Ask A Scientist© Computer Science Archive

Index Key:   COM038
Author:      andre mchugh
Subject:     Mac or Pentium.
What is a best computer a Power Mac or a Pentium 66 mhz ?

Response #:  1 of 1
Author:      harry j przekop
This is a question that is often asked, and will no doubt continued to be
asked.  Both systems offer or rather have their points, I would in the area
of Pentium class look at the mhz units as opposed to the 60/66 units if
possible, the early "Mercury Chipset" is not as "high performance as the
"Neptune chip set.  Also the recent Triton set is fine and geared for a
greater mass appeal if we call it that as opposed to the Neptune set, though
Triton as many limitations in the high power user area, I would go for the
Neptune set.  As far as the Mac go, I would wait for Apple to decide what
they want to do, it is a good chance that they will switch to PCI architec-
ture, I would wait for this, or look into a Mac clone.  The power PC chip
though in my opinion functions rather poorly in that platform as opposed to
an IBM RS6000 unit.  Keep in mind as far as taking something apart/building/
design,...and high performance mods the Mac is a limited platform, as
compared to CISC or Intel Architecture.  It is apparent that there are fewer
and fewer developers in the Mac area, since the return is so small.  The
actual point of RISC processing in the power Mac is questionable for most
users, the majority of SW is integer based so the fpu/npu system is of less
importance as it is in math/engineering or imaging related programs hopes
this sheds so light on the subject .