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One of the reasons I recently purchased a G4 Cube as opposed to a new 500 MHz iBook was my untested perception that the Cube, with its 100 MHz system bus and 5,400 RPM 3.5" hard drive would be substantially faster than the iBook, which has a 66 MHz system bus and a 4,200 RPM 2.5" hard drive.

My 233 MHz WallStreet seemed amply fast when I bought it in January, 1999, but within a year, I was wishing I had something faster (mainly because of dictation software). So while I'm sure the 500 MHz iBook would be more than fast enough to meet my current needs, I was hoping for a bit more "reserve capacity" for the future with the Cube. At least that was my theory, and the Cube, with 576 MB or RAM installed, certainly hasn't disappointed me speed-wise.

However, I have been wondering just how much difference there actually is on the two machines that were at the top of my system upgrade shortlist. As it happens, my frequent correspondent friend Chris Long purchased a new iBook about a month ago to replace his faithful PowerBook 3400c, and also uses a 450 MHz Cube at work. I asked Chris if he would be interested in conducting some informal comparison tests, and he agreed. Here is what he discovered.

Chris writes:

Charles:

Okay ... I just finished the big test you asked about -- here are the results:

iBook 500 MHz G3 -- 192MB RAM installed running OS 9.1
Cube 450 MHz G4 -- 256MB RAM installed running OS 9.0.4

Admittedly, this test is a tad unscientific -- although I DID use a stopwatch!

Adobe InDesign v1.5 document with type & images -- (allocated 21 MB to ID1.5):
iBook took 31 seconds to open
Cube took 21 seconds to open

PhotoShop v. 4 document (45MB!) -- (allocated 15 MB to PhotoShop):
iBook took 2:09 to open
Cube took 1:48 to open

Tex Edit Plus v4.1.1 document (2MB) -- (allocated 1500k to te+):
iBook took 33 seconds to open
Cube took 10 seconds to open

That's it. I was SHOCKED at the speed differences here, frankly -- probably because in day-to-day actual USAGE of these apps (and others) I 'feel' very little difference between these 2 machines, depending ... ID1.5 and PhotoShop are both big fat PIGS as far as apps go -- TE+ is more along the lines of what I normally use; simple, lightweight, fast, etc ... so even though the launching/opening times are quite different, in actual use I doubt the difference is more than 10-20% ... this is just a guess.

Also bear in mind that each computer is running somewhat different cp/ext sets ... I find that the iBook feels pretty danged 'snappy' in day to day use, although i wouldn't really recommend it for normal/heavy graphics design/production like I do (which usually calls for a state-of-the-art Mac, or close to it).

Still hate the iBook trackpad but I've resigned myself to it. and don't like the heat the thing generates.

LOVE everything else about the iBook! Software-wise, running OS 9.1 and my usual assembly of apps (PhotoShop 4, Illustrator 6, inDesign 1.5, Tex Edit Plus (newest), Eudora 5, iCab (newest), Communicator 4.7, Graphic Converter 4, Acrobat 5, QuickTime 5, buncha others ... PLUS all the stuff that came with the iBook including Palm desktop + games) -- I find that it's STABLE beyond belief! I think it's crashed ONCE since I got it, and then I had like a dozen apps running concurrently.

OS X may in fact be FUN and look cool but I'm in no hurry to switch, I'll tell ya. I've got no real beef with OS 9.1 as it is -- although I hear the latest OS 9.2xxx isn't as 'ready for prime time' ...

The battery life has on this iBook has been very good too -- I usually got 1.75 to 2.25 hours per charge on my 3400c. the iBook is giving me nearly 4 hrs (once i got 4.25 hrs).

Thanks to Chris for these hands-on impressions, which I think confirm what I had deduced. The Cube does appear to have a substantial advantage in speed, although as Chris says, the distinction is probably not that noticable for regular day to day tasks. Actually, I find the old 233 MHz WallStreet perfectly adequate for most things as far as speed goes, but it lags badly in starting up large programs, opening big documents, and of course in transcribing dictation. The Cube running iListen takes dictation in *nearly* real time.

Charles W. Moore

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