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G5s Start Shipping

jocknerd writes "Apple is now shipping its G5. The 1.6ghz and 1.8ghz are shipping while the dual processor 2.0ghz will ship at the end of the month."

16 of 909 comments (clear)

  1. Article? by Richardsonke1 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You could like to an article, like The Register or Apple PR itself.

    --
    "Men lie."
    "Yeah, about sleeping with other women, but never about bioluminescent plankton."
    -Dan Brown
  2. Re:hurray for apple by CoolQ · · Score: 5, Informative

    100,000 pre-orders according to Apple PR. Which you would have found if you had read this.
    --Quentin

  3. The NYT reports... by MyNameIsFred · · Score: 4, Informative

    that Apple has over 100,000 pre-orders of the Power Mac G5. See the link.

  4. currently available configurations by kaan · · Score: 5, Informative

    from the Apple store:

    $1,999.00

    1.6GHz PowerPC G5
    800MHz frontside bus
    512K L2 cache
    256MB DDR333 128-bit SDRAM
    Expandable to 4GB SDRAM
    80GB Serial ATA
    SuperDrive
    Three PCI Slots
    NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
    64MB DDR video memory
    56K internal modem

    $2,399.00

    1.8GHz PowerPC G5
    900MHz frontside bus
    512K L2 cache
    512MB DDR400 128-bit SDRAM
    Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
    160GB Serial ATA
    SuperDrive
    Three PCI-X Slots
    NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
    64MB DDR video memory
    56K internal modem

  5. beware the differences between the 1.6 & the 1 by Tumbleweed · · Score: 4, Informative

    Okay, I just noticed this today (forgive me for being slow), but there are 2 potentially-important differences between the 1.6GHz machine and the 1.8GHz machine:

    1) The 1.6 only uses DDR333 memory, not DDR400 (I dunno if it can make use of DDR400 if you replace the DDR333 it comes with). The DDR400 being used in the 1.8 & 2.0 machines is apparently not that great (typical of Apple!). I'm wondering if the mobo can handle some Mushkin 2-2-2 PC3200 RAM if I got it?
    2) The 1.6 can 'only' use up to 4GB of memory, vs 8GB for the 1.8 and 2.0 machines.

    FYI if either of these things bugs you, be warned. Shop smart, shop...S-Mart!

  6. Re:That box! by cosmo7 · · Score: 4, Informative

    What does packaging have got to do with anything? Does "packaging" encode your OGGs or AVIs any faster? No? Does it get you higher score on Seti? No it doesn't? Does it compile Linux kernel any faster, no it doesn't.

    This really touches on the difference between apple and most wintel retailers. It's all about Quality. Quality is a basic aspect of the way we understand reality which underlies both the classicist and romanticist systems of thought. By refering to a list of easily measurable benchmarks, you are nailing your colors to the flag of classicist thinking and opposing the romanticist side of the product. Thinking that this is OK is how horrible products are created. Some people spend their whole lives laboring under this kind of thinking; you don't have to if you think about Quality. (Full disclosure: I'm reading Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance right now).

  7. Re:hurray for apple by WatertonMan · · Score: 4, Informative

    I believe the memory manager in Panther is 64-bit aware. The special version of Jaguar (10.2.7) that initially ships with the G5's allows 64-bit applications and thus presumably has some memory issues dealt with. Panther isn't fully 64-bit, but most aspects of the OS don't really need it to be honest. (And neither do most applications)

  8. Re:ObWhines by Slack3r78 · · Score: 5, Informative

    You know, I'm an x86 fan, and I build all my own machines simply because I enjoy it, but I have to disagree with you on the price thing. Out of curiousity due to your post, I put this together to see how a similarly spec'd PC would compare as far as pricing goes. Now compare it to Apple's offering.

    I realize it's an Opteron, which is technically a server processor, but it's the only currently available chip which I would say is comparable to the G5. And yeah, there's a 9600 Pro when the mobo doesn't have an AGP slot, but that's to keep the price comparison fair. So now the premium of the apple is only ~25% instead of 1000%.

    I should also note that things like an operating system and peripherals were left out of my comparison system, since that cost is going to vary due to desire/needs in the x86 world. So basically you get a bare 1.8GHz dual Opteron for about $600 cheaper than a 2.0GHz dual G5. While, like I said, I'm an x86 fan and I like building my own systems, I could definitely rationalize a G5 purchase, and I don't exactly fall into their target demographic anyway. I really think Apple's got their act together with the G5 line. While to those of us used to building full systems of commodity hardware for a few hundred dollars, it sounds high, but in all reality, the pricing on the new systems is rather fair.

  9. Re:hurray for apple by WatertonMan · · Score: 4, Informative
    Xcode is very cool. However my problems with Project Builder relate to their very limited debugging tools and not compile speed.

    My big problem is that the type of code I deal with often involves very subtle bugs. To fix the bugs I must go though the code in many many steps. PB doesn't retain your watch variables between calls to the debugger. That means when I restart the code to re-examine a process I have to retype in all my variables or else put printf's in the code. Compare this to Visual Studio which has amazingly simple and easy to use watch panes - four of them in fact. It is easy to "drill down" into structs and classes. And most importantly they retain their variables each time I restart the debugger.

    I've asked a few people playing around with Xcode and by and large the changes to the actual debugging UI is only superficially changed. I've sent in lots of feedback to Apple but nothing has been done. This is amazing to me as adding something like Visual Studio's debugging panes would not be very hard. I'd be very, very surprised if it would take more than a week of work. But for reasons known only to them, Apple has not done it. And thus I primarily debug in Visual Studio.

  10. Re:hurray for apple by mekkab · · Score: 4, Informative

    I do some kernel programming in AIX for ibm pSeries machines, which are 64 bit chips. The OS has a 32 bit emulation mode. SO everyone will use that to begin with. Then, certain devices and drivers will require 64bit, and the apps will follow afterwards.

    THAT will most likely be driven buy how many people buy the machines and what sort of market demand there is.

    And yes, we are talking months, maybe years.

    BEsides- you'll see more performance gain from the GHZ rating rather than from the 64-bit-ness, (unless you have a need for LOTS of addressable ram. 64bit is a virtual memory manager's dream.

    --
    In the future, I would want to not be isolated from my friends in the Space Station.
  11. Re:hurray for apple by MouseR · · Score: 4, Informative

    My big problem is that the type of code I deal with often involves very subtle bugs. To fix the bugs I must go though the code in many many steps. PB doesn't retain your watch variables between calls to the debugger. That means when I restart the code to re-examine a process I have to retype in all my variables or else put printf's in the code. Compare this to Visual Studio which has amazingly simple and easy to use watch panes - four of them in fact. It is easy to "drill down" into structs and classes. And most importantly they retain their variables each time I restart the debugger.

    How about NOT having to leave your debugging session when you make simple changes?

    Check out XCode's features, notably the Fix And Continue and ZeroLink.

    It makes fixing silly things a snappy process, and you don't need to restart your test suite to get back to the same point. Just fix WHILE you debug, recompile the fixed code and resume execution where you left off, foregoing any application re-initialization (such as connecting back to a server).

  12. Re:Heat? by MuckSavage · · Score: 5, Informative

    The 1.8ghz version draws 42 watts.

  13. Re:hurray for apple by SethJohnson · · Score: 4, Informative


    Perhaps this is a troll.

    Macs are hardly known for their long shelf life

    I'll bite. My personal experience and observations culled from working at many Mac-based offices is that Macs have a much longer lifespan that PCs. As an example, I am still using the 450mhz B/W G3 I bought in 1999 for $1800. My Dad is using a 400mhz B/W G3 he bought the same year. Both machines are running OS X.2 just fine. The only thing that had us teetering on upgrading in the past few years was the prospect of digital video editing with real-time rendering. The G5 has pretty much convinced me it's time to upgrade. Four years later and I've got a computer I can still probably sell for a couple of hundred bucks. That lowers my cost of upgrading to a G5. I think a 1999 intel-based PC will probably cost you money to dispose of through a recycler these days.

    I'm not beating the "macs are better" drum here. I'm just comparing the lifespan of the mac to pc.
  14. Re:Text console? by Bob[Bob] · · Score: 5, Informative

    Erm, so what happens when your enter ">console" as your username in the login box?

  15. Re:It's Not That Complicated by larkost · · Score: 4, Informative
    LCD's win in a number of areas:
    • Power Consumption
    • Space
    • No Flicker (really important if you stare at a monitor all day)
    • Possible digital connection (never have to adjust geometry)
    • Weight/Portability
    • Better pixel-to-pixel contrast (on digitals)

    And if you get the right screens (mostly LeCei or Apple), they have beautiful color correction, at a par with the best CRT's.

    This is vs. CTR's advantages:

    • Higher luminocity
    • Average color space is better (with exceptions above)
    • lower cost
    • higher refresh rate (important only in games)

    So, I think your "CRT's blow lcd's away" comment is unwarranted.

  16. Re:beware the differences between the 1.6 & th by tantalus · · Score: 4, Informative

    The DDR400 being used in the 1.8 & 2.0 machines is apparently not that great (typical of Apple!)

    Actually, Apple is using very nice samsung memory (with a lifetime warranty in the g5s. And if you click on the picture in that link, you'll see that those are samsung chips on a samsung PCB, which is the same RAM corsair, OCZ, and even mushkin has often used to get outstanding overclockable memory. These manufacturers just test the memory (if you're lucky) and cover it up with a heatspreader, which will void your warranty if you remove it to see what's underneath.