# Crunching with a MAC



## BarbaricSoul (Jan 20, 2011)

I'm considering buying a MAC tower, this one to be exact- http://norfolk.craigslist.org/sys/2168736907.html (never used a MAC, might aswell try it out). I was wondering if it would be any good as a crunching rig as I'm sure my PC will remain my primary computer(which will remain crunching when I'm not gaming). Worth the effort?


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## [Ion] (Jan 20, 2011)

Well, BOINC does run on OS X, and that one won't have any cooling issues.  My Macbook got immensely hot (~90c) when crunching, but that's a real tower, so it should be fine 

I'd guess PPD would be less-than-excellent, but I really have no idea (only Mac I've ever crunched on was an Intel)


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 20, 2011)

No real difference in terms of crunching, though that older G5 really isn't a great buy for this purpose as opposed to an Intel Mac which would be a Xeon. If you have any other uses for it then sure but just as a cruncher I'd steer clear.


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## [Ion] (Jan 21, 2011)

Even an Intel Mac Mini would probably be a better choice for crunching--and even if it was a bit slower, at least it would use far less power.


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 21, 2011)

What I actually meant above in my first statement was no real/major difference to BOINC.


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## [Ion] (Jan 21, 2011)

Ahh, I see.  I can't provide a PPD estimate for PPC unfortunately, I've had no experience whatsoever with it.  Although, from what I've seen in other benchmarks, a pair of 2.x GHZ G5s is about on par with an identically-clocked Conroe chip...


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## Wrigleyvillain (Jan 21, 2011)

^ That's interesting. Dealing with G5s at work over the years they just seem so slow even by C2D standards. But maybe working on that type of data they shine.


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## [Ion] (Jan 21, 2011)

A friend of mine had a 2.5ghz PowerMac G5 w/ 2 dual-core CPUs and it was about on par with my stock-clocked Q6600 in multi-threaded benchmarks


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## n-ster (Jan 21, 2011)

If you wanna try a mac, do yourself a favor and get an intel MAC... especially if you are used to the PC/Windows environment


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