Home > Consumer Reviews > Apple Power Mac G5 Desktop M9032LL/A (Dual 2.0-GHz PowerPC G5, 512 MB RAM, 160 GB Hard Drive, DVD-R/CD-RW Drive)

On Apple's web site it says "Designed for whisper-quiet operation." Well, *maybe* it is *designed* for it. But it doesn't *achieve* it. This thing is loud! I'd like to know if anyone with the 2.5GHz model knows whether that is quieter, because maybe that is what I should buy instead. The 2.0 GHz model is one loud puppy, the fan noise is easily as lound as some servers at my office.

This is a great computer, hobbled by a very weak graphics card. 64MB???? What planet do they live on? You can't even run a basic 3D game on that (not anything new).

You are in the right place. A dual 2GHz G5 *is* the right machine. Just keep moving up till you have a 256MB video card. I mean why buy top end computer and get a weaker graphics card than Dell puts in its lowest end system? Somebody at Apple should be fired.

It's not as fast as a P4, but it's a good system, and it's pretty cute. My main complaint is the weak graphics. I mean for 3 grand you think they could do better than a 64MB video card? You can hardly find a game that can run on that little video ram. It would also be nice if Apple could come up with a faster CPU. Frankly I buy them for the looks.

I have worked with Apple computers all my life and had a chance to test the G5 in different configurations at work. I used to love Apple but they lost my trust with their outrageous claim of having produced the "fastest personal computer". Almost inmediatedly Apple's TV Spots were banned from Europe and thanks to savvy consumer watch organizations they have recently been banned in the US too, false advertising has plagued Apple since then. Based on my personal experience, the G5 is not even close to beating the competition neither in speed nor price. This sort of misleading advertising thinned Apple's reputation and sent Steve Jobs closer to the likes of Jeffrey Skilling (Enron's CEO) and DeLorean. The G5 is a fraud, may not be the worst fraud ever, but it is for a young designer who is trying to make it in the competitive world of Digital Design or Music (the very people that made Apple famous). Here is another fact, despite Jobs claims of G5 outrageous speeds, his own company, PIXAR, does not use G5s to render its current 2004 animated features, Steve Jobs uses Xeon Pentiums because they are much faster and cheaper! By the way, Apple plans to cut the G5 prices in half sooner than you think, so if you really want a G5, you may want to wait a little while.

I have been a Mac afficianado for 20 years and owned or useed at least 20 models professionally. I know I will get a low "helpful" rating on this review, but I suspect professionals and some people who really understand where Mac has failed will agree.

In my current firm, which is quite leading edge, we are now at about 75% pc based machines. The more experienced the designer, the more likely they are to have thrown in the towel on MAC. The fact is that for a given amount of money to spend on a system: $2,000; $2,500; $3000; $4,000, you name it, less or more, MAC is will deliver less performance, less upgradablity, and as anyone who has used panther (os x) knows (and this is incredible)...less stability.

One example of how Apple has decided to treat us like fools is to equip this machine (and in the advertising copy breathless brag!) with 64 meg vidio card. Doesn't that say it all?

I have spent years advocating Macs. All of us Apple fans have a hard time admitting it, but the truth is the entire G5 line is an overpriced insult.

Price out what you will get in a pc for $3000, or even the $2600 you get this machine with the academic discount which you can get if you have a third cousin in grammer school (another insult is fixed pricing vs the "academic discount" option which rewards all apple buyers for lying).

Look at the independent benchmarks (not the skewed ones where apple or its "friendly reviews have made with crippled win- pc's), compare them for the same money, Apple isn't slightly slower, it is way slower across the board. Don't even get me to start on the prices Apple charges for memory (the 1.8 dual comes with 256, that is just laughable, and here we have a $3,000 machine with only 512!!!). I mean it is gouging that is shameless. Now look at the apple cinema displays. 50% more money for what eveyone knows are the lowest spec displays on the market. they won't even publish the refresh rates .. and we know why.