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Opinions on PowerMac dual core G5

leekohler

leekohler

macrumors G5
Original poster
Dec 22, 2004
14,164
26
Chicago, Illinois
I just ordered a 2 Ghz dual core PM G5 that's due here Friday at the latest and I was wondering what other people here who own them think. I'm very excited to get it as my freelance work is growing substantially. The old 1 Ghz G4 was getting a bit long in the tooth for CS 2 and such.
 
I worked as a lab monitor in a college lab
full of dual 2.0 G5 towers and dual
21" CRT monitors for each station. We
had a lot of problems with hard drives,
strange permissions, and computers
burning out really fast. Most people don't
have these problems, but you have to
consider the use of the machines.

These were on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
with sleep mode being fairly rare. (video editors
know to turn sleep modes off!) These are also
networked into a larger network with logins
running through the school server, which gave
us the permissions problems.

It is a solid workstation, but not as fast as I
had hoped it would be for video editing. It
still did good, and if you take care of yours,
letting it sleep sometimes and turning it off
here and there, it will be a solid workstation
for your needs.
 
1dterbeest said:
I worked as a lab monitor in a college lab
full of dual 2.0 G5 towers and dual
21" CRT monitors for each station. We
had a lot of problems with hard drives,
strange permissions, and computers
burning out really fast. Most people don't
have these problems, but you have to
consider the use of the machines.

These were on 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,
with sleep mode being fairly rare. (video editors
know to turn sleep modes off!) These are also
networked into a larger network with logins
running through the school server, which gave
us the permissions problems.

It is a solid workstation, but not as fast as I
had hoped it would be for video editing. It
still did good, and if you take care of yours,
letting it sleep sometimes and turning it off
here and there, it will be a solid workstation
for your needs.
Click to expand...

I will be putting 2 Gb of RAM in it right way too. It's got to better than my G4. :)
 
Don't worry about sleeping. my PM G5 has been on for eight months straight and the same with all of my other old Macs. No problems.

Just Sayin'
 
Got mine last December (see spec below). Great machine and have no problems with it. Use it many for research, photoshop, chemdraw, illustrator, games, and once in a while making homemade DVDs.

Since You'll be doing a lot of work on it, did you upgrade the HD? Video card?
 
Airport card not compatible with dual core g5.

So if you want wireless, you'll either need to get the wireless + BT option built to order, or through third party hardware.
 
Eevee said:
Got mine last December (see spec below). Great machine and have no problems with it. Use it many for research, photoshop, chemdraw, illustrator, games, and once in a while making homemade DVDs.

Since You'll be doing a lot of work on it, did you upgrade the HD? Video card?
Click to expand...

The video card and HD are good enough as is.
 
I just got the G5 Dual Core, too.

I love it!!! It's sooo quiet which is great cause I do music.

Also, Photoshop CS works like a dream.

My Dell 2005FP is to be delivered today to complete the package.

Enjoy.
 
beatzfreak said:
I just got the G5 Dual Core, too.

I love it!!! It's sooo quiet which is great cause I do music.

Also, Photoshop CS works like a dream.

My Dell 2005FP is to be delivered today to complete the package.

Enjoy.
Click to expand...

Awesome! Thanks for posting. Good to hear Photoshop is better. That was my main motive for buying the G5.
 
Dual Core G5s are great...imo. Video compression still takes a while, but a lot less than my G4 Dual 1Ghz. Adobe CS works great too...no complaints thus far. After you get everything started on your computer, things should be pretty smooth...i got bored the other day and stuck in Max Pain and played it for a while. I put everything on highest and at 1920 x 1200...and it's smooth as silk. Although the graphics aren't as good but it was still fun to play. I like my G5 lots...and yeah, i stuck in 2 gig of ram before i i turned my computer on the first time
 
I'm using one right now at work - a dual core 2Ghz with a 128MB GeForce 6600LE and 1GB RAM. It's the lowest powered new Mac out of the dozen or so we bought recently. Compared to my home computer (in sig) basic apps run at the same speed. Disk performance is also pretty much the same. The only stress tests I've done so far is some video encoding and playing a little Doom 3 when nobody was looking. My G4 at home is strained to play Doom 3 at 800x600 (even with a GeForce 6800GT), whereas the G5 plows along happily at 16080x1050 (both machines use a 20" widescreen but only the G5 can play at the LCD's native res). The encoding is much faster than my G4 as well.

I'd definitely be happy to own one of these if I could afford it.
 
Thanks for all the replies guys. I think I'm gonna love this thing. :)

Oh, and Lord Blackadder- I did have to break the bank for this. I'll be broke for a good long time. :)
 
Dual cores rock. Extremely quet (I'm assuming the dual cores are cooled the same as the quads) and well fast. I've only had minor issues like voice talking during log on(why it came on, I don't know, but it was a simple fix). As for CS2, well I don't close, I minimize. :)
 
Check out the Apple Refurb site. You can get a Dual 2.7 Ghz Power Mac for less than a new Dual Core 2.0, and it's a lot faster. I'm lovin' mine. :)
 
zerolight said:
Check out the Apple Refurb site. You can get a Dual 2.7 Ghz Power Mac for less than a new Dual Core 2.0, and it's a lot faster. I'm lovin' mine. :)
Click to expand...

Really?

I checked before buying my 2.0 and saw nothing that cheap.
My brand new G5 2.0 was $1850, no tax, free shipping and I got iLife 06 for free.

Apple charges me 8.65% sales tax, so the 2.0 refurb would have been the same price.
 
beatzfreak said:
Really?

I checked before buying my 2.0 and saw nothing that cheap.
My brand new G5 2.0 was $1850, no tax, free shipping and I got iLife 06 for free.

Apple charges me 8.65% sales tax, so the 2.0 refurb would have been the same price.
Click to expand...

Where did you get such a deal and is it only for the 2.0? Any other models?
 
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