Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Hampshire (the original one)
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...Obvioulsy there have been lots of stories about them in the newspapers etc. but has a website actually reviewed an iMac G5 yet?
I know the chances are slim as they've obviously not started shipping to the public. But you never know... |
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Cat's Dreamlands
Join Date: May 2004
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The lack of answer, is the answer to your question. Don't expect a review until mid september.
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Someone somewhere on one of these forums said the Apple stores should have demo models at the beginning of next week.
I'm not buying one (damn vid card) but I'll definitely go check them out once they set some up at Westfarms. |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Any reviews at this point would be based on the machines at Apple Expo. Being pre-production models, those reviews would not necessarily be accurate. I believe a website published benchmarks on the iMac a day or so after the Expo, but they were asked to remove them by Apple. They did. Reviewing what are basically prototypes doesn't do anybody any good. Expect the Apple stores to have samples of the new iMacs in 10 days or so. The San Fran store did have them on display the day the Expo opened so perhaps they still have them. Expect reviews from Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal fairly soon. He usually gets to test Apple products early.
Can't You See The Forrest Through The Trees? |
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Mr. Vieira
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Tennessee
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Well, don't forget Macworld. They always get the goods too, and only review real, shipping products. I'm sure Breen or Engst or one of those guys is neck-deep in their article/review, as we speak.
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Kind of generic review by the Washington Post-
http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmp...0813_2004sep18 But. The guy nails one thing- the slowness of the computer at 256MB RAM. I played around with a G5 1.6 iMac at my local Apple store, and I was floored how S-L-O-W it was with stock RAM. It was definitely slower than my 1.5Ghz, 760Mb RAM G4 Powerbook. Apps took seemingly forever to launch when more than one open. Apple really did their loyal and potential customers a disservice here. I mean, they released a $1300 computer which has to be upgraded right out of the box? Come on. I was debating whether to get an iMac or a used G5 tower. Now there is no question- I'm getting a tower. Here are my impressions: Slow with stock memory. Large reflective white bezel makes screen look smaller than G4 iMac. Bezel on G4 had an incredible optical illusion which made the screen look bigger. On the 17" G5, the screen seems to shrink inside that bezel. Cable management is going to be a nightmare. If I plugged all of my firewire/USB items I have in to that thing, it would look like jellyfish tentacles hanging down in an unsightly mess. Tinny sound from speakers. Overall, I think the G5 iMac is good for a certain niche- not sure what that niche is- College students with $1500 lying around? |
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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I checked out the 20" iMac at the Apple store Westfarms last week. Suprise, surprise, surprise; all the demo models had 512MB RAM in them. Still, it was a great little machine. I thought that if I checked it out in person I might want to buy one but nope. Guess I'll stick with my (just today) 1 year old Aluminium PowerBook G4. I'll take another look when Rev B. rolls around.
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Ouch, the fan system is probably a lot like the iBook I owned a while back. It was super quiet until I started straining it. If I ran something processor intensive like a game, it would get very hot and the fan would rev up. Yeah, it was super quiet when I wasn't putting a big strain on the computer, but the fan sounded like a hair dryer. Extremely annoying.
Well, there's another reason why I wouldn't buy one. Desktops shouldn't have these issues. |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Bassplayer
I feel the same way- I walked into the Apple store wanting to like it. I walked away not impressed, but satisfied that going with a G5 tower, or a used G4 iMac at a deep discount is the smart money here. |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Yeah, you can get a refurb 20" G4 iMac for $1400. Not as fast or future-proof, but it DOES have the same amount of RAM and the same video card as the new iMacs. And seriously - a 20" screen for $100 more than the price of a standalone one! I would be tempted to buy one if I had a need for something like that.
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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High Monarch of MacDebate
Join Date: Jul 2004
Location: Kuwait
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20inch imac.. who wasnt tempted into getting it.
thats like a perfect imac. |
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Which way is up?
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
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How about this treat from PC Magazine. Proof positive that bias has no place when the computer is that awesome!
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1759,1648796,00.asp - AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :) - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9) |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Interesting review, though they don't specify the config of the testing machines.
Probably ran it stock with 256MB RAM. And the Gateway 'competition' is mentioned, but not compared against. Wonder why. |
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Which way is up?
Join Date: Aug 2004
Location: Boyzeee
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And why WOULD they compare it to the Gateway? That thing is scaring people to death as it is! - AppleNova is the best Mac-users forum on the internet. We are smart, educated, capable, and helpful. We are also loaded with smart-alecks! :) - Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called sons of God. (Mat 5:9) |
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Veteran Member
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Last edited by MCQ : 2004-09-21 at 20:52. |
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Antimatter Man
Join Date: May 2004
Location: that interweb thing
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Member
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Adelaide
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I've just done a very light review on AppleTalk
http://forums.appletalk.com.au/index.php?showtopic=1537 |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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cosign! maybe i'll change my view on this after a while.. |
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Now, I've basically convinced myself to get one, and no one around here has stock and everyone has waiting lists! That'll teach me! |
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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like others, i'm not that happy about the white slab under the screen. the only reason it is there is cause apple couldn't make it "screen only". no designer in their right mind would want it looking like that. the iMac is a compromise, no doubt.
ah well... it's not that bad. |
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Hoonigan
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Canada
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Banging the Bottom End
Join Date: Jun 2004
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Actually, I could put my 2 year old As the Apple Turns stickers on there!
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Member
Join Date: Jul 2004
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Walt Mossbergg at the WSJ has posted his rave review. He's always been an Apple supporter so it doesn't come as a surprise.
http://ptech.wsj.com/ptech.html Can't You See The Forrest Through The Trees? |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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Sup-r-qwik review by Luca:
I had half an hour waiting in front of a mall for a bus transfer yesterday, and that mall just happens to have an Apple store. Lucky me . They finally got the iMac G5s in stock there, on display. I first used a dual 2.5 they had set up and then moved to a 20" iMac. I have to say, mechanically, it's pretty nice. Same sort of finish as the white G3 iBooks (before they went opaque), but less concern about scratches since it's a desktop, not a laptop. Mount is very smooth and sturdy, and my concern about the cords pulling on the computer was debunked upon using it. It stays in one place but it's still easy to move. Excellent engineering, that. Actual usage was... underwhelming. The energy saver settings were locked so I couldn't crank the processor performance up to "maximum." Also, the large screen bezel made the screen look smaller. I was using a 20" model, which has about 3.5" more viewable area than my 17" monitor at home, yet it didn't really seem any bigger. Maybe it's because it's a wide screen (no taller than my monitor, just wider), maybe it's because the dual 2.5 I was using earlier had a 23", but it didn't seem to be the overwhelmingly large screen I originally imagined for the 20". Still gorgeous and very bright and sharp. I ran XBench pretty quick and saw an interesting phenomenon. First of all, it didn't get a very good score, just 109. A lot of that has to do with the disk test and the lower processor performance. The interesting phenomenon is that when running the OpenGL graphics test (spinning squares), it started quite slowly and within half a second I could see that the CPU performance had throttled up to the maximum, as the squares started turning about twice as fast. Personally, I would not be fond of this "turbo lag." Anyway, there's no comparison to the dual 2.5 I used. Whoa nelly. That thing was so incredibly fast at everything. Even though OS X is snappy on pretty much any 1 GHz+ G4, I swear the 2.5 was noticeably faster just in general use. It felt like it was doing things about as quickly as I could think them. By comparison, the iMac felt about the same as my 1.33 GHz G4 tower - pretty fast, but not knock-your-socks-off performance. Personally I don't think there will be much of a difference for general use between the 1.25 GHz G4 iMac and the G5 iMacs (especially the 1.6 GHz). Replace the hard drive with a high-performance model (WD Raptor, Maxtor Diamondmax 10), set performance to highest, and try overclocking the video card a bit with ATIcelerator, and it would probably improve quite a bit over the G4. |
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Not sayin', just sayin'
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Actually, I remember when Mossberg would slam Apple's products and management back in the Bad Old Days(tm). Apple's has earned his praise back in recent years.
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Sub-PowerBook Lobbyist
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Washington, DC
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Cynical Old Bastard
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After 4.5 years with my B&W I decided to get a new computer. While my first impressions of the iMac (photos) was pretty poor I decided to give it another chance.
I spent ~30 minutes with the new iMac at the local CompUSA the other day and I was completely underwhelmed by it. Its a nice piece of engineering and is decent looking but it holds absolutely no love for me. Instead of spending my money on a new iMac (or even and old iMac -- I am not an AIO supporter) I spent $450 on a 733 Quicksilver (and I saved quite a bit of money and desk space since the QS will work with my old monitor and my KVM switch). |
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ಠ_ರೃ
Join Date: May 2004
Location: Minnesota
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