[Zimwy]

Hi everyone,
I'm thinking of getting one of the new G5s because I haven't had a tower in a LONG TIME and am looking forward to buying a top of the line computer that's ACTUALLY top of the line. Then I realized that there's really not so much that you can upgrade in a G5. So far, I'm seeing HD, DVD/CD drive, and PCI Cards, and that's really it. I was looking at G4s for a friend and they have 4 HD spots, and 2 drive bays. Should this be concerning me? I realize that the G5 has 8 ram slots and all of that. I'm no g5 hater. Just looking for somebody to convince me that this G5 that I buy will in fact last me a long time.

What are your thoughts on longevity?

Thanks,
gabe

[Luca Rescigno]

I think it'll be fine. I would consider my PowerMac to be heavily upgraded, and yet all my upgrades could fit in a G5 as well. I have two hard drives (I don't see the need for more unless you're a REALLY hardcore user), close to the maximum RAM, one PCI card installed, and a DVD burner.

Multiple optical drives aren't that necessary because a single DVD burner will handle everything. Right now the largest SATA hard drive available is 500 GB, and there will probably be 1 TB hard drives available by the time you want to replace your machine. So you'll easily be able to fit 1 TB of internal storage in the two drive bays. That should be more than enough for quite a while. As for cards... well, there's not much you would need to add to a G5 with PCI cards, but if you do you have plenty of slots. I think the biggest concern is the lack of PCI Express, not the number of internal drive bays.

Really the only disadvantage of the G5 vs. G4 for upgradability is the number of drive bays. The MDD G4 could take two optical drives and four hard drives with zero modification, and the G5 can take only half that.

The only other issue is the possible lack of processor upgrades. I'm not sure how easy or hard it will be to upgrade a G5's processor. That's not a concern yet but it may be a couple years from now when the G6 displaces the G5.

[k2director]

There are a couple of third party solutions for adding additional internal hard drives to a G5. Check www.barefeats.com for info about the G5 Jam and the SwiftData 2000 (or 200, something like that). These products consist of brackets that fit within the G5 case, and accomodate the extra drives--without compromising air flow or noise too bad (supposedly...I haven't tried em myself yet).

[effgee]

With 250GB drives available everywhere and 400GB drives about to hit stores - how many internal drive bays could a regular user (as in "I don't edit video for a living") possibly need?

Also, FireWire SATA enclosures are right around the corner, which should provide additional options. As far as PCI slots are concerned, I'll be happy as long as I have room for a second video card, my Alchemy TV board and eventually another interface (FW800) card. Again, professional video/audio users might find themselves in a bit of a bind here as well ... but overall most users should be perfectly fine with those machines.

Cheers

[Thain Esh Kelch]

A normal user would probably be totally satisfied with 120 Gb for the next 5 years.

(Unless of course you are a warez-geek that has to have everything)

[Eriamjh]

Being able to upgrade an internal drive is something every computer supports. But some people like to just add drives to separate their work (like video one one, music on another, etc.).

Since you have room for a second hard drive, that's a good start. Some people HATE not BEING ABLE to put in a second optical drive and refuse to acknowledge FW as an option.

I have three HDs in my Dual 800 or about 320GB of space. With the new G5s coming with 160GB and 250GB drives out, I could easily exceed that in a new G5 without extra HW.

Th G5 Jam is a big price to pay ($500 with PCI card and cables) just to put the drives inside your G5. I'd rather put them in a FW 800 case for that price and spend the remaining $280 on ram or something else (two FW800 cases might even be cheaper).

I understand the complaints, but I honestly think that some people get more hung up on the possibility of needing more space than the use of the regular machine in the meantime. I'd kill for a dual 2.5G5. I'd rather have that than just the ability to say "I can put 6 HDs in my MDD G4". I say to that person, "Get over it and enjoy the speed or shut the f*ck up, go away, and go buy a PC".

The answer to you question is that the lack of more than one extra drive bay and the one optical drive should NOT concern you. In the future, when 3 to 4GHz G5s are out, you will probably want to sell your machine rather than add-on anyway.

[hmurchison2001]

There are a few arguements for more expandability that seem to come up.


Dual opticals-

"I want to record from disc to disc"
"I want to access one drive while the other is busy"
"I want the fast CD Burner and a DVD-Burner"

Important to be sure but let's imagine if we're Apple. We know that we most likely had a really tough time cooling the Dual 1.42Ghz G4s down in El Capitan. We are not looking to undergo the expense of replacing powersupplies again. Therefore we're going to take advantage of the convergence of DVD burning and CD burning. One optical bay..multiple uses less thermal issues and draw on the power supply. Most users don't routinely record from disc to disc and buffering data to the HD isn't that much of a slowdown.

More drive bays-

"I don't want clutter"
"I want RAID"
"I want cheap drives"

Again we have the potential for thermal issues. Apple must take care to make sure cooling is good. They don't know if someone is going to add in 3 hot 10k drives or not. Many people want to "nickel and dime" their way in storage adding additional GB by piecemeal. While this is great for the consumer it comes at a cost in more PS draw and being that 3-4 drives have more heads and platters you run the increased risk of drive failure. With SATA drives now 400GB and rising it makes sense to take advantage of this or even utilize FW drives. Internal expansion is nice but it's overblown. There's a reason why some PC's must have 700 watt PS and 12 fans.

[TheDigitalMan]

I acquired a Dual 2.0 G5 at the beginning of the year. I am totally satisfied with it. I have 1 Gig of RAM in it and I added a 250 GIG Hard drive. It came with a 160 Gig. I partitioned the 250 into like 4 partitions for the various ways I seperate my work. I partitioned the 160 Gig into 2 partitions. One for the system and the other one as a "Scratch Pad" so to speak. I also have a FireWire 200 GIG Harddrive that we had previously and I can still hook it up to but I don't. I have an external TRAVAN backup tape drive tied in via USB2.

We are a commercial art department and I routinely work on projects that can end up using anywhere from 50 MEG to 5 GIG but I have never felt cramped for space. Generally our projects run around 100 MEG give or take 50. I currently have EVERYTHING ONLINE that we have created for clients over the past 3 years. Nothing archived! I love it!

But the best thing I like about my G5 is that when I execute a command or click on a folder I don't sit around waiting for the computer to respond. The G5 can "almost" keep up with me which is pretty incredible! And I say, "almost" because I am a total power user and generally stay 5 or 6 keystrokes ahead of the computer at any given time. That was before I aquired the G5. But even the G5 can't always do everything instintaneously which is what "I want" in a computer. When I copy 400 MEG onto a CD and burn it that can take a few seconds. And yes I say seconds because the G5 is absolutely AWESOME when it comes to copying files! It can move 400 MEG in anywhere from 5 to 15 seconds. But here is the coolest part I like about the G5! Even though it may take the G5 30 or 40 seconds to burn the CD I don't have to wait on it to finish! I can move on to my next task. I can be downloading files from the internet. I can be printing a large document and while the applications print dialogue box is still on the screen indicating "Printing page 7 of 159" I can move on to another application or task. The G5 totally supports multi-tasking and for me it is a TREMENDOUS time saver! If I am in Photoshop and execute a difficult filter I don't have to wait on it to complete. I can go back to my layout program and continue working on the other aspects of the project or whatever. I guess some of this is actually features of the OS X rather than the G5 but until I had a G5 I was not a big fan of loading down the system with multiple tasks and inviting the whole thing to CRASH on me! Which is the last thing I will mention! I have had the G5 for 6 months now and it has NEVER CRASHED on me! Truly a first for me who has worked in Pre-Press for the last 20 years and can tell you horror story after horror story of losing work when the machine crashed! Now I can't say that a program has never crashed or shut down on me but I have yet for the G5 itself to crash. And if a program locks up I don't have to go and re-boot. All I do is go to my "FORCE QUIT" panel and just "axe" the offending program and it becomes history. I can then reload it and go on about what I was doing.

O.K. I've said enough!

[Zimwy]

Wow,
Thanks for all the responses. It is nice to know that the G5 can keep up. I always use apple-shift a for applications, and then type the name of the program, and then apple-option o to open it, and my g4 pb lags WAY behind. I think You've convinced me.


gabe