Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Dual 2.0GHz G5 Arrived Today

F

founderfilm

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 20, 2004
9
0
My dual 2.0GHz Powermac G5 arrived earlier today here are my first impressions as a total mac newbie.

Well the packaging is better than any product I have seen! All came neat and organized. First thing I noticed is how heavy it is! Easily the heaviest computer I have ever lifted.

Anyway now to setup, I was a bit aprehensive about setting up my Apple have I have never done it before. I am using a 19" crt monitor btw. Followed the instructions about connecting it all up, it was all very obvious but I wanted to make sure I was doing it all correctly. She fired up first time no worries and after a short loading screen I soon found myself in the setup. It was so simple especially as I have to got a internet connection yet (taking it to uni to setup there). Once done I was now confronted with Mac OS X Panther. It was definately as good as all the pics I have seen, its very pleasing to the eye.

So I had a quick mess around with some of the system prefs, I could find everything straight away (unlike windows). I then got out my digital camera and imported the pics on it into iPhoto extremely easily! Mega impressed.

So next installation of Final Cut Express 2 which I got in the deal with my G5. Slapped in the disc had the setup running in moments and went through all the instructions. However I came a bit unstuck when it asked for my password to verify the installation, I had set a password up in the OS setup but it was not accepting it. After a minor panic I realised that I had caps lock on!! doh

Final Cut Express ran ok but have not had a chance to look at it in detail.

Ok now for what impressed me the most, adding a printer, I put in the USB and turned it on, nothing happened, so I tried to print and to my suprise it started to print and even should me a little pic of my printer in the dock!!! WOW! Its a fairly old printer as well! Dead impressed!

Anyway I have gone on long enough, but as you can tell I am very impressed with my new machine and thanks for all you guys in the forums for your help.

Only one thing left to do, install my extra Gig of Crucial RAM. I am very scared I will mess it up even though I have installed RAM into PC's loads of times! Is there anything I should look out for when adding the RAM or even when I turn the machine back on after it is in???

Thanks guys

Simon
 
hm

RAM:

1. Do you have two pairs? Are they at least CL 2.5?
2. Remove all Cables from your Mac (at the back side)
3. Lay it on the ground, on something soft.
4. Look that you touch something metallic before you touch the mac motherboard and/or the RAM modules.

Password:

Imho its a missing feature that it has some kind of notice if shift lock is on or off, and if it is on, you type it wrong, it should display a small notice within the login screen as well.

(you can see that on some windows 2k ASE versions)
 
Yes its CL 3 and I have two sticks of 512Mb 3200 DDR400.

To go along with the 2x256Mb stock.

Thanks alot I will either put them in tonight or tomorrow.

Yeah the password thing was a bit of a nightmare but I should have turned off caps as I had only just turned it on to type in the Final Cut serial number! Anyway its all done now.

Thanks again.
 
ionas said:
Imho its a missing feature that it has some kind of notice if shift lock is on or off, and if it is on, you type it wrong, it should display a small notice within the login screen as well.

(you can see that on some windows 2k ASE versions)
Click to expand...

it does. it's a little arrow pointing up (it's gray, and at the right of the password field)
 
im really glad you like it, although it wont be complete until you get that 20 inch flat panel monitor from apple that you had you eye on ( i know you have) but your only scratching the surface of how good these things are,... it takes a while to get out of the "windows mentality" give it a month and you will be ripping give it two and you will be unstopable... and problems just post it in the relevent forum and your sure to get some help
 
Very happy to hear about your positive experience with your new G5 founderfilm. It is an encouragement to others. I also hope that you won't be a stranger and post more frequently in the forum.
 
Right extra RAM is now installed and everything went smoothly, and I did have to push quite alot harder than I thought. It booted up no probs and not registers 1.5Gig of RAM. I have not noticed the performance totally as yet but then again I have not really done any RAM instensive tasks.

Once i get it connected to the internet at uni and when it becomes my primary machine I hope that I will find alot more useful things that will help me along the way.

Thanks guys
 
Congratulations, on your new purchase and switch to the Mac. Final cut express is a very impressive program for the price. You may want to take a look at Apple's tutorial book Apple Pro Training Series : Final Cut Express 2 (Apple Training) it is very good, I am about 3/4 of the way through it myself. Their is loads of stuff I have learnt that I just would not have picked up by playing with the software. Link to amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/A...99070/sr=ka-2/ref=pd_ka_2/104-2389211-5847160

As others have said please post back and tell us how you get on.
 
As an Amazon Associate, MacRumors earns a commission from qualifying purchases made through links in this post.
Thanks, yes i will have to take some time and get to grips with Final Cut Express.

Just one quick question, I have noticed that the air blowing out off the fan for the top CPU is hotter than the air from the bottom one, is this normal? Is one CPU running hotter than the other? Or is it simply that the hot air is rising?

I might be a silly question but I noticed it and thought I would ask, cheers.
 
I don't like how the G5's fans go high and low all the time. The internal speaker (yes, I'm cheap) uses paper cone, and doesn't sound as good as the G4 MDD's speaker, which looks like it's metal. And this thing runs warm, very warm compared to the G4 Dual 1.25G.
 
2A Batterie said:
The RAM is very easy to install, but keep in mind that you will need to push harder than what you think is necessary to install it.
Click to expand...

I just ordered a PowerMac 1.8 from Apple last week. In other words, I'll be lucky to see the danged thing before Christmas. ;-)

I also ordered 2 gig of RAM from Crucial to install in it, rather than pay the full price to Apple. Saved $125, so it worked out OK.

Here's my question: Should I turn the computer on, set it up, and then turn it off and install the RAM? Or would I be OK in installing the RAM before I even turn the unit on for the first time?

Thanks,
-Augie, switching from Linux - gave up on Windows last year
 
augiedb said:
I just ordered a PowerMac 1.8 from Apple last week. In other words, I'll be lucky to see the danged thing before Christmas. ;-)

I also ordered 2 gig of RAM from Crucial to install in it, rather than pay the full price to Apple. Saved $125, so it worked out OK.

Here's my question: Should I turn the computer on, set it up, and then turn it off and install the RAM? Or would I be OK in installing the RAM before I even turn the unit on for the first time?

Thanks,
-Augie, switching from Linux - gave up on Windows last year
Click to expand...

No, you should make sure everything's working first, then install the RAM. That way if there's a problem you can easily determine whether it's the RAM or something else.
 
The advice I got before I got mine is to turn it on and set it up first, just incase its DOA! Thats what I did and setup was all fine then I installed the extra RAM later that day, its all fine and dandy!
 
Whew, glad the two quick answers I got were both the same. =)

Thanks, guys. I'll do just that.

-Augie
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back