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PowerMac G5 Review

B

berkleeboy210

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Sep 2, 2004
1,641
0
Boston, Massachusetts
Here's the long awaited review of the Machine so far, This isn't going to go too in depth, but just a basic overview of the time spent testing it out this afternoon.

Specs:
Dual 2.0ghz processors
512MB RAM (Upgrading SOON)
160gb HD
16x Dual Layer Burner
ATI Radeon 9600xt 128 Video Card
Connected to a Dell 2005fpw 20" Widescreen Display.
10.4.2 Tiger
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got the Machine around 1pm Today, Boy it's heavy, not fun carrying it down stairs.

Apple always does a killer packaging job, and this machine's packaging was just that. It wasn't shipped in other box, Just the Main box as if you walked into an Apple Retail Store and bought it.

Once the box was opened, it took me about 10-15 minutes, to get everything hooked up, before the first boot.

1st Boot is always a little slow, as it is on any machine, But after it downloaded a good 20+ updates via Software Update and restarted it was a heck of a lot faster.

After installing all of the updates from Apple, it was time to start loading all my software on the Machine. First I installed Finale 2006, then Reason 3.0 All run very quick, no lag at all. Except for some reason my Keystation Pro 88 is acting up a bit.

Hooked up my iPod, and let iPodrip do the work to copy my 1000+ music library on to it, which took about 5 minutes.

Overall so far, I'm very satisfied with the Machine, haven't had too much time yet to give it full testing, but I'll run xbench tests on it probably tomorrow, and update the thread.

This computer will last me quite a while.

If you have any questions on the machine, please don't hesitate to ask me, and I'll try to answer them. I've posted pics of my setup in the official thread for that over in the Pictures Forum.
 
Glad to hear that you are enjoying your new Power Mac G5 - they are awesome machines! Thanks for the review, they always make for good reading.
 
I just got one too! It arrived on the 22nd (this past Saturday).

I heartily recommend that RAM upgrade; I got two 1 GB sticks from OWC, worked out great.

Let me know if you go for an airport antenna booster. I've been thinking of QuickerTek's G5 Omni. I'm going for one of the Dr Bott base station antennas first..

-RS
 
Xephian said:
I'm thinking of getting the Dual 2.7Ghz.
Click to expand...

I don't know what your budget is, but make sure you get a good video card and lots of RAM; barefeats benchmarking suggests that the difference between (say) 2x2.3 and 2x2.7 is much less than the impacts of these other factors.

Now if you've got the cash, go for it! I love my dual 2GHz; needless to say the 2.7 would be all this and more.

-RS
 
Got one too, for a month now 2,5GB mem. What I like most: the silence.

Only one minus: only 2 USB ports (at the back), it should have been at least 4. I already miss one for the monitor 'switch'. ( ADC -> DVI )
 
matthew24 said:
Got one too, for a month now 2,5GB mem. What I like most: the silence.

Only one minus: only 2 USB ports (at the back), it should have been at least 4. I already miss one for the monitor 'switch'. ( ADC -> DVI )
Click to expand...

I'm about to install a Lacie USB 2.0 PCI card into my PM. I'll let you know how it goes. They are very cheap and provide 4 USB slots. (Also doing one Lacie FW400 and one Lacie FW800)

By the end of the year the following will be connected to the computer:
USB Apple Cinema Display (provides two spots nearer to the user)
USB APC 800W uninterruptible power supply
USB iMic + LapelMic + headphones
USB RocketFM
(2 USB slots empty)
FW4 Apple Cinema Display (provides two spots nearer to user)
FW4 Elgato EyeTV 200
FW4 Lacie DVD-R w/ Lightscribe
(2 FW400 slots empty)
FW8 Lacie Big Disk 500GB (ridiculous product name, but I can't argue with the space)
FW8 iPod mini Dock (via Dock800 cable)
FW8 iPod Dock (via Dock800 cable)
(original PM FW800 slot empty)
--connected to monitor
USB Apple Keyboard (unless I spring for a Matais Tactile Pro)
USB Wacom Intuos3 (size TBD)
FW4 Apple iSight
(one FW400 slot empty)
--connected to keyboard
USB Apple Mouse
USB PowerMate

Of course there will probably be some substitutions in the end - the Ovolab Phlink looks rather intriguing!

-RS
 
quidire said:
I'm about to install a Lacie USB 2.0 PCI card into my PM. I'll let you know how it goes. They are very cheap and provide 4 USB slots. -RS
Click to expand...

Unfortunately this doesn't work with deep sleep if you have any USB devices plugged in at the time of sleep (e.g. iPods, media card readers, digital cameras). It's really irritating and is why Apple need to pull their finger out and add more ports as standard when they ever next get round to updating the PMs!
:rolleyes:
 
drlunanerd said:
Unfortunately this doesn't work with deep sleep if you have any USB devices plugged in at the time of sleep (e.g. iPods, media card readers, digital cameras). It's really irritating and is why Apple need to pull their finger out and add more ports as standard when they ever next get round to updating the PMs!
:rolleyes:
Click to expand...

I have no idea what you mean, but now am somewhat alarmed... are you saying that USB devices on a PCI card will prevent sleep or that the card will have issues when one returns from sleep with items plugged in?

-RS
 
quidire said:
I have no idea what you mean, but now am somewhat alarmed... are you saying that USB devices on a PCI card will prevent sleep or that the card will have issues when one returns from sleep with items plugged in?

-RS
Click to expand...

Once the PM goes to sleep, it won't wake up and you have to hard reset. So you effectively have to say bye-bye to sleep or always remember to unplug USB devices before sleep. It's well reported on xlr8yourmac.com.
 
One thing to note to the original owner is that video card is plain 9600, not 9600xt.

As for USB card, can't you plug in all the essential input devices like keyboard to the PowerMac built-in USB ports and wake it up that way?
 
forumBuddy said:
One thing to note to the original owner is that video card is plain 9600, not 9600xt.

As for USB card, can't you plug in all the essential input devices like keyboard to the PowerMac built-in USB ports and wake it up that way?
Click to expand...

No, it crashes the Mac and won't wake up. As I said it's a well known problem if you want to get more info.
 
quidire said:
I can't seem to find references to this problem (XLR8's search engine blows). Is this a problem specific to Lacie's USB card?

-RS
Click to expand...

No, any third party USB PCI cards (last time I checked there were no known brands/models of card that were immune to the problem).
Better to get a hub.
 
berkleeboy210 said:
Here's the long awaited review of the Machine so far, This isn't going to go too in depth, but just a basic overview of the time spent testing it out this afternoon.

Specs:
Dual 2.0ghz processors
512MB RAM (Upgrading SOON)
160gb HD
16x Dual Layer Burner
ATI Radeon 9600xt 128 Video Card
Connected to a Dell 2005fpw 20" Widescreen Display.
10.4.2 Tiger
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
After installing all of the updates from Apple, it was time to start loading all my software on the Machine. First I installed Finale 2006, then Reason 3.0 All run very quick, no lag at all. Except for some reason my Keystation Pro 88 is acting up a bit.

.
Click to expand...

Are you using this machine with protools? Just ordered one for my studio can't wait to try it with protools, well, and live, reason and everything else!
How loud are the fans?
Have fun!
daniel
 
fourthtunz said:
Are you using this machine with protools? Just ordered one for my studio can't wait to try it with protools, well, and live, reason and everything else!
How loud are the fans?
Have fun!
daniel
Click to expand...

haven't tried protools yet. But i did get an interesting e-mail from the creators of Finale, saying that the install disks that were originally shipped for the mac, can corrupt and delete important files on your computer :eek:

but thankfully they are sending out replacment disks at there own expense. This is for the new version of Finale 2006.
 
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