[Eug Wanker]

Some guy has gotten his dual G5 970FX 2.0 GHz Xserves. Finally...

Picture gallery

[DeathToWindows]

drool......

[djohnson]

Nice...

There should be a drool smiley

[Cadaver]

[CIA]

You don't really get a sense from the front pics on apple's site about just how long the xserve is, Still, pretty cool (or hot I guess) that they can pack that much power into such a small package...

[Scotttheking]

Eug, I get this strange feeling of deja vu from 95% of your posts...

[Eug Wanker]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Eug, I get this strange feeling of deja vu from 95% of your posts...

Why? Are you sure it's not a glitch in the matrix?

[MindFad]

It looks so cool I almost wish I had an excuse to get one�or an excusable use for one.

[Vader�s Pinch of Death]

Originally posted by Scotttheking:
Eug, I get this strange feeling of deja vu from 95% of your posts...

He likes to live vicariously through hardware he doesn't own, plan to own or is shipping.

[Superchicken]

Originally posted by Vader�s Pinch of Death:
He likes to live vicariously through hardware he doesn't own, plan to own or is shipping.

Wow that was surprisingly funny... that said.. I also want an Xserve... also for no real reason other than wanting one... and I could use it as a foot warmer when it gets cold...

[GoGoReggieXPowars]

Yeah, because we all know they were shipping last month. That's a pretty slow van.

[Leonard]

Originally posted by CIA:
You don't really get a sense from the front pics on apple's site about just how long the xserve is, Still, pretty cool (or hot I guess) that they can pack that much power into such a small package...

Man, that thing IS long. I didn't realize racks were that deep.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by Leonard:
Man, that thing IS long. I didn't realize racks were that deep.

Another thing pics fail to convey is the wall of noise emitting from the thing. The G4 ones were quite loud and I guess these won't be any quieter?

J

[osxisfun]

I've read they are much quieter. not saying its ready for the desktop but i have read each gen has been made much quieter. i did hear the 1st gen once and OMG it was LOUD.

[Immortal K-Mart Employee]

I heard the G4 Xserves and behind that glass door sounded like the end of the world.

[DVD Plaza]

What the big deal about the noise? The noise of a rackmount server is totally and utterly irrelevant, I'm suprise Apple would have "allegedly" spent any time/effort/money on reducing it.

A tower server yes, countless different environments it could be running in, but a rackmounted server is either in a server room or a data centre... no matter how loud the Xserve is you aren't going to hear it over the countless other servers in the room.

[olePigeon]

We have a 1st gen dual G4 XServe and it's VERY loud. Luckily we're getting a full rackmount enclosure which should help with the noise a bit.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
What the big deal about the noise? The noise of a rackmount server is totally and utterly irrelevant, I'm suprise Apple would have "allegedly" spent any time/effort/money on reducing it.

Xserves appeal to other rackmounters than your average farm-in-server-room type, too. Macs are multi-purpose machines and the Xserve shape is a form- factor.

As a musician, I'd be interested in sticking one in my instrument rack instead of worrying about the fragility of a PowerBook on stage. I could have a larger display on top, which would be nice. Having a door would hinder access to the rack, so the machine would have to be quietish. And yeah, it'd be a G5 Lotsa processing power for audio.

G4 PowerMacs fit a rack sideways snugly, but G5 towers are way too big

J

[QuadG5Man]

Does anyone have a desktop setup of an
XServe? Picts? Any thoughts on using a dual G5 XServe as a
desktop (maybe a bit of a mobile desktop, eh?). How are Apple LCD displays connected?

The 2 Ghz G5 cluster is 2999. I do a lot of video rendering. Is this the mobile video editors dream computer right now who would also be buying for a desktop at home setup? Am I missing something? I'm not really that familiar with XServes.

[DVD Plaza]

Originally posted by QuadG5Man:
Any thoughts on using a dual G5 XServe as a
desktop (maybe a bit of a mobile desktop, eh?). How are Apple LCD displays connected?

You buy the PCI video card - it installs in the lower PCI slot. However it's a VGA connector only.

Originally posted by QuadG5Man:
The 2 Ghz G5 cluster is 2999. I do a lot of video rendering. Is this the mobile video editors dream computer right now who would also be buying for a desktop at home setup? Am I missing something? I'm not really that familiar with XServes.

The cluster would be no good for such a use - there's no PCI bus and as such you can't connect video card, and therefore a monitor, to it.

[Eug Wanker]

Lots more pix!

[no use for a nick]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
Xserves appeal to other rackmounters than your average farm-in-server-room type, too. Macs are multi-purpose machines and the Xserve shape is a form- factor.

As a musician, I'd be interested in sticking one in my instrument rack instead of worrying about the fragility of a PowerBook on stage. I could have a larger display on top, which would be nice. Having a door would hinder access to the rack, so the machine would have to be quietish. And yeah, it'd be a G5 Lotsa processing power for audio.

I think what most of you are missing is that in order to use an Xserve, whatever software you use, it'll have to run on OS X Server. The Xserves won't run just plain OS X. In my own experience (with my Xserve), you almost certainly will have trouble getting high-end apps meant for OS X to run on X Server.

[Oneota]

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
What the big deal about the noise? The noise of a rackmount server is totally and utterly irrelevant, I'm suprise Apple would have "allegedly" spent any time/effort/money on reducing it.

I really hope they *have* reduced the amount of noise made, 'cause our server room and our IT office are one and the same. We've got 8 Gen-1 G4 XServes in here, and I'm about going deaf in that range of sound from all the noise they make.

[Bob Buell]

I got five new DP G5 XServers and a full blown XRaid. Very heavy units, built solid. Also got the 12 port fiber switch. All in the ExtremeMac cabnet, seems quite. Switching over to LDAP from NetInfo on G4 servers
.

[PookJP]

Originally posted by Judge_Fire:
Xserves appeal to other rackmounters than your average farm-in-server-room type, too. Macs are multi-purpose machines and the Xserve shape is a form- factor.

As a musician, I'd be interested in sticking one in my instrument rack instead of worrying about the fragility of a PowerBook on stage. I could have a larger display on top, which would be nice. Having a door would hinder access to the rack, so the machine would have to be quietish. And yeah, it'd be a G5 Lotsa processing power for audio.

G4 PowerMacs fit a rack sideways snugly, but G5 towers are way too big

J

Do you use Logic for your recording? If so, do you also just use the synths/sampler within Logic on stage, or do you have some other software? I'm curious about this because I've been recording with my band for a while, but now we're considering actually going out on stage, and I'm not quite sure how to proceed.

Cheers.

[mbryda]

Originally posted by CIA:
You don't really get a sense from the front pics on apple's site about just how long the xserve is, Still, pretty cool (or hot I guess) that they can pack that much power into such a small package...

Standard server racks are roughly 24" long. It looks to be that long, and very cool!

[Trophy]

Originally posted by no use for a nick:
I think what most of you are missing is that in order to use an Xserve, whatever software you use, it'll have to run on OS X Server. The Xserves won't run just plain OS X. In my own experience (with my Xserve), you almost certainly will have trouble getting high-end apps meant for OS X to run on X Server.

personnaly i have no problems with OS X Server on my G4, i can run all the apps i want as i can on OS X standard.

maby the problems come from the the 64bits architecture?

[no use for a nick]

Originally posted by Trophy:
personnaly i have no problems with OS X Server on my G4, i can run all the apps i want as i can on OS X standard.

maby the problems come from the the 64bits architecture?

I think you misunderstood what I was saying. What I meant was...

For those who are saying noise should be a concern for the Xserve (because some people would enjoy using that form factor for their every day machine), they need to take into account that the Xserve will only run Mac OS X Server.

Now, all of the other Macs will run either OS X or OS X Server. Just not the Xserve.

[prutz11]

Are there any benchmarks that show the performance gains of the 970FX over the older 970 chip? Is it fair to compare an xserve and a desktop G5?

In theory a 2ghz FX would be faster than a 2ghz plain ol' 970 right?

[Pierre B.]

Originally posted by prutz11:
In theory a 2ghz FX would be faster than a 2ghz plain ol' 970 right?

Why it should be like that? I don't see any reason.

[lockhartt]

Originally posted by mbryda:
Standard server racks are roughly 24" long. It looks to be that long, and very cool!

Was rudely disappointed when we got our Gen 1 G4 XServes in back in 2002 and discovered they were 28" deep and my rack enclosure was only 26" deep, with 20" mount-to-mount depth... ugh!

Some yankee ingenuity tided me over until Marathon released their R'Ears for mounting the XServe "properly" in the enclosure (not much of an enclosure anymore since I had to remove the rear door... oi, the fan noise!).

The G5 XServe is still 28" deep.

[prutz11]

Originally posted by Pierre B.:
Why it should be like that? I don't see any reason.

I am not sure if it is any faster. But if they shrink the chip from 130(?)nm to 90nm that would theoretically mean there was less distance for the electrons to travel... which means better performance and would thereby mean more speed.

I have no idea if this is how it works... just imagining that it would work that way

experts?

[bauhaus]

You can't run FCP on an Xserve because you need an AGP slot (which it doesn't have.) This has been discussed to death on the FCP-L and some Apple reps have been looking into changing future Xserves so that it can run FCP. There are similar architectural problems that prevent software from running on Xserves (besides it will only run OS X Server.) Logic will run on an Xserve, but the lack of slots seriously hampers connectivity.

[bauhaus]

Originally posted by prutz11:
I am not sure if it is any faster. But if they shrink the chip from 130(?)nm to 90nm that would theoretically mean there was less distance for the electrons to travel... which means better performance and would thereby mean more speed.

I have no idea if this is how it works... just imagining that it would work that way

experts?

Nope, 90nm vs 130nm means better yields per wafer of silicon (say 50 processors could be made from one 12" diameter wafer of silicon at 130nm; now 65 processors could be made from the same wafer.) It's all about production. The only other advantage is that it is more power efficient (smaller etchings, less resistance, less power needed)

Now the other option is with smaller etchings, you can added more transistors to a chip. By these means, you can increase performance. However that requires building a chip dependent on the smaller fab (not just a die-shrink)

However, just a die shrink without re-engineering a chip doesn't help much for performance. It actually introduces problems such as electron leaks (which is what all the manufacturers are facing right now with 90nm production) This is where the insulator becomes really important and why those materials are getting more refined (strained-silicon on insulator) The other problem in developing these smaller fabs is how to print the circuits, for a long time the limit to the current process was 90nm (after which, the resolution for printing (a pre-etching process) wasn't good enough.) However, in the last year a new techinique has been developed that has brought printing down to 45nm limit. But there are problems there too...

[chump]

Originally posted by DVD Plaza:
The cluster would be no good for such a use - there's no PCI bus and as such you can't connect video card, and therefore a monitor, to it.

Sorry to correct you, but the Cluster node DOES have two full-length PCI-X slots:

http://www.apple.com/xserve/cluster/specs.html

[chump]

Originally posted by GoGoReggieXPowars:
Yeah, because we all know they were shipping last month. That's a pretty slow van.

Actually, the Dual G5 Xserves started shipping on 04/06/04, several weeks later than the Single proc G5 Xserves.

[chump]

Originally posted by Oneota:
I really hope they *have* reduced the amount of noise made, 'cause our server room and our IT office are one and the same. We've got 8 Gen-1 G4 XServes in here, and I'm about going deaf in that range of sound from all the noise they make.

FWIW-

We recently received a fully populated Xserve RAID and a Dual G5 Xserve to replace two old, loud and heavy RAID arrays and an SGI server. The rackspace that were saving and diminished machine noise are considerable. I don't think I'd want these boxes next to my desk, but they make our machine room much more livable.

[Judge_Fire]

Originally posted by PookJP:
Do you use Logic for your recording? If so, do you also just use the synths/sampler within Logic on stage, or do you have some other software?

I've been using Cubase and Reason, mainly, though I appreciate the Logic features and would like to get into it more. Reason is also very stable, but I don't trust Cubase all that much...

The OSXAudio Forums are a great place for better answers than mine

Originally posted by no use for a nick:
I think what most of you are missing is that in order to use an Xserve, whatever software you use, it'll have to run on OS X Server. The Xserves won't run just plain OS X.

Well, if it turns out audio stuff won't work, theres always the Marathon Computer solution. With only one G5, what would you place in the vacant slot?

J

[heavyboots]

I got my 250gb Apple Drive Model. Does that count? XServe 2x2000 G5 still on order...

[DVD Plaza]

Originally posted by heavyboots:
I got my 250gb Apple Drive Model. Does that count? XServe 2x2000 G5 still on order...

Similar here - already have my 10,000RPM drives (which I'll be installing in the ADMs), plus have a heap of other stuff on the way shortly, but waiting on the actual dual G5 Xserve...

[Todd Madson]

I love the software synthesis capability the G4/G5 architecture has
provided but I don't know that I would trust it 100% for all of my
live synth needs if I was gigging - I'd be darn sure I had some kind
of backup keyboard (maybe a midi controller with built-in hardware
audio generation capabilities) just in case the computer went down
for any reason. My two cents.