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Apple Releases Dual Core PowerMac G5s
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If you're using the Mac as some sort of server or dedicated processing unit in a computing cluster, ECC RAM is a good idea. Otherwise, ECC RAM isn't necessary.sai_digitalle said:
XPS 400 Pentium® D Processor 820 with Dual Core Technology (2.80GHz, 800FSB)
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4DIMMs
Keyboard Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Video Cards 256MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Hard Drives 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Floppy Drive and Media Reader 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
Network Interface Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
Sound Card Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1
Speakers Dell A425 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) Microsoft Office Basic -
Hardware Warranty 3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and XPS Warranty Support
TOTAL:$2,612.00
Power Mac G5 Dual-core 2.3GHz
Part Number: Z0AV
Bluetooth Module + AirPort Extreme Card
2.3GHz Dual-core PowerPC G5
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
2GB 533 DDR2 Non ECC SDRAM- 2x1GB
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB SDRAM
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
AppleCare Protection Plan for Power Mac (w/ or w/o Display)
Cart Subtotal: $3,147.00
so the dell box has a better gpu but the mac has airport and bluetooth.
the 2.3 G5 should be in the ballpark of the pentium (correct me if i'm totally off).
so the mac is about 500 dollar more expensive or 20% more expensive.
that is what we are used to.
it seems the dualcore g5 2.3ghz is not "outrageously" expensive compared to the pc world. just "normal apple level" expensive.
it seems the dual dual monster is such a good deal that the dual g5 2.3 just seems too overpriced.
compared to the old dual g5 there is a "virtual price drop" of $150 for the gpu and $150 for the speed (5% faster). so the machine is "10% less expensive".
these are of course all rough estimations.
let me know if i'm totall off! i'm about to cave in and order that f2%^&*# mac.
Operating System Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional
Memory 2GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz- 4DIMMs
Keyboard Dell USB Enhanced Multimedia Keyboard
Video Cards 256MB PCI Express x16 (DVI/VGA/TV-out) nVidia GeForce 6800
Hard Drives 250GB Serial ATA Hard Drive (7200RPM) w/DataBurst Cache
Floppy Drive and Media Reader 13 in 1 Media Card Reader
Mouse Dell Optical USB Mouse
Network Interface Integrated 10/100/1000 Ethernet
Modem 56K PCI Data Fax Modem
CD or DVD Drive Dual Drives: 16x DVD-ROM Drive + 16x DVD+/-RW w/dbl layer write capability
Sound Card Sound Blaster® X-Fi XtremeMusic (D), w/Dolby® Digital 5.1
Speakers Dell A425 30 Watt 2.1 Stereo Speakers with Subwoofer
Office Software (not included in Windows XP) Microsoft Office Basic -
Hardware Warranty 3Yr Ltd Warr,At-Home Service,and XPS Warranty Support
TOTAL:$2,612.00
Power Mac G5 Dual-core 2.3GHz
Part Number: Z0AV
Bluetooth Module + AirPort Extreme Card
2.3GHz Dual-core PowerPC G5
250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
2GB 533 DDR2 Non ECC SDRAM- 2x1GB
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB SDRAM
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
AppleCare Protection Plan for Power Mac (w/ or w/o Display)
Cart Subtotal: $3,147.00
so the dell box has a better gpu but the mac has airport and bluetooth.
the 2.3 G5 should be in the ballpark of the pentium (correct me if i'm totally off).
so the mac is about 500 dollar more expensive or 20% more expensive.
that is what we are used to.
it seems the dualcore g5 2.3ghz is not "outrageously" expensive compared to the pc world. just "normal apple level" expensive.
it seems the dual dual monster is such a good deal that the dual g5 2.3 just seems too overpriced.
compared to the old dual g5 there is a "virtual price drop" of $150 for the gpu and $150 for the speed (5% faster). so the machine is "10% less expensive".
these are of course all rough estimations.
let me know if i'm totall off! i'm about to cave in and order that f2%^&*# mac.
andiwm2003 said:
You forgot iLife for the Mac. 😉 That's included software which would run you a few hundred dollars on the PC to get almost-equivalent software with almost-equivalent features. 😎
Oh, and how much extra would you have to pay for Antivirus, Spyware, etc. solutions which you wouldn't need to on a Mac? 😉
~Shard~ said:
thanks, but i'm actually hoping that somebody talks me out of buying that machine! help! 😛
andiwm2003 said:
Well, that $500 is only 'extra' or 'more expensive' if you are a PC user or average Joe. For those in the know, that $500 gets you OS X and above and beyond fashion styling. Stability, ease of use-plug and play, and stylish works of art are well worth the $500. So, to me, that cost is a wash and the Apple is a better value.
Adding to that, go to ebay and look up 4 year old Dells to 4 year old Macs and see what has better value? That's another reason why there is no 'macs are more expensive for the same features argument'.
Kid Red said:
seems there is nobody here to stop me from buying that mac. 🙁
when i looked through the dell page i think one thing is noteworthy: you can get 3.4 ghz dual cores there for less than 3000 dollar. this machines are really fast and blow the 2.3 out of the water. but i'm not considering dell vs. mac. i certainly will stay on the mac side because the security issues alone are worth the 500 dollar difference.
Forgive me for not wading into Dell.com myself 🙂 but does that Dell have Firewire 800? Does it have dual ethernet, supporting aggregation?andiwm2003 said:
Not that those equal a floppy drive and speakers. Both configs have their own features, and an exact match is never possible.
PS, DO NOT BUY THE MAC.
andiwm2003 said:
There's a thread going around that compared the new dual core 2.5 to a Intel dual 2.8 I thing and was 100% faster. So, a Dell 3.4 will not necessarily mean it's much faster then the new dual cores. You can't really look at the numbers and compare speed numbers to cost numbers. They usually don't equate comparing Apples to plums, or duds, or Dells. Or was it oranges?
Before switching a few years ago (to a 667 PB) I used Dells for years and thought they were great - mainly because they had fantastic customer service by Dell employees who were eager to take care of you. Now their customer service is overseas and carried out by a company that makes more money if they just tell you to reinstall Windows. That got the last Dell out of my office and home and I'm totally Apple.
By the way, call customer service at Apple and you get Apple employees that are eager to take care of you. That puts a Mac over a Dell any day in my books.
As far as which Mac to buy - that is always the challenge for most buyers. I go with the top of the line for each one, based on what I need to do with it. Since it has to be used for a few years it's been worth it to me. I'm not going to talk you out of a dual-dual. I would suggest that you look at the new 23" display pricing as you might want to balance your spending . . .
By the way, call customer service at Apple and you get Apple employees that are eager to take care of you. That puts a Mac over a Dell any day in my books.
As far as which Mac to buy - that is always the challenge for most buyers. I go with the top of the line for each one, based on what I need to do with it. Since it has to be used for a few years it's been worth it to me. I'm not going to talk you out of a dual-dual. I would suggest that you look at the new 23" display pricing as you might want to balance your spending . . .
andiwm2003 said:
Looking at the surface of it, it's easy to see the PC is cheaper. But there are two major things you have to remember, Apple's software quality. and the most important of all RESALE VALUE.
Mac's hold great resale value compared to PC's- HANDS DOWN! Just to give you an example, I sold my G4 on eBay yesterday for $1,500. The avg auction on eBay for PowerMac G4's are $1,000. I can't dream of getting a 3rd of half of what i paid for a pc if I were to sell it 2 or 3 years after i purchased it. That's why Mac's are considered investments.
andiwm2003 said:
TCO (total cost of ownership) over the lifetime of these computers is likely to be much less for the Mac, even if you get all the free software (virus checkers etc) that are available for the PC, and you'll easily save $500 over three years.
plinden said:
Well said - it's a good business decision all around. Along these lines, I think doing an NPV analysis on a Mac versus a Dell would turn up a fairly favorable result as well. 😎
Baculo said:
I don't think Cinema Displays will get iSights soon, if ever. iMacs (and laptops) have the all-in-one simplicity factor. A built-in iSight makes sense for them. But on pro displays (especially when you have more than one), keeping iSight optional--and adjustable--makes more sense.
Front Row sounds like something that will be optional (if anything) on pro Macs. Laptops is a tougher call--they are big sellers, and I can see some chance of Front Row receivers being built into them. Ditto for the Mac Mini.
Or an external Front Row receiver--covers all models.
plinden said:
help! i wanted somebody to STOP me from buying a mac! now i have to burn my credit card to stop myself. 😱
andiwm2003 said:
Each dollar is a reason?!? So when you buy your $2 coffee each morning you have 2 reasons not to buy it? Just trying to follow the logic here... So I guess you never buy vehicles or property then, since there is a myriad of reasons not to? 😕
😛 😎
sai_digitalle said:
Resale value in the computer world to most people means nothing as not a whole lot of people actually are selling their computers after they upgrade them to something of the latest generation, old computers usually get passed down around family members or people just keep on adding more computers to one household and create home networks...
PCs dont hold their market value because, unlike Macs, their technology is constantly updated, and I am suspecting that once Apple switches to Intel (and Apple will start rolling up more frequent updates with all the latest and greatest) the resale value of Macs will also go down...
Apple will have to drop down the prices a bit because if they really want to gain marketshare they need more attractive prices and now that they will offer same processors, same video cards, same memory as their PC counterparts, Mac OS X just wont justify the higher cost for most people, a 300-400 dollar difference in price on basically equivalent hardware...
Eversince I installed Firefox Mozilla on my Win XP machine, it has become a whole lot less problematic and actually usable without much of any hassle of removing spyware or pop ups or viruses... So again, I know how great Mac OS X is but in reality its still a Windows world(and WIndows world also has a couple of software titles that I wish they would offer for a Mac and I am not even talking about games which are a huge portion of the market) and if someone has enough of imagination and computer knowledge, they definately dont need Apple as they can get a fairly reliable PC for a lot cheaper and most of the software I use for work isn't even available for a Mac (most notably Autodesk AutoCAD)...
Apple is slowly becoming just another PC company, all they will design are nice looking computer enclosures... I never bought Steve Jobs performance-per-watt speech as Intel right now is having some difficulties with Yonah...
Apple left PowerPC because they didnt want to be #4 on IBMs list as now MS, Sony, Nintendo will have significantly larger PowerPC orders than Apple... And whats a better publicity stunt that will generate a lot of noise around Apple? Switch to Intel, after so many years of basjing Intel, two worst enemies suddenly are best friends...
Apple complained how IBM wanted Apple to pay for some R&D costs in regards to PowerPC advancement and how Apple didnt want to pay up, Apple was basically the only real PowerPC player in the market, I really can't blame IBM for not delivering for Apple as Apple had all those expectations and wanted a free ride to everything, you know that IBM in 2002 wanted the 970 to be dual core from the get go? Apple didn't want it that way because that would mean lesser profit margins for them...
And anyone that is following the processor industry that IBM offers probably the best high-end designs bars none...
PowerMac memory
Any advantage to buying faster memory for the new Powermacs? Would PC5300 DDR2 provide any performance improvement? I used faster memory with my PCs when I was overclocking. I don't think overclocking is much of an option with a Mac.
Any advantage to buying faster memory for the new Powermacs? Would PC5300 DDR2 provide any performance improvement? I used faster memory with my PCs when I was overclocking. I don't think overclocking is much of an option with a Mac.
