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How the G5 Shouda! been
- Thread starter adamfilip
- Start date
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Re: How the G5 Shouda! been
I'm not sure, I think Apple knew what they were doing. While they likely could have made another optical bay available, I think they decided to make the machine ultra-quiet, especially as compared to other high-end machines (Xeons, Itaniums, Unix workstations).
I also don't see the need for another optical drive bay anyways. It has become so easy to add a very fast external drive via firewire and have more versatility in doing so. In my experience, I 've never found any use for dual optical drives, even though I've built machines that feature them. I usually end up copying images to my hard drive anyways and, whenever I've done CD-to-CD copies I often have gotten buffer underruns.
I think the only thing I'd improve upon is the PCI-X slots - it'd be nice to have 5 instead of 3, but there are external solutions for that as well.
I'm not sure, I think Apple knew what they were doing. While they likely could have made another optical bay available, I think they decided to make the machine ultra-quiet, especially as compared to other high-end machines (Xeons, Itaniums, Unix workstations).
I also don't see the need for another optical drive bay anyways. It has become so easy to add a very fast external drive via firewire and have more versatility in doing so. In my experience, I 've never found any use for dual optical drives, even though I've built machines that feature them. I usually end up copying images to my hard drive anyways and, whenever I've done CD-to-CD copies I often have gotten buffer underruns.
I think the only thing I'd improve upon is the PCI-X slots - it'd be nice to have 5 instead of 3, but there are external solutions for that as well.
bennetsaysargh
macrumors 68020
I suspect Apple dropped the dual optical drives is that very few people actually ordered a system that way.
I do have a dual optical setup currently and it has saved me a fair bit of time.
I used to have a computer with dual optical drives, but it always caused me more trouble than it was worth, and so I always ended up copying stuff to the hard drive first anyway. Maybe for other stuff besides copying it might be useful, but I can't think of anything useful right now that you could do with it.
idea_hamster
macrumors 65816
Of course, this seems to imply that there are four hard drives 🙂 for a whopping 1TB for the home user. Whoa.
that is their fatal mistake. They assumed that since not many people ordered 2 optical drives, that not many people wanted 2 optical drives. If I bought a MDD model (almost did) I most definately would NOT have gotten 2 optical drives from apple, as they simply charge way too much. Also, their options were very lacking. I would ideally like a superdrive and a 52x CD-RW (hell, a 32x would be fine) I dont need to watch a DVD on my computer while I burn a DVD. I use my home theater DVD player for that. But oh well, Firewire is a good compromise.
I think someone will come out with a firewire enclosure that fits on top of the G5 like that one that came out when the first G4 came out with no floppy drive, it had a 3.5" ATAPI bay via USB as well as a USB hub i believe. A firewire one with an optical bay and maybe even a HD bay would be an awesome add on. Doubly awesome if it could be used on top or on bottom between the handles, so power users could get 2 of them and not take up excess space. thats just my wishful thinking tho.
bennetsaysargh
macrumors 68020
that would be awesome! it would be really cool if they could do that for all of the computers in their product line somehow.
i have an idea for a 3rd party company to make a battery for the powerbooks that not only goes in the place of the powerbook battery, but also somehow covers the whole bottom to make the battery life a lot longer. is that possible? sorry, i've been running around all day😛
Powerbook G5
macrumors 68040
I never really cared about having two optical drives...but having more PCI-X and more HD to bring the G5 up to 1 TB would be sweet!
rainman::|:|
macrumors 603
You know how much heat an optical drive can kick off when it gets going? there's no way... Remember that heat is still conducted between the partitions, they're not entirely independent... and this would affect airflow signifigantly as well...
pnw
pnw
Mr. Anderson
Moderator emeritus
I think that Apple's going with the single optical drive on purpose - it would be redundant and if you wanted one with higher burn times, get an external and connect it to the FW800 port. Makes more sense that way, keeps the thing cooler, etc.
I'd rather see more HD space 😀
D
I'd rather see more HD space 😀
D
bennetsaysargh
macrumors 68020
well i forgot that optical drives get hot. then i realized whenever i turn on my FW burner, there is the sound of a million fans that is really loud. that's why i burn as little as possible😛
NavyIntel007
macrumors 65816
This is exactly why apple did NOT design it this way. Why should they spend the extra money designing an extra bay, putting in a 10th fan and more sensors for you to go out and buy a third party drive? Tell you what, why don't YOU just go buy an external burner and stick it right on top between the handle and the case? If you get one with an aluminum case, you might never know the difference.
As for the extra storage. There would have to be an extra SATA controller and two more pin outs. How many people actually buy four drives from Apple? Not that many. And with new drives hitting the 500 GB mark these days, it would be easy to put a terabyte in with only two drive bays. If you'd like more than that, get a fiber channel card and buy an XServe RAID. Apple probably wants you not to buy the Powermac if you want a server with lots of storage. That's why there is an Xserve (ideally when it too has a G5).
Problem is you people cry about the price, yet complain when it doesn't have this or that... if it had everything you wanted, it would be even more expensive! SO QUIT CRYING ABOUT IT!
snahabed
macrumors regular
I fail to understand why people are opposed to a FW external drive. I have one and it is fantastic. Plus, it will outlast my CPU and I can use it with my Powerbook, and my friends can use it with their PC laptops with firewire cards.
I would just like more hard drive space... just because I would LOVE for space to be so cheap that I could just mount disc images of my DVD's and have uncompressed AIFFs in iTunes... and never have to deal with discs again! As it stands, I cannot bear to re-rip into AAC, knowing that when the successor comes out, I'll have to re-rip again... My mentality now is, wait for a few years when a 10TB hard drive is a reality 🙂
So yeah, the more hard drive, the better, but another internal optical? Waste of space and money.
I would just like more hard drive space... just because I would LOVE for space to be so cheap that I could just mount disc images of my DVD's and have uncompressed AIFFs in iTunes... and never have to deal with discs again! As it stands, I cannot bear to re-rip into AAC, knowing that when the successor comes out, I'll have to re-rip again... My mentality now is, wait for a few years when a 10TB hard drive is a reality 🙂
So yeah, the more hard drive, the better, but another internal optical? Waste of space and money.
patrick0brien
macrumors 68040
-Hmm
I count 5 heat zones in that design - don't forget the Power supply zone in the base.
I've never understood the need for two internal optical drives. Heck! They were introduced in Macs only last year.
Now before anyone feels affronted, I want to point out the language of that sentence - think like an attorney. I said "need" - do you really have a "need" for two "internal" opticals? Or is it just a nice-to-have. I'll let you answer that for yourself - not my place there.
Methinks there are bigger fish to fry.
I count 5 heat zones in that design - don't forget the Power supply zone in the base.
I've never understood the need for two internal optical drives. Heck! They were introduced in Macs only last year.
Now before anyone feels affronted, I want to point out the language of that sentence - think like an attorney. I said "need" - do you really have a "need" for two "internal" opticals? Or is it just a nice-to-have. I'll let you answer that for yourself - not my place there.
Methinks there are bigger fish to fry.
macphoria
macrumors 6502a
I think external optical drives are cheap enough so that if you really do need second optical drive, you can just get an external one.
I really don't see the point of having two optical drives. Only instance I can think of is burning a CD and watching DVD at the same time or something.
I really don't see the point of having two optical drives. Only instance I can think of is burning a CD and watching DVD at the same time or something.
bennetsaysargh
macrumors 68020
it's not necessary, but it's kinda cool to have. although you do feel stupid when you can't remember which is the superdrive😛
my PC friend doesn' have a superdrive, but has 2 cd drives. one is jjst CDROM and the other is DVD/CDRW. always puts the blank in the CDROM one.😛
my PC friend doesn' have a superdrive, but has 2 cd drives. one is jjst CDROM and the other is DVD/CDRW. always puts the blank in the CDROM one.😛
Dual optical drives and an additional (or two?) PCI slot... Just a thought, but wait for Rev. B! This sort of thing may be a reality... It's important they got this out the door in the first place...
me hate windows
macrumors 6502
NavyIntel007
macrumors 65816
And again... buy an external. maybe Apple should have put a firewire port on the top of the machine so you all wouldn't complain about cables... wait what am I saying? Mac users complain about everything!
Daveman Deluxe
macrumors 68000
I never really thought it was all that important to have two optical drives. It just seems like an unnecessary cost. How often do you really need to duplicate a CD anyway?
this will happen
as the g5 chip gets smaller and cooler this will happen probably by summer, they may even add better handles and more pleaseing front end.
i love two drives for duplicting cds dvds, coping files, and with newer software maybe writing 2 cds or dvds at once may be possible.
burning a cd while watching a dvd, the superdrive has a slow cd burn speed, you can pick up at light on 52*32*52 for $50 the g5 is so fast might as well get the fastest cdrw, right?. and when faster dvd r rwritables come out next year or the blue lasers disc, you can keep your combo or superdrive and just add the newer technology without external cases and wires and powerbricks. so for me imho 2 optical drive bays should be the minimum
as the g5 chip gets smaller and cooler this will happen probably by summer, they may even add better handles and more pleaseing front end.
i love two drives for duplicting cds dvds, coping files, and with newer software maybe writing 2 cds or dvds at once may be possible.
burning a cd while watching a dvd, the superdrive has a slow cd burn speed, you can pick up at light on 52*32*52 for $50 the g5 is so fast might as well get the fastest cdrw, right?. and when faster dvd r rwritables come out next year or the blue lasers disc, you can keep your combo or superdrive and just add the newer technology without external cases and wires and powerbricks. so for me imho 2 optical drive bays should be the minimum
NavyIntel007
macrumors 65816
Dual drives were only important when they didn't make a combo DVD/CD-R burner. Now we have DVD burners that do it all. And what's the difference between 32X and 52X... 10 seconds?