Aluminum PowerMac?

[jragsdale]

Detachables

How about two G4 cube sized boxes, one for drives, and the other for the CPU, memory, video, audio, etc. A small 1U or so low power PSU in each cube, 200W or so, so it wouldn't be really hot and hard to cool (400W total so there should be plenty of power).

I'm just speculating, I really dig the idea of two detachable parts of the computer. Either have it "snapped" together or seperated. Apple could even have larger in size (so you can put more drives or other things) for each cube for different needs. Apple might even be able to distance itself from the "Macs are more expenive" crowd since you could upgrade one of the cubes vs. a whole new computer.

I don't see this happening though. If something like this were to happen from any manufacturer it would be from Apple, it seems like a risky design move. I guess we can all just keep dreaming and see what happens.

 

[maradong]

now that would be really gr8

 

[bbarnhart]

Mock up

I spent a few hours this morning on a mock up of the new Aluminum PowerMac. Let me know what you think.

Here is the link .

 

[makkystyle]

looks good barnhart, but I think there will be a bit more of design change i.e. no plastic handles, maybe new shape.

 

[kansaigaijin]

external power supplies are great idea, I have seen some nice units on sale here in Japan.

big plug goes into back of case, splitter inside distributes power.

 

[Playfrsbee]

I don't know about anyone else, but I always liked the idea that the powermac line since the b&w g3 could be elegantly rackmounted with a piece of aftermarket hardware. I love the idea of this for professional audio/video purposes, especially if you could put the tower in one of those "isoraxx" enlclosure. (isoraxx.

Essentially, this is a fix for everyone who hates the current power supply noise for professional purposes, while still providing 10 or 11 rack spaces for other gear (like external hard drives, power amps, etc...

For my money, I say keep the current size dimensions, but change the aesthetic appearance (aluminum's fine with me)

--Ethan

 

[GeneR]

Maybe

Maybe they will make it look like an appliance. And maybe they will find a way to have the heat dissipation similar to the Cube. If so, it'll be quiet, and (hopefully) very expandable.

Can't figure which way they'll go on it. Just hope it doesn't look like a toaster oven!

 

[cubist]

I think the bulbous curves of El Capitan are about to become history.

When they say "like the 17" laptop" they mean it will be primarily rectangular, with small rounded corners.

"Anodized": Are the powerbooks anodized? I thought that term meant some kind of electrically-etched surface like the black fronts of some stereos.

Why is it specific that only the "front panel" is anodized aluminum? Is the rest of it still plastic? Perhaps the front looking like a wide, shallow Xserve bolted into a smoke-colored, plastic mini-rack cabinet?

 

[WM.]

Re: Making HDs external

Originally posted by Flynnstone
Please elaborate

OK

Remember that FW 800 is only theoretically as fast as one ATA/100 channel (and remember also that you have to account for the overhead of the bridge chip(s)). So people who want four "internal" ATA/100 drives, on two channels (like in the current Power Mac*) or four (like in the current Xserve), would be quite unhappy with how slow their drives would be, unless they only need a maximum of 100 MB/s throughput at any given time (which I suppose is possible).

FW 3200 would provide enough throughput for four ATA/100 channels--but I suspect that by the time it's released, parallel ATA will be long gone, and we'll all be used to 200 MB/s SATA drives. Which brings up an interesting point--does anyone know if SATA can be an external interface, unlike parallel ATA?

So at this point, I think the only viable interface for multiple fast external drives is 160+ MB/s SCSI (unless you want to talk about Fibre Channel).

*One of the ATA channels in the FW 800 and MDD PMG4s is ATA/66, not ATA/100, and of course there's also an ATA/33 one for the optical drives.

Edit:

Re: cubist: Yes, the AlBooks are anodized.

HTH
WM

 

[shadowfax]

Re: I think the bulbous curves of El Capitan are about to become history.

Originally posted by cubist
When they say "like the 17" laptop" they mean it will be primarily rectangular, with small rounded corners.

"Anodized": Are the powerbooks anodized? I thought that term meant some kind of electrically-etched surface like the black fronts of some stereos.

Why is it specific that only the "front panel" is anodized aluminum? Is the rest of it still plastic? Perhaps the front looking like a wide, shallow Xserve bolted into a smoke-colored, plastic mini-rack cabinet?

i am not positive, but i think you have the anodizing thing right on. the main idea, though, is if you colorize the aluminum, then the scratches won't show as much because the coloring is all the way through the aluminum, not just on the surface, like paint on the TiBook.

 

[bbarnhart]

Originally posted by makkystyle
looks good barnhart, but I think there will be a bit more of design change i.e. no plastic handles, maybe new shape.

It was supposed to be a joke.

 

[3G4N]

think of a cube,
now make it a tall tower,
then add aluminium.
new power mac.

 

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by 3G4N
think of a cube,
now make it a tall tower,
then add aluminium.
new power mac.

man, that would be tight to have a computer with a base like the cube but maybe 2x taller and a little bit wider on each base length. but aluminum... not on a cube, unless it were under the clear plastic.

 

[WM.]

Anodizing

Originally posted by Shadowfax
i am not positive, but i think you have the anodizing thing right on. the main idea, though, is if you colorize the aluminum, then the scratches won't show as much because the coloring is all the way through the aluminum, not just on the surface, like paint on the TiBook.

Not quite...

As I understand it from a thread on Macintouch, anodizing creates a very thin, very hard layer of aluminum oxide on the surface of the aluminum. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, this is done "electrolytically" (thus anode-izing).

If you add certain impurities during the process, they will create the various colors that are possible.

I think.

HTH
WM (not a materials scientist or engineer)

 

[shadowfax]

Re: Anodizing

Originally posted by WM.
Not quite...

As I understand it from a thread on Macintouch, anodizing creates a very thin, very hard layer of aluminum oxide on the surface of the aluminum. According to the American Heritage Dictionary, this is done "electrolytically" (thus anode-izing).

If you add certain impurities during the process, they will create the various colors that are possible.

I think.

HTH
WM (not a materials scientist or engineer)

ahhhh, my bad. i think i have anodized aluminum on the front of my receiver... i wonder if it helps make it less resonant or something too.

 

[WM.]

Re: Re: Anodizing

Hi again,

Originally posted by Shadowfax
ahhhh, my bad.

No problem--I'm here to help!

i think i have anodized aluminum on the front of my receiver... i wonder if it helps make it less resonant or something too.

(drifting off-topic here...as a newbie, I don't know if it's okay for a thread to sort of naturally drift OT...I won't be mad if this is deleted...)

You've stumbled onto another one of my passions--audio--but I'll try to keep this short.

In short, you've been deceived by some of the marketing bulls--t that is rampant throughout home theater/hi-fi/audiophilia (that's not a word but I don't care). All this kind of stuff about the magic blocks you put under your CD player or the incredible triangle you put on your coffee table...it's all so much BS. The only thing your receiver's enclosure has to do with its sound is how good of a shield it is (and probably grounding stuff, etc.). But its "resonance" isn't going to affect the electronics inside. I suppose it does have an acoustic resonance, which would affect the sound if you put your speakers on top of it. But I'm not sure how that would be affected by its material, and especially by how the surface of that material is treated.

HTH
WM (not an electrical engineer either (yet))

 

[shadowfax]

wtf, WM? i can't even PM you. that's pretty anal, lol. anyways, i made us a thread, here.

 

[CZone]

Originally posted by Flynnstone
So the main unit would contain
- Dual 970s
- 8+ slots for ram
- 1 or 2 optical drives (can you get by with one?)
- video card ( perhaps more than 1 AGP port)
- all the audio and other ports.
- still need at least one fan.

This could be a relatively small unit. Possibly mount all this on the back a LCD display !

Wow! 8+ slots for RAM?
Can the 970 support so much memory?

 

[tacojohn]

I still like this design the best out of everything. Matches the pro stuff perfectly- looks like xserve and new powerbooks.

 

[shadowfax]

Originally posted by tacojohn
I still like this design the best out of everything. Matches the pro stuff perfectly- looks like xserve and new powerbooks.

that's pretty sweet man. i don't think the speaker fits, though. it needs a grille over it like the fan intake, i think. that could be pretty cool. it would definitely be a new directon

 

[daedelgt]

Originally posted by tacojohn
I still like this design the best out of everything. Matches the pro stuff perfectly- looks like xserve and new powerbooks.

Wow!

 

[michaelyoung]

Originally posted by tacojohn

Nice job man! I would be very happy if the new macs looked that cool.

I still want a handle somewhere (even if it pop out a la xserve drives) cause i have to move these things a lot.


Cool.

 

[tacojohn]

Sorry- its not my pic. I remembered saving it from somewhere and I put it on my iDisk for you guys to see.

(I would be able to put something like that together w/ my photoshop skills though )

It is nice though no?

I do like the idea of the xServe swap drives!

 

[daedelgt]

Originally posted by tacojohn
Sorry- its not my pic. I remembered saving it from somewhere and I put it on my iDisk for you guys to see.

(I would be able to put something like that together w/ my photoshop skills though )

It is nice though no?

I do like the idea of the xServe swap drives!

Cross compatible, hot swapable drives would be insanely handy. I love the look of the X-Serve, and that looks just as good.

 

[G4scott]

I'll bet on an x-serve, PowerBook looking thing. It wil be one unit (NOT TWO!!!). Two is just bad, and complicates things more... One must always remember the following rule: Keep it simple stupid.

Whatever the new case looks like, I hope it has plenty of other features to make it really cool... Apple will finally catch up, if not pull ahead, in the desktop market...