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PowerMac G5 Picture Gallery 111

Posted by pudge from the drool dept.
NivenHuH writes "Bill Noll, an independent photographer, took some interesting pictures of his new PowerMac G5. Talk about Mac Zealot!"
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PowerMac G5 Picture Gallery More

PowerMac G5 Picture Gallery

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  • Equal Time: The Alternatives (Score:4, Funny)

    by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) * on Friday September 05, 2003 @04:51PM (#6883432)
    I fail to see how this Mac hopes to compete with the beauty of a Windows machine [asherbond.com].

    Perhaps nobody told these people they could have a UnixWare license and half a year's support for the cost of that G5 machine. And UnixWare PC hardware is cheaper than Windows and Mac hardware both, since it only runs on older hardware.

    • I like Macs, but Bill Noll's photos have a certain desperation to them--as if he's trying to prove that even the banal aspects of the G5 are beautiful. Here comes the aesthetic clue bus: soft focus doesn't make the banal more beautiful. It just makes it look look like you took your G5 to the high school prom, then got lucky afterward.

      Sure, I'll take the G5 over Bad Boy Asher Bond's Pentium box in a heartbeat, but give me the parody site over the original's puffery and fetishizing any day.

      • Re:Great send-up (Score:4, Insightful)

        by Mr. Darl McBride ( 704524 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @09:00PM (#6884964)
        Zhe Mappel, you have opened my eyes, and your words drill down to my very essence. Fetishizing it is, but is fetish any different from art?

        No. Or perhaps yes, in that the fetish holds the greater power.

        I dare you to find me a man who enjoys the Mona Lisa a tenth as much as the fetishist enjoys a woman's shoe.

      • I will also note that many Mac users are determined to believe in every last aspect of the Mac. The Mac is a wonderful machine, but even the most beautiful woman has her flaws. This is not at all dissimilar to the way a person falls in love with another. The greatest flaws seem invisible, easily forgotten.

        I remember a Mac commercial, for the iBook I believe, where Ken Nordine did a voiceover, asking "Is it possible to fall in love with a computer?" Yes it is. For the average Mac user, this seems to be the

    • are we gonna see a G5 Slashdot icon on these stories or what? It's not a G4 like the topic icon shows here on the headline. Try this:
      http://www.apple.com/g5processor/ [apple.com]
    • But your Powa Mack A5 can't compete with the sexiness of the real deal. Sorry, it's just not "Bauhaus" enough. That alone is worth three g's, baby!

      The new iMac's still the best looking of the Apple family, anyway.

  • No big deal (Score:5, Funny)

    by FattMattP ( 86246 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @04:56PM (#6883476) Homepage
    All he did was paint it white and put the words "Click here to get the plugin" on the side.
    • All I get is a totally white screen, no text at all.

      That's what I get for trying to check it out with a recent Mozilla build on Linux when the plug-in (Flash I'm guessing) was compiled with an older g++. *sigh*

  • Wow. (Score:2, Insightful)

    by drrobin_ ( 131741 )
    Apple has done the amazing, once again: Somehow they made a geek toy sexy.
  • ...can be found here [mac.com].

  • 9 Fans? (Score:2, Interesting)

    by RzUpAnmsCwrds ( 262647 )
    I know that the fans are supposed to be "super silent", but I would have expected more from Apple. My Athlon XP 2000+ (Palamino, 67W), GeForce4 Ti4200, 3xRAID 7200rpm desktop is cooled by only 3 Panaflo L1a fans (24cfm, 1900rpm). There's a Zalman on the GPU, so no fan there, an Alpha 8045 with a Panaflo on the CPU, a modded PSU with a Panaflo L1a, and a Panaflo L1a case fan. Even with all the fans on full blast, it's quiet, and when I use my motherboards thermal control function, it's nearly silent (the HDD

    • Re:9 Fans? (Score:5, Informative)

      by CptChipJew ( 301983 ) * <michaelmiller AT gmail DOT com> on Friday September 05, 2003 @05:10PM (#6883605) Journal
      The fans in the G5 are computer controlled. They are only on when they are needed.

      According the Jobs (paraphrased): "You might think '9 fans? Oh my god' But it turns out the opposite is true. We've gotten the noise down to 35dba at room temperature, 3x quieter than the latest G4".
      • Part of that is due to not only the power consumption of the G5 (although more than a G4, it's less than an "equivalent" Athlon or Pentium 4... maybe not that much different than a Pentium-M cranking away) and the large heatsinks used to cool the CPU. With such a large heatsink, I doubt of the processor will get hot enough to worry about if the air within the case and within the room isn't too warm.
      • You mean the G5 is quiter than the G4 that Apple fanboys were petitioning for a return because it was so freaking loud. Wow 3x times quiter. What an accomplishment, what is that like 1.2 dB?

        My recent Dell 400SC purchase has a total of 2 fans, 80mm + 92mm. You can hear the hard drive seeking over the fans. My fridge is louder from the next room over. see FAQ [aaltonen.us] about it.
        • Actually, the fan noise issue was fixed in the latest G4 model [macworld.com] (released January of this year, one sits silent on my desktop right now), the one that Jobs was comparing the G5 to. The model with all the noise issues that a few "fanboys" (was that a dig or just a clever play on words?) had to send back were released in August of last year.

          Regardless, I'd take a noise/performance ratio test between a Mac and any comparably equipped Dell any time.

      • Re:9 Fans? (Score:5, Funny)

        by protohiro1 ( 590732 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @06:20PM (#6884166) Homepage Journal
        Hmm, I read that "the fans of the G5 are computer controlled"...I always knew Steve Jobs was trying to take over the world.

      • Re:9 Fans? (Score:3, Funny)

        by jfisherwa ( 323744 )

        According the Jobs (paraphrased): "You might think '9 fans? Oh my god' But it turns out the opposite is true. We've gotten the noise down to 35dba at room temperature, 3x quieter than the latest G4".

        Room temperature? Are there actually enough people that keep their computers in non-room locations for them to specifically point this out?

        I can imagine visiting a friend and them showing off their new G5: "35dba in a room was just too much to handle, so.. we expanded on to the house a bit and now keep it j

        • I keep my PCs in a closet to avoid the noise and run kvm cables out to a my desk. I'm going to start calling the closet purgatory.
      • Yep, basically if you're just writing email then it'll be quite quiet, but when you start playing quake or serious photoshop/fcp4/etc work then expect a frigging jet plane under your desk to take off and all your lights to dim.

      • Re:9 Fans? (Score:1, Funny)

        by Anonymous Coward
        There are really only nine of you idiots posting to slashdot?

    • Re:9 Fans? (Score:2, Informative)

      by NivenHuH ( 579871 )
      The fans are variable speed and spin up faster as the machine gets hotter... I was looking at a demo 1.6ghz unit in the store (at a micro center in one of their tech rooms) and it was pretty silent...
      • "The fans are variable speed and spin up faster as the machine gets hotter... I was looking at a demo 1.6ghz unit in the store (at a micro center in one of their tech rooms) and it was pretty silent"

        I assumed that, but still, 9? I have three fans in my case, and I have a 67W processor, hot video card, and 3 hard drives.

        35dba? That's not that impressive. My Panaflos are rated at 22dba, and I certainly wouldn't call them "silent". Quiet, perhaps, but not "silent". In my book, silent means "quieter than the

        • Re:9 Fans? (Score:5, Informative)

          by Reverberant ( 303566 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @07:01PM (#6884408) Homepage
          35dba? That's not that impressive.

          The 35 dBA spec is basically useless since it's given without a reference distance. With that in mind, 35 dBA is roughly the sound of a soft whisper at 5 feet (Ref: Martin Hirshorn, Noise Control Handbook). That's pretty darn quiet, assuming it refers to a reasonable distance from the chassis, say 3 to 5 feet.

          My Panaflos are rated at 22dba, and I certainly wouldn't call them "silent".

          Than they're probably louder than 22 dbA. 22 dBA is roughly the sound level at a remote area, at night, with no insect sounds or wind. If you live in a very quiet area, the sound level in your room may approach 25 dBA if your walls are well insulated, and no windows are open. No consumer sound level meter (Radio Shack brand, etc) would be able to accurately measure that low, and many professional level SLM's would have difficultly measuring that low (for example my $1800 TerraSonde ATB Pro has a noise floor of about 25 dB with its stock microphone).

          Of course this all completely ignores the fact that measuring the sound level of a sound source that is lower than 40 dBA is pretty hard to do outside of an anechoic chamber since ambient sound levels can contaminate the measurements...

          • Wow. Someone here actually has a good idea of how things are done as far as audio measurement. Nice post to deflect other people's ignorance on certain subjects which they don't seem to be trying to hard to change. If you dont' know about a certain subject, just don't say anything. Oh well that's just my opinion. It takes all kinds in this world and I mean that sincerely.
        • You have no idea what you are talking about.

    • Re:9 Fans? (Score:5, Informative)

      by Tumbleweed ( 3706 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @05:13PM (#6883622)
      1) I went to the local Apple Store over the weekend. The 1.8GHz machine was there, and I couldn't hear the fans, even with my head next to the machine.

      2) I dunno.

      3) Only the dual 2GHz machine has 9 - there are fewer in the single proc models. They have implemented a cooling zone design in the case - different zones have different cooling requirements. It's a really neat idea. The fans are large and rotate slowly, and thus produce virtually no noise. When the case is closed, you DON'T hear them. The aluminum case is unlike aluminum PC cases - the aluminum is very thick. Nice.

      The fans are computer controlled.

      Go check a system out at your local Apple Store(tm).

      Wish I had the money for one, but I gotta get a new car first. *sigh*

      • Re:9 Fans? (Score:4, Informative)

        by amichalo ( 132545 ) on Saturday September 06, 2003 @09:28AM (#6887036)
        I echo Tumbleweed's experience. I saw the 1.6 Ghz at an Apple Store in Dallas. There were very few customers in the store and I would not say it was any louder in there than in my house with someone else home. Unless I put my ear up to the heavy plastic (think the clear plastic used on the Apple Pro Mouse or the edges of the 17" iMac screen) I could not hear any of the 3 fans I saw spinning.

        I think the key is the low RPMs. with it spinning slower, there isn't a "whirrr" sound. Since the sound is not as high pitched, the sound is deadened sooner by the materials in the case.

        And Apple a day keeps Gates at bay

    • Re: (Score:3, Informative)

      by account_deleted ( 4530225 )
      Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • Re:9 Fans? (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Sorry to troll, but does anyone here actually know anything at all about acoustics? Anything? For example, what an A-Weighting curve might be? For example, dbA vs. dB? Or how about Sound power measurements vs. sound pressure measurements? Anyone know a damn thing about ISO Acoustical standards? No? Then quit trying to pretend you know jack shit about it, just because you know how to write hacked, bastardized code and play FPS games. Leave the engineering to engineers, and just post that you don't know the a
    • I know what you mean. I don't understand what it is with these 9 fan fanatics. I'm sitting here in front of my 9-fan enclosure and it's been trying to move 7 cubic feet of air for the past twenty minutes. Twenty minutes!! At home, my single-unit Panaflo L1a fan (24cfm, 1900rpm) can do this in five minutes....
    • Apple has developed convection-cooled no-fan computers in the past. My wife's iMac DV has no fan, as do some of the other first generation body iMacs (though not the first-generation first generation iMacs, if that make sense.)

      The Cube was also convection cooled.

      They can do it, when feasible and appropriate. However, with a new-design tower case that's made to have all sorts of third-party crapola stuffed into it, I doubt it was appropriate. Much easier with the non-upgradeable consumer models.

    • Noise(9 Fans) .LT. Noise(1 Fan) (Score:5, Informative)

      by G4from128k ( 686170 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @07:53PM (#6884678)
      The key to Apple's design is to:
      - lower the RPM of each fan,
      - lower the air flow velocity,
      - lower the total CFM required by all fans, and
      - reduce the turbulence of the airflow.

      A single fan design has the disadvantage of having to move enough air to cover the worst case configuration of internal components and thermal loading -- ensuring that some air gets to every nook and cranny. With 9 fans in 4 thermal zones, each zone of the G5 is regulated to minimize fan speed whilst maintaining acceptable temperatures. More fans for more fan cross-sectional area also reduces noise. A single fan design requires higher velocities on the blades and airflow and creates more turbulent airflow. Thus, for example, blowing 24 CFM though a single 120 mm fan makes more noise that blowing the same 24 CFM through an array of three 90 mm fans.

      The front and back mesh covers act as a acoustic diffusers and help create laminar flow (which is less noisy than turbulent flow). Finally, the flow-through design creates a uniform convective flow over the components versus other designs with more convoluted airflows that create uneven flow or dead-air zones in the case.

    • Re:9 Fans? (Score:5, Informative)

      by jo_ham ( 604554 ) <joham999@ g m a i l . com> on Sunday September 07, 2003 @05:35PM (#6895609)
      They run at very low speeds and are all monitored by the computer.

      The old g4 towers used one large sideways mounted fan to blow air over the passive heatsink of the CPU(s) and other components, and the system would even run when the side was open (the motherboard was attached to the side that opened so that it was flat on your desk to facilitate easy upgrades).

      The G5's 'zones' are well thought out. Only the dual G5 has 9 fans. The single processor 1.6 and 1.8Ghz only have 7 fans.

      Each processor's heat sink is located in the centre of a "wind tunnel" (which is formed by two bulkheads, the motherboard and the clear perspex panel). The frontmost bulkhead has a low speed fan and the heatsink with its 40 metal fins, which are aligned parallel with the airflow, is set back about 10cm (5") from this fan. A further 4 or 5" behind the heatsink is another fan that is rarely switched on. The combination of these two fans and the design of the "wind tunnel" keep each cpu cool enough without having to run the fans at high speed.

      I've examined the inside of a 1.6Ghz G5 quite closely (I have a friend at my local Apple store) and I'm impressed by the design - it was obviously very carefully thought out and was only possible because they could design every thing to fit - when you design the motherboard and the case you can ensure that you get the best fit.

      The computer is always monitoring and will spin up the rear fan to a low speed when the cpu is working hard to create lower pressure behind the heatsink which promotes airflow over it from the front without having to speed up the front fan. We worked it quite hard and I never saw the front cpu fan spin up any faster or make any more noise than a quiet "swoosh" the whole time, and we were running it with the metal panel removed (but the perspex cover still in place).

      An interesting note though - if you remove that perspex cover while the computer is on it automatically spins the cpu fans up to full speed to ensure the cpu doesn't overheat because the wind tunnel has had a side removed, thus reducing the airflow over the heat sink. We called it a "headless chicken panic" since the noise from the fans is very noticable compared to normal running when you almost can't hear them at all and we likened it to the computer getting all confused with its side removed and running round the yard in a daze.

  • Almost too good (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Oculus Habent ( 562837 ) * <(oculus.habent) (at) (gmail.com)> on Friday September 05, 2003 @05:10PM (#6883603) Journal
    When I saw the first few pictures, I thought it simply looked rendered. The light, the curves, the shading, even the capacitors on the video card look perfect.

    That is some awesome photography.

  • Actually nice photos (Score:3, Insightful)

    by adam872 ( 652411 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @05:23PM (#6883722)
    As someone who like photography and technology, I have to say I like the pictures. A reviewer of the G5 put it best when he said that it had a "brutal austerity". I think these photos capture it beautifully.

  • i dunno (Score:2, Informative)

    by random735 ( 102808 )
    I found the spoof far more interesting/amusing than the main page..oh well, something for everyone i suppose.

  • Love your Mac... (Score:3, Funny)

    by JasonMaggini ( 190142 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @06:10PM (#6884086)
    ..just don't, ah, Love your Mac.

    I think he's a little too emotionally involved.

  • This is better than porn. (Score:5, Funny)

    by Mabataki ( 663651 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @07:11PM (#6884459)
    This is truly one of the most erotic things I have ever seen. If that Mac was a woman, these pictures would belong in Playboy.

  • Most things look bad on extreme closeups.... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by haut ( 678547 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @08:06PM (#6884732)
    but the G5 looks amazing! Apple really did it right and didn't make it look cheap at all. Look at the top end Dell/Alienware/Gateway comptuers, they still look cheap. Amazing pictures and great link.

  • Bill sells 'em too... (Score:3, Insightful)

    by soundF*!k ( 655296 ) on Friday September 05, 2003 @10:09PM (#6885270)
    As a friend of Mr. Noll, I feel I should mention that he also sells Macs through his company, Neoview.
    http://www.neoview.com/

    However, this is not really mass market retail. His clientele is fairly exclusive. (big name musicians and publishing)

  • Reason for the beauty? (Score:4, Interesting)

    by 00_NOP ( 559413 ) on Saturday September 06, 2003 @05:16AM (#6886392) Homepage
    Do manufacturers make these things so beautiful to cover for the essential failure of the computer revolution? Only a few years ago we were being told we could expect high economic growth for years to come on the back of the ICT revolution and the explosion in computing power and interconnectivity - nobody believes that now.

    So a serious question is: do the manufacturers now strive to make these machines more beautiful to mnake us forget that they have failed us. Ok, as someone who has read Marx, maybe I should say, is this an attempt to get us to fetishise the commodity more to make up for our human failure to realise their potential in our service?

  • Dust (Score:2, Funny)

    by BriSTO(V)L ( 668928 )
    I'd like this guy to do a repeat set of pics in 12 months when it's all full of dust, cat hairs, dead flies, crud, whatever... (Just before all the mesh holes get blocked up and it melts down). Although I do agree they're great pics, and I'd sure love a G5...

    • you'll STILLbe a idiot 12 months from now too (Score:1, Insightful)

      by Anonymous Coward
      Bozo. You dont think the PC world is any better, do you? My Antec with the front fans and the nice little filter in front gets clogged in 2 weeks time, and it still does'nt keep the fine crap out. Apple's solution is 10X times better. There's no chance it will ever overheat unlike all these Chieftec and Antec cases. When the front fan filter gets blocked on one of them, look out. And those are the BEST PC cases.

      Anyone that does not take a can of compressed air to their machine every 3 or 4 months and blow

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