xbox 360 and macs
 

Dunno if this is the right place but I think microsoft are taking the p*** out of The mac here,
All mac fans scream quality over quantity when it comes to there computers and the cost
How can apple justfy charging over a grand for a 2 gig ish chip with poor componants,while microsoft are going to release the xbox360 with a triple core @ 3.2 ghz powerpc chip, for an estimated £250
Are the mac motherboards that good? is the os that powerful that the maths make sense? I just do not understand it

http://www.theregister.com/2005/05/13/ms_xbox_360/

before im totally roasted this is pure opinion on my behalf, so calm down mac fanboys/girls

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

One possible reason is Apple have to make a profit on the hardware.

Consoles, traditionally, have been sold at a huge loss, and the difference made up with sales of games and accessories.

You can bet the Xbox costs Microsoft a lot more than £250 to manufacture.

I am not defending Apple's pricing. Far from it. In general, their stuff, while well engineered, is overpriced.

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

If i wasnt so tired...i'd probably shout when you said "poor components"

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

Simple. MS are using a different chip BASED on the PowerPC. It is not, however, a G5. They worked with IBM to create a chip based on the G5 but as its turned out it is simply a heavily modded chip and not a G5. Otherwise apple would be using it. Also this chip could not really be used in a computer, it wouldnt work that well.

Bit cheap to try and make a point about macs based on the xbox

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

Cheap?? I made a point based on my opinion,I stated it was my opinion only,I knew and you can see from my post I predicted a roasting from mac fanboys and I thank you for proving my prediction correct
I asked for answers as to why I was not making a cheap shot,I said I do not understand,you have attempted to explain things but you took my whole point wrong and thought I was having a go at mac.
Im a pc fanboy I admit it,I like fast gaming and easy to find apps I want to use,I like the fact I can buy nearly any software without having to make sure it will work.
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Everything apart from the cpu mobo and os are low end cheap to buy parts there is no argument for low capacity hdd ,low end gfx,as on a lot of models inadequate quantities of ram

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

Agree with about the RAM and GFX cards, but the current G5 range comes with a 250 Gig SATA drive as standard. The iMacs, eMacs and mini mac come with 80 Gig 7200 RPM ata drive.

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

You have inputted information as if it was fact though when you compare the chips used in apple computers to the xbox. The answer to your question is that the chip in the xbox is 1) Not a G5 2) Not as powerful as a PowerMac G5 3) Has been heavily modded. The man reason this has kicked off was because the Xbox 2 development kit runs on G5 PowerMacs and still does

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

A 250Gig SATA disc is about £80 inc VAT these days, so it's not as if that is a hugely expensive component. Apple has to put a big drive in at the beginning, because unlike PCs you can't just buy 2 or 3 HDs later on and put them in the case. Most off the shelf PCs come with 160Gig SATA drives these days anyway.

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

Where did i state its all fact? The info on the chip comes from reading articles the rest and I quote myself

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I am happy to accept I am incorrect about the hdd size

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

What he said ^^^^^^^^


The XBox 360 will be sold at a loss, just like the original XBox, & just like pretty much every other console.


The consoles are never sold at a profit. The money comes from the games, controllers, memory cards, etc.


Apple wouldn't be allowed to use it. Microsoft own the design - it's their baby, they have the rights (unlike the chip in the XBox 1). I don't see any reason other than that why it couldn't be used in a computer.




Yes, it isn't a G5, but it is a RISC based PowerPC chip, albeit made specifically for MS.

Not as powerful???

Hmm.

Latest PowerMac G5 - comes with dual G5 processors up to 2.7GHz.

XBox 360 - has three 3.2 GHz PowerPC cores on a single chip, each capable of running two threads at once.

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

Actually, the full size G5s are considerably easier to expand than most PCs. (they do have extra drive bays, and these are easily accessible). So, yes, you *can* add extra hard drives to them.

Re: xbox 360 and macs
 

The IBM chip going into the xbox 360 is by no means a slouch, 3 x 3.2GHz dual thread (aka hyperthreading) cpu's. They're quoting over a teraflop of floating point peformance (thats a heck of a lot) the southampton uni supercomputer runs at around 3. somthing tflop's and that uses 600 opterons.
The cpu's would be dedicated for doing console like stuff, but still its no slouch, and i'm sorry but the G5 isnt the best processor out there by a long shot. It is afterall a cut down ppc970 (? not 100% on the code #)

The gpu in the new xbox is also very impressive, 48 pipelines running at 500mhz, and 512megs of 700mhz gddr3 ram. (comparison, x850pt is a 525mhz core but only 16 pipes, and has 256mb of 550mhz gddr3 ram) it just goes to show how much markup there is on pc parts since to build a pc to this sort of spec will set you back thousands, if the hardware existed, the gpu is years ahead of anything coming in the pc, unless the ati 'r520 fudo' is really a pc version of the xbox chip