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Apple upgrades Power Mac G5 desktop line

updated 08:35 am EDT, Wed April 27, 2005

New Power Mac G5s

Apple today refreshed its , Apple retail stores, and other authorized retailers for $2,000 (dual-2GHz), $2,500 (dual-2.3GHz), and $3,000 (dual-2.7GHz). Apple also said it would continue to sell its single-processor 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 for $1,500.

The new models with 16x dual-layer SuperDrives are available from the Apple Store with a ship time of 1-2 business days:

dual-2GHz G5 (PCI): 512MB/160GB/ATI Radeon 9600 (w/128MB) -- $1,999
dual-2.3GHz G5 (PCI-X): 512MB/250GB/ATI Radeon 9600 (w/128MB)-- $2,499
dual-2.7GHz G5 (PCI-X): 512MB/250GB/ATI Radeon 9650 (w/256MB) -- $2,999

"The Power Mac G5 continues to deliver the ultimate performance for our most advanced customers running bandwidth- and compute-intensive applications," said Philip Schiller, Apple's senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing. "With dual 2.7 GHz 64-bit G5 processors, dual 1.35 GHz front side buses, ATI Radeon 9650 graphics, 16X SuperDrive with double-layer support and Mac OS X Tiger, the new Power Mac G5 is the most powerful and advanced Mac we have ever made."

All new Power Mac G5 models come standard with dual-display support with either the ATI Radeon 9600 graphics card with 128MB of video memory or the ATI Radeon 9650 with 256MB of video memory. The high-end dual-processor 2.7 GHz Power Mac G5 features built-in support to drive Apple's 30-inch Cinema HD Display, while the NVIDIA GeForce 6800 Ultra DDL high-performance graphics card, which can drive up to two 30-inch Apple Cinema HD Displays, is available as a BTO option on all models.

The new Power Macs ship with a new, faster 16X SuperDrive with double-layer support capable of burning up to 8.5GB on a single DVD, 512MB memory and larger hard drives for up to 800GB of internal storage. The desktops also feature Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, three PCI-X or PCI expansion slots, USB 2.0, optical digital audio input and output, and analog audio input and output.

All dual processor Power Mac G5 systems ship with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger.

by MacNN Staff

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kerryb
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/27, 08:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Too expensive!

Great machines, but the pricing is too high. I purchased a top of the line G3 300 (the fastest machine in the world at the time) back in 1997 for $3000. In 2002 I picked the middle pro Quicksilver 900 for $2000. Aren't these things suppose to get cheaper with time not the opposite?

Voch
Mac Elite

Joined: Apr 2001

0

04/27, 09:03am | report spam | close Reply |
True

They are a bit pricey. But pro folks will buy them.

JustinD
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Jan 2001

0

04/27, 09:09am | report spam | close Reply |
Yikes.

Pretty dreadful. Argh, look at the video card options - umps from a 9650 to a 680 Ultra at $400! What a friggin joke.

DeepDish
Forum Regular

Joined: May 2001

0

04/27, 09:17am | report spam | close Reply |
Dual Layer DVD

If I wanted to replace the DVD-R in my G5 I bought last fall, and wanted one of put one of these new 16x Dual Layer DVD burners interanally into it, what model number of DVD burner would I buy?

Would it be easy to put in myself?

Are these DVD-R or DVD +/- R?

Thank you kindly,

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/27, 09:20am | report spam | close Reply |
low-end

The $1500 low-end model is now a true joke. The $2000 model gets an upgrade on processor, memory, video, DVD drive, etc. The $1500 model? Exactly the same as it was yesterday, including price. Is Apple like deftly afraid to sell a tower computer for $1200 or something?

fritzw1957
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2004

0

04/27, 09:23am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Dual Layer DVD

I believe these DVD burners are FULLY compliant with all the known DVD writing formats (DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW - all Dual-Layer) except Blu-Ray... gee just what we need --- another 'emerging standard'.

BETA vs. VHS Anyone? ;-)

fritzw1957
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2004

0

04/27, 09:25am | report spam | close Reply |
RE: Dual Layer DVD (again

http://www.apple.com/powermac/specs.html

Look at the OPTICAL DRIVE specs -- all your questions answered there.

cyngus
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 1999

0

04/27, 09:27am | report spam | close Reply |
The pricing

Repeat after me. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. Why is the low-end so expensive? Its for that person out there who doesn't need a huge amount of processing power, but needs the slots. Apple's machines don't get cheaper because the performance gets better. If you look at a top-of-the-line Intel or AMD workstation, it'll run you about the same price. If you want that kind of performance, you gotta pay for it and perhaps more than raw performance would imply. As with most things features increase linearly and price increases exponentiall beyond a certian point. Don't like it, call it unfair, do whatever you want, but this is how almost every business operates for both economic and business strategy reasons. Many, many industries use the high end (business/prosumer) to subsidize the low-end (consumer), airlines, broadband, nearly everything.

Tdassel
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2004

0

04/27, 09:28am | report spam | close Reply |
3 Ghz promised last year

Hello,

no big deal upgrade. Won't help the sales much, or am I wrong ? No state of the art ATI card. Some long overdue adaptions like 512 MB and Dual Layer burner. Still no multi core chips and no dramatic price cut either. O.K: the displays have dropped. And if the single 1.8 Ghz model stays, I fear the next Imac upgrade will not be a big one either. Perhaps we will see faster xserves at WWDC ?

Greetings

Thomas

wings_rfs
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Dec 2002

0

04/27, 09:48am | report spam | close Reply |
7% Faster...wow

Oh Boy... we went from 2.5 to 2.7 GHz, a 7.5% speed bump. Better than stagnation I guess, but I'm still in a waiting mode. My next buy will be a dual dual (yeah, quad!) G5 at 3GHz. Whenever that arrives.

milhous
Mac Elite

Joined: Sep 2000

0

04/27, 09:53am | report spam | close Reply |
so...

it seems that retailers do indeed get advanced notice of releases i.e. amazon.com.

but i'm sure only select retailers get the heads up. with amazon blowing their cover a day in advance, i wonder if apple will continue trusting them.

Voch
Mac Elite

Joined: Apr 2001

0

04/27, 10:05am | report spam | close Reply |
Checking...

Checking Amazon.com for new iBooks now... :)

freakboy2
Dedicated MacNNer

Joined: Oct 2002

0

04/27, 10:10am | report spam | close Reply |
so wow.. like wow.. wow

This is the smallest upgrade I think I've ever seen apple put out there. It's hardly even worth of a news release.

I've kind of wanted a g5 off and on, but at this price.. it's insane! And for a box that has limited internal space (for extra drives), etc.

blah.. the only thing i like about the g5s is how much ram you can put into them. But wow are they overpriced.. And apple's BTO prices are still outlandish.. it's like 400or 500 bucks to put in a 6800?!? and to upgrade from 512 to 1gig of ram is 100$?!? tht's like 2x the market price! Lunacy!

GreatWhiteNorth
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

04/27, 10:46am | report spam | close Reply |
Gag!

This could be forgiven if the prices went down a bit. But to stay static? I was going to purchase the top-end PM, but without including some emerging techs (PCIe anyone?) forget it. I'll hold onto my cash until after WWDC to assess the situation.

83caddy16v
Forum Regular

Joined: Sep 2000

0

04/27, 10:48am | report spam | close Reply |
quiet launch

Apple doesn't seem to be making a 'big' deal about the bump -- the apple.com homepage main image is for Tiger and not the new G5,

could there be another bump waiting in the wings after the Tiger launch?

tomodachi
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2002

0

04/27, 11:21am | report spam | close Reply |
re: quiet launch

>>could there be another bump waiting in the wings after the Tiger launch?

of course there is.

Like, 6 months after the launch, but yes.

Ralf_Wiggum
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2002

0

04/27, 11:30am | report spam | close Reply |
dual core

The G5s are not dual core. Just regular speed bumps. Nothing big here. Move along, move along.

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

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04/27, 11:44am | report spam | close Reply |
Re: the pricing

Repeat after me. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. THESE ARE PRO MACHINES. Why is the low-end so expensive? Its for that person out there who doesn't need a huge amount of processing power, but needs the slots.

I'm sorry, did you explain why the low-end is so expensive? Um, no, you didn't. All the other models "dropped in price" from before (the old 2.0 dual was 2500, now its 2000, with more RAM and better parts). Same with the 2.5GHz. But the lowly 1.8 single is the EXACT SAME MACHINE it was yesterday, at the exact same price. The only people who would buy it over the dual 2.0 are those who really can't afford the extra $500 (by the way, if you up the 1.8 to 512MB, 9600 video, and 160GB HD, it comes out at $1700, which means for $300 more, you can get a dual 2.0 with a better optical drive).

I'd have no problem if this machine was updated to 2GHz and more memory, but staying at $1500 (that's what Apple does with their stuff, god forbid they offer reduced prices to, I don't know, sell MORE computers). But they're staying at $1500 for no change. The only reason this computer is here (as was said when it first came out) was so they could claim they had a desktop at $1500.

h***, for $1500 you can get a 1.8GHz iMac with screen.

But why doesn't anyone here realize that the biggest seller apple has now, the iMac mini, is selling because it (a) is monitor-less, and (b) cheap. What's so hard about selling the 1.8 at $1200? Apple might actually sell one or two. But right now, its a crappy system at an expensive price. The other ones are much better deals now then last week, but Apple doesn't exactly price them to move either.

Is it no wonder Apple sells less and less "Pro" machines each quarter?

darcybaston
Grizzled Veteran

Joined: May 2000

0

04/27, 11:53am | report spam | close Reply |
I'm happy with it

I'm ok with the upgrade/price point. The RAM is double, DVD burner is dual layer, bus speeds are up, graphics card is double, custom upgrading to a 256mb video ram card is only $50, $100 for a half gig of ram is fine with me considering I've paid much more in the past etc.

It's the monitor prices I don't get. They're nice, but when a ViewSonic comparable product is half the price and just as gorgeous/faithful to color, I'm not very motivated to get an Apple one.

NDBounce
Senior User

Joined: Feb 2000

0

04/27, 11:54am | report spam | close Reply |
Sadly it's true

Sadly, the sales of Mac Mini's are phenominal and the PowerMacs seem stagnant at best. This upgrade will not really inspire too many more sales (I imagine). I'm curious to see if/how this trend of high consumer sales and low pro sales translates on the software front. Any ideas? I'm not predicting death, but I could see some Software manufactures reducing their presence in the Mac market, and others I could see increasing it...only I'm not sure I will see the blend I want to see.

ecrelin
Junior Member

Joined: Oct 2000

0

04/27, 12:03pm | report spam | close Reply |
price baloney

where can you upgrade from 512 to 1Gb for $50.? hoooey plain and simple The video upgrades are for what, a 30" monitor (if you can afford that you can afford the upgrde) or games. Awwww for games, go buy an alienware SINGLE 3.4 Xeon with 1Gb and two of your beloved 6800's� FOR $5994.!!!! Apple has ALWAYS used a model where the new machines come in at the same top end price as the last ones. The only time prices go down are when they are industry wide. As mentioned, look at any other vendors that have similarly configured machines and they are all in the $3000. range. whining idiots

hayesk
Professional Poster

Joined: Sep 1999

0

04/27, 12:18pm | report spam | close Reply |
Wow, such whining.

You get more stuff than you did yesterday for the same price, but there seems to be no outrage over yesterday's models.

Would you rather have Apple just sit on incremental updates and not sell them, but instead wait longer for major upgrades?

Do you whiners walk to into PC shops and complain that today's model is not that much better than yesterday's model? After all, it's only a tiny bit better than the last "model."

Honestly people, this is nothing to complain about. The machines got better at the same price. Why is that a bad thing?

denim
Mac Elite

Joined: Jun 2000

0

04/27, 12:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Wow, such whining

> Why is that a bad thing?

Because they like to whine. So it's actually a good thing since it lets them do their favorite activity.

PookJP
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Jan 2001

0

04/27, 12:26pm | report spam | close Reply |
Mac Heads Whining?

Apple improved something and Mac Heads are complaining? h*** hath finally frozen over.

paulc
Junior Member

Joined: Aug 2000

0

04/27, 12:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
the bottom line...

From the past several quarters, we see PMac sales tanking... down 19% last quarter. Clearly the hardware in this segment is not meeting the expectations people have for such machines. These minor bumps will do nothing whatsoever to change that trend.

Had they gone with the 970GX (i.e. the cooler running chip) and PCIe, then maybe they get a bump. Even PCIe might get a bump. Obviously, they have to depend on Moto�errr IBM for the chip, but they could VERY easily have implemented PCIe.

So we go another quarter and see PMac sales tanking even further. What is really scary about that is it becomes REALLY clear the the best business move is to drop them entirely. Minis, iMacs and Pods, that's it for the apple of the future. That sucks!

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/27, 12:55pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: wow such whining

You get more stuff than you did yesterday for the same price, but there seems to be no outrage over yesterday's models.

Guess you haven't been paying attention, last year's models were whined about, more and more as they stayed unchanged for the first four months of this year.

Would you rather have Apple just sit on incremental updates and not sell them, but instead wait longer for major upgrades?

No, I would rather have Apple issue incremental updates MORE often (it took a whole year for them to figure out how to put an extra 256MB of RAM into this thing?) You know, keep the computers competitive as time goes on. With Apple, if you bought a computer monday or last July, you get the exact same configuration, even if most of the internal prices have decreased. Go to any PC manufacuturer, and you'll see their prices and/or specs change a lot more regularly.

And then I'd like them to revise the computer more often to include better technologies. Why should users have to wait until IBM gets their heads out of their asses and finally get their next-gen chips into usable production before we see updated memory subsystems or PCI-Express or the like?

Do you whiners walk to into PC shops and complain that today's model is not that much better than yesterday's model? After all, it's only a tiny bit better than the last "model."

Of course not. But, then again, PC Shops stay up-to-date on current technologies (PCs had USB 2.0 long before Apple, they've had PCI-Express for a year, etc).

Honestly people, this is nothing to complain about. The machines got better at the same price. Why is that a bad thing?

Well, as a shareholder (even as a small one), I still say the same thing. They've upgraded computers. Great. But who cares if no one buys them? If you need one, sure, but then you would've bought last weeks model and not cared (you needed it, after all, that's what 'beeble' posted yesterday). But if you have a 2yo 2GHz G5, there is NOTHING about these upgrades to spur people to buy them. Which means PowerMac sales keep falling (since Apple refuses to advertise or market ANYTHING but iPods, no Windows user is going to buy one of these things, they probably don't even know it exists, so the only people buying are current Mac users). Falling sales cuts into the bottom-line. Which causes the stock price to tank (as yet another company lowers Apple's rating). Which costs ME money. I want Apple to sell computers. And there's nothing here that will drive sales.

Ixion
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

04/27, 12:57pm | report spam | close Reply |
Thankfully...

Thankfully, the investors don't seem to be the irritable mac faithful. If the majority of investors were, the stock would drop like a rock with an update like this. I appreciate any update, but to call this one lackluster is giving it way too much credit. These latest revisions after such a ridiculously long time are just too little, too late. They're doing a pretty piss poor job of being a 'hardware company' in my estimation. I wish running Mac OS X was feasible on a PC.

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/27, 01:00pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: Mac heads whining

Because they like to whine. So it's actually a good thing since it lets them do their favorite activity.

Man, what i don't understand is how you "this is a good thing" people think this is a good thing. I guess if you just look at "what it was" and "what it is". But if you look at a larger picture, it, to me at least, just shows Apple doesn't care anymore about selling computers. And as such, I wonder how long it'll be before they just dump the Mac and just try to migrate OS X to Intel (which will just fail, just as the attempt of Next on intel failed, until there's nothing left but a few "you can have my mac when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers" zealots).

And you have to wonder whether Apple knew of how badly their pro lines were going to become, sales-wise. A few years ago they started buying up and releasing their own sets of Pro apps. Why? Were they concerned that certain companies were leaving, and they wanted to make sure that these areas were covered? Or were they concerned that when the developers noticed that PowerMac sales were going into steep decline, that they'd start dropping support left and right, and then there'd be no pro apps. So they ended up making the apps to cover the impending exodus of Pro apps from the market.

Todd Madson
Mac Elite

Joined: Apr 2000

0

04/27, 01:01pm | report spam | close Reply |
Well....

Did anyone notice the red tagged dual 2.5 ghz machines are $200 less than the 2.3 machines?

I did.

eddiecatflap
Baninated

Joined: Sep 2002

0

04/27, 01:07pm | report spam | close Reply |
non event

you wait a year

FOR THIS ?

*yawn*

OtisWild
Junior Member

Joined: Feb 2005

0

04/27, 01:16pm | report spam | close Reply |
TEH LAME REFRESH

The sad part is Apple sticking with c*** video adapters.

Sorry, but all that ATI stuff is last gen at current-gen prices. That is totally c***.

Why oh why does Apple have so much lust for ATI? They're already abandoning AGP in droves, all their X-series GPUs are PCIe first. NVidia was getting flak from ATI because they launched AGP first when it came time for the 6x00 generation, so Apple should have gone with NV if they want to stay in AGP land.

But Apple hates NVidia for some reason: all they use is the garbagola fx5200 and teh overpriced 6800ultra. Where's the 6800gt? 6800? 6600gt? h***, even a 6200 would be better than a 5200. All are readily available in AGP, and Apple could even design their own and/or OEM instead of buying full cards from ATI..

C'mon apple, stop sucking when it comes to videoboards!

Person Man
Professional Poster

Joined: Jun 2001

0

04/27, 01:21pm | report spam | close Reply |
One reason for bad sales

One big reason for bad sales is that when they introduced the G5 machines, Jobs said that they would be at 3 GHz in a year. That was before the industry hit the speed wall. Before anyone (IBM included) could forsee those problems developing. Now people keep waiting for that 3 GHz machine to materialize because it's "just around the corner..." etc.

They tend to wait to introduce major changes like PCI express, etc because it costs a lot more money to develop new motherboards than it does to just update the processor on the existing models. Since it also costs more money to design a new motherboard to accommodate a new processor type, why not wait to introduce new technologies at the same time the new processor types (not speeds) become more available. They'll save money in the long run.

What I find absolutely ludicrous are the people with 500 MHz G4 machines looking at the 2.7 GHz model and saying, "It's not enough to get me to upgrade..." Some of them saying that now are the same ones who said "I wish I could afford a dual 2.0 GHz machine" when the G5 first came out. Now that they can afford a G5 class machine, a 2.3 or a 2.7 is "not enough for them?"

OtisWild
Junior Member

Joined: Feb 2005

0

04/27, 01:23pm | report spam | close Reply |
Oh, btw...

.. A decent Athlon64 rig that could blow away a $5000 Powermac in Doom3 or UT2004 would cost no more than $1500 w/o monitor, thanks to the GV-3D1 dual 6600gt SLI combo and parts bin guts. And I bet NV would get SLI working in Linux before Apple gets PCIe in their Powermacs.

All Apple has to do is use NVidia AGP boards. That's all, using NV would tide them over to PCIe. Why oh why in the name of all that is holy in the blessed universe why don't they just go with NV???

robguz
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Nov 2002

0

04/27, 01:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
$50 to 1GB

Where can you buy an upgrade fro 512MB to 1GB for $50? Where CAN'T you? Dealram today lists 512 chips for $32. So that would make the cost of even going from 512 installed to 1.5 GB installed only $64. Apple would charge about $300.

testudo
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Aug 2001

0

04/27, 02:14pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: one reason

One big reason for bad sales is that when they introduced the G5 machines, Jobs said that they would be at 3 GHz in a year.

The only ones I know of who are waiting for 3GHz machines are dreamers who remember that comment. If anyone actually pays any attention to the market, you know they won't be coming for a long while yet (h***, my guess is that the 2.7GHz chips are the same fabs that were doing the 2.5GHz, just that they're getting better quality fabs that they can clock reliably to 2.7GHz). Personally the 3GHz comment was of little concern to me as I actually understand that MHz doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things.

They tend to wait to introduce major changes like PCI express, etc because it costs a lot more money to develop new motherboards than it does to just update the processor on the existing models. Since it also costs more money to design a new motherboard to accommodate a new processor type, why not wait to introduce new technologies at the same time the new processor types (not speeds) become more available. They'll save money in the long run.

Great, they save money! Technically, if they want to save more money, they could just stop producing Macs altogether. Think of the savings. No more needing an R&D staff. No more tech support people. No more wasting money on this c***! But my point is an intermediate motherboard upgrade would spur further sales while we wait for new processors. New processor types already spur sales. That's the way its always been. But why not try to spur sales between processors by giving people a reason to upgrade? I think they'd MAKE more money in the long run.

Well, because the new processors keep getting delayed, and delayed, and delayed. And so what you're selling is a computer with 2yo tech in it, which makes it that much more outdated. In another year, most graphic cards are going to be PCIe, and there'll only be a couple of AGP offerings (just like now, where most cards are AGP, and you can only find one or two that are PCI). So, as a user, if you're holding $3000 and saying "What can I buy that I can keep up-to-date for 3-5 years as time goes on?", you're answer won't be "PowerMac!", since the first thing you'll notice is that its already 2 years into that 3-5 year cycle. So now you're going to just sit and wait for the inevitable motherboard update, which might, now, be another year down the road, because Apple's too damn cheap to spend some money on an interim motherboard upgrade, and IBM seems like its hired all of Motorola's former engineers.

kinglou
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Sep 2002

0

04/27, 02:58pm | report spam | close Reply |
Lackluster

4 months ago I was excited about what Apple was going to suprise us with at NAB. I really expected a major push with awesome machines and renderfarm type stuff with the new production suite. But as NAB got closer I tempered my hope. How long have people been saying Quad Processors? Anytime I heard it kills my enthusiasm for any improvements. 16x DVD Burner. Hooray. About time is more like it. As usual the RAM is still too expensive, not enough HD space inside and a mediocre speed bump at best. The pricing doesn't surprise me. They always just slide things down the price scale. The speed bump isn't their fault. IBM needs to step up to the plate. When we were waiting on Mototrola and their screwy chip making we could always fall back on IBM to make up the difference in production. Now it's IBM or nothing as far as the G5 is concerned. Boooo. Freescale? Feh.

I think we're leveling off here. Please Apple! Suprise me!

klinux
Senior User

Joined: Jul 2002

0

04/27, 03:25pm | report spam | close Reply |
Agreeing with tetsudo

I have always respected Apple taking the initiative in adopting advanced technology and making it standard. There are many examples: USB, firewire, 802.1b/g, gigabit, SuperDrive, Bluetooth, etc. Sure, it was behind in a couple of things usch as USB2, DDR, and faster bus speed but it caught up nevertheless.

The latest PM features none of that. No PCI-e/x graphics. No 400GB SATA as standard. Hardware RAID. The list goes on. These are suppose to be pro machines that last!

Laurence
Mac Enthusiast

Joined: Mar 1999

0

04/27, 03:32pm | report spam | close Reply |
Not "Pro" Machines

These are definitely not pro machines. The CPU may be, but a pro machine would have more options. Minimally the top end machine should have 4 internal drive bays, 16x PCI Express video, PCI Express expansion slots (Not PCI-X) and Hardware RAID.

Options for hard drives should go from 40 to 400GB and have options for 10000rpm models. Options for optical drives should be plain CD to DVD+-RW DL. Options for video cards should include a range of everything from the GForce FX 6600 up to the Quadro FX 3000.

I'm not saying that every G5 should ship with these items, but they should be available. The HDs wouldn't require ANY software support. Why is it that the biggest and fastest HDs are not even available on the Apple BTO system?

I will be getting a new G5 at some point in the future, but it doesn't look like it will be the near future.

skymansion
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

04/27, 03:54pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple is Very Smart

I understand these concerns, the point I am not seeing here is the exsiting G5 customer is very happy ( THE ORIGINAL DUAL 2.0 G5 WAS THE BEST DEAL IN THE LAST 10 YEARS ) and if you don't have one you really are missing the boat. We are moving to a 64 bit system. Do you have a 64 bit chip? I Just moved from a dual 533 g4 to dual 2.5 G5 2 months ago. ANY G5 BLOWS AWAY A G4. I was so amazed at how fast this thing is. The point is when there are major upgrades, customers who just dropped allot of money can get really upset. I am still happy and if you need a new mac go buy one. If you don't, enjoy the one you have. If you think you can do better, invent a new computer platform and I will buy yours in 15 years. good luck! GO APPLE !!! I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!

shmoolie
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: May 2002

0

04/27, 04:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
Third party

"Options for hard drives should go from 40 to 400GB and have options for 10000rpm models. Options for optical drives should be plain CD to DVD+-RW DL. Options for video cards should include a range of everything from the GForce FX 6600 up to the Quadro FX 3000."

Everything you want is available from third party vendors and Apple knows that. They understand that people want choices. Pro's know how to build out their systems to maximize it for their use.

Faizon318
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Mar 2004

0

04/27, 04:31pm | report spam | close Reply |
AM I THE ONLY ONE

do these things need to be 60 lbs ? ??? I want a smaller easy to cary mac .

G5power
Fresh-Faced Recruit

Joined: Apr 2005

0

04/27, 04:40pm | report spam | close Reply |
Apple ignores 1.8 single

So much for purchasing my first Apple system. I have been stalking the PM 1.8 single for months now and was anticipating a new price point and / or upgraded features with today�s updates.

Based on extensive review of forum posts, I expected that the 1.8 single would either have a significant price drop or have upgraded features along with a minor price cut. 1- Faster processor 2Ghz 2- More memory 512MB 3- Bigger Hard drive 120 to 160 4- Upgraded video

My approach was that a minor price drop and at least 2 of the 4 upgrades above meant that I would probably make the purchase and 3 or 4 of the points above along with even a minor price drop meant that I would pull the trigger. I even had the courtesy discussion with the wife unit to let her know that I was planning a purchase.

But NO � Steve Jobs shut me down and went 0 for 4. Plus � he kept the same price point on the 1.8 single. WTF is up with that? The $1499 hasn�t been a reasonable value for that system and it is now even more pathetic.

Apple doesn�t market a system for someone that wants an intermediate performance G5 with the option for upgrades. I do not want any part of an AIO system and I�m left with the cute but crippled G4 mini or a grossly overpriced and feature poor 1.8 single � nothing in between.

carto
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04/27, 05:08pm | report spam | close Reply |
Cheese

I think Apple should start selling cheese.

There's enough w'ining going on in here to keep 'em busy for quite awhile.

You've have choices, people, excercise them.

Jonathan-Tanya
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04/27, 05:09pm | report spam | close Reply |
quad proc's coming

well the rumour mills have been very accurate, and they never said quad proc's would be on the pro-line...that they would be on some kind of new line for renderfarms or industrial use...lets wait, could still happen.

this incremental upgrade is fine, but I also wish the low end machine was a bit cheaper. like $999

Bruce Young
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04/27, 05:35pm | report spam | close Reply |
ATI vs NVidia

Re. the comment: "Sorry, but all that ATI stuff is last gen at current-gen prices... Why oh why does Apple have so much lust for ATI? They're already abandoning AGP in droves, all their X-series GPUs are PCIe first. NVidia was getting flak from ATI because they launched AGP first when it came time for the 6x00 generation, so Apple should have gone with NV if they want to stay in AGP land."

I recall a few years back Apple was more NVidia oriented, but there was an issue with NVidia putting out some hardware or news info about upcoming Mac model before Apple approved. Apple got in a snit about it and dropped NVidia like a brick... or am I mis-remembering?

Anyway, my point is that often corporate decisions are not made from the end users desire for most bang for best price, but rather from hidden agendas and timelines ... Sigh, and we thought Apple was 'thinking different' ...

I still love the product, I just wish Apple would be bolder in its hardware development and product releases - give us more bang for the buck.

MacAddictG4
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04/27, 05:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
Re: ATI vs NVidia

I could be wrong about this, but I recall things in the opposite way. Apple used to love ATI, then ATI slipped up about a coming Pro Apple system at one of the Macworld conferences. After that Steve-o somewhat dropped ATI and became more Nvidia-centric, but since then ATIs have been working their way back into Apple systems.

Personally I prefer ATI to Nvidia on Macs and PCs, but they definitely need to upgrade their Mac product line to stay up-to-date. Perhaps they are waiting for the dual dual-core 3GHz G5s that will have PCIe? ;-)

trevc
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04/27, 06:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
re : Cheese

I think Apple should start selling cheese. There's enough w'ining going on in here to keep 'em busy for quite awhile. You've have choices, people, excercise them.

People whine for some wrong reasons, but in this case, there's a case for it (not sure if it's Pinot Noir or Chardonnay);-)

The specs for this low-end machine indicates that the $1499 is definately overpriced as this is a 'new' machine's price point.

This seriously slow climb towards 3Ghz is getting tiring (come on IBM!)

davidahn
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04/27, 07:46pm | report spam | close Reply |
Whining vs. Venting

We're not whining, we're venting. We've got every right to be disappointed; an 8% speed increment after waiting months to adopt is pathetic. Maybe part of the problem is the rumor mills talking about quad-processor machines. That would be exciting. That would make me vote with my wallet. (I'm already voting with my wallet... keeping it closed.)

If you're so happy with an 8% speed boost, YOU go buy one. If you don't like the venting, don't read it. If you think I'm going to switch to PCs, you're crazy. I'm just venting.

David

himself
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04/27, 08:15pm | report spam | close Reply |
re: Whining vs. Venting

please, man...

whining, venting, ranting, complaining... there is no difference.

I.P. Freely
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04/27, 09:44pm | report spam | close Reply |
Shut up already

Not a big deal people. This is just a speed bump not major upgrades.

So if these machines don't impress you wait little longer... I still use G4 upgraded with dual 1.3 GHz processor.

carto
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04/27, 10:33pm | report spam | close Reply |
Expectations

David: "We've got every right to be disappointed..."

Right?! Ownership of a product means you have a Right to dictate what a company makes?! Have you ever even submitted feedback to Apple?

The Apple in Your Eye isn't what is going to make Apple the Company stay in business. Until we all become advocates for the computers we love, (PBG3 333 / Mini 1.42, 512, SD) and get the computer unit sales up, you're never going to see a "fully featured" (aka not Mini) Mac for Dell-Mart prices. Basic economics.

Choice: not a damn PC...but extra drives, cards, stuff... you can add if you want. It's not the day of the total death grip on parts.

Pro: means just that...professional users, which has meant media and illustration users, and now some admin *NIX people (welcome!). Not gamers. You wanna chase around the latest 3D bling bling?...go build a stupid mystery black box and pay out your nose every six months. Have fun. *I* want a machine that'll run Apple Pro, Adobe and what was MM, for years to come. Pro means you'll rasterize a 600 dpi 4'x5' map, not frag some moron next door sittin' in his underwear. I don't need 256MB GPU for that. And if I'm doing video? I'm gonna run it out to my own external drive, not a single 400GB drive. If you're a "pro", you don't rely on only one internal drive.

And beyond that, if you're doing real 3D animation, you're not using Mac or PC. If I remember right, some of Star Wars EP 1 was only rendered on a small PPC farm, but not built or animated on them.

bobolicious
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04/27, 11:47pm | report spam | close Reply |
Even a G5 Powerbook...

...can't be a desktop replacement any more with these puppies...

Long gone are the wallstreet days when owning a laptop wasn't a compromise...

blidd
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04/28, 07:59am | report spam | close Reply |
Lower Pro sale is

a industriwide trend. According to IDC the markedsshare of 500USD computers has increased 3 time during the last year. Fact is Yes a high end Dual G5 would be nice to have, but it is not a need to have if you do not work professionally with advanced audio, video, designs with a deadlines. My mac mini with Superdrive is not as fast, but at encoding dvd and can�t run as many effects i realtime as a G5, but it is still able to run the programs. It just takes a little longer. Working for a Apple reseller in Denmark I prefer a small upgrade delevered to us 1 day after the announcement than some big upgrade delevered 6 month after as was the case with the dual 2,5. Don�t forget that the 9650 card will be able to run one 30" monitor. Only people who wants to run doom or connect 2 30" monitor will need a faster or bigger GPU

Etaz
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04/28, 06:13pm | report spam | close Reply |
PCI Express

I have the money but I refuse to plunk down for a 7.5% speed bump with no PCI Express. PCI X is DEAD! The ATI people at Macworld said AGP was dead in SF and soon you would be see a Phase Out of cards, I.E. more choices in Express than AGP. This is the case now on the Dark side. I would have been HAPPY with no speed bump on the processors as long as PCI express was included and DDR2 was supported. My money will stay in my pocket and collect cobwebs until Jobs gets his act together. The only one suffering here is Apple, how can I become a supporting customer when the product I won't buy is antiquated. The OS is the only selling point, (Still the best), but it is not enough to make my buying decision. I will have to make due with Darkside PCI express machine and my Old 9600 until Apple moves forward instead of backward. BTW you can get a dual layer drive anywhere now, is this a NEW selling feature?

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