Aluminum PowerMac?

Can't Wait... I am getting tired of this plastic bubble stuff.

Buy Apple stock now!

Apple will make a killing when they finally release this stuff.

it's about time they came out with a totally new box, i think i actually dreamt about this last night, that scared me a bit heh. but anyways, this current powermac box has been around since the B&W G3 in various guises. In my dream I think I envisioned a two part design, on main processor/hd/pci box that can be hidden away, and another, smaller, funky box, a la iMac but smaller, that would go on the desktop, just holding some ports, and a couple of drive bays etc. i hope it's more than just a new facia on the new macs....i really do.

but.. but... what if I need that handle??

No seriously it's about time.

I'm very curious about the design. For some reason I thought it might take a different shape or have a hole in the middle. Don't know why I thought that, just did. I hope it looks killer.

Um... bad move... A metal PowerMac...

um... ewww.

Bring back the desktop!!!

I don't want to shell out $700 for a Sonnet 1GHz G4 upgrade on my faithful but aging beige Desktop G3. I don't have room for a tower.

PLEASE BRING BACK THE DESKTOP/PIZZA BOX ENCLOSURE FOR THE G5 FAMILY!

Wishful thinking...

dont towers take less desk room then pizza boxes? also the pizza box modles arent as cool looking

aethier

The next case is going to be made of adobe.

Smaller footprint?

Considering the limited upgrade possibilities with most Mac hardware, why not go for a smaller case design? Shave a inch or 2 of the width, and 4 or 5 off the height? I am not talking Shuttle SV24 small, but something that can have 2 optical drives and 2 hdd's and room for a decent video card.

In overly retarded form:

http://www.yzedf.com/pics/random/simple mac.bmp

DISCLAIMER: 2 seconds of thought (to find pencil / paper / scanner / email / shh) were used in this depiction. I know it looks similar to other machines on the market. I was thinking Al body, with slot loading vertically mounted optical drives. Rectangular shape is door to hide 2 FW 2 FW800 and 3 USB ports. Circles... I dunno.

Originally posted by MrMacman
Um... bad move... A metal PowerMac...

um... ewww.

Click to expand...

What's wrong with that, your looking at and ugly sheet metal box now with a plastic cover on it.

Why not get rid of the plastic cover and make the metal box the finished skin?

If the metal box looked as nice as the PowerBook 17 or TiBook 15...

i wonder if they will change the name. will we call them AlMacs?

i hope they take the powersupply out give it a 30 foot detachable cord and quiet fan.
this will make the case very cool and quiet and give it more roome for an extra pci,agp,memory,optical drive slots or make it colle or smaller with the same capacity
upfront usb/firewire are a give as well as at 4 total usb port(no more hub if you have a scanner and printer that need power.
since no large power supply fan inside you can put this on top of the desk it will be quiet and good looking and have the first upgrade to apples 16 bit sound system whil still compatable. expect 24/96 and digital out5.1 output for the first time maybe using maudio technology(they have a pci card under $100. tv out we be included wia adapter like imac ibook powerbook and upcoming emac this are for video so you want to see how it looks on tv before you burn and progressive scan dvd a first for desktop.
So other then processor Apple will finally update thier forgotten 80's sound engine and like of connectivity to tvs and hi fi equipment

Making the power supply external wouldn't work. Not to mention it would be a bad move. It was akward for the G4 cube, and the power supply would have to be powerful enough to power 4 hd's, 2 optical drives, 1 or 2 processors, and everything else. They could make quieter power supplies, but making them external would be taking a step backwards.

An aluminum design like that of the current PowerBooks would be really cool.

They could work on making the case smaller too. The current ones, while alright, are a bit bulky, and it's time for change.

Upgraded audio would be cool, but not too many people would need it. It'd be better to do a minor upgrade, but leave out the pro stuff. If they need it, they can buy it, but if Apple put it in, it would just jack up the price.

What would be cool, though, are special model desktops for different markets. A DV edition PowerMac. a Pro audio edition, a desktop publishing edition, you know. A base PowerMac design with different 'packages' that transform it into whatever you need or want, thus saving money for people who don't need an expensive audio card, graphics card, dvd burner, tons of HD space, and all that...

Of course, I imagine many pros would prefer to select their own equipment to make their Mac just right.

Re: Smaller footprint?

Originally posted by yzedf
In overly retarded form:

http://www.yzedf.com/pics/random/simple mac.bmp

Click to expand...

That looks too much like a face man, it'd just creep people out.
But yeah, I agree with the prospect of making them much smaller.. maybe with suction cups so you can stick it on your window

I am always skeptical of rumors that tell that I will be "surprised", these just aren't the terms I want to hear, and I have read them too many times at MOSR before my macrumors days. I know what terms we would all prefer, but they aren't words, they are all numbers i.e. 970 6-23-03, 2ghz, 17" 19" 30", blah blah blah you get the point.

Originally posted by phampton81
I am always skeptical of rumors that tell that I will be "surprised", these just aren't the terms I want to hear, and I have read them too many times at MOSR before my macrumors days. I know what terms we would all prefer, but they aren't words, they are all numbers i.e. 970 6-23-03, 2ghz, 17" 19" 30", blah blah blah you get the point.

Click to expand...

Those are the rumors that you should believe. Why? That usually means tha tthe source can't give too much away to reveal their idientity and means the source is usually true.

A source had told me the LCD iMacs would be cool but also 'odd'. He nailed it.

New case

Hello,

The problem with such a smaller case is that it would have less appel to those professionals that need to install heavy hardware (by heavy, I mean expensive and hot). The additional space is useful for installing additional fans (what, cant hear you over the fan noise) to cool additional hardware.

It comes down to how many different form factors do you need?

1 simplified desk top (imac/emac)
1 configurable desktop (powermac)
1 low end laptop (ibook)
1 high end laptop (power book)
1 rack mount system (XServe)
1 rack mount drive system (XRaid)

Now, there are a few anomolies with this theory, like the iMac/eMac.

This came about, in my opinion, that when they were looking for a replacement for the original CRT iMacs, Jobs was given two different designs, the flat panel iMac and what is now the eMac.

Obviously, they decided to go with the flat panel. But, educators needed something cheaper, and I am sure Apple didnt want to discount the flatpanel iMacs that much, so they said, just use that one design, we will call it the eMac for educators.

The different form factors of the powerbooks are just following the screen size, and they really do not provide that much differences between them.

As for the 2 different forms of XServe, I guess someone just didnt like all those drives in their server, so now they have the cluster XServe and the normal XServe.

I guess what I am trying to get at, there is really not enough room in the product line for a different product that is half way between the iMac and the powermac. Just another model to confuse buyers as to what they should get.

Atleast, that is my opinion from my point of view.

I like the idea of splitting the box so to speak
Move as much noise generating equipment away from the use. So put the Power Supply and Hard drives in an enclosure that is away some where. Connect it to the main use via Firewire 800 and a power cable (single cable).
So the main unit would contain
- Dual 970s
- 8+ slots for ram
- 1 or 2 optical drives (can you get by with one?)
- video card ( perhaps more than 1 AGP port)
- all the audio and other ports.
- still need at least one fan.

This could be a relatively small unit. Possibly mount all this on the back a LCD display !

Splitting the box is dumb -- this is why there ARE all-in-one units AND towers. Why make a 3-piece unit (inc. monitor)? No.

Split Boxes

Hello,

Split boxes did not seem to work the last time someone tried them (IBM).

But the problem is the number one cause of noise is the processor and expansion cards.

The processor(s) puts out more heat than the drive will. The display card (and some option cards, like video I/O) also generate a considerable amount of heat.

Thus, the fans that move the most air need to be where the processors, ram, AGP/PCI bus, and options cards are. That means this unit will cause the most noise.

Originally posted by fred_lj
Splitting the box is dumb -- this is why there ARE all-in-one units AND towers. Why make a 3-piece unit (inc. monitor)? No.

Click to expand...

Hey lets think out of the box

Making PSU and HDs external

Hi all,

(my first post!)

Well, I typed a nice long reply that was wiped out when I forgot my password, accidentally closed the window in which I was typing this (using tabbed browsing), and finally had Safari crash on me for the third time in 3 1/2 months (a pretty good record, I'd say).

Suffice it to say that making the PSU external (let alone 30 feet away, as one poster suggested) would be very impractical due to the large wire that would be needed to prevent too much voltage drop between the PSU and the computer.

As for making the HDs external via FW 800, there wouldn't be nearly enough bandwidth for people who need to use multiple fast "internal" drives (like video and audio pros).

I'll elaborate if anyone would like me to.

HTH
WM

P.S. There's only a period in my username because these forums require at least three-letter ones.

P.P.S. Anyone know how to eliminate the line breaks in my sig?

Re: Making PSU and HDs external

Originally posted by WM.
Hi all,

As for making the HDs external via FW 800, there wouldn't be nearly enough bandwidth for people who need to use multiple fast "internal" drives (like video and audio pros).

I'll elaborate if anyone would like me to.

Click to expand...

Please elaborate