Yes the ‘Last of the Titanium’s’ was and still is a fine machine. The things holding it back were the G4 processor, though there are still thousands of those working productively and it will still be OK for at least a couple of years until Apple no longer supports PPC. I’m guessing that G3’s will still be OK after Leopard and the PPC will be supported until 10.6.

USB 1 is not really a hindrance, even my scanner that connects only via USB doesn’t seem any faster now it connects via USB 2, and being able to burn at only x1 and only to DVD-R isn’t that much of a chore considering I may only do it five or six times a year for an incremental back up.

So I decided to invest in a new Mac lap top. I couldn’t justify the cost of a Pro so I chose the best MacBook I could. The Black one. It’s very Black.

Hardware Overview:
Processor Name: Intel Core 2 Duo
Processor Speed: 2 GHz
Number Of Processors: 1
Total Number Of Cores: 2
L2 Cache (per processor): 4 MB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 667 MHz
Macintosh HD:
Capacity: 148.73 GB
Available: 106.33 GB

The Blackness had a side effect I hadn’t thought about at all. I have a black table… Typing in day light is generally fine, though sometimes the edge of the keyboard can blend away a little bit. In artificial light, it’s like Im gazing into a pool of ink. It can be quite difficult at times. At least the T-Book had black keys and a grey case. I also have a predominantly black desk top. As you can see it’s pretty dark. I’ll be putting my old ’silver shuffle’ desktop on very soon.

It’s a great machine though. I’m getting used to the Blackness and the comparatively small screen compared to the T-Book.

The updated DVD recorder is a real bonus, it absolutely tears through data. I haven’t seen performance like that since the G5’s and Pro machines at work. I can’t honestly remember the last time I had to burn a DVD at work though.

I was lucky in that I got a bigger hard disk than standard but I’m still in two minds about the ‘glossy screen’. It seems to me that the viewing angle is reduced and shows hard edges and I can see the reflection of my cigarette brighten while I smoke. Just minor things really.

The main reason I bought it was the Intel chip. Now I can embark upon my software testing training. I’ll almost certainly end up testing Windows gear at some point. With this in mind I’m gonna do a full back up and partition the hard drive next weekend prior to installing Boot Camp and Vista.

One thing I have noticed in System Profiler is that the CPU is called CPU on the PPC machine wheras it’s called Processor on the Intel machine. I wonder why?

* Thanks to Spinal Tap