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New PowerMac 1.8GHz Released

1.8 iMac vs. 1.8 PowerMac

MacinDoc said:
The iMac does have a dedicated video card (in fact, it's the same card that comes standard with most Power Macs). The GPU is just soldered to the midplane assembly and therefore difficult to upgrade without replacing the whole assembly. It even has an AGP 8X connection, just like in a Power Mac.
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So I assume the video performance will be equal, or so close it wouldn't make a difference. I'm used to PC's where onboard video is sucking its memory from system RAM and providing nowhere near the same performance as a dedicated card with the same chipset.

Whats up with the optical out on the iMac is there a 1/8" to Toslink cable out there or do you need 1/8" optical input on an amp to connect the audio? Will there be a difference in sound quality (iMac vs. PowerMac).

I'm not try to knock/praise the iMac or PowerMac. I'm just trying to make an informed purchase.
 
I wanted to add my opinion on this discussion. First a little history. I was basically raised on Apple products, then in '95 I started using PCs. I was a PC/Unix geek until 2002. When I was exposed to OS X and its Unix base, it was my holy grail. All the goodness of the Unix command line, with a polished GUI and quality apps.

I bought a G4 in August of '02 and I was happy. Last month my G4 found a new home, and my plan had been to return to the PC world. So I built a nice, fast Shuttle XPC box. To my surprise, I couldn't go back. So last friday I ordered the new sigle CPU 1.8 Power Mac.

Why did I do this? Quite simply because it fits my needs. I like the display I purchased for the Shuttle. I'm one of the rare people it seems that can't stand LCDs. I like the option to expand and upgrade later, and the price is justifiable. Do I care about half the maximum RAM or the lower FSB? No. I didn't give it more than a passing thought. I've built all of the PCs I've used during that time and I always went for the most bang for my buck each time.

This time I looked at the difference between this and my 700Mhz G4 and I said I'm not going to notice. It's going to run circles around it regardless. Perhaps my opinion is biased because OS X truly matters more to me than getting every last drop of performace possible. Windows and Linux annoy me after two years of OS X and this has taught me that I won't be leaving it anytime soon if ever.

That's pretty much my piece. As others have said there is a niche for these and I happen to fit it. Those that don't can get what they need, after all choice is a good thing.
 
Hard Drives

Also, the Power Mac G5 hard drives all come with an 8MB buffer, the iMac hard drives don't seem to have this.
 
BanditBill said:
So I assume the video performance will be equal, or so close it wouldn't make a difference. I'm used to PC's where onboard video is sucking its memory from system RAM and providing nowhere near the same performance as a dedicated card with the same chipset.

Whats up with the optical out on the iMac is there a 1/8" to Toslink cable out there or do you need 1/8" optical input on an amp to connect the audio? Will there be a difference in sound quality (iMac vs. PowerMac).

I'm not try to knock/praise the iMac or PowerMac. I'm just trying to make an informed purchase.
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Video performance of a 1.8 MHz SP Power Mac with the standard GeForce 5200 FX video card should be pretty much identical to that of the iMac. Having said that, you can upgrade the video card of the Power Mac substantially at the time of purchase, for a price (more than you would expect if you're coming from the PC/Windows world).

So, if you have the extra money and really want the very best in graphic performance (especially for best 3D gaming or 3D rendering performance), or if you already have a great monitor, go for the Power Mac and upgrade the video card, but if you want the best web surfing/email/MS Office value in the Mac world (with the exception of the eMac), and especially if you're looking for quiet, elegant simplicity, consider the iMac.

I will look into the audio in/out jack and see if I can give you more info on it...
 
Yes, I am really looking forward to hearing reactions to it.

jstock, you pretty much sumed up how I feel about it. It's more powerful than my iBook, and I don't think I'd ever want more than 4 GB of RAM. In fact, I don't think I'd ever even want 4 GB. I have a screen already. Is it as nice as a 20" flat panel? No. However, I feel that I will be getting a better value by purchasing a PowerMac, so the screen doesn't bother me. I can use what I have now and be happy with it. Also, this computer (with the discounts I can get on it) will fit my budget now and in the long run much better than an iMac would. The upgradability is a big deal to me - I believe that it will prolong the effective life of the computer. As someone who doesn't have a ton of money to spend on a new computer every couple of years, that's important to me.

I am a bit concerned about the rumor that the CPU's soldered to the motherboard. That seems rather disingenuous to me. Can anyone confirm or deny it?

Look forward to seeing pics of people's rigs.
 
My Ship Date is on or before 10/29. I just had to customize a few things. I'll admit to being like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I'll post my initial impressions when it arrives if people are still interested.
 
I'm interested in hearing what it's like as well. Provided I can get Apple to take back my iMac (long story) this seems like my next, best option.

- Don
 
jstock said:
My Ship Date is on or before 10/29. I just had to customize a few things. I'll admit to being like a kid waiting for Christmas morning. I'll post my initial impressions when it arrives if people are still interested.
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Definitely want to hear your review, keep us posted. And ideally, you should find a friend who has a new G5 iMac and run comparison performance tests!
 
It shipped sometime after my last post. Delivery is set for November 2nd. It shipped from Anaheim CA. I was amazed it didn't start oversees somewhere.
 
some xbench results

According to the xbench results site, some people have already received them:

http://ladd.dyndns.org/xbench/compa...TypeID=22&sort=date#tableTop&minVersion=1.1.3

the highest result there is 144. (w/ Radeon 9600xt)

I am quite surprised that no one has yet publised any pictures or reports about the new heatsinks and the noise levels. Not even macbidouille.com has a word about them, and they tend to be very fast with these things!
 
Don M. said:
Doesn't that seem rather low? The iMac has been scoring in the 160s (high 166). Am I missing something about the xbench results?

- Don
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xbench is very erratic in its results. In addition to that, there are only a few people registering for the moment, and we do not know anything about how their tests were performed.

Anyway, there is at least one machine now reaching the 160s, showing that both the iMac G5 and the new Power Mac are very similar indeed, as expected.

But why don't we have any pics of the new heatsinks or reports on the noise, yet!??? I have placed my order 6 six days ago through a local reseller and I want to know if I did right! :)
 
Im in the process of selling my Powerbook to get one of these singles, they just fit my needs better now.

For all reading, i am also looking forward to hearing about noise, benchmarks, etc.
 
Got Apple to take back my iMac and, after some blind luck, found a local store with the "old" SP 1.8 PowerMac in stock, brand new. ("Yea, just sitting back here. Never sold it.") Got a great deal on it. If it wasn't for that I would have gotten the "new" SP 1.8.

I'll download xbench and put up my own results but I'd be curious to see how the two compare against each other. (I have the bad Nvidia 5200 graphic card, the only downside of the unit.)
 
areyouwishing said:
For all reading, i am also looking forward to hearing about noise, benchmarks, etc.
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MacBidouille has just published some pictures in its main page

http://www.macbidouille.com/niouzcontenu.php?date=2004-11-02#9858

The discussions in the forums have just started, but there is no first hand reports on the noise levels yet (seems that the guy who got the mac just sent the pictures)

In addition to that, there are new benchmarks in barefeats:

http://www.barefeats.com/g518.html
 
boy, the motherboard in there is tiny. Makes the case look quite empty. With the fewer fans does that mean that the case no longer has the "cooling zones"? It almost looks like you could take everything out of the case and put it in something smaller...wonder if that would make the fans go nuts though.

Looking forward to hearing some user reports when you all get your machines. Waiting to get mine until expenses from the upcoming ski season go away :(
 
I want the new PM g5 1,8, but cant afford it before after christmas. When will this thing become a "bad purchase", e.g. when is it likely that they update it?

I AM a rev. b kind a guy, so maybe I should wait for the single proc. 2.0...?

:confused:
 
TorbX said:
I want the new PM g5 1,8, but cant afford it before after christmas. When will this thing become a "bad purchase", e.g. when is it likely that they update it?

I AM a rev. b kind a guy, so maybe I should wait for the single proc. 2.0...?

:confused:
Click to expand...

It's only a 'bad purchase' if it is unable to do what you need it to do. I understand what you mean, though. It does stink to buy a model right before the next revision comes out (what happened with my PB). This system was just released, so I wouldn't expect a revision (move to the 2.0) incredibly soon.
 
JasonL said:
It's only a 'bad purchase' if it is unable to do what you need it to do. I understand what you mean, though. It does stink to buy a model right before the next revision comes out (what happened with my PB). This system was just released, so I wouldn't expect a revision (move to the 2.0) incredibly soon.
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question is, how smart would a february-ish purchase be?

These lunchbox-PowerMacs has been on the marked for a while now... Maybe we will start seeing som 1.6 ghz second hand anytime soon?

1.6 ghz could do for me. With a good grphx-card it would roll games neatly enough, would it not? Not that I'm a gamer or anything crazy like that. Thing is, with my rev a pb 12" g4 867, I dont even have the opportunity...
 
hauer said:
boy, the motherboard in there is tiny. Makes the case look quite empty. With the fewer fans does that mean that the case no longer has the "cooling zones"? It almost looks like you could take everything out of the case and put it in something smaller...wonder if that would make the fans go nuts though.

Looking forward to hearing some user reports when you all get your machines. Waiting to get mine until expenses from the upcoming ski season go away :(
Click to expand...

Noticed that too. Made me wonder, other than a cost perspective, why we didn't see a slightly different form factor for this new PM.
 
Chip NoVaMac said:
Noticed that too. Made me wonder, other than a cost perspective, why we didn't see a slightly different form factor for this new PM.
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The only reason is uniformity, and to not over shadow the new iMac design.

Apple tries to never release a ho-hum product, and they would have had to for the 1.8 or it would over shadow the iMac design.
 
Rod Rod said:
With all that empty space in front where the logic board used to extend, maybe there's room for four hard drives (instead of three) to be mounted on one of those accessory brackets such as the Swift Data 200.

http://www.macbidouille.com/news/photonews19/G5181.jpg
http://www.macbidouille.com/news/photonews19/G5182.jpg

http://www.transintl.com/store/swiftdatamovie.cfm
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=51036&item=5728240200
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I just watched a bit of that video, and I had the strange feeling I was listening to a porn movie!!!! LOL

Kimo
 
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