Dual 1Ghz G4 PowerMac With Extra Yummy

A huge number of readers submitted the new Dual Ghz Power Mac that Apple has announced. Includes a Geforce 4 and assorted other bells and whistles that will ring and blow for the Mac Junkie. They start at $3k and seriously make me want a Mac.

Comments

Try to build a comparable Dell for $3000

[z7209]

Just for fun, try to build a comparable brand name PC for $3000.

I tried with Dell and ended up with a $5,071 quote. I'm sure my specs can be debated, but I got:

--Dual Xeon 2.2Ghz (Hard to tell if this is a good comparison)
--512 MB RAM
--80GB HD
--ATI Fire GL2, 64MB,VGA/DVI (Best I could find on their site, besides high-end)
--Sound Blaster Live! Value
--Windows XP Pro

Anyone have any idea whether the Xeon 2.2Ghz is fair to compare with at all?

Less and less BTO - bums me out

[Steve Cowan]

I work in audio. I want raw performance power, and I want style - the equipment I use in my studio has to impress my clients.

The G4/DP 1 gig is a very appealing option, except:

1. I don't need a SuperDrive. I don't want a SuperDrive. Apple won't give you a 933 or 1GHz DP machine without a SuperDrive. Sorry but I'd rather save hundreds of dollars by simply not buying one!

2. ADC (Apple Display Connector) still really bugs me, and now they've really made it ugly. For those of you who aren't aware of Apple's hardware decision here I'm going to sum it up:
   • Apple created a proprietary connector, "ADC", for displays.
   • This connector carries power, DVI and USB along the same cable, reducing cable clutter.
   • The video card is a special one, with an extra set of pins at one end which connect to a separate power socket on the motherboard.
   • Without this power socket there is not enough juice fed to the card to power an entire display.

     THEREFORE Your system can only work with one Apple display, because only one card slot has this power connection.

   • If you wish to power an Apple Display using a system with no ADC port, you can, but you need to buy an external solution worth hundreds of dollars, which plugs into a video card's DVI output, a USB port, and into mains via a line-lump style power supply; and combines all these signals into an ADC connection.
   • Such adaptors require a DVI output from your video card.
   • The new video cards available on these Macs have one ADC output and one VGA output. There is absolutely no way to connect any current Apple display to that second monitor port.
   • There is no less-expensive, single-port card available for your Power Mac G4.
   • If you want a second Apple display you would have to purchase a video card with a DVI output to go into an un-accelerated PCI slot, and the special multi-hundred dollar adaptor described above to connect to the second Apple display's ADC connector.
   • If you want to use a non-Apple display on the ADC port you must buy a sub-$100 adaptor which breaks the DVI video signal out of the ADC connector for a 'standard' DVI flat display.
   • To my knowledge there is no adaptor that will give you a VGA output from the ADC port.

   What I'm getting at here is that Apple boasts that all the new Power Macs have support for dual monitors built in, but for a company who puts so much work into beautiful designs, they expect me to use two different, cosmetically mismatched displays! I don't believe that a VGA connector belongs on a flat panel due to inherent flickering issues, so that means a flat display on the ADC and a CRT on the VGA port. Ugly!

   If I want two displays that look the same, I have to enter into an imposing combination of needlessly wasted PCI slots, buying redundant cable adaptors, and spending a lot of money!

   I would love to have a DP 1 GHz with dual Apple 17" Studio displays. I really would. But the premium is too high.

   Apple should bury ADC now and issue an admission of stupidity.

   Apple did a great job of embracing standards with USB, and is arguably responsible for its success. Why they chose to suddenly abandon the DVI connector on Yosemite and original Sawtooth computers is a mytery to me. DVI was just catching on as a standard way of connecting flat panel displays. If Apple hadn't moved to ADC, we would have seen more Wintel video cards with DVI conectors on them now, because there would be more DVI-connected monitors on the market.

   Apologies for the rambling post... ADC has bothered me right from the start and now these new dual cards seem like the ultimate inconvenience.