Apple and IBM's PowerPC Potential

[macdesire]

Being Pedantic

G5 at 2.7GHZ still produces less heat energy then Intel P4 3.6GHz. The cooling solution however used by Powermac is very quiet. Reducing system noise was an important element in the PM cooling solution design – lower fan speeds provide equivalent cooling. I think OEM Intel chips ship with the cheapest fan capable of cooling their toasters.

 

[wdlove]

I think it's interesting to notice that everyone here is assuming that IBM laid out the "3ghz by next summer" roadmap and Jobs was just the messenger. We saw IBM roadmaps and announcements and no where did I see anything about 3GHz. So far, Jobs is the only one to say tout 3ghz. Maybe he just made it up, maybe he figured they could easily make it with water cooling?

My understanding is that the 3 CHz idea came from IBM. Don't think Steve would have made the statement without prior information.

 

[kingtj]

cooling....

I still don't really think the water cooling was something Apple simply used because it was so quiet.... Water cooling adds a lot of complexity to the system, for one thing. It has more points of possible failure. (What happens if it start leaking? Liquid seeping over operating electronic components spells serious trouble.)

Apple certainly didn't see silence as a huge priority when the "wind tunnel" G4 towers were in production, either. They could have liquid cooled them back then, if their goal was really keeping the system quiet.

Really, I think the water cooling solution was more of a desperate measure on Apple's part to wring some more performance out of the processor. Basically, it amounted to "IBM sanctioned overclocking" of the CPU.

And yes, while Intel may ship a pretty inexpensive OEM cooling solution with their chips - plenty of enthusiasts swap that fan out for something a little bit nicer. And in Apple's case, every indication is that they'll eventually cool the Intel CPUs with their own unique cooling arrangement, similar to the "cooling zones' and multiple fans found in today's G5 towers.

Dell has been doing this for years. Every Dell PIII and P4 I've seen opts to take the fan completely off of the Intel CPU. They place a plastic "duct" over the CPU that funnels air over the top of it from a regular-size case fan mounted to the back of the system. (That way, you move more air with a slower-spinning fan that's less liable to get gummed up with hair and dust.)

G5 at 2.7GHZ still produces less heat energy then Intel P4 3.6GHz. The cooling solution however used by Powermac is very quiet. Reducing system noise was an important element in the PM cooling solution design – lower fan speeds provide equivalent cooling. I think OEM Intel chips ship with the cheapest fan capable of cooling their toasters.

 

[Mac-Xpert]

Apple certainly didn't see silence as a huge priority when the "wind tunnel" G4 towers were in production, either. They could have liquid cooled them back then, if their goal was really keeping the system quiet.

I think the noise of the G4 "wind tunnel" and the bad reputation it had where the exact reasons for avoiding such noise with the G5's. Apple realized that their computers besides having a nice looking case design, should also operate quietly. Lots of Apple users are in the music business, so quiet operation is essential.

 

[wdlove]

I think the noise of the G4 "wind tunnel" and the bad reputation it had where the exact reasons for avoiding such noise with the G5's. Apple realized that their computers besides having a nice looking case design, should also operate quietly. Lots of Apple users are in the music business, so quiet operation is essential.

I can certainly see the need for a quiet Mac for those in the music business. At MacWorld there was a company that made containers for the Mac. Had the ability to cool and to eliminate noise.

I have a G4, there is constant noise. It's something that I have got used to, so I barley even notice it anymore.

 

[dsharits]

I can certainly see the need for a quiet Mac for those in the music business. At MacWorld there was a company that made containers for the Mac. Had the ability to cool and to eliminate noise.

I have a G4, there is constant noise. It's something that I have got used to, so I barley even notice it anymore.

I was fortunate enought to get one of the "quiet" ones, which still makes a considerable amount of noise. After a week or so, I didn't notice it any more. One thing that really did help with the noise is this thread in Apple Discussions. I installed CHUD tools 3.5.2, and the temperature and noise dropped significantly.

 

[kingtj]

Quiet computers in the music industry....

I'm not going to try to speak for everyone's needs, but I have to say I do question many people's real "need" for a quiet computer, just because they're in the music business.

In most scenarios I can think of, the computer equipment is going to be in the part of a recording studio where the mixing equipment, tape decks, and so forth all reside; the "control booth" portion that should be sound-isolated from the area where the musicians and instruments are located and being recorded.

So we're not normally talking about potential problems recording the noise/hum of the computer on a recording....

You wouldn't want something creating a loud racket that broke your concentration trying to listen to the performer while recording, but even the loudest of Macs doesn't seem like it would fall into this category, really.

For that matter, neither would any PC's I can think of, short of some of these overclocked, home-built towers with 7 or 8 roaring cooling fans on them, or servers intended to be locked away in a back room someplace.

Sometimes, I get the idea people just think it's "nice" having a dead silent computer, and use things like being "into music" as an excuse to try to get one. (EG. Hey, Apple .... my power supply is too loud! Give me a new one free! What? You won't? Umm.... hey.... I'm in the *music* business here! I *need* one!)

But again, I'm sure there are special cases I'm not even thinking of where people really do have a requirement of a nearly silent machines. Just not enough that I think a company should sacrifice other aspects of design (performance, reliability, etc.) to accomodate it.

I can certainly see the need for a quiet Mac for those in the music business. At MacWorld there was a company that made containers for the Mac. Had the ability to cool and to eliminate noise.

I have a G4, there is constant noise. It's something that I have got used to, so I barley even notice it anymore.

 

[pubwvj]

I do question many people's real "need" for a quiet computer

I greatly appreciate having a very quiet computer and that is part of why I buy Mac. Macs have been very quiet since day one with the Macintosh 128K. Steve Jobs has been a big advocate of quiet computers - I greatly appreciate this.

This is one of the reasons I prefer notebook Macs rather than tower or desktop models. The notebooks tend to be a lot quieter.

I can still here the hard drive and electrical circuits including the screen making high pitched noises but it is much better than my son's PowerMac and miles better than any desktop PC I've met.

 

[Lacero]

There some specially designed cabinets with heat wicks to quiet computers, but they are fairly pricey at about $1000 each. I work in an editing studio, so we have 3 of them. Without those cabinets, we simply could not get any work done. I know quiet also boosts productivity and creativity. Your brain isn't bombarded by low-level rumble of spinning harddrives or high-pitch whines from computer fans so it allows you to actually think. It's unnatural to be constantly surrounded by this type of 20th century noise.