Low End Mac Reader Specials

TypeStyler For Mac OS X is Now Shipping! Download The Free Fully Functional 60 Day Tryout at www.typestyler.com

OWC: Get the Right Memory / Ram for your Mac. Top Quality, Competitive Prices, Lifetime Warranty. Expert Support and Video Installation Guidies too! 4.0GB Matched Sets from $87.99, Options up to 32GB. Click here

Don't install Parallels to play poker online! Poker Mac will show you how to download and install a native Mac poker application such as Full Tilt Poker Mac.

Laptop Hardware Provided by TechRestore - Overnight Mac & iPod Repairs.

Compare products like desktop computers, apple laptops, apple macs, and LCD Monitors side by side! All the information and reviews to make the best purchasing decision for new mobile phones, sat nav systems, or MP3 players. The Ciao online shopping community makes searching products easy for you.

Mac Musings

What's the Better Value at the Same Price, a 2.7 GHz Dual CPU or 2.3 GHz Dual Core?

Dan Knight - 2006.03.15 - Tip Jar

What's the better value, a 2.7 GHz dual processor Power Mac G5 or a 2.3 GHz Power Mac G5 with dual cores? With both available refurbished for the same US$2,149 price from the Apple Store, that's a good question.

Both machines come with 512 MB of RAM and 16x dual-layer SuperDrives, but from there their specifications diverge. The 2.7 GHz model has two separate CPUs, each with a dedicated 512 KB level 2 cache and sitting on a 1.35 GHz bus. The 2.3 GHz Dual has two cores on a single chip, each with its own 1 MB level 2 cache and sitting on a 1.15 GHz bus.

The 2.3 GHz Dual has a bigger hard drive and a better video card. It also has PCI Express expansion slots, which is a better spec than the PCI-X slots found in the 2.7 GHz G5. And that can be one of the Dual's drawbacks - there are more PCI-X cards available than PCIe ones at present.

The big question usually boils down to performance, since most Mac users don't make much (if any) use of expansion slots. Is the dual CPU 2.7 GHz model faster? Or does the bigger cache and dual-core architecture let the 2.3 GHz Dual keep up?

Macworld magazine ran the old 2.3 GHz and 2.7 GHz dual processor Power Macs through Speedmark 4 and compared them with the new 2.0 GHz and 2.3 GHz dual-core G5s. Here's what they found: Except for Unreal Tournament 2004 frame rate, the 2.7 GHz model is faster than the newer dual-core model with its PCI Express architecture.

How much faster? On the order of 10-15% faster in general, and roughly 30% faster when rendering video in iMovie HD. (For the record, the dual-core 2.3 GHz G5 edged out the dual processor 2.3 GHz G5 in all tests but one, and that one was a tie.)

So if you're looking for raw horsepower, the Power Mac G5/2.7 GHz dual processor model beats the Power Mac G4/2.3 dual-core model. If you're looking for the best gaming performance, however, the new dual-core G5s get the nod.

But it's not as simple as performance. Expandability is a huge factor for some users, and that's where we find the biggest difference between the older dual processor Power Macs and the newer dual-core ones. PCI Express is a superior expansion bus, but it does you no good if you already have PCI-X cards or the card you want is available for PCI-X but not yet made for PCIe.

Looking forward, PCIe will displace PCI-X, just as it displace PCI on all but the entry-level Power Macs when Apple moved beyond the G4.

So while the 2.7 GHz dual processor G5 wins on processing power, if there's any chance you'll be adding a PCI-X or PCIe card to the system, that may be a bigger factor than 10-30% more horsepower. And that's a call you're going to have to make based on your current circumstances and future plans.

Dan Knight has been using Macs since 1986, sold Macs for several years, supported them for many more years, and has been publishing Low End Mac since April 1997. If you find Dan's articles helpful, please consider making a donation to his tip jar.

Recent Mac Musings

IDE Is Dead; Long Live SATA!, 11.04. SATA has displaced parallel ATA. While IDE hard drives haven't disappeared, the best deals are in SATA hard drives.
The Future of Personal Computing: Personal Servers and Low Cost Portables, 11.02. With WiFi everywhere, virtual network computing, and remote access, your iPhone, iTouch, iTablet, or MacBook Air becomes a gateway to your home or office computer.
The Late 2009 Mac mini Value Equation, 10.21. We called the Mac mini 'the best value in desktop Macs' two months ago, and the refreshed Mac mini only improves that value.
The Late 2009 MacBook Value Equation, 10.21. The redesigned consumer MacBook uses unibody construction, gains LED backlighting and battery life, but loses FireWire.
More in the Mac Musings index.

Links for the Day

Mac of the Day: 17" iMac G4/800 MHz, July 2002 - The iMac 'grows up' with a 17" 1440 x 900 display.
Group of the Day: LisaList supports Lisa users.
November 8 in LEM history: 99: OS 9: I think I like it - 01: The simplified Mac life - Soured on Windows - Flea market Mac - 02: Little room for improvement in new 'Books - Combo drive upgrade for iceBooks - 04: Re-Porter - 05: Fix the old iMac or buy a Mac mini? - Apple's Copland project - 06: MacBook Core 2 - MacBook value equation - Cheap is as cheap does - 07: Problems with Classic mode in Tiger - The G4 Power Mac that won't run Leopard
Support Low End Mac

Recent Deals

Best Mac Pro Deals, 11.03. Used 2.66 GHz 4-core, $1,300; 3.0 8-core. $2,299; refurb 2.66 4-core Nehalem, $2,149; 2.93, $2,549; 2.26 8-core, $2,799; 2.93, $4,999.
Best iPhone Deals, 11.03. New 8 GB iPhone 3G, $$99; refurb 16 GB 3GS, $149; new, $199; 32 GB, $299.
Best 12" PowerBook G4 Deals, 11.03. Used 867 MHz SperDrive, $348; 1 GHz, $499; 1.33 Combo, $298; SD, $559; 1.5 Combo, $448; SuperDrive, $589.
Best Power Mac G3 and PCI Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used beige 300 MHz, $25; G4/366, $49; blue & white 350, $80; 400, $90; 450, $105; PCI video cards from $15; shipping additional.
Best Power Mac G4 and AGP Video Card Deals, 11.02. Used 400 MHz, $50; 733 MHz, $69; 933 MHz, $209; 1.25 GHz dual, $299.
Best 15" MacBook Pro Deals, 11.02. Used 2.0 GHz, $800; 2.2, $900; 2.4, $1,000; refurb 2.53, $1,449; 2.66, $1,699; 2.8, $1,949; 3.06, $2,169; new 2.53, $1,579; 2.66, $1,799; more.
Best Mac mini Deals, 10.30. Used 1.33 GHz G4 mini, $379; 1.42, $389; 1.5, $419; 1.83 GHz Core Duo, $350; Core 2, $439; new 2.26 GHz nVidia, $580; 2.53 GHz, $770; Server, $990.
Best G4 iBook Deals, 10.30. Used 12" 1.07 GHz Combo, $225; 1.33 GHz, $298; 14" 1 GHz, $349; 1.33 GHz, $398; 1.42 GHz SuperDrive, $498.
Best Classic Mac OS Deals, 10.30. System 6.0.8 floppies, $10; 7.1, $12; 7.5, $20; 7.5 CD, $4; 7.6 $13; 8.1, $11; 8.5, $20; 8.6, $90; 9.0, $20; 9.2.2, $30.
More deals in our archive.

About LEM | Support | Usage | Privacy | Contacts

Entire Low End Mac website copyright ©1997-2009 by Cobweb Publishing, Inc., unless otherwise noted. All rights reserved. Advice presented in good faith, but what works for one may not work for all. Please report errors to .
LINKS: We allow and encourage links to any public page as long as the linked page does not appear within a frame that prevents bookmarking it.
Access our RSS news feed at http://lowendmac.com/feed.xml.
Email may be published at our discretion; email addresses will not be published without permission, and we will encrypt them in hopes of avoiding spammers. If you prefer your message not be published, mark it "not for publication." Letters may be edited for length, context, and to match house style.
PRIVACY: We don't collect personal information unless you explicitly provide it. For more details, see our Terms of Use.
Low End Mac is an independent publication and has not been authorized, sponsored, or otherwise approved by Apple Inc. Apple, the Apple logo, Macintosh, iBook, iMac, eMac, iPod, iPhone, PowerBook, MacBook, MagSafe, Mac Pro, Apple TV, and AirPort are registered trademarks of Apple Inc. Additional company and product names may be trademarks or registered trademarks and are hereby acknowledged.