So, the new Intel-powered Mac’s are here in laptop and iMac form. No real desktop model yet…

Edit: The funny thing is, Apple is not going to put the Intel Inside badges on them, apparently it messes up the aesthetics. Of course, that means they won’t get the money from Intel that everyeone else gets. Maybe that explains the prices.

Core Specs: 2Ghz Intel Core Duo processor. 2MB L2 Cache (shared betwen the two cores). 667Mhz Bus (is it just me, or did someone carefully boost that 1 extra Mhz?). Up to 2GB of DDR2 RAM. PCI Express ATI Radeon X1600 graphics card with up to 256MB RAM (very much mid-range … maybe they’re saving room at the top for something else?).

Extra Stuff: 17 or 20 inch screen on the iMac (built into the computer, remember). 15.4 inch screen on the MacBook. Built in 802.11g, Gigabit Ethernet, Bluetooth 2, web cam. 2 Firewire 400 ports and 3 USB2 Ports (1 and 2, respectively, on the MacBook). And of course, you get Mac OS 10.4 (Tiger) and iLife ’06 …

I was going to do some comparisons ... but it’s kind-of pointless, there’s no such thing as a Windows or Linux Intel Core Duo desktop, because Intel Core Duo is the “Yonah” processor which was created for laptops. Yes, that’s right, that’s an awesome mobile processor in your iMac.

I thought about comparing it to AMD’s dual-core processors, but Intel Core Duo is only 32 bit. Oddly enough, they don’t seem to mention that anywhere on the Apple or Intel site. Besides, the fastest processor Apple is selling (2.0GHz) isn’t the fastest “Core Duo” that Intel is selling. Which is irrelevant, because you can’t even get a dual core Athlon that slow anymore (it was the 3800+). AMD’s 64bit X2 is up to 4800 now, which runs at 2.4Ghz with the same 2GB L2 Cache, but a larger L1 cache (128KB per core vs. 64KB per core for Intel’s Core Duo) and of course the X2 has an on-die memory controller.

Ok, maybe one comparison ... we can compare the MacBook to a Windows laptop featuring the same Intel Core Duo chip. The MacBook has a 15.4” screen and starts at $2500 for the (fastest) 1.83Ghz processor. The equivalent “Dell Inspiron E1705” has the same 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo processor, the same 1GB of DDR2 667Mhz RAM, matching drives, matching wireless capability… But it also has a 17” screen and a next-generation NVidia Go 7800GTX which will kick that ATI Radeon X1600 right off the playing field (seriously). Despite that, the 1.83Ghz Intel Core Duo processor is only $2173. Of course, that’s the fastest that Apple offers, but with Dell you can upgrade the processor to 2Ghz for $200. Maybe OSX is just worth $326 more than Windows XP. Or maybe it’s the fancy magnetic power cord.

The Dell weighs more … but it’s got a much bigger screen, four extra USB2 ports, a 5-in-1 card reader, and a standard PC Card instead of the stupid ExpressCard … so the weight is earned. Maybe a better comparison would have been with the Gateway NX560 which starts at $1100 and costs $1500 with a similar config to the MacBook, with a 15.4” screen and an even sadder graphics card. Fujitsu, Asus, HP and others also announced Intel Core Duo laptops, but they aren’t available yet, and besides … I wasn’t going to do any of these comparisons.

P.S. I can’t wait to see actual number of how the new Macs do on some benchmarks we can all hold in common, like DOOM 3 … the iMac graphics page says it’s 2.3 times faster than a 2.1GHz PowerPC G5 (which would get it’s tail handed to it by that Dell Laptop, nevermind a real PC), but there’s no solid numbers.