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Obsidian

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 10, 2001
66
0
Victoria, BC, Canada
I was just thinking, I read all kinds of debates about what the G5 is going to have, or what its going to be like, but does anyone have any idea what its enclosure will be?
Will apple revert to those horrible ATX cases? (yeah right)

What color scheme will they use, and will it be just another version of the G3/G4's tower case?

I wonder...

any input??
 

spikey

macrumors 6502a
Apr 26, 2001
658
0
If they follow their current design strategy then it will be quite minimalist, also probably smaller and more elegant but still having the same expandability.
Possibly some rounded off geometric shapes in a silver colour. It should look simple and uncomplicated.

I think it will be quite geometrical,simple,silver,thin/elegant.
 

Disdain

macrumors member
Oct 30, 2001
68
0
Australia
I wouldn't mind seeing something double the size and with a really big and noisy fan, give it a bit of grunt hehe


"Think Different" is what they say that's different
 

evildead

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2001
1,275
0
WestCost, USA
minmalist

Im with spikey.... it will probably be minimalist. I like the direction that Apple is going more and more with every new system (with exeption of some of the uglyest iMacs ever... you know which ones Im talking about) What ever it looks like.... im sure I'm going to want one REAL bad
 

Onyxx

macrumors regular
May 5, 2001
152
0
titanium g5

The tibook is with out a doubt the most elegant design in the entire line up. Couple that with the amazing usefullness of the g3/g4's current case with its swing down side panel, and I think we could see an amazing case. Think tooled metal (titanium) cases. Perhaps anodized or shot peened to make different colors or textures. Anyway you slice it, if apple take a hint for the publics reaction to the design of the tibook, heads will turn.
 

AmbitiousLemon

Moderator emeritus
Nov 28, 2001
3,415
3
down in Fraggle Rock
im so glad to see this thread. after reading the g5 rumors from theregister i was terrified. they said the original g5s would ship in the same case as the quicksilver g4s. i cant imagine apple doing that.

a TiG5 would be amzing (although it couldnt be real titanium because of the cost).

im expecting an ipod like enclosure. its kinda a combination of the plastic and metalic looks.

and who knows maybe we will get what we all are truly hoping for — a dalmation or flowerpower G5! (sarcasm)
 

Falleron

macrumors 68000
Nov 22, 2001
1,609
0
UK
The design of the powermac cases cant really change all that much whichever way you look at it! The only difference will be a differnt colouring + maybe a bit thinner.
 

oldMac

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2001
543
53
size

There are some limitations here...
If it's a standard upright, the case has to be wide enough to fit a standard 5.25" CD Rom unit.

So, as an upright, it could only be slightly thinner.
It could be shorter, but only by trading-off expansion capabilities (number of drives and PCI slots).

If Apple side-mounts the drives, the enclosure could become as thin as the PCI cards are tall.

Question... Does it even make sense to have room for more than 2 internal HDs these days? I assume that most folks are expanding with external firewire drives or drive arrays?

What would be very welcome would be front-mounted firewire and USB ports. And, of course, I think they should be start putting infrared ports back on them.
 

AmbitiousLemon

Moderator emeritus
Nov 28, 2001
3,415
3
down in Fraggle Rock
oldmac, your comments are of course true, and im certainly not disputing any of it, but i have learned to never under estimate apple's ability to innovate when it comes to enclosures. The Blue and White g3 case is essentially the same case we have today with our Quicksilver g4 macs, but we have all cheered at every new enclosure. Yes, apple can "just" change the color, but it really is a lot more than that. The things appple does with modeled transparent plastics is truly amazing (maybe i impress easily).

also moving those firewire and usb ports up front would be a great improvement (but i dont see it happening). this might seem like very small things when we are discussing apollo g4s, g5s, and lcd imacs in other threads, but a new color scheme and some new port arrangments can both go a long way in selling more macs and provide way more convienience than a g5 or lcd imac.
 

Falleron

macrumors 68000
Nov 22, 2001
1,609
0
UK
Re: size

I dont think the CD drives will be put verically, (people could put the cd's in the wrong way!)

Video editing people quite often add extra hard drives in, therefore it makes sense to keep these bays. (could also use internal scsi hard drives with a pci card)
 

Obsidian

macrumors member
Original poster
Oct 10, 2001
66
0
Victoria, BC, Canada
ice/ti

According to recent rumors, the new iMac will use the icebook theme. That in it self tells me that the pro line up will not use the same color scheme. But, there was a graphite iMac..
I expect to see a mixture of Ti and ice. when is someone gonna post som fake renderings for us to look at? :)

 

eyelikeart

Moderator emeritus
Jan 2, 2001
11,897
1
Metairie, LA
some old photos

I have some photos that I downloaded from the net some months ago when there was all kind of buzz about the "New" G4 enclosure. They resemble something of what appears to be a metallic enclosure...kinda ugly if uu ask me.

Unfortunately, I do not have anywhere to post them for others to view. If anyone wants them or has an idea for me let me know !
 

Foocha

macrumors 6502a
Jul 10, 2001
588
0
London
The Quicksilver enclosure was only released this Summer, I would be suprise if it was replaced as early as January. Also, since G5 is now not expected until the Summer, it's very likely Apple will hold off on a new enclosure until then. Consider the recently updated Airport - it's been Quicksilvered - Quicksilver will be around for a while yet.

Besides, since iMac is likely to be overhauled at MWSF, it's unlikely they'll make substantial changes to G4 at the same event.

Final point - Dell have already introduced USB ports to the front of their towers (which now look quite nice) Apple may be playing catch up in this area!!

I would be very happy to be proved wrong on this - it would make my day to see G5's released in beautiful new enclosures this Jan, but let's keep out feet on the ground ;)
 

evildead

macrumors 65816
Jun 18, 2001
1,275
0
WestCost, USA
USB

I would like to See USB in the front as Foocha suggests. At lest one extra port. I guess apple put 2 extra in the monitors so they dont feel they need to. I have a USB hub.. 2 actuly. Apple needs more ports in there towers. all my periferals are USB and I when I need to use on temoporarrly like a digital camera... I dont like to crawl bedind my mac to get to the ports. I would love to see one if the front. VCRs have stuff in the front!! I have a 5 portUSB 2.0 PCI card in my quciksliver due to how much I hate using hubs.. they just dont work right for anything that is doenst come with an AC adaper. Hell.. they dont work that great for anything! I have a scanner, printer, webCam, SoundSticks with iSiub, floppy, Zip drive, old CD-RW, keybord, mouse, and temp stuff like a digital camera. I need more USB ports!!
 

rekras

macrumors regular
Sep 3, 2001
172
0
NJ
I think it's essential for apple to make a new enclosure for the G5, it needs to standout from all the older power PC's and it needs to turn heads. This will help it sell better, plus further establish Apple as the most stylish computer maker out there.
I think the new enclosure will be very minimalist, slender, and will be very elegant (sexyness factor). I'm expecting some sort of brushed metal with maybe a glowing white apple logo. I wouln't bet on seeing it in that white/ice color, the ibooks and imacs have already established that as a consumer color.
I am just concerned that the rumors that either the current design won't change or that it's coming out in the summer now arnt true. Don't let is down again Apple...
 
Apple ain't gonna

WE let OURSELVES down whenever we get all psyched up for products that have not been officially announced yet. The G5 may not, in fact, be released in a desktop version for quite some time yet. And yet, everyone here is speculating on what the new G5 enclosure will look like as if Apple or Moto already said "Get ready for January! It's coming!"

Then, if / when the new CPU is not released in PowerMacs, you'll all be disappointed, blasting Apple, blasting Motorola, and some of you will go off on a hissy-fit, making proclamations of finally moving to the PC (as if that were some great evil, but that's another story).

Frankly people, all this speculation about LCD iMacs and G5-based PowerMacs is just that: speculation. NOTHING is founded on facts yet. Let's learn from our past disappointments (read: MWNY2001) and not let our hopes get higher than the stratosphere.

Frankly, an Apollo-based Mac, running at 1.13GHz is nothing to sneeze at and would make this Mac-lover fairly pleased.
 

oldMac

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2001
543
53
bah humbug...

In reality, I doubt that Apple will have G5s out in January. I think it will probably be late spring / early summer.

I'm hopeful that I might be surprised.

However, if that turns out not to be the case, they better have some damn-fast, multiprocessor G4s and they better be cheap!
 
Hey Old Mac...

You wrote:

"In reality, I doubt that Apple will have G5s out in January. I think it will probably be late spring / early summer."

Unfortunately, this sounds likely, if not even later, like next year.

"I'm hopeful that I might be surprised."

I concur. Who knows? Maybe they will be. I just don't want to be EXPECTING them in Jan because the same rumormills that led us on before are the ones telling us this now.

"However, if that turns out not to be the case, they better have some damn-fast, multiprocessor G4s and they better be cheap!"

Cheap? A Mac? Never. But MP G4s? Apollos maybe? Likely. Who knows, there may even be a new enclosure for them. Maybe we should speculate about *that*.
 

oldMac

macrumors 6502a
Oct 25, 2001
543
53
cheap-er

Okay, cheap-er is a better word.

I'm willing to pay more for a significant performance increase. Apple's got to realize that a G4 by any other name ("G5") is still lagging behind Intel & AMD and that's a pretty tough sell at a premiere price.

Give me a fast G4 at a good price and I'll consider replacing my G3 400. Otherwise, I'll wait until summer. My G3 is still a fine machine.

- OR -

Give me a bare-bones, $600 G3 cube at 1Ghz. I'll take one of those and a 22" cinema display.
 
Re: new G4s

Old mac wrote:

"Okay, cheap-er is a better word."

Gotcha.

"I'm willing to pay more for a significant performance increase. Apple's got to realize that a G4 by any other name ("G5") is still lagging behind Intel & AMD and that's a pretty tough sell at a premiere price."

But isn't this what Apple CONTINUES to do? Look at today's iMac, e.g.: $999 for a 500MHz machine. Know how much I can get a 1.4GHz Athlon for? If it's custom-built, UNDER $US1G. One mom-n-pop shop here in L.A. priced one for me at $750. Sorry, Mac OS or not, you can't beat that.

I LOVE the Mac, but c'mon. They've got to get those prices down.

"Give me a fast G4 at a good price and I'll consider replacing my G3 400. Otherwise, I'll wait until summer. My G3 is still a fine machine."

Amen brother. Besides, if you really need that altivec power, there are are G4 upgrades.

- OR -

"Give me a bare-bones, $600 G3 cube at 1Ghz. I'll take one of those and a 22" cinema display."

Interesting. But I don't think Apple'll ever sell a new 1GHz G3 Cube for $600.
 

AmbitiousLemon

Moderator emeritus
Nov 28, 2001
3,415
3
down in Fraggle Rock
o sure you could buy a 1.4ghz athlon for the same price as a 500mhz imac, but what about quality. sure that ma and pop shop can slap together your box for the same price but yoru system is going to be crap. im tired of ignorant peecee users runninga round saying they can build a great computer for a few hundred bucks. you ythink that ma and pa store is going to use top of the line components for each and every part of your box? hell no! they are going to go scrounging around for the cheapest components they can get. your system wont last for 4 months before you have a major meltdown. ive fixed so many computers that were "built" by some idiot who that he would save some money and build his own computer. apple's $1000 machine will last years without ever needing any maintenance. this is because apple actually has pride in their machines and respect for their customers. and if you think you cant build a mac like you can a pc... you are greatly mistaken. ive built a number of macs from various components, i could build a 700mhz imac for under $300, but just like your slapped together peecee i wouldnt guarentee that imac will function for several years.

when you are buying a mac, you are buying a luxury car (call it a bmw or mercedes or whatever). just like these luxury cars your mac will go the distance for you. after 100,000 miles without any major problems you will begin to realize that your beemer is more than just a status symbol, its first class engineering.
 

dantec

macrumors 6502a
Nov 6, 2001
605
0
California
I actually think a 500mhz iMac could compete pretty well against a 1.4 ghz athion. I look as AMD as a semi freind to Apple. They now both believe in the Megahertz Myth and are there to destroy the Evil Alqu'aintel group (Northern Allicance (AMD), Americans (Apple) vs. Al quaintel!

Besides for less than a thousand you cannot get all the great iApps you get with a Mac! (iTunes, iMovie, Appleworks (Appleworks isn't that great but better than notepad) etc...

When I got an IBM PC in 2000 it came with a S3 trio graphics card (when you played a 3d game it only rendered shadows), no AGP port to upgrade! It was slow, (300mhz Celeron) and every 5 minutes (i'm not exaggerating) Windows gave me that annoying blue screen. "Windows has occured a fatal error... Please through this computer out the window because it is of no use!". + it came with notepad, and only "NOTEPAD!" argh!

I fdsiked (Dos command that formattes the whole disk) it a couple times but no luck!

ARRGH!

That's why I moved to a Mac. My rev.D iMac could at least play Quake... Had a built in ethernet card and didn't have a crap screen (on my IBM screen, when you enlarged a white window fullscreen the colors would change making everything darker... EXTREMELY ANONYING!).

Even my iBook can play Quake SHEESH!


So remember children... Price is not the final judgement.
 
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