The All-in-One Battle: Dell's XPS One 24 vs. Apple's iMac
by Anand Lal Shimpi on October 30, 2008 3:00 PM EST- Posted in
- Systems
Power Consumption
With different-enough hardware specs, the power consumption between the Dell XPS One 24 and Apple's iMac should be fairly varied. To find out I looked at total system power consumption, measured at the wall, when the systems were idle, while playing back the 1080p trailer to Underworld: Rise of the Lycans and while running my Fallout 3 benchmark at 1920 x 1200.
| Total System Power Consumption | Idle | H.264 Video Playback - Quicktime HD Trailer | Fallout 3 - 1920 x 1200 |
| Apple iMac - $2199 - Vista | 116W | 140W | 182W |
| Dell XPS One 24 - $2299 - Vista | 153W | 173W | 170W |
Thanks to the quad-core processor, Dell actually consumes more power at idle than Apple at 153W vs. 116W. The H.264 decode test also draws more power on the XPS One 24 at 173W vs. 140W. The only area where the roles are reversed is when gaming thanks to the iMac's 8800 GS which gives it a 12W higher power draw than the XPS One 24.
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TheFace - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
As far as the programs running in OSX, they do about the same as far as being able to tell which are running. Either the programs have a small 'light spot' under them (OSX 10.5), or they're in your taskbar (XP, Vista).Exposé is not the only way to switch between your programs on a mac. You can use command + tab as well, which is exactly like alt + tab in windows. So what is the big deal?
I would tend to argue that both OS's are as usable as the other, and
I use both every day. I like how everything works on my mac. I like how there are more software options and more hardware options with my PC.
MrDiSante - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
I didn't realize that command + tab was an option, I guess they're about even there. However, I still think that not separating running programs and shortcuts is a big mistake, both on the part of the designers of Mac OS X and Windows 7. I think that it is important to just glance and see the approximate amount/type of programs running instead of actually having to look through it. As well, I feel that the text also brings more to the table than it takes away by looking worse.michael2k - Friday, October 31, 2008 - link
Um, Apple has had a solution for that problem for years.A triangle/dot indicator that tells you whether the icon is a shortcut (no instance running) or a reference (application is running).
In other words:
> Icon == Application is up
Icon == Application is not up
sxr7171 - Monday, November 3, 2008 - link
Similar on S60 phones. Very useful in a phone OS.Eidorian - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
You might want to take a look at the iMac's GPU again in GPU-Z. It should be an 8800M GTS.fyleow - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
I skimmed the article so apologies if this is covered.The iMac 24" uses an H-IPS panel. Any idea if the Dell uses the same? That could make or break the pricing IMO. IPS screens do not come cheap and the most affordable 24 inch IPS is the HP lp2475w which is a $650 monitor.
n00bxqb - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
The 24" iMac most certainly does not use an H-IPS panel. It's an S-PVA panel.As for the Dell, I'm not sure what it uses.
andreschmidt - Friday, October 31, 2008 - link
The 24" iMac does use an H-IPS panel...fyleow - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
The new 24" iMac uses the LG LM240WU2 panel which is an IPS panel.n00bxqb - Thursday, October 30, 2008 - link
Based on the specs here:http://www.dell.com/content/products/productdetail...">http://www.dell.com/content/products/pr...;cs=19&a...
I would guess the Dell also uses a *VA panel.