S
Scott Melendez
A few weeks ago I posted some questions about migrating Office to an Intel
system. After almost 3 weeks of ³stress-testing² it, I thought I¹d share
some thoughts:
Since Apple replaced the system, they also migrated my data to the new
system, and they did an OUTSTANDING job. I mean, absolutely fabulous. I had
to re-install 2 items, and that was it.
* I have to say Entourage 2004 performs generally FASTER on my MacBook than
my PowerBook G4. Spotlight searches and syncing are all noticeably faster.
* Entourage starts up MUCH faster than it did on my G4. I have 5 windows
that open upon launch: Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Tasks, and Project
Center. I was amazed at how quickly everything loaded.
* I notice some delays when scrolling, but nothing significant.
* The intermittent typing delay that occurred on my G4 never happens.
* In-line rich text displays much faster.
I haven¹t formally timed anything, but Entourage is a champ. (In the
interest of full disclosure, my MacBook has 2 Gb of RAM and came with the
7200 RPM drive, so those may be some mitigating factors.)
Word and Excel also perform at least as well, and sometimes better. There is
a bug in Project Center, however, that causes all apps to close.
I confess I almost never use PowerPoint, so I can¹t make any calls on it.
Noteworthy is that I usually have about 15-18 other active applications
running (most of them Universal, but a couple, such as Macromedia Fireworks,
are not). And even if I start a CPU-intensive task like exporting from
QuickTime, I don¹t notice any adverse impact. And Universal applications
seem to really hit their stride. I burned a dual-layer DVD from iDVD in
under 5 hours, compared to 8-9 hours using Nero on the PC. (And all while
running other applications.) In particular, Firefox really shines under
Intel.
As a side note, I¹ve also been beta testing Office 2007, and Office 2004
runs at least as well as the beta. (For comparison, the beta PC has 2 Gb
RAM, 160 Gb HD, 2.2 P4, and a 256 Mb nVidia graphics board.) I also keep
hearing rumors that Office 2007 will be a simultaneous platform release.
That would be great news!
The major drawback are the Adobe apps. They are all but useless ‹ it seems
as if Adobe did little or no testing under Rosetta. I fully expected Office
to be the under-performer, especially with Spotlight and Sync Services.
If any one is interested in further details, e-mail me. I was very
apprehensive about this switch, but using a Mac hasn¹t been this enjoyable
and productive since my Quadra 800! LOL
--
Regards
Scott Melendez
OS X 10.4.6, Office 11.2.3, PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz, 2 Gb RAM (old)
OS X 10.4.6, Office 11.2.4, MacBook Pro 17² 2.13 dual-core, 2 Gb RAM
system. After almost 3 weeks of ³stress-testing² it, I thought I¹d share
some thoughts:
Since Apple replaced the system, they also migrated my data to the new
system, and they did an OUTSTANDING job. I mean, absolutely fabulous. I had
to re-install 2 items, and that was it.
* I have to say Entourage 2004 performs generally FASTER on my MacBook than
my PowerBook G4. Spotlight searches and syncing are all noticeably faster.
* Entourage starts up MUCH faster than it did on my G4. I have 5 windows
that open upon launch: Mail, Address Book, Calendar, Tasks, and Project
Center. I was amazed at how quickly everything loaded.
* I notice some delays when scrolling, but nothing significant.
* The intermittent typing delay that occurred on my G4 never happens.
* In-line rich text displays much faster.
I haven¹t formally timed anything, but Entourage is a champ. (In the
interest of full disclosure, my MacBook has 2 Gb of RAM and came with the
7200 RPM drive, so those may be some mitigating factors.)
Word and Excel also perform at least as well, and sometimes better. There is
a bug in Project Center, however, that causes all apps to close.
I confess I almost never use PowerPoint, so I can¹t make any calls on it.
Noteworthy is that I usually have about 15-18 other active applications
running (most of them Universal, but a couple, such as Macromedia Fireworks,
are not). And even if I start a CPU-intensive task like exporting from
QuickTime, I don¹t notice any adverse impact. And Universal applications
seem to really hit their stride. I burned a dual-layer DVD from iDVD in
under 5 hours, compared to 8-9 hours using Nero on the PC. (And all while
running other applications.) In particular, Firefox really shines under
Intel.
As a side note, I¹ve also been beta testing Office 2007, and Office 2004
runs at least as well as the beta. (For comparison, the beta PC has 2 Gb
RAM, 160 Gb HD, 2.2 P4, and a 256 Mb nVidia graphics board.) I also keep
hearing rumors that Office 2007 will be a simultaneous platform release.
That would be great news!
The major drawback are the Adobe apps. They are all but useless ‹ it seems
as if Adobe did little or no testing under Rosetta. I fully expected Office
to be the under-performer, especially with Spotlight and Sync Services.
If any one is interested in further details, e-mail me. I was very
apprehensive about this switch, but using a Mac hasn¹t been this enjoyable
and productive since my Quadra 800! LOL
--
Regards
Scott Melendez
OS X 10.4.6, Office 11.2.3, PowerBook G4 1.67 GHz, 2 Gb RAM (old)
OS X 10.4.6, Office 11.2.4, MacBook Pro 17² 2.13 dual-core, 2 Gb RAM
