G5 imac

nb3004

nb3004

Postmaster General
I was thinking about how Apple will slowly incorporate the G5 chip into its lower end products and i though about the likeihood of a G5 imac. Because of the heat in the new processor and Apple's trend to use Aluminum in their new machines do people out there think that they would redesign the imac in aluminum and with the cheese grate look or something new altogether. Personally i think an imac with the look of the new G5 would be really cool
 
I think the iMac will be redisigned before getting the G5, but I also think it won't happen soon ... MWSF 2005? For the consumer machines the G4 is still good enough.
 
It will happen at Apple Expo Paris at the latest, I guess. It's no big deal, really. They can use 1.4 GHz PPC 970 chips. One at a time, of course. Not _that_ much cooling needed.
 
I don't think it'd be that hard to get the G5 into the iMac because it's cooler than the G4 at the same clock speed, and uses less power as well.

I think the reason they put so many fans in the G5 case is to make it quieter. You don't need a huge, loud fan. You can have just small ones right where you need it, and thats what makes it quieter than the latest G4 designs.
 
Sounds a bit simplistic this way: they also need to design a new mobo for the iMac if they want to put the G5 in the current form factor, together with all the other stuff: busses, new RAM banks, etc. And what about FW800 and USB 2.0?

Moreover, making this step, the iMac should get an aesthetic remake, just for splash factor. Would the G5 be as good without a new case? I don't think so. You need to market it well, not just dropping in a new processor, without anything but minimal changes.

But then again, the iMac is the consumer machine and has still room to grow with the G4. I don't see it getting the G5 before next summer.
 
Everyone's assuming one thing. That Apple will continue to ship G4's from Motorola. I'm beginning to think that G4's are getting scarce. There are no more 1.42ghz Power Macs. Maybe Apple is ending their relationship with Motorola real soon. We might see G5's sooner than people think in the iMac.
 
I really want apple to just admit that the G4 is behind them, and although it is an adequate chip they should just dump it and move on to better things. Boooo G4! A 1.4Ghz G5 would scream in the iMac, and then Apple could throw in the 800Mhz frontside bus and 2GB Ram maximum... <drool>
 
Since the 1.25 and 1.42 Ghz G4 chips are no longer reserved for the "high end" Powermacs, I think the next iMac update will see these chips used, and not much else changed. Then, when the G5 for laptops is ready (I forget the name of it), we'll see that chip put into the iMacs & a new design to boot. Next January is perhaps the most likely time for that to happen.

The G5 alone may be cooler than a G4 chip, but the G5 in addition to the 800Mhz + frontside bus, Serial ATA, and all the other goodies that come with it - that'd just be too much heat for the current iMac case. I'm no expert, but that seems logical, no?
 
I think they need to put G4 chips in the iBooks...c'mon, we've got G5s and they're still making G3s for the iBooks...
 
The iMacs are probably not going to get G5 chips for a long time. The current design is only 2 years old, and the old design lasted for something like 4 years while the old Power Mac tower lasted for what, 5? The G4 iMac is still in its adolescence, and will probably not see a redesign for another 2 years, considering how long it took Apple to put G4's in the rest of the line (except the iBook, which, as Aeronyth pointed out, still has a G3...).
 
I looked at the G3 introduction timeline, and discovered it took more than 11 months for the new chip to appear on a consumer model - that happened to be the original iMac.
So I don't think we will see a G5 iMac before september 2004, but I'm quite sure that by then we will get it. In the meantime, we will get a PowerBook G5 (12', 15', 17' all at the same time) this september, and a G4 iBook in december (even if the "G4" in the iBook will probably be a G3+Altivec made by IBM).
 
uhh guys? When is pather supposed to ship - but the end of the year right? Panther will be a 64bit opitimised OS so apple will be wanting to get these G5s into the rest of the product line asap. This is one one the big steps with pather, whats the point in having an optimised 64bit operating system if you only have one product to run it on.

I know it will be avaliable as 32bit as well, but it wont be as good.


I personally think we will see a few G5 products by the end of the year. Maybe not an iMac (too consumer based) but maybe a high end laptop. Perhaps even a 64bit eMac for video editing in schools! Remember this is the year of the laptop not of the blazlingly fast desktop. Apple has got to stick these suckers into powerbooks by the end of the year.


off topic - god its good to be free of exams and actually have nothing to do for 4 weeks! Cheers to all other students out there!
 
Originally posted by profx
uhh guys? When is pather supposed to ship - but the end of the year right? Panther will be a 64bit opitimised OS so apple will be wanting to get these G5s into the rest of the product line asap. This is one one the big steps with pather, whats the point in having an optimised 64bit operating system if you only have one product to run it on.

I know it will be avaliable as 32bit as well, but it wont be as good.
Click to expand...

All the Developers who took home a copy of Panther are running their beta version on a 32 bit system, and they don't seem to have any complaints. I don't disagree that Apple wants G5's in all their systems as soon as possible, but no matter how bad they want it doesn't change how long it'll take for the mobile version of the G5 to be ready, and a new iMac motherboard and architecture that can handle a G5 and everything that comes with it. They didn't put nine fans in the new Powermac just for bragging rights.

Panther probably won't ship until November/December, and we'll probably see G5 iMacs at the January Macworld Expo. That's only a couple weeks after Panther ships, and the logical timeframe for a G5 iMac. I hear the mobile G5 isn't going to be ready until about that time, anyhow. You think Apple would put a G5 in their consumer desktop system when their professional laptop is still running a G4? Nay, captain.

I'd love to see them sooner, but no matter how bad Apple wants it doesn't make the chips ready any faster. By the way, there's an 'n' in Panther. :D
 
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