The Apple Store (Retail) And Their Ultimate G5

[Mr. Anderson]

So I go to the Michigan Ave store today to ask about a few things - I'm going to be buying a quad G5 next week after MWSF - and I find out that they have what Apple calls their "Ultimate G5" in stock - a Quad G5, 1 Gig of RAM, 500 Gig Drive and the 7800 GT card.

I didn't know this and I've not seen it posted here - why wouldn't they advertise that it was available? It just seemed odd to me - and the Apple employee couldn't get me a price cause he couldn't find the sheet and I didn't push - the 1 Gig of RAM was 2 512megs which is a waste of slots. I'll be getting 8 gig in mine - not from Apple.

But what intrigues me is the possibility of going and picking one up in stead of waiting for the thing to ship - that is of course if nothing changes on Tues, which is doubtful, but I can wait a few days.

Anyone have any thoughts on this?

D

 

[kretzy]

Maybe each Apple store is able to sort of custom order a few computers with better specs than the usual. Then they can present it as an all in one package for their consumers without having to wait for custom built machine online.

 

[MacTruck]

Apple sells an "ULTIMATE" version of every computer product. I personally have purchased the ultimate mac mini and the ultimate Powerbook which essentially is a hopped up version of the system, basically with more ram, better graphics card etc.. Nothing you can't get online but convenient to have at the apple store. Its a great deal except they sting you on the ram. You can usually get a better deal if you are willing to wait and order online but people like me "got to have it right nows" usually spring for it.

 

[thedude110]

So I'm going to be buying a quad G5 next week after MWSF

Congratulations! I wonder if you can feel my envy from here?

I find out that they have what Apple calls their "Ultimate G5" in stock - a Quad G5, 1 Gig of RAM, 500 Gig Drive and the 7800 GT card.

Holy ... (*wipes away drool*) freaking ... (*wipes away drool*) crap!

That, Mr. Anderson, is a Mod's kind of machine. Do you know how fast you could load the "New Posts" page on that thing? You could outpost Mad Jew and Lacero by your "Ultimate" computing power alone.

But seriously. If it were me and I had the moolah to buy immediately, I would do it. You can always pull out the two 512 sticks and sell them in the Marketplace!

Seriously. I mean, I've never sold anything online, but back in my ITing days some jerk stole almost all the 512 sticks from our Mac lab (we assumed s/he was trying to raise some cash and not trying to produce some super-computer rooted in 512 RAM sticks). So, they must be worth something.

Probably not what you want to hear, but "why haven't you bought that computer yet?"

 

[puckhead193]

what is the ultimate imac and powerbook...just asking....
when i went to order my powerbook from the store, the guy went to check in the back to see if they have any instock of my current specs....

 

[Platform]

Congrats...

Well I guess now that I must have the Ultimate + iMac or

 

[MacTruck]

what is the ultimate imac and powerbook...just asking....
when i went to order my powerbook from the store, the guy went to check in the back to see if they have any instock of my current specs....

Ultimate 15" powerbook

1.67ghz
1gb ram 2 x 512mb
128mb vram
100gb HD

 

[Chundles]

What do you mean by a "waste of slots"?

The only way to get 1GB of RAM into a PowerMac G5 is to use 2x512MB sticks. You need to install RAM into PowerMacs in matching pairs.

 

[puckhead193]

Ultimate 15" powerbook
1gb ram 2 x 512mb

now that's a waste of slots..

 

[MacTruck]

now that's a waste of slots..

Yep. Thats why I say you eat it on the ram when you get the ultimate. Worked out ok for me though, I had two 1gb dimms from my Thinkpad that worked in the powerbook. I just stuck the two 512 dimms in the thinkpad.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

What do you mean by a "waste of slots"?

The only way to get 1GB of RAM into a PowerMac G5 is to use 2x512MB sticks. You need to install RAM into PowerMacs in matching pairs.

They should have put 2 gigs in there - 2 1 gig cards - I'm going to be loading mine with 8 gigs of RAM so if I do buy this thing at the Apple Store I'm going to sell the 2 512s in the market place.

As for using the Quad to post more that's laughable

I do 3d Animation, video and assorted multimedia - so for some of my stuff the Quad isn't even going to be enough at times, but its going to be much better than what I have now.

D

 

[sean.ferguson]

As far as I am aware, Apple sell "Ultimate" versions of all hardware at their stores. All these are, are non-stock hardware. For example, a 12-inch iBook with a 60GB Drive and 1GB of RAM. Or, a PowerMac with 500GB storage and 1GB of RAM.

 

[Zoowatch]

They should have put 2 gigs in there - 2 1 gig cards - I'm going to be loading mine with 8 gigs of RAM so if I do buy this thing at the Apple Store I'm going to sell the 2 512s in the market place.

As for using the Quad to post more that's laughable

I do 3d Animation, video and assorted multimedia - so for some of my stuff the Quad isn't even going to be enough at times, but its going to be much better than what I have now.

D

how will you manage to use 8GB or RAM?

i have 4.5 GB RAM in my quad and it's has never been used more than 3GB at a time

normally, once you have 2GB RAM or more it's the hard disk speed which limits the Quad performance.

i think you can save on getting 8GB RAM.


of course, if in the near future we are able to load the entire OS X into the RAM instead of HD, then 8GB RAM is worth the investment but not now.

 

[iGary]

how will you manage to use 8GB or RAM?

i have 4.5 GB RAM in my quad and it's has never been used more than 3GB at a time

normally, once you have 2GB RAM or more it's the hard disk speed which limits the Quad performance.

i think you can save on getting 8GB RAM.


of course, if in the near future we are able to load the entire OS X into the RAM instead of HD, then 8GB RAM is worth the investment but not now.

He's a video editor.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

He's a video editor.

Only some time - I'm more of a 3D animator - so when I load a large model or create very complex scenes in Lightwave, the more RAM the better, especially when you start talking about millions of polygons .

I do the video editing on the animations and some personal stuff - it will be interesting to see how much difference the RAM makes and I might do a test or two before I install it just to see But the Quad itself will be a huge difference from what I have now. I also plan to get a Sony HDR-FX1 HDVCam later this year, so going to HD videos is going to make an even bigger difference - especially if I have to add 3D elements to the videos, since rendering 3D at that image size is going to bring the Quad to its knees.

D

 

[liquidh2o]

The mac mini was the first Apple that I noticed was available in a retail store. Don't ever remember them carrying ultimate configurations of machines before that.