"G5 Ready" = "G5 Upgradable"?
Back when the leaked pictures of the new Power Macs came out -- pictures that turned out to be pretty much on the money -- there was also a PDF document diagram of the back panel. I was okay with the photographs, but I was suspicious of the PDF because of the "G5 Ready" caption at the top of the page. That seemed out of place and unnecessary for an internal Apple document.
But it looks like the PDF was fairly accurate too, and that lends credence to the idea that the new case at least is "G5 Ready".
When I look at the pictures of the inside of the new Power Macs, and see two CPUs floating on a daughter card over the motherboard, I have to wonder:
Can the CPUs be removed and replaced for upgrading?
Could the connection between the CPU card and the motherboard support a faster FSB, so new CPUs could take full advantage of the 333 MHz DDR?
Without such upgradability, I tend to view the latest batch of Power Macs as a stopgap measure. If "G5 Ready" turns out to mean "G5 Upgradable", the new Power Macs are much more attractive.
But it looks like the PDF was fairly accurate too, and that lends credence to the idea that the new case at least is "G5 Ready".
When I look at the pictures of the inside of the new Power Macs, and see two CPUs floating on a daughter card over the motherboard, I have to wonder:
Can the CPUs be removed and replaced for upgrading?
Could the connection between the CPU card and the motherboard support a faster FSB, so new CPUs could take full advantage of the 333 MHz DDR?
Without such upgradability, I tend to view the latest batch of Power Macs as a stopgap measure. If "G5 Ready" turns out to mean "G5 Upgradable", the new Power Macs are much more attractive.
Comments
Anyone know anything about this sort of thing?
Apple doesn't want us to upgrade at little cost and thus lenghten the life of our macs, it wants us to buy a new machine everytime they release one.
Steve is especially greedy there.
Just look at the current RAM prices: 730.- for 512MB DDR333, while the same thing costs 230.- in a PC store (CHF) That's what I call an elephantite margin.
Also the heatsink the new machine has, while big, is nowhere near 7lbs in weight, so I guess, while the rest was true, those parts about heatsinks and G5 ready were pulled out of someones behind.
Of course I like to be positively surprised, for a change.
G-News
<strong>Back when the leaked pictures of the new Power Macs came out -- pictures that turned out to be pretty much on the money -- there was also a PDF document diagram of the back panel. I was okay with the photographs, but I was suspicious of the PDF because of the "G5 Ready" caption at the top of the page. That seemed out of place and unnecessary for an internal Apple document.
But it looks like the PDF was fairly accurate too, and that lends credence to the idea that the new case at least is "G5 Ready".
When I look at the pictures of the inside of the new Power Macs, and see two CPUs floating on a daughter card over the motherboard, I have to wonder:
Can the CPUs be removed and replaced for upgrading?
Could the connection between the CPU card and the motherboard support a faster FSB, so new CPUs could take full advantage of the 333 MHz DDR?
Without such upgradability, I tend to view the latest batch of Power Macs as a stopgap measure. If "G5 Ready" turns out to mean "G5 Upgradable", the new Power Macs are much more attractive.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Guesses, guesses, and more guesses.....
Isn't there a comment in Apple's blurb about the new controller being "auto-sensing"? ie detecting whether the bus is 167 or 133. If I had to guess, then I'd say that that it may very well "sense" higher speeds (and adjust for them), leading to a one mobo for all strategy.
'Course I don't know much about hardware, so I may very well be wrong.....
<strong>The last upgrade Apple offered was back in 1994...
Apple doesn't want us to upgrade at little cost and thus lenghten the life of our macs, it wants us to buy a new machine everytime they release one.
Steve is especially greedy there.
Just look at the current RAM prices: 730.- for 512MB DDR333, while the same thing costs 230.- in a PC store (CHF) That's what I call an elephantite margin.
Also the heatsink the new machine has, while big, is nowhere near 7lbs in weight, so I guess, while the rest was true, those parts about heatsinks and G5 ready were pulled out of someones behind.
Of course I like to be positively surprised, for a change.
G-News</strong><hr></blockquote>
*every* PC manufacturer overcharges for RAM by a staggering margin. It doesn't matter if you buy from Apple, Dell, Gateway, Compaq, etc., you never buy ram from them. Part of this is due to ram fluctuations. During the past year, there have been times where Apple ram is amazingly overpriced, and other times where it actually comes close to Crucial's prices. They probably tack on a huge install fee though. If someone's that stupid to buy ram from apple, let them; they're only subsidizing our computers
[ 08-13-2002: Message edited by: Nebrie ]</p>
<strong>That's what I call an elephantite margin.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Not a flame, just an English language tip.
You mean "elephantine", not "elephantite".
Adjectives in English that end in "-ine" tend to mean "having the nature of". Elephantine, serpentine, vulpine, porcine, etc.
Long words in English that end in "-ite" are often minerals. "Elephantite" is a phosphate mineral compound found in marble. Lucite, granite, pyrite, etc.
<strong>The last upgrade Apple offered was back in 1994...
Apple doesn't want us to upgrade at little cost and thus lenghten the life of our macs, it wants us to buy a new machine everytime they release one.</strong><hr></blockquote>
That's not true, unless you're only talking processor upgrades. Apple offered a Combo Drive upgrade program to owners of the second-generation PowerBook G4.
And I wrote elephantite thinking of elephantitis, not elephants.
elephantitic then I guess.
G-News
<strong>I was okay with the photographs, but I was suspicious of the PDF because of the "G5 Ready" caption at the top of the page. That seemed out of place and unnecessary for an internal Apple document.
</strong><hr></blockquote>
The PDF was not an internal Apple document... nor was it ever claimed to be.
The person clearly either saw the photos or saw the actual machines and created the PDF ... and they admitted they created the PDF.
arn
<strong>The PDF was not an Apple document. It was drawn up by the guy who saw the new enclosure. "G5 ready" was just his conjecture based on the size of the heat sink, etc.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Well, he actually saw it as he got the back panel right including all the air holes. My guess is that internally the case is ready for the G5, X1 or whatever you want to call it. Externally they could change its looks dramatically without changing it internally or messing with the best aspects of its design.
<strong>I agree that Apple most likely wouldn't offer the upgrade, I was just commenting that this motherboard may be somewhat ready for a new a CPU that you can have (if you buy a new box to go around it!)</strong><hr></blockquote>
Apple certainly isn't known for providing upgrade options. If the CPU daughter card can be upgraded, however, perhaps it could be a good third-party upgrade opportunity.
If Apple were to have suddenly changed policies and wanted to sell CPU upgrades themselves, it would do them little good to keep it a secret. Far better to loudly advertise "New Power Macs with upgradable CPUs!!!" and pull in extra sales from people who might be holding off waiting for The Next Big Thing.
I still wonder if the CPUs can be upgraded, but if they can be, I'd consider it a side-effect of what is easier and cheaper for Apple to do from a manufacturing and development standpoint. Apple might have designed the current motherboard with faster CPUs in mind, but also ready to deal with slow CPUs as well, if that's all the could get out of Motorola in time.
OK..its not a funny joke. But pretty obvious that it was an attempt at one...