QUICK TAKES! (updated January 5th, 2009)
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SPEED TESTS by date
December 30th, 2008 -- MISS_NG P I E C E S -- Our updated list on what's missing from Apple Inc. products and product line.
December 26th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Three Fast Macs. We compare the fastest Mac Pro, MacBook Pro, and iMac running Photoshop CS4, After Effects CS4, Aperture, and Compressor.
December 26th, 2008 (Evolving) -- We've updated our "December 2008 Bargains" from our advertisers and affiliated companies. If you have a small business, it's your last chance to make purchase you can deduct for the 2008 tax year.
December 22nd, 2008 -- Mac OS X 10.5.5 versus 10.5.6 -- Do Graphics Run Faster In The Newest Update?
December 12th, 2008 -- REVIEW: CoolGear SATA Drive Docking Station -- ingenious way to connect notebook and desktop drives to USB 2.0 or SATA ports.
December 11th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: HighPoint RocketRAID 2680 SATA/SAS RAID PCIe Host Adapter versus the 'sister' RocketRAID 4320 -- (both support up to 8 SATA or SAS drives but the RR2680 costs half as much -- so what's the difference?)
December 4th, 2008 (Appended) -- DRIVE SHOOTOUT: HDD versus SSD in the 'late 2008' MacBook Pro -- we added the "screaming" Intel X25-M to the mix. So now it's two HDDs vs two SSDs.
December 4th, 2008 (Appended) -- CPU CRUNCH SHOOTOUT: 'late 2008' MacBook Pro 2.8GHz versus Older MacBook Pros (We added the low end 'late 08' MacBook Pro 2.4GHz and the 13" MacBook 2.4)
December 3rd, 2008 (Appended) -- 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: All three models of 15" 'late 2008' Apple MacBook Pro + one 13" 'late 2008' MacBook (includes ETQW, Halo, WoW & Prey results at 1280x800 and 1440x900).
November 20th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Sonnet Tech ExpressCard CF Reader versus FireWire 800 and USB 2.0 Readers.
November 19th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Dual Intel X-25M SSDs versus other fast Boot Drives for the Mac Pro
November 4th, 2008 -- 'SERIOUS' GRAPHICS: 'late 2008' Macbook Pro runs iMaginator and Motion benchmarks plus OpenGL Extensions Viewer.
October 31st, 2008 -- PUSHING THE LIMIT: 6GB of RAM in the 'late 2008' MacBook Pro -- Will it work? Any problems? Any speed penalty?
October 29th, 2008 -- STORAGE INTERFACE SHOOTOUT: USB 2.0 vs FireWire 400 vs FireWire 800 vs Serial ATA on the 'Late 2008' MacBook Pro
October 28th, 2008 -- 1440x900 3D GRAPHICS SHOOTOUT: 2.53GHz vs 2.8GHz MacBook Pro - (using both 9400M and 9600M GT modes)
October 23rd, 2008 -- GPU COMPARISON: GeForce 9400M versus GeForce 9600M GT -- Both in the 'late 2008' MacBook Pro 2.8GHz
October 17th, 2008 -- SPEED & SAFETY: HighPoint RocketRAID 4320 with 5, 6, 7 and 8 drives in RAID 5 and 6 sets.
October 15th, 2008 -- Performance Analysis of the "late 2008" MacBook and MacBook Pro
October 8th, 2008 -- TRANSINTL PRO DRIVE: A Unique Mac Pro Storage Solution
October 7th, 2008 -- CONSUMER HD VIDEO, PART TWO: Editing Footage and Authoring/Burning Blu-ray Movie Disc
October 3rd, 2008 -- ROAD TRIP TIPS FOR TECH HEADS -- various gizmos you might want to bring along on your next business trip or vacation
September 26th, 2008 -- REVIEW: HighPoint RocketRAID 4320 SAS/SATA 8 channel RAID host adapter -- real "muscle" for Pros
September 18th, 2008 -- Mac OS X 10.5.4 versus 10.5.5 -- Do Graphics Intensive Apps Run FASTER?
September 16th, 2008 -- Why Factory Refurbs from Apple are Cool.
September 15th, 2008 (Corrected*) -- CONSUMER HD VIDEO, PART ONE: Shooting and Capturing -- (* we were wrong -- FCP can capture AVCHD -- and does it faster)
August 29th, 2008 (Updated with 4870 X2 results) -- FUTURE MAC PRO GPUs: GeForce GTX 280? Radeon HD 4870? (We test them against the current upgrades: Radeon HD 3870, GeForce 8800 GT, and Quadro FX 5600 under Windows Ultimate.)
August 1st, 2008 -- SPEED TEST: LaCie Little Big Disk Quadra One Terabyte (SATA, FW800, and USB2 results
July 27th, 2008 -- DOWNLOAD SPEED TESTS: Apple iPhone 3G vs EDGE
July 23rd, 2008 -- SOLUTION: MaxUpgrades' kit mounts Velociraptors in Mac Pro drive bays
July 18th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: CalDigit RAID card versus Apple Pro RAID card - RAID 0 and RAID 5 internally to the Mac Pro
July 16th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: HighPoint RocketRAID 2640x4 versus Apple Pro RAID - both SAS and SATA, both RAID 0 and RAID 5
July 10th, 2008 -- ANALYSIS: iPhone 3G -- significant improvements
July 9th, 2008 -- NOTEBOOK DRIVE SHOOTOUT: 7K 320GB versus 5K 500GB
June 20th, 2008 -- WD Velociraptor versus other fast SATA drives
June 13th, 2008 -- CORE IMAGE SAVIOR: ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition
June 13th, 2008 -- MAC GAME SHOOTOUT: ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition versus GeForce 8800 GT and other GPUs
June 13th, 2008 -- PC GAME SHOOTOUT: ATI Radeon HD 3870 Mac & PC Edition versus GeForce 8800 GT (under Vista 64 in Boot Camp partition)
May 30th, 2008 -- Mac OS X 10.5.3 versus 10.5.2: Has the GeForce 8800's Core Image Performance Improved?
May 23rd, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Portable SATA Notebook RAID -- Sonnet Fusion F2 versus LaCie LBD Quadra
May 23rd, 2008 (Updated) -- 'Early 2008' iMac -- iMovie Render Surprise: Radeon 2600 beats GeForce 8800!
May 16th, 2008 -- 'Early 2008' iMac -- CPU Crunch Tests
May 9th, 2008 -- 'Early 2008' iMac -- Radeon HD 2600 Pro versus GeForce 8800 GS
May 2nd, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: High Capacity Notebook Drives in FireWire 800 Enclosures - includes new Hitachi 5K 500GB notebook drive (Updated at 6PM Pacific Time with info on the G-RAID mini.)
May 1st, 2008 (Appended) -- REALITY CHECK: Does Corsair's Low Latency memory for Mac Laptops really make them go faster? (Added "video to layers" test simliar to the one published by Corsair.)
April 30th, 2008 ("improved") -- SHOOTOUT: Enemy Territory: Quake Wars - Fastest Mac Pro with Radeon 2600 and Geforce 8800 - Updated using an improved netdemo file. Threaded Rendering confirmed.
April 29th, 2008 (Updated) -- GPU SHOOT 'EM UP: Windows Vista 64 on the 2008 Mac Pro - Six Graphics Cards and Four 3D Games - (ETQW added; Crossfire 2600 added)
April 24th, 2008 -- 3D GAME SHOOT 'EM UP: Legacy GeForce 8800 GT versus others -- finally we have it for "1st Generation" Mac Pros.
April 22nd, 2008 (Corrections) -- PREVIEW: FirmTek's SpyderHUB -- "More Ports To The People"
April 18th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: MacBook Air versus MacBook Pro -- CPU and GPU tests
April 17th, 2008 -- REVIEW: FirmTek's SeriTek/5PM Direct-To-Backplane PM Enclosure
April 17th, 2008 (Updated) -- CPU CRUNCH: 2008 vs 2007 MacBook Pros -- L2 cache amount is the key -- added Compressor test results
April 11th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: RAID 0 vs 3 vs 5 vs 6 -- RocketRAID 3522 connected to eight Samsung Spinpoint F1 drives.
April 4th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Western Digital 640GB versus other 7K SATA 3G drives -- Could it be the "sweet spot" in price, capacity, and performance as the ultimate boot drive?
April 1st, 2008 -- GPU "Shoot 'em Up": "early 2008" MacBook Pros versus others -- see 17" MBP's secret advantage
March 21st, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: SAS vs SATA -- One, Two, Three, and Four Drive Configurations
March 14th, 2008 -- PREVIEW: HighPoint RocketRAID 3522 3G SATA RAID host adapter -- key features discussed -- benchmarks to follow
March 13th, 2008 -- MAX MEMORY: 32 Gigabytes in the "early 2008" Mac Pro
March 3rd, 2008 -- HAMMERING IT HOME: Fifteen RAM Preview renders with Motion 3 on four different "early 2008" Mac Pro graphics cards.
March 3rd, 2008 (Updated) -- GPU SHOOT 'EM UP: GeForce 8800 GT versus Radeon HD 2600 XT and Radeon X1900 XT -- added Quadro FX 5600 just for fun
February 29th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Potential Boot Drives for the 2008 Mac Pro -- added two more one terabyte drives
February 22nd, 2008 (Updated) -- MEMORY TESTING, TAKE 2: "early 2008" Mac Pro 3.2GHz 8-core tested with 12 different memory configurations from 4GB to 16GB using 64-bit STREAM app.
February 12th, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: MacBook Air HDD versus SSD -- using QuickBench 4.03 random and sequential, small and large blocks.
February 6th, 2008 (Updated) -- ANALYSIS: MacBook Air -- Power User Dream 'Book? Or First Class Lap Sculpture? -- We were seduced by the "Air Side."
February 1st, 2008 -- SHOOTOUT: Low-End Meets High-End or 4-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro versus 8-core 3.2GHz Mac Pro
January 28th, 2008 (Updated) -- MEMORY COMPARED: 800MHz versus 667MHz in the Mac Pro 3.2GHz 'Harpertown' -- Added results from STREAM 64-bit Parallel Multi-Threaded benchmark
January 27th, 2008 (Updated) -- GPU SHOOT 'EM UP: Radeon HD 2600 XT on both old and new Mac Pros -- added results from the 2.8GHz Mac Pro and G5/2.5GHz Quad-Core
January 27th, 2008 (Updated) -- CPU INTENSIVE SHOOTOUT: '2008' Mac Pro versus previous Mac towers - added full 2.8GHz Mac Pro results and G5/2.5GHz results
January 21st, 2008 -- POWER USAGE and NOISE LEVELS: 3.2GHz Mac Pro 'Harpertown' versus 3.0GHz Mac Pro 'Clovertown'
January 16th, 2008 -- ANALYSIS: MacWorld Expo SF '08 Product Announcements in Steve Jobs' Keynote
January 16th, 2008 -- BOOTHS at MacWorld SF 2008 that you don't want to miss.
January 14th, 2008 (Updated) -- Mac Pro BUYING ADVICE: Radeon HD 2600 XT or GeForce 8800 GT?
December 28th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: AT&T iPhone versus Verizon LG Voyager
December 27th, 2007 -- Our HOT DEALS page has been updated with the latest discounts on Apple systems, graphics cards, LCD displays, and memory.
December 20th, 2007 (UPDATE) -- LOW REZ GAMING: MacBook 2.2GHz "Rosa" with GMA X3100 versus two rival Mac laptops
December 19th, 2007 -- TRAINING RESOURCE: Nikon D200 Made Easy, a DVD from Elite Video (Special Feature by Bet-TAY)
December 13th, 2007 -- REVIEW: Wiebetech eRazer -- The Shredder for Unwanted Hard Drives
December 7th, 2007 -- CPU CRUNCH: MacBook 2.2GHz "Rosa" versus three rival Mac laptops
November 30th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: 200GB 7200rpm Notebook Drives -- Hitachi versus Seagate
November 16th, 2007 -- REVIEW: Sonnet Tango Express 800 PCIe Host Adapter -- FireWire 800 + USB 2.0
November 13th, 2007 (Update) -- SHOOTOUT: One Terabyte 3G SATA Hard Drives --- Seagate vs Hitachi vs Western Digital
November 9th, 2007 -- PRO GRAPHICS SHOOTOUT: MacBook 2.2GHz 'Rosa' with GMA X3100 versus two rival Mac laptops running Motion, Cinebench, and iMaginator
November 8th, 2007 -- HI REZ 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: MacBook 2.2GHz "Rosa" with GMA X3100 versus two rival Mac laptops
October 31st, 2007 -- PERFORMANCE COMPARISON: Tiger versus Leopard -- under which OS does your applications run fastest?
October 18th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: Corel Painter X on Three Macs
October 10th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: Three High-End Graphics Cards for the G4 Power Mac
October 2nd, 2007 -- TRAINING RESOURCE: Compositing Exposures to Light Architecture and Landscapes -- special feature by Bet-TAY
September 28th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: September 2007 iPods -- Nano vs Classic vs Touch (vs iPhone)
September 25th, 2007 -- TRAINING RESOURCE: Best (Techniques) of Photoshop CS3 -- special feature by Bet-TAY
September 24th, 2007 -- SPECIAL REPORT: The Ultimate Massage Chair -- to "supercharge" productivity and "boost" morale
September 21st, 2007 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: MAXPower G4/7448 Upgrade versus other Macs running at similar clock speeds -- added the Dual 1.8GHz version
September 16th, 2007 (Appended) -- SHOOTOUT: iMac Update 1.0 versus 1.1 -- Three Tough iMacs and Three Tough 3D Accelerated Games (WoW results added with and without Anisotropy)
September 14th, 2007 (Appended) -- ADOBE BENCHMARKS: iMac 2.8 Aluminum versus Others (Photoshop CS3 and After Effects CS3 -- now with results from all 3 models of Aluminum iMac)
September 14th, 2007 --- REVIEW: Lensbaby 3G (by Special Features Editor, Bet-TAY)
September 13th, 2007 -- REVIEW: Two Alternatives To The 23" Apple Cinema Display
September 5th (Appended) -- PRO BENCHMARKS: iMac 2.8 Aluminum versus Others (Cinebench 10 and Motion 3 -- iMac 2.0 Aluminum added)
September 4th, 2007 -- REVIEW: HighPoint RocketRAID 2314MS SATA 3G PCIe Host Adapter -- RAID 5 with improved write performance and special mini-SAS connector
August 29th, 2007 (Updated) -- 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: iMac 2.8 Aluminum versus Others (added 2.0GHz Aluminum iMac with Radeon HD 2400 XT)
August 26th, 2007 (Updated) -- 3D GAMES UNDER WINDOWS: iMac 2.8 Aluminum versus Others (Added Vista results - note how Vista's drivers affect the Quake 4 results)
August 3rd, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: Hitachi 1TB SATA Drive versus Others
July 18th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: 250GB 5K Notebook Drive versus The Two Fastest 7K Notebook Drives
July 5th, 2007 -- MISS_NG P I E C E S: 9 suggested improvements to the Apple iPhone.
June 29th, 2007 -- ANALYSIS: Apple iPhone -- We updated this January article with rebuttal to the 3 excuses given by Apple and AT&T for not supporting 3G mobile broadband.
June 27th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: Hitachi 7K200 and Seagate 7200.2 notebook drives versus others
June 26th, 2007 (Updated) -- CPU CRUNCHING: MacBook Pro "Santa Rosa" versus Others running Photoshop, After Effects, Compressor, and Motion -- added 2.2GHz "crunch" results.
June 21st, 2007 -- MAXIMUM MAC PRO: 4GB FB-DIMMs x 8 = 32GB, thanks to TransIntl
June 21st, 2007 -- MAXIMUM MAC PRO: max_flow memory cooler and maxPro 8 internal drive kit, thanks to MaxUpgrades
June 15th, 2007 -- UNFINISHED BUSINESS: MacBook Pro "Santa Rosa" Testing -- YOU CAN HELP
June 12th, 2007 (Updated) -- 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: 15" MacBook Pro 2.4GHz "Santa Rosa" (with GeForce 8600M GT) versus Others "playing" Quake 4, Doom 3, Prey, Halo, and UT2004 -- added the results for the 17" version (even faster!)
June 12th, 2007 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: 15" MacBook Pro 2.2GHz versus 2.4GHz (or 128MB versus 256MB of VRAM) -- Added 17" results at 1920x1200
June 4th, 2007 (Updated) -- FINAL CUT PRO 6 and COMPRESSOR 3: Do they fully utilize the 8-Core Mac Pro? -- Added graph comparing 4-core to 8-core Mac Pro rendering with Compressor 3 with Virtual Clustering
May 18th, 2007 -- RACING SHOOTOUT: Xbox 360 Elite versus PlayStation 3 versus Mac -- Focus On Car Racing Simulations
May 12th, 2007 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: 8-Core Mac Pro versus 4-Core Mac Pro running Cinebench, Geekbench, Photoshop CS3, Aperture, and QuickTime Player -- (Added a second Photoshop graph; added Quad G5 to Photoshop and Aperture graphs)
April 30th, 2007 -- ADOBE AFTER EFFECTS CS3: A justification for buying an 8-core Mac Pro.
April 27th, 2007 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: Seagate 7200rpm 160GB Notebook Drive Versus Others -- (Added repaired 160GB 5400rpm notebook drive to graphs.)
April 19th, 2007 -- MULTI-PROCESSING: 8 Core versus 4 Core Mac Pro (or "What happens when four CPU hungry apps fight for all available cores?")
April 14th, 2007 -- 3D GAMING: 8 Core versus 4 Core Mac Pro
April 10th, 2007 (Updated) -- SPECIAL REPORT: Does EV-DO Rev A + Rev A USB Modem = Mobile Broadband for All Macs? YES! (Updated with our new, faster upload speeds in a surprise Rev A upgrade to our local EV-DO network.)
April 9th, 2007 (Updated) -- PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: Eight Core Mac Pro
April 9th, 2007 -- SPECIAL FEATURE: Dean Collins On Lighting - Live at Brooks Institute (by Bet-TAY)
April 5th, 2007 (Updated) -- REVIEW: HighPoint RocketRAID 2314 PCIe SATA 3G Host Adapter -- test results with 10 drives in Port Multiplier mode using RAID 0, RAID 1/0, and RAID 5 configurations
April 4th, 2007 -- SPECIAL FEATURE: Jump Start Guide to the Nikon D80 (by Bet-TAY)
April 1st, 2007 -- April Fools Guide for Mac Lovers
March 30th, 2007 -- REVIEW: Pro Caddy optical bay drive kit for Mac Pro
March 29th, 2007 (Corrected Link) -- REVIEW: Apple TV (plus two competing alternatives)
March 22nd, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: D-Link Xtreme N Router versus Apple's AirPort Extreme 'N' Base Station
March 21st, 2007 -- REVIEW: Gorillapod SLR-Zoom for Digital Cameras
March 16th, 2007 (Updated) -- REVIEW: Verizon Wireless ExpressCard/34 V640 brings Mobile Broadband Internet access to the MacBook Pro -- (Added info on the new V740 ExpressCard with 3G Rev A rating.)
March 9th, 2007 -- SPECIAL REPORT: QuickBench 4.0 Random Testing of Ten Internal Mac Pro Drives
March 7th, 2007 -- REVIEW: Pro Sleds (for the Mac Pro drive bays)
March 2nd, 2007 (Update) -- PRODUCT ANALYSIS: iPhone and Apple TV
(Added info about 3G version of iPhone.)
February 23rd, 2007 -- REVIEW: CalDigit FireWireVR two bay RAID enclosure
February 16th, 2007 -- SHOOTOUT: AirPort Extreme 802.11g versus 802.11n
February 15th, 2007 -- SPECIAL FEATURE: Four Training Sources for the Nikon D80 Digital Camera (by Bet-TAY)
February 9th, 2007 -- REVIEW: LaCie 4 Port PCIe SATA adapter with Two Big and Biggest enclosures
February 1st, 2007 -- REVIEW: Logitech MX Revolution Laser Cordless Mouse
February 1st, 2007 -- UPDATE: Razer Pro Click Optical 1600 dpi Mouse
January 5th, 2007 -- GAME SHOOTOUT: 17" MacBook Pro Core Duo versus 17" MacBook Pro Core 2 Duo
(Looking for older tests? See our ARCHIVES)
