Customer Reviews

Apple Power Mac Desktop M8361LL/A (Dual 800-MHz PowerPC G4, 256 MB RAM, 80 GB hard drive)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I've had this baby for about 4 months now... what a delight. Adjacent to my G4 is a Dell 1.3ghz Pentium III. The clock speed means nada. I fire them up at the same time each morning and about a full minute after the Mac is busy opening applications for me, the Pentium is just starting to show the icons on the desktp. As chip architecture gets improved, you're going to see the Win-Tel crowd also saying that "clock speed doesn't matter" because newer Intel chips will be rated at 300mhz, but be faster than the 1.3gig P3 chips.

To compare a Mac and a Wintel machine is like comparing a pick axe to a chainsaw. Each have their uses, levels of complexity and levels of simplicity.

The dual processor won't do you a heck of a lot of good if you never use OS X. Only a couple of OS 9 apps utilize the dual processors.... OS X is all over that bad boy.

For now, I still work 90% of the time in Classic mode, but this machine still sings. I haven't had one lock-up or crash since I bought this computer. The standard keyboard has been improved and fits normal human adult hands. The power key on the keyboard has been replaced by an eject key, and next to that are "volume up," "volume down," and "mute" buttons for quick volume access.

The CPU is beautiful, stylish and easy to carry. The built-in speaker is classy and delivers decent sound for an internal speaker.

If you're a grahic artist, designer or web developer, this is the machine for you. Using programs like Photoshop and Illustrator in a Windows environment is just clumsy and awkward... graphics programs are meant to run on a Mac.

This is also the best choice for those wanting to create their own movies, CDs, mp3 collections and DVDs. No extra hardware or software to buy... just plug in your camcorder, CD or mp3 player and go! Easy, trouble free, and Koko the Gorilla could add RAM to this machine... no screwdrivers... just open up the latch and snap in your memory. This is the best computer I've ever used.

I've had the Dual 800 since early September, and it's amazing how quick it is under 10.1 -- forget just wondering about programs optimized for dual processors, the OS itself will take great advantage of this model's dual PowerPC system. Everything executes quickly, from program opening (most at a single "bounce") to printing (I hardly tap the "enter" key and my printer is reacting).

Cram it with RAM (dirt cheap these days) and pair it with an Apple Cinema Display, and you've got the ultimate modern Macintosh. There is no Mac available (as of October 30, 2001) that is better than the Dual 800.

We have 3 of these that we use for our college newspaper. They work great because each one has zip drives in them and we don't have to worry about the format of the disk. We can just take the disk from computer to computer, which makes sharing and transferring graphics much easier.

One problem that I seem to have is, being used to my HP Pavilion, I will click on the X on the left, but I forget to close the program. After crashing the computer a few times, I learn my lesson.

Mac user for 6 years bought 2 dual 800 end of Sept. and within in a month both machines had processors replaced. Started to work on them again and the logic board went out. Apples respones to this was give me 2 more 800, NO THANK YOU! After a couple of weeks delay were not going to chance it and Apple says to bad. Guess the attorney is going to make some money.