Apple Power Mac G5 2GHz Dual Core Desktop

G5 Dual Core 2ghz

Strengths: I fly with this Mac

Weaknesses: None

Summary: I have waited to buy a new work horse and I will never regret purchasing this Apple product. Along with Tiger and my G5 I breeze through all my projects in AI, PS, Dreamweaver, and Flash.

Apple hasn't disappointed me. I am one owner that will never work on a PC (windows).

It is so QUIET.

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• I agree with everything you said. Apple is the way of the future...

A Powerhouse

Strengths: * processing power * nice look/design * quiet * expandibility * easily accesible usb/firewire ports in front

Weaknesses: * size (it's pretty big) * lack of extra ports (firewire/usb) * expansion cards (PCI-express) are still expensive

Summary: First of all, I just have to say that I love this machine. I upgraded from a 867mhz powermac g4 quicksilver and going to this machine is a extremely noticible difference. Web browsing is even faster presumably because it handles the javascript or flash on all the webpages these days more quickly. Speed improvement is noticeable on applications like iPhoto/iMovie/iDVD. In iPhoto there isn't any lag and the pictures render quickly. Also, adjusting the pictures (ie, exposure/brightness/saturation) happens in real time (I used to have to wait for the changes to be reflected).

I've added extra RAM but there's still 4 open RAM slots in case I want to add more in the future. Speaking of expandability, this model comes with PCI-Express slots which is good in that moving forward, this will be the technology used. The downside is that since it's so new right now, it's expensive - a firewire PCI card will run you upwards of $75. The other gripe I have is that there are only 3 USB 2.0, 1 Firewire 400 and 1 Firewire 800 port in the back. While this may seem like enough, you'll quickly run out of ports if you have a printer, a firewire drive, an ipod, a scanner, and a keyboard/mouse.

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I have been flogging one of these for 12 months

Strengths: - unburstable, unflappable, effortless power - zero down-time, OS-X - quiet, solid, pretty cheap for a dual CPU 64-bit machine

Weaknesses: - seems to run hot, but has shown no instability - sings with 1GB RAM, ships with 512MB - racking my brains.. nothing else, really

Summary: 18 months ago, I needed to replace four 433MHz G4 machines (running OS-9), knowing that the new machines would have to last at least 5 years. This ruled out 32-bit machines. I assessed Xeon and Opteron-based systems, along with the G5s. Peering at the wee graphs on various hardware sites, the G5 seemed to be well in the running.

The hardware is only half the equation. There was no way I was going to spend thousands of dollars on machines for which no 64-bit operating system (capable of running Adobe/ Macromedia software) existed. OS-X was up to its fourth iteration by that stage (10.3).

So I went with this machine (then Apple's king of the hill) really because there was no viable alternative. The fact that OS-X is so great is gravy, really. Plus SATA this and Gigabit that and firewire the other - it's pretty well-specced out of the box. I did upsize to 1GB RAM, however.

Print jobs that used to take 25 minutes on our old G4s take less than a minute on the new ones. Without wanting to go entirely Apple-headed on y'all, with these G5s, I feel like I am working on a document, rather than working on a computer. The machines just stay out of the way. I used to work as fast as my G4 (tiring, frustrating), now I just work fast.

I am happy with the hardware and the operating system in equal measure. Would buy again. Even 18 months on, it's difficult to see where any competition would come from.

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