Editorial Product Review:

Item Description:
Box Includes: Power Mac G5 Quad, Apple Keyboard, Apple Mighty Mouse, USB keyboard extension cable, DVI to VGA adapter, Power cord, Install/restore DVDs, Printed and electronic documentation
The Power Mac G5 Quad is the ultimate creative platform. With two dual-core processors, at speeds up to 2.5GHz per core, the Power Mac G5 Quad doubles the punch of its dual-processor predecessor. Do the math: Quad-core processing means four Velocity Engines and eight double-precision floating-point units for blistering performance of up to 76.6 gigaflops. That means you can manipulate mountains of images or miles of footage. Crunch enormous data sets. Encode HD video or high-bit-rate audio. All at speeds you never imagined possible.
You'll also be amazed by the flexible expansion options and a host of built-in cutting-edge abilities -- from the dual Gigabit Ethernet and included SuperDrive, to all the ports available for connecting your USB or FireWire devices. It also has the very latest version of Mac OS X, with an incredible suite of software to make your life and work that much easier. PCI Express architecture opens up a world of high-performance capabilities. NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM, one single-link and dual-link DVi port Two open, full-length four-lane PCI Express slots, one PCI Express slot Dual 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet ports with integrated wireless antenna (AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 optional) 16X SuperDrive with Double Layer support Software Included - iLife '05, QuickBooks New User Edition, Art Directors Toolkit, FileMaker Pro Trial, GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive, Zinio Reader, Apple Hardware Test Connections - 1 FireWire 800, 2 FireWire 400 (one on front panel), 4 USB 2.0 (one on front panel), 2 USB 1.1 (one on keyboard), headphone minijack and speaker, optical digital audio input/out



Accessories available:
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Accessories available:

• Microsoft Office 2004 for Mac Student and Teacher [OLD VERSION]
• Apple Cinema 30-inch HD Flat-Panel Display
• Apple Cinema 23-inch HD Flat-Panel Display
• Apple Cinema 20-inch Flat-Panel Display
• Roxio Toast 8 Titanium (Mac) [OLD VERSION]

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Customer Rating: - hardware problem
I have been very happy with the performance of the G5 but for one very annoying feature. Very recently, a high-pitch sound appeared from the otherwise very quiet desktop unit. Browsing of the large internet Mac community pages revealed that my unit is not the only one with that problem. While the final diagnostic awaits confirmation, the majority of comments points to flaws in the design of the processor control and/or in the powersupply. To my great dismay, Apple customer service showed itself very uncorporative. For such an expensive equipment, low-end service is not acceptable. In conclusion, the computer performance warrants 4 stars, the recent problems led to a very annoying noise problem that lowers it to 2 stars, and the response from Apple is just disappointing (does not qualify for any star). One Apple a day keeps the doctor away. But only one without worms...

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Customer Rating: - This is Great
I got a new power mac G5 with 2.3 ghz daul core with 2 Gb ram and 250 gb hd and 256 vram. This is a major upgrade from my crappy dell. I bought this computr so I can flies from my ibook at school and put on the powermac then bring backthe file to my ibook. I also bought for games, photos, making music, lstening to music , making movies and much More. Once you are mac you never go back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Customer Rating: - unbelievable...
There is no question that you get what you pay for with computers. Macs do one thing - exactly what they are supposed to! It is great to have a system that runs flawlessly and FAST! I use this for boutique digital music production, and there is no system that I have used that compares to this. My suggestion is that if you run a business on a computer, and need speed to make your workflow happen, then this is a no brainer.
www.strandedonaplanet.com

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Customer Rating: - This thing is so fast...
If you need it, buy it. Never mind how much it costs, by the time you add memory, monitors, applecare, peripherals and software, you will spend $8000 or more. If you want to read e-mail, surf the web, play games, or balance your checkbook: this is not the computer for you. If you want a computer to do desktop publishing, image manipulation, 3d animation, ray tracing, or all of them at once: this is the one.
First, buy the apple care protection. It is so cheap, it's a no-brainer. Then, buy more memory. Remember, 4 Gigabytes is one Gig per processor, so don't be cheap. Upgrades must be done 2 chips at a time. I started with four, 1 GB chips, in addition to the original 512 MB. This seemed to be a wise decision at the time. I can expand or replace, whichever is most economical, next time I want to upgrade. Next, purchase a good surge protector. A UPS would be better, but keep in mind: this system will draw a lot of power. The power supply in the CPU can draw up to 12 amps. That's more than 1400 watts, before you even connect a monitor. A suitable surge protector should handle 15 amps continuously, and a 2000VA UPS is the minimum I would consider. It would not be a bad idea to give your computer system it's own 20 amp breaker. Next, buy your software. Adobe CS is about $1300, but worth the investment. It is a great package which I might someday review, if I ever get tired of playing with it. Next, monitors. Yes, plural. For graphic design and publishing, 2 is the minimum. It is so nice to be able to view your image full-screen with no toolboxes or palettes covering it up. Also, bigger is better. Other nice accessories include: pen tablet, air-port card, I-pod or other portable drive, scanner, printer, and speakers. A fast, reliable internet connection is nice, too.