Tetsuo Time

Today was a surprise for me. Apple has just released updates to practically all their desktop Macs. First one I noticed was the iMac. Not only are the CPUs bumped up but they now have the nvidia chipsets so the low end has a GeForce 9400M and the high end has a GeForce GT130. The Mac Pro has new graphics cards starting with the GT120 on the "low end" multiple GT120s or a ATI Radeon HD 4870.

For the Mac Mini they've bumped the CPU and slapped in the nvidia chipset so it too now has a GeForce 9400M. But to be honest the most attractive bang for the buck seems to go to the iMac. Especially the one with the GT130... for a couple of hundred less than the "low end" Mac Pro you can get a computer with a better graphics card than it. But I'm poor so the only one I may be able to afford is the new Mac Mini.... unless I continue to save and wait which may take many many years. Can I hang on with ye olde powerpc mac mini until then? =P

Today was a surprise for me. Apple has just released updates to practically all their desktop Macs. First one I noticed was the iMac. Not only are the CPUs bumped up but they now have the nvidia chipsets so the low end has a GeForce 9400M and the high end has a GeForce GT130. The Mac Pro has new graphics cards starting with the GT120 on the "low end" multiple GT120s or a ATI Radeon HD 4870.

For the Mac Mini they've bumped the CPU and slapped in the nvidia chipset so it too now has a GeForce 9400M. But to be honest the most attractive bang for the buck seems to go to the iMac. Especially the one with the GT130... for a couple of hundred less than the "low end" Mac Pro you can get a computer with a better graphics card than it. But I'm poor so the only one I may be able to afford is the new Mac Mini.... unless I continue to save and wait which may take many many years. Can I hang on with ye olde powerpc mac mini until then? =P

I got fed up with having chronic low space on my hard drive. Last week my family said I could order a couple of upgrades for my computer. The first one is the hard drive. I've replaced my 80GB 4200RPM hard drive with a 250GB 5200RPM hard drive. Besides having more space it does seem to load things a bit faster. I was having some trouble while installing it however. Actually upgrading was easier than I thought it would be it wasn't too complicated to take it apart and put it back together. I had opened the case before to put RAM in but not the hard drive.

Replacing the DVD drive would be even easier. The problem I had though is I had accidently reinstalled the cooling fan the wrong way so it started overheating.... especially as I was trying to restore my time machine backup to the hard drive. But once I fixed that everything is OK and I have lots more space than I used to have. This is the biggest hard drive I have had so far.

My next computer I'm going to want at least 500GB though so it can be an upgrade from this.

A logitech quickcam vision pro for mac is coming in for me too soon. Normally it's $129 but I got it for less. There's only one more upgrade I plan on getting for this computer and it's the micro wi-fi adaptor.

Rumors are abound for the upcoming Macworld. There of course is the news that it'll be Apple's last Macworld they are going to be only doing their own events after this and Steve Jobs wont be doing the keynote this time. But what has me excited is the news of possible hardware updates at this Macworld.

The Mac Mini is supposed to be finally updated at Macworld. The design of the case is to be revised to look more like time capsule with a gap between the top and bottom. Some say that the top will be changed to black to match the updates to the iMacs and Macbooks. But others say that's not an update it's going to get. The internals are to be refreshed to be equal to the ones in the new Macbooks including the new nvidia geforce 9400M chipset. Optionally one can get two hard drives rather than a hard drive and an optical drive. Good for those wanting to use it as a mini sever. One other upgrade will be for it to be able to address up to 4GB of RAM. The change to the nvidia chipset is a good thing in my opinion as Apple will have completed transitioning from intel integrated graphics across the entire low end.

I almost imagine my family wanting to get me that as an upgrade from what I have as it'd be the least expensive way for me to get a new Mac as I'd use the same speakers, keyboard, mouse and monitor that I currently use.

iMacs are supposed to get a similar upgrade to the new Macbook Pros but with a few differences. They will have the nvidia chipset but I think they should have a higher end GPU like the previous generation had compared to the previous Macbook pro. The iMac had a 8800GS 512MB and the Macbook Pro had an 8600GT 512MB. I would be disappointed if they just stuck in the 9600M GT 512MB that is currently in the 15 inch and lower Macbook Pros. The iMacs are also supposed to get a new magnesium-aluminum casing for improved cooling and I hear rumblings of Quad Core chips being used in them.

To be honest I'd rather get the top of the line iMac as it'd probably have higher specs than the top of the line Mac Mini but I almost imagine me ending up with the latter anyway.

There are also rumors of an iPod Shuffle redesign but I'd never buy one so while I would be interested in seeing what it looks like it's kind of moot for me. iPod Touch upgrades would be nice as I would like to get one but can't afford one for a while. I would like more graphics capabilities on there as they are fast becoming quite the gaming platform and a lower price. It would be also nice if they stuck a digital camera on there but that's probably one of those things they are keeping as an upsell to the iPhone.

They may show off Snow Leopard at Macworld but I kind of feel like this isn't going to be as flashy a revision as previous revisions are. I may be wrong but I don't think they are going to do much in the way of visual changes or improvements. But I could be wrong.

I don't know what else to expect but I'm hoping this Macworld is going to be good and that Apple leaves with a bang. Last years Macworld was disappointing because they barely even talked about the Mac at all. It was pretty forgettable in my opinion.

Rumors are abound for the upcoming Macworld. There of course is the news that it'll be Apple's last Macworld they are going to be only doing their own events after this and Steve Jobs wont be doing the keynote this time. But what has me excited is the news of possible hardware updates at this Macworld.

The Mac Mini is supposed to be finally updated at Macworld. The design of the case is to be revised to look more like time capsule with a gap between the top and bottom. Some say that the top will be changed to black to match the updates to the iMacs and Macbooks. But others say that's not an update it's going to get. The internals are to be refreshed to be equal to the ones in the new Macbooks including the new nvidia geforce 9400M chipset. Optionally one can get two hard drives rather than a hard drive and an optical drive. Good for those wanting to use it as a mini sever. One other upgrade will be for it to be able to address up to 4GB of RAM. The change to the nvidia chipset is a good thing in my opinion as Apple will have completed transitioning from intel integrated graphics across the entire low end.

I almost imagine my family wanting to get me that as an upgrade from what I have as it'd be the least expensive way for me to get a new Mac as I'd use the same speakers, keyboard, mouse and monitor that I currently use.

iMacs are supposed to get a similar upgrade to the new Macbook Pros but with a few differences. They will have the nvidia chipset but I think they should have a higher end GPU like the previous generation had compared to the previous Macbook pro. The iMac had a 8800GS 512MB and the Macbook Pro had an 8600GT 512MB. I would be disappointed if they just stuck in the 9600M GT 512MB that is currently in the 15 inch and lower Macbook Pros. The iMacs are also supposed to get a new magnesium-aluminum casing for improved cooling and I hear rumblings of Quad Core chips being used in them.

To be honest I'd rather get the top of the line iMac as it'd probably have higher specs than the top of the line Mac Mini but I almost imagine me ending up with the latter anyway.

There are also rumors of an iPod Shuffle redesign but I'd never buy one so while I would be interested in seeing what it looks like it's kind of moot for me. iPod Touch upgrades would be nice as I would like to get one but can't afford one for a while. I would like more graphics capabilities on there as they are fast becoming quite the gaming platform and a lower price. It would be also nice if they stuck a digital camera on there but that's probably one of those things they are keeping as an upsell to the iPhone.

They may show off Snow Leopard at Macworld but I kind of feel like this isn't going to be as flashy a revision as previous revisions are. I may be wrong but I don't think they are going to do much in the way of visual changes or improvements. But I could be wrong.

I don't know what else to expect but I'm hoping this Macworld is going to be good and that Apple leaves with a bang. Last years Macworld was disappointing because they barely even talked about the Mac at all. It was pretty forgettable in my opinion.

The new MacBook Pros now sport GeForce 8600s.. I'm glad to see Apple starting to upgrade the graphics in their computers. The only bad part is because of heat requirements the cards in the MBP have to be under-clocked so the 7600 in the current iMac beats it in benchmarks. So if you don't absolutely need a notebook I would hold off for the iMac upgrade.

Hopefully this is the start of Apple upgrading the graphics cards in ALL the Macs. I wish people would realize this but better graphics would benefit more than just gamers... especially with OS' pushing the GPU more.