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iMac G5 Pros and Cons

Hi,

I have admired Apple computers since I was a child and even used the old Macs in high school (15 years ago). Finally, 2 years ago, I bought my first Apple system. I bought an iBook G4 12". I was smitten with Mac OS X. The power and tools from the Unix world married with the ease of use and attractiveness of the previous Mac OS versions. I now find Windows to be extremely inferior.

Unfortunately, my iBook had several quality issues that required it to be sent in for repair a few times. The genius bar system has been an extreme pleasure to use for support and repair. Apple even felt bad about all the repairs my iBook had to endure and they recently gave me a new iBook. (Very cool!!)

I now want to throw my Windows desktop in the trash and get an Apple desktop. Power Macs are a little too expensive for me right now. So, I am considering a 17" iMac G5. To avoid any issues with quality I would appreciate it if those who already have this system could share the pros and cons with me. I would be interested in Pros and Cons related to performance and quality. Has anyone had any issues that required repair? How is the performance compared to PCs and compared to the Power Macs?

Does anyone recommend a different Mac? (Mac mini or Power Mac)

Has anyone else recently switched to Mac? Please share your experience.

Forgive me, if this has been repeated in this group before.

Thanks,

Michael

iBook G4, Mac OS X (10.4.3)

Posted on Nov 29, 2005 8:06 AM

Best reply

howwow

Level 4

3,538 points

Posted on Nov 29, 2005 9:53 AM

Hi Michael, I am very delighted to help you answer your queries, from one mac lover to another...

I think this is my 4th or 5th Desktop Mac that I owned, the last was the G4 Cube which I "loved to death" also I put in considerable upgrades, but the lure of the iMac G5 was simply just too powerful, I also had an iBook 12" and now own a PowerBook 12".

iMac G5 Pros
•Relatively "cheap", affordable - for everything you need in one sleek and extremely beautiful design, you can't find another in the market today
•Space Saver - takes up little space, light-weight, easy to carry around, even to the Service Centre
•Less wire clutter - if you go totally wireless with the keyboard, mouse and internet. But I would hold on to the Mighty Mouse
•For a consumer mac, its G5 power is more than adequate for your computing needs, from iLife apps to games etc
•You get a "free" iSight camera built-in

iMac G5 Cons
•Limited Expandability - Only supports up to 2.5G Ram right now, with just one Ram slot in the Rev. C, so you must choose your Ram wisely; Same goes with one Hard Disk, Graphics Card etc, it's all built-in, you will need to get external FireWire drives, should you one day run out of the (BTO) 500G HD space!
•Only up to 20" Screen Space, if you want something bigger, you might want to opt for the Mac mini
•Fan noise - this is really user-dependent, some suffer from constant buzzing and fan noise, especially from the Rev. As, some Rev. Bs, but others have absolutely quiet iMacs...
•Hard or Impossible to Upgrade - again, with everything in a sleek enclosure, but harder if you want to change or add a new HD, upgrade a new Graphics Card, add another PCI card etc etc... but then and again, if you need to do all that, you'd probably better off with a Pro Mac G5

I think that's about all I can contribute, but seriously, I would advice you to get the 20" iMac instead, the screen size is just nice, nowadays for home consumer computer needs, if you notice, LCD screen models are coming out with more and more 19" and above... You won't regret the 20", I love mine just the way it is...

Althought it is a G5 processor, of course the computing power cannot be compare to a Pro G5, which has higher processor speed, front side bus, video ram, dual core etc, those are meant for pro running applications, if you find yourself needing to run apps like FCP, Motion etc everyday, then you should be looking for the G5

Other than that, I think the iMac G5 20" is the "perfect home consumer" mac.

Cheers

iMac G5 20" (Ambient Light Sensor) Mac OS X (10.4.3) 250G HD, 2G Ram

View in context

49 replies

Nov 30, 2005 3:51 PM in response to Nick Stearns

Nick Stearns writes: Seriously consider a 20 inch model. The 17 inch gets a little claustrophobic after a while.

I've had the iSight model home and running now for maybe an hour. I am in love with this machine. The 17" would have been fine, but I'd always have been longing for that extra real estate.

Go for the 20" if you can do it. You won't regret it.

Dec 1, 2005 10:43 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Ohh, this could be an issue. I want to upgrade the RAM myself.

So, the RAM slot is not easily accessible?

Thanks,

Michael

Dec 1, 2005 10:59 AM in response to Michael McGarry

So, the RAM slot is not easily accessible?

Depends how hard you think it is to turn one of these semi-weighty beasts upside-down and undo a couple of screws!

There's just this little panel on the underside edge to remove, then you just push the card straight in and screw the panel back. One slight warning would be that the crosspoint (Philips) head cut in the screw heads is VERY fine, so you will need a similarly fine sized screwdriver. You also need to handle it carefully, to avoid stripping the slots. But apart from that, it's a doddle. I did it myself, right after the system arrived and installed another 512 Mbyte RAM (bought from OWC in the US) in about three minutes - and that included searching for the panel and then finding a correctly-sized screwdriver!

It really couldn't be much easier, without being insecure and prone to getting your RAM expansion card stolen!

Nigel

Dec 1, 2005 11:03 AM in response to Michael McGarry

Yes, as Nigel says, RAM has its own little door and that's easy. It's the rest of the inside that's off limits now.

Dec 1, 2005 11:03 AM in response to Michael McGarry

Of course, having said all that, Barbara was otherwise perfectly correct - getting to anything other than the RAM expansion slot on these latest iMacs will definitely NOT be for the faint-hearted!

I dare say I will (need to) do it, one day, but only after someone else has risked it and produced some detailed instructions for how to do it without snapping plastic bits!

Nigel

Dec 1, 2005 11:04 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

Snap, Barabara! I just said that too.....

Of course, I should have said it in the first place. 😟

Nigel

Dec 1, 2005 11:04 AM in response to Nigel Hamlin

My own experience with this sort of thing is that it's amazing how much bolder I feel once the machine is out of warranty. 🙂

Dec 1, 2005 11:56 AM in response to Barbara Brundage

I seem to never be able to hold onto a machine long enough for it to go out of warranty 🙂

Glor

Dec 1, 2005 3:49 PM in response to Barbara Brundage

Barbara,

Should we deduce that you never buy an APP then?

IOW, you could never wait that long! 😉

Nigel

iMac G5 (iSight 2.1GHz), PB G3 (WS 300 MHz) and 9600/350 Mac OS X (10.4.3) Also still running 10.2.8 and 9.1 (for posterity!)

Dec 1, 2005 9:33 PM in response to Michael McGarry

I have a rev A iMac G5 and am very dissappointed. Apple's support has also been dissappointing after so many troubles and the 2500 to 3000 dollars I have spend on Apple products in the last two years. I am seriously contemplating leaving the Apple empire and switching back to Windows or even Linux.

Apple's commitment to quality leaves a lot to be desired. You can read on overview of my challenges on my blog: http://livingwithimacg5.blogspot.com/

Though the iMac G5 hardware may now finally work, now I cannot install my printer due to some bug in OS 10.4.x. In other words, any sw upgrade may disable otherwise perfectly good hardware, though in my case the sw upgrade crippled my dysfunctional hardware.

dan31292

Level 2

170 points

Dec 2, 2005 3:46 AM in response to Michael McGarry

Also rember rev. c doesnt have major issues. If you where fine with a g4 ibook youll be happy with a imac g5.

imac g5 Mac OS X (10.4.1)

Macsastic

Level 4

3,380 points

Dec 2, 2005 6:33 AM in response to Nigel Hamlin

You dont really have to turn the machine upside down. I just pulled it to the edge of a table, and tilted the machine as far back as it would go, undid the screws, and popped it in. Jeez, dont turn the whole thing upside down, thats going overboard IMO.

Dec 2, 2005 6:35 AM in response to Peanut's dad

I am seriously contemplating leaving the Apple empire and switching back to Windows or even Linux.

Apple's commitment to quality leaves a lot to be desired.

I just took a look through your blog and it certainly invokes sympathy on my part for your trials and tribulations. But, I'm not sure that Apple's commitment to quality is lacking - the end result, yes, but not the commitment. Apple's R&D resources, when compared to those of the Wintel community, or even with the Linux community, are relatively limited, yet, in my experience, they are more responsive overall to the inevitable problems that do occur, and size for size, they do have less bugs and quality 'issues' than either of those two dominant competitors. So, I think that's no mean achievement, really.

Sure, none of that helps much, when you are the one who's on the receiving end of an apparently endless sequence of problems, and I certainly think that Apple perhaps should have treated your case in the same way as others that I've heard about. In the worst cases (and IIRC, there's one right here in this thread), people with particularly bad experiences with RevA or RevB iMac G5s have had their systems replaced with a brand new RevC, to go some (fair) way towards compensating them for their experiences. So, maybe now you're in the US, it's time to pay a visit to an Apple Store, with documentation of your iMac's history, and see what response you get!

I'd like to think you'd pretty much automatically receive the same treatment, but in reality, I find these things tend to be down to how 'on-the-ball' the individual with whom you're dealing happens to be! So, it's a little unpredictable.... but worth trying, nonetheless.

Either way, I can certainly vouch for the accuracy of all the good things that have been said here about the RevC iMac G5 - I'm using it right now, and it's a dream of a system. So, if you can get Apple to give you one in exchange, I'm pretty sure you won't be disappointed.

Nigel

Dec 2, 2005 6:41 AM in response to Macsastic

Hey, Macsastic,

So, what are you, an auto mechanic or an astronaut? Either way, you obviously don't have the same preference as I do for working the 'right way up'! 😉

But, I'd agree, if I had to do it without turning the whole system upside-down, I guess I could - it just didn't seem so hard to turn it over and make my life that little bit easier. Yes, it is a bit heavy, but only enough to convince everyone that it's a well-built piece of kit!

Nigel

joeuu

Level 5

5,089 points

Dec 2, 2005 7:23 AM in response to Nigel Hamlin

LOL, excellent. Pulling it to the edge of the table is way scarier than turning it upside down, tilting it way back, etc.

Joe

iMac G5 Pros and Cons