New PowerMac G4's at MWNY

[arn]

RailheadDesign posts specs and details about upcoming PowerMac G4's at MacWorld Expo 2002:

- Quicksilver is dead.
- 1GHz, 1.2GHz (dual), and 1.4GHz (dual)
- more internal bays
- GeForce 4 MX, GeForce4 Titanium
- 60GB, 80GB, 2x80GB
- same price structure

This approximates older Macworld NY 2002 PowerMac rumors.

[jadam]

W00t!!!!

[menoinjun]

Quicksilver is dead? I hope that means a more burshed metal theme, but not like the recent xserve/quicksilver mockup posted. Not that it's a bad mockup, but then the tower would be just like a cheezy standard wintel tower design.

-Pete

[JamSoft]

These specs are the ones I'm hoping for... but some people say it's still too optomistic...

macosrumors.com posted the same specs — only to then quickly update them saying that 1.33Ghz or 1.22Ghz (I believe) is probably what will happen (according to some sources).

who knows though...

[Backtothemac]

Well, having known Maury for the last three years, I can tell you that he won't post specs unless he is pretty sure that they are right. These are right what I have been saying since February, except I heard 120GB in the top of the line instead of two 80's. Also, 2 gigs of DDR instead of 1.5 GB. Other than that it looks dead on. New case! Hell yea~!

[SPG]

C'mon! I want some real wild wild speculation! 5ghz G5s for everyone!

[job]

The specs sound about right.

Looks like I will be buying the baseline 1Ghz come July 17th. I just hope it has DDR-RAM too.

[JtheLemur]

DIE EL CAPITAN!!! =D hehe...

Railhead's usually been pretty spot on, so I 'trust' them more than MOSR. Lately MOSR has been my place for reading stuff then arguing with people about - pure filler speculative crap. Can't WAIT to see a new enclosure!

[Tue12]

Not great, but not horrible.

But I do wish that PowerMac iterations came every 4-5 months instead of every 6-7 months.

[solvs]

I like the Dual 1.2 GHz. But 2x 80GB hard drives when you can get 120GB drives now for $150. And with ATA/133, you can get 160GB 5.400 RPM Maxtor, soon 200GB 7,200 RPM Western Digital drives. ATA/66 (can you believe Apple still uses that?) can't see anything over like 128-137GB. Neither can the ATA/100 in the xServe. At least, not without special software or some kind of firmware upgrade. It's not about the real world performance, it's about limits.

How about a Radeon 8500 (with TV-Out) as an upgrade option? Or the Radeon 7000 PCI (with TV-Out) as an add-on? Or sound in? 2 CD drives would be cool, too.

And DDR-Ram (333 MHz with a DDR 166 MHz system bus would be nice, but I'm trying to think realistic). There's enough of an increase in performance to be noticed.

I know, I'm asking for too much. It's almost like I'm asking them to build a computer with realistic, modern day specs everyone else seems to want and are willing to spend thousands of $$$ on.

Just my opinion, I could be wrong.

[DavPeanut]

I like the two Dual Proccessor Models idea

[gandalf55]

this new enclosure isn't going to be white is it? yuk. personally i don't mind quicksilver, i wonder what apple has up their sleeves.

anything metallic would be nice - dark grey brushed alumnim with a hint of blue?

[canadianmacguy]

I really hope (assuming there is a new case) that it's quieter.. I work at home, and my dual 1 GHz is so loud compared to my PowerBook g3, it's refreshing to put the dual to sleep at the end of the day..

It's loud enough to temp me enough to change all my development work to a PowerBook G4..

(Although my home office is very quiet

[King Cobra]

Here is why I worry about two PowerMacs with dual processors. How expensive would the top of the line 1.4GHz dual be anyways? Can Apple afford to push their Macs so high in price? (I'm not so sure what it would be, but the most I would expect is $3494 for the high end.) And what about dual 1.2GHz to 1.4GHz? If dual 1000MHz chips brought the price of the PowerMac to $3000, wouldn't a dual 1.2GHz with DDR-RAM cost around that much? (Guessing...) And what would make the 1.4GHz stand out, other than speed, while keeping the price low?

I have a feeling that the prices of PowerMacs are going to be jacked up a bit this expo. Again, I expect a high of $3494, but anything more (ex. $3794 for the new Powerbooks) probably pushes it a bit too far.

[pgwalsh]

I was really hoping to see something above 1.4 Ghz. I wanted to be blown away and shocked enough to have permagrin for a few weeks. I'm sure I'll be happy with whatever they come out with. Now I'm hoping the rumors are wrong.

Originally posted by King Cobra

I have a feeling that the prices of PowerMacs are going to be jacked up a bit this expo. Again, I expect a high of $3494, but anything more (ex. $3794 for the new Powerbooks) probably pushes it a bit too far.

If this is true, I'll be flat out irritated. They need to stay at $3000 or less for the top end. That is unless they come out with something that's tits.

[King Cobra]

>...they come out with something that's tits.
Do you think anyone would be offended by such a PowerMac design?

Hey, SPG, not a bad avatar. How badly did you want one anyways?

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by King Cobra
>...they come out with something that's tits.
Do you think anyone would be offended by such a PowerMac design?

Not at all! While they're at it they can offer some new Input/Output sources and incorporate a Nike pump feautre. Call it iTits.

[King Cobra]

pgwalsh, I'm not even going to ask what you mean by the pump feature... but I am assuming that if you are calling this PowerMac the iTits and nothing but the iT!ts, with input and output features and some pump jack, you must have one ed up imagination!

Keep dreaming...

[pgwalsh]

Originally posted by King Cobra
must have one ed up imagination!
Keep dreaming...

oh yes! MYSF we can talk about iYoDaddy

[Kid Red]

Originally posted by Tue12
Not great, but not horrible.

But I do wish that PowerMac iterations came every 4-5 months instead of every 6-7 months.

Ok, I think i'm missing something. When's the last time we jumped 400mhz in 6 months? Because I don't remember that ever happening I'd have to say this jump kicks ass if true.

[Kid Red]

Originally posted by King Cobra
Here is why I worry about two PowerMacs with dual processors. How expensive would the top of the line 1.4GHz dual be anyways? Can Apple afford to push their Macs so high in price? (I'm not so sure what it would be, but the most I would expect is $3494 for the high end.) And what about dual 1.2GHz to 1.4GHz? If dual 1000MHz chips brought the price of the PowerMac to $3000, wouldn't a dual 1.2GHz with DDR-RAM cost around that much? (Guessing...) And what would make the 1.4GHz stand out, other than speed, while keeping the price low?

I have a feeling that the prices of PowerMacs are going to be jacked up a bit this expo. Again, I expect a high of $3494, but anything more (ex. $3794 for the new Powerbooks) probably pushes it a bit too far.

Read the article. It says same price points as currently available, would've eased your mind if you would've clicked the link.

[rice_web]

Don't think in terms of a megahertz jump. If we had jumped up 400MHz back in the days of 66MHz processing, it would have been freakishly amazing.

Rather, think in terms of percentage. A 400MHz boost equates to a 40% jump, which wouldn't be the largest in Apple history.

[TypeR389]

Originally posted by rice_web
Don't think in terms of a megahertz jump. If we had jumped up 400MHz back in the days of 66MHz processing, it would have been freakishly amazing.

Rather, think in terms of percentage. A 400MHz boost equates to a 40% jump, which wouldn't be the largest in Apple history.

Lets just hope that we actually get 40%, not less then that because of rumored pipeline lengthening in the new G4++ chips these most likely will be using.

[Catfish_Man]

Originally posted by TypeR389


Lets just hope that we actually get 40%, not less then that because of rumored pipeline lengthening in the new G4++ chips these most likely will be using.

...the clock frequency increase comes from a transition to .13 micron manufacturing. AFAIK an extended pipeline pretty much requires a complete redesign. The jump from G4 to G4+ was as large as the jump from Pentium Pro to Pentium III in my opinion (except for the clock frequency. I'm just talking about design). Also, if they improve branch prediction and cache/memory along with increasing the pipeline length, it's NOT a bad thing. It's basically a free way to boost the clock frequency, IF and ONLY IF the rest of the setup is sophisticated enough to keep the extra stages fed with data.
Why the **** are people whining about these specs??? These specs (assuming DDR) kick ass. DP 1400MHz with a GF4Ti and DDR is going to be FAST. However, if they don't have DDR, I'll be pissed. That's all I really cared about for this update (speed related, anyway. Some new ports [FW2/USB2] would be nice). Also, I kinda doubt that 2x80GB hard drive. I'd expect 1x120GB or 100GB. I suppose it might be that they're trying to take advantage of the 4 ATA100 controllers on the uni-north by adding in more drives. That would fit with the more optical drives part too. If so, then we might have 2 optical drives and two hard drives, all on separate controllers... mmmm.... 400MB/sec max bandwidth..... mmmmmm.....

[dongmin]

Well if they increase the sustem bus and add DDR Ram, on top of the 40% boost in mhz, it should add up to a pretty impressive improvement in performance.

I'm assuming, of course, that DDR Ram is a done deal. It's not mentioned in the Railhead report but it's gotta be in there, right?

I don't know about a all-white case. Maybe a mixed palette: white, grey, brushed metal, etc.