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G5 Tower design

What do you define a Pro-Tower by....what do you think Apple's approach should be ?

  • Geek factor X ........ Thumb screws, modularity and ease of Access. Screw the curves.

    Votes: 22 29.3%

  • Contemporary American "Muscle Car". Not quite so Geek friendly but at least not ignoring the power u

    Votes: 35 46.7%

  • About what the Quicksilver's like: Kinda easy but an obvious compromise that borders on irritating.

    Votes: 15 20.0%

  • What's a Power User? I just want a bigger screen. A tower's better right?

    Votes: 3 4.0%
  • Total voters
    75
Go real high tech and have a hologram shooting out of the top with a spinning Apple logo :D.

I usually tuck my cpu's under the desk to keep the clutter down. That way, all I need on the desk is the monitors, keyboards and mice.

Whatever Apple does, I hope it comes out soon. I seriously miss having a second Mac system, especially with my TiBook being repaired yet again (third time shipping it to Apple, and now they are waiting for logic boards to arrive there :rolleyes: ). I might get some satisfaction if it goes beyond the 3-4 business days that they tell everyone, since it is now on day two. Either way, I hope, and expect, to have it back next week.

I might put an ad out for my current TiBook and get for a new one after MWNY. All depends on what gets announced. If nothing really exciting comes from Apple with the powerbooks, then a new tower is on the chart. At this point, I don't care if it is a G4 or G5 and what the case looks like. I just want the single processor to be over the 1GHz mark.
 
Re: Re: Re: Re: Re: A simple solution

Originally posted by dukestreet
And on the other side of the coin, any fanatical pc techie could do the same to his machine.
Click to expand...

The guys on Tech TV's screensavers had a computer that had been modded a bunch, and it sort of looked like something a PC guy would come up with if he was trying to make his computer look cool, like an apple.
 
Originally posted by AlphaTech
At this point, I don't care if it is a G4 or G5 and what the case looks like. I just want the single processor to be over the 1GHz mark.
Click to expand...

I saw a PC motherboard that could handle 4 gig of ram, duel processors, and various other fun things (DDR memory).

Apple could do so much more than just put a faster chip in its computers.

So, since it can, I think it should. I want a faster computer with all the stuff that's possible. Gimme gimme gimme.

Stevie, don't make me tell mom that your holdin out on us.
 
Re: Re: A simple solution

Originally posted by AlphaTech


I remember seeing some items about people taking the guts from a G4 tower and transplanting them into a peecee case. IF I was to do this, there is no way I would use an antec case (butt-ugly). Go with one from Cooler Master (http://www.coolermaster.com/home.html), since they are made from 100% aluminum, and come with at least a few fans. They have several styles and colors to choose from. Cooler Master also makes high flow, low noise computer fans along with a few other items. You might even be able to fit a G4's guts into one of their rack mount enclosures. Worth looking into at least.

Oh yeah, I believe that the plug on the logic board on the G4's is the same as on the ATX type power supplies. I would need to do some checking on that. Even if they are not, I am sure that someone can make an adapter to get the correct wires into the correct plugs. Sounds like a winter, or rainy day/week project :D.
Click to expand...

I have no experiance with coolermaster cases, so I cannot comment on thier properties. However I have put together many PCs in my past and bar none, the Antec cases are the most solid, and easy to work with around, that is why I singled them out.

The whole point I was trying to make was that people should have the option to put it in any case they want, without trying to put a non-standard Motherboard into an ATX case. One thing I hadn't thought of until now, the standard ATX doesn't have a spot for on-board firewire, that may be a problem. I guess they could always do what Creative Labs among others have done, and allow cabling to put firewire in front of the case in a drive bay.

By the way, Antec cases, at least the Pro-Line, comes with 2 case fans, and the newer models are rumored to come with Antec's Quite Power, 450 Watt power source. It has a less noisy fan, and multi-speed fan that senses the heat in the box, and adjusts the speed.

(thinks to himself..... Now if only I could use my Soundblaster Audigy, ATA 133 card, GeForce3 Ti4200, in an Antec Full Tower, with a Mac Dual G4 1 GHz, running OS X.1.3 .......Drooling)
 
sturm375,

More then a few of the Cooler Master cases have dual fans in the front, plus one in the rear and one in the top of the case. The all aluminum construction also acts as a large heat sink, pulling heat away from components. Many of them also have dual USB ports in the front of the case. I will check on the ATC110 that I have at home (going to toss the peecee's guts into it soon) and see if they have any place for FireWire porsts. If nothing else, get a dremil tool and make the ports. If you want to get really finished, make a template and take it to a machine shop and have them make you a plate. There might even be a market for those, if enough people want to transplant their lovely G4's into peecee cases (to get the extra space and such). Then again, I probably wouldn't be one of those doing it. With a no extra work, you can get five hard drives into a G4 tower (put one where the zip drive would go, plus the four on the floor). If that doesn't give you enough storage, then you need to get some external drives.
 
Rumor update to model:

Theoretical Tower configs as per newest speculation:

CPU:

2, 4, or 8 G5 or "G4+" processors.......probably of IBM origin.


RAM/BUS:

8 slots for 266DDR "choked down" to 250x2 to sync with a 500Mhz RapidI/O system bus.Max of 4 Gb of RAM.


Expansion:

6 Full length RapidI/O PCI/AGP slots.


Drives:

Integral ATA133 RAID, 2 channel controller. Optional SCSI RAID card.


Video:

nVidia GeForce4 Titanium, Radeon 8500 or Apple multimedia card.


Apple Multimedia Card:

2 nVidia designed and AMD built GPU's @ 1Ghz each,2x256Mb 333Mhz DDR RAM.Supports realtime rendering of openGL and video FX.

Outputs (AMC):2 independant ADC plugs, S-Video, S/PDIF, Optoinal Mobile I/O 2882. Optional DTS/THX/Dolby decoder box.
 
With all those slots and chips (what kind of dip are they serving??) they would have to chuck the current tower. Just not enough room for the 6PCI slots and 8 memory slots... on top of everything else. If they do toss the current tower and make something new, I hope it is more radical looking then the QuickSilver is.

Correct me if I am not right on this one, but isn't IBM only making the G3 chips?? I thought that only motorola has the alitvec tech, and thus the G4 chips manufacturing.
 
Chips:

I am praying at the Silicon Alter for an IBM/Moto liscence deal or Apple buyout of Altivec.

Oh yeah,

The towers HAVE TO CHANGE.

As cool as they are it's always been clear that they're a research piece for something more refined (see entire preceding thread).
 
Re: modular

Originally posted by wrylachlan
I keep posting this idea, but then the thread always disappears before I get any feedback.

Modular design with two units: a CPU Module which sits under the desk and has the motherboard and pci bus connected by a Cable Bundle to an Input Module (looks like a smaller iMac base) that sits on the desk and has the ports and optical drive, and maybe an open drive bay for a zip or second optical drive.

The CPU module would be more efficient at heat dispersal because without the optical drive in the tower you could put fans on the back and front - lots of air flow.

With all the things you need to connect to on your desk, no more stooping over to put disks in the drive, or dealing with ports underneath and in the back of your desk.

This would sort of go with apple's design philosophy of each part being "true to itself" (admittedly some pretentious jargon). The CPU Module is for heat dispersal, and the Input Module is for connectivity.What do you think folks?
Click to expand...
Sounds like something IBM had out for a while! :)
:):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):):)
 
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