Pro Mac Photos?

[arn]

MacBidoulle posted images claiming to be of the new PowerMacs. The design is also detailed by this PDF.

Further comments provided by the author of the PDF posted in this MacRumors thread.

Previously submitted details from the PDF author:

- the heatsink is a very large aluminum straight finned squared design. about 6" x 7" x 6" approx and weighs about 7 lbs; it is attatched to the MLB by 3 screws, but not like XSERVE; 2 screws are on countersunk standoffs that go through the MPU, and one that attatches to the back panel on a ridge above the modem port. The MPU itself is held down only by the weight of the heatsink, and a 'flex' bar, that is a plastic bar with 2 metal springloaded clips that allow it to flex freely.
- the door mechanism has been totally redesigned, instead of plastic hooks, it is all metal. Only the round hole handle is plastic, which actuates metal u-shaped hooks which slide in and catch; very smooth, no more slamming closed; and nearly impossible to break open with lock, metal on metal.
- the modem stays the same but in new location.
- the 4 decorative holes in the front are for show, but also allow air intake for the 'turbine' fan sitting in front of teh heatsink (with door closed), the turbine fan speeds up and slows down depending on tempurature. An extra fan in the door ventilates the MLB and dual CD drives (vents galore).
- BlueTooth will NOT be included, it will be as is now, a USB addon

The motherboard design appears similar to the prototype motherboard leaked on eBay.

Update: A previously accurate tipster provides some confirmation of the case design: Yes, the enclosure seen on that PDF is real.

[JtheLemur]

Oooo, gotta say the photos of the case (at least) look quite genuine... if it is in fact the case they'll use (remember about them having a few different ones?), I like it. It's not a BRAND new case, but different enough for the time being! I suuuuuure hope that "SDRAM" spec gets changed to DDR!

-- J (mmm first piz-ost)

[blakespot]

It looks "real" to me. And the motheboard looks similar to that seen on eBay a while back. Not so attractive, IMHO -- but my bet is this is the real McCoy.


blakespot

[Mr. Anderson]

Well, after the fallout from the other thread - I'm of the opinion that this isn't the new G4/G5 enclosure and mobo. It seems to me that its one of the many rumored prototypes that have been around for a while.

One of the best reasons to believe this is that Apple has not made any move to keep it quiet. All the sites that have the pics continue to post them - it's pretty much SOP for Apple to roll out the lawyers and issue warnings when any sensitive material leaks.

And we'll all know in a month or so, anyway.

D

[gelbin]

????

[daRAT]

If this can be believed, it is a nice looking case. Keeping the same design is smart, why mess with it? :]

4 gig's of ram? Did I see that in the spec's?

[zephc]

the mic port on the front is off-center which doesn't seem the be very mac-like, stylistically. Also, the PCI cards are mounted really high, which seems kind of odd, tho it DOES give a few extra inches if you keep the machine under a desk (you dont want to show it off??). Drive 1 (and 2) are mounted vertically, but don't vertically mounted drives get more read errors because of weird inertial forces? (or is that just CDs?) I DO like the 4 GB ram part =]

Basically, I would enjoy seeing this or a similar design released, but won't be surprised if its not

PDF info:
Author: APPLEP58
Creator: CorelDraw Version 10.0

Corel?? Hmm...

[edenwaith]

Hopefully that isn't the end result. That picture looked somewhat silly with a nearly all-white case and silver colored plates on the front. I still think my Year 2000 G4 has a great looking design, and the innards of the machine are the best I've seen in a computer. My brother just bought a new Dell, and he showed me how it was laid out, and it's pretty decent for a PC, and quite easy to reach the various parts of the machine (RAM, cards, drives), but it still isn't as nice as the G4 PowerMac layout.

[zephc]

okay, looked at the french site, actual pix of the machine and motherboard are enuff to convince me =]

[Megaquad]

no way case is fake,i just hope it is failed prototype (there were rumors that apple is testing 6 different cases) cause it looks terrible,that aluminium looks so cheap,its just old slightly modified El Capitano..
if apple releases this,they are idiots! who's gonna buy this? i surely wont!

[nigel_t]

First of all, I think the case, if It's really the case, is really ugly, but I don't care once there is a g5 under the hood. However the PDF did not say that there was a G5 under the hood but it is G5 ready and has SD-ram which makes no sense to me because a chip like the G5 will at least need DDR 400,
guess we'll see next week, If apple pulls a cease and decist out of their hats we know it's true.

[nanumac]

Dont think they would come with a completely new case design before G5, and don´t think they should neither. I dont care as long as they put in the memory bandwidth enhancements AND support 4gigs of DDRAM.

Guess this will really scream with Maya 4.5

Im bying

[nigel_t]

Yup I'l buy as well

[galopagos]

Ask yourself one thing: if the case in the photo wasnt wrapped, in other words if it didnt look like it was somehow packaged, would you still believe it to be real? Image the picture without the plastic wrapping. That would leave a pic of a g4 with nothing to hide any imperfections in either design (for a genuine prototype) or manipulation (if it is indeed photoshopped).

Oh, the fun people have. Too much fun I think. I mean consider the amount of work is put into a fake now days. Before a small quicktime movie is all that took millions of people to be amazed at a 'iWalk'. Now, people are typing metadata into their fakes (I once put EXIF data in a fake, to make it look like a genuine digital photo). A corel technical document! Well, it has to be real because no one would have taken the time to put that together.

The true measure of how real something is is just how fast Apple jumps on the site.

[richard5mith]

Horrible.

Stupid metal bays in the middle, horrible looking air flow holes at the bottom.

Either it's a test case or Apple are letting the junior team members have a crack at designing stuff. It just doesn't look like a final Apple product (although the shape of the case and the inside photographs certainly mean all signs point to it being at least something Apple put together).

Copyright message on the card in the bottom photo is Apple Computer Inc. 2001.

[mr.w]

Two cd/cdr/dvd/superdrive (or whatever drives) would be really sweet.

Question: what would the difference in performance be between 1.5 gigs of DDR as aposed to 4 gigs of SDRAM ???

[solvs]

http://www.macrumors.com/forums/show...?threadid=8083

... before making any conclusions.

Plus that whole Corel Draw thing.

As I said earlier, I hope this isn't the new case (and I don't think it is), but we'll see in a few weeks.

[nanumac]

And yes that was my first ever post to macrumors.
But I have read this forum for some time, since appleinsider stopped updating.

[kenohki]

All I have to say is that thing is butt ugly!!! QuickSilver was a nice take on the original G3/G4 enclosure but that thing is just wrong. I would hope that it is one of the rumored screamer prototypes that were floating around a while ago because that thing has no polish. Heck, might as well let Sun's industrial designers have a go at it (if we're going for the dog doo look that is).

My personal opinion is that the current enclosure is getting a little long in the tooth. I think a nice simple geometric design along the lines of the PowerBook G4 or XServe (simple but elegant brushed metal with clean lines) would look much better.

As for the specs, my bet is on an Apollo 7 G4.

[Scab Cake]

Two things... I'm attaching a non-stretched version of the image from the French page, so maybe it'll look a little more normal. Secondly, remember how everyone hated the quicksilver design and thought that the circular drive bezels were really ugly and more than likely fake? Well, I thought it was fake and ugly, but I ended up loving the enclosure after seeing the FINISHED version. I even bought one not too much later. I think that there's potential in this case...

[admin edit:

Attachment removed at the request of Apple Legal

arn]

[mccoma]

I hope this is not the enclosure. Even though I like the idea of 2 CD/DVD drives, I would be pretty unimpressed if my new power machine came with 2 USB and 2 Firewire.

Let us see, 1 USB for the UPS and 1 for the keyboard. Guess I need a USB hub......

[DeepDish]

I do like the design on my G4 tower, but it is growing too old.

Will the metal effect airport reception like it does in the TiBook?

Needs more USB and FW ports. I am tired of hubs on my desk.

[ultrafiel]

Now is it just me, or does a 7 lb heatsink seem really heavy. I've never weighed the heatsink in my G4, so I don't know what the current weight is, but 7 lbs? I have a few loose weights here for my weight machine, and that seems awefully heavy. Anyway, I don't know if this is real or not. I'll wait and see. As for those talking about how ugly it looks, it seems to me that many Apple products aren't given justice unless seen in person. I remember looking at the new iMac, and didn't really like it, but when I tested it out at my campus bookstore it was actually really nice.

[gopher]

Originally posted by Scab Cake
Two things... I'm attaching a non-stretched version of the image from the French page, so maybe it'll look a little more normal. Secondly, remember how everyone hated the quicksilver design and thought that the circular drive bezels were really ugly and more than likely fake? Well, I thought it was fake and ugly, but I ended up loving the enclosure after seeing the FINISHED version. I even bought one not too much later. I think that there's potential in this case...

That design looks TOO PC like. I mean who ever thought of having a silver metal finished front in the middle of a white panel that wide? That visually is distressing. Looks like something out Intel's design galery. The beauty of the Flat Panel iMac is that it is all white except for the silvery Apple logo. Stick with the Apple logo staying silver, while the rest of the panel is white, and you'll have a winner. Too much silvery contrast against white is like mixing colors that just don't match. The logo on the Flat Panel iMac is just the right size not to be obnoxious. A computer should blend with the environment. It shouldn't have too many contrasting features that make it look alien. Keep those vents in back if you must have vents. I don't want to see them! And when will Apple learn, we want stereo internal speakers. Make them white and put them on either side of the case. Or make the side of the case be a tilt down LCD display and put the speakers on either side and the ports be on the other side of the case!

[Horne]

I was speaking to my local Apple reseller, and conveying my story of how I sold my 800MP g4 in the hope of buying a new g4 after MWNY.
I asked him if he knew anything about new PowerMacs, and he said this..

The (single) 800 has stopped being produced. There are 500 left in Britain (where I live) which is obviously not many, and they aint gettin any more.
That makes him think new PMs are out soon, but he thinks it will only be a smallish speed bump. He doesn't think I'll see my 1.4 GHz PM.

He obviously couldn't say too much, and I didn't press him, but he is phoning me as soon as he hears anything!

In short, his guess is modest speed bumps either this week or next. No major revisions this time round.

I don't know any more so don't ask, but just wanted to share....

Horne