PPC G5's dying....lots of them ?

[Fomaphone]

anybody know where i can find some benchmarks that i can use to see how much faster the new top-model Gainestown will be than my june '04 dual 2.5 PPC was?

basing it on no data in particular, i'm guessing about 5x faster in video editing applications... but considering that FCP will be rewritten for snow leopard and that i'll finally buy cs4 for After effects with with snow leopard, who knows.

i'll probably start with 6gb if i can't swing 12... my last machine had 6.5

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80 <- specs for g5

 

[TrapOx]

Why now ?

Your imagination.

 

[California]

There is a list of benchmarks somewhere out there -- i'll try to find the link.

Basically, the PM G5 quad topped the list of even newish mac laptops but was still much slower than the mac pros.

I suppose all the things I don't understand about PowerPC architecture come into play with PPC vs. Intel on the apps you are talking about but still, i love my G5s. Plenty snappy for my needs.

 

[rockinrocker]

I think it was intended more as sarcasm that anything as far as the precise timing goes... however, planned obsolescence is a normal practice. I learned about it in my Engineering program and friends of mine in the auto industry learned about it as well. Things are not made to last.

There's a difference between planned obsolescence and crappy design.
The entire computer industry is built around planned obsolescence, but that doesn't mean a well designed computer should only last a couple years. Any well built CPU should last decades if properly cared for, regardless of whether it's obsolete or not.

 

[FF_productions]

I have a PC going on 7 years old, you can't tell me that it is acceptable that a $3000 pro-grade PowerMac G5 is only supposed to live a certain amount of time. That's HORRIBLE design flaws by Apple and they should take responsibility for it.

 

[California]

I have a PC going on 7 years old, you can't tell me that it is acceptable that a $3000 pro-grade PowerMac G5 is only supposed to live a certain amount of time. That's HORRIBLE design flaws by Apple and they should take responsibility for it.

From my experience, Apple has taken care of even out of warranty G5 towers. I am like everyone else, confused about the breakdown rate but am betting it is a dust and heat or liquid cooling issue every time.

 

[Kashchei]

I stumbled upon this thread yesterday and started to wonder since I have a dual 2.0 G5 in my office bought Oct. 2005. I had had no problems with the machine until this morning when I walked into my office to find it frozen up and with the fans blowing at top speed. Is resetting the PRAM the best thing to do?

 

[kjs862]

I still use my Power Mac G5 as my day to day machine and it runs like brand new. No problems with it at all, although it can use a new screen refresh. My 30 ACD is looking very grainy compared to my 20 alu imac.

 

[rockinrocker]

I stumbled upon this thread yesterday and started to wonder since I have a dual 2.0 G5 in my office bought Oct. 2005. I had had no problems with the machine until this morning when I walked into my office to find it frozen up and with the fans blowing at top speed. Is resetting the PRAM the best thing to do?

it's a thing to do....
might try resetting the SMC too.

 

[Akula971]

Mtbf

All electronic devices have an MTBF (mean time before failure) figure. A product that is designed correctly will be designed to meet a number of hours service in a particular environment. They may use a MIL standard or Belcore standard to assess it. If a manufacturer wants a device to last longer, they have to be "kinder" to it. Derate it more or put in a better part (costs more). The enemies of electronic components are mainly heat and electrical shock. So if you want your product to last longer, then keep it cool and leave it running on a nice clean supply. Simple? is it not?

So all your G5's are just dying of old age, like everything else. Those that where well looked after and not treated badly will last longer, and the rest? well......

 

[bumzo1]

with the planned G5 fail thing I think they did it right before the launch of the Gainstown MP so that people would rush out and buy whats leftover of the current mac Pro so that when they launch the new one they arent stuck with a bunch of $3000 computers that they will have to sell for less than what they are worth.

 

[RedTomato]

I have (or had till I gave it away last year) a PC that I built myself, and I guess it was about 10 years old (AMD 700mhz, bought just about when the first 1ghz procs came out). Worked perfectly well when i checked it before giving it away. Inc the original 30GB drive. Win 98 SE nice and fast, but hadn't used it for years.

Still have a B+W Power Mac (looking to give it away now) works perfectly well. That's 10 years old for sure (aquired it a couple of years ago). Runs Tiger OSX 10.4.11 fine with 1GB ram.

Still have a 5-year old PowerBook 15'', now with the latest Leopard 10.5.6 and 1.5GB ram, still works fine, and still use it for watching DVDs and sometimes as a household server. Dead firewire ports, but fine apart from that. Last time used it yesterday to watch a DVD with my girlfriend.

 

[scottlinux]

There seems to be a lot of G5's having logic board / processor problems over on the Apple discussion and Macworld forums, all have happened recently, all displaying the same symptoms, including mine.

http://discussions.apple.com/forum.jspa?forumID=596

Why now ?

A lot of these things sounds power related. I am wondering if it's just bad power supplies reaching their EOL.

If a power supply lasts 5 years after constant use that is pretty good- no matter what model or brand of computer.

 

[Digital Skunk]

I still use my Power Mac G5 as my day to day machine and it runs like brand new. No problems with it at all, although it can use a new screen refresh. My 30 ACD is looking very grainy compared to my 20 alu imac.

Same here. My 20" ACD was replaced by a 23" a few months ago, but it's still ticking just fine, keeping pace with my 17" MBP pretty well on many tasks.


The logic board did need replacing after the first year however, but since then it's been fine. A workhorse in the greatest since of the word. I know once I replace it with a Mac Pro sometime late this year or early next, I will still have it around the house for some purpose.

 

[grue]

I still use my Power Mac G5 as my day to day machine and it runs like brand new. No problems with it at all, although it can use a new screen refresh. My 30 ACD is looking very grainy compared to my 20 alu imac.

…your IPS panel is looking worse than a dogcrap quality TN panel?

The iMac might look prettier because it's shiny, but the 20" panel used in them is fourth-rate.