New iMac G5 Announced

[LEgregius]

Disappointing.

It looks like a flat eMac. I kind of like the eMac, but the old iMac was much more attractive, and if the swing arm was so nice, why did they remove it in favor of the tablet like box on a stand? Sure, the stand matches the cinema display, but it basically is one with computer attached, so it doesn't NEED to match.
I was thinking maybe I would get one, but the video card is really low. I was at least hoping for something with 128MB. Most of the games coming out will need 128MB, and I know people buying iMac's will want to play games. Anyway, the price is decent, but a video card option wouldn't have hurt them, would it?

 

[Wonder Boy]

Market desperately needs cheap headless consumer Mac. Only Apple won't see it. I don't believe that this machine is going to perform any better on market than the "lamp" did.

give it up. there is no headless mac and their aint gonna be one. apple puts out what they want, not what the people want. thats no surprise. plus, the elegance factor of having a 30 inch apple display next to a g5 is worth the extra money then a less expensive 2nd tier display...to me anyway.

i see this model doing very well. it's such a great design. a g5 computer in 2 inch monitor? unbelievable. theres proof again that apple could easily built a g4 ibook-like tablet but just doesnt want to.

 

[griz]

Complainers

I am amazed at the number of complaints about the new iMac. This is the way I envisioned the original flatpanel imac to be before they came out with the "Robot" imac. This new model takes the elegence of the ipod, the design of the new Displays, the look of the eMac and the style of the iBook and a G5 chip and puts it all in one.
And if I hear one more "Is the blah blah blah upgradable"? question, I think I am going to scream. In case you forget because it looks so truly amazing. IT'S AN iMAC!!! GET a G5 Tower is you want upgradable and shut your squak box.

When the iMac was introduced, it had a 233Mhz G3 chip and sold for around $1200. This has an LCD and a lot more speed for the same price. It's an amazing work of art. Speaking of Art. The 20 Inch model would look great on my wall with a frame around it running a screen saver. Now thats art.

Shall we all speculate thought. If they can thin it out and a battery, we have ourselves a tablet PC folks that can double as a desktop. Droooooooooool.

 

[oingoboingo]

Can someone tell me where on Apple's web stie or any for that matter states that the Power Mac G5 uses Dual Channel DDR, because i can't seem to find any hint of this. neither have a ever herd Jobs mention DC DDR , or any web site that sells G5 ram label it as such. it's always labeled DDR 3200(400mhz).

The RAM itself doesn't need to be 'dual channel'. In the PowerMac G5, RAM must be installed in pairs because each pair is accessed simultaneously. There is a brief description of it on this page (it's point 5 on the architecture diagram):

http://www.apple.com/powermac/architecture.html

Quoting from Apple's page:

"The Power Mac G5 memory controller supports fast 400MHz, 128-bit DDR SDRAM, and enables main memory to address two banks of SDRAM at a time, reading and writing on both the rising and falling edge of each clock cycle. This effectively doubles the bandwidth, enabling the Power Mac G5 to reach a maximum memory throughput of up to 6.4GB per second — an advance that’s especially welcome when you’re working with enormous files. In addition, direct memory access (DMA) works with the point-to-point system controller to give each subsystem — such as PCI cards and graphics processing units — its own 6.4GBps interface to main memory, without siphoning power from your processors."

The iMac G5 does not seem to require that DIMMs be installed in pairs; thus, it appears that it does not use a dual-channel memory system.

 

[Stella]

Crap graphics cards -

- so in order to play the likes of Doom 3 at full high res etc etc I have to buy a PowerMac.

Playing Doom 3 at high res et al - from Apple marketing perspective - isn't what a 'consumer' Apple customer would do?!!!!! Because I aint' going to play it very well on a ****ty Nvidia 5200 ultra card am I!!!


@trbeat
I absolutely agree - the lamp was excellent design

 

[tf23]

Re: Power cord

Too bad the power cord comes off the back instead of the bottom. If it had a bottom-mount power cable & was removable from its stand, then you'd have a perfect format for a wall-mount

Yep. You could mount the things to the cubicle walls, thereby freeing up more deskspace.

 

[TMay]

a beowolf cluster of these!

I'm a bit disappointed with the lack of gigabit ethernet and firewire 800.

Also, and I figure that some 3rd party will put this together, it would be interesting to have a master plus client unit(s) so that one could control 2 or more iMacs side by side from one the master with the appearance of a contiguous display and (a bit of anyway) performance of a multiple processor. An ad hoc cluster for FCP, rendering, etc that would be very appropriate for education. I can imagine the iMac being upgraded with better graphics and becoming a machine of choice for multiplayer parties.

All in all, Apple has, in my opinion, a solid hit with this machine.

(If I were rich, I'd buy three of the 20 inch, attach them to a mock cockpit, and network them for an awesome X-plane flight simulator package)

 

[1macker1]

LOL, apple finally gets the price point right, and screws up the design. This think looks like a emac on a stick from the front. The wide white bar on the bottom of the monitor really makes this thing an eye sore.

 

[tamtam]

Like it, want to see it before buying

Specs are good for a consumer grade computer. I want to touch it before I make decision to buy it for family. Will buy it at store however because I do not want to go through DP2.5 order experience again.

 

[caveman_uk]

I know people buying iMac's will want to play games.

I think I've played games on my macs for tops a couple of hours in all the time I've had them. So bang goes another sweeping generalisation. There is such a thing as technical/cost constraints. Newer/better/faster cards generally are more expensive and hotter running. I'd imagine getting rid of the heat of a G5 and a 7200rpm HDD to be enough of a problem as it is...

 

[Jonm]

Why Not?

What's with all the moans? What's not to like? It's thin, elegant, takes up next to no space compared to rivals and should sell bucket loads.
(Mind you, what do I know. I thought the iPod was the stupidest thing I'd ever heard of when first annnounced)
If you think two years from now I reckon you'd be hard pushed to walk into many offices and not see stacks of these decorating desktops — especially at receptions. It's got just the right form factor.
And let's be honest, whether you like the design or not if it sells that's good for Apple.

 

[jcook793]

I dub this the "Jay Leno" iMac

 

[rdowns]

OK. Not to bad but WTF is with the anemic RAM amounts especially for $1899. Apple's being cheap again. IMHO anything less then 384MB of RAM is er...sucky.

With 2 RAM slots, shipping both filled (and one with a 128 MB no less) is not a smart move.

 

[oingoboingo]

I just bought a DP1.8 PowerMac - did I get ripped off? I could have traded a processor (and memory slots) for a built-in 20" display....

It depends. What are you going to be using your PowerMac for? A dual 1.8GHz PowerMac (with dual 900MHz FSBs and dual channel DDR memory) is going to tear the iMac G5 a new rectum when it comes to a multi-CPU aware application, or when heavy multitasking is involved. You can expand your PowerMac to 4GB of RAM, you can upgrade the graphics card (and you may already have a Radeon 9600 XT or 9800 XT, which are much faster cards than the FX 5200), you can add 3 extra PCI cards, you can add extra hard drives, you have a faster optical drive, you have gigabit ethernet, you have FireWire 800...<takes a breath>...it's a totally different class of machine.

If you find yourself thinking "Hell...I'll never need any of that crap!", then yes, you got ripped off, and maybe a G5 iMac would have been a better deal. However, if you're going to crunch data/video/sound/graphics/Wheeties for a living, and/or you want to ever expand your system in the future, then the PowerMac was the right choice.

Besides, there's absolutely no way that I can see to grate cheese on the G5 iMac. Use it as a serving platter...maybe. But prepare a meal? No way man...the PowerMac rules there.

 

[jiggie2g]

I believe the optical drive is 4x on the iMac, whereas the new PowerMacs get an 8x drive. Some speculate this is becuase of the vertical mounting of the drive, some sort of attenuation is required. Who knows.

Check out the Apple site for pictures of the upgradability. The back pannel somehow detatches, and the RAM is over on the right hand side. Posts indicate that non proprietry memory works fine

The Drive it Limited to 4X because it's the same superdrive used in the PowerBooks, but this can be solved by just going external. u can get a OEM NEC 3500A or Pioneer DVR-108 16X DVD-/+RW at NewEgg.com for about $85-90 , Macally sells external drive enclosures for about 39.99 with USB 2.
atleat u only have to buy the case once. you can always trash the drive with it's old. Thank God for Patch Burn II

 

[HiRez]

Summing It Up

The Good:

- G5. Duh.

- Nice slim, light, compact design.

- Smart variable-speed fans (obviously tapping into the R&D from the G5 PowerMacs).

- Good array of ports. Power supply inside the unit is great. First iMac with digital audio out, I think.

- 7200 RPM SATA hard drive, 250 GB available for $100 more, fantastic. This alone should provide much better general performance over previous iMacs.

- 20" monitor looks pretty nice, 17" I'm not so sure about. 20" has a 170º horizontal and 170º vertical angle of view, 230 cd/m^2 brightness, 17" is only 120º/90º/200. The displays are a bit less bright and contrasty than the Cinema Displays but that's to be expected and I'm sure they still look nice.

- Decent price if you want a 17" or 20" LCD anyway.

- Bluetooth module + wireless keyboard and mouse bundle for $100 (although still no two-button mouse, boooooo).

- Headphone jack on the back, not the front or bottom where it'd be a lot easier to find without groping.

- Very good array of bundled software, though AppleWorks is really desperately in need of a rewrite and (perhaps because AppleWorks is so creaky) a low-cost upgrade option to Office would be nice.

The Bad:

- Needs 512 MB RAM minimum. Does anyone know if these need to be installed in pairs as in the PowerMac G5, or is that because of the dual CPUs? Then again, this shortcoming is easily and inexpensively remedied, so it's not that big of a deal for me.

- 4x DVD writer? 8x-16x would be nice in the high-end model, but since I'm not burning DVDs left and right, I can deal.

- White plastic and brushed aluminum mixed together look a little strange to me. This thing would look so cool in all aluminum. Oh well. Plus as others have mentioned the logos are a bit on the large (kiddie-ish) side and the big bright white plane adjacent to the screen is distracting to me. I'd rather they had made it more like a thicker Cinema Display (ie. dimensions contoured around the screen).

- No monitor spanning even though the card does it anyway (crippled).

- The graphics card is a) crappy and ancient (and everyone knows it), and b) not upgradeable or customizable? Are you kidding me? Can someone please confirm that this card is not upgradeable? The other stuff I could probably live with, but sorry, this one is a dealbreaker for me. Too bad Apple, you were so close to getting my credit card...

 

[jacobj]

OK... so I've been looking this over properly and my thoughts (if you care) are:

1. The graphics card is appalling. I was trying to find out how much they cost, but I can't find a 5200 with 64MB anywhere - 128MB seems to be the £45 minimum. Thanks for that cr*p Apple.

2. It's a chunky laptop on a stand. This is no miracle of engineering contrary to Apple's claims. If they had wanted to impress then it should be 1.5" thick without the chunky bottom.

3. It is ugly. The white and Alu do not go together. It looks extraordinarily top heavy and although it won't fall over, it looks like it will and that can't be good. I agree that the logos are OTT.

4. the superdrive is anything but Super.No dual layer support, a feeble 4x writing speed and the 24x cd writing speed is nearly as old as the graphics card. Again I am finding it difficult to find such a low spec drive to compare prices, but I should think somewhere around £45 would do it.

5. 600Mhz front side bus... I hope that's a typo.

6. 256MB RAM.. well that's good news. It means that we can upgrade at a reasonable price and not re-mortage the house to make it useable. I am finding it difficult (again) to find another desktop with 256MB of RAM. I looked at a PC with a price tag of £509.00, but it was so low end they only put 512MB in... Oh.. sorry.

7. Processor speed is a joke.. Anyone got any software that can use 64bit that would actually buy this iMac.

Anyway.. the list goes on.. it is CR*P

 

[ajb13]

Detachable Arm / 5.1 Audio Out

The new iMac can be wall mounted, so the arm comes off, and it outputs 5.1 audio via digital audio out. (Mini Optical)

From Apple Website:
"The iMac offers the smallest footprint ever, but you can make that zero with an optional VESA mount. Hang it from the wall or swing it around on your desk."

"Of course the iMac G5 offers all the right ports to connect to your universe with ease. Starting with the new headphone jack that’s also a mini-optical plug. So you can watch DVDs and listen to them in 5.1 surround sound."

 

[iZac]

The design is very good, simple, and elegant, but somthing was still nagging me as to its design (i dont care about specs, as long as it looks GOOD) and i realised the super-sized apple logo, rather than make it look comparitively smaller, just makes it look a bit... odd

here is my super quick photoshop to illustrate what i mean:

tell me what you think?

 

[proglife]

Elegant, elegant, elegant, elegant. I don't think Apple could have done any better.

You don't like it? Well, I'm glad Apple hires the best designers and not you!

 

[Foxer]

They've been to busy with "what can we cram into a small space" and forgot to ask what is it good for.

Two words: "consumer market"

We're not all hard core FCP users and most people who buy a Mac will NEVER play Doom 3. They brought out a new machine and lowered the price point. Last night I never dreamed of buying an iMac, becuse I couldn't forget the confiscatory pricing of the Rev B iMacs. These actually seem to be a good buy, although I'll still probably go for a PowerMac, since I WILL be playing Doom 3.

All that being said, the biggest foul-up is that it won't even be shipping for another month -- totally missing the back to school market. I hope someone got the axe, because this whole product launch was the worst since new Coke (although it appears that Longhorn will give this one a run.)

 

[JonMaker]

Okay, I think have this figured out. The reason the iMac G5 may look ugly to some of you is because of the massive overbite on the bottom. With the iMac G4, all se had to deal with on the bottom of the screen was the screen's bezel.

But whatever. Kudos to Apple for cramming all those guts into the display.

 

[eji]

Thanks, AmigoMac and CmdrLaForge.

I'm not thrilled about the graphics card news, as it's at the very bottom of the CoreImage-supported list. But I reckon it'll have to do. And now that the price has dropped so significantly, I don't have much else holding me back.

 

[paulypants]

OK... so I've been looking this over properly and my thoughts (if you care) are:

1. The graphics card is appalling. I was trying to find out how much they cost, but I can't find a 5200 with 64MB anywhere - 128MB seems to be the £45 minimum. Thanks for that cr*p Apple.

2. It's a chunky laptop on a stand. This is no miracle of engineering contrary to Apple's claims. If they had wanted to impress then it should be 1.5" thick without the chunky bottom.

3. It is ugly. The white and Alu do not go together. It looks extraordinarily top heavy and although it won't fall over, it looks like it will and that can't be good. I agree that the logos are OTT.

4. the superdrive is anything but Super.No dual layer support, a feeble 4x writing speed and the 24x cd writing speed is nearly as old as the graphics card. Again I am finding it difficult to find such a low spec drive to compare prices, but I should think somewhere around £45 would do it.

5. 600Mhz front side bus... I hope that's a typo.

6. 256MB RAM.. well that's good news. It means that we can upgrade at a reasonable price and not re-mortage the house to make it useable. I am finding it difficult (again) to find another desktop with 256MB of RAM. I looked at a PC with a price tag of £509.00, but it was so low end they only put 512MB in... Oh.. sorry.

7. Processor speed is a joke.. Anyone got any software that can use 64bit that would actually buy this iMac.

Anyway.. the list goes on.. it is CR*P

BooHoo... Poor Baby, go cry in your cheerios...

 

[UWF404]

Underwhelmed! Will look cluttered with cables coming out the ports on back of screen. Will I be yanking my keyboard and peripherals around everytime I move the screen.