Mac G5

quote:

Originally posted by garyi:
Which mag is this Steve?

It was an electronics mag that's the source but it seems to have been widely quoted elsewhere. I've done a bit more checking and it seems primarily to relate to power supply and CPU failures with the worst offenders being the earlier iMac G5's. The mag wasn't testing the machines, they were actually the machines they used themselves and they reported that 17 of their 37 17" G5 iMacs failed. Who knows though - perhaps they had a poor power supply? The latest G5's are supposed to have better power supplies and cooling anyway.

My wife's current G4 laptop seems to be pretty reliable - more so that the other Macs we've had. Even with those it was software problems and I can't recall any hardware failures.

What ever ones opinion of macs they do seem to use reasonable quality components or at least no worse than others, but I guess things do go wrong, 17 out of 37 seems excessive though.

I suppose apple do try to do things other manufacturers don't perhaps it was a heat issue. I know three people with the new iMacs and all are running well, thankfully the statistic has not effected my end haha.

If I wanted a G5 then I wouldn't let those reports stop me, however I would want the extended warranty - hence my earlier comment.

So the logical thought would be to get the "last gen" via the work scheme as it costs next to nothing each month for the 3 years it has cover for and it it was to fail big-style, Apple would probably replace it with the new generation anyway.....

That would allow me to get used to the new opsys and programmes with a view to reviewing what the new Intel-based units are going to be like before passing the original one onto one of the kids. Heck, I might even then spring for the 20" unit..........

The 20 incher has the DVD burner in it and in my opinion would be worth the extra.

I'll wait for the new version - went to PC World this morning to ask a few Qs.

I'll buy online ...........

Yes they will have that effect.

What did they say?

I saw the 17" G5 1.8Mhz version on display and asked the "expert" if he could tell me anything about it. I did the "ignorant about Macs" thing.....

He tried to baffle me with the "processor is actually faster than a lot of PCs", the opsys is more stable (my WinXP has NEVER crashed or froze on me - argh ..... what have I just done ?) and the classic "it looks really cool".

His tone completely changed when I asked him if it was the very latest spec. He postured, fumbled and said "Yes".

I think he got a little pissed off when I pulled the page I printed from the Apple Store with the new one and asked him which was the newest.

At that point, I left. £899 unspent.

As others have suggested, I'd try John Lewis for the extra warranty alone.

If going to JL, make sure its latest spec they are a guilty as PC world. They can always order it in for you.

Garyi/Steve G,

Things do go wrong with Mac's, the issue is how they deal with it.

My dual 2.5Ghz G5 (bought direct from Apple) was freezing up in iPhoto during the first few weeks of ownership. Some mates who are regular Mac users told me it should not be happening, so I called Apple and described the symptoms. They picked it up the next day and sent a replacement the day after, cannot say fairer than that.

A friend with an iMac G5 (John Lewis) had a couple of problems with a CD that would not eject. After the second fault it was replaced, with the latest version.

It is easy to become a Mac zealot, but this would not last if they kept breaking down, or the customer service was not up to snuff.

Nic

I'd seen reports of overheating issues with dual G5's, but it's supposed to be resolved in the later machines.

I think the solution was liquid cooling on the higher spec duels.

Although very cool to look at I can see why they wish to move to intel if the chips are getting that hot they have to employ such antiquated techniques to keep them cool.

Garyi,

The only liquid cooling I was aware of was when the wife spilt a glass of red wine over the keyboard! Managed to take apart and dry out but would not want to do it again.

Where did you manage to upgrade RAM to 1GB for £50?

Regards

Nic

quote:

Originally posted by Steve G:
I'd seen reports of overheating issues with dual G5's, but it's supposed to be resolved in the later machines.

I'm using a dual G5 and have been for months - it has never over heated. It's a 2 GHz so I don't think it has the sophisticated cooling.

According to Steve Jobs at the last developers conference, Apple found IBM were unable to supply a 3 GHz G5 and it was decided to go Intel. Apparently, Apple has been running on Intel CPUs for some time in its test labs in Cupertino. The latest version of XTools lets you create two versions of your program one or PowerPC G5 and one for Intel = I've never had an Intel Mac to be sure that it works, but I should think it does. From a user perspective, the change to Intel should be transparent - assuming Apple support both PowerPC G3/4/5 as well as Intel on OS X Leopard.

Nick the keenest prices tend to be crucial.com

click on the uk site then go through the steps to your mac. 1 gig costs around 70 quid, if you already have 512 megs then another 512megs is £37 quid.

remember when this stuff used to be thousands of quid?

Once we knew that my wifes dad was at home on his own. So I fired up iChat and did a video conference with him to show off my sumptuous Roast dinner I had just made, he looked on laughing and jealous and I didn't realise I had spilt around half a pint of gravy on the keyboard.

It was farked.

ROTF, the intel version of OSX has apparently been in infinate loop since OSX first came out.

A sparten look on google will reveal that some of those developers now playing with the intel macs have leaked the software and there are hundreds of OSX for PC builds out now. People are clever they have this stuff talking with PC graphics cards and everything.

Unfortunately there is virtually no software for them, haha.

Garyi,

In 1984 I worked as a surveyor for a seismic company called GSI, a division of Texas Instruments, and the computers we used had twin cassettes operated by a system called MS Dos 1 or 2. Wish I had bought shares in the company then!

TI later brought out a machine with known as the TIPC which had a 10 megabite hard disc, we thought we had died and gone to heaven. How times change!

Thanks for the tip on crucial.com will check it out.

Regards

Nic

Aria.co.uk are good for memory. I bought 2 x 512 DDR 3200 for my dual G5 at about £19+VAT each. It's more at the moment (£27), but still cheaper than Crucial.

Also that G5 iMac they were offering had 64MB VRAM -- which makes it a Rev. A -- two iterations back.

And £540 for a Mac Mini?

Even the most expensive mac mini is £499.

So yes piss taking then.

Garyi/Tim,

New memory arrived today. Ended up buying from Crucial, because their diagnostic tool to determine requirements seemed foolproof to Mac virgins like me. Cost for pair of 512MB 184 pin DIMM DDR ended up as £75.18. Fantastic turnaround by Crucial, only ordered yesterday afternoon, and was dragged out of bed by the post man this morning at 8.30.

Thanks

Nic

quote:

Originally posted by nicnaim:
Garyi/Tim,

New memory arrived today. Ended up buying from Crucial, because their diagnostic tool to determine requirements seemed foolproof to Mac virgins like me. Cost for pair of 512MB 184 pin DIMM DDR ended up as £75.18. Fantastic turnaround by Crucial, only ordered yesterday afternoon, and was dragged out of bed by the post man this morning at 8.30.

Thanks

Nic

Yes Cricial are excellent - how's the performance with the extra 1GB?

Crucial are very efficient. Curiously the only company I have had beat that was Dabs of all people. I ordered a wacom pen on the thursday evening at around 9.30pm and it arrived the next day.

I must point out the few other experiences of dabs have not been so good ha.

I use Dabs frequently and usually they're very efficient. The quickest was something I ordered on a Sunday and was then quite surprised when it arrived at the office on the Monday morning.

ROFT,

Performance has not yet been seriously tested so far, but the dreaded SPOD has yet to make anything other that fleeting appearances, so it is clearly making a difference. I will get a better impression when I restart converting old Hi 8 analog to digital again.

Regards

Nic