Customer Reviews

Apple iMac G5 Desktop with 17" MA063LL/A (1.9 GHz PowerPC G5, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, SuperDrive)

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

For years I wanted Mac, I was tired of the PC and I had been using it since the early 90's. I finally made the switch, and got this iMac as an early Xmas gift from my family.
Originally I was going to purchase the model under this that doesn't have iSight, but I believe it runs at two GHz. I got this though, for the Front Row and Mouse.

So, all in a matter of a half an hour which entitled me driving to Compusa and picking this up, showing it off to my rents, and backing up/dismembering my old P2 desktop. Ten minutes after I had my iMac set up and online. First thoughts are it's fast, but the welcome screen takes a while (about a full minute on first set up). Pros are the invisible magnets that hold up things like the remote on the side.

Getting the hang of the Mac is simple, and easy. In a matter of minutes I had Safari open, Mail configured, and iTunes had recognized my Gen one iPod.

When you first turn your iMac on and have the net up you will see Software Update popup to tell you if there are any new things. After a quick restar my computer was up to date. A good thing is that the updates are free so far, and come frequently.

You certainly have enough software on the iMac when you start up, I added Real player, Windows Media, and some codec players as well. I also installed Photoshop and some torrent programs.

The ram and processor are great, really fast. Though if you plan on doing Photoshop and other apps all at once, upgrade to at least one gig. I plan on maxing out my ram ASAP.

On to the only Con.

Games.
If you like games, you probably will hate mac. Mac has limited games, most of the newer games for Windows come out on Mac but a lot don't. Like my favortie Morrowind, and Oblivion (forthecoming) are not available. That's basically the only con. I guess I'm off to max out my old P2 so I can play games on it.

If you like games and mac, get a 360 and an iMac.

Games available on mac that you will like: WarCraft, Halo 1/2, KOTOR, Dooms, etc.


Overall I give it 4.5, because of the lack of games.

I'm happy though to keep this machine for a few more years, but I'm buying an iBook on the side for portable. One other thing is I kind of like the twenty inch screen now, seventeen I don't know... It's big enough, but I like the thought of bigger....

This is the best computer I have ever purchased. I bought it straight from the Apple Store, and have had no problems whatsoever. Even though Apple's tech support on the phone isn't that great, I can call a Mac genious at the Apple Store, and get a one on one lesson/help session from him.

I am extremely pleased with the elegant design and ease of use. I used to use Windows, which was a pain. Now, after switching to the Mac, I don't have any computer problems. I haven't had any viruses or crashes. It is absolutely unbeleivable, given that my other Windows computers crash just about every day.

This iMac is a very smart buy. Apple packs a lot of bang for your buck, in terms of functionality, durablility, and ease of use.

The one thing I cannot stress enough about my new iMac is that is is extremely easy to use. And I mean simple. This thing is made for both the computer literate, and the computer illiterate.

I was very scared when ordering this item because I knew that I was going to have to some how get all the information from the old computer to this one. Programs, passwords, documents and files. I was purchasing it for a business and there was a lot of important files that could not get lost. Plus we are on a network. Another thing to have to set up. Well I received the computer and had everything on the new computer in less than thirty minuets. You can transfer all your perferences, programs, files, passwords... It is one of the options when the computer first starts. I think this option is only for a mac transfer. Anyway. Great purchase, very happy and I have purchased three moer new macs since this one and have had the same experience with them all!

Pros:
Stable operating system, no viruses, everything just works.

Cons:
Front row is a bit slow and clunky.

I am graphic designer and have used Macs at work, and this is the latest iMac they have purchased for me to use at the office. I have had the original CRT iMac, and then the swivel arm LCD iMac that followed. The current G5 iMac is the best of the bunch. The widescreen LCD is sharp and bright, and affords a large viewing area. It is quiet and fast, however Apple is a bit skimpy with the standard RAM, 512mb is the absolute least you should have in this machine. Thankfully, adding additional ram is simple.

MAC OS X 10.4 Tiger is an awesome operating system; everything looks great, and runs smoothly. No crashes, no viruses, and no worries that something you've been working on for the last 2 hours will be lost if you forget to save. Almost all of the necessary programs are available for MAC as well; Microsoft Office, most Adobe products, and quicken. Also, the iLife suite of software than came with system is great.

My only caveats are with front row and the wireless keyboard and mouse. Front Row is sometimes slow to operate and frequently loses connection with the Movie Trailer server, and the apple wireless keyboard and mouse I have with my iMac sometimes loose their connection, and the mouse is still only one button, while Apple's Mighty Mouse is a four button.

Overall, I love the Macintosh operating system, and the iMac G5. After using them at work for so many years and loving them, I finally replaced my home computer, a DELL with an Apple PowerMac G5.

About the Intel switch.
Recently a friend of mine said he had the ability to try a prototype Mac with the new Intel chips. He said the chip was a dual core 4.0 Ghz in a PowerMac. He felt that the system performance seemed no faster that the current G5 PowerPC chip. One more reason not to wait for Intel.

I actually purchased this iMac for my cousin who was tired of the Windows world. She is extremely happy with this iMac and wonders why she waited so long to go back to a Mac. The built in iSight camera is a great addition. The Front Row software is also nice, though limited in use. I set it up for her without a hitch, fast and easy. Getting her set with her DSL account was also a breeze. The screen is bright and clear and the added Mighty Mouse is a nice bonus. I have experience with iMacs since their debut in 1998, this is by far the most refined and elegant design. Apple has definitely hit the bulls-eye with this one. As far as G5 vs. intel goes, my choice would be the G5 if you have existing software that has not or will not be updated for awhile and you need to work now. If you are starting from scratch, I guess I would go with the intel version. That being said, I don't usually buy the first version of anything. Hope this helps and frankly, you can't go wrong with either model.

Apple's iMac line of desktop computers are always some of the most colorful, beautiful, and respected machines in the industry. In October 2005, Apple updated the iMac G5 making them better than ever.

You'll be impressed with the iMac G5, from the very moment you begin opening the box. It is beautifully and carefully packaged, and you're greeted by a message inside saying "Designed by Apple in California." Then it is time to experience the performance of Apple's fastest consumer-level machine ever...

Faster - The new iMac sports faster processors. This 17-inch model now has a 1.9 GHZ Power PC G5 processor, which is up, from 1.8 GHZ, on the previous base 17-inch model. Furthermore, the system's architecture is now faster, with the iMac G5 using DDR 2 memory. The iMac includes 512 MB of DDR 2 memory, and it can be upgraded, to a maximum of 2.5 GB of memory.

Front Row Experience - Apple has included a new software title that at this time is only available on the iMac G5. Front Row. Front Row comes with your iMac, and a remote control is also included. Front row allows you to watch and listen to media items, on your computer, from across the room. Click one button on the remote, and bring up Front Row, for quick access to your music, movies, podcasts, DVD, and more.

Built in iSight - The new iMac includes a built in iSight camera, so you can video conference with friends right out of the box. Furthermore, with the built in isight you can take advantage of another new application, available only on this imac right now, called Photobooth. Photobooth allows you to snap photos of yourself or friends, from the built-in camera and add wild effects.

Appearance - The new iMac G5 is thinner than the previous model making it more beautiful than ever. This machine will stand out on your desk.

Display - The iMac 17-inch features a widescreen display, which is great for watching movies and fitting items such as wide spreadsheets, or media projects, onto the screen.

Hard Drive - The iMac G5 17-inch includes a big 160 gigabyte hard drive, which will allow you to store thousands of songs, pictures, and hundreds of hours of video.

Mac OS X - If you're considering Macintosh for the first time, you're going to love the Mac operating system, Mac OS X Tiger. It is incredibly user friendly, and you'll quickly find the interface and design is saving you time. Furthermore, Mac OS X is much more secure than Windows, so you can put your mind at rest.

iLife - Apple still includes iLife with every Mac. iLife is a great way to manage your personal digital life. Store and manage your digital images in iPhoto, jam to music in iTunes, create music in Garageband, and create simple movies in iMovie.

Furthermore, there are convenient applications built right into the operating system such as Dashboard, iCal (a great calendar that syncs up with your external devices including iPod), Dictionary, Expose, Stickies, DVD Player, and more.

Wireless - Your iMac will come standard, with an Airport Extreme card, for wireless networking. Furthermore, a bluetooth module is included, allowing you to use wireless devices, such as keyboards and mice, plus sync devices such as a mobile phone.

Value - You will not find many computers available today that delivers what this iMac has at such an affordable price. A fast processor, beautiful widescreen display, wonderfully designed computer case, big hard drive, double layer DVD burner, fantastic software, and a lot more. Amazon makes it even more affordable, with great rebates.

Overall, I am truly impressed by the new iMac G5. In fact, it may be one of Apple's most impressive releases, in the past couple years. The iMac delivers high end consumer performance, with features that should meet your toughest expectations. There is simply not much that cannot be done with this very capable computer. Enjoy the new iMac G5. It's a great machine.

This is everything Apple's advertisement says it is. It puts my old PC to shame. I plugged my digital camera in and the Iphoto software instantly recognized my camera without me having to input anything. Same when I plugged in my HP all-in-one. Once I loaded the Mac software, the iMac took over the whole operation. The only negative item is transferring files from my PC to the iMac. Photos are no problem, but trying to transfer databases is a problem. My old PC databases were Excel; the iMacs are Appleworks; You need to spend $400 to get the Microsoft Works for Mac. Except for this, I am very satisfied with the iMac.

I purchased this model recently as my first Apple computer. Coming from a Unix background, the initial experience is a bit of a mixed bag. Some things are highly annoying, for example, not only is gcc, an absolutely essential piece of unix software, not available at install time, but it is a massive chore to even get on the system, and in the end you have little choice but to install Apple's Xcode tools.

The root account is disabled by default, as are a number of services such as ssh. Several traditional Unix pathnames have been changed inexplicably, for example, the home directory is called Users in the mac os. Options for other operating systems are largely limited to Linux.

This computer comes pre-installed with a number of slick looking and useful programs, mirroring the operating system itself. These are rather heavily biased towards multimedia. It is nice to have a working microphone and camera out of the box, however.

Overall, the operating system is good, but it could be better. Apple fans will throw it in with other unix systems like FreeBSD. In a lot of ways, the Mac OS is not in the same league as FreeBSD, and the inverse is also true. The typical user will get more out of the Mac OS because of its multimedia features while the programmer or network administrator will probably get more out of a more traditional unix system because of the readily available programming and networking tools.

As far as the hardware goes, there's a lot of FUD going around about the switch to Intel. It is true that the Intel processors have higher clock rates, but just as horsepower is only the definitive measure of a car to the uninformed, so too is the clock rate of a processor. The Intel architecture has some key disadvantages when compared to powerpc. One of the obvious ones is the register set. Registers are small, extremely fast memory for a processor. The 32 bit x86 architecture has 8 32 bit registers that are used as general purpose along with a few special purpose registers. The 32 bit powerpc implementation architechture features 32 general purpose registers, also 32 bit, as well as 32 64 bit floating point registers, in addition to a set of special purpose registers. Why is this important? Because in the register starved x86 architecture, there is more dependence on operations on the slower RAM. With the powerpc architecture, the programmer can load values into registers, manipulate the contents of those registers as necessary, and store the results back in memory. This is one reason why a "slower" powerpc will have better performance than a "faster" intel. Of course, since the intel processors have higher clock rates, you can concoct tests that will favor them, but these have little bearing on reality. The Intel strategy for at least the past ten years has been to increase the clock rate steadily and not really improve the architecture.

My iMacing started with the all in one G3 (Graphite). I was very happy with it, but eventually upgraded to the G4 with the flat screen and that cool chrome swivel. Held out until I decided I just had to upgrade. The G5 has been a great machine so far. Noticably faster than the G4, it runs all of the programs that I need without straining at all. Primarily, I've been working with Final Cut Express, LiveType, iDVD, Mail and the various browsers (FireFox, Safari). They all work very well.

The new SuperDrive is more versatile, and faster, than previous. Able to write both CDs and DVDs in multiple formats, including dual-layer.

I did upgrade to 1gB of RAM just to make things work a bit smoother. And the new flat-screen monitor is much brighter and sharper than that on the G4.

Overall, a great upgrade. Of course, that was two months before they decided to change out to the Intel chip which doubles the speed of even this great machine. Ah well.

After years of using PC's with a "virus" called Windows, I made the switch to Macintosh with an iBook G4 and the iMac G5 and haven't regretted it since. The operating system is rock solid. In fact, after nearly two years of using both Mac's, I haven't had the OS crash even ONCE. Sure, I've had some applications hang up or quit unexpectedly, but they NEVER took the operating system with it (I just used "Force Quit" and tried again). As a comparison, my old Windows 98 system couldn't make it 2 hours without needing a re-boot.

Yes, there isn't as much software available for the Mac's, but if you look around a while, you can find a program that'll do whatever a PC can do, many times even better.

No viruses, no spyware, no non-sense. The Macintosh just works.