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• Our MacBook shipped with the Toshiba MK1653GSX SATA-II 160GB drive. MacBook 2.4 GHz machines with 250 GB also ship with Toshiba HDDs.  These drives have some of the highest areal densities per platter (254 gigabits per square inch). The 160 GB drive is a single platter design with two data heads. Average seek time is 12 ms with a track-to-track of 2 ms to a maximum of 22 ms seek. Seeks require 2.2 watts, read/write eats up 1.9 watts, while idle power consumption is 0.85 watts. MTTF is a disappointing 300,000 hours. We also tested a MacBook that shipped with a Fujitsu MHZ2160BH SATA-II 160 GB drive. Track to track time is a faster at 1.5 ms and idle power consumption is better at 0.6 watts. Read/write is slightly worse at 2.1 watts. Seek power consumption is not reported. MTBF is also a disappointing 300,000 hours. The unibody MacBook Pro ships with a different 5,400 rpm drive. We’ve seen MBP’s shipped with Hitachi Travelstar 5K320 drives (HTS543232L9SA02). While this specific model is not listed in Hitachi’s product documentation, the “SA0” designation typically refers to SATA 1.5 Gb/s designs as opposed to SATA 3.0Gb/s. This only makes a difference when transferring data from the cache to the host as 5,400 rpm notebook drives are unable to saturate a SATA 1.5 Gb/s connection. In theory, SATA 1.5 Gb/s connections require less power than SATA 3 Gb/s connections. Average seek time is also 12 ms, but the track-to-track time of 1 ms and a maximum full stroke of 20 ms is slightly faster. Seeks require 2.2 W, read/write is superior at 1.8 W, and active idle consumption is 0.8W. MTBF is not disclosed. In general, these are run-of-the-mill notebook HDDs and we recommend upgrading to aftermarket HDDs. Time Machine makes it extremely straightforward to migrate your computer from one HDD to another (provided that you have an external drive). One good choice is the Seagate Momentus 7200.4. Not only is this a 7,200 rpm drive for added performance, but power consumption is improved to 1.554 W for seeks and 0.67 W at idle. MTBF is 500,000 hours. The Seagate drive offers a 5 year warranty as opposed to the 3 year of the Toshiba, Fujitsu or Hitachi drives that ship with the MacBook and MacBook Pro. Solid State Storage For our setup, we elected to go with solid state drives. SSDs are available in two formats: SLC and MLC. SLC is more expensive but offers added reliability and performance. MLC allows higher density memory chips to be produced, resulting in higher capacity drives at relatively affordable prices. Many of the early budget MLC solid state drives have been reported to have poor performance with small files (“stuttering”). The newer MLC drives that ship from Apple directly (manufactured by Samsung), the Intel X-25M, and the OCZ Vertex SSD line are all expected to have good performance because they use a different memory controller. We elected to go with the OCZ SATA-II 64 GB SSD. Based upon Samsung’s SLC SSD technology, the OCZ solid state drive features a flagship 2,000,000 hours MTBF. In addition to the added performance and reliability that solid state drives can offer, the OCZ drive also adds considerable performance benefits over the standard 5,400 rpm hard drives. Power consumption during read/writes is just 0.5 W and 0.35 W with an idle of 0.2 W.The Intel X-25E is expected to offer the same level of reliability as the OCZ drive (2M hours MTBF) with even greater performance. The enthusiast-priced Vertex SSD drives from OCZ have an MTBF of 1,500,000 hours and use a new memory controller which is supposed to prevent the stuttering that has plagued the other budget drives. The Intel X-25M has an MTBF of 1,200,000 hours. The Samsung MLC drives available in 128 GB capacities shipping in current MacBooks have an MTBF of 1,000,000 hours. Going to SSD halved our boot times to about 25 seconds as compared to 56 seconds off the 5,400 rpm drive. Interestingly, the time it took to write a 2GB file was nearly equivalent to the boot time: Time to Write 2GB File (1k blocks) Factory installed HDD: 50.577 seconds (42.46MB/sec): OCZ SATA-II SSD: 25.076 seconds (85.63MB/sec) Time to Read 2GB File (1k blocks) Factory default HDD: 49.915 seconds (43.03MB/sec) OCZ SATA-II SSD: 18.935 seconds (113.41 MB/sec) Stock HDD (5400 rpm)OCZ SATA-II SSDWrite 2GB File (1k blocks)42.46 MB/sec85.63 MB/secRead 2GB File (1k blocks)43.03 MB/sec113.41 MB/secSequential  Uncached Write (4k blocks)62.07 MB/sec85.56 MB/secUncached Write (256k blocks)46.28 MB/sec77.91 MB/secUncached Read (4k blocks)19.76 MB/sec17.5 MB/secUncached Read (266k blocks)55.82 MB/sec95.34 MB/secRandomUncached Write (4k blocks)1.26 MB/sec5.2 MB/secUncached Write (256k blocks)26.58 MB/sec69.41 MB/secUncached Read (4k blocks)0.46 MB/sec10.58 MB/secUncached Read (266k blocks)21.01 MB/sec93.82 MB/sec

• Apple MacBook Review: Part 2

  You can’t talk about a Mac notebook or desktop without talking about Mac OS X. For the uninitiated, Apple has had a steady stream of operating system releases starting with 10.0 Cheetah, 10.1 Puma, 10.2 Jaguar, 10.3 Panther, 10.4 Tiger, and 10.5 Leopard. While 10.1 was a free upgrade for 10.0 users, each operating system release thereafter has required a purchase, typically $129 ($109 street) for a single user license, $199 for a 5-pack family license ($139 street), and $69 from an on-campus bookstore. OS X 10.0 was released around the same time that Windows XP was released, and OS X 10.5 was released around the same time that Windows Vista was released. Unsurprisingly, the difference between Leopard and Cheetah are as significant as the difference between Windows Vista and Windows XP. The real difference is that OS X has had more incremental releases that can really be thought of as “service packs plus bonuses.” Not only does each “point one release” address bugs, it also added extra features and capabilities. I would bore you if you I went over all of the nitty, gritty of the underlying technology of OS X and debate the pros and cons of the XNU kernel, the inferiority of Leopard’s Address Space Layout Randomization in comparison to Vista’s, or the differences between Xcode and Visual Studio. I won’t stress the little things like the fact that copy/paste is “command-C and command-V” as opposed to CTRL-C and CTRL-V, meaning that it feels like “ALT-C” and “ALT-V” because you’re using your thumb instead of your small finger. It takes a few days for you to adapt.  Instead, I’ll just touch upon some of the key features that make a Mac, a Mac. Responsiveness When the iPhone was first launched, one of the most impressive features was the speed and responsiveness compared to other smartphones with the mobile Web at the time. Working with Mac OS X provides the same overall level of fit-and-finish as the iPhone. Opening multiple windows, navigating between them, and launching applications is simply faster in Mac OS X as compared to Windows Vista or even Linux. This wasn’t always the case with Macs. Even when the GPU-accelerated interface was introduced in OS X 10.2, Windows XP was still the faster performing operating system. As GPUs have continued to get faster and faster, however, the OS X’s full GPU-dependent interface beats the capabilities of Windows Vista. Additional architecture improvements have been made as well. Mac OS will automatically defrag small files under 20 MB each time the file is accessed in order to provide a better-maintained filesystem. By default, a Mac will automatically delete old log files and temporary files to maintain free space. Finally, since Mac OS X adopts a Unix-like approach with preferences stored in multiple files rather than a single registry hive, as you add new software, there is less fragmentation.

• The Apple Mac Cost Misconception

  Note: This isn’t a guide to evangelize and convert people from Windows to Mac OS X. It’s a guide to give people options. If you’re happy with what you’ve got, great! But if you’re interested in alternatives read on. After my first article on Macs and OS X, there were several readers who just down right bashed Macs for pricing and OS X without solid reasoning or legitimate hand’s on experience of Macs. So this is a follow-up. Let’s get straight to the point. Tom’s Hardware isn’t about being a "PC fanboy." It’s about finding the best hardware, revealing up and coming tech and debunking predetermined notions. That begs the question, especially here: what’s so special about a Mac anyway? Here’s the short answer: nothing really, just some very elegant aluminum chassis designs. The key, is the operating system. Even still, let’s settle this issue about price. In a recent comment, someone came up with an analogy that a Mac isn’t really a BMW, but rather a Hyundai dressed up in a nice exterior. One problem: Hyundai’s don’t have nice European car exteriors. And to generalize it this way shows the lack of willing to understand the core of the Mac: it’s operating system. Because that’s really what it’s about. But for the sake of these first few pages, let’s leave Mac OS X out of the picture for now. Let’s just see where Apple comes in on hardware. In terms of hardware, there’s nothing really special about a Mac aside from elegant designs, be it a Mac Pro or MacBook Pro, that makes it incredibly more worthwhile than the PC equivalent. And there’s no doubt that you can get an equally equipped PC, or build one yourself, for less money. In fact, I mentioned this in my previous article, although some people seemed to have completely missed the page where I complained about Apple’s outrageous prices altogether. However, building a PC to do the same isn’t the point, because you can always buy a cheaper car to get you from A to B. Instead, let’s see what you can get for $2000, from Apple and from others. For $2000, do you really get much less? Let’s take a quick look at some of Apple’s competition and their pricing structure compared to Apple’s: We went to Dell’s website and picked out what Dell indicated was a serious gaming laptop. We also took the XPS model that was priced the same as the baseline MacBook Pro. Let’s take a look at the results. Apple vs. Dell Price Comparison $1999 MacBook Pro$1999 Dell XPS M1730 2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo2.4 GHz Core 2 Duo 2 GB of RAM2 GB of Shared RAM NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256 MBNVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT with Shared MB 200 GB HDD200 GB HDD 15.4-inch LED LCD17-inch LCD 1440x9001920x1200 Dual-Layer DVD BurnerDual-Layer DVD Burner 802.11n Wi-Fi802.11g Wi-Fi Bluetooth Built in WebcamBuilt in Webcam Backlit KB with Ambient Sensor        Optical Audio Output/InputSPDIF through Dongle Dual-Link DVI OutputDual-Link DVI Output Remote MagSafe PowerStandard female/male Jack 5.4 lbs10.6 lbs 1 inch thick2 inch thick For the most part, the two systems are comparable, indicating that at least for a laptop, Apple’s pricing fits in line with comparable hardware. Certain things like shared memory for graphics leave some performance desires for the XPS, but the XPS has a strong leg up on the MacBook Pro with the larger screen size. Apple’s MacBook Pro has several small advantages over the XPS, mainly with the MagSafe connector and it’s nearly take-for-granted use. I have seen several incidences where people have tripped over or through someone else’s MacBook Pro power cord and the MagSafe design literally saved the laptops from flying. The biggest differences are the screen size, weight, thickness, and shared memory. For absolute performance, the screen size won’t matter here, but the slow shared graphics memory on the XPS will. For a laptop that Dell indicates is a gaming machine, shared memory is a disappointment, as graphics is an important area for 3D gaming. For another comparison, let’s look at the MacBook Air to VoodooPC’s Envy 133: Apple vs. VoodooPC Price Comparison $1799 MacBook Air$2099 Envy 133 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo 2 GB of Shared RAM2 GB of Shared RAM Intel GMA X3100 Shared RAMIntel GMA X3100 Shared RAM 80 GB ATA HDD80 GB HDD 13.3-inch LED LCD13.3-inch LCD 1280x8001280x800 External eSATA Super Multi Drive 802.11n Wi-Fi802.11n Wi-Fi BluetoothBluetooth Built in WebcamBuilt in Webcam Backlit KB with Ambient SensorBacklit KB with Ambient Sensor DVI OutputHDMI MagSafe PowerStandard female/male Jack 3.0 lbs3.37 lbs (with SSD) 0.16 to 0.75 inch thick0.70 inch thick iLife ’08 SuiteNo software package At this point, the Envy is $300 more expensive than the MacBook Air. Although the Envy 133 does include an external optical drive, tacking on Apple’s quite expensive $99 MacBook Air SuperDrive to the purchase of the MacBook Air still leaves a $200 gap. Bottom line: Macs aren’t "way more" expensive than PCs. So where do things get really hairy with Apple? Upgrades. Apple really stabs you in the face when you’re upgrading your Mac. All goes well when you want to buy a base system, but as soon as you want to add options, be prepared to be murdered. I’ll talk about this later. Let’s take a look at desktops.