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The iMac G5 was once a formidable piece of computer hardware. Improbably thin for the time, it packed a 64-bit Motorola PowerPC 970 processor, and had room for a relatively extravagant 2GB RAM.

Regular readers will note we recently covered the exploits of Luke Miani, a popular tech YouTuber who shoved an M1 Mac Mini into a 2011 iMac, creating among the first Apple Silicon iMacs. Although impressive, it did have some drawbacks, with the power button and USB/Thunderbolt ports completely inaccessible.

Strupat"s attempt differs slightly. Like Miani, the tinkerer stripped the iMac of its internal components to make room for the logic board and power supply of the M1 Mac Mini. Strupat also used a conversion board to pass video signals from the machine"s HDMI port to the iMac"s 17-inch display.

But this implementation went further still. With a bit of soldering, Strupat connected the M1 to the iMac"s rear-mounted power switch, allowing him to turn the computer off without having to disassemble the entire machine. Extension cables gave him access to the machine"s onboard connectivity, including the built-in Thunderbolt and USB-A ports.

Sold between 2004 and 2006, the G5 iMac has proven itself weirdly well suited to experimental (potentially warranty-voiding) hardware experimentation. As is the case with a lot of computer hardware from that era, it suffers from the dreaded "capacitor plague". Over time, the electrolytic capacitors that regulate electrical flow within the PSU and logic board will start to leak, spilling their corrosive contents onto the surroundings.

The "capacitor plague" wasn"t limited to the G5 either. Early Mac computers – particularly those produced in the late 1980s and early 1990s – were notorious for it. With that in mind, it"s only a matter of time until someone tries to shove an M1 into the guts of a Macintosh Color Classic. ®

Like the aluminium-clad Apple Cinema Displays, the "non-iSight" iMac G5 models are suspended by an aluminum stand with an adjustable hinge, and support the "Video Electronics Standards Association (VESA) mounting interface standard" which makes it easy to mount the system directly on a kiosk, wall, or articulating arm.

The Apple iMac G5/1.8 17-Inch shipped equipped with a 1.8 GHz PowerPC 970 (G5) processor with an optimized AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processing unit and a 512k on-chip level 2 cache, 256 MB of 400 MHz PC3200 DDR SDRAM, an 80 GB (7200 RPM) Serial ATA hard drive, a vertically-mounted slot-loading 4X DVD-R/CD-RW "SuperDrive", NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics with 64 MB of DDR SDRAM (AGP 8X), and built-in stereo speakers underneath the 17" TFT Active Matrix LCD (1440x900) display designed to "bounce sound off the desk below". Connectivity includes Firewire "400" and USB 2.0, as well as support for AirPort Extreme (802.11g) and Bluetooth with optional cards.

The iMac G5 series is cooled by three "ultra-quiet blowers that draw cool air into the system" through the speaker grill and a slit in the top of the back of the case allows heat to dissipate.

Despite the age of this system, site sponsor Other World Computing has RAM, hard drives, SSDs, and other upgrades available for this specific iMac while supplies last.

The PowerPC 970 "G5" has 64-bit data paths and registers with native support for 32-bit application code. It additionally includes the AltiVec "Velocity Engine" vector processor and "two independent double-precision floating-point units".

This model has a 17.0" TFT active matrix display with a 16:10 aspect ratio and a native resolution of 1440x900. In the 16:10 aspect ratio, it also supports 1152x720, 1024x640, and 800x500, and in the 4:3 aspect ratio it supports 1024x768, 800x600, and 640x480. Apple additionally reports a "typical" brightness of 200 cd/m, contrast ratio of 350:1, and viewing angle of 120 degrees horizontal and 90 degrees vertical.

We discuss Apple"s brand-new iMac, investigate how much power a musician can really expect from the latest Powerbooks, and explain how to save some hard disk space when installing Mac OS X.

"There"s one other thing I"d like to talk about today," stated Apple"s Senior Vice President of Worldwide Product Marketing, Phil Schiller, an hour and a half into his Apple Expo Paris keynote speech, continuing "I"m not sure how interested you are," as a slide appeared behind him displaying just one word: iMac. After supplies of Apple"s Anglepoise G4 iMac ran out, the company were forced into making an uncharacteristic forward-looking statement about the availability of a newer model in September. And so, at the recent Apple Expo, Schiller got to announce a new and highly-anticipated G5-based iMac that breaks from the previous desk-lamp styling of the iMac with a slim, all-in-one design.

Rather than attaching the screen to a base unit, as in the previous G4 iMac, Apple have returned quite literally to an all-in-one design with the G5 iMac, building the screen and computer into the same enclosure, much like the original G3 iMac. However, unlike the original iMac, the new G5 iMac looks more like a slightly bulky LCD display, at around two inches thick, and floats on an aluminium stand in front of the user. Apple have a slogan on their web site that asks "where did the computer go?" But given that there"s a huge flat area beneath the monitor, I think this is probably a question that doesn"t need to be asked — although, joking aside, fitting a G5 processor into such a slim enclosure is quite a feat given the cooling requirements of the Power Mac G5.

According to Schiller, the iMac is "quieter than a whisper", a claim they apparently substantiated by measuring a whisper in decibels, which seems a little variable. However, having seen the new iMac G5 in a computer store, I can say that it didn"t seem to be too noisy, although it"s impossible to tell when the CPU isn"t working hard and the three computer controlled fans in the case aren"t having to spin too fast.

Schiller pointed out that if you choose the internal Bluetooth option and a suitable wireless keyboard and mouse, along with an AirPort card, the power cord is the only cable you"ll need to plug into the new iMac. However, for those of us who need to attach MIDI and audio devices, the iMac offers three USB 2.0 and two Firewire 400 connections, modem, 10/100 Ethernet, a mini VGA connector for VGA, S-Video and composite video output, a headphone output (which doubles as an optical output) and an audio input. The connections, along with the power button, are located on the back, which makes sense in that it could have been messy to have cables hanging out of the side of the unit, although to have the headphone socket in such an awkward place seems a shame.

The pricing of the new iMac is going to make it immediately attractive, with the entry-level model costing £919 and featuring a 17-inch screen and a 1.6GHz G5 processor with a 533MHz system buss. You also get 256MB PC3200 DDR SDRAM (the new iMac can be upgraded to 2GB), an 80GB Serial ATA drive, Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics with 64MB DDR SDRAM and AGP 8X support, and a slot-loading Combo drive. For £1049 you"ll get a 1.8GHz G5 with 600MHz system buss and a Superdrive, while the third model adds a 20-inch screen and 160GB SATA drive for the hike up to £1349.

Look out for full coverage of the new iMac next month, when I"m hoping to be able to get my hands on a unit, to see if this is the musical Mac for those who want the power of the G5 processor without the cost of a G5 Power Mac.

It"s been a while since we looked at Apple"s portable line-up in Apple Notes, and while many speculated, after looking at the engineering of the new iMac G5, that "if they can put a G5 in an enclosure like that, G5-based PowerBooks can"t be too far behind," Apple have stated that this really isn"t the case. In the absence of G5 Powerbooks, the relatively portable (but not battery-powered) G5 iMac may not be a bad alternative in some situations, but what if you really need an Apple laptop to get your work done? How much can you realistically expect from the current G4-powered models, compared to your G5 desktop?

Running the Mbox with the Powerbook was a great deal of fun, but I was really curious to see how this machine would compare when running the same tests I used back in February and March"s Apple Notes for the dual-2GHz G5. The outcome would, of course be obvious, but to repeat my question from earlier in this column, the real question (and the point of running the tests) was how much we can realistically expect from the current G4-powered models, compared to a G5 desktop. As a side note, I used the Powerbook"s built-in audio hardware — and not the Mbox — for the tests, since I"d used the G5"s internal audio hardware for the previous tests.

Staying with reverbs, although I never did a Space Designer test with the dual-2GHz G5, the 1.5GHz Powerbook managed four stereo Space Designer instances, each loaded with the 2.6-second Large Hall preset. Adding a fifth instance overloaded the system, and with four Space Designer plug-ins the User reading in Activity Monitor showed 82 percent.

The other test I carried out with the dual-2GHz G5 was an EXS24 test, loading in a basic 16-bit, 44.1kHz Harp instrument from the EXS24 edition of the Vienna Symphonic Library and seeing how many voices I could play under various conditions; so, again, I decided to repeat this for the Powerbook.

By way of comparison, with filters disabled the G5 managed 704 voices at 16-bit and an almost unbelievable 3264 voices at 32-bit float; with filters enabled, the figures were 192 and 256 voices respectively.

While the tests described here are somewhat academic and, as I pointed out in the original G5 article, the EXS24 test is slightly imperfect (because the use of caching within the system will give a voice count higher than if you had multiple instruments loaded and each was playing back "unique" notes), the results for both computers can at least be reliably compared.

The PowerBook G4 is a series of notebook computers manufactured, marketed, and sold by Apple Computer between 2001 and 2006 as part of its PowerBook line of notebooks. The PowerBook G4 runs on the RISC-based PowerPC G4 processor, designed by the AIM (Apple/IBM/Motorola) development alliance and initially produced by Motorola. It was built later by Freescale, after Motorola spun off its semiconductor business under that name in 2004. The PowerBook G4 has two different designs: one enclosed in a titanium body with a translucent black keyboard and a 15-inch screen; and another in an aluminum body with an aluminum-colored keyboard, in 12-inch, 15-inch, and 17-inch sizes.

Between 2001 and 2003, Apple produced the titanium PowerBook G4; between 2003 and 2006, the aluminum models were produced. Both models were hailed for their modern design, long battery life, and processing power. When the aluminum PowerBook G4s were first released in January 2003, 12-inch and 17-inch models were introduced first, while the 15-inch model retained the titanium body until September 2003, when a new aluminum 15-inch PowerBook was released. The aluminum 15-inch model also includes a FireWire 800 port, which had been included with the 17-inch model since its debut nine months earlier.

The initial design of the PowerBook G4 was developed by Apple hardware designers Jory Bell, Nick Merz, and Danny Delulis.Quanta, an original design manufacturer, also helped in the design.industrial design team, headed by British designer Jonathan Ive, converged around a minimalist aesthetic—the titanium G4"s design language laid the groundwork for the aluminum PowerBook G4, the MacBook Pro, the Power Mac G5, the flat-screen iMac, the Xserve, and the Mac mini.

The video cable is routed around the left-side hinge. This will cause the cable to weaken under heavy usage. Many owners have reported display problems such as random lines or a jumbled screen, although a few owners have replaced just the video cable to successfully resolve this problem. There is also a backlight cable that might fail; The best option is to replace either or both cables before replacing LCD screen.

In 2003, Apple introduced a new line of PowerBook G4s with 12-, 15-, and 17-inch screens and aluminum cases. The new notebooks not only brought a different design to the PowerBook G4 line but also laid down the foundation for Apple’s notebook design for the next five years, replaced initially in January 2008 by the MacBook Air and the subsequent MacBook and MacBook Pro redesigns in October. The 15" titanium model was still available until September 16, 2003, when the aluminum model replaced it. Notably, the 12" model brought a welcome return to the Apple subnotebook configuration, conspicuously lacking in their product line since the discontinuation of the PowerBook 2400 in 1998. While the titanium PowerBook G4s were capable of booting into Mac OS 9 or Mac OS X operating systems, the aluminum PowerBook G4s could only boot into Mac OS X. Both series of machines could run Mac OS 9 in Classic mode from within Mac OS X.

The aluminum PowerBook G4 was designed by Apple"s Vice President of Industrial Design, Jonathan Ive, and used a radically different design from the preceding titanium models. The most obvious change was the use of aluminum instead of titanium to manufacture the body. The keyboard, which was originally black, was changed to match the color of the body. Additionally, the aluminum keyboard was backlit on the 17" model and on one of the 15" models. This was the first case of keyboard internal backlighting seen on a notebook computer. The design was considered

The 1.67 GHz model may suffer from manufacturing or design defects in its display. Initial reports pointed to this only being a problem with type M9689 17" PowerBooks introduced in Q2 2005, but then this problem was also seen in displays replaced by Apple Service Providers in this period (e.g. because of the bright spots issue). The devices were the last 17" models shipped with the matte 1440×900 pixel low-resolution display. After many months of usage, the displays may show permanently shining lines of various colors stretching vertically across the LCD. Often this will start with one-pixel-wide vertical lines being "stuck" in an "always-on" mode. Various sites have been set up documenting this issue.

One major factor that led to the discontinuation of the PowerBook G4 was Apple"s internal experimentation with the PowerPC G5 for the company"s next line professional-grade notebooks at that time. However, the G5, which powered Apple Power Mac G5 and iMac G5 computers proved to be too power-hungry and heat-intensive to use in a notebook form factor.the Mac"s transition from PowerPC to Intel processors.