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

G5 recommendations & feedback

N

numediaman

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Jan 5, 2004
541
0
Chicago (by way of SF)
Speed bumps aside, it is getting very near time to pull the trigger and get a new desktop. The only thing preventing me from doing so is the consistent complaints I'm hearing from disgruntled G5 owners (even accounting for the fact that people who post on forums generally have issues -- and that satisfied users are quietly using their computers).

Here is my only concern: quality control.

So, my question to all you G5 owners (especially DP 1.8 & 2.0 users): are you satisfied with your new machine? and, if not, what was the major complaint?

The areas I'm most concerned with are those cropping up on the Apple web site: iDVD4 is not working with G5s; sleep and power-up issues; corrupted sound with Pro-audio apps; dead on arrival machines; lack of customer support from Apple.

Any feedback? Thanks.
 
I'm very satisfied with my machine. The only complaint I have is that the stupid video card died. Apple sent me a knew one and everything has been great ever since. By the way I've got the single 1.8. Great machine, I'm sure the duel is twice as great.

Bill
 
I have absolutly no complaints about my dual 2 Ghz G5. I'm one of the quietest computers I have ever used ( when it's on the floor I don't hear it unless something CPU intensive is running and the fans speed up, even that is quiet IMHO ).

The only weird thing that happens with mine is that you can put the plastic wind guard on wrong and it really confusses the fan logic. The fans would go full speed for about half a second then off and back on for half a second and then off. All I had to do was remove it again and seat it properly.

Enjoy, I know I do!
 
the two icons of truth have spoken

Bill Clinton and Jack the Ripper have weighed in. Can we hear from Richard Nixon and Charlie Manson?

Just kidding, guys. Thanks.

Have either of you (or anyone else) upgraded to iLife04? (or had it pre-installed?) If so, any feedback? especially with iDVD? I assume GarageBand and iMovie would be fine with the G5. That should be the assumption with iDVD, as well, but there have been massive complaints. Thanks again for the feedback.
 
I'm not a well known political figure or serial killer, but I am another dual 2.0 owner (in my case who bought a couple months after the introduction, to avoid initial glitches), and I'm 95% satisfied. It looks great, it runs great, it does everything promised. My sole complaint is that the BTO Radeon 9800 fan makes an annoying whine, but other than that the computer is exceedingly quiet and has no issues.

I haven't yet forked out for the new version of iLife, though, although I plan to. Hopefully any iDVD issues (the previous version has been working smashingly for me) will be resolved with an update soon.
 
Originally posted by Makosuke
I'm not a well known political figure or serial killer, but I am another dual 2.0 owner (in my case who bought a couple months after the introduction, to avoid initial glitches), and I'm 95% satisfied. It looks great, it runs great, it does everything promised. My sole complaint is that the BTO Radeon 9800 fan makes an annoying whine, but other than that the computer is exceedingly quiet and has no issues.

I haven't yet forked out for the new version of iLife, though, although I plan to. Hopefully any iDVD issues (the previous version has been working smashingly for me) will be resolved with an update soon.
Click to expand...

YOu might try looking at a replacement fan - try Thermaltake
 
Re: G5 recommendations & feedback

Originally posted by numediaman
The areas I'm most concerned with are those cropping up on the Apple web site: iDVD4 is not working with G5s; sleep and power-up issues; corrupted sound with Pro-audio apps; dead on arrival machines; lack of customer support from Apple.
Click to expand...

First of all, I have BTO Dual 1.8GHz G5 with Radeon 9600, 1.5GB RAM, and 250Gig internal drive. The machine has been very quiet and stable - for first couple of weeks the PSU had strange humming noise on it, but it vanished on the same day I called about it to Apple Care. Mine has the chirping noise issue, which can annoyingly be heard from audio outputs as well. The CHUD tool fixes this, but increases the overall noise level a bit (G5 still remains quieter than my old G4-400MHz). I had once some issues with power-up after a long sleep, but as this has not recurred, I think it was some momentary malfunction. Don't have iDVD 4 (yet) so can't comment on that - or is that a fact? Overall I'm very happy with it and totally satisfied, the speed increase after the G4 was phenomenal :)

The only real complaints I have concern the customer support (as I live in Europe, in Apple Store Europe). My shipment was incomplete when it arrived (Keynote missing) and it has been (and still is 3 months after my order) a pain to sort this out. Apple has replyed none of my e-mails (countless sent), and because the current situation and nature of my work I'm not able to call them daytime (or would be if the wait times were not more than 15 minutes long). I once got through and thought I got this sorted, but instead of Keynote they sent me Toast with invoice included. :mad:
 
Very satisfied

DP 2.0 owner, ATI 9600, 512mb of ram. I run After Effects almost exclusively on it (just starting to learn it). I've also loaded 3D toolkit, Blender 3D and Microsoft Office VX. And of course I upgraded to Jaguar and iLife '04.

My machine has been simply awesome. It's quiet.. unless I really overload it with heavy processing stuff... but then the fan quiets down when the task is done. I very often run After Effects, AND a DVD training video in the backround at the same time, with no problems whatsoever. All of the iLife's programs that I've used have also had no problems (granted, I haven't burned a DVD or even started an iDVD project with it yet). Nor have I had to contact Apple support, so I can't comment on that either (although... maybe that IS a comment by itself!)

It's a great machine. I'm very satisfied to have made the switch.

- rjf
 
Thanks everyone for the feedback.

I decided today not to buy the G5 -- at least not now.

Back in the late Fall, when I knew I would be buying a new desktop computer, I thought long and hard about whether, after 21 years of being an Apple customer, I should go PC (you know the arguements). After looking at the G5, and hearing that a revision would be coming, that I decided I would stick with Apple.

That was December, six months after Apple announced the new G5s. Now we are almost in February and it appears certain that Apple is still a ways away from revisions.

I am going back to reevaluating whether buying software and hardware from the same company is a good idea. I like OS X, I like iLife (in theory, anyways), but I hate the hardware. Too slow, too buggy, and going nowhere.

Time to rethink the whole thing again. See ya guys, last post for a long time.
 
I use a DP 2gig g5 at work and have the same machine at home as well. Both of them are by far the best machines I have ever used, I can't believe I ever used a mac that wasn't a DP G5 and got anything done. I am 50% more productive in everything that I do (mostly video editing and DVD authoring) I cannot verify issues with iDVD 4 because I use DVDSP, but iPhoto 4 works great, and so does garageband.

I would hold off for revisions if I were going to purchase a new machine, and then get the dual 2gig at a substantial price cut, you might even be able to get your hands on a refurb dp 2gig G5 for 1,999, that would be a great deal.

Anyway, I love my G5s and have never had any problems with them.
 
Originally posted by numediaman
I am going back to reevaluating whether buying software and hardware from the same company is a good idea. I like OS X, I like iLife (in theory, anyways), but I hate the hardware. Too slow, too buggy, and going nowhere.
Click to expand...

Er, the dual G5 is too slow for you?

My Dual 2.0 ghz is the fastest machine I've ever used. And Mac OSX Panther is the best operating system I've ever used. It's made me fall in love with Apple all over again.

No, it's not perfect; there are still kinks to work out. And Apple's tendancy to intentionally cripple it's less expensive hardware and software offerings irritates the heck out of me. But really, it's loads better than Windows 95, 98, XP and Mac OS 9 (and I use all of them on a regular basis). If you're a power user looking for a top of the line machine, you'd have to be nuts not to choose the G5.

As for iDVD 4... it works fine on my G5. It uses a two-pass encoder which takes a lot longer than it used to, but the quality is definately better (no pixelation on transitions and fades) and I've needed the capability to burn 2 hour DVDs for some time.
 
DOA G5 Dual 1.8

Hi

Just thought I'd share my experience on the new Apple G5 Dual 1.8 so far.

It arrived on Tuesday afternoon of this week, signed for it etc, unpacked it. Plugged it in and it powered up, no chime, and nothing else.

Nothing appeared on the screen, and it never booted up. No power light on the front either. The fans started up when I switch it on and they immediately go quiet, then after about a minute they gradually got faster and faster until it sounded like it was going to take off!!!

Called Apple, they were helpful as usual, about as helpful as a bowl of houmous.

Told me to check it was plugged in correctly, duh! Then asked me to check if the monitor was plugged in, duh again!!! They told me to speak to the company I bought it from about getting a replacement so I called them (Jigsaw) and they went through the same things as Apple, except they asked me to reset the PMU switch. I did that and it made no difference anyway, so they put me through to the UK repair centre (Amsys) and they collected the machine the next day.

Now apparently they will check it over and find out whats wrong with it then either give me the choice of repairing it or getting a replacement....erm, REPLACEMENT please.
I didnt spend almost £2k to have a repaired machine thanks.

I should get a call from them on Monday, so I'll keep you posted as to the outcome.

Thanks
Sprite
 
Re: DOA G5 Dual 1.8

Originally posted by spritedesigner

I should get a call from them on Monday, so I'll keep you posted as to the outcome.

Thanks
Sprite
Click to expand...

Wow. Sounds like somethign foul happened - perhaps it suffered a significant fall...don't they test things priorto delivery?

Please let us know how it goes...hope you took a serial number so you can tell if its a replacement machine.
 
g5 doa

Hi

I will post an update as soon as I hear from the support company.

I made sure I wrote down the Serial Number so theres no way there sending that dud back to me.

It just amazes me that they spend so much time and effort on designing and marketing their products, but as soon as you've actually bought something they look away as if it was never anything to do with them. Apple are where they are today because of their customers, but you'd never know it going by their attitude as far as after sales goes.

WATCH THIS SPACE!!

Sprite
 
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