APPLE: make the G5s either rackable or small and SILENT!

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
for gods sake, whos gonna have a gorgeous looking G5 on his/her desktop when they're noiser than an bunch of hellicopters in combat? not me!





my view: the new powerline should be split into 2:



-PRO USERS: a cube-esque gorgeous small and SILENT (or as quiet as possible) G5 Mac with: upgradeable videocard (AGP Pro), 1 pci slot, 1 superdrive and one internal 3,5" HD (or perphaps space to accomodate two). All easy user-upgradable.



-NeverEnough PRO USERS: Rackmountable Mac. Ive's design doesnt matter here as they're gonna have so much things inside they'll need to be closed somewhere to avoid the noise of all the 1000 fans. Space for whatever you want: dual or quad cpus, 5 pcis, 2 agps, 4 external drive bays and 2 internals...etc





what d'ya think?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    jerombajeromba Posts: 357member
    If you swith the config i think it will be more appropriate. Like this:



    Pro User:

    Big tower / 2 or 4 CPU

    1 AGP / 4 or 5 PCI

    2 externals bays 5 1/2

    3 internals

    8 slots for RAM (4 GB)



    Semi-Pro User (and WebServer or Farms):

    Rackmountable Tower (PizzaBox) 1 or 2 CPU

    1AGP / 1 or 2 PCI

    1 external bay

    1 or 2 internals bays

    3 slots for RAM (1.5 GB)



    but this is a dream
  • Reply 2 of 15
    kedakeda Posts: 722member
    The timing of this thread is ironic. I was just thinking about rackmountable Macs this morning.



    In my case, I was wondering if it would ever be realistic to think about a Mac render farm. For a small company, a 10 computer system would be a good start. Because of $$, I would be forced to go w/ x86 systems if I were to do this today.



    If Apple is going to make a serious play for the 3D market, then this type of system would be a requirement. Sure I want a cool looking G5 for my workstation use, but once I hit f-10 (I use LightWave) all I care about is time. Because LW doesn't support mixed platform environments, I am forced to use the same platform for all of my render nodes.



    Apple should make a rackmount...a real server or render-farm machine.
  • Reply 3 of 15
    fran441fran441 Posts: 3,715member
    [quote]for gods sake, whos gonna have a gorgeous looking G5 on his/her desktop when they're noiser than an bunch of hellicopters in combat? not me!<hr></blockquote>



    Why do you think this is going to be a problem? We have no evidence at all that the G5 will generate significantly higher heat than the current G4 DP machines.



    To say that the G5 will be noisier than a bunch of helicopters in combat is ridiculous. Plus, I'd still say to look for the Apollo G4+ before the G5.
  • Reply 4 of 15
    Mmmmmm...... rack mount...





    *drool*
  • Reply 5 of 15
    screedscreed Posts: 1,077member
    Well Apple does <a href="https://jobs.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Employment.woa/33/wo/435mv7QXeB4A3s6c9EB2dyqMHar/7.1.7.0.0"; target="_blank">appear</a> to be working on server level hardware.



    [quote]The applicant should be experienced in computer system architecture, high speed digital design, RAID storage subsystems and high speed networking protocols such as Ethernet and Fibre Channel. <hr></blockquote>



    Screed ...SANtastic!!
  • Reply 6 of 15
    [quote]Originally posted by sCreeD:

    <strong>Well Apple does <a href="https://jobs.apple.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Employment.woa/33/wo/435mv7QXeB4A3s6c9EB2dyqMHar/7.1.7.0.0"; target="_blank">appear</a> to be working on server level hardware.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Yeah, 'cause those technologies aren't widely used within graphic design shops, and Apple doesn't currently have a line of towers-cum-"servers".



    [quote]Originally posted by Q:

    <strong>for gods sake, whos gonna have a gorgeous looking G5 on his/her desktop when they're noiser than an bunch of hellicopters in combat?</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Meee! And I'd rather have a combat-helicopter-Mac today than a whisper-quiet one tomorrow. (Substitute "this month/next month" or "February/March" as appropriate.



    Thing is, quiet engineering is HARD and distracts from (not to mention often directly conflicts with) getting the most PERFORMANCE out of a machine. If you want a quiet machine, get a Cube or PowerBook, or put your tower in one room and your monitor in another.



    Then again, I'm probably one of those people who would build an Athlon box if it ran OS X.



    However, I have to admit to liking the rackable idea. I can see a design that would fit equally well on the desk (or floor) or the rack, with only minimal modifications. Assuming Apple isn't trying to come out with separate 1U servers, I think this would be a great idea.



    Alex
  • Reply 7 of 15
    brussellbrussell Posts: 9,812member
    [quote]Originally posted by Alexander:

    <strong>Thing is, quiet engineering is HARD and distracts from (not to mention often directly conflicts with) getting the most PERFORMANCE out of a machine.</strong><hr></blockquote>Exactly. I dislike the quiet designs even of the iMac, because that type of design prevents most upgrades. If they started doing that with their towers...
  • Reply 8 of 15
    "hear yourself think"

    I believe this was one of the slogans used to sell imacs/cubes. Whats so wrong with a silent computer? (a rara-avis in the wintel world, BTW). It's a selling point you guys!

    Now that i'm used to my silent ibook i just CAN'T tolerate the noise the G4 towers make. And for audio apps, a noisy machine is completely useless (that's why i preferred the ibook over the titanium as mobile).



    Today WIntels/Amds have a fan even in the chipset (coming soon to your mac; just wait). Add that one the the fan in the graphic board, the cpu/s, the power supply, the case...: III World War.



    [quote] If you want a quiet machine, get a Cube or PowerBook, or put your tower in one room and your monitor in another. <hr></blockquote>

    And you want a nice mac case for exactly what?



    c'mon Cupertino, lets have 2 Pro lines: The small, nice, upgradeable and silent one and the Rackmounts beasts.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    So, the folks on this thread are split into two groups...those who would sacrifice expandability for quiet and those who wouldn't.



    Sounds like Q's original idea was a good one, then.
  • Reply 10 of 15
    jcgjcg Posts: 777member
    [quote]Originally posted by jeromba:

    <strong>If you swith the config i think it will be more appropriate. Like this:



    Pro User:

    Big tower / 2 or 4 CPU

    1 AGP / 4 or 5 PCI

    2 externals bays 5 1/2

    3 internals

    8 slots for RAM (4 GB)



    Semi-Pro User (and WebServer or Farms):

    Rackmountable Tower (PizzaBox) 1 or 2 CPU

    1AGP / 1 or 2 PCI

    1 external bay

    1 or 2 internals bays

    3 slots for RAM (1.5 GB)



    but this is a dream</strong><hr></blockquote>





    You left out the Pro-Sumer/Home Network Server:

    Big tower / 1 to 4 CPU (Upgradable

    1 AGP / 3 PCI

    2 externals bays 5 1/2

    3 internals

    4 slots for RAM (2 GB)
  • Reply 11 of 15
    x704x704 Posts: 276member
    Why does everyone think that the new PM can't be both powerful & quiet? The only reason why the Current towers are loud is because of the noisy fans that Apple puts into them. If they put in better quality fans they could have the same ammount of cooling & a lot less noise. Alas, apparently only consumers get that treatment by Apple. The first thing I'm going to do with my new PM (whenever it comes) is replace it's fan (assuming it's loud like the current one) with a nice quiet one.
  • Reply 12 of 15
    thanks Michael, but i didnt think about that just by myself (although i could):



    -my father (an architect) is always asking me "why are computers STILL so big and clumsky and noisy?

    -my A audio engineer friends say: why do G4s have so little pci slots so i cant put enough protools cards to track Britney? Why not make them bigger and rackmountable? anyway they're so noisy they have to stay in the machine room.

    -my B audio engineer friends say: why is this nice G4 Mac so noisy i cant put a mic in the same room to track britney?

    -my 3D pals say: why do i have to use windows apps to build a rackmountable render farm?

    -my linux colleagues say: Mac OS X Server? and do the G4s have REDUNDANT power supplies?

    -I say: why cant i have a small (read portable) and Cool mac but PRO speced, and easy to upgrade (HD,1PCI,AGP,RAM) so i can run Lightwave, Phtshop, Apache etc, and SILENT enough to use Logic audio with it too?





    SOLUTION: 2 PRO lines.
  • Reply 13 of 15
    Why not use the current iMac design as a desktop part for the new PowerMac. The display (please Widescreen and pivot-capable) and the Cd-combo or superdrive on your desktop totally silent, while you have a extra tower module under your desktop which hold all the processors, PCI and HD stuff connected via a new ADC II connector whith Firewire with fans if needed. Maybe the new connector is the "Gigawire" ? You can rackmount these second part, place it in a other room...
  • Reply 14 of 15
    quiqquiq Posts: 4member
    Voulge: that could be a point, and time ago i discussed (as 68k did too) about the chance of macs having some kind of an special high speed BUS interface to let any mac increase its expandability options (pci, hds..). But if you think deeply about it you realize it belongs more to the PC world that to macs. Apple has always liked simple things, so no way that could ever happen.

    If only a "gigawire" technology, but that would be used to share/sum cpu power or hardware resources between machines but not to have say a dumb touchpad talking to its remote cpu (not enough bandwith at the required speed).



    time would be better spent developing rackmount G5 macs plus cute cool and small g5 desktops, IMO.
  • Reply 15 of 15
    zoephzoeph Posts: 16member
    [quote]Originally posted by Keda:

    <strong>Because LW doesn't support mixed platform environments, I am forced to use the same platform for all of my render nodes.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Last time I used LW, which I admit is some time ago (5.6), it still supported a mixed render environment. The only thing you had to make sure of was using plug-ins which were available on each platform you were rendering on.



    I can't imagine them having removed this feature. Which kinda defeats your argument for having a Mac render farm. Why spent extra $$ on Mac hardware when you can get AMD or intel farms much cheaper?
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