[X4U] Re: Expandable Macs [a]

[Stroller]

On 21 Jan 2008, at 19:44, Zane H. Healy wrote:
> At 1:33 PM +0000 1/21/08, Stroller wrote:
>>
>> I like good-quality computers, I can't bring myself to buy a  
>> machine without PCI slots or enough space for a second hard-drive  
>> or extra RAM. I won't buy a machine with a built-in monitor on the  
>> principle that I already have two perfectly good monitors here. I  
>> am probably only just in the class of people
>
> I really don't care that much about the PCI slot issue, I don't  
> have any cards in my G5...

Me, either, to be honest. On a Mac, it's difficult to think of any I  
might use - the memory slots & hard-drive space is far more important.

> ...I will not run a desktop with a built in monitor

Why do you say this?
I'm glad it's not just me that feels this way!!

If I were to look at the cost of iMacs & their resale value, I might  
find my dismissal of them to be a little bit irrational, but  
nevertheless I feel that in buying an iMac I would be buying a  
monitor that I'd be obliged to "throw away" when I upgrade my PC. All- 
in-one Macs just seem so "wasteful" to me.

> and I'm drooling over the thought of a Mac with 4 HD bays.

Yeah, I have to say I perked up a little bit when I read about that.

>> If you order a MacPro you don't HAVE to have 2 x quad-cores.  
>> There's a build-to-order option that allows you to elect only a  
>> single quad-core processor and - here in the UK - it shaves about  
>> £300 off the price. This brings the MacPro into the realms of  
>> affordable, about what I've paid for Power Macs in the past, when  
>> the cheaper options have been available.
>
> True, but I prefer mid-range, for extending the life of the machine  
> past 3 years.  Though any MacPro is likely to be very usable after 3 
> + years.  When the time comes to upgrade, I very likely will go  
> with the low-end model this time ...

I'm not convinced a computer with "only" a quad-core processor is  
entirely "low end". ;)

I've never been sure that an extra core is as good as an extra  
processor, but feel I'm unlikely to complain over the speed of a quad- 
core Xeon. It did  occur to me that the build-to-order single quad- 
core MacPro is likely to share the same motherboard as the one with  
two quad-cores, so it might be possible to upgrade it economically in  
the future. I don't know all of which processors might fit this  
machine - or the full details of Intel's Core2 range (could one find  
cheaper, non-Xeon quad-cores that would fit?) - but I notice (for  
instance) that 3 year-old Dell servers go quite reasonably on eBay,  
and one might find quad-cores installed in current models of those.

Stroller.