Curiosity

[JSKY]

I was just wondering....

Only played with a Mac once. And not for long.

I know PCs. Inside and out. But i was wondering with a Mac.

What kind of processor comes with them?

Can you upgrade the processor? put in a bigger one.

How about a motherboard. Do you have choices on faster ones. Can you buy and replace them.

And memory... Is it like a PC? can you or do you ever have to get more memory like with PCs. You know each OS from MS needs more and more memory to run.

Can you change or add multable hard drives for more storage?

I allways read the flaming wars over Macs and PCs. And the "I'll stick with a Mac because of this or that reason" (exspecially with Vista requiring more memory, and processor power)

I guess what I'm after is the difference between the two hardware wise. If one has a two year old Mac, do you have to do the things to run newer versions of OS's like with a PC?

I'll stop now for fear of repeating myself with questions.... LOL

[jcl]

What kind of processor comes with them?

Standard Intel whatever. Core 2 Duos and Xeons ATM.

Can you upgrade the processor? put in a bigger one.

The Mac Pros are supposed to upgrade nicely. The rest are basically notebooks in various form factors. Depends on the model, I suppose.

How about a motherboard. Do you have choices on faster ones. Can you buy and replace them.

Possibly, but you might have to crack OS X.

And memory... Is it like a PC?

It's normal PC RAM. Well, normalish. The Mac Pro uses FB-DIMMs.

Can you change or add multable hard drives for more storage?

Yep.

I guess what I'm after is the difference between the two hardware wise.

Nothing. Macs are standard Intel PCs. The configurations, components, and build quality might not be quite the same as a typical off-the-shelf PC in the same price range, but I doubt most people notice if it wasn't for the branding.

If one has a two year old Mac, do you have to do the things to run newer versions of OS's like with a PC?

Apple's hardware generally has a long lifespan. The current version of OS X, 10.5, still nominally supports the Quicksilver G4s circa 2001. (The single-core performance plateau helps, of course. It's conceivable that the G5 Macs -- and possibly the higher-end G4s -- could be supported throughout OS X's entire life.)

Edited November 10, 2007 by jcl

[isteve]

Short video of the Mac Pro. As you can see although the components are basically the same the configuration are more server like. The top of the line Pro has 2 X Quad Core Xeons. Mac graphic cards are flashed with a different firmware and Macs don't use a software type BIOS instead using Extensible Firmware Interface (EFI).

[JSKY]

Thanks Guys

I at least undrestand the differences now.

And the vid helps.

[option-shift-k]

Since 2006, Apple has transitioned over to all intel chips. All macs currently come with at least a core 2 duo processor.

Here is the great moment when the great Steve Jobs annouces the port to intel:

Edited January 25, 2008 by option-shift-k