 |
|
The CWAUG BLOG
WHO FORGOT THE GIGABIT PORTS?
February 17, 2007
From the Mac Mini to the Mac Pro, we have Gigabit Ethernet Ports.. however, on the NEW AppleTV and the NEW Airport Extreme there is no sign of Gigabit. Hmm.. Why?
Is Apple pushing wireless more than wired? Every Mac has the capability to have a wireless keyword and mouse (Bluetooth), and Network computers wirelessly (now at 802.11n). It seems wireless is the way to go. But. What kind of speeds are we missing out on with these new products?
100Base-T = 100Mbps
USB 2.0 = 480Mbps
1000Base-T = 1000Mbps
So, we have a max of 100Mbps on Ethernet (and about the same on wireless 802.11n draft) on the AppleTV and Airport Extreme.. when we could have 1000Mbps (that's 10x faster). Why was Gigabit left out? Well.. Apple told Macworld that 10/100 Ethernet "delivers ample performance for the most common tasks on a home network, even multiple video streams." This is understandable since most users will be accessing media that is being streamed at pretty low rate speeds. However, when HD content hits us on our computers and our hard drives fill up, will it be enough? It should .. however.. that will depend on video format, compression, and resolution.
So who needs Gigabit? If you are transferring large files (ex: 20GB) from computer to computer a lot.. you may want to consider it. Mostly though, Gigabit is used in the Professional World. .. But if it were up to me, I'd tell Apple to spend a few more dollars and upgrade those NEW Apple products to match the rest. Meanwhile, we have to buy non-Apple Routers or Switches to get our Gigabit connection.
Daniel Schiller
CWAUG Webmaster
LINKS:
AppleTV Specs
Airport Extreme Specs
MacWorld's Firstlook at the Airport Extreme
Posted by que4zone at 2:29 AM
1 Comments:
As someone who transfers a lot of files, I would have liked to have seen a Gigabyte port.
February 23, 2007 3:19 PM
<< Home
|
|
 |
|
