(no subject)

Another useful bit of info tempting me towards an Intel iMac - I'm going to get the 17" eventually, not the 20", as it will fit my office desk better and saves a fair bit of money (though I'm annoyed that I lose the internal modem - I use it for faxing).

Anyway; iMac and Mac Mini CPUs are socketed. They can be upgraded. Now, the person that tried a Core Duo (Yonah) 2.16GHz in a 1.5GHz Core Solo Mini with success has done the same trick with (I am guess a pre-production/advanced run) Merom 64-bit chip.

And it works.

So: I reckon the G5 replacement will have Core Duo Meroms - 64 bit was a bit deal for the G5 desktop - and may have two units, preserving the Quad Core. However, I am more interested in the idea that a Core Duo iMac could become a dual-core 64 bit system in the medium term for the cost of a CPU. I wonder if OS X is improved by this. Apparently the Merom runs pretty well (but the poster providing the information appears to be under some sort of NDA, so was only able to say "It works" and "It's this fast").

Benchmarks are also suggesting that under BootCamp, Photoshop on XP2 is slightly quicker on the Mac than 'similar' PCs. Can't think of a good reason for that. BootCamp has also fallen foul of a fun bug; messing with the XP2 Disk Administration utility fucks up the bootloader and OS X stops working - fixed by running the OS X DVD, which presumably tidies up the partitions again. I guess part of Beta testing software is discovering what level of stupid users can reach.

(no subject)

I like paying things off. It's fun.

(no subject)

Right, Derbyshire tomorrow.

I have an unplanned detour to make, though: my dad's G5 suffered video card failure this evening and with magazines desperately needing completion, I drove my G5's card over. Which means a: he owes me a card, and b: I'm G5 less but this won't be an issue tomorrow.

I have a mild issue - both of my displays are ADC, one connected via a DVI to ADC adaptor. Seems that ADC is well outmoded.

If I go to Gordon Harwood in Alfreton they MIGHT have a card but they charge £149+VAT for a card which is £119+VAT at Jigsaw - and isn't really ideal since it has dual DVI ports. Jigsaw in Nottingham (bit of a detour, I think) has the ADC and DVI ATI x800, but it's £269.

Applecare might replace the card, in which case this is moot anyway. I hope so. I don't pay for the new card in the end anyway, but I don't see any point in fitting a high-end graphics card to my G5.

The Mazda is bedding in nicely - good chance to exercise it.

I think the car for tomorrow is the RX8, too. It'll cost me a bit more, but the Sera had a low idle yesterday and the brakes aren't 100% either. I don't think it would let me down, but it seems stupid to risk it for the sake of a few quids worth of fuel.

Number is on LJ if anyone wants to get in touch; I think I have everything I need organised.