how cool is apple?

Andy · January 21, 2005

so, today i received my g5 powermac and 30" display. i'm going to write my experiences from first sight of the boxes to when i was first able to edit a photograph in photoshop.

i'm a pc user for the past 20 years. haven't touched an apple since college days.

first of all, even their boxes look way cool

and their packaging is secure, elegant, and flawless.

ok so, the first thing i needed to do was to install the extra ram i bought from crucial.com ... it was a cinch! took maybe four minutes tops.

the machine opens like some sort of spybox - secret compartment style

the fit and finish of the apple is amazing. truly. every detail is like a work of art.

installing the ram literally took about 10 seconds per dimm. the box was closed up again in abuot four minutes. and i'm not kidding :deal

edit: idiot that i am, i had thought that i had the dimms in fully ... and spent the next hour wondering why the computer wouldn't recognize the extra ram. problem solved, after *really* pushing hard to get the dimms seated properly. you have to push very firmly, until the clips on the sides actually snap back into place. i'd say that it's more force than one would expect to have to use, that's why i thought it was done right the first time. anyhow, hopefully this'll be helpful to the next upgrader

at this point, i plugged in the cpu, and display. even the plugs fit flush into the cpu! a design marvel! popped in the usb cords for the keyboard, mouse, and pushed the power button. typed in my name, isp info, etc, and then the mac was nice enough to tell me it had updates available from apple, would i want them? sure! two minutes for that. took me a minute to figure out how to open the optical drive door (had to actually rtfm!)...popped in my ps cs disc, installed it, and voila!

on the screen is a 1Ds Mark II image in photoshop, at 42.6% size, leaving room for my tool palletes. wow. what a joy! the size in inches is 21" by 14"! i'm truly in heaven.

(ps: i'll pay off fish's $1 debt to dave if anyone can find the smugmug product in this pic :deal )

now, i have no clue about this system, so i have some learning to do :lol3 but i'll say this: i'm impressed as hell with the design and simplicity of setup, and ease of use already!

congratulations to apple on a fine piece of engineering. :clap :clap :clap

and, a big thank you to the dgrinners helped me part with my money :lol3

enjoy (a new digital darkroom) photography,

pathfinder · January 21, 2005

My computer desk is NEVER that clean and uncluttered!!

Welcome aboard Andy. Fish and I are both recent switchers from wintel also. I can relate completely to what you are saying about the Apple experience. They update your machine as soon as you go online. Cool.

My wintel HP laptop recently was updated ( security stuff) by Msft and as a result, I have had to format the drive to return it to function and reinstall all the software, and of course that means calling Msft and reactivating XP and then reinstalling Photoshop CS and reactivating it again. Over 6 hours getting the thing working again!! Needless to say, a Powerbook is on my shopping list before I come to Yosemite.

Enjoy your new MAC!

Andy · January 21, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

My computer desk is NEVER that clean and uncluttered!!

Welcome aboard Andy. Fish and I are both recent switchers from wintel also. I can relate completely to what you are saying about the Apple experience. They update your machine as soon as you go online. Cool.

My wintel HP laptop recently was updated ( security stuff) by Msft and as a result, I have had to format the drive to return it to function and reinstall all the software, and of course that means calling Msft and reactivating XP and then reinstalling Photoshop CS and reactivating it again. Over 6 hours getting the thing working again!! Needless to say, a Powerbook is on my shopping list before I come to Yosemite.

Enjoy your new MAC!

thanks pf

man this is so freakin' cool! i'm all tricked out now. and, the wife is actually happy, becuase while i'm out shooting she can use the 30" display to watch her sting dvds

when i was installing the keyboard, i thought: dang, the usb cord is only 3' long... not nearly long enough to go behind my desk and back to the cpu... well, i looked around, and sure enough, apple thoughtfully put in an extender cord for usb... man, they think of everything!

Dee · January 21, 2005

Isn't it fun
to be able to quickly install RAM yourself... almost plug and play and you've got a fun computer?

I think you are going to enjoy your Mac quite a bit! Just stay flexible and in a month it will all be second nature to you!

Yes, nice cinema screen to watch DVDs on..... sweet!

Congrats and enjoy. I'm jealous! I only have a G3 Blue and White 300 Mac!

But I remember when we unpacked the boxes and set it up! Of course it wasn't my first Mac, that was an Apple IIe!

pathfinder · January 21, 2005

andy wrote:

thanks pf

man this is so freakin' cool! i'm all tricked out now. and, the wife is actually happy, becuase while i'm out shooting she can use the 30" display to watch her sting dvds

when i was installing the keyboard, i thought: dang, the usb cord is only 3' long... not nearly long enough to go behind my desk and back to the cpu... well, i looked around, and sure enough, apple thoughtfully put in an extender cord for usb... man, they think of everything!

I think you won't need the extender cord Andy, because you can plug the keyboard into the USB jack on the back of the LCD display. The included cord should easily be long enough. You do not need to get to the back of the tower to plug in the keyboard.

Andy · January 21, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

I think you won't need the extender cord Andy, because you can plug the keyboard into the USB jack on the back of the LCD display. The included cord should easily be long enough. You do not need to get to the back of the tower to plug in the keyboard.

thanks pathfinder

Andy · January 21, 2005

little problem
the system isn't recognizing the crucial ram i installed.

i've installed it properly - even tried reseating all of the ram chips to be sure.

the ram is the accurate ram for g5, it's from crucial. i've installed it in pairs, according to the instructions in the book.

i've tried cold boot with cmd-option-p-r keys held down (per apple site) and it still isn't being recognized.

any help from you guys?

fish · January 21, 2005

Congrats on the new mac. Yeah, they're sweet, alright. The best part is yet to come, when you finally realize you're spending your time being productive and having fun, instead of trying to figure out why your internet connection isn't working, or why your browser is getting hijacked.

Welcome to UNIX.

on the crucial ram...i dunno. how do you know it isn't being recognized? did you look in "about this mac"? what you may try doing is backing out all the crucial ram, then rebooting and make sure that it recognizes the stock ram. Then, add the new ram in pairs, rebooting each time to see when it chokes. Make sure the ram is completely seated too. Oh, make sure you touch the power supply prior to touching the ram, so you can discharge any static charge you've got built up.

Andy · January 21, 2005

fish wrote:

Congrats on the new mac. Yeah, they're sweet, alright. The best part is yet to come, when you finally realize you're spending your time being productive and having fun, instead of trying to figure out why your internet connection isn't working, or why your browser is getting hijacked.

Welcome to UNIX.

on the crucial ram...i dunno. how do you know it isn't being recognized? did you look in "about this mac"? what you may try doing is backing out all the crucial ram, then rebooting and make sure that it recognizes the stock ram. Then, add the new ram in pairs, rebooting each time to see when it chokes. Make sure the ram is completely seated too. Oh, make sure you touch the power supply prior to touching the ram, so you can discharge any static charge you've got built up.

did all that. you guys sold me down the river ....

pathfinder · January 21, 2005

andy wrote:

the system isn't recognizing the crucial ram i installed.

i've installed it properly - even tried reseating all of the ram chips to be sure.

the ram is the accurate ram for g5, it's from crucial. i've installed it in pairs, according to the instructions in the book.

i've tried cold boot with cmd-option-p-r keys held down (per apple site) and it still isn't being recognized.

any help from you guys?

Bummer! When you mouse over the little Apple symbol in the upper left corner of your screen and click on "about this MAC" how much RAM is listed in the system? How much RAM did APple install and how much did you add? Were they all 512 Mgbt dimms or are they different in size?

I thought from the picture you were up and running? If the RAM is the correct type ( and you're sure it meets Apple's criteria) I think you might ask crucial why it is not being recognized. Does it have the correct latency parameters etc? It should be just plug and play. I have never had RAM not be recognized by the motherboards when I upgraded RAM - I just had a thought - Is the crucial ram exactly the same as the RAM apple installed?

fish · January 21, 2005

andy wrote:

did all that. you guys sold me down the river ....

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

Andy · January 21, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

Bummer! When you mouse over the little Apple symbol in the upper left corner of your screen and click on "about this MAC" how much RAM is listed in the system? How much RAM did APple install and how much did you add? Were they all 512 Mgbt dimms or are they different in size?

I thought from the picture you were up and running? If the RAM is the correct type ( and you're sure it meets Apple's criteria) I think you might ask crucial why it is not being recognized. Does it have the correct latency parameters etc? It should be just plug and play. I have never had RAM not be recognized by the motherboards when I upgraded RAM - I just had a thought - Is the crucial ram exactly the same as the RAM apple installed?

yes to everything. i've installed plenty of ram, so i'm fairly familiar with this. the ram is guaranteed from crucial to work with the g5. of course, all 6 dimms could be s.o.l., but that's unlikely.

i'm up and running, but only on the 512 that the system came with from apple.

Andy · January 21, 2005

fish wrote:

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

:nono youse all are responsible

hey, i'm sure this'll get licked one way or another.

pathfinder · January 22, 2005

fish wrote:

hey now...i didn't say anything about crucial ram, so don't blame me. I just pestered you to buy the mac.

And I bought all 4 Gb of RAM from Apple just so I KNEW it would work.....This will probably work out. I just wonder if the ram is the correct ram as specified by Apple. I have bought RAM from Crucial many times without incident so I think they are ok, but.....

And - go to page 47 of the manual about installing RAM in the dual 2.5 MAC. They are VERY explicit about the type of RAM non parity, NECC, unbuffered and must meet JEDEC specification. The SPD - serial presence detect- must be correctly programmed - Page 47.

fish · January 22, 2005

andy wrote:

hey, i'm sure this'll get licked one way or another.

Maybe it would work if you kept yer dang tongue in yer mouth?

wxwax · January 22, 2005

The thing I like about Macs is their ease of use. Pure plug and play, while those Windbloz wretches are struggling to get hooked-up running.

GREAPER · January 22, 2005

andy wrote:

(ps: i'll pay off fish's $1 debt to dave if anyone can find the smugmug product in this pic )

My money is on the coaster under the coffee cup....

gregneil · January 22, 2005

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

Andy · January 22, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

And I bought all 4 Gb of RAM from Apple just so I KNEW it would work.....This will probably work out. I just wonder if the ram is the correct ram as specified by Apple. I have bought RAM from Crucial many times without incident so I think they are ok, but.....

And - go to page 47 of the manual about installing RAM in the dual 2.5 MAC. They are VERY explicit about the type of RAM non parity, NECC, unbuffered and must meet JEDEC specification. The SPD - serial presence detect- must be correctly programmed - Page 47.

pf, i've done all that. i've installed plenty of ram before, so i'm familiar with the situation.... and i ordered from crucial because they guarantee the ram is compatible. and i double checked the invoice and the dimms.

sigh.

gus · January 22, 2005

GREAPER wrote:

My money is on the coaster under the coffee cup....

Black SM sweater is my shot...

Andy · January 22, 2005

wxwax wrote:

The thing I like about Macs is their ease of use. Pure plug and play, while those Windbloz wretches are struggling to get hooked-up running.

thanks for your support you waxed wonder

sigh

wxwax · January 22, 2005

andy wrote:

thanks for your support you waxed wonder

sigh

I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?

pathfinder · January 22, 2005

andy wrote:

pf, i've done all that. i've installed plenty of ram before, so i'm familiar with the situation.... and i ordered from crucial because they guarantee the ram is compatible. and i double checked the invoice and the dimms.

sigh.

So you have 2 256Mgb dimms from Apple and 6 512Mbt dimms from Crucial? What happens if you leave out the 256 Mgb dimms - will the system boot or just not light up at all?

pathfinder · January 22, 2005

wxwax wrote:

I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?

Waxy - quit heckling and go to bed!

Andy · January 22, 2005

pathfinder wrote:

Waxy - quit heckling and go to bed!

he's a putz when he wants to be

Andy · January 22, 2005

greg is right!
it was just user error. boy, you *really* have to push those dimms in hard! i wasn't seating them properly, that's all.

piece o' cake.

now, will everyone join me in telling sid to

stuff it!

thanks guys. and especially greg, for coming thru with the fix

i'm in 3.5gb of ram heaven.

gregneil wrote:

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

DavidTO · January 22, 2005

gregneil wrote:

If you're still having trouble with the RAM, I'd recommend taking the Apple RAM modules and installing them in different slots. (move the top module up one slot, move the bottom module down one slot.) Just to make sure it's not the logic board that's not recognizing the RAM.

Apple RAM slots on the G5 do need a pretty decent push to get them to snap. And just to clarify, they do need to be installed in pairs, meaning one in the top bay of RAM slots, the other in the equivalent (mirrored) bottom bay of RAM slots.

My guess is that you think you have them snapped in all the way, but you really don't. I find it's easiest to install RAM in a G5 with the computer on it's back instead of standing up...

Hope this helps. Typically if you have the wrong RAM, you'll run into serious system issues, including not booting at all. So if it's booting and running normally while you think you have the RAM in there, perhaps it's not really all the way in there. Good luck...

This sounds right on to me. It really takes a good hard push to get that ram to seat in the G5.

EDIT: looks like I didn't post fast enough to keep up with Andy! Great, you got it fixed.

gregneil · January 22, 2005

sweet. glad to hear it. I have a bit of an edge here... I troubleshoot Macs for a living.

dkapp · January 22, 2005

Congrats on the new gear.

Here is my guess on smugmug swag:

It's the Coaster!

Wooo hooo...I'm Free at last

Dave

Andy · January 22, 2005

wxwax wrote:

I hope you get it worked out soon, Andy, that's one heck of a monitor. Sweet looking rig, in fact.

Past your bedtime, isn't it?

waaaay past! i'm off soon. i'll say g'nite to ya over in j.m.

Andy · January 22, 2005

dkapp wrote:

Congrats on the new gear.

Here is my guess on smugmug swag:

It's the Coaster!

Wooo hooo...I'm Free at last

Dave

sorry, dave... greaper beat you to it

check p1

how cool is apple?

Comments