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• Two months ago, I never thought I would become a Mac fan. I had toyed with the idea, but if my Vista PC wasn’t compromised, I’m sure I’d still be a PC guy. But my time with the MacBook changed things. When it comes to my core computing applications: Internet, office productivity, and digital imaging and content creation, the MacBook works beautifully. It’s incredibly stable, extremely responsive, and a pure joy to use. Small touches like Cover Flow for the normal Finder and integrated Canon RAW support bring the extra level of polish that’s lacking from Windows Vista. With the unibody MacBooks adding a final tactile complement to software, it’s hard for me to imagine ever going back to Windows after making the switch on my primary PC. The MacBook itself is a stunning piece of hardware. Starting with the aluminum exterior and wonderfully intuitive multitouch trackpad to digging internally to the Nvidia GeForce 9400M chipset and careful motherboard design, the MacBook is one of the best notebooks I have used at any price.  Sure, as a techie I’d love to have a higher-quality screen from the MacBook Air, and the backlit keyboard of the 2.4 GHz model, and yes, the addition of FireWire or at the very least an eSATA port would have been welcome. But, the notebook does everything else so well, so efficiently that I still get a smile every time I use my MacBook. I’m not the first PC guy to be impressed by the latest Macs. Our colleagues at Anandtech were pleasantly surprised to see the superior battery life of Mac OS X over Vista and our colleagues at Wired aren’t the only ones to comment on the speed of Mac OS X over even Windows XP. We’re just the first to look into the possibility of performance penalties in running hacked Mac operating systems. Windows Vista is still my platform of choice for home theater PCs and gaming. Windows Media Center still offers a better living room interface than Apple Front Row, and its support for ATSC HDTV makes it must-have in a digital living room. More importantly, I can build Windows Media Center PC of my choice, combining a silent CPU and power supply with a ton of hard drives and multiple ATSC tuners. The Mac doesn’t have anything like Media Center. Plex, the Mac OS X fork of XBMC and Boxee both show a lot of promise, but without the ATSC integration that Windows Media Center offers, it’ll be a while before I even think about leaving Windows Vista behind. The Mac also can’t compete with the PC when it comes to games. While StarCraft 2 will likely be the Mac Game of the Year in 2009, the PC version of Mirror’s Edge already has me itching to rebuild a gaming PC. But I’m waiting to rebuild. In January, Apple is expected to launch a new set of desktops. If these systems offer Core i7 quad-core CPUs, a modern GPU, and arrive at a reasonable price, I’ll be the first to get one to dual boot Vista for games and OS X for everything else. If Apple comes through with a netbook, I’m not sure if I’ll pick one up or not. The MacBook already does what I need in a notebook and the iPhone does everything else I need for extreme portability. An Apple netbook would need eight-hour battery life and full Office 2008 document support for me to make the switch.  Who knows, maybe iWork ’09 will run on ARM?

• Manufacturer Samsung Family SpinPoint MH80 Model Number HM16HJI Capacity 160 GB Rotational Speed (RPM) 5400 Available Capacities 80, 120 GB Platter 2 Interface SATA/150 Cache 8 MB NV Cache Size 256 MB NCQ yes Warranty 3 years Test Setup System Hardware Processor(s) 2x Intel Xeon Processor (Nocona core) 3.6 GHz, FSB800, 1 MB L2 Cache Platform Asus NCL-DS (Socket 604) Intel E7520 Chipset, BIOS 1005 RAM Corsair CM72DD512AR-400 (DDR2-400 ECC, reg.) 2x 512 MB, CL3-3-3-10 Timings System Hard Drive Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB 120 GB, 7,200 RPM, 8 MB Cache, UltraATA/100 Mass Storage Controller(s) Intel 82801EB UltraATA/100 Controller (ICH5) Promise SATA 300TX4 Promise FastTrak TX4310 Driver 2.06.1.310 Networking Broadcom BCM5721 On-Board Gigabit Ethernet NIC Graphics Card On-Board Graphics ATI RageXL, 8 MB System Hardware Performance Measurement c't h2benchw 3.6 PCMark05 V1.01 I/O Performance IOMeter 2003.05.10 Fileserver-Benchmark Webserver-Benchmark Database-Benchmark Workstation-Benchmark System Software & Drivers OS Microsoft Windows Server 2003 Enterprise Edition, Service Pack 1 Platform Driver Intel Chipset Installation Utility 7.0.0.1025 Graphics Driver Default Windows Graphics Driver Acer Ferrari Notebook AMD Platform Socket S1 Acer Ferrari 1004WTMI, 2000 mAh Battery ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 AMD Turion 64 X2 MT-40 Memory Corsair Value Select VS1GSDS667D2 2x 1024 MB DDR2-667 (CL 5.0-5-5-15 2T) DVD ROM Acer EOSD-0MP IEEE1394SATA150 Graphics ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 - 128 MB Audio Realtek ALC 883 System Software & Drivers OS Windows Vista Enterprise 6.0.6000 DirectX Version Version 10

• The introduction of the Acer Ferrari 4000 in August 2005 continued the tradition that the 3200 model started last year. As the name Ferrari is meant to suggest - and it's been properly licensed from the Italian firm, Scuderia Ferrari, for that very purpose - this is a fast, well-designed notebook with ample power for graphics and applications. The case is large, at 14.3 x 10.5 x 1.4 (36.3 x 26.7 x 3.6 cm), but it's also quite attractive. It does a nice job of combining tough, shock-resistant rubberized surfaces where it counts - corners and edges, and on the dashboard inside - and slick, smooth surfaces where it doesn't - on the top of the clamshell, for example. The actual case composition is of strong, rugged carbon fiber, which should hold up to years of abuse. At 6.7 lbs (3 kg), it's neither a lightweight nor a hulking brute, and even the 1.4 lb (.6 kg) power supply brick doesn't up the total weight much past 8 lbs (3.6 kg). The Ferarri 4000 is a little more understated than its all-red predecessor, but a good-looking laptop nevertheless. The Ferrari 4000 comes equipped with an AMD Mobile Turion processor; ours included a 1.8 GHz ML-34, while the 2.0 GHz ML-37 is available as an added-price option. On the graphics side, the unit uses an ATI Mobility Radeon X700, with a 344 MHz GPU and 358 MHz video RAM. The display is a 15.4" Samsung TFT LCD. The unit also includes two 512 MB Hyundai PC2700 (166 MHz) DIMMs, with timings of 2.5-3-3-7. A 100 GB 5,200 RPM Seagate 2.5" drive is standard, which offers a decent amount of storage for a notebook like this one. Rounding out storage is a dual-layer, slot-feed Panasonic DVD±RW optical drive. The mobile comes complete with ports and connections galore: four USB 2.0, FireWire, microphone and headphone jacks, built in Bluetooth and IR ports, one PC Card slot, wired Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11g wireless networking (using Broadcom chipsets), and a built-in Agere fax/modem. Video outputs include VGA, S-Video, and DVI. It even has a built-in memory card reader that can handle the SD, xD, MS, MC Pro, and MMS form factors. You can disable Bluetooth and WLAN connections on the front through easily accessible push buttons. Any way you look at it, this baby's fully-loaded! Benchmarks on this system (see our full review of this notebook for the details) show that this system is decent for gaming, and also very well-suited for typical office productivity applications. Both the Turion process and the ATI Mobility Radeon X700 have useful battery-saving capabilities; AMD's PowerNow! energy saving technology in the CPU, and a similar technology called PowerPlay in the GPU. These augur well for overall battery life, especially if the Ferrari isn't run under a constant full load. At an MSRP of around $2,000, this notebook is a good buy, offering a great combination of power, performance, price and looks. About the only thing it lacks, in fact, is the bevy of software that so many other laptops include: aside from PowerDVD and a few utilities, there's not much here that Microsoft doesn't provide with Windows XP Professional. The most glaring omissions are the lack of anti-virus, anti-spyware, and add-on firewall and security software.