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What you look for in Apple's first-ever quad-processor machine is, of course, raw power. And the G5 Quad certainly has that. But cramming twice the regular number of processors into a single box isn't the only innovation on the G5 Quad in the area of performance.
I don't want to get into all of the tech specs of this machine; you can find those easily enough on Apple's product information page. But I do want to highlight some of the important ones.
Inside, the G5 Quad is similar to previous G5 models. But up where previous G5s had their PCI/PCI-X expansion slots, the new model now sports four PCI Express slots.
One of these slots is automatically occupied by a graphics card (the 16-lane slot)--or two slots, in the case of machines equipped with the Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512 MB card. You can see this monstrosity in the closeup shot below.
Note also that, unlike previous G5 models, the slots are actually labeled, so you won't have to pull out the old user guide whenever you want to install a new card.
PCI Express is both an advantage and a disadvantage. On the plus side, performance is fantastic. The architecture allows for speedier graphics cards (like the workstation-class Quadro FX 4500) and future expansion options, effectively extending its viability well into the Mactel era ... assuming manufacturers of PCI Express expansion devices continue to write drivers for the PowerPC platform.
On the negative side, these PCI Express expansion slots are compatible with precisely none of your current PCI and PCI-X cards. So, if you're heavily invested right now, you're basically hosed. If you want to use the Quad for audio or video I/O, you'll need all-new boards (or a conversion/expansion chassis). That's a pretty big negative, particularly for video and audio editors.
Another performance innovation in the G5 Quad is dual gigabit Ethernet. This is one that, unlike PCI Express, is all positive. The two gigabit Ethernet ports on the G5 Quad are independently controlled and configurable so that, for example, you can have one line running into your WAN, while the other is connected to local devices, and you're not going to experience conflicts between your network connection and whatever else you might have the second port connected to (like, say, an Xsan).
And then, finally, there's new support for DDR2 533 MHz main memory, with eight total DIMM slots, allowing for up to 16 GB of RAM at present. The base Quad unit ships with a paltry 512 MB of RAM.
As for the rest of the machine's specs, I'll summarize some of them here, but you can find out all you need to know about this stuff on Apple's Web site, and I feel uncompelled to duplicate that information in any detail here. In brief, the G5 Quad offers standard:
? One FireWire 800 port
? Two FireWire 400 ports (one on front)
? Four USB 2.0 ports on the box itself (one in front)
? Two USB 1.1 ports on the keyboard
? Two Toslink ports for optical audio in and out
? Stereo analog line level audio in and out via minijacks
? Headphone minijack (on the front)
? Integrated wireless antenna (optional Bluetooth 2.0 and IEEE 802.11g)
? Two internal drive bays each with a 150 MBps controller with support for up to 1 TB of internal storage (one 7,200 RPM 250 GB drive standard on the G5 Quad)
? 16x SuperDrive with support for double-layer DVD+R DL, DVD±R and CD-RW media
? Mighty Mouse (four-button optical mouse with scroll nib) and extended keyboard
? Nvidia GeForce 6600 256 MB graphics card (not tested in this review).
Note that the new Quad does not include an internal modem, as was included in previous G5 models. An external USB modem is available as an option.
The bottom line
The Power Mac G5 Quad is fast. Oh man, is it ever fast! And if that were the only consideration, I'd give this puppy an unreserved buy recommendation. But it's not the only consideration. The other significant one is whether it's a good idea to invest in what is presumably the last generation of the PowerPC platform--not necessarily the last dual-core PowerPC system, but probably the last one before the introduction of the Intel-based Macs. As I say, I don't plan to invest in any more PowerPC hardware. But this machine is seriously tempting, and I can imagine several scenarios where purchasing a Quad now wouldn't be a bad idea, especially if you have render-intensive projects coming up in the near future and can't afford to wait for the first generation of Intel Macs. So whether you buy this or not depends heavily on how soon you need a faster machine. I can wait. If you can't, the Quad is a great way to go. As we've seen, it's a performance monster, and you wouldn't be disappointed using this machine over the next couple of years.
The Power Mac G5 Quad is available now in its base configuration for $3,299. The unit reviewed for this article also included the Nvidia Quadro FX 4500 512 MB graphics card, which tacks on an extra $1,650 to the price tag. It was also equipped with an extra 1.5 GB RAM over the base model. The standard model ships with 512 MB RAM, which isn't enough to do anything in a professional production environment, whether you're in audio, video, graphics or any other segment of the creative market. As a build to order option from Apple, 2 GB total RAM runs $300 extra, though it's about half that price from reputable third-party vendors. So the total price of the unit reviewed here was $5,249, as configured through the Apple Store.
The Power Mac G5 Quad also ships with a software suite that includes: Mac OS X 10.4; iLife '05 (iDVD, iPhoto, iMovie HD, GarageBand, iTunes); Safari 2; Mail 2; Address Book 4; iChat AV 3; iCal 2; Font Book 2; DVD Player 4.5; Xcode 2; and others.
For more information, visit http://www.apple.com.
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