Rob-ART, Main Mad Scientist
Bet-TAY, Special Features Editor

QUICK TAKES
* PRESS RELEASE: FirmTek announced a 6 gigabit host adapter with two eSATA ports, Port Multiplier support, and S.M.A.R.T. support.
* Other World Computing has 4G and 8G memory kits for the 2010 Mac Pro. Ask about their trade-in rebate on Apple memory.
* Trans International is now shipping 4GB & 8GB modules for New Mac Pros
at affordable prices.

ARTICLES by date

September 1st, 2010 -- REAL WORLD EXTREME APPS: Various 2010 Mac Pros compared running After Effects, Compressor, and Motion

August 31st, 2010 -- FIRST GEN SHOOTOUT: Radeon HD 5870 and 5770 in the 2006 Mac Pro versus four older GPUs

August 30th, 2010 -- SERIOUS FUN: Radeon HD 5870 versus 5770 and three other GPUs

August 27th, 2010 -- IT WORKS! The Radeon HD 5870 runs fine in the 2006 Mac Pro

August 25th, 2010 -- ONE CARD, THREE MACS: Radeon HD 5870 runs in the 2008, 2009, and 2010 Mac Pro.

August 23rd, 2010 -- 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: 2010 Mac Pro versus others -- (Just Portal for now but more on the way.)

August 23rd, 2010 -- EARLY CPU BENCHMARKS: 2010 Mac Pro versus 2009 and 2008

August 20th, 2010 (updated*) -- PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: 'mid 2010' Mac Pro Westmere with up to 12 cores -- (*8G memory modules confirmed to work in 6-core model)

August 19th, 2010 -- BEFORE/AFTER: How the SL Graphics Update affected last year's fastest Mac

August 17th, 2010 (appended*) -- OLD vs NEW: 'mid 2010' iMacs compared to 2007-2009 iMacs -- (*added a Portal First Slice graph -- see bottom of page)

August 17th, 2010 (appended*) -- 'mid 2010' iMacs Compared: Core i3 vs Core i5 vs Core i7 -- (*added a Portal First Slice graph -- see bottom of page)

August 13th, 2010 (appended*) -- STORAGE SHOOTOUT: 'mid 2010' iMac internal drive options compared -- (*added screaming third party SSD)

August 3rd, 2010 -- CPU CRUNCH TIME: 'mid 2010' iMac Core i7 versus other Macs

August 2nd, 2010 (appended) -- 3D SHOOTOUT at 2560x1440: 'mid 2010' iMac Core i7 versus two other Macs -- added results from booting 2009 iMac with 2010 iMac drive (moo ha ha)

July 27th, 2010 -- PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: 'mid 2010' iMac

July 23rd, 2010 -- SHOOTOUT: Fastest 2TB SATA Hard Drives of 2010

July 19th, 2010 -- SHOOTOUT: SD and CF memory cards for digital cameras

July 2nd, 2010 -- SHOOTOUT: 13" MacBook Pro 'mid 2010' versus the 15" Alternatives

June 28th, 2010 -- SPECIAL FEATURE: Photography Lighting on a Budget: The Lightscoop (by Bettay)

June 25th, 2010 -- FOUR SPEED TESTS: iPhone 3GS versus iPhone 4

June 18th, 2010 -- SHOOTOUT: Seagate Hybrid Notebook Drive versus HDD and SSD

June 15th, 2010 -- SPECIAL FEATURE: Snowflake USB Microphone (by Bettay)

June 11th, 2010 (update) -- STEAM FOR MAC: Portal and Team Fortress 2 on Three Fast Macs -- added results for NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 GPU

June 10th, 2010 -- SMART PHONE FEATURE FIGHT: iPhone 3GS vs iPhone 4 vs EVO 4G

June 4th, 2010 -- External SSD RAID: As fast as internal? (Part Two: MacBook Pro)

June 1st, 2010 -- External SSD RAID: As fast as internal? (Part One: Mac Pro)

May 21st, 2010 -- Apple iPad 3G: The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly

May 7th, 2010 -- YET ANOTHER PRO SHOOTOUT: Photoshop CS5, After Effects CS5, and Aperture 3 on the newest Macs

April 30th, 2010 -- Apple iPad "+3G": Broadband Babe or Pig-in-a-Poke?

April 29th, 2010 (Updated) -- STORAGE ROUND-UP: HDD and SSD Choices for MACBOOK PRO Core i5 and i7 -- added OCZ Vertex LE and Intel X25-M results

April 27th, 2010 -- MACBOOK PRO VIDEO MEMORY: Do you need 512MB or is 256MB enough?

April 23rd, 2010 -- 3D GAME SHOOTOUT: MacBook Pro Core i5 and i7 versus other Macs

April 21st, 2010 -- REAL WORLD PRO APPS: MacBook Pro Core i5 and i7 versus similar Macs.

April 16th, 2010 -- EARLY TEST RESULTS: MacBook Pro Core i5 and i7 versus other Macs.

April 13th, 2010 -- PRELIMINARY ANALYSIS: MacBook Pro Core i5 and Core i7

April 7th, 2010 -- Apple iPad: Toy or Weapon?

April 5th, 2010 (updated) -- Sprint 4G Overdrive portable WiFi hotspot (added new results for iPad WiFi; new firmware made iPhone 3GS to download faster)

March 30th, 2010 -- Tests In Progress (or What We Are Working On)

March 22nd, 2010 -- SHARED SECURITY: Stardom Safe Capsule

March 13th, 2010 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: Final Cut Studio (Compressor 3 vs 3.5 and Motion 3 vs 4) -- added Radeon HD 4870

March 5th, 2010 (Addendum) -- REVIEW: OWC's Serious Solid State Drive (Enterprise-Class for the Rest of Us) -- added results for up to 4 SSDs

February 11th, 2010 -- MACWORLD SAN FRANCISCO: Past, Present, and Future

January 29th, 2010 -- PARADIGM SHIFT: Apple iPad Critique

January 19th, 2010 -- MOBILITY Products for 2010

January 8th, 2010 -- SHOOTOUT: Google Nexus One versus Apple iPhone 3GS

January 5th, 2010 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: iPhone 3GS versus Droid Eris (added info on Google Nexus One)

December 31st, 2009 -- MAC-FLECTION: The Best of 2009 and Wish List for 2010.

December 11th, 2009 -- MEMORY SPEED TESTS: iMac Core i7 versus Nehalem Mac Pro

December 7th, 2009 (Corrected) -- 3D SHOOTOUT at 1920x1200: iMac Core i5 and Core i7 versus seven other flavors of Mac

December 2nd, 2009 (updated) -- HOT HOLIDAY DEALS: Our version of Christmas shopping madness for Mac maniacs

November 25th, 2009 -- 3D SHOOTOUT at 2560x1440: iMac Core i5 versus Core i7 versus 'Big Brother'

November 19th, 2009 (updated) -- CPU CRUNCH SHOOTOUT: iMac Core i7 versus other Macs (added iMac Core i5 to graphs)

November 13th, 2009 -- OS X 10.6.2 vs 10.6.0 vs 10.5.8: How Fast Do 3D Apps Run on Each?

November 2nd, 2009 -- SHOOTOUT: Seagate Cheetah 15K.7 SAS 6Gb/s HDD versus others (using ATTO ExpressSAS H644 6Gb/s adapter)

October 23rd, 2009 -- MAC PRO SLED MULTIPLIER: TransIntl DX4 Mounting Station for SSDs and 2.5" HDDs

October 20th, 2009 -- REVIEW: FirmTek SeriTek/2ME4-E four-port hot-swap PCIe host adapter (tested with 4 and 5 bay enclosures)

October 16th, 2009 -- REVIEW: Mercury Elite-AL Pro Qx2, Versatile 4 Bay 8TB RAID Enclosure

October 9th, 2009 -- REVIEW: Apple 24" LED Cinema Display and Atlona AT-D200 DVI-to-Mini DisplayPort Converter

October 2nd, 2009 -- PRESENT (AND FUTURE?) MAC GPUs: Vantage and Turbine Benchmarks under Vista Ultimate

October 2nd, 2009 (Updated) -- SHOOTOUT: Four 2TB SATA Hard Drives -- (added WD Caviar Black)

September 18th, 2009 -- PROBLEM SOLVED: The 24" Cinema Display now connects to a standard DVI port (thanks to Gefen)

September 16th, 2009 (Updated) -- CAMERA ACCESSORY: LensBaby Composer (from Bet-TAY, Special Features Editor) -- new Wide Angle Lens accessory

September 16th, 2009 (Updated) -- CAMERA ACCESSORY: BlackRapid RS-4 Strap (from Bet-TAY, Special Features Editor) -- new Connector and Fastener option

September 9th, 2009 (Updated) -- SNOW LEOPARD: OpenCL Benchmarks (four GPUs compared)

August 21st, 2009 -- WACOM EVOLVED: The Intuos4 or "we've come a long way since we were drawing with soap on a rope"

August 14th, 2009 -- CRACKING THE CODE: TransIntl's Pro Cable -- Trick Internal Storage Solution for the Mac Pro

August 14th, 2009 -- MASSIVE STORAGE FOR THE MASSES: Stardom SOHOTANK ST8

August 7th, 2009 -- GPU SHOOTOUT, Round 2: GeForce GTX 285 with new drivers and OS X 10.5.8 versus others

August 7th, 2009 -- SERIOUS PRO APPS: 'mid 2009' MacBook Pro 17" with 8GB of RAM versus the fastest iMac and Mac Pro running After Effects and Compressor

July 21st, 2009 -- EXTREME LAPTOPPING: 'mid 2009' MacBook Pro with 250G SSD versus 500G HDD

July 17th, 2009 (Update) -- MacBook Pro External Storage: CalDigit VR mini versus Sonnet Fusion F2 -- new results on faster F2; both are bus powered RAID solutions

July 10th, 2009 -- RAID 5 STORAGE: Stardom DECKLINK DR4

July 1st, 2009 -- CPU Crunch: 'mid 2009' 17" MacBook Pro 3.06GHz versus other Macs

June 24th, 2009 -- CAMERA ACCESSORY: AirPort AirStream Roller Bag (a Special Feature by Bet-TAY)

June 23rd, 2009 -- BENCHMARKS: iPhone 3G S versus 3G

June 20th, 2009 -- CAMERA MAINTENANCE: Simple Sensor Cleaning (a Special Feature by Bet-TAY)

June 19th, 2009 -- 3D Gaming on a MacBook Pro: Integrated versus Dedicated GPU

June 19th, 2009 -- Analysis of the iPhone 3G S (preliminary)

June 18th, 2009 -- GeForce GTX 285 on Nehalem Mac Pro running 3D apps under Windows Vista Ultimate 64-bit

June 16th, 2009 -- GeForce GTX 285 on Nehalem Mac Pro running Pro Apps

June 15th, 2009 -- Apple Pro RAID for Nehalem Mac Pro versus Third Party Alternative

June 15th, 2009 (Update) -- WWDC 2009: Analysis of the NEW MacBook 'Pros' (added more analysis and counterpoint)

June 10th, 2009 -- GeForce GTX 285 on Nehalem Mac Pro versus other GPUs running 3D Apps under Mac OS X

June 6th, 2009 -- HighPoint RocketRAID 'eSATA for Mac': Ease and Versatility for all models of Mac Pro

May 29th, 2009 -- OCZ Vertex Solid State Drive: Game Changer

May 26th, 2009 -- Quadro FX 4800 on Nehalem Mac Pro versus other GPUs.

May 13th, 2009 -- 2009 iMac (Part Three): Low Rez 3D Gaming compared to iMacs going back to 2006

May 11th, 2009 -- 2009 iMac (Part One Redux): Optional Radeon HD 4850 versus other iMac GPUs running 3D Games at High Rez

May 6th, 2009 -- EXTREME MOBILE COMPUTING: Dual SSD internal boot volume in the 'Unibody' MacBook Pro

April 23rd, 2009 -- Burly Video RAID 8 connected to the Nehalem Mac Pro

April 22nd, 2009 -- CAMERA ACCESSORY: mini MIGHTY bag (a Special Feature by Bet-TAY)

April 20th, 2009 -- Today, nVidia announced the Quadro FX 4800 for the Mac Pro. We have requested a test unit but wanted to make sure you knew about it -- especially those of you who want more than 512MB of video memory.

April 17th, 2009 -- SSD RAID 0 set inside the 2009 Nehalem Mac Pro: How can 3 be faster than 6?

April 8th, 2009 -- 2009 iMac (Part Two): Do You Really Need A Mac Pro or Will An iMac Do The Job? (2-core iMac versus 4-core Mac Pro running Cinebench, Geekbench, After Effects, Photoshop, iTunes, Motion, etc.)

April 3rd, 2009 -- Nehalem Mac Pro 4-Core versus 8-Core: What's the Real World Difference?

April 1st, 2009 - eXtreme gaming on the Nehalem Mac Pro (2560x1600 with 4x Multisampling, High settings -- four different GPUs) -- no fooling

March 27th, 2009 -- Nehalem Mac Pro + external storage: HighPoint RocketRaid 4322 RAID host adapter with 8 bay SATA enclosures (RAID 0, 5, and 6)

March 25th, 2009 (Improved)-- Pro Apps On Your 'Nehalem' Mac Pro (After Effects, Photoshop CS4, Compressor 3) plus bonus memory bandwidth test -- check out the mods to the Compressor test results.

March 25th, 2009 (Updated) -- Core Image Benchmarks on the Nehalem Mac Pro (using four different graphics cards) -- Quadro FX 5600 added

March 25th, 2009 (Updated) -- 3D Games on the 'Nehalem' Mac Pro with Radeon HD 4870 and GeForce 120 GT (versus older Mac Pros) -- added iMac with GeForce GT 130 and Quadro FX 5600 to the mix

March 11th, 2009 -- Cinebench 10 and Geekbench 2 on 'Nehalem' Mac Pros

March 11th, 2009 (Updated) -- Three Things You Should Know About 'early 2009' Mac Pro Memory -- added "Installation Guide"

March 3rd, 2009 -- BRIEFING: Preliminary Performance Analysis of the "early 2009" Mac Pro "Nehalem"

March 3rd, 2009 -- BRIEFING: What's Faster About The 'early 2009' iMac, 15" MacBook Pro, and Mac mini?

February 26th, 2009 -- SHOOTOUT: Fastest Mac Pro SATA Boot Drives (includes new Seagate Barracuda 7200.12 vs the fastest from three other manufacturers.

February 17th, 2009 (Redo) -- ULTIMATE NOTEBOOK DRIVE? Seagate Momentus 7200.4 500G versus the Hitachi Travelstar 7K320 and WD Scorpio Black

February 13th, 2009 -- BRIEFING: Six Things You Should Know About 200MB/s Storage Solutions

February 9th, 2009 -- SOLUTION: Avoiding Keyboard Spills (from Bet-TAY, Special Features Editor)

January 23rd, 2009 -- FEATURED GAME: Call of Duty 4 on Three Fast Macs

January 9th, 2009 -- Looking Over The Fence: Consumer Electronics 2009 -- our list of interesting non-Apple products

January 8th, 2009 (updated) -- MacWorld Expo SF 2009 Report on performance related products

(Looking for older tests? See our ARCHIVES of 2005-2008 articles)

copyright 1995-2010 Rob Art Morgan
"BARE facts on Macintosh speed FEATS"

feed
Email , the webmaster