PowerMac G5 Updates - March 23rd?

[Zaty]

A close friend has been negotiating with apple and has been allowed pre-order the new machines...

you heard it here first

2.6 GHZ, would be nice, only 800 MHz less than the fastest P4 and 200 MHz more than AMD Athlon 64 FX53. I can't wait to see the benchmarks. Perhpas Apple now does have the fastest personal computer. 2.6GHz would make a 3+GHz revision C very likely. Obviously, IBM is able to push the 970FX forward. That is, of course, if the above quote is for real.

 

[JamesDPS]

On SOUND CARDS: The average user does not require more than 16bit, 44.1 or 48 sample rate -- that allows for better-than-CD quality. I imagine you're going to be playing the measly 128k AAC's from IMS on a $130 sound card? And why would you want Apple to include high-end sound cards as an "option"? The would probably charge $300 for the same card. Look at how much they charge for RAM! You'll ALWAYS be better off going elsewhere for the third-party innards (I wish Apple would sell G5s without vid cards, hard drives, or any RAM at all, but that is probably where they make their biggest profits, so there's no way they would do that).

On a side note, I like how the m-audio card uses PeeCee color coding, too (oh, the pastels)... and by "like", I actually mean "hate"; kind of odd especially now that it's an Apple company, but that card is designed for all platforms I guess, so they have to add the stupid-looking ports for the Windows types. But I digress: Anyway, the only reason MOST people would have for digital sound is to enjoy 5.1 and DTS off of DVDs, in which case that 7.1 card is fine -- it's relatively cheap (msrp at around $130, according to m-audio) and does the job. To say it's the best sound card available is completely ludicrous, though -- heck I don't even have what I consider to be a "good" sound card - the Delta Audiophile 2496 (at around $200) - but it works just fine for me, and I do music for film.

 

[mac-in-fool]

Well Said

SORRY, PlanB, I'll have to side with thatwendigo and disagree with DHM...again.
Was it "History of the World, Part I" in which Mel Brooks' character repeatedly said with delight "It's good to be the King!"?

Personal computers are about the Operating System, and Panther OS X is unquestionably "the King". If you do not agree, then you need a change of Citizenship to either WindowsWorld or LindowsLand, where you can play with your Pentium Hot Rods all you want. Go ahead, get sucked into the speed race, and spending your money on the latest V-3GHZ engine. What? you think a higher frame rate playing WarCraft IV World or shaving a few seconds off some obscure plug-in for Photoshop or Quartz Espréssø really impresses people? Not my people.


This is a MacForum and we don't fix no stinkin' Windoze PCs here, nor do we care when they contract another PC virus, get sick and DIE! Sorry, but a PC's gonna do what a PC's gonna do.

THIS GUY SAID IT!!! Better than I could have. When I edit on FCP, switch between photoshop and after affects, import, export, burn a DVD or output to the web, or email or make a PDF all seemlessly with no downtime, viruses or crashes it makes it all more pleasant than fighting the windows OS for a little more speed? People always look at the charts, and graphs where the comparisons seem lopsided in some cases, because the bar on the graph is a 1/4 or a 1/2 longer on a certain processor. In the real world if you have to wait 30 seconds for a render as opposed to 40 seconds is it really going to ruin your life, will you even notice it. Compare that with recovering from a bluescreen crash or a virus that puts you out of commision for hours if not days, trying to solve it appear more The G5 IS FASTER WHEN WORKING WITH GRAPHICS AND VIDEO, PERIOD!!. Faster rendering in most cases and faster more seemless work flow.

 

[JamesDPS]

THIS GUY SAID IT!!! Better than I could have. When I edit on FCP, switch between photoshop and after affects, import, export, burn a DVD or output to the web, or email or make a PDF all seemlessly with no downtime, viruses or crashes it makes it all more pleasant than fighting the windows OS for a little more speed? People always look at the charts, and graphs where the comparisons seem lopsided in some cases, because the bar on the graph is a 1/4 or a 1/2 longer on a certain processor. In the real world if you have to wait 30 seconds for a render as opposed to 40 seconds is it really going to ruin your life, will you even notice it. Compare that with recovering from a bluescreen crash or a virus that puts you out of commision for hours if not days, trying to solve it appear more The G5 IS FASTER WHEN WORKING WITH GRAPHICS AND VIDEO, PERIOD!!. Faster rendering in most cases and faster more seemless work flow.

I agree, for the most part. Speed is still a big deal, though -- just read the G5 quotes on Apple's front page! 30 seconds vs 40 seconds is obviously pretty trivial (unless you're doing it 20 or 30 times) but rendering video can generally take a lot longer -- 3 hours vs 4 hours makes a big difference when you're on a deadline. It's the difference between testing out something different and not. The difference between going home before midnight and not. And when it comes to audio (my field), there are other factors that come into play, such as how many instruments can be played simultaneously, simultaneous plug-ins, quality of reverd, stuff like that. So I was VERY interested in seeing the bar graphs on Apple's site comparing Logic on a G5 to Cubase (the best sequencer for PeeCee, probably... HA!). In the end (or beginning, I guess), of course, it IS the software, which is why Macs are king, at least in my work.

 

[paulsecic]

Your G5 as standard equipment has both
"Optical digital audio in, optical digital audio out", right?

I just checked high-end Gateway and Dell computer specs trying to find comparable audio ports and could find no ports described as:
Optical digital audio in, optical digital audio out
although, speaker components sold on-site do have that capability
...just not any of the PC computers for sale - none that could take advantage of optical digital audio connections.
So, standard PC connections are Analog and only convert to Digital?

Does anyone know of any PC having standard digital audio ports comparable to the G5 that are?
Optical digital audio IN
Optical digital audio OUT

If so, does that make PC computers AM
to a G5 PowerMac's FM?... so to speak.
Apple is way ahead in Audio, right?

No. My Dell Dimension XPS that I bought last May has no optical digital audio. But it does have two Firewire ports, but it has Windoze.

 

[aswitcher]

2.6 GHZ, would be nice, only 800 MHz less than the fastest P4 and 200 MHz more than AMD Athlon 64 FX53. I can't wait to see the benchmarks. Perhpas Apple now does have the fastest personal computer. 2.6GHz would make a 3+GHz revision C very likely. Obviously, IBM is able to push the 970FX forward. That is, of course, if the above quote is for real.

I think we can assume a great deal of secrecy might conceal the fact they are going to meet Steve's 3Ghz promise. If so, its going to be an interesting time...

 

[Dave the Great]

Your G5 as standard equipment has both
"Optical digital audio in, optical digital audio out", right?

I just checked high-end Gateway and Dell computer specs trying to find comparable audio ports and could find no ports described as:
Optical digital audio in, optical digital audio out
although, speaker components sold on-site do have that capability
...just not any of the PC computers for sale - none that could take advantage of optical digital audio connections.
So, standard PC connections are Analog and only convert to Digital?

Does anyone know of any PC having standard digital audio ports comparable to the G5 that are?
Optical digital audio IN
Optical digital audio OUT

If so, does that make PC computers AM
to a G5 PowerMac's FM?... so to speak.
Apple is way ahead in Audio, right?

I know on some Gateways, they have, or you can upgrade to it, SoundBlaster Audigy, which does have optical in/outs.

Here is a link to info on the top SB card:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/specs.asp

Also, I thought there were some motherboards that had integrated digital ins and outs.

 

[Corozive]

A close friend has been negotiating with apple and has been allowed pre-order the new machines...

you heard it here first

All the signs point to a release soon i am all set to buy a g5 and have been constantly looking at the prices on some uk websites.
if you go to www.cancomuk.com and click on the g5 picture it no longer goes straight to the usual list of g5's but to a page saying select a subcategory and all that is showing is pc333 g5 minitower this has never been there before. my guess is that they are getting ready to insert the link for the new g5's

 

[Apple //e]

I know on some Gateways, they have, or you can upgrade to it, SoundBlaster Audigy, which does have optical in/outs.

Here is a link to info on the top SB card:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/specs.asp

Also, I thought there were some motherboards that had integrated digital ins and outs.

yeah, i dont know if any name brand pc has digital in/out, but many motherboards have had this feature for years. here is cut and paste of the features of a current model:

Intel® Pentium® 4 (Prescott and Northwood) processor up to 3.2GHz+, Intel Hyper-Threading Technology, 800MHz FSB, AGP 8x, DDR400, 6-channel audio, S/PDIF-in/out, 4 Serial ATA, Gigabit LAN, USB 2.0 and 3 IEEE 1394

my 2 yr old mobo p4 has onboard spdif in/out 6 channel sound

 

[MacRAND]

I know on some Gateways, they have, or you can upgrade to it, SoundBlaster Audigy, which does have optical in/outs.

Here is a link to info on the top SB card:
http://www.soundblaster.com/products/Audigy2ZS_platinum_pro/specs.asp

Also, I thought there were some motherboards that had integrated digital ins and outs.

Dave, if you go to Post #800 on page 32, you will see that I have been there, done that.

$250 upgrade - NOTHING standard & included by any PC manufacturer
Only Apple provides Digital Optical IN/OUT as standard beginning with G5 PowerMacs

If there is a Motherboard that is standard on some PC, could someone give us a quote from the site and a specific URL.

Prior posting by jahutch pointed out that there are coaxial digital connections that he apparently feels are as good as optical. And, I further noted while on the
SB site that the one item they were OUT OF STOCK in their Store was their Optical Cable. Looks like DEMAND is exceeding SUPPLY in the SB Store.

Hopefully, SoundBlaster and the PC computer manufacturers will catch up with Apple. But then, just having AUDIO on a PC has pretty much been an "upgrade" seemingly forever since PC people often have to pay extra for a simple SoundBlaster card. Looks like most manufacturers (except IBM) are too cheap to include a simple sound card in the first place, or the selection is so grand that they don't want to deprive the purchaser of the opportunity of selecting just he right SoundBlaster card for their new computer at a cost ranging roughly from $99 to $249.

 

[jsw]

since the macintosh does not currently support Dolby Digital.

Wrong. I just watched LOTR II for a minute (well, 20..hard to stop) just to be sure. Dolby Digital via optical out on latest DVD Player.

 

[jsw]

Your G5 as standard equipment has both
"Optical digital audio in, optical digital audio out", right?

Absolutely. The Polk PSW1200 loves it. Not that I play games often...but WCIII and Halo are pretty tasty, and DVDs sound great.

 

[reorx]

On SOUND CARDS: The average user does not require more than 16bit, 44.1 or 48 sample rate -- that allows for better-than-CD quality. I imagine you're going to be playing the measly 128k AAC's from IMS on a $130 sound card?

I'm glad someone brought this up. Even with just a plain-ole CD quality audio source you are absolutely wasting it all unless you're playing it back on a honest-to-god real audio system. I mean unless you've got > $8000 combined in speakers and amplification (just pure, clean wattage, nothing fancy) you're kidding yourself if you think you can hear the difference in 48k and 128k sampling...

Don't get me started on the 5.1 vs 7.1 waste-o-technology.

 

[jsw]

Do you think that Apple might offer this sound card as an option on the Mac? This card would just enhance the sound of my current speakers?

That depends a lot on your current speakers. If you're connecting to nice ones, it'll make a difference. Regular PC quality ones, probably not. I don't say "nice" to be snobby, because you could certainly get a nice setup pretty inexpensively, but this card wouldn't make an appreciable difference on a standard sub $100US PC speaker system.

 

[jsw]

Virtually every decent PC sound card since the SB Live has had at least an S/PDIF digital out via coax. Optical is fairly uncommon because virtually all computer speaker systems I am aware of use coax. The differences between the two are virtually non-existant. There are PC Sound cards with optical options (like my Hercules Game Theatre XP, though I have yet to use the optical).

I agree that an S/PDIF coax out is a good idea to allow connection to typical PC speaker systems and many consumer-grade receivers. However, optical out is typically of higher fidelity and lower noice compared to coax, and therefore is preferable in many higher-end installations. Agreed, though, that there is no reason not to include coax digital out.

However, you can get optical digital input for $199US or less (2 minutes of browsing found this Home-Theater-in-a-box at Best Buy - not a recommendation, just an example), so you could hook up a nice 5.1 system pretty cheaply.

 

[jsw]

A close friend has been negotiating with apple and has been allowed pre-order the new machines...

you heard it here first

Hmmm. A single post from a new account, with no details whatsover beyond "2.6 GHz within two weeks". Sounds fishy. Apple allows these pre-orders prior to announcing - weeks prior to announcing, and one lone anonymous post lets us in on it?

It'd be great, sure, but we've heard that here before anyway.

 

[jsw]

I'm glad someone brought this up. Even with just a plain-ole CD quality audio source you are absolutely wasting it all unless you're playing it back on a honest-to-god real audio system. I mean unless you've got > $8000 combined in speakers and amplification (just pure, clean wattage, nothing fancy) you're kidding yourself if you think you can hear the difference in 48k and 128k sampling...

Don't get me started on the 5.1 vs 7.1 waste-o-technology.

Amen. And you're likely not going to be using a Mac as your source for that audio anyway.

And why just go 7.1? I mean, really, wouldn't it all be better with at least 11.3, where you add two ceiling speakers and low front and rear ones, with two more subwoofer channels? Or perhaps maybe 16.4, or more?

It's a computer. It's nice that it does 5.1. If I want anything better - and, BTW, the 5.1 optical out does sound pretty good - I'll hook up a genuine home theater with something a wee bit larger than my 20" screen to watch it on.

 

[PlanB]

hi jsw

you live in andover???? ma???

i take it thats the us right???
well i live in andover in the uk...... spooky ..or not

 

[nightcap965]

It

Um, why do you think we call it New England? <grin>

Sorry about that late unpleasantness with the tea...

hi jsw

you live in andover???? ma???

i take it thats the us right???
well i live in andover in the uk...... spooky ..or not

 

[nightcap965]

It's a Small World After All...

Um, why do you think we call it New England? <grin>

Sorry about that late unpleasantness with the tea...

hi jsw

you live in andover???? ma???

i take it thats the us right???
well i live in andover in the uk...... spooky ..or not

 

[invaLPsion]

Wrong. I just watched LOTR II for a minute (well, 20..hard to stop) just to be sure. Dolby Digital via optical out on latest DVD Player.

DVD player? I was talking about watching DVDs on the mac...

 

[Geethree]

G5s affecting G4 prices

So when do these new G5s finally push down the price of the last new G4s? I'm amazed at how long they've been holding their value, with a discrepancy of maybe 50 bucks.

 

[djbahdow01]

DVD player? I was talking about watching DVDs on the mac...

I believe he was talking about the DVD player on the Mac. On a side note looks like the RAM Promotion has ended if anyone cares. Well according to EST anyways, Apple time there is still like an hour or so. Oh well heres to hoping this week brings good things.

 

[Soire]

Longest thread- ever!

So this is a long thread, which says a lot about anticipation for the new G5s, but I wanted to inquire about the end of those promotions. The memory promo, the printer promo (yipee), and the iPod engraving promo have all ended. Hopefully this points to something, at least something more than a new set of promos.

I was also wondering how much the laser engraving on iPods costs, cause I held out on the hopes that a new 4th gen release was due. I guess I dropped the ball on that one, as i had ought to just suck it up and buy a 40 gig and be done with it. Any news on the iPods?

 

[aswitcher]

So when do these new G5s finally push down the price of the last new G4s? I'm amazed at how long they've been holding their value, with a discrepancy of maybe 50 bucks.

I dont know. Not something I have come to grips with either. Maybe the new G5s will pull so far in front that the old G4 duals at 1.42 Gmz will pale further, finally leading to a drop... Maybe the PB and iBooks, iMacs and eMacs with their bumps this year, and hopefully in most cases jumps to G5, will finally make prices slide...