2. It has far less internal expansion that the old case
1. perhaps in overall scale, yes. but the actual footprint is just about the same.
2. this is emminitely debateable. less hard drive and optical space, for sure... BUT much more RAM expansion and faster PCI and AGP... i'd say it's a wash, to be honest.
If we tried to fit these same internals in the old case I don't think it would work. There's more internal space now, and it's used by more things. So, there's a net loss of empty space but an overall gain of volume inside. This volume is just being used.
1. perhaps in overall scale, yes. but the actual footprint is just about the same.
2. this is emminitely debateable. less hard drive and optical space, for sure... BUT much more RAM expansion and faster PCI and AGP... i'd say it's a wash, to be honest.
1. not only is it much bigger in dimensions.... it is also much bigger in perception. it just looks huge compared to the old one evn though its an inch or two here and there
2. 2 HDs vs 4 in the old one (potentially 6), 1 optical drive vs 2. 3 PCI slots vs 3.
more ram expansion. ok... but if you use 2GB chips the old case would still hold 8GB of RAM. and I'm not convinced that 4 additional RAM slots was the reason for killing off a PCI slot, optical drive bay slot and hard drive bays. same for faster PCI.
far from a wash. they improved on things that already were there while removing others.
Th whole point of thing in Ive's mind at least was to reduce all the ornament and bulging from the El Capitan case, make it as spartan as possible on the exterior because the interior is so much more elaborate and visible through the G5's skin. I thought it looked a lot nicer in person than in the original pics, if that's what people are going by. The pics only capture the severe shell of the thing, none of the subtlety. The innards you see through a finely perforated front (and back) plate with simple clean curves at the edges haven't photographed well. I think a more decorative exterior would have made the semi-transparent inside look cluttered. Besides, I saw that sort of design coming anyway, as Ive banished voluptuous curves from the other product lines some time ago.
El Capitan looks soooo 1998.
Whether the new G5 is more functional is another debate. I personally don't know anyone who adds internal hard drives any more, they either use a network server/RAID or portable HDs, but I guess there are still plenty out there who do that, or expect the potential at least. Seems that Ive placed noise and heat reduction as priorities, of which there aren't really any other comparable attempts at this approach.
Which is why I took pains to write aesthetic rather than "design"
You can make arguments about the prioritizing of heat/noise management over internal storage/external size. The case is rather large for what goes in it, but I expect Apple to remedy the internal layout in subsequent revisions anyway.
That just leaves the way it looks. I've never understood the concept of "datedness" Either something looks good or it doesn't. Not that the G5 looks bad; it's nice, just not as nice looking as the QS machines.
I guess I kinda/sorta skirt the "beauty first, damn the contemporary" philosophy by taking refuge in things deemed "classic". But often classics become so by virtue of good style.
An XKE still looks cool, so does a Fiat Spyder, various big jag sedans, both the round and boat-tail Alfas, early SLR and rangefinder cameras, certain appliances (large and small) particular furniture, handbags, wristwatches. Not all, but the best products have a sort of endurance, not "timelessness" -- you can most definitely date them, but that doesn't stop them from looking right, even when they look old, something Harley Davidson can be very adept at doing.
Should Apple be in the business of making "retro" ???
Nah, you have to move on sometime, but it isn't always an improvement.
Just to chime in here a bit (as if it matters), but I think the G5 tower is simply gorgeous. It doesn't look like it's wasting anything AND (unlike the previous G4 towers) it doesn't look self-consciously "stylish" and like it's TRYING to look cool.
It could very well be the fact that the G4 case came of age during Apple's "colors, curves and see-through" era and I've simply tied it all to that. I'll concede that.
And I do think the G4's drop-down door was wonderful. I actually ENJOYED installing RAM and cards on a G4! It was a pleasure.
To me, the nicest-looking G4 was - by far - the Quicksilver ones! A co-worker has an 800MHz Quicksilver tower and everytime I'm in his office I'm going "man, that's a really nice-looking computer...". But I HATE the MDD towers.
But back to the G5: it just simply looks "ready for business". That was the first thing that struck me when Jobs unveiled it at WWDC. I just thought "wow, a serious-looking, no-bullcrap machine...right on!".
I think it's a nice change, just on that level alone (something different). But it does away with the curves, bulges and touches of plastic that always bugged me, although I couldn't quite put the finger on why.
I saw my first "real life" G5 tower at the Atlanta Apple Store last weekend and I think they look 10x nicer in person than any photo could convey. I just stood there, running my hands around the sides and top and admiring how the handles are.
And, of course, from a purely practical standpoint, I've LONG wished - and called - for front-mounted USB, FireWire and headphones. This being the whole "digital lifestyle" age and all (with more and more people owning digital cameras, camcorders, iPods, USB flash drives, etc.) forcing everyone to fumble blindly around the back of a tower (or worse, have to pull the thing out and spin it around so you can see the back of it a little) just seemed a really cruel and graceless design touch.
I know the fold-down door of the G4 helped make ports on the front of G4s next-to-impossible to pull off, so I understand. But I think it's great that a machine - built from the ground up to handle anything you can throw at it AND made by the company that has been preaching the "digital hub" philosophy for a good 2-3 years now - finally took this small, but important, step.
And I'd be willing to bet that future LCD iMac designs will also sport this feature. I can tell you that I honestly dread having to connect any sort of camera or other USB or FireWire device to my G4 iMac because it's just an annoying pain-in-the-butt to reach around and fumble OR to stand up, try to spin the thing around a bit (careful not to pull any cables too tight) and so forth.
I've honestly considered attaching a wide (but short...say 8" wide by 3" tall) mirror to the wall behind my iMac, so I can use it to help connect cables without having to do it blind or standing up and spinning the thing around.
Using digital cameras and iPods would be even more fun and cool when you can so easily and quickly connect them to your Mac.
So yeah, I believe the G5 is one of the nicest things Apple's ever done...on several levels.
Comments
Originally posted by applenut
less wasteful?
1. it's much larger than the old case
2. It has far less internal expansion that the old case
1. perhaps in overall scale, yes. but the actual footprint is just about the same.
2. this is emminitely debateable. less hard drive and optical space, for sure... BUT much more RAM expansion and faster PCI and AGP... i'd say it's a wash, to be honest.
Originally posted by applenut
less wasteful?
Sorry. It's sleeker in my opinion.
If we tried to fit these same internals in the old case I don't think it would work. There's more internal space now, and it's used by more things. So, there's a net loss of empty space but an overall gain of volume inside. This volume is just being used.
Originally posted by pesi
1. perhaps in overall scale, yes. but the actual footprint is just about the same.
2. this is emminitely debateable. less hard drive and optical space, for sure... BUT much more RAM expansion and faster PCI and AGP... i'd say it's a wash, to be honest.
1. not only is it much bigger in dimensions.... it is also much bigger in perception. it just looks huge compared to the old one evn though its an inch or two here and there
2. 2 HDs vs 4 in the old one (potentially 6), 1 optical drive vs 2. 3 PCI slots vs 3.
more ram expansion. ok... but if you use 2GB chips the old case would still hold 8GB of RAM. and I'm not convinced that 4 additional RAM slots was the reason for killing off a PCI slot, optical drive bay slot and hard drive bays. same for faster PCI.
far from a wash. they improved on things that already were there while removing others.
Originally posted by CubeDude
applenut, it could have been the heat. More components = More stuff to cool
it worked in the last case with a far less advanced cooling system.
I know the G5s are a lot hotter but I would think the difference would be made up with the better cooling.
but whatever
not so much talking about expansion here.
I just think the design is bland
Originally posted by Anders
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Originally posted by applenut
it worked in the last case with a far less advanced cooling system.
And much louder.
El Capitan looks soooo 1998.
Whether the new G5 is more functional is another debate. I personally don't know anyone who adds internal hard drives any more, they either use a network server/RAID or portable HDs, but I guess there are still plenty out there who do that, or expect the potential at least. Seems that Ive placed noise and heat reduction as priorities, of which there aren't really any other comparable attempts at this approach.
You can make arguments about the prioritizing of heat/noise management over internal storage/external size. The case is rather large for what goes in it, but I expect Apple to remedy the internal layout in subsequent revisions anyway.
That just leaves the way it looks. I've never understood the concept of "datedness" Either something looks good or it doesn't. Not that the G5 looks bad; it's nice, just not as nice looking as the QS machines.
I guess I kinda/sorta skirt the "beauty first, damn the contemporary" philosophy by taking refuge in things deemed "classic". But often classics become so by virtue of good style.
An XKE still looks cool, so does a Fiat Spyder, various big jag sedans, both the round and boat-tail Alfas, early SLR and rangefinder cameras, certain appliances (large and small) particular furniture, handbags, wristwatches. Not all, but the best products have a sort of endurance, not "timelessness" -- you can most definitely date them, but that doesn't stop them from looking right, even when they look old, something Harley Davidson can be very adept at doing.
Should Apple be in the business of making "retro" ???
Nah, you have to move on sometime, but it isn't always an improvement.
It could very well be the fact that the G4 case came of age during Apple's "colors, curves and see-through" era and I've simply tied it all to that. I'll concede that.
And I do think the G4's drop-down door was wonderful. I actually ENJOYED installing RAM and cards on a G4! It was a pleasure.
To me, the nicest-looking G4 was - by far - the Quicksilver ones! A co-worker has an 800MHz Quicksilver tower and everytime I'm in his office I'm going "man, that's a really nice-looking computer...". But I HATE the MDD towers.
But back to the G5: it just simply looks "ready for business". That was the first thing that struck me when Jobs unveiled it at WWDC. I just thought "wow, a serious-looking, no-bullcrap machine...right on!".
I think it's a nice change, just on that level alone (something different). But it does away with the curves, bulges and touches of plastic that always bugged me, although I couldn't quite put the finger on why.
I saw my first "real life" G5 tower at the Atlanta Apple Store last weekend and I think they look 10x nicer in person than any photo could convey. I just stood there, running my hands around the sides and top and admiring how the handles are.
And, of course, from a purely practical standpoint, I've LONG wished - and called - for front-mounted USB, FireWire and headphones. This being the whole "digital lifestyle" age and all (with more and more people owning digital cameras, camcorders, iPods, USB flash drives, etc.) forcing everyone to fumble blindly around the back of a tower (or worse, have to pull the thing out and spin it around so you can see the back of it a little) just seemed a really cruel and graceless design touch.
I know the fold-down door of the G4 helped make ports on the front of G4s next-to-impossible to pull off, so I understand. But I think it's great that a machine - built from the ground up to handle anything you can throw at it AND made by the company that has been preaching the "digital hub" philosophy for a good 2-3 years now - finally took this small, but important, step.
And I'd be willing to bet that future LCD iMac designs will also sport this feature. I can tell you that I honestly dread having to connect any sort of camera or other USB or FireWire device to my G4 iMac because it's just an annoying pain-in-the-butt to reach around and fumble OR to stand up, try to spin the thing around a bit (careful not to pull any cables too tight) and so forth.
I've honestly considered attaching a wide (but short...say 8" wide by 3" tall) mirror to the wall behind my iMac, so I can use it to help connect cables without having to do it blind or standing up and spinning the thing around.
Using digital cameras and iPods would be even more fun and cool when you can so easily and quickly connect them to your Mac.
So yeah, I believe the G5 is one of the nicest things Apple's ever done...on several levels.