Looking to finally move in that direction and it looks as though an upgrade could be soon, but when? Any thoughts?
Most of us think it could be soon, but we (PowerMac Buyers) would rather them not rush it, and make a system that kicks ass. An update was what we got last time. We are ready for a serious upgrade! The PowerMac is due.
holy crap man. did you jsut blow by the other 10,000 "power mac update" threads in future hardware? mods can we institute a minimum 50 post policy before newbs can start threads?
holy crap man. did you jsut blow by the other 10,000 "power mac update" threads in future hardware? mods can we institute a minimum 50 post policy before newbs can start threads?
What are you all on about? The only other PowerMac thread in here is about the withering state of the PowerMac. It's more about apple letting the PowerMac slide more so than us talking about when an Update is coming, and it was a ways down the path until I just posted in there, and bumped it back up top.
Looking to finally move in that direction and it looks as though an upgrade could be soon, but when? Any thoughts?
My total guestimate is March. I think we have Powermacs up to dual 2.8GHz.
Quote:
When do you think we'll see a 4GHz Power Mac?
Not until mid 2007. Scaling is going to slow down and multiple cores will be the new ave of choice. 4Ghz won't be possible until we have a mature 65nm process IMO.
I expect SATA II with Native Command Queuing on the next motherboard revision for Powermacs.
I really don't know if Apple will support more than two drive bays. My reasoning is that this year you'll be able to buy a half terabyte drive. External storage is still the best solution for Pro's that need to be flexible. More HD bays are nice but my personally I'd like to have easier thermal cooling in my tower over drive bays.
What are you all on about? The only other PowerMac thread in here is about the withering state of the PowerMac. It's more about apple letting the PowerMac slide more so than us talking about when an Update is coming, and it was a ways down the path until I just posted in there, and bumped it back up top.
sorry--maybe in my head i was combining current hardware power mac thread, as well as powerbook g5 threads. another thing that's bothering me is all the mac mini threads that relatively the same. but anyways, i'll let you get back on track with this thread.
4Ghz won't be possible until we have a mature 65nm process IMO.
65nm isn't going to deliver a significant clock rate improvement because feature size is no longer the dominant factor in power dissapation. With modified processor designs it may be possible to achieve 4 GHz at reasonable power levels, but the big question is will the modified design at double the clock rate be performance competitive with the current processors?
Yes the time when die shrinks automagically gave clockspeed boosts seems to be gone.
Programmer, can you guesstimate what the performance gain would be on a 2.5 GHz G5 with doubled L2 cache and an integrated memory controller?
With IBM selling the 970 with 1024K L2 and AMD having IMC in some CPUs, these two features really does not require any breakthoughs just solid work on current engineering.
So you all are saying that a PM upgrade will surface in March? I'm going overseas soon to a place that Apple doesn't ship to, so it's important that I take what I want with me. I currently have my eye on these features: 1GB DDR400 SDRAM, 160 GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM, ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM, 20" Cinema Display, and Bluetooth keyboard / mouse. That's going to set me back just below $4k.
Given the options I just listed, what do you all believe will actually be updated in this coming update? If they change the GPU connection, as has been suggested elsewhere, will GPU card updates continue to be produced for the current design / connection?
What we hope, and what will happen are two different things. The only advice I have for you is check OWC for RAM, and don't upgrade Apple RAM from the Apple store. <-=Usually) There have been times like with the Mac Mini where the $75 for ram upgrade wasn't a bad deal. You can spend less if you add some things your self.
I really don't know if Apple will support more than two drive bays. My reasoning is that this year you'll be able to buy a half terabyte drive. External storage is still the best solution for Pro's that need to be flexible. More HD bays are nice but my personally I'd like to have easier thermal cooling in my tower over drive bays.
That's somewhat of a sad thought. being how expensive 10.000 RPM SATA drives cost, and that they do not offer more than 74GB of storage. Even the common home user would need more storage in todays world with all your music, and such being located on your computer. Thermal cooling is cool (no pun intended), but I would rather if they were to force my hand into purchasing a external RAID system, or something, they would offer more performance with that additional space. The G5 PowerMac tower is really big compared to my G4 which does has 4 drive bays btw.
What is distressing to me is that they cant fit anything else in there when others like BOXX, or even Alienware can fit an Alien-Ice liquid system Cooler plus - Dual Xeons, 2X Raid systems, and An SLI Dual PCI-E Graphics setup, and that is in their classic style Alien Tower. That does not represent the Pro Workstation Tower, and I don't even think it's as spacious as the PowerMac G5. Some of it just make so little sense to me. Why is it these guy's can offer such great configurations with fantastic options that can satisfy you in any way, in what I think is a smaller tower, and Apple can't seem to figure out why were are loosing faith in their PowerMac pro tower? Can it be any more obvious?
That's somewhat of a sad thought. being how expensive 10.000 RPM SATA drives cost, and that they do not offer more than 74GB of storage. Even the common home user would need more storage in todays world with all your music, and such being located on your computer.
What are you talking about? The common home user doesn't buy a 10.000 RPM drive! He buys a 160 - 250 GB 7200 RPM drive. Or deletes files he hasn't looked at for 2 years
What are you talking about? The common home user doesn't buy a 10.000 RPM drive! He buys a 160 - 250 GB 7200 RPM drive. Or deletes files he hasn't looked at for 2 years
My point is in todays world for many the personal / professional computer are one coexisting machine. Some people use their computer for more than just email, and web surfing, and it needs to suit them as well.
Comments
Originally posted by ianm
Looking to finally move in that direction and it looks as though an upgrade could be soon, but when? Any thoughts?
Most of us think it could be soon, but we (PowerMac Buyers) would rather them not rush it, and make a system that kicks ass. An update was what we got last time. We are ready for a serious upgrade! The PowerMac is due.
Originally posted by ipodandimac
holy crap man. did you jsut blow by the other 10,000 "power mac update" threads in future hardware? mods can we institute a minimum 50 post policy before newbs can start threads?
What are you all on about? The only other PowerMac thread in here is about the withering state of the PowerMac. It's more about apple letting the PowerMac slide more so than us talking about when an Update is coming, and it was a ways down the path until I just posted in there, and bumped it back up top.
When do you think we'll see a 4GHz Power Mac?
I'm thinking that it won't be more than a year after Motorola has a breakthrough with the 90nm fabrication process.
Do you think the next Power Macs will support SATA II?
Do you think the next Power Macs will support more than two hard drives in that massive chassis?
Sincerely,
Jaddie
Originally posted by ianm
Looking to finally move in that direction and it looks as though an upgrade could be soon, but when? Any thoughts?
My total guestimate is March. I think we have Powermacs up to dual 2.8GHz.
When do you think we'll see a 4GHz Power Mac?
Not until mid 2007. Scaling is going to slow down and multiple cores will be the new ave of choice. 4Ghz won't be possible until we have a mature 65nm process IMO.
I expect SATA II with Native Command Queuing on the next motherboard revision for Powermacs.
I really don't know if Apple will support more than two drive bays. My reasoning is that this year you'll be able to buy a half terabyte drive. External storage is still the best solution for Pro's that need to be flexible. More HD bays are nice but my personally I'd like to have easier thermal cooling in my tower over drive bays.
Originally posted by onlooker
What are you all on about? The only other PowerMac thread in here is about the withering state of the PowerMac. It's more about apple letting the PowerMac slide more so than us talking about when an Update is coming, and it was a ways down the path until I just posted in there, and bumped it back up top.
sorry--maybe in my head i was combining current hardware power mac thread, as well as powerbook g5 threads. another thing that's bothering me is all the mac mini threads that relatively the same. but anyways, i'll let you get back on track with this thread.
Originally posted by hmurchison
4Ghz won't be possible until we have a mature 65nm process IMO.
65nm isn't going to deliver a significant clock rate improvement because feature size is no longer the dominant factor in power dissapation. With modified processor designs it may be possible to achieve 4 GHz at reasonable power levels, but the big question is will the modified design at double the clock rate be performance competitive with the current processors?
Programmer, can you guesstimate what the performance gain would be on a 2.5 GHz G5 with doubled L2 cache and an integrated memory controller?
With IBM selling the 970 with 1024K L2 and AMD having IMC in some CPUs, these two features really does not require any breakthoughs just solid work on current engineering.
As does various features of the G5 tower...
Given the options I just listed, what do you all believe will actually be updated in this coming update? If they change the GPU connection, as has been suggested elsewhere, will GPU card updates continue to be produced for the current design / connection?
I appreciate all of your advice.
Brian
Originally posted by hmurchison
I really don't know if Apple will support more than two drive bays. My reasoning is that this year you'll be able to buy a half terabyte drive. External storage is still the best solution for Pro's that need to be flexible. More HD bays are nice but my personally I'd like to have easier thermal cooling in my tower over drive bays.
That's somewhat of a sad thought. being how expensive 10.000 RPM SATA drives cost, and that they do not offer more than 74GB of storage. Even the common home user would need more storage in todays world with all your music, and such being located on your computer. Thermal cooling is cool (no pun intended), but I would rather if they were to force my hand into purchasing a external RAID system, or something, they would offer more performance with that additional space. The G5 PowerMac tower is really big compared to my G4 which does has 4 drive bays btw.
What is distressing to me is that they cant fit anything else in there when others like BOXX, or even Alienware can fit an Alien-Ice liquid system Cooler plus - Dual Xeons, 2X Raid systems, and An SLI Dual PCI-E Graphics setup, and that is in their classic style Alien Tower. That does not represent the Pro Workstation Tower, and I don't even think it's as spacious as the PowerMac G5. Some of it just make so little sense to me. Why is it these guy's can offer such great configurations with fantastic options that can satisfy you in any way, in what I think is a smaller tower, and Apple can't seem to figure out why were are loosing faith in their PowerMac pro tower? Can it be any more obvious?
Originally posted by onlooker
That's somewhat of a sad thought. being how expensive 10.000 RPM SATA drives cost, and that they do not offer more than 74GB of storage. Even the common home user would need more storage in todays world with all your music, and such being located on your computer.
What are you talking about? The common home user doesn't buy a 10.000 RPM drive! He buys a 160 - 250 GB 7200 RPM drive. Or deletes files he hasn't looked at for 2 years
Originally posted by smalM
What are you talking about? The common home user doesn't buy a 10.000 RPM drive! He buys a 160 - 250 GB 7200 RPM drive. Or deletes files he hasn't looked at for 2 years
My point is in todays world for many the personal / professional computer are one coexisting machine. Some people use their computer for more than just email, and web surfing, and it needs to suit them as well.
Originally posted by Jaddie
Dear Friends
When do you think we'll see a 4GHz Power Mac?
When Apple introduces the PowerMac G6