Apple's Power Mac line gets faster and, more importantly, cheaper. It's a solid choice for pros and the iMac crowd alike.
Apple's Power Mac G4 tower seems to embody Moore's Law these days. Its chips are getting faster--currently topping out at 1.42GHz--and its prices are declining in tandem. The three-system Power Mac line maxes out with dual 1.42GHz chips and starts off with a single-processor, 1GHz G4 for just AU$3,099 minus a monitor. The 1.42GHz model comes pretty well decked out for AU$5,699, and even with a AU$1,395, 17-inch Studio Display, the top-end G4 is cheaper than some top-performance, single-processor PCs.
Our test machine, a 1.42GHz G4 with 512MB of RAM and a 120GB Ultra ATA hard drive, offers all the power you need for intensive graphics production or gameplay, though the 1.25GHz model, now with just 256MB of RAM and a smaller hard drive, is the better value. We recommend this line to those looking for a powerful, flexible Mac.
The current G4 line features the snazzy so-called Quicksilver matte finish with a metallic, mirrored plate over its optical drive door. While the plate adds polish to the G4's front face, it's susceptible to smudging, but that's not a major problem, since the G4 still lacks an eject button on the tower. Boy, do we wish it had one. To eject a CD, you have to use the Control Strip (OS 9), the F12 function key in (OS X), or the Eject key on the supplied Apple Pro keyboard. If you must eject an optical disc at start-up, you're forced to hold down the mouse button or the Eject key on the keyboard for 15 seconds or so--an old trick that used to work for stuck floppies.
The tower also features a headphone jack on the front of the case, which we appreciate, but we still see a few odd design quirks. A single, large speaker sits above the optical drive, with four smaller air vents (which we originally mistook for speakers) at the bottom of the case. The vents' placement, shape, and lack of protective covering on the openings make us worry about dirt, spills, and finger-poking.
As with the previous design, the G4's lens-shaped, clear-plastic handles on either end reflect light, following the silvery theme. Watch out when lifting, though--the G4 is heavy , especially compared with the infinitely portable Apple iMac. The case also has the familiar, easy-access design; a single, tool-free latch lets you pull down the side of the tower to get at everything inside.
The Power Mac line features fast DDR SDRAM memory and a 167MHz system bus that's acceptable but still lags behind that of some high-end Pentium 4 systems, which offer up to 533MHz. All but the 1GHz G4 are dual-processor configurable, and the line tops out at Apple's fastest processor yet, a 1.42GHz G4. That's obviously slower-sounding than the top-of-the-line PC chips, which exceed 2GHz, but Apple claims that its systems are equally fast, and our tests found it powerful enough for graphics, gaming, and video processing.
The base-model 1GHz PowerPC G4 system comes with 256MB of RAM, a 1MB L3 cache, a 64MB Nvidia GeForce4 MX graphics accelerator, a CD-RW/DVD combo drive, and a 60GB hard drive--virtually the same specs as the discontinued 867MHz but with more graphics memory and new, FireWire 800 ports (which the entire line features). The dual 1.25GHz actually gets a demotion--it now comes with just 256MB of RAM (previously 512MB), an 80GB hard drive (previously 120GB), a combo drive rather than a SuperDrive, and an unchanged 64MB ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics accelerator and 1MB L3 cache. The high-end, 1.42GHz model takes over the top-end specs, with 512MB of RAM, a 2GB L3 cache, and a 120GB hard drive, and Apple's new, faster SuperDrive. All three systems are billed as "Bluetooth ready," and a fourth, custom-built option can include a whopping 2GB of RAM, 128MB of video RAM, and built-in Bluetooth (for about AU$2,310 more than the standard 1.42GHz model).
Overall, the specs are impressive, with a wide and surprisingly granular range of configuration options. The 1.25GHz machine seems to offer the best value if you can live without DVD burning; you can up the RAM to 512MB and achieve identical performance as the 1.42GHz model. Unfortunately, none of the towers include a monitor, which adds at least AU$1,395 (for a 17-inch Studio Display) to the price tag.
For the price, we'd like to see Apple include an AirPort Extreme card for wireless access and toss in a set of external speakers. The internal Harman Kardon speakers sound acceptable, but Apple's AU$125 Pro Speakers, which you can add to the G4 package as a configuration option, are much better, and Apple already bundles them with the much less expensive iMac.
The G4 line includes the standard connectivity complement of Gigabit Ethernet, 56Kbps modem, a pair of USB (unfortunately, the slower 1.1 variety), one standard FireWire port, and one FireWire 800 port--all on the back. That's an acceptable setup, but for a machine designed to be the "ultimate" hub, we'd prefer a couple more USB ports (all faster USB 2.0) and at least one FireWire port on the front of the case for easy access.
As with all Macs, the Power Mac line includes Apple's full complement of included software--OS X 10.2 Jaguar, including iCal, Mail, iChat, and the excellent iLife. You'll also get QuickBooks for Mac (New User Edition), some graphics and flowchart apps, and the Microsoft Office X Test Drive, which lets you try out the office suite for 30 days. Unfortunately, Apple doesn't bundle its own office suite, AppleWorks 6.0, so you may want to add one to your cart as you configure your G4.
Apple's fastest Power Mac systems now include configurations with dual 1.42GHz G4 processors. The configuration that we recently tested is billed as Fastest on Apple's Web site, and it features the same component specs as the dual 1.25GHz system we tested previously: a 2MB L3 cache per processor, 512MB of DDR333 SDRAM, a 120GB Ultra ATA hard drive, and an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro graphics card with 64MB of RAM. Apple does offer a more expensive Ultimate configuration that includes 2GB of SDRAM and Nvidia's GeForce4 Titanium with 128MB of video memory. Also, the latest dual 1.25GHz system has been pared down to a 1MB L3 cache per processor, 256MB of SDRAM, and an 80GB hard drive.
Not surprisingly, the modest increase in clock speed offered little or no performance gains in our applications-based tests over the scores from the original dual 1.25GHz system with 512MB of RAM and a 1MB L3 cache. No doubt the 1.42GHz would prove much faster compared to the updated (and stripped down) dual 1.25GHz offering, which features a smaller L3 cache and less system RAM, although we were unable to test that system in time for this review. The dual 1.42GHz system scored on a par with the older configuration in our iMovie, iTunes, and Photoshop 7.0 tests. It also easily outpaced the single processor, 1GHz iMac in the iMovie and iTunes tests, and it performed more than three times as fast in intensive Photoshop 7.0 tests.
ZDNet Labs uses three different applications (Photoshop 7.0, iMovie 2.0, and iTunes) to test Apple notebook performance. Through the use of a number of timing tests, the ZDNet Labs are able to roughly determine the performance of a given desktop.
The dual 1.42GHz G4 showed modest frame rate improvement in the Quake III demo test over the otherwise identical dual 1.25GHz system. Both systems feature an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro video card with 64MB of DDR video memory. Yet the faster system processors allowed the Dual 1.42GHz G4 to gain 11 more frames per second.
Apple, as always, skimps on standard service and support. The Power Mac comes with a one-year warranty, upgradable to three years for AU$499, and you'll have to take that upgrade to extend the toll-free phone support past the first 90 days.
To its credit, however, Apple's support Web site offers a wealth of resources for self-service, from a knowledge base to downloadable drivers and FAQs, though you must submit to the site's free registration process in order to access these features, doling out your name and e-mail and street addresses.
Apple Power Mac G4
Company: Apple Computer
Price: AU$5,699
Distributor: Apple
Phone: 13 36 22
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