<strong>Those are NOT ports on the front for three good reasons.
1. You already have 2 firewire ports (to rear of case and 4 USB ports (2 to rear of case and 2 on keyboard). Why add 2 more of each??</strong><hr></blockquote>
How about for convenient front access? Other than cost (which is certainly something to consider), the number of ports isn't the issue, it's how easy the ports are to get at for temporary connections.
[quote]<strong>2. The pictures despite being not great quaility show that the 'holes' are not flush as such but set at an angle up with the aluminium part at the top.
[picture omitted]
There is no other Apple port like that and no reason to have downward facing ports.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I can think of two reasons:
1) So that plugs and cords drape downward nicely.
2) So that, for aesthetic reasons, the ports are partially hidden and more regular in outward appearance, despite differing connector types. If these were indeed ports rather than vent holes, they could be an elegant alternative to bare ports or a fold-down flap covering ports.
[quote]<strong>3. No Macs have front mounted ports because it ruins the clean lines of the design ( important to Apple and explained in the design of the LCD iMac). 'Most' people will have a Powermac under the desk and leads out of the front would just get in the way with leads running out of the rear up the back of the desk neater. Sure it would be useful for some people but they can always add external hub. This is Apple.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If Apple wants us to think of the Mac itself as the digital hub, it makes more sense if you can simply sit down in front of your Mac with your iPod or your digital camera, and plug it right in.
To tell you the truth, I'm actually inclined to believe those four holes are just vent holes too. I'm just saying the idea of of them being ports is not so unreasonable.
If any of you "experts" actually looked at the photos you would see there is nothing behind the area where the vents are i.e. no boards, no cables no nothing. There is no connector on the mobo for a front panel board or individual cable connections is there?
If thats a photoshop job these guys should work for ILM to increase the bust size of Natalie Portman for the next Star Wars movie.
According to the PDF diagram there are two HDs right behind those vents AND the CPU heatsink is directly behind the HDs.
The vents would allow a lot of air to come in, move over the HDs and exit over the heatsink. The power supply is much smaller this time around (look at the Xserve's). And according to the diagram it has a bunch of fans on itself.
Then there's the fan on the door panel for the PCI slots.
The whole design is about moving AIR. The entire back panel is one big vent.
Apple doesn't put any ports on the front of ANYTHING - the iMac and eMac the most obvious choice for front plugs have them around on the side or back. G4s are usually put under a desk so why would I want cables hanging out in front so I can crush them with my chair or trip on them?
On top of a desk they are again in THE WAY. It looks MESSY and that is not what Apple wants (the Cube was a big mess of cables and bricks, ugh, they killed it for all kinds of reasons - it just didn't *work* as a concept).
Lastly I bet Dual 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4 G4s will put out a fair amount of heat. How this compares to Pentiums or AMDs is a moot point - Apple doesn't use Pentiums so who CARES how they are cooled or wrapped in silly black cases with holograms on the front and dual fans on the back (never shown since that would make it look rather bulky and heat producing).
Apple = original designs for cases, motherboards, ASICs, PLCs, and custom engineering on the CPU.
DELL/Gateway = assembled cookie-cutter boxes with Intel motherboards and components to be as cheap as possible.
<img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" /> <img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" /> SAY THE MAGIC WORD AND WIN A PRIZE! Haven't seen Occam's razor invoked for many moons. This Board is getting WAY Too Intelligent.</strong><hr></blockquote>
A healthy application of Occam's Razor on this board would mean you'd see about 5 posts a month, so it's probably just as well.
If thats a photoshop job these guys should work for ILM to increase the bust size of Natalie Portman for the next Star Wars movie.[/QB]<hr></blockquote>
I thought they already did that for episode 2...
Everyone talks about a photoshop hoax...isn't it possible that this could in fact be a hoax but not involving photoshop?
Think of it some crafty guy decides to build the front of a fake tower and places it on his own tower or something like that.. is that possible? then u wouldn't notice photoshopping
because he didn't fake it that way. Then again the mobo seems legit.
Im voting for it being real too. As for the holes, if they are really ports, then where is the air intake?
As computers get faster, they produce more heat, which means a need for better cooling. Any good and silent case has air intakes on the front and dual fans on the power supply. (This goes double for PCs, Athlons have been known to melt!)
If Apple is going for silent operation with passive CPU cooling, they are going to have to push a helluva lot of air through the system ? meaning air intakes a big fans (big fan=less rpm=less noise)
Even if the G4's might not need a lot of cooling, a new enclosure needs headroom for future processors, which will be faster and warmer. So if the holes are ports, you would need air intakes somewhere else.
Therefore, logic dictates that they air intakes ? not ports.
Um... while all of you were wondering what was in those little vents, and whether it would be safe to stick your fingers and/or cables in them, I was thinking about what could possibly be behind those two doors.
If both those things on the front of the computer are drive bays, then when the one on top is opened, the flap will be resting on top of the tray that you want to put your CD into...
This means that either you have to pick it up by hand to fit your CD in, the tray comes out really far, there is some other mechanizm to raise the door, or apple has already scrapped this design.
Also keep in mind that if the flap just freely flops open, the end of the cd tray would get stuck on it. If it is hinged from above there must be some mechanism to keep it all the way open when the tray is extended.
could some one clear tihs up please? i don't get what u people are talking about how is ithe cd tray and door any different from the current powermac .
My hope is that this case came with no optical drives (as it is a test model) and that the drives, once installed, will be slot-loading. Screw the flaps, especially if they're as big as the b&w G3 drive flap.
Comments
<strong>Those are NOT ports on the front for three good reasons.
1. You already have 2 firewire ports (to rear of case and 4 USB ports (2 to rear of case and 2 on keyboard). Why add 2 more of each??</strong><hr></blockquote>
How about for convenient front access? Other than cost (which is certainly something to consider), the number of ports isn't the issue, it's how easy the ports are to get at for temporary connections.
[quote]<strong>2. The pictures despite being not great quaility show that the 'holes' are not flush as such but set at an angle up with the aluminium part at the top.
[picture omitted]
There is no other Apple port like that and no reason to have downward facing ports.</strong><hr></blockquote>
I can think of two reasons:
1) So that plugs and cords drape downward nicely.
2) So that, for aesthetic reasons, the ports are partially hidden and more regular in outward appearance, despite differing connector types. If these were indeed ports rather than vent holes, they could be an elegant alternative to bare ports or a fold-down flap covering ports.
[quote]<strong>3. No Macs have front mounted ports because it ruins the clean lines of the design ( important to Apple and explained in the design of the LCD iMac). 'Most' people will have a Powermac under the desk and leads out of the front would just get in the way with leads running out of the rear up the back of the desk neater. Sure it would be useful for some people but they can always add external hub. This is Apple.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If Apple wants us to think of the Mac itself as the digital hub, it makes more sense if you can simply sit down in front of your Mac with your iPod or your digital camera, and plug it right in.
To tell you the truth, I'm actually inclined to believe those four holes are just vent holes too. I'm just saying the idea of of them being ports is not so unreasonable.
If thats a photoshop job these guys should work for ILM to increase the bust size of Natalie Portman for the next Star Wars movie.
According to the PDF diagram there are two HDs right behind those vents AND the CPU heatsink is directly behind the HDs.
The vents would allow a lot of air to come in, move over the HDs and exit over the heatsink. The power supply is much smaller this time around (look at the Xserve's). And according to the diagram it has a bunch of fans on itself.
Then there's the fan on the door panel for the PCI slots.
The whole design is about moving AIR. The entire back panel is one big vent.
Apple doesn't put any ports on the front of ANYTHING - the iMac and eMac the most obvious choice for front plugs have them around on the side or back. G4s are usually put under a desk so why would I want cables hanging out in front so I can crush them with my chair or trip on them?
On top of a desk they are again in THE WAY. It looks MESSY and that is not what Apple wants (the Cube was a big mess of cables and bricks, ugh, they killed it for all kinds of reasons - it just didn't *work* as a concept).
Lastly I bet Dual 1.2, 1.3 or 1.4 G4s will put out a fair amount of heat. How this compares to Pentiums or AMDs is a moot point - Apple doesn't use Pentiums so who CARES how they are cooled or wrapped in silly black cases with holograms on the front and dual fans on the back (never shown since that would make it look rather bulky and heat producing).
Apple = original designs for cases, motherboards, ASICs, PLCs, and custom engineering on the CPU.
DELL/Gateway = assembled cookie-cutter boxes with Intel motherboards and components to be as cheap as possible.
<strong>
<img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" /> <img src="graemlins/surprised.gif" border="0" alt="[Surprised]" /> SAY THE MAGIC WORD AND WIN A PRIZE! Haven't seen Occam's razor invoked for many moons.
A healthy application of Occam's Razor on this board would mean you'd see about 5 posts a month, so it's probably just as well.
If thats a photoshop job these guys should work for ILM to increase the bust size of Natalie Portman for the next Star Wars movie.[/QB]<hr></blockquote>
I thought they already did that for episode 2...
Everyone talks about a photoshop hoax...isn't it possible that this could in fact be a hoax but not involving photoshop?
Think of it some crafty guy decides to build the front of a fake tower and places it on his own tower or something like that.. is that possible? then u wouldn't notice photoshopping
because he didn't fake it that way. Then again the mobo seems legit.
[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: O and A ]</p>
As computers get faster, they produce more heat, which means a need for better cooling. Any good and silent case has air intakes on the front and dual fans on the power supply. (This goes double for PCs, Athlons have been known to melt!)
If Apple is going for silent operation with passive CPU cooling, they are going to have to push a helluva lot of air through the system ? meaning air intakes a big fans (big fan=less rpm=less noise)
Even if the G4's might not need a lot of cooling, a new enclosure needs headroom for future processors, which will be faster and warmer. So if the holes are ports, you would need air intakes somewhere else.
Therefore, logic dictates that they air intakes ? not ports.
[off-site image]http://home.europa.com/~jerm/grey-g4.gif
[ 07-24-2002: Message edited by: sysadmin ]</p>
oh, that's great.
As a mock up, it's also excellent.
bleh
enough of the case MORE SPEC talk
If both those things on the front of the computer are drive bays, then when the one on top is opened, the flap will be resting on top of the tray that you want to put your CD into...
This means that either you have to pick it up by hand to fit your CD in, the tray comes out really far, there is some other mechanizm to raise the door, or apple has already scrapped this design.
<strong>You don't think it would hinge from the bottom?</strong><hr></blockquote>
Looks to me like the hinge is on top
[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: O and A ]</p>
umm look at the current powermacs <hr></blockquote>
I've got one. When I look at the leaked design it looks to me like the sides with the rounded edges are the hinges, I guess they aren't .
I'll shut up now.
<img src="graemlins/embarrassed.gif" border="0" alt="[Embarrassed]" />
[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: Eupfhoria ]
[ 07-23-2002: Message edited by: Eupfhoria ]</p>
[off-site image]http://members.maclaunch.com/ajprice/newg4.jpg
I posted it in the spymac gallery too, but it has disappeared now. Hmmm <img src="graemlins/bugeye.gif" border="0" alt="[Skeptical]" /> .
[ 07-24-2002: Message edited by: sysadmin ]</p>