iMac G5 1.9, 2.1 GHz technical specs

[Demon Hunter]

About DDR2

AMD has opted to completely bypass the DDR2 RAM, as it was unviable to support it till DDR2 had achieved some maturity, and now that it has, it is already halfway through it's life cycle; hence, AMD is directly jumping onto the DDR3 bandwagon. Whilst many have claimed to have not noticed a significant difference, and raging debates exist on this topic, DDR3, is sure to set new performance benchmarks, and increase speeds significantly.

Very interesting... too little too late, Apple.

DDR3 should be publicly available in mid 2006. Intel says they will have support for DDR3 at the end of 2007.

 

[Danksi]

I haven't installed a new Macintosh on a dial-up connection for 3 years or more. I know it's different in rural areas, but literally every new computer here is on broadband.

I was planning to use the modem for receiving (very) occasional faxes and (very) occasional DSL outtakes. Even in the 'big' city of Vancouver, we had a couple of outages in the past few months, only a couple of hours - but having the modem as backup was useful for email etc. I have a Windows laptop with a modem in it, so not a deal breaker for me.

 

[fklehman]

I guess they haven't caught on yet. The price is way below wholesale -- my point was that they are advertising the 2 Gb part, but they have mistakenly applied the price of a 2 x 1 lkit, so it's a great bargain if you can get delivery before they cotton on to it.

I haven't installed a new Macintosh on a dial-up connection for 3 years or more. I know it's different in rural areas, but literally every new computer here is on broadband.

One thing that is hellish is dealing with the Apple Software Update downloads on a slow connection, even DSL lite. It's between 100 Mb and 200 Mb of updates to be downloaded on a brand new machine... I can't imagine how impossible that would be on a dial up connection.

I don't disagree with any of the difficulties you've cited with dialup connections; it IS a pain in the butt, and I end up downloading software updates at work onto a USB drive and bringing them home, or else I wait to download them on day when I've brought my laptop to work. You're right. But at the same time, I don't think your experience (no dialups in 3 years) is at all typical. Broadband is more popular than it has ever been, but the vast, vast majority of internet users in the States are still on dialup connections. When Apple phased out floppy drives they were already on the way out--Zip drives and CD burners were already spreading like wildfire. Broadband is popular but doesn't yet have that level of market saturation. I think Apple's decision is WAY premature, especially considering how cheap and easy it is to just HAVE the modem in the first place. Was it taking up THAT much space? Do they really save that much money by cutting it, considering how standard/easy to produce a modem is? I'm sure it costs WAY less than the $49 for the USB dongle to have the internal modem on the motherboard etc., so I don't see what the point was. If Apple does the same thing with the PBs I will be super-seppuku pissed.

 

[CanadaRAM]

I think Apple's decision is WAY premature, especially considering how cheap and easy it is to just HAVE the modem in the first place. Was it taking up THAT much space? Do they really save that much money by cutting it, considering how standard/easy to produce a modem is? I'm sure it costs WAY less than the $49 for the USB dongle to have the internal modem on the motherboard etc., so I don't see what the point was. If Apple does the same thing with the PBs I will be super-seppuku pissed.

Alternatively, Apple see this as a way to make $30 profit on a $19 part, and to save $10 (or $6 or $11 or whatever) per machine in production costs. It signals the future, though, because since the iMac G5 underwent a complete chassis redesign, Apple had to decide whether to engineer the logic board and case for the modem or not, and decided 'not' was the correct path.

Yes, fax is another use for the modem; I used to do a lot of computer generated faxes for clubs and organizations I belong to (funny how it is, once you get labelled as the club 'nerd' you get elected to all these positions) but again, I haven't reconnected my faxmodem in the last 4 machines I've owned, because far more of my correspondents have email than fax now. I haven't used an email-to-fax service yet, but I would consider it if I needed to do a bunch of long-distance faxes.

We may well be ahead of the curve in broadband adoption in Canada. In Victoria we have vigorous competition between the cable company and the telco, with full bandwidth cable or ADSL for about CAN$30/mo. (US$25), less with special offers.

 

[CanadaRAM]

Very interesting... too little too late, Apple.

DDR3 should be publicly available in mid 2006. Intel says they will have support for DDR3 at the end of 2007.

Don't know how you reach the conclusion too little too late... since DDR-3 wont be a retail reality for well over a year. DDR-2 has JUST reached critical mass in the marketplace; as recently as 6 months ago it was far more expensive than today. Apple has jumped in just at the time when the prices have dropped with volume shipments. I would rather Apple NOT commit me to a high-priced bleeding edge technology, thank you.

 

[billynomates369]

The RAM cover is a little door on the bottom where the intake vent is. Two screws removes it. There are two round things that you pull to release the RAM.

Inside its got three fans (processor, hard drive and cd drive).

The front comes off as opposed to the back, to do that you'll need what looks like small credit card.

Overall the inside is totally different to the older revisions of the iMac G5.

 

[Demon Hunter]

I'm not sure how pricey it is but Bluetooth modems are the new rage, anyway.

DDR-2 has JUST reached critical mass in the marketplace; as recently as 6 months ago it was far more expensive than today.

Ah that makes sense. I wasn't thinking about market volume and whatnot.

 

[zflauaus]

The New iMac G5 is just crying out to be a digital entertainment centre/creator machine that it fails to add A TV Tuner.

Nice update, however you can place bets on Apple releases an HD iMac G5 with a TV Tuner sometime next year. And it will not sport an Intel chip by that time either.

Apple is using the same strategy that they are using with the iPod, one feature at a time. INtroduce it slow and implement it all at a later date thus producing maximum profit. Smart

I absolutely agree with you. I think Apple will release an iMac with a TV Tuner. If so, I will buy that in a heartbeat, if I have the money. I don't care if it has a G5 or Intel. Just make it happen!

 

[solvs]

I guess they haven't caught on yet. The price is way below wholesale -- my point was that they are advertising the 2 Gb part, but they have mistakenly applied the price of a 2 x 1 lkit, so it's a great bargain if you can get delivery before they cotton on to it.

It's still there, and about right for what it costs elsewhere. Do a Froogle search, less than $300 (but at far less reputable places). I've never had a problem with Newegg, and I order there all the time. Don't know if it'll work in the iMacs or not though, but it should. Any one want to test it?

And a lot of you are misusing the term overclock.

 

[Apple!Freak]

One of the best threads on MacRumors.

Oh, and hey, CanadaRAM. You live on Vancouver Island in Victoria? My father and I were just there in June. It was one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. In fact, my dad is looking at buying a house their for his retirement.

 

[Danksi]

Oh, and hey, CanadaRAM. You live on Vancouver Island in Victoria? My father and I were just there in June. It was one of the most beautiful places we have ever visited. ...

Too many Brit influences - should see Nelson and the Kootenays, now here's a place.

 

[lickily]

The big problem is that there is no standard way of measuring the response time, (black to white, gray to gray) so the manufacturers can basically come up with the figure they want by choosing the method of measuring . http://www.pcworld.com/news/article/0,aid,121906,00.asp

You have to figure though, with a machine Apple is pushing directly into the personal video market, the screen has to be fast enough for smooth video playback.

My advice, go to heavy duty review sites that do a lot of testing and they can tell you real world results for response time (and lack of screen ghosting). Two sites I check a lot are:

http://www.behardware.com/html/cat/22/
http://graphics.tomshardware.com/display/index.html

Right now, the reigning performance champ (cost being no object) is the Viewsonic VP930b. Both sites rave about the picture quality and lack of blur for fast motion.

 

[harveypooka]

"optical digital audio output"

I just noticed that the new iMac's have "optical digital audio output". I'm guessing this means better audio quality, but does it mean you can link up surround sound? Or does that still require an extra box like the FireWave by Griffin?

 

[CanadaRAM]

I just noticed that the new iMac's have "optical digital audio output". I'm guessing this means better audio quality, but does it mean you can link up surround sound? Or does that still require an extra box like the FireWave by Griffin?

It means that in addition to the L/R stereo minijack, if you get a special minijack-to-optical cable, you have an optical output -- to utilize this you have to have a receiver or set of powered speakers that has an optical input. Then, if the receiver or speaker control box has Dolby or DTS decoding built in, it will decode 5.1 surround from the optical signal (if multichannel was encoded in the sound file in the first place of course, and if your playback software supports 5.1)

If you don't have a audio device with a digital input, then you will need an outboard decoder of some description (M-Audio Sonica Theatre, others) to decode the surround and give you 6 discrete analog (RCA) outputs to go into analog destinations (such as powered speakers).

If your speakers don't explicitly say "Optical input, Dolby and DTS decode built in" then they don't support the optical out.

 

[mfacey]

The RAM cover is a little door on the bottom where the intake vent is. Two screws removes it. There are two round things that you pull to release the RAM.

Inside its got three fans (processor, hard drive and cd drive).

The front comes off as opposed to the back, to do that you'll need what looks like small credit card.

Overall the inside is totally different to the older revisions of the iMac G5.

I just want to make sure this is clear for me: is the ram user-replacable on the new iMac? And in user-replacable I mean easily, not like the mac mini.

 

[Danksi]

I just want to make sure this is clear for me: is the ram user-replacable on the new iMac? And in user-replacable I mean easily, not like the mac mini.

From this review:- http://www.macbst.com/

"Installing the memory was incredibly fast and simple. The new iMacs have a trap door on the bottom of the computer in the center, allowing for simple memory installation."

 

[aussie_geek]

The Ram upgrade options are very disappointing. The price of a 2GB stick is astronomical at the moment making it hard for the user to max the Ram out without really feeling it in the back pocket...

You would think Apple would have made it with 2 vacant slots both to hold 1 Gb modules.


aussie_geek

 

[Danksi]

The Ram upgrade options are very disappointing. The price of a 2GB stick is astronomical at the moment making it hard for the user to max the Ram out without really feeling it in the back pocket...

You would think Apple would have made it with 2 vacant slots both to hold 1 Gb modules.


aussie_geek

Agreed. I think I'll be sticking to an additional 1Gb stick, which should be more than enough for my needs.

 

[zap2]

i have one 1gb in my iMac rev A 1.8ghz it FAST , never get beachball!

ya i think Mac OSX tiger limit should be 512, with 256 itd SLOW and makes it look like a bad OS

 

[Saturnine]

With 512MB installed and 1GB in the free slot you should have more than enough RAM for most purposes. If you need more than 1.5GB of RAM then you're probably better off buying a PowerMac anyway.

 

[Hattig]

Very interesting... too little too late, Apple.

DDR3 should be publicly available in mid 2006. Intel says they will have support for DDR3 at the end of 2007.

Err, AMD are going DDR2 on their Socket M2 platform early next year. They've been waiting for DDR2-667 however, because that is where performance benefits actually start to occur. I recall somewhere saying 15% performance benefit to using DDR2-667 over DDR-400 or DDR2-533 (for a benchmark that likes memory bandwidth and low latency I imagine).

 

[Naimfan]

Good initial post, but there is a math error I'm amazed no one else has caught: Increasing the processor speeed from 2.0 to 2.1 GHz is a 5% increase, not 10%. Not to be pedantic, but there you go. . .

Overall, I don't see anything in the new iMac that makes me regret getting the Rev. B. The modem alone makes the Rev. B more valuable to me--I refuse to pay the exorbitant rates Comcast charges for a cable modem and no DSL provider offers service to the apartment complex where I live.

Best,

Bob

 

[Hetman]

iMac G5 Memory

The new iMac G5's have some technical differences to previous generations of G5's

They are the first Macs to use DDR-2 RAM. This is not backwards compatible with DDR or vice-versa, so there is no swapping of memory going to happen as you upgrade. They are the first Macs to support a 2 Gb memory module -- which is a good thing because there is only one accessible memory socket. The developer notes are not up yet, so it is an open question whether the 512 RAM is available to be upgraded by a technician -- Apple does not offer that option as a BTO, and states maximum RAM as 2.5, which suggests not.

I have a revision A iMac G5 2Gig of RAM and 250Gig HD. I've had the power supply and midplane replaced. It's working well now (sort of). The CD falls out onto the floor when ejected and my fan makes quite alot more noise than my friend's iMac G5. (I'll get those fixed too with AppleCare). I was wondering if it's worth upgrading to the latest iMac (rev c). I use mine for Video/Audio editing with Final Cut. Therefore I added 2 gigs of matched RAM and put it to good use. I was told that you get better performance if your RAM is matched not only in size but if it's also from the same batch. That can't be done with the new iMac. Will there be a preformance cut? Is it still worth my upgrading to the new machine? besides not having a modem you will also no longer use a VESA attachment on the new machines (attching an arm or haning your mac on a wall) both of which are not deal breakers for me. My only concern is the RAM right now. FCP and Motion do work better with more RAM but 2.5 GIG is a strange number. Will it work as well as matched RAM on my Mac?

 

[macdesire]

This was the suggestion in a couple of other threads as well.

I think the IR receiver is behind the apple logo on the front below the screen.

 

[Loke]

If Im to connect the video signal from the iMac to a plasma TV or projector, and connect the audio signal to an external stereo:

1. In clone mode, can you make the display on the iMac blank out - so just the plasma/pj shows the screen?

2. What happens to the internal speakers on the iMac when you have connected an external stereo? Do they mute? Can you mute them and still keep playing on the external stereo? What if the external stereo is shut off, can you get the internal speakers playing?