in regards to the casing
I don't know why you all want new case design for the towers, that design is probably the most practical,usable, good looking, functional and all around best design on the market. With two full drive bays it would be a lot better, but the general shaping of it is most excellent, thats I think why apple has hardely changed it at all, they realize they struck gold with it. I seriously can't think of anythign they could do to improve upon the case appearance, its a great design.
Comments
There are lots of little things which could be imporved on, though it is pretty much the best case around right now.
The design is old, and Apple should come up with something new and stunning.
The design is one of best attibute of Cupertino
And,the case needs absolutely two 5.25" drives, and an audio input .
Otherwise, the El Capitan case is good.
Yeah, they do need to bundle something a bit more substantial in regards to the speakers.
Oh, an audio in jack would be nice.
Cobra
I would like to see a revised El Capitan, nothing brand new (complete with new "features"), just a few changes.
Definitely two 5.25" drive bays. Wouldn't require much, some people do it themselves on their own towers.
Some people will still need a 3.5" drive bay, but the need for that seems to be dwindling. I've used my Zip 100 drive about once in the last two years... and I've never EVER seen somebody use a Zip 250.
If Apple decides to have 3 drive bays (2 5.25" and 1 3.5") won't they need to add another ATA controller? Even the ATAPI (basically ATA 33) bus only supports 2 drives, right? Maybe it would be best to have 2 full drive bays that can either be used for two optical drives or an optical drive and a zip/jazz/etc.
In my opinion, anybody who pays $2000+ for an Apple tower usually gets a decent pair of speakers. Either from Apple or someone else, it hardly matters who. Nobody in their right mind (that listens to more audio than the alert sounds) uses the built-in speaker for very long. Just take it out. Give us elegant looking front mounted USB and FireWire ports. Maybe one of each, two of each. Apple can make it look good (certainly better than the ugly Compaq and Dell towers I've seen), and that would really be a useful change to the tower. Right now I've got cables dangling from the back of the tower for when I need to hook up my USB card reader or use FW disk mode with my Ti. Would really be nice to not have those cables lying around all the time.
I think that current internal expansion is just great, though if all these reports of > 1.5 GB RAM are true, why not give us 4 or 6 slots again? I'm sure some of those graphics type people would sure like having more RAM if possible. It doesn't really make any difference to me (at least, not yet), but it might be a nice cheap way to advocate the platform. Anyway, 4 HD bays and 4 PCI slots are plenty for 99% of the tower owners. I was wondering if it is possible to have 2 AGP slots though. Would this be useful for having intense 2D/3D operations on two monitors? Maybe the slight benefit over the PCI graphics card (I was going to say "cards", but there is really only one now) on the market is negligible as to make an extra AGP slot useless. All I know is that I won't be going back to one monitor for the forseeable future. I suppose it would be very nice to be able to use 2 ADC flat panels with the Macs... I currently have the 17" ADC CRT and the 17" Apple CRT from the previous generation of G4s (the VGA connector for use on my PCI graphics card). Maybe the Apple flat panel monitors of tomorrow will come large enough to eliminate the need for two of them. Who knows?
As for Audio in, who needs it? I was under the impression that audio pros used high-end equipment and never used the low quality minijack connection. As for the rest of us, there are USB solutions that support better quality than the minijack, and are much more versatile anyway. I believe the Apple store even sells them. And the rest of us who will never need audio in won't ever get mixed up with that and the headphone jack!
Well, that pretty much wraps it up. I don't really have any other qualms with my tower (and to be honest, I won't be buying a new one for at least 2 years). I just hope for the rest of you that you get the product you want. And that AAPL stock goes sky-high... hey, if it gets to $72 I can buy a top of the line tower to congratulate them.
-Ender
I would have to say that I wish there was a small door hidden on the front that would reveal a "quick-access" USB port and 1394 port. It would be very handy for the iPod, PDA,camera users, and it would go hand in hand with Apple's "Digital Hub" mantra.
The speaker seems like it can be hidden or removed (or face down). Other than a startup chime and a beep, why use it? Maybe removing it altogather is extreme, but on the other hand, does it really have to have a flashy Harmon-Kardon "pro" cone when it's really not that great? I Apple is gonna keep the Quicksilver-style speaker, then 1) add a speaker grill, and 2) put in 2 speakers, side by side for stereo. the grill is important, because you KNOW kids and Mac-haters will be popin' pencils in there and ripping cones like Britney Spears hymen! (ouch, OK OK, I will calm down now). I have a set of Soundsticks and an iSub now, and I love them.
At least one 5 1/2" drive bay would be sweet, but considering the Quicksilver's bays and doors havent gotten even more smaller and propritery, I doubt "normal" sized, industry standard bays will exist. I have to admit that I like the look of the new QS G4 doors-very minimal and stark. I really really really want a manual eject button back! Why did they take it away?
Has anyone mentioned how cool a G5 would be if it was rigged with slot-loading optical drive? That would be very cool. Perhaps expensive still, but the iMac has had a slot-load drive for years. I love the black CD/DVD drives in the new QS, but slot-loading is so techie and streamlined.
Put a small Apple logo back on the front, guys! Apple totally yanked the company logo from the QS, except for the side.
A power button on the keyboard again?
2 button/scroll mouse?
<strong>Has anyone mentioned how cool a G5 would be if it was rigged with slot-loading optical drive? That would be very cool. Perhaps expensive still, but the iMac has had a slot-load drive for years. I love the black CD/DVD drives in the new QS, but slot-loading is so techie and streamlined.
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That would be cool, but the problem with that is for people who might wanna put in a different drive in the future. Slot loading drives are much harder to find.
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That would be cool, but the problem with that is for people who might wanna put in a different drive in the future. Slot loading drives are much harder to find.</strong><hr></blockquote>
Yup, Apple learned it's lesson with the TiBook.
The Tibook is i inch thin. Could Apple have put a regular tray loading drive into the Ti? I think combo-slot load was the only choice.
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Some people will still need a 3.5" drive bay, but the need for that seems to be dwindling. I've used my Zip 100 drive about once in the last two years... and I've never EVER seen somebody use a Zip 250.
-Ender</strong><hr></blockquote>
Zip 250 Drives are used especially in the graphics field of education as a way to hand in "projects." I think eliminating it from the case will force people to use cd-r/rw, which offers more storage for a cheaper price.
SdC
Wow Mac is on the cutting edge.
Maybe we can make finger paintings and they'll customize the thing.
You folk spend a little too much time looking at your computers.
<strong>Jeeeeeezzzzz.... you're supposing the color will be different? A freakin eject button on the CD drive?
Wow Mac is on the cutting edge.
Maybe we can make finger paintings and they'll customize the thing.
You folk spend a little too much time looking at your computers.</strong><hr></blockquote>
If you picked an ugly girl don't begrudge those of us who chose better and can find some enjoyment looking at ours with the lights on
That, and a CD/DVD eject button would be nice.
From what I've seen, more and more education institutions are moving to network drives for turning files in. All of my classes have us use ssh and upload everything to our directory on the servers. Zip is just so "1999"
Definitely networks, both wired and wireless, are coming into their own. Good thing Macs are very network-savvy machines. I've never encountered a network that I wasn't able to connect my machines to... without all sorts of crazy software/hardware beyond the operating system and the network card.
-Ender
I'm looking for a metal case for the G5.