Apple reintroduces the 1.8GHz SP Power Mac G5

Apple crippled the bus on this baby.

An iMac G5 in aluminum clothing.

Well, it does give one a bit of expandability though.

Guess $1499 is not too bad though its not the headless thingy some around here keep dreaming about.

The dream that will NEVER come true.

Have a look at the video card options...theres now a mac version of the 6800 GT and Radeon 9800xt. Thats one step forward.

The FSB? One step back \

Good.

This is what a lot of people have been crying out for.

I wonder if this is the model with the cut down/smaller motherboard that was spotted in a service manual a while back.

This is your new Cube guys...

This seems to effectively fill the gap between the iMac, which comes with its own display, and the $2000.00 + display tower dillemma. People who simply want some expandability and a not-built-in monitor now have a nice option.

I think these'll sell, although it is a tad larger than a Cube.

Apple makes Power Mac G5 more affordable as it reincarnates the single 1.8GHz configuration.

Apple Computer on Tuesday addedÂ*a 1.8 GHz single processor Power Mac G5 desktop to its 64-bit Power Mac G5 line priced at $1,499.

The new 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 features 6.4GB per second of fast memory bandwidth, up to 4GB of total main memory, three PCI expansion slots, up to 500GB of internal Serial ATA mass storage and AGP 8X Pro graphics capabilities.

The 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 comes with the NVIDIA GeForceFX 5200 Ultra graphics card with dual display support,high-performance I/O with Gigabit Ethernet, FireWire 800, two FireWire 400 ports, three USB 2.0 ports, optical digital audio input and output, analog audio input and output and a headphone jack. The system also supports 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme wireless networking and is Bluetooth ready for wireless connections to a host of Bluetooth-enabled peripherals.

Pricing & Availability
The new 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5 is available immediately through the company's online store and at Apple's retail stores and Apple Authorized Resellers in one standard configuration.

The new 1.8 GHz Power Mac G5, with a suggested retail price of $1,499 (US), includes:
1.8 GHz 64-bit PowerPC G5;
600 MHz front-side bus;
256MB 400 MHz DDR SDRAM (4GB maximum);
80GB Serial ATA 7200 rpm hard drive;
AGP 8X Pro graphics slot;
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64MB DDR SDRAM;
3 PCI slots (64-bit, 33 MHz); and
8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW).

Whoah! I had to check this on Apple's site to make certain it was correct, but did anyone else notice the 600MHz bus?

Does this machine really belong with the rest of the PowerMac line with it's iMac-esque multiplier?

I wonder what the reasons were for going with a 3:1 vs. a 2:1 in this new model? It only makes the $500 bump for the DP1.8 all that more appealing, IMHO.

-John

Edit: Reading through previous posts, it seems I wasn't the only one who noticed! :-)

Could somebody please explain where the sanity lies in supplying any Mac with 256MB of RAM as standard?

And why Apple find it so hard to put a DVD-RW/DVD+RW/DVD-RAM drive in their computers when you can pick them up just about anywhere now for under 40 pounds sterling?

These two things continue to baffle me whenever Apple announce a new product.

Makes the middle iMac look like a decent deal (if you don't care about slots and changeable display).

Wow, the computer I bought a year ago is now $800 less and just as fas- never mind.

I've got a faster bus, more RAM, and a bigger HD.

The perfectly positioned machine to sell both the low end tower and the middle iMac.

The cynical argument - and probably true, unfortunately. It'd be fine if OS X worked better on 256MB of RAM.

Of course, if you buy your extra RAM from somewhere other than Apple, it's not so bad a hit on the wallet.


Interesting. Politics, perhaps? Still, it seems odd that they don't support at least one of the rewriteable DVD formats.

The drives in Apple Power Macs do write DVD+RW and DVD-RW media with the built-in software. You don't even need Toast or anything.

A drive like the new DVR-108 (which isn't in any Power Mac yet) also supports reading DVD-RAM.

Thats more my price, $1350 with my student discount.

edit: actually it gets as low as $1260 without the Super Drive.

Then why do they still advertise them as just DVD-R drives?

Someone from Apple (Fred Anderson?) addressed this a couple of years ago. Gavriel is exactly right; the resellers have thin margins and few upgrades on which they can boost their profits. RAM is one. And the online resellers use extra RAM as an incentive to buy from them rather than direct from Apple. And Apple, of course, makes huge margins on the upgrades they sell themselves.

Yes, about six times by volume. I think I'll hang on to my Cube a while longer, even though I suspect this model means we won't be seeing any SMALL headless tower.

I'd put that the other way around. It is a lot slower than the rest and just a little cheaper. It's definitely a step in the right direction, but it's still a bit on the expensive side.

Anyone else think this kills the headless eMac theory?

Screed

I do. With this powermac, they've realized the need for a cheaper tower, and this is probably a first step in (hopefully) a strategy. I hope they'll keep pimpin' the price or bump the specs to that the PowerMac has more speed/features to offer than the 1499 iMac , so that they have approximately the same bang/buck ratio.

Quick question - I want a machine for games (Halo, BFF1942 etc), Office 2004, Safari, Mail, Photoshop and Toast'ing large movies onto DVD. I definately will not be buying any PCI-X adapters.

Which machine would your recommend then, the single 1.8, the dual 1.8 or the dual 2.0? or an iMac for that matter.

oh and yes I would be upgrading the video card.

Thanks.

If you don't care about the price, get the 2.0. If you do care about the price, get the dual 1.8, which IMHO has the best bang/buck ratio.

Single 1.8, unless you want to run HALO at silly (or even half decent) resolutions.

I think the Dual 1.8 or 2.0. If you're really hard-core, then the dual 2.5.

It's always nice to see them offer more headless Macs, no matter what kind, but it's price/performance that we are really asking for. This is very bad price/performance. 1700EUR for a machine that has insufficient RAM, too small a HD blocking one of the two slots, poor GPU, and no display? Maybe good for a small office web server. For office use, iMacs are better. For home use, iMacs are better. For gaming, a 1000EUR PC will kick its ass even after heavy upgrades.

This is indeed the new Cube, in terms of cost.

The difference now is that if it dies, it is not going to cost that much to Apple, if at all.

Yep, and I figure it's good for Apple to have this model out, even if it's only to be able to say "Powermac, starting at..."

Good to see Apple trying to do something about their sagging PowerMac sales.

While I still don't like it 100% (mainly the price tage seems a bit high), It's a definite step in the right direction. I was hoping they'd release it in a slightly smaller, minitower case to distinguish it from the rest of the PowerMac line as the "PowerMac Express." I mean, do people really need 3 PCI slots and 2 drive bays? I'd be willing to sacrafice some of those for a smaller case and cheaper price.

But overall, I'm pleased Apple is finally releasing a low(er) cost tower. Now it will be interesting if consumers will notice it or if it will go the way of the Cube.

I think it'll devour 1.8DP sales.

There are a lot of people out there who buy the "entry level" machines exclusively and won't look at anything else. It's not smart - but it's what they do...

I think it's a good solid machine, and I think Apple needs a machine like that in their Power Mac G5 line-up. It allows them to use existing parts, and for every DP machine they could have built they can now have two SP machines sitting on the shelf.

It may even be a way of clearing out excess 1.8GHz parts.

I think it'll sell well.

YESSSS!!!!!!!!! As a soon-to-be switcher, this is exactly what I want. a single cpu mid tower, the advantage is HUGE, I buy the tower now, and when I want a speedbump next year, I replace the gpu, and add ram, two years from now, add a big hdd, and maybe a cpu upgrade. and in ~four-five years, start the cycle over!

SCREW THE "FREE" 17" FP LCD!!!!(see iMac

Well this SP Powermac just bumped the iMac out of my purchase list. I'm going to buy the next revisision which should be 2Ghz. I need the PCI slots(I will be doing Audio and Video work) and I want the Gigabit and FW800 as options. Doesn't hurt that I have 2 SATA drive capability either.

No the price doesn't knock your socks off nor does the bus speed but it's workable and I would indeed upgrade the graphics card off the 5200fx.

Good job for Apple. It's not everyones computer but it's still capable and the developer price is nice so I'll be saving even more over the edu price.

God you're right aren't you?

I keep forgetting the price of the new iMac. Maybe it's not as good a deal after all?

In fact, aren't the specs almost identical?

That's kind of changed my opinion of this machine...