Want a G5 BUT.....

We all seem to be in the dark about the G5s

Steve said the G5 would jump to 3Ghz in 18 months or something like that so that is maybe still far off

the 2.xGhz updates should come soon, WWDC is a good place to find out since that was were the first G5 came out and where all the cool stuff like the new OS is annouced

even if the updates are released didn't people still have to wait a few months for them to ship, it was a bit messy before and Virgina Tech didn't help by taking some of the stock, question is are you prepared to wait awhile?

The 2Ghz G5 is still a fine machine so if your in a rush that will do fine

If you can wait then do so and see what happens in June-July when WWDC is on 😉

nobody really knows... as was said on dvinfo.net/conf regarding the upcoming Canon "XL2," those who don't know will say, and those who know can't say.

if you get your computer today, it will be useful to you today. there will be a point where you can't keep waiting and you just have to start working, and waiting is not productive. passing time in front of a slower computer will drive you nuts (if you can have a faster computer today).

I expect the other major change will be FireWire 800 speeds going through the roof, currently they're less than half the speed of G4 FW800 speeds.

AppleMatt

AppleMatt said:

I expect the other major change will be FireWire 800 speeds going through the roof, currently they're less than half the speed of G4 FW800 speeds.

AppleMatt

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I'm confused as to what this means. I thought FW800 was the same connector speed on any machine.

carletonmusic said:

I'm confused as to what this means. I thought FW800 was the same connector speed on any machine.

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Technicallly yes, but for some reason the G5 chokes on FW800 output, Bearfeats did a number of tests and got it down to write speed on external hard-drives.
Have a look here;
http://www.barefeats.com/fire43.html#redface

AppleMatt

I think nvidia and ati are coming out with some awesome video cards by mid year. Also, hyper-threadng 2.0 will probably be on the new powermacs....

Future G5 Speculation

triton said:

Anyhow, here's my question. What signifigant changes (if any) will come with the dual 3ghz machine? I understand that it MAY be announced at WWDC, but how certain is this? I mean, we haven't seen 2.5 G5's yet? Will the only improvement be processor speed

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Looking at what's out there and what's new in technology gives us a good idea of what to expect.

(The following are just predicitions and not based on much of anything but intuition)

Hitachi announced 400 GB SATA 7200RPM Hard drives. Dell is already shipping it's 8300 model with these. Expect Apple to follow suit. Possible comeback of ability to hold more than 2 hard drives.

Many PCs already shipping with 256 MB video cards from nVidia and ATI. Both companies will launch new cards this April. Expect a 256 MB video card (most likely a Radeon 9800 XT or newer model) as a BTO option.

Many PCs already coming with 8x DVD writers. Expect Apple to push Superdrives to 8x.

Based on what's out in RAM now expect Apple to officially support 16 GB (8x 2 GB) in G5s (it works already, but is not advertised). That's if they stay with DDR... have not seen 2 GB DDR2 chips, but it is probably too early for a jump to DDR2.

As far as the G5 goes... announcement at end of June at WWDC most definite... ship most likely by end of August/early September (Expo Paris). Dual 3 GHz G5 @ 90 nm. Possible changes to motherboard architecture, front side bus, etc. Not expecting L3 cache to return.

Possible new form factor... doubtful.

Also expecting launch of 1.5 GHz G4 Powerbooks and 1.3-1.4 GHz iBooks at WWDC. A G5 iMac at somewhere betweeen 2-2.5 GHz is most likely (form factor may need to change a little).

Software-wise I expect iTunes 5 soon. Apple has been most focussed on music lately and I would not be surprised if we see a cocoa iTunes with all new features. Expect a Windows version too. iTunes was the only app not to get a refresh for iLife '04.

10.4 "Merlot" aka "Tiger" - next big cat preimered at WWDC. Probably not as big a deal as past upgrades. It's getting hard to keep adding new bells and whistles and keep people excited. Expect improved file system, better 64-bit support, updated Finder do-hickeys, more subtle changes to Aqua. Might be free to new G5 purchasers. Might be done early enough to be pre-installed on new G5s.

Just theories of course. Don't see any of this as being a stretch of the imagination though. All within the realm of possibility.

also remember that G5's were ANNOUNCED at WWDC last year, but we didn't actually see them till the very end of august/september.

so an announcment may not make it to the shelves for quite a while, so the question is how soon do you need it.