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New PowerMac G5s: Up to 2.5Ghz, Liquid Cooled
no_demons writes "Apple have just announced the new, completely dual-processor PowerMac G5 lineup. The models all sport an 8x SuperDrive, whilst new the dual-2.5GHz model also features an 'innovative liquid cooled heat sink,' available in July."
Apple have come up with some innovative products, but their market share remains tiny. Sadly, though, many buyers have been mislead by the marketing and eye-candy, and desperately try to justify their overpriced purchases to themselves on forums around the Net. Let's see what they really mean...
"MacOS X is everything Linux wants to be."
"Despite the fact that Linux is just code and can't WANT to be anything, I truly believe that it'd love to be a single-vendor, single-platform, sluggish half-proprietary OS with dwindling market share. Linux would love to throw away its impressively growing corporate takeup for that."
"Apple hardware is for real computer lovers."
"It's no hassle to use a plethora of keyboard combos to make up for the patronising one-button mouse. Despite the fact that my hands have FIVE fingers, and multiple-buttons make Web browsing so much more pleasant, I prefer my computer to be treat me like a special-needs child."
"Aqua makes me so much more productive!"
"My non-techie friends drool over the transparency and scaling effects, even though UI research has shown that they add practically nothing to getting real work done. It feels like KDE 2 on a Pentium 200, and I can't change to a light and fast WM, but those drop-shadows must make me work so quickly!"
"OSX shows that Apple is committed to open source."
"OpenDarwin.org and its community of about 27 is surely not just a token gesture by Apple. Pretty much nobody uses pure Darwin, and all the crucial components of the system are closed and require me to spend money just to get major OS updates, but they're really helping the community somehow."
"You get what you pay for with Apple hardware."
"My iBook was made by in Taiwan by AlphaTop and has design and build quality flaws (needing foam sheets jammed in to stop the common problem of the keyboard scratching the screen). Meanwhile thousands of Mac laptop owners are trying to sue Apple over poorly-made logic boards. But it's silvery and cost far more than an x86 laptop of better spec, so it must be much higher quality!"
"...blah blah MHz myth blah..."
"Although there's truth in PPC being more elegant than x86, it's crushing that the top-of-the-range 1.5 GHz chip is slaughtered by the equivalent 3 GHz Pentium 4. However, Steve Jobs showed some vague Photoshop filter benchmarks at the last MacWorld, so being a leprotard, I'm convinced."
Well yeah, first post indeed. :-D
not first post but most relivent :P
liqbase
liquid equals water?
All I can say is... Wow... UNIX-nerd's dream machine.
it still looks like a cheese grator.
Do you need a website upgrade?
Already liquid cooled, and in a cool aluminium case, enough case fans for a hovercraft. What is left to do?
I promised my wife I wouldn't upgrade from my 800mHz 17" iMac overclocked to 900 with dual display to a G5 until they came out with a Dual 3Ghz, and I would get the 23" HD Studio display with it.
:P
Now I have to wait another year.
Bastards.
Karma: Chameleon (mostly due to the fact that you come and go).
I thought is was widely accepted that clock speed means nothing. Would a G5 2.5 GHz be comparable to and Intel check with the same clock speed or a AMD 2400+?
The dual thing is pretty cool for a pre-build box though...
----
That's great that new G5s are out, but am I the only one a little underwhelmed by the increase in proc speed? (Especially considering the "3Ghz in a year" when they were first announced).
:)
Anyway, sorry to be looking at the glass half-empty.
All in all, a fairly underwhelming update.
Slashdot Moderation: From positive to terrible in 2 "insightful" posts.
Now even the G5 has leap frogged your processer speeds...
Power Corrupts,Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely, leaving one person(group)in charge is absolutely corrupt.
Jobs originally committed that they'd be up to 3 GHz by now. Looks like IBM couldn't deliver.
COOL!!!!
I think the 2.5 model, with the whiz-bang cooling and new chips, is the first next-gen G5, whereas the lower models are designed to clear out old supplies. November will see the real "bump" to 2.5/2.7/3.0 all-liquid series.
Here's a theory: The 2.5 is slated to start shipping in July, so maybe Apple is getting around the new-model-launch-delays bear? Will they announce and ship the "missing" 2.7 and 3.0 portions of the range in September, when they would have shipped anyway, even if they were announced today? "Clearing out the old machines and releasing the typical low-end 'shipping today' portion of the new model range, and keeping mum on the parts we would normally delay two months."
That said, they are still impressive machines, save for the GPU. Also, to the first poster, the top end chips are 2.5Ghz, not 1.5...
Now we know what all the extra space is for in the new G5 case design, to hold the liquid nitrogren tanks!
Urge to post... fading... fading... RISING!... fading... fading... gone.
I like the idea of liquid cooling but I also like simple systems. There's too much complexity here. So...
I've often pondered creating a sealed aluminum case with integrated heatsink. Stick the components in and fill it with dielectric oil in order to create a huge, passive heat sink (like a big transformer or whatever). Thoughts? I almost got around to this but stopped after submerging an old hard drive in some dielectric - if you seal the breating hole, it works fine (I believe the hole is there to relieve pressure differentials caused by changes in altitude so it should be fine in a stationary location).
Provided that the dielectric has good enough heat transfer, this should work, no?
Life is the leading cause of death in America.
Apple really starts to flex its muscles, finally. I'm glad to see this as a bonafide Machead. When Intel sees that Apple's G5 chip has finally caught up to the latest P4 chips, the merry go round of hardware upgrades!
From the Apple link:
Each of the four thermal zones is equipped with its own dedicated, low-speed fans. Apple engineered the nine fans to spin at very low speeds for minimum acoustic output. Using 21 different sensors, Mac OS X constantly monitors component temperatures in each zone, dynamically adjusting individual fan speeds to the appropriate levels for the quietest possible operation. As a result, the Power Mac G5 runs two times quieter than the previous Power Mac G4 enclosure.
Nine fans and 21 sensors, generating half as many decibels. Now I'm not an Apple fan-boy but that's the level of attention to detail that seperates Apple from Dell, etc.
"Accept that some days you are the pigeon, and some days you are the statue." - David Brent, Wernham Hogg
Apple and Innovative? Those two words don't ever belong in the same sentance.
IBM introduced PPC. x86 was the first to adopt PCI/AGP.
USB and Firewire technologies were just sold to the highest bidder.
I doubt apple innovated this.
Apple is dieing.
If only I had the 3 grand needed for one of these liquid cooled Bad boys... I'm sure it would run circles around my 867Mhz powerbook. These machines my friends, are what dreams are made of... at least for the mac geek crowd. Wow, that whole statement was quite sad... Damn, i need a woman...
http://www.apple.com/powermac/design.html
*The dual 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 features an innovative liquid cooling system that's more efficient than a traditional heat sink. This system provides a continuous flow of thermally conductive fluid that transfers heat from the processors as they work harder. The heated fluid then flows through a radiant grille, where air passing over cooling fins returns the fluid to its original temperature.*
seems like it's the usual heatpipe deal. you could say it's been used in stock pc's for a while now(it has, in the sff form factor computers especially as stock).
world was created 5 seconds before this post as it is.
Look! We added something to a mac that PC users have been doing for years! THIS IS INNOVATIVE!
Why must people try and call everything they do innovative? It usually isn't.
Did anyone else notice that the lower processor on this diagram doesn't appear to be turned on?
Come on, Apple. I want purple and red water coming out of both processors!
-ch
The dual 1.8 and dual 2.0 GHz machines come with an "NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra" graphics card. Isn't that card pretty low-end (or midrange at best)? Is it just me, or should a 2,000+ dollar machine come with a decent graphics card?
Of course, the whole point of a tower is that you can replace the card, but when you're already paying 2,500 USD, should you have to?
WARNING: If accidentally read, induce vomiting.
But how fast does Windows XP run on it?
Go Steve! I know, you know, they know that the Powerbook G5 is comming next month :)
I doubt that the art guys checked with the science guys before illustrating the CPU cooling design, unless that lower CPU is either A)Off or B) Magical.
I read the little blurb on the site but I don't understand what is innovative about the liquid cooling they are doing? Or is it liquid cooling that is innovative?
My question is, does the new G5 implement liquid cooling because of need (i.e. fans aren't enough), or do they just want to quiet things down some.
I really hope that Apple hasn't just become the biggest SUP4R 0verclox0r of them all...
-JT
I think what's really going to make the G5 big is when they upgradet the main Feramantel Drive unit.
Kick in the Head
If I recall my log scales correctly, "two times quieter" would equal 3db quieter. Not exactly revolutionary, but a step in the right direction.
There may come new Displays (20, 23 and 30 inch with the known aluminum brushed metal look) to the WWDC, as reportet here.
Think Secret writes they may even come with DVI port.
>> Had I been going to bed earlier every night? Have I been sleeping later? Has Tyler been in charge longer and l
Comment removed based on user account deletion
and that the new machines have more than two drive bays!
I do (very) high end post production for a living and I wanted to replace my G5s with the new machines because I needed internal RAID arrays of more than 2 drives. Two drives will not give you the bandwidth you need for HD or digital cinema formats. I can't use solutions like WiebeTech's G5 Jam because my full length PCI cards take up the space.
I looked on the web site and it looks like the new machines didn't put in new drive bays in front of the CPUs (as was mentioned on some rumor sites). Am I wrong? Is there a way to add more drives?
Bandwidth in my work is more important than CPU speed.
This isn't really that impressive. When they come out with a processor that can beat the Athlon 64 (which by the way, is cheaper), I'll be impressed. But currently, an Athlon 64 3400+ defeats a G5 by over 70% (this is not counting the new chips, this is using the best of the old G5s) in QUICKTIME ENCODING, which is sort of sad. And Apple has the advantage of RISC also--they don't have to deal with the ridiculously inefficient x86 instruction set. Considering how much of an advantage they have over AMD and Intel in creating their processors (they don't have to be forced into Microsoft's standards), I expected something better.
I think it's just a demonstration of the basic principles of water cooling, not an actual in-use G5.
I'm surprised that the 2 new offerings from Apple were simply put out on the web without any Steve Jobs fanfare. I like it when Steve shows it first, he allows into his RDF. I guess overall it's not the update I was hoping for, the video card should have been upped as well.
I think it's pretty safe to say we're gonna have an all new iMac at WWDC. It's the other upgrade everyone's been waiting for. Aluminum iMac? We'll see.
I'm not sure about this, but I think that this may be the first major PC manufacturer to do liquid Cooling in a consumer PC.
Has any other major PC manufacturer sold PC's with liquid cooling standard? I've seen laptop's and shuttles use heat pipes, but nothing like actual pump driven liquid cooling without having to buy an external kit.
In Soviet Russia, Trojan exploits YOU!
Difficult to tell from the article, but the liquid cooling system looks similar to that found in Shuttle XPCs The article says that OS X can vary the flow of the liquid though. Very nice though, looks like they have thought about noise, which is good.
They tout it for scientific research applications ... but still no ECC support!
It's hard to imagine any sort of serious scientific computing that is making use of the advertised features - such as 64-bit optimised libraries, 8GB of memory, etc - which wouldn't also feel the lack of any real confidence that the results aren't contaminated by bit errors.
The newest Xserve supports ECC. Whyever do they not support it on their workstations?! It boggles the mind.
I immediately looked at the refurb section to see what's tasty. They have the dual 2.0 at the same price as the new one, so I don't think they've changed those prices yet. I also looked at still-available G4 Power Macs and they are completely overpriced. $1774 for a dual G4 1.5? When I can get a dual G5 for 200 more? Pu-Lease.
Its only 3 dB less. Remember that funky math that we said we'd never use? 2x the noise = +3dB. You can get more difference than this by simply switching your ghetto case fan for a good one. Unless of course Apple MEANT 1/2 the dB, which is a meaningless number w/o a reference: 1/2 the dB of a 6dB source is 3dB, or half the volume. 1/2 the dB of a 50 dB source is more significant.
So before we all drop to our knees on this one, lets consider the physics.
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Apple's new G5 is just to sexy.
;-)
I think the Heat Sink isn't the only thing getting wet
I'm drooling.
This is obviously an old repost-troll. The top of the line chip is 2.5ghz now, and it's definitely very competitive with intels chips (as opposed to being soundly defeated).
PC manufacturers are |___| this close to releasing PCI Express motherboards. ATI and NVidia already have PCI-e video cards, and the standard peripherals are to follow soon. Since Apple greatly controls what 3rd party hardware can be attached to their machines, why didn't they plan for the future with PCI-e instead of causing Apple geeks everywhere to invest in PCI-X for a few months?
Apple's never had a paper launch before, so this machine could have "come out" in July, and by August-September when people start receiving their shipments PCI-e will already begin to have market penetration. Maybe it was just too much risk for Apple?
It seems to me that the liquid-cooling system is little more than a fancy heatpipe. These have been around a while in PC systems on heatsinks. I had a coolermaster with one, a silentpipe. The idea being that a slowfan with the two copper liquid-filled pipes could move more heat to the top of the sink and away, than a quick fan. I think it worked. Never cared that much any way. It cost about 30 only, not a lot of song-and-dance, except to be able to say, wow, liquid cooling. Could be the same here.
Of course, the PSU was the noisy thing, so I couldn't tell the difference in CPU fan noise anyway.
Just a thought.
Apple have come up with some innovative products, but their market
share remains tiny. Sadly, though, many buyers have been mislead by the
marketing and eye-candy, and desperately try to justify their overpriced
purchases to themselves on forums around the Net. Let's see what they
really mean...
"MacOS X is everything Linux wants to be."
"Despite the fact that Linux is just code and can't WANT to be anything, I
truly believe that it'd love to be a single-vendor, single-platform, sluggish
half-proprietary OS with dwindling market share. Linux would love to throw
away its impressively growing corporate takeup for that."
"Apple hardware is for real computer lovers."
"It's no hassle to use a plethora of keyboard combos to make up for the
patronising one-button mouse. Despite the fact that my hands have FIVE fingers,
and multiple-buttons make Web browsing so much more pleasant, I prefer my
computer to be treat me like a special-needs child."
"Aqua makes me so much more productive!"
"My non-techie friends drool over the transparency and scaling effects, even
though UI research has shown that they add practically nothing to getting real
work done. It feels like KDE 2 on a Pentium 200, and I can't change to a
light and fast WM, but those drop-shadows must make me work so quickly!"
"OSX shows that Apple is committed to open source."
"OpenDarwin.org and its community of about 27 is surely not just a token
gesture by Apple. Pretty much nobody uses pure Darwin, and all the crucial
components of the system are closed and require me to spend money just to get
major OS updates, but they're really helping the community somehow."
"You get what you pay for with Apple hardware."
"My iBook was made by in Taiwan by AlphaTop and has design and build quality
flaws (needing foam sheets jammed in to stop the common problem of the
keyboard scratching the screen). Meanwhile thousands of Mac laptop owners are
trying to sue Apple over poorly-made logic boards. But it's silvery and cost
far more than an x86 laptop of better spec, so it must be much higher
quality!"
"...blah blah MHz myth blah..."
"Although there's truth in PPC being more elegant than x86, it's crushing that
the top-of-the-range 1.5 GHz chip is slaughtered by the equivalent 3 GHz
Pentium 4. However, Steve Jobs showed some vague Photoshop filter benchmarks
at the last MacWorld, so being a leprotard, I'm convinced."
I like macs. I use a dual g4 daily. I appreciate the software they come with adds value.. however
When a decent PC tower can be had for 1200$ and cheapies for 300$ these new machines seem mainly aimed at pros.
The machines are also physically quite large (significantly larger than the g4 towers.)
If apple wants to sell more computers (like they stated at the beginning of the year), they really should make a reasonably priced minitower. (ideally in the 1000-1500 range),
Computers are not cars. The more you have the more software gets written for them the better/more usefull the machine becomes.
All your 3Ghz are belong to us.
...and multiple fans: Apple does it because they want to keep the machine as quiet as possible while still as cool as possible (as opposed to being forced to do it, lest the processor become hotter than the surface of the Sun).
(They don't do it because the PowerPC 970 family is "so hot", either; the PowerPC 970, and the 970FX even moreso, run much cooler, and require less power, than even the newest generation PowerPC 74xx (G4) family processors: )
Also, new PowerPC 970FX information from IBM is now available.
Actually, the one I saw the guy built a custom styrofoam cooler/case, put in all his goodies except the power supply, then filled it up with some odd and expensive 3m non-conductive liquid...actually I think he used mineral oil first, but that turned out pretty gooey... Then put in a pump and started pumping liquid from the bottom to the top where it dropped over a coolant radiator.
Yeah- that's a long way to go to attempt overclocking, but it was pretty neat.
IIRC, it ended up overheating anyway because the liquid got less viscous (more??--more solid) the colder it got, and created isolated thermal heat nodes around the hot components. Would've been cool to see on an infrared scope...
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
I am sure there is a place for a pony in there somewhere.
...as much as I care about the liquid cooling part. I remember liquid cooling my crappy little celeron, thinking it would never go mainstream because of my belief at the time that water + electricity = bad.
Now, we've got liquid cooled technology backed by Apple. It's pretty sweet, considering you either have to buy a specially designed freon pumping case, or a $500 video card to reap the benefits of this kind of cooling.. Now all you've gotta do is buy a $3000 Mac.
Sarcasm aside, I think this shows that soon, the PC's on the shelves will mostly all be using some sort of heat pipe / water cooling technology.
I'm not a Mac fanboy, don't own one, but this really goes to show that Apple can and does set standards for personal computing. With major backing like this, it's only a matter of time before it trickles down to where everyone can be using it for a relatively cheap price. Way to go, Apple.
I just orded a Mac II like 3 days ago!!! thanks again Jobs.
Powermac G5 updates down - iMac G5 and Powerbook G5 to go!
The "liquid" is an organic substance from all the geeks who just excreated it in their pants.
Considering all the screen rendering in done in 3d (opengl) on the cards. 2d cards are pretty irrelevant.
You sure can sqeeze an orange faster than you can sqeeze an apple.
A 1.25 GHz FSB on the top-end model. Yeesh. Can't wait to see if this stacks up against Intel's and AMD's offerings nearly as well as Apple says.
Interestingly, they're still selling PowerMac G4s, and I don't think they've speed-bumped the Xserves yet (at least, there aren't any at 2.5 GHz).
Absolute Zero!
Once again European Prices are much higher...
US$1999 = 1645 (With Irish 21% VAT = 1990)
However Euro prices are 2249
Whats the deal with a 250+ markup?
(That's a further 13% est.)
Market share is used as a criterion for evaluating a product.
Think sheep
Frickin "LA-ZER" Beams.
You know, there uses for these 'puter things other than tinkering with the 'puter itself.
--- Ban humanity.
...my computing has always been liquid-cooled.
I'm glad to see Apple moving in the direction of dedicated thermal zones in the case. It strikes me as a rather logical idea that hot components be isolated from the rest of the system as much as possible. It's similar to Intel pushing the BTX standard for their upcoming products.
It's too bad that implementing something like that in ATX cases seems to be nearly impossible (at least in an efficient manner).
That said, I'm first in line for the coffee-cooled PowerBook thermos.
Nice specs. I like Apple stuff, but I still honestly don't know why Apple speedbumps are always front page news, especially when we have a dedicated Apple section to deal with minor announcements like hardware releases. Dell, IBM, or HP don't make the front page for every Mhz bump, let alone have their own section on Slashdot.
I would bet that 99% of us can't name one product from the HP lineup, but can name off the PowerMac, PowerBook, iMac, iPod, iTunes, iBook, etc. even though most of us don't own one and are far more likely to encounter an HP anywhere in the real world. I rarely see tv ads for Apple, and it's even more rare for me to meet another Apple user in the world (ONCE at Starbucks and once at Future Shop) but I read about Apples daily on Slashdot. We are all well acquainted with them due to our exposure here. I have no problem with that; it's better than Windows getting exposure, if only because we need more diversity, but I do have minor doubts as to the editorial discretion which leads to most Apple stories making the front page as well as their subsection.
Read into this what you will, but if I were HP or Dell, I'd start submitting articles to Slashdot. It's free publicity with a large section of the computer-buying public, and it doesn't seem hard to spin a typical product announcement into a "techie" story that would get accepted as News by the editors.
I'm not normally an irrational zealous dickhead, but I figure "When in Rome..."
That's what divorce is for!
I thought the little G5 labels were little sensors for the heat in the liquid coolant or something...
Man, I just can't seem to get anything right recentl ;_;
Overclocked too!
--
"I have also mastered pomposity, even if I do say so myself." -Kryten
I'm a music editor and we just got a new dual G5 in the recording studio because thats what redarded artists want to see. I guess its because of the pretty silver color and cheese grill looks. But slow it is. My 3ghz p4 shuttle XPC runs circles around the G5 using the same programs for music editing(protools). Can't believe we spent $3000 on the G5 while my shuttle XPC only costs me about $500.
The details on this liquid cooling thing are a bit sketchy, but the diagram doesn't show a pump/compressor.
Is it possible that this is actually using heat pipe tech like that found in the newer shuttles? Namely, block attached to the CPU is linked to a large sink away from the processor, connected by pipes filled with conductive fluid. Large fan cools the radiator.
Net result is of course a complete lack of moving parts other than the (easily replaceable) fan(s). Of course, it doesn't cool as well as a full blown liquid setup, but then the PPC970's don't run *that* hot.
Anyone know any ore about this? Even if it's not entirely revolutionary, it's still interesting tech.
Moderation Total: -1 Troll, +3 Goat
I wonder if the fluid they used for cooling is that sapphire stuff that was mentioned on slashdot a while back.
Sapphire
It would certainly make sense, with its non-conducting properties it would be safe to keep that close to sensitive electronics. I don't know what it's heat capacity is so it might not be the best thermal choice but it at least it won't fry your G5.
That would be Fluorinert. Not a bad idea. NASA had a fluorinert-filled heatsink inside a mylar bag that I used once. Geez. Its still here. I need to clean out my desk more often.
Wow, that's a sign of desperation. I've heard tidbits of information at the major tech news sites that although IBM boasts it can get to 3GHz on the PPC970 architecture, and that a G5's power consumption is very nicely low at 2GHz, that changes very quickly as the speed starts to ramp. The fact that they need watercooling stock to get to 2.5GHz seems to confirm this.
This is quite disturbing. It confirms the overall signs that photolithography scale shrinks aren't working anymore. I had thought that perhaps Intel's problems with Prescott were an isolated incident, but it doesn't seem so now. AMD has only just begun experimenting with 90nm, and now it appears that IBM, the only company so far to have said anything positive about their progress at 90nm, is having to (it would seem) overclock their chips and watercool them to get to a stable and quiet 2.5GHz..
------- "From bored to fanboy in 3.8 asian girls" ----------
in contrast the mac case has layers of flowing air no thicker that what is probably the thermal diffusion length. Air flows over the top and bottom of the hotest items and does so in one pass. Its beautiful. and mac planned this out from the beginning for expandability.
besides I like the cheese grater.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
The thing in it is not "liquid cooling" as modders usually install (the piping, holding tank etc.)
What apple is doing is simply hyping up marketing and PR on heat pipes, which Shuttle has been using for a long time now.
Nothing to see here. Move on.
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
Well, actually most all of it is done in 2D with OpenGL.
GL does have a couple 2D Drawing modes, GL_ORTHO, for instance, and cards hardware accelerate them. How do you think games draw their pretty little GUI's and menus and whatnot?
Interestingly enough, nobody's ever developed a really good benchmark for cards that can accurately compare card performances drawing to ortho's. Maybe 3DMark should include a test like this. I imagine that raw fill rate has the biggest impact here, but who knows what kind of crazy optimizations card manufacturers might have in there to help/hurt the 2D OpenGL performance in favor of the 3D.
I like my PC a whole hell of a lot more than any Mac I've ever used. I put it together for peanuts (well under $1000), it's screaming fast and I can upgrade it piecemeal if I so choose. But I have to say that Apple does a great job of selling "cool". They have shown us, time and time again, that a PC can look great in your living room. I think this will finally usher watercooling out of the niche of the overclocker and into the mainstream PC community, the same way they did Firewire.
Don't be a looter...and yes, I know that it's spelled with an "A" instead of an "E".
If they are dropping the ADC and going for DVI on their screens, guess what? They are going to be releasing a headless mid-range box (or other shape) soon. (as ATI + NVIDIA a no doubt in a not-caring mode about ADC, and people would complain about options if there was ADC on the cards of the headless boxes...)
That will be awesome. I like the idea of using a screen I already have to allow me to get a mac with a g5 with a little more grunt over their previous mid-range-screen-attached offerings.
All apple really needs to do is get the damnedest cheapest g5 headless setup they can together. Slap their mega OSX in it. And you have a real huge winner.
Bonus points for;
putting a TV digital tuner in it/ supporting tuners driver dev (think how cool they could make the iTV app)
pouring some money into an open source game engine/development kit so that linux and mac benefit by a) getting more games, free and commercial and b) it becomes a thorn in sony and MS's gaming sides and becomes the dominant game platform. Then all games deved are just mods ontop of the engine (remember CS was a mod on an engine, if there was an open source game engine... all those mods would be rad for everyone)
How awesome would a single proc headless g5 with a tuner and a game dev kit in it be? IT WOULD BE A REVOLUTION.
Sorry kinda got carried away there.
Nice speedbump - the new top-end dually is particularly nice. It's a pity that they couldn't get to the promised 3 GHz within the timeframe they planned, but a top end of 2x2.5 GHz with a bus speed of 1.25 GHz and PCI-X is still a pretty good box.
This should give a much-needed kick in the pants to Apple's Pro sales for a while. It'll be interesting to see what (and if) they show for hardware at WWDC, since we already had the G5 today and AirPort Express on Monday, with iTMS Europe next week.
If I had to guess, I'd say we'll get a G5 iMac now (maybe at 1.8 GHz), but I'm not too sure. It could turn out to be a software-only WWDC.
-- Josh Turiel
"2. Do not eat iPod Shuffle."
I'm no hardware engineer, but looking at this artist rendering (akamai.net is an image host for all Apple.com images) of Apple's liquid cooling system, I think the processors are getting different cooling.
It would appear that the liquid passes over processor #1, then #2, then back to the heat sink to be diffused by the fan blowing over it. This would say to me that processor #2 is getting at best room temp water cooling, while proc #1 is getting cold water cooling.
Here's my reasoning: If the heat sink with the fan blowing over it can cool the water 2X degrees, then when it is leaving the cooling system it is at Room Temp (RT) - X degrees. It passes over both processors and returns to the cooling system at RT+X degrees, where it is cooled by 2X and leaves the system at RT-X, headed for the hot processors again, follow?
So here's the meat of it: both processors together heat the water up by 2X (see above). That means each processor heats the water by X, so when the cool water leaves, it is at temp RT-X, passes over the heat sink and it raised to (RT-X)+X=RT which then passes over the second processor and cools it to RT+X where it returns.
So the second processor is getting room temp water cooling while the first is getting RT-X cooling. What effect will this have on the system?
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
Fluorinert. Yep- That rings a bell.
That lets me do a search that actually finds something... A Google Link! Not the one I remember, but neat none-the-less...
Sig currently under construction. Mind the gap....
I must say that I am impressed. I am really not a big apple fan but the company seems to do just the right thing again and again. Starting with USB on the iMac back in 1998 they made a lot of cutting edge decisions wich came into mainstream just because Apple made them successful (WiFi, Firewire, MP3 players, legal musicdownloads, their stereo-wifi-hubbie-thing, TFTs, DVD-Burners) and so on).
Watercooling has been around for some time but no majorplayer implemented it. I bet that two years from now this could well be standard at Dells, HPs and so on...
... Free advertising for Apple
What exactly is "innovative" about liquid cooling? It's been around for nearly as long as solid state computers, and it's widely used with PCs. So are variable speed cooling systems.
And talk about making lemonade out of lemons: Apple used to brag about how their chips dissipated less power and ran less hot, but now literally "sizzling performance" is supposed to be a selling point?
Just ordered my dual 2.5 with 2GB RAM from the Apple Store. It is estimating the first week of August for shipping. Damn.
Frankly, I hate the fact that companies are figuring out that there are better ways to cool computers down.
You see, as long as they don't know about more effecient coolers, they keep their heat output much lower. This means two very important things...
First, it means I can spend $20 and replace the crap in my computer with almost completely silent fans, and very effecient heatsinks.
Second, it means that the computers aren't outputting as much heat. Once cooling solutions they use can handle cooling-down a 500WATT processor, you'll see 500WATT processors. This means much more electricity wasted for no reason, and (more importantly for me) it means while your system is running, it's ouputting 500WATTS of heat from the computer into the building where it is held. It's getting to the point where the biggest cost of running computers is the need to have massive air-conditioners installed, and running at their max, all the time.
Frankly, I can see us reverting back to ENIAC times. To run a computer you have to build a whole building for the thing, with massive airconditioners under the floorboards, and you have to notify the power company in advance when you want to turn it on, so you don't cause a black-out. The only difference is going to be inital purchase cost of the processors, which will be low, but on-going costs will be massively high.
Personally, I'm using ducting to limit the need for massive air-cooling here in the 130 degree desert summer, but that isn't perfect. Lots of heat still leaks into the building, but it's an improvement. If heat output levels continue to rise, it will be pointless, and practically impossible to have a server-room, frankly.
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Did you look at the page?
The schematic clearly shows a closed circuit of pump driven fluid flowing past the CPUs getting heated and then flowing into a heat exchanger (takes the place of a holding tank, and is actually superior too one) with a fan blowing on it. This is exactly like a smaller version of the cooling system in a car. There is no phase change.
A heat pipe is completly different, it is a phase change driven system, and does not involve pumping, or traditional heat exchangers.
"I'll have a Guinness, no wait, make that a Coors Light" -Grad student I work with, who shall remain anonymous...
ha ha!
see the article about the future of sys-admin positions!
imagine supporting these boxes! what used to be a software call, or faulty ram, or something like that, could now be fluid leak!
in addition to supporting the box, we now will need to be spot-on with fluid-dynamics, plumbing, and things like this!
ok, sure, its a really great idea, and why did it take so long for someone to think of it, but i really hope the manual is good!
I just killed a kitten.
That sucking sound you hear is my bandwidth.
I don't miss making chump change and having to drive all day to fix them though. :)
Reviews with a twist! http://www.sardonicbastard.com
Wow, that would be a very "informative" comment if you bothered to mention what kind of pentium you meant, instead of talking out your ass.
The local Micro Center usually blows out the older Power Macs.
This is why the news of Apple getting rid of 3rd party retailers so disturbing. Don't expect this kind of event at an Apple Store.
Haha, I'm ahead of you... I got a Performa 6200 little less than 2 weeks ago.
Citing unforseen issues with 90nm chips, Apple's dir of PowerMac marketing, Tom Boger, stated on Mac Central there will be no 3Ghz g5 'anytime soon'.
I only came here to do two things; kick some ass, and drink some beer...looks like we're almost out of beer.
viscosity of oil is pretty bad and flourinert is ok until about -40 degrees.
or you can, i don't know, buy liquid cooled system like ValuStar TZ that had liquid cooling for almost a year now? (Granted, maybe japan only)
So, can we say that MS copies off apple, but apple actually is copying off of NEC? kind of a hard fact to accept, but innovation would seem to be, erm, not so alive in the US these days...
My life in the land of the rising sun.
Who cares? these are more way overpriced machines from Apple. Build yourself a dual Athlon 64 box with more RAM, more Hard Drive space, better video, better sound, and GNU/Linux for much cheaper and get equal if not better performance. Heck, you can even skin it to look just like OSX too.
Sort of silly argument, but Intel and AMD haven't been sitting on their thumbs since 95. They also have improved the design of their processors. So I'd think that the advantages is probley the same. But considering how little the 970 has in common with the old powerpc chips, its anyones guess.
Well.. maybe. Or Maybe not. But Definitely not sort of.
Low-end model is like $400 higher than it was yesterday.
Crap, I just barely got the OK to get one at work for that price..
I hate it when the price jumps up like that.
Macs are something you want seen. They're always used as movie props, and very pleasing to the eye. You might not want your beige box PC in plain view, runing your decor, but an iMac might be nice touch to a room.
These things look nice, and look like they were very well designed, I need to get one.....Once I get the money :)
As for the Apple coverage on /., well I think that is attributable to Apple getting it right (tm). Specifically, you have Unix with a GUI you don't have to dick around with to get working. They have achieved the holy grail of Unix+Usability and that is very attractive to, at least IMO, the people that care about computers, e.g., slashdotters. *shrug*
-truth
I had a steady B+ in my AI class until I failed the Turing test...
The 130 nm PPC970 runs slightly cooler than the fastest 130 nm Pentium 4 Northwood chips. Apple's solution is designed to cool them quietly, but you can cool a slower Pentium 4 Northwood chip quietly with much less equipment.
The 90 nm PPC970 actually appears to be hotter than the 90 nm Pentium 4 Prescott. That's pretty hot; no, more than pretty hot, that's really very hot for a consumer chip.
That's why they are hitting 2.5 GHz with water cooling. That's definitely clocked above what IBM specifies. Note that the original 2 GHz G5 Macintoshes were also above IBM specs. At 1.8 GHz the 130 nm PPC970 is actually a reasonably cool chip, much like the slower Pentium 4 Northwood chips.
Apple's only chance for a 3 GHz G5 Macintosh this year is if IBM is having issues with their 90 nm process and can bring them under control within a few months. There is some chance of this happening; I hear that the most recent 90 nm Pentium 4 Prescott chips are much cooler than the original ones. That makes it sound like Intel had process issues and fixed them. IBM may be able to do the same.
Faster Macintoshes are a possibility, but don't count on it. That cooling isn't just for show.
I was a little upset when I spotted the upgrades early this morning because I just ordered a G5 1.8x2 the day before last. Imagine my delight when I got an email this morning from them offering to let me change my order. So now I'm getting a G5 2x2 for a hundred bucks less. Booyah!
Thanks for that link! Good to see that IBM is releasing some more documentation for the PPC970.
Unfortunately, thermal data isn't included in that documentation. Reports I've seen suggest that at 2.5 GHz the 970FX is hotter than even the original Pentium 4 Prescott, possibly by a lot. It's not up in Alpha territory, but it will definitely be the hottest desktop chip around when it ships.
The documentation also lacks data on processor specific instructions, specifically performance monitoring hardware. I've been told by sources in IBM that IBM won't release that information, and convincing Apple to release it is probably the easiest way to get it without an NDA.
I ordered a dual G5 2ghz this past Friday.
6 DAYS!!! ARGH!
My guess is you're looking at the cooling system for a single processor. Notice the single fan, compared to the two fans for the two processors in the side view a bit lower down on the page you referenced.
The G5s are a lot more efficient than G4s and the Pentium4s are much LESS efficient than PentiumIII.
--
Two Words - Bull Shit.
I love the way Mac Zealots say this stuff. The P4 and P4 Xeon are far far more efficient than the PIII, I just replaced a PIII rig with a P4 rig and even a lowly p4 (1.4 I picked up free) runs things far faster than a top of the range (1.3GHz) PIII.
buNch of retarded fun to be again.
Sorry to brag but I just had to get one! Here's what I got.
Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
512MB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x256
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9800 XT w/256MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 modem
Bluetooth Module
AirPort Extreme Card
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
Estimated Total:
$3,384.58
I can't wait!
My guess is you're looking at the cooling system for a single processor. Notice the single fan, compared to the two fans for the two processors in the side view a bit lower down on the page you referenced.
Think Secret is reporting that new displays are due soon. The new displays apparently will be DVI only -- no more ADC. (The 30" display requires 150W, which ADC couldn't handle.)
What puzzles me is the GPUs currently in these new G5s -- they seem to be dual-head ADC+DVI. That's not terribly useful once ADC goes the way of the dodo. If you're in the market for the new displays, it might be worth holding off on the G5 a few weeks, in order to get a DVI+DVI video card.
...Apple could just be trying to keep the machine quiet in response to complaints by its users about the noisy fans in the previous G4/G5 cases.
Just my .02, I've always loved the idea of liquid cooling, but peltier coolers and all the mess associated with standard 'open' type systems where you have leaks has made me shy away.
With closed loop systems like this with some of the new thermofluids that are being developed are pretty exciting.
I wouldn't be amazed that with all the new processors and heat issues you won't see more of this type of cooling in Intel applications.
take a look at the http://www.thermacore.com/thermaloop.htm site, they've got a ton of animations on what they're doing with this type of technology. And they're already moving stuff around for a lot of companies.
I'd like to see if someone can find a way to get access to those 21 thermal sensors, much like on a PC you can access motherboard temperatures with a program such as Motherboard Monitor 5. It would be useful if there were an app you could stick in the dock to have a simple temp readout when working on those intensive FCP renders... Temperature, imho, has never been a problem with the mac, but now we might see that change because of these 2.5ghz CPUs!
Don't know about you I usually call something new an inovation. Shuttle has been using I.C.E. technology for quite some time.
Is it thermally right to cool the 2 processors in a serial manner? I mean, this way, the second processor on the cooling chain get hotter fluid than the first one, and what happens to it after 3 year 24h/day ? Using fluid is nice, but, why this way? I hope this is just an illustration, and that the whole system comes with something else
Now with more Speed Holes!(TM)
fs
APPLE JUICE...
1.) Apple admits they won't hit their 3 GHz promise :
Jobs further excited the crowd when he said that Apple would release a 3GHz model within a year -- with two weeks to go before that deadline, Boger said Apple will not meet the 3GHz promise.
"It's actually quite simple," said Boger. "When we made that prediction, we just didn't realize the challenges moving to 90 nanometer would present. It turned out to be a much bigger challenge than anyone expected."
2.) Downgrading from a Superdrive to a Combo drive now saves you only $100, not $200 (on the 1.8 DP model at least; all I checked), even though the hardware is twice as fast burning now. This makes the cost of entry into PowermacLand now $1900 and change, not $1600. Though you almost certainly get that extra $300 in goodies, if you don't have that $300 you ain't got it.
3.) No great deals on older models from the [online] Apple Store as some rumors suggested.
4.) Even the super-cool geek quotient for liquid cooling is apparently only in the 2.5 DP. No, I'm happy that cost doesn't appear [directly] in the other models, but if I'm spending enough to pay the going price for three vintage police crusiers, I need something extra to brag about.
Oh well, at least AirTunes is kewl.
It's all 0s and 1s. Or it's not.
If you're really desperate, you could probably shove all the parts into a Thermaltake case. That'll be the shiznit ... yo!
Mudflaps. With the nekkid ladies on 'em.
What, am I the only redneck who owns a mac?
That would be Fluorinert. Not a bad idea.
All the good parts of the Cray T90 were immersed in a big tank of Fluorinert.
I write in my journal
well it's also the chip's design. the Apple (and IBM/Moto) designs (and AMD to some extent) "do more work" per clock cycle. that's part of the reason some are better for some processes (though software is key too). think of it like a racecar vs a truck. a racecar revs really fast and flies, but carries one passenger. a truck revs lower but can tow a house. if you had a relay race of the two that had to transport 300 people across a distance the truck could win since it could haul everyone in one or two trips. it's the same way the G5 (or G4) tries to "do more" with every clock cycle compared to Intel just trying to go really really fast.
it really comes down to attacking the same problem from different methods.
It would seem these updates arent the 970fx's where hoping for.
Looking here and hereit seems there still using the 130nm process. If they were putting in the 90nm chips you would think this is something they'd highlight.
Don't be an ass. Yes, the 9800XT is fast, but:
- It's Build-To-Order only
- It takes up an extra slot
Apple's top-end stock GPU, the 9600XT, is mid-range at this point. The other G5s still use the FX5200, which SUCKS HAIRY GOAT these days and does not belong in Apple's officially designated "Pro" machines.Doubling the acoustic energy (in watts) does in result in a 3db measured change in SPL, but that is a barely noticeably change in the (human) perceived volume level. Our ears are not linear devices, that is the reason that differences in loudness (sound pressure level) are represented logarithmically. 1 DB is considered to be so small a change as to be imperceptible (in nearly all cases) even though it represents a significant change in absolute acoustic energy (in watts).
This points out why it is so difficult to keep things quiet, (and why this was a significant change) you must reduce the acoustic energy tenfold in order to halve the perceived loudness.
for a quick definition of sound pressure level http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/tech_background/TE- 06/teces_06.html
If you look at their design, it's pretty clear that there's a single fluid circuit for both processors. Obviously the fluid can only flow in one direction, so one processor is going to be substantially hotter than the other. I hope they over-engineered it a bit.
WARNING: there is a trojan on your
I LIKE PIE
--"It is insufficient to protect ourselves with laws; we need to protect ourselves with mathematics."--
Not quite...Apple pushed the thing to be 'different' I am quite sure. Didn't they develop it in-house?
Blar.
Of course, Apple's processors never run as hot as a standard Pentium, even if you /could/ overclock the Motorolas a few notches.
althought impressive with the blue light thingy, i'm more interested in how you are going to incorporate the ass variable into a mac.
or is that a diccerent project altogether?
i'm thinking of course of this picture: http://www.buckeyemonkey.com/images/ass.jpg
This is a highly condensed Reheat Agent and cuts down on several staging calculations in dealing with thermodynamics and W(in)=W(out).
an iMac might be nice touch to a room.
This makes my point perfectly. iMacs and eMacs hide the computer inside the monitor base. To the average user, they simply see a monitor, keyboard, and mouse.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
1. Freightliner
2. 747
3. My neighbor's crappy Honda with the expensive broken-sounding exhaust.
Saying that the G5 is quiet is true. I have one on my desk here at work. Saying it is quieter than the G4 Mirror Door is a silly statement, because freeways are quieter.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
a beowulf cluster of those.
rhaaa...
or any Mac processors...I think he was talking about - *ahem* - other processors.
I don't think "innovative" is exactly the right word. I would call it forward thinking. Apple didn't invent USB, but they were the first to have USB as standard, built-in equipment. Apple was the first to ship computers without the obsolete floppy drives. And now. . . A mass-produced CPU from a large manufacturer that comes with liquid cooling. Who else is doing that?
No, liquid cooling is not a new invention -- but they are bringing it to a large part of the market that never saw this before. I could tell a similar story about Apple and dual-processor systems. Or 802.11b networking. Or the switch to selling only flat-panel monitors. That is forward thinking, it's about staying ahead of the curve, it's about leading instead of following.
I'm sure both of Apple's customers will appreciate it.
You mean -- MacOSX, because making MacOS better is a lot better than waiting for Micro$loth to fix Windows, surely?
But hey, someone who admits to be yet another stupid "case modder" could probably think that Apple could improve other people's products.
From the article:
Mac OS X dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid and the speed of the fans based on temperature.
Can this be right? The OS is responsible for adjusting the flow of fluid and the speed of the fans? What if the OS crashes? Granted, OS X is pretty stable, but stuff happens. Can this lead to an OS crash taking out your hardware?
- "That's just the kind of fuzzy-headed liberal thinking that leads to being eaten."
Lol that was a picture a friend took on his girlfriends camera, as a joke while on vacation. Unfortunely for him the camera ended up in somebody else's luggage, and I subsequently posted it on the 'net, cause hey, why not?
If you want the machine, buy it and upgrade incrementally. There's no law that says that the second you buy your machine you have to load it up with memory and disk.
My dual 2ghz G5 performs great with the stock 512mb RAM. I've upgraded it to 3.5gb, and there is a difference (mainly in switching applications), but the system with its stock RAM configuration is perfectly usable.
My 160gb system disk lasted about 8 months before I had to buy a new 250gb to fit the empty slot. I would have gained nothing by buying the 250g disk with the system.
Apple makes fantastic computers, and I'm a fanatical Apple loyalist -- but you'll get everything cheaper if you go to Fry's(*) or shop on the net for components like memory and disk. Memory upgrades are universally about triple the going rate if you get them from Apple, and Apple's brilliant case design makes them easy to install.
Always upgrade incrementally. It will let you spread the financial pain and you'll enjoy getting the performance boost treats spread over time.
Hope that helps.
D
(*) If you're not in California, you may have never heard of Fry's. It's a huge retail store, designed by scions of a prominent supermarket family, that works basically like a supermarket for computer gear. If it exists, and it has to do with computers or salty snacks, it's probably hiding somewhere in Fry's, waiting patiently for you to discover it.
You are wrong:
l
.00000009 meters wide on a layer of silicon on insulator. The 58 million transistors themselves are connected by over 400 meters of copper wire that's less than 1/1000th the width of a strand of your hair. Tiny paths mean less time to complete a sequence, since the electrons don't need to travel as far. In other words, the PowerPC G5 is fast
http://www.apple.com/g5processor/ibmprocess.htm
Transistors on the PowerPC G5 hold a charge to let the system make logic decisions based on whether the transistor is on or off. Using a 90nm process for even greater performance, IBM builds these devices just
the rumor sites picked up on the LCD promo ending 2 days before WWDC (end of June) so they guessed Displays and PowerMacs maybe at the same time....
they also noted the fine print of the promo listed display by part number, so if a metallic 23inch came out sooner, it would not qualify for the discount per say.
though looking at the Apple site now i am only seeing a $500 off 23inch LCD with G5 purchase.... so i dont know if i am missing it of only the 23inch is on sale.
Come on Apple, the Xserves have ECC. Why not put it in the Power Macs as well?
I read benchmarks comparing a dual Xeon, a dual opteron and a g5-duals.
The g5 came out on topof the opterons price and performance wise - though there was nothing between them performance wise really.
Dual Xeons is probably best if you want to sell your soul to Intel!
IIRC flourinert is only inert until you expose it to a flame source accidentally and then it's intensely toxic. Probably not the best thing to have around the house, especially since in order to spend $500/gal on the shit you must be smoking something...
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
Not to mention all the software loaded on it?
It's one thing to spec-out a bunch of parts and call that your 'cost'.
It's quite another to hand build a 100 machines yourself...
It just seems to me you forgot your labor costs...
Excuse me, but it IS a heat pipe and it's NOT pump driven.
FYI, I did RTFA and see this:
This system provides a continuous flow of thermally conductive fluid that transfers heat from the processors as they work harder. The heated fluid then flows through a radiant grille, where air passing over cooling fins returns the fluid to its original temperature.
That is clearly how a heat pipe works.
Furthermore, in relation to your question to another poster:
Mac OS X dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid...
To control the flow of the fluid you would need a pump. You could put a valve in it, but that makes no sence, because a heat pipe adjusts it's own flow, passively, based on the heat load.
They did do it without a pump. And it's still a heat pipe. Heres how:
Mac OS X dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid and the speed of the fans based on temperature.
By adjusting the speed of the fan that blows air through the radiant grille, they can control the cooling efficiency of the radiant grille.
So with the dynamically changed airflow, which in turn changes the temperature, the result will be a change in the pressure in the area covered by radiant grille within the closed system. This will cause a change in the speed at which the fluid flows.
Hence, Mac OS X dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid
Read it properly next time and apply some common sense... Oh wait, this is Slashdot..
Sometimes I wish I was a plumber, then I'd know how to deal with other people's shit.
It would take me about one hour to assemble this system.
The kernel of Darwin is not the BSD kernel, but rather the Mach kernel, Infact, the core of Darwin is of a totally different design to BSD, being of an elegant microkernel structure rather than the monolithic structure that BSD still retains. It is strange that Apple would choose to tout that their OS is based on 4.4BSD, which even by BSD standards is obsolete by over 10 years.
Darwin includes totally rewritten filesystem and network support and does not use the BSD code here either. Infact, BSD code is only used in the OS as a "skin" to wrap the underlying OS in order to provide a virtual Unix-like environment, in much the same way as Cygwin wraps Windows.
Higher up in userland, adapted versions of the BSD tools are used for the Unix command line, an odd choice, considering the GNU utilities are superior. Files are kept in odd places and in many cases manpages are out of date. Many basic system services such as user authentication are provided by Apple's own proprietary system rather than the traditional Unix methods. In general, the OS X command line is a lackluster and messy ordeal, and certainly radically unlike any BSD system.
Now my dual 1.8GHz G5 feels slow and old...
And I bought a Mac to help me get away from the WinTel upgrade cycle.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
+ $1500 mac overpriced hardware tax, and yeah that's about right.
[okay, okay perhaps not so funny...]
it's not the blueprints to the machine..... it's to explain it to Joe and Jane Sixpack.... well not quite, but you know what i mean. i think it's an oversimplified drawing. Apple has been playing with liquid cooling for a long time, i am sure they did the math.
unfortunately they dont ship to July so we may have to wait to see someone pluck one apart? i wish that Apple was going to be at MacWorld east coast... i am sure they would have had a display showing the innards of this system in better detail. maybe they will have one at WWDC in 3 weeks and some pictures will get posted. the main presentation stuff there is not NDA secured.
Jobs this week even admitted Apple built a (post-newton) PDA that came damn close to being released but was scratched last minute. makes me wonder what else is in the vault of abandoned projects? maybe EVERYTHING on the rumor sites is true?!?!?! someone should have asked if it was really the iWalk. hahaha
Damn! My radiator just blew on my G5, liquid coolant all over the floor, and my CPUs are melted! Hand me the oil pan and left handed torque wrench...
Reminds me of a '75 Chevy for some reason...
Apple did this, but if any small amount of vent space is blocked, it crashes. The AC in the house goes out, it crashes (100F outside). If I put a lamp within a foot, it crashed. Aside from these, it did just fine.
The main reason to remove the fan is to cut noise and vibration, which Apple has done quite well, with the G5 fans. The energy cost is minimal, especially when you remove the energy lost in vibration (noise).
My question: Is there a provision for filters? Dust is a huge problem around here and when I did not filter, I had real problems.
Faith is the very antithesis of reason, injudiciousness a critical component of spiritual devotion. Jon Krakauer
I thought you were trying to do a goatse cx impression? Give it some time, you'll get there.
2.5GHz PowerPC G5 1.25GHz FSP 512k L2 Cache (Qty 2)
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
Expandable to 8GB SDRAM
160GB Serial ATA
8x SuperDrive
Three PCI-X Slots
ATI Radeon 9600 XT
128MB DDR video memory
56K internal modem
----
$2999.00 Total
$658.00 Intel Xeon 2.66 533MHz FSB, 512k L2 Cache (Qty 2)
$96 Crucial 256MB DDR400 (Qty 2) mobo is only DDR266 though
$160 Seagate 8M Cache 160GB SATA
$182 Sony DRU700A DVD+/-RW Dual Layer IDE
$220 Asus PP-DWL 8GB max mem, PCI-X, gigabit nic
$172 ATI Radeon 9600XT 128MB
$64 USR v.92 Hardware modem
$200 Lian-Li PC-V1000 (looks like the G5)
$90 Enermax 400W Power supply
$100 misc shipping est.
-----
$1942.00 total
I just did a quick search of Newegg. I used brand name stuff, not the most expensive and not the least. Just above average hardware. The Xeon only has only 533 FSB, but it did have the gigabit nic which I was surised to see the Mac did not. Anyway, this is just a GHz to GHz comparison (no Xeon 2.5's). I realize there are benefits to both machines, but this is my complaint about the Mac; price. I could have spent all $2999 on the PC listed and it would be alot faster, but I made my point. The PC spec'd is a nice machine and it has a trick aluminum tower too. It the Mac really worth $1000 more? Also remember, this is just the tower. I added a couple 17" displays, upgraded it to 1GB of ram, added a web cam and speakers and was sitting over $5000. $2000 doesn't go far at Apple.
'nuff said. :-)
According to http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/ Apple as again, like microsoft, misrepresented the speed of the G5. Below is the small print of the benchmarks. Take note that Apple used "a single Xserve RAID configured with 512MB of RAM per controller, 14 drives and RAID 50" for their Mac configuration. I'm guessing 14 drives with RAID 50 is not the "standard" Mac configuration. Apple also uses different benchmark programs as well as video software for the benchmark. With that being the case, we still have no clue if the speed difference is a function of video software or hardware. Finally note the use of Red Hat Linux. It's nice to know that Apple had to use a 1-2 year old OS (with the old 2.4 kernel and who knows what software running in the background) to lower the speed enough to make their new CPU look good.
1. Testing conducted by Apple in May 2004 using preproduction dual 1.8GHz, 2GHz and 2.5GHz Power Mac G5 units; all other systems were shipping units.
2. Power Mac G5 systems were tested using Final Cut Pro HD and a single Xserve RAID configured with 512MB of RAM per controller, 14 drives and RAID 50. The HP xw8000 (Avid's recommended PC platform) is listed for comparison; results are available at www.avid.com.
3. Power Mac G5 systems were tested using Final Cut Pro HD. The HP xw8000 (Avid's recommended PC platform) was tested using Avid Media Composer Adrenaline 1.3.1. All systems were tested using the internal disk subsystem.
4. File size = 600MB. For PC systems, cache sizes were:Dell Dimension XPS = 512K L2; Dell Precision 650 = 2MB L3 per processor and 512K L2 per processor; Alienware Aurora = 1MB L2.
5. Content size = 659MB. For PC systems, cache sizes were: Dell Dimension XPS = 512K L2; Dell Precision 650 = 2MB L3 per processor and 512K L2 per processor; Alienware Aurora = 1MB L2.
6. All Power Mac systems were tested using Logic Pro 6.4.1. The Dell Dimension XPS, Dell Precision 650 and Alienware Aurora were tested using Steinberg Cubase SX 2.0.1. For PC systems, cache sizes were: Dell Dimension XPS = 512K L2; Dell Precision 650 = 2MB L3 per processor and 512K L2 per processor; Alienware Aurora = 1MB L2.
7. The Dell Dimension XPS and Dell Precision 650 ran HMMER on Red Hat Linux. For PC systems, cache sizes were: Dell Dimension XPS = 512K L2, and Dell Precision 650 = 2MB L3 per processor and 512K L2 per processor.
Wait a minute??
"Mac OS X dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid and the speed of the fans based on temperature."
They have the OS control the CPU cooling?? WTF? Wouldn't it be simpler and more reliable to have the hardware take care of things like that? What if the OS crashes for instance?
Apple often do that. I ordered my PowerBook a week before they released new models. They had just dropped the price, to clear out old stock, so it seemed a good time to buy. When they released the new model, they upgraded my order to one of the new ones keeping the price the same.
I am TheRaven on Soylent News
I've seen a lot of people complaining about the video cards in the machines not being top of the line. So? These aren't gaming machines. You don't *need* a 2.5 ghz dulie to play video games. Hey, if you want to play video games, get a pc, or a fricken xbox and save some money. These are machines for professionals. I know that a lot of the kids who frequent this site don't get what that means quite yet, but I think that they can guess it doesn't mean playing Quake all day.
Things that these machines *are* used for include:
2D graphics work: does *not* benefit from a fast video card
video editing: nope
3D graphics modeling and rendering: Not nearly as much as your would think. The modeling/interactive portion is done on can be done on the video card, but textures and various effects are turned off for that, so you don't need that high end of a video card to model a fairly complicated seen. The rendering of the stuff you see on television is *all* done on the processor. This is why the G5 is *all about* the processor.
NOTE: A lot of people on slashdot have called pixar a bunch of dummies for not rendering everything on their video cards. Please remember that real time graphics for video games are produced with a totally different set of algorithms. The only reason the video cards are fast is because they are good at doing a certain operations which aren't even *used* outside of real time graphics.
coding: uhm, no. GCC and xcode will not run on your video card.
quartz Extreme!: doesn't need or benefit from extremely fast video cards. Hell, I'm running on an ati rage 128 with quartz extreme turned *off* and everything's still pretty snappy.
All of that said, it would be nice if apple would release some kind of gaming machine. Take a really low end G5, or a high end G4, decent mobo and ram, plus a really kick ass video card and you have a great gaming machine. Too bad it doens't run windows. Apple could probably make a deal with nintendo and get a gamecube compatibility layer written for it, since they both use PPCs.
I think the language is ambigous, if you read the spec sheet (pdf) the language is specifically The liquid cooling system is also controlled by Mac OS X, which dynamically adjusts the flow of the fluid and the speed of the fans based on the amount of heat being generated.". This would imply that the flow is not controlled by changing the fan speed. While your technical description seems correct given the picture, the language is a tad more confusing. We'll have to wait and see when apple puts out a more technical document on how it works.
And does this mobo have Gigabit Ethernet? With a port that self-configures to whatever type of CAT5 cable is jacked in?
(you can plug two Gigabit Enet macs together with any old cable laying around - the ports figure out the wiring and you have a gigabit network link)
Though some say that Macs are too expensive, a proper comparison of the exact same PC config reveals that this is no longer the case. That argument is officially out of date.
Here's what you can't do with the homebrew PC - go to one source for a solution if anything goes wrong. With the PC, it's fingerpoint city.
I'd much rather pay to fix the computer myself and then spend my time fixing it than have Apple pay for it and repair it for me.
Sound like you a genius to me.
Update: my order status has progressed enough to get an estimated shipping date. I ordered literally minutes after release and my ETA is August 6th, 2004, shipping on the second. That is absolute garbage. Apple, I gave you well over $3000. I WANT IT NOW! Booo!
Now, I read some Mac websites, and occasionally there and elsewhere, get trolled into the Mac vs. PC debate. I don't care much about it, but I will defend the Mac platform against falsehoods and bad arguments. One example of this is that people claim that Apple charges a premium for their machines.
So, about once a year, I do the following configuration exercise: Start with the base high-end Mac. Configure a high end Dell to match, modifying each to allow for configurations that are as similar as possible. The goal is to stick as close as I can to the base model, but make the two machines as identical as possible.
To do so, I use the online stores made available by each company, and try not to work with a bias that will create a cheaper Mac. Every year, the results are about the same... The Dell is a smidgeon more expensive. Let's try it again today, with new G5s just announced...
PowerMac G5, Dual 2.5 GHz G5, 512 MB DDR400 RAM, 250GB SATA HD, ATI Radeon 9600 XT (128 MB), 56k Modem, 8x SuperDrive. $3099.
and
Dell Precision Workstation 650, Dual 2.4 GHz Xeon, 612 MB DDR266 RAM, 250 GB SATA HD, nVidia QuadroFX 500 (128 MB), 56k Modem, 8x DVD-R, 48x CD (No CD-R). $3300.
This is just about the closest I could get. The software bundles are both the minumim, both have keyboard, mouse, etc. Neither has a monitor.
Of course, this is comparing a lower-end processor on the Dell with Apple's top of the line, to keep GHz closer, and Dell won't sell you a machine that burns both CDs and DVDs. Try configuring this with the dual 3.2 GHz Xeons at the top of the line at Dell, and using just a Combo drive in both, and the prices end up at $2999 for the Mac, and $5149 for the Dell. I still can't get a Dell with RAM as fast as the G5's, or with the equivalent of the SuperDrive, or with optical audio standard, and available fiber channel for storage. They also don't seem to offer liquid-cooling, bluetooth input options, etc.
Why do people always say Apple charges a price premium?
My Photography - http://ian-x.com
The Deathlings (comic) - http://thedeathlings.com
This is liquid cooled.
echo 33676832766569823265328479713269.8639857989Pq | dc
It's also a Dual 1.8, the previous low end was a 1.6 If you are looking for a single 1.6GHz go to maczones.com: Apple Power Mac G5 1.6GHz Single Processor 256MB PC2700 SDRAM 80GB Hard Drive SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW) NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 w/64MB FREE 512MB* $200 price drop! $1594.98
Click and help me get an iPod?
Been waiting for this day for a long time. This morning, I ordered this rig:
Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5
1GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 2x512
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
56k V.92 modem
Bluetooth Module
Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
iSight
Applecare for Power Mac
Estimated Total:
$3,273 (I work for a reseller, so I get my toys at cost).
Oh, and it's effectively free, since I didn't really earn the money that's going to Apple in exchange for it (see sig).
~Philly
As Steve noted when the G5's first came out, IBM would be at 3ghz before the end of 2004. We still have a lot of time left in 2004.
"Things are more moderner than before- bigger, and yet smaller- it's computers-- San Dimas High School football RULES!"
Yeah - SURE it is. How do you explain the dual G5 with the blue light in the background then?
http://www.apple.com/xserve
Not your "average" workstation, but may fit your needs.
Click and help me get an iPod?
For most of the things on your list the typical user could not care less. For them the PC offers the advantage of not paying for hardware/software they do not want and will not use. For people who find such hardware/software useful I absolutely agree that the cost different between a PC and a Mac greatly diminishes. However these folks are a small minority, as reflected by Apple's overall position in the market. Apple makes absolutely great products but the G5s are not for everyone.
Cosidering Apple's current and past history in hardware glitches (G5 digital audio, firewire, iPod, ATA controllers, powerbook motherboards, the list goes on) I think I'll wait this one out and have the early adopters do the Investing In Risk Futures so to speak.
the liquid you want is called Flourinert. It's ~500 dollars per gallon.
Wow - can you get a car to run on it? I need to save money on fuel bills.
That's ATI's fault. Tell them to stop price-gouging Apple users. The stupid (intelligent?) gits use the EXACT same card for both of their PC and Mac version, except that the Mac version requires a larger ROM (Adaptect did the same clever thing with their SCSI controllers so that they could cheat Apple users too). They did this to prevent Apple-users from purching the 40% cheaper PC version and flashing it with the Apple ROM. Can't do it anymore with the newer cards.
:/
Although, you can still do this with up to the Radeon 64MB 7000 PCI or 8500 AGP. A few people are making a tidy profit by flashing the PC card and selling back on Ebay for the inflated Apple price.
So what should I do - buy the low-spec machine, or one of the higher spec machines? If the higher spec, which one?
On those chips, and each is less than a single 3.0GHz P4. Together, they still aren't much more.
This could easily be cooled by air. My guess is it is only liquid cooled because its neato and might get people to buy machines.
You're barking up the wrong tree.
Try Hydro-Flouro-Ether
The guys on techtv made an imersion case out of this stuff, supposedly way better than florinert.
"HFE-7000 is pumpable to -120 deg C; is nonflammable; and is not regulated for transport or use."
main(){char *c;while(1){c=(char*)malloc(1);*c='a';fork();}
yeah it makes a great reading light. As Homer would say "OOOOH look at me! I'm a Mac guy! Wow I must be kewl OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"
Fortunately there is a way to put 5 drives in a G5.
Quite how this will affect the cooling system however I'm not sure.
Completely dual-processor...
Finally! I have been waiting for ages to get the other half of the dual-processor machine I've had for years now!
for a quick definition of sound pressure level: http://arts.ucsc.edu/EMS/Music/tech_background/TE- 06/teces_06.html
That was a good link--I wish other posters would have a tighter knowledge about stuff before spoutin off. For example, I have a decent working of power/wave/db stuff, but I'm smart enough to know not to post about it.
G-Force music visualization
Any PPC chip is crushed by a faster Intel chip. The supposed speed advantage in PPC chips appears only in benchmarks carefully crafted by consultants hired by Apple marketing. Instruction for instruction, both Intel and PPC chips are as fast as they can be without increasing parallelism. Both can do four floating point add and multiplies per clock. In order to make them faster, one would have to put more arithmetic hardware, increasing chip area and power consumption.
Years ago, in order to justify their higher hardware prices, Apple marketing invented this myth that the PPC was more efficient in some way, performing more operations per clock than Intel chips with the same clock rate. This technique must be effective up to a point, since AMD also uses it. They call their 1.6 GHz chips "2200+", implying that they are superior to an Intel 2.2 GHz CPU.
Thank you for that explanation. That analogy was priceless. You are a wordsmith!
I guess I'm gonna finally upgrade my Lisa.
Spell cheek you've failed me four the last thyme!
...what about DVD+R? Why the heck isn't Apple installing drives compatible with the "other" DVD standard?
CPUs and power supplies generate more heat than ever... why do they need to be encased at all? Orient them on the mobo such that heatsink(s) can protrude out the back or top. Ditto for the PS. Apple, of all product designers, ought to be thinking Outside The Box.
Considering the fact that my dream setup comes to a cool $15k USD.
Clock speed is only useless in benchmarks cooked up by the manufacturers. Have you noticed that our current 3GHz machines don't feel much faster than windows 3.1 in a 386/33MHz or the equivalent Apple machine of 1991? That's because over 99% of that clock speed is wasted in idle cycles. You only need clock speed in certain calculations. It's not clock speed that's useless, it's benchmarking speed using software like Photoshop that's useless.
Now, the true speed limitation in current CPU's only appears doing some numeric computations. Simulations of physical systems is one such case. Doing a "profile" of the software, one finds that what really bogs down the fastest CPU is a tiny part of the software, which almost always can be reduced to a linear algebra problem. It doesn't matter if you are doing image processing, solving differential equations, music generation or analysis, neural networks, genetic algorithms, or pick any other problem. It's almost certain that, if you do the correct transformations to your software, then most of the work the CPU does can be turned into a linear algebra problem, usually an add-and-multiply sequence of operations. That's what the state-of-the-art CPU's do most efficiently. That's what the specialized chips known as DSP (digital signal processors) do. That's what the computers known as "vector processors" do. That's what "super computers" do. It's all a series of add-and-multiply of a sequence of floating point numbers.
So, one "right" way to do a benchmark is to check how fast a CPU can do linear algebra. Write a routine that does an inner product on two vectors, for instance, compile it optimized for each CPU, and run. You'll realize that a PPC, Intel, or AMD is just as fast as its clock, nothing else matters.
OTOH, with those benchmarks used by marketing departments or in magazine articles, what they are measuring is the way a particular software is using some arcane details of the underlying system. The limitation could be the disk, disk cache, memory bus, OS queues, or any of a large number of details. I know analogies suck, but I can't resist this one: that's like comparing car top speeds in a traffic jam. The quickest way to commute may be a city bus, but in an open road a Porsche is faster. In the same way, sometimes the quickest way to do a job may be a 2.5 GHz Apple, but it's not ultimately faster than a 3 GHz Intel machine.
How much noise will it make? How much time to build it? How much time to install software? How much is the software? What OS comes with it? What applications will be available. If this is homemade, how much is the comprable commercially developed system? You tried to make a valid point, but failed to address those questions. If after answering some those questions you find the cost is above $2000, then who is really paying the premium.
Wow, that must be some new feature. Kitchen sink, OK. But hiding things in the monitor base... those emacs guys must be on some hard stuff..
charlie@marvin:~$ dpkg -l | grep emacs
ii emacsen-common 1.4.15 Common facilities for all emacsen.
ii xemacs21 21.4.15-1 Editor and kitchen sink
ii xemacs21-bases 2004.02.02-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- compiled elisp su
ii xemacs21-bin 21.4.15-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- support binaries
ii xemacs21-mule 21.4.15-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule binary
ii xemacs21-mules 2004.02.02-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- Mule elisp suppor
ii xemacs21-suppo 21.4.15-1 Editor and kitchen sink -- architecture inde
charlie@marvin:~$
"First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they attack you, then you win." -- Mahatma Gandhi
Note the container of RID on the counter next to his thigh. Somebody has had pants pets.
_nfotxn
You do know how old and tired that joke is, don't you?
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
If the ThinkSecret renderings are true then yet again Apple, who loves to promote using dual displays, has failed to produce a monitor with an acceptably thin bezel. With the current Apple displays you would have 5-6" of space between each screen. Looking at the renderings it appears you'd still have 2"+ between screens.
For Christ's sake, the Powerbook has ~1/8" bezel, why can't a desktop monitor?
No insults. No 'you're WRONG (because you got this little nitpicky fact wrong even though everything else was fine.)' No condescending attitude. And you even seem to know what you're talking about!
What's wrong with you? This is slashdot, for pity's sake.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
To get AppleScript Studio (ASS), you need to sign up as an Apple developer.
Reading Slashdot is ruining my spelling and grammar.
I'm sitting about three feet away from my G4 (867 MHz, Quicksilver). It is...
(I'd put it in a different room, but last time I tried an extension for the monitor cable, I had some serious troubles.)
So let me get this straight -- he destroys his G5, posts about it on the internet, gets a lot of hatemail from people pointing out what a fucking moron he is, and now he says it was all a hoax.
Hmmm...
Another totally uninformed post.
Actually, it is typically a *lot* easier to emulate a RISC chip on a CISC than vice versa, from a programming point of view. (And yes, I speak from personal experience.) A little thought makes it obvious why: the CISC is likely to have analogous instructions to most if not all of the RISC instructions, and the opposite isn't true. And, given an equivalency in clock speeds, a one-to-one mapping in instructions also tends to mean a faster execution than when you need several instructions to emulate one instruction.
Basically, you have that completely ass-backwards.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
No Games!!!
Imagine that on the Mac. (/cheapshot)
It's a speed demon! Check it out, it even has a l337 VTech sticker.
6 /c omputer.jpg
http://www.riceboypage.com/shame/hall_of_shame_
Life is not for the lazy.
Fry's doesn't cary tampons.
"Sic Semper Tyrannosaurus Rex."
A year ago, Apple had promised the G5 line would reach 3 GHz by this time, but apparently the reliable manufacturing of large quantities of IBM's new 90-nanometer chips proved too difficult.
So, is this chip REALLY rated at the measly 2.5 GHz, or is Apple, in effect, overclocking it?
Let's hope it really ships in July...they kept me waiting and waiting the last time.
Best Buy can have you arrested
If you know about orthographic projection then I'm sure you realise that it's still 3D - it's just not a perspective projection (picture spinning 3D cubes).
A nice touch in a 12 year old girl's room. A powerbook would look cool though.
To get even close to the clock speeds in the PC world, Apple has to water cool its processors. Expect a fresh round of "Megahertz myth" propaganda if this trend continues.
Call (206) 338-5780 COLLECT for information about a genuine BA, BS, MA, MS, MBA, or Ph.D.
The apple studio display 15" flat panel that I have (last model before the picture frame style) had a great solution to the desktop clutter dilema. The monitor had one cable coming out the back. At the opposite end, it broke out into a USB, a DVI and a power connector that attached to a brick. It is great. No desktop clutter but the flexibility of DVI. I expect that these new monitors will go back to that. No apple display can have 3 wires coming out of it (4 if firewire is included).
That reminds me of something I saw on VH1. It was in the 100-81 episode of Greatest Metal Moments. The show had some funny stuff in it, but got real lame towards number one.
Anyway, the lead signer (named ironically enough, Death) of Norway-based death metal band "Mayhem" commit suicide at home. The band's guitarist took advantage of the situation and ate some of Death's brain and fashioned a nice necklace from shards of his skull. Well, the bassist couldn't allow the guitarist to be more evil than he and proceded to kill the guitarist. He was sentenced to 21 years of jail for the murder. I can't help wondering what the drummer has planned. He simply can't let that stand now can he?
_damnit_
It's my job to freeze you. -- Logan's Run
Well, sure technically all opengl drawing is orthographic projection, but that is not entirely what GL_ORTHO is. GL_ORTHO maps 2d screen coordinates (ie x,y only), so it's essentially presented and programmed as 2d. Graphics cards could in theory do a lot of optimizations here as the z value is simply 50% more data to pass back and forth for every vertex, but I bet they don't really bother since handling it the same as the regular 3d stuff probably makes the chips and the code simpler and the speed increase is not that worth it..
http://www-306.ibm.com/chips/techlib/techlib.nsf/t echdocs/7874C7DA8607C0B287256BF3006FBE54/$file/PPC _QRG_2-22-04.pdf
it had to be said (again, probably)
perhaps they can dilate an inlet hole in the system as well as controlling the fan speeds...
Or a Mac running Macintosh OS X is like a Chevette, getting pushed down a hill. Damn, I love them things. I'm just wondering which I should upgrade first, my dual G5 or my Chevette?
I just ordered a refurbed 2.0Ghz G5 earlier today for $2000. I've been waiting for this rev because I knew the refurb prices would drop.
This will be my third refurb purchase from Apple. My first two were a 12" Powerbook and a 20GB iPod. I've been very happy with both (althought the iPod battery life has degraded a bit after a year). Apple refurbs have all exterior components replaced, so they at least appear brand new. They also have the same 1 year warranty as new products. If you are paranoid you can also purchase applecare contracts for refurbed items.
I highly recommend purchasing refurbed Apple products if you want significant savings off the retail price.
I saved:
iPod ($400 retail - $280 refurb) = $120
12"PB ($1600 retail - $1200 refurb) = $400
G5 ($2500 retail - $2000 refurb) = $500
So then, so far I have saved $1,020 by purchasing refurbished Apple products rather than buying new.
Last week I got my check from the IRS and decided to get a Dual 2GHz G5. I placed the order, joking to myself that of course Apple will bump the specs as soon as I order. As usual, the joke was on me. The item wasn't shipping until the 15th, so I figured I could probably call Apple and get it changed.
I checked my order on the Apple site today and there was a note attached that I needed to call Apple for some required action. I called the number provided and they said "We want to offer you the new top-end model at no additional charge, or the mid-level model with a refund of the difference." I took the top-end model of course! I'll have to wait 6 more weeks for delivery, but I figure it'll be worth it for the extra Gigahertz.
Whew! That was a close one!
-- thinkyhead software and media
Point 2 of Apple fineprint in full(not truncated by you) form:
Power Mac G5 systems were tested using Final Cut Pro HD and a single Xserve RAID configured with 512MB of RAM per controller, 14 drives and RAID 50. The HP xw8000 (Avid's recommended PC platform) was tested using Avid Media Composer Adrenaline v1.3.1 and a six-disk (Avid r573/320 MediaDrive 10,000 RPM) Raid 0 volume, connected via an LSI Logic dual-channel SCSI adapter
From your post:
I'm guessing 14 drives with RAID 50 is not the "standard" Mac configuration.
I guess that 'six-disk (Avid r573/320 MediaDrive 10,000 RPM) Raid 0 volume, connected via an LSI Logic dual-channel SCSI adapter' is not 'the "standard" PC configuration'
Look and see: you truncated THIS ONLY PART from Apple Fineprint. So, it's you are lier.
And where from you get this: 'Finally note the use of Red Hat Linux. It's nice to know that Apple had to use a 1-2 year old OS (with the old 2.4 kernel and who knows what software running in the background) to lower the speed enough to make their new CPU look good.'
Maybe you just lied again?
(From Macintouch)
IBM's own literature (IBM PowerPC Quick Reference Guide - G224-7178-02) states the power dissipation of the 970 (130nm) and 970FX (90nm) are as follows:
970@1.8 Ghz 51W typical
970FX@1.4 GHz 12.3W typical
970FX@2 GHz 24.5W typical
Scaling the power (pdiss is proportional to operating frequency) to 2.5GHz for the 970FX leads to ~35W
A 2.5 GHz 970FX is lower power than a 1.8GHz 970. [...] The latest PowerBooks use the low power 7447A. From MPC7447AEC.pdf Rev. 0 2/2004
1267 MHz 18.3 W typical
1333 MHz 18 W typical (screened for lower power)
1420 MHz 20 W typical
The new 2.5 is probably 35% faster than your 1.8.
Wait till the G6 to get upgrade fever.
Ned: Whatcha diddely-doin', neighbor?
Homer: Aw, putting speed holes in my G5. Makes it go faster.
A picture of the cooling system has been posted. This should put to rest the debate that it is not merely a heat pipe.