eMac G5?

I have been seeing things saying that the next eMac will be more along the lines another G4 revision before moving onto the G5. It sounds like that is the case because the G5 mills are not up to 100% yet. For all we know the G5 eMac could be in the works but there will be a holdover G4. I really do not think anyone knows what is going to happen right now, but that is the fun of the rumor world. ;)

Unless the low end G5 chips are actually cheaper than the G4s. The G5 chips are manufactured at 90nm, so they get more chips from each wafer, right?

Also, if IBM has some (many) chips left over that are only stable at speeds lower than 1.6GHz, then they would be perfect for an upgraded eMac.

It would seem a bit strange with G5s in the eMac and still G4s in the PBs, but a 1.5GHz G4 is just as fast as a 1.5GHz G5, so I guess it doesn't really matter.

I'm still not sure if I believe this rumor, though ... It seems very vague.

Figuring that

A) G5 supplies are very constrained right now, and Apple can't even get enough to fill the iMac orders that are coming in.

B) The pro-level laptop only sports a G4.

C) The eMac is cost over speed, and Apple has so far seemed to try to make sure it wasn't faster than the iMac.

I'm guessing that it's not quite time for a G5 eMac quite yet. I wouldn't be surprised if Apple released one eventually, but I'd expect to see one G4-based update in between. Once the iMac has seen a speedbump and there are enough 1.6GHz G5s to fill eMac orders, they might go there even if they haven't managed to jam a G5 in the Powerbook yet, but I just don't see that happening for a few months yet.

Caveat: If the eMac is selling very well, and they want to have an impressive, cheap computer for the holiday buying season, they might break with tradition.

actually most reports do say that the G5s are cheaper for Apple than the G4s and the pressure to produce as many 2.0 and 2.5 units as possible is most likley creating a lot of sub 1.8 chips. A 1.4/1.6 GHz eMac would seem reasonable. The only real issue would be eMac going G5 before the PowerBook. Personally I think the it would be worth it to get a lowend G5 out on the market to attract switchers and iPoders (2 million iPods last quarter -- that a lot of potential new apple fanatics). :eek:

The consumer line (iMac/eMac) will never go G5 before the complete pro line is G5.

-People were saying that is why the iMac would never go G5 before the Powerbook. Well, now we have a G5 iMac and a G4 PB. What is stopping them from doing it to the eMac? Why cripple the rest of the products because the one (PB) can't support the latest tech?

If Apple had an all G5 line, with the exception of laptops, it would be stupid not to release it. If people need mobility, they buy a laptop. I don't think that holding the consumer desktops back from G5 directly kills the G4 laptops.

if Apple does release an eMac G5 soon, i suspect the specs would be as follows:

Combo Drive (799.00)
1.6GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache
533MHz frontside bus
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
40GB Serial ATA hard drive
Airport Extreme Ready
Bluetooth built-in option

Superdrive (999.00)

1.6GHz PowerPC G5
512K L2 cache
533MHz frontside bus
256MB DDR400 SDRAM
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
64MB DDR video memory
80GB Serial ATA hard drive
Airport Extreme Ready
Bluetooth built-in option

the looks will be the very similar to the current eMac, just the sign "eMac G5" to be on top of the screen.

edit: i think this may be announced on Nov 2. since the Mac + HP printer promo ends on Nov 1.

I am surprised they don't wait until MacWorld but it's due for an update. Can IBM make enough G5's to meet the demand? They seem to be the bottleneck. The powerbook should get the dual-core G4 running at 2 Ghz or better but not call it a G4 anymore.

You don't know they might release a G5 powerbook and an emac at the same time that would mean that there would be no problem having a the g5 in the emac.

My Specs:

15" and 17" PB Superdrive
1.8GHZ G5
512mb DDR400
Same graphics
Same HD except BTO 100gig

12" Superdrive 12" Combo and 15" Combo
1.4 GHZ G5
256mb DDR400
Same Graphics
Same HD

(Hopefully they get rid of nVidia graphics, don't apple just love the 5200)

EMAC SUPERDRIVE and EMAC COMBO
1.4 GHZ
256mb DDR400
The rest the same

( I reckon everything will be the same price aswell)

OK, so yes, it would be way easier to engineer G5 into an emac than the new imacs. And yes, it would be awesome.

But really!!!! No way. No way. That makes the imac line look pathetic all the sudden, and kills the current imac as it is still growing, and just is bad, bad timing relative to the imac, and they're already tight on chips, way tight on chips, and they just made a new computer that uses the chips they're tight on. And, WHO WOULD BUY THE IMAC?!?!?! Doesn't matter if somehow they made more money on the emac, because for apple's name, the imac can't be the flop, and the bottom of the line computer can't be the big hit. Otherwise, apple is just a dell the does a really bad job at it and is overpriced.

my vote-NOT happening. Maybe in the spring, but that's not worthy of a rumor.

I was thinking about this yesterday during the conference call. I realized that Apple sold a lot more eMacs than I would have expected, and thought that that number would have gone up even higher if the next eMac revision would be packing a G5 processor. However, I'm sure at the moment Apple wants to sell as many G5 iMacs as possible, and with the processors in short supply it would probably be a bad move to divert sales to lower-revenue machines.

In conclusion, I'd like to see it happen in a week or two.. but it will probably be 6 months or more before the eMac gets a G5.