If you think big, turn your attention to the optical digital audio-out port on the back. For people who think small, there’s a headphone jack on the front panel. In terms of audio, the G5 covers both ends of the spectrum. Again, the G5 delivers: two USB 2.0 ports live on the machine’s back side, and a third resides on the front. Our USB wish list included copious ports and the speed of USB 2.0, which is about 40 times faster than USB 1.1 (most Macs support USB 1.1).
#HOW OLD IS A APPLE MAC G5 TOWER PLUS#
FireWire 400? Double-check: one on the back, plus a welcome one on the front, just below the power button. Just about any port or plug we could think of has been included in the Power Mac G5. (To put those noise levels in context, a 70-square-foot office with lights, air conditioning, and a computer turned on registers at about 40 decibels.) Apple claims that the Power Mac G5 runs at 35 decibels, compared with the mirrored-drive-door G4’s 65 decibels, which created quite a ruckus. But in normal operation, this system should be acceptably quiet. If you’re doing a lot of processing work, or if you’re in a warm room, the inside of the G5 tower will definitely heat up faster, so the fans will crank up. The system is even smart enough to anticipate heat-generating work - it can increase cooling before components get a chance to warm up. The G5’s intelligent fan management varies the fans’ speed and cranks up the airflow in the appropriate zone only when things are heating up. You might think that nine fans would make this Mac sound like a power blower (like the Xserve or the “Wind Tunnel” Power Mac G4s), but it’s much quieter. With a single thermal zone in a traditional machine, “everyone pays the price for cooling,” says Jon Rubinstein, Apple’s senior vice president of hardware engineering. The reason? Apple knows that cooling components only while they’re in use is more efficient than cooling every component at once. Cooling is vital in the G5 - there are nine fans inside the box, which is split into four independent thermal zones.