What is the life of Studio Displays and PM boxes?

[The Shadow]

I'm thinking of upgrading my Apple 17" TFT studio display. But it's not critical. Does anyone think the current line of displays will get a makeover when the new PMs are available at the end of the year? They're already rumoured to be getting new mouse and keyboard.

Second question: Has anyone got any views on why we have heard no rumours on what the new PMs will look like? We've heard about new fangled motherboards. Surely they've gotta go in something. The engineering quality of the iMac, PBs, iBooks and even the eMac currently makes the PM the ugly duckling. Surely that'll be rectified?

 

[Bear]

Re: What is the life of Studio Displays and PM boxes?

Originally posted by The Shadow
I'm thinking of upgrading my Apple 17" TFT studio display. But it's not critical. Does anyone think the current line of displays will get a makeover when the new PMs are available at the end of the year? They're already rumoured to be getting new mouse and keyboard.

The display line up and pricing was revamped a few months ago. Apple may or may not make additional changes along the way.

My suggestion is if you have reasons for wanting a new display, then get it. Just because Apple might release new display models, it doesn't make the current models unusable.

There's always the chance that if they do intrduce a new display, you might still wind up getting one of the current ones as they don't necessarily replace all the displays at the same time.

Just think of how many people of done without iPods (and bitched about it) because new models haven't been introduced yet.

Second question: Has anyone got any views on why we have heard no rumours on what the new PMs will look like? We've heard about new fangled motherboards. Surely they've gotta go in something. The engineering quality of the iMac, PBs, iBooks and even the eMac currently makes the PM the ugly duckling. Surely that'll be rectified?

I don't sure your opinion of which Mac's look better than others. And I'm sure there are others who would also disagree with you.

I for one don't really like the eMac design.

With the fact that the MDD design was introduced last summer, there is a strong chance that they might not really redesign the case for another year or so.

 

[Anecdoter]

Studio Displays & Power Macs

The 17" Studio Display is just beautiful - i just had mine delivered a week ago, along with a new Power Mac. I think any upgrade to the display will be of marginal improvement. The image is crisp and sharp at the native resolution. The display is so bright that I've had to turn down the brightness by 25% and reduce the gamma correction. I've played a few games and I have not noticed any ghosting or flickering. My only complaint is that sub 8 point fonts seem a little fuzzy because OS X can't anti-alias them - but I've only seen such fonts in one or two AOL error messages.
As for the Power Macs, I must say I do not agree with your opinion. The MDD case are simply the most elegant of any Power Mac case to date (just look at the clumsy Power Mac G3 cases). As for performance, I really don't know how most people believe they will need the power of the 970. Those who use high-end applications like Maya, Shake and maybe Final Cut Pro will notice an increase. Yet, for the rest of us, you'll probably never push the computer hard enough to be worth the investment. I had to run folding@home, AOL, distributed.net and Civilization 3 at the same time to saturate the processors on my DP 1.25 ghz. Even then, Civ 3 was still quite smooth, but a little slower after each turn. Everything else did not hiccup.
Thus, if you think the Power Macs are ugly, buy a 17" iMac. Same display, different look and quite speedy.

 

[Sol]

PowerMac design endurance

The PowerMac design has remained the same since the Blue & White G3 that came out after the original iMacs. I think the original poster is alluding to a design other than the four-handle PowerMac variations we are still getting today.

The problem is, we still like PowerMacs the way they are! I have a QuickSilver and in my opinion that was the best PowerMac design ever. It looks smooth, it is not THAT noisy and most importantly, it still has a reset button on the front.

As for the next generation, unless Apple makes 2.5 inch hard-drives standard across the line I do not see any point in changing the basic design. The current size of the PowerMac is good for ventilation and for all the standard features like 3.5 inch hard drives, PCI slots, optical drives, etc.

 

[The Shadow]

Thanks everyone!

Thanks for your opinons.

My thoughts were that if I upgraded to a bigger display, I have it for many, many years. On the other hand, since my G4 533 PM is coming up on 3 yrs, I'll probably be wanting to replace it in the next year. I currently like the way the glass look of the studio display matches the PM, mainly due to the 4 glass handles I suppose.

Glad to see someone likes the current PMs. I think the front end looks a bit piecemeal, unususal for Apple, a bit tackier than their other products. No matter what your opinion, I don't think anyone's about to call them "the sexiest computer in the world" as was Jobs aim with the PB.

I love my PM, I'd never buy anything else. But next time I upgrade to a new one, I'd like some more sex for my money!

Edit:
I liked the Quicksilver PMs too - Don't really know why that look was changed.