The world has a lot of unwritten rules: In social etiquette. In baseball. And in buying computers. For years, we have unquestioningly followed numerous unwritten rules when buying a Mac. Like many customs, these rules were once based on a foundation of facts and reason. But in the past few years, many longstanding Mac truths have been upended. All Macs run on multiple-core Intel processors now. iMacs are no longer hobbled by crippling feature limitations. And speedy external peripherals have drastically lessened the need for add-on cards.

In other words, the old rules no longer apply. If you're planning on buying a new Mac, you need facts about the modern lineup--so you can choose the computer that's right for you.

In this article, we take a look at some common assumptions and explain whether they align with today's realities.

How we tested

Before we begin, let's explain some of the information you'll find throughout this story--specifically, the score cards for each of the six Mac model lines. Each card lists a performance score and three subjective ratings.

Performance Scores In addition to our standard Speedmark 5 test scores (click here to download a complete set of test data), updated for OS X 10.5.2, we've included Professional Applications, Multimedia, and General Productivity scores derived from the 17 tasks that make up Speedmark (these scores are relative to those of the eight-core 2.8GHz Mac Pro, which was assigned a score of 4) for each standard configuration. Our Professional Applications score comprises results from Adobe Photoshop, Compressor, and Maxon Cinema 4D. Our Multimedia score comprises results from iTunes, iMovie, iPhoto, Unreal Tournament, and HandBrake. Our General Productivity score comprises results from the Finder, Pages, Camino, and Microsoft Office 2004.

Subjective Ratings Lastly, we rated each line in terms of value, portability, and expandability on a scale of Poor, Fair, Good, and Great.

For a downloadable Excel spreadsheet of product data, click here.

Old Rule: I'm a power user; therefore, I need a Mac Pro.

For years, Apple's high-end Power Mac desktop systems were a great--and perhaps the only--choice for a wide variety of Mac users. Many Macworld editors, for example, would never have considered anything less when buying a new Mac. Power Macs had the fastest processor speeds and internal architectures, not to mention space for lots of RAM, hard drives, and expansion cards.

For more Mac news, visit Macworld. Story copyright Mac Publishing, LLC.

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