Mac g5

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[aaronjf]

Has anyone gotten a G5 yet. Mine is not due till November and I was wondering what the consensus is. Good, Bad, or rock'em sock'em kick the tires and light the fire?

[too much information]

Just picked up a new G5 last night. I like how simple the interior is to access (for adding the AirPort card, memory, etc.) The fans pull right out, and snap back in. There is even a plexiglas shield inside the cover probably to help with airflow, very cool.

The things that I am a little disappointed with are that it won't take the memory from my G4. (not really a big deal) The new speakers I bought in January (small clear globes) aparently will not plug into the new G5. (I'm going to look for an adaptor today) And there is an external "T" shaped antenna for the Airport that snaps into a spot in the back of the tower. I don't know if this is for a little extra reception, but it could stand to be a little more rugged.

I went for the 1.6 Ghz over the 1.8 because the sales guy couldn't convince me that the extra .2 would do much for me. (I would have loved to go 'Dual' but the $$$ got in the way) I can tell some difference already between the AirPort card I was using and the new Extreme card. Even with my old base station I am getting a jump in transfer rate. I also noticed that Classic mode loades MUCH faster. Even with the stock 256 Megs of Ram. I am still transfering files and programs from my 'new G4 file server' but after a few days of real work I can probably give a better review.

Oh, so far my favorite feature: Dual Monitor support built in! and it comes with an adaptor for a VGA monitor.

[Amgine]

So... you've had another week to work with the new box. Things worth talking about?

Amgine

[too much information]

Hey gang! I am the wife of TMI, proud owner of a new G5. So far, I have been very happy with it. DH (dear hubby) noted the negatives above and they stink. I am most upset about the speakers. Still no sign of an adapter - I will have to seach online. And the memory - no biggie - I went to buy more at the Mac store and they were sold out. But even without the memory, the machine is SO much faster than my G4. Even my Quark, which I haven't upgraded, has to be opened in OS9 and it opens so much faster. Even though I got the bottom of the line G5, it is doing everything I need. I edited photos the other day and it was nice and fast. The one thing that I LOVE is my PS file browser loads the thumbs so much faster. Before, I would hit "file browser" and get up to do something once I chose my folder. Now it is up in an instant - thumbs and all. Very Nice! I was told that the high end G5 is really used most for 3D graphics and animation and I don't need that. As long as I can open, crop and mildly edit photos, I am good to go! So far so good!

Happy Friday!

[Amgine]

Okay, I had to turn in my forgot-to-do-it-until-an-hour-before-deadline purchasing advisement. The last second homework was impressive.

The machines they're looking for are to support a research and analysis team - heavy statistics, and portable presentations. The equipment specs were, basically, high computations and excellent hardware support/longevity. And I got the shock of the last few years - Wintel couldn't come close dollar for dollar.

First the power difference. SPECfp_rate_base2000 at 15.7 and SPECint_rate_base2000 at 17.2 on the dual processor G5 2GHz. Dual Xeon 3.06GHz? 11.1 and 16.7. The G5's 64bit processor really shines here. The Wintel machine also couldn't compete on bus speed, etc., until we nearly doubled the price of the G5. On vanilla gear of similar power or price the comparison was nearly painful, especially to my dedicated OS guy who loves Windows.

On hardware support/longevity the field was more level. Wintel support is cheaper, and more readily available where we're at. On the other hand, the extremely unscientific poll of the qbz had 20% of the Mac users reporting hardware failures ever, and 80% of the Wintel users reporting hardware failures ever. Toss up, because who can believe Mac fans? [evil grin] The bottom line, though, is the bundle warranty and cost for support - 90 day support and 1 year warranty from Mac, 3 year support and warranty from Dell. Mind, it's only $249 for equivalent from Mac, but it *is* extra.

Net result: the stats folks are mulling it over, even though everything logical points to choosing the Mac. Even the price.

Amgine

[Macguru]

Forbes just published some interesting 5 pages review about it.

[forbes.com...]