New DualGig, Jag, and Ink impressions

keda

HOLY F'n Shit!!!



My brother got one of these yesterday and we spent the evening setting it up and trying it out. I was blown away by how smooth & fast OSX is on this baby. I was moving the mouse as fast as I could and everything flowed like butter.



He has a dualGig/756mb. I have two huge projects going right now, so I didn't have time to do any real performance testing, but I ran psd7 and ill10. It made my G4/500 look like it was going backwards. His Intuous2 tablet works great (even tho the installer is Classic).



Speaking of the tablet, it was not installed when we first fired the Mac up (I like the Start-up screen, btw) and the preferances did not have 'Ink' in them. After the Wacom installation and a reboot, Ink was there. Its kinda weird at first. We weren't sure how to work it, so everytime we went to click or drag, we started writing. I think the settings will need to be fine-tuned in order for it to work right, but out of the box, it was getting about 90% of what we wrote. I tried it in Text Edit and Stickies and then Turned Ink off to get on w/ the installations.



BTW, the holes in the front are cooling vents. I had read all sorts of posts about them being ports, but this is not right. The machine is really designed well on the inside. There are big mesh covered vents all over the chassis, but they are all hidden from view until you open it up. This box is definitely designed to keep internal temps down. After an hour of use, I put my hand behind the computer (where all the holes are) and felt a warm tropical breeze blowing. MUCH hotter than any of my current Macs (iMac/400, BeigeG(4), G4/500). Despite the heat, I didn't notice any unusual noise level from the fan.



Overall, I am very impressed. The worst part is that he took it with him when he left. And I went back to AfterEffects on my ol'trusty Beige.

banjo billy

[quote]Originally posted by Keda:

<strong>I didn't notice any unusual noise level from the fan.

</strong><hr></blockquote>

i agree here

i dont know what everyone is complaining about with the sound...it dosent sound loud to me at all

hmurchison

Ahhhhh Jaguar and new Hardware. Some people have all the luck!

keda

One small thing I forgot to mention. The motherboard is a deep-teal color, almost blue. I think this adds at least 10% performance.



This is the first MB color change I have seen in a long time.

kiu77

<img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />

[quote] i dont know what everyone is complaining about with the sound...it dosent sound loud to me at all <hr></blockquote>



I assume you were visiting discotheques to often?

The noise from the psu fans particularly is horrible.

I replaced them with quieter ones...

bobthetomato

[quote]Originally posted by kiu77:

<strong> <img src="graemlins/oyvey.gif" border="0" alt="[No]" />





I assume you were visiting discotheques to often?

The noise from the psu fans particularly is horrible.

I replaced them with quieter ones...</strong><hr></blockquote>



I just unplugged mine, I also unplugged the drives, they make noise too.

jutus

If you open the case, the fans are louder than the previous G4. With the case closed, the sound level is about the same... maybe less.



There is a lot of sound insulation in the way of heatsink fins, grilles galore, etc.



Things that piss me off:



1) NO REBOOT KEY! aaagh.

2) No CD eject key. wait.. i know it was missing from the last one as well, but if you wanted to you could reach in the door on the quick silvers and poke the cd-rom open tray button.



You can't on the new ones.



By the way, new vent undle the 4 speed holes along the bottom of the case. Air moves from front bottom to the back.

rashumon

[quote]Originally posted by Banjo Billy:

<strong>

i agree here

i dont know what everyone is complaining about with the sound...it dosent sound loud to me at all</strong><hr></blockquote>



So would you say its quieter then the last generation quicksilvers ? I have a QS single 867 and tis driving me mad with the noize its making - I'm thinking of upgrading just for that reason - what do you think ?

ghost_user_name

[quote]Originally posted by jutus:

<strong>1) NO REBOOT KEY! aaagh.</strong><hr></blockquote>Why would you ever want to do a hard reset? Only when it completely freezes, which is VERY rare with Mac OS X. If such an event does occur, though, simply press the power button for a few seconds to force it to shut down. Then, press it again to start up.

[quote]<strong>2) No CD eject key. wait..</strong><hr></blockquote>Pro Keyboard, anyone?



I suppose you miss that the Pro Keyboard doesn't have a power button too, right?



&lt;sarcasm&gt;And where's the bloody ADB support? I want my floppy back, too!&lt;/sarcasm&gt;



[ 09-04-2002: Message edited by: Brad ]</p>

groverat

There is no logical reason to tie that functionality to the keyboard. Ridiculous.



And Mac users bitch about contextual menus in Windows.