PowerMac G5 1.6 Ghz vs. single 1.8Ghz

So this has always been a question of mine that has been kind of bothering me lately. The newer single 1.8 Ghz PM G5 has a FSB of 600Mhz where the old (discontinued) 1.6 Ghz PM G5 had a FSB of 800 Mhz. Wouldn't that make them about equivilent in performance. I understand FSB speed runs just about as important as processor speed so these figures seemed to make it seem as though these two machines even themselves out between there FSB and CPU speed. Assuming this was true I figured maybe it was just marketing scheme by apple so they jack up the price based off the the processor speed (which is really what most people only look at). ALSO note that the old single 1.8 Ghz PM G5s had a FSB of 900Mhz. Why the drop? Did they think no one would notice? That's pretty lame of Apple if you ask me.

Another thing to note is the difference (or lack there of) between the single 1.8Ghz PM G5 and the iMac G5 with the 1.8Ghz processor. The specs are almost identical minus the expansion and the 4x superdrive vs the 8x superdrive in the PM. Mind you they are the same price BUT the imac has the display. I can't see why anyone would buy the PM when you could go for the iMac. Most people don't use there expansion slots anyways. As for dual display for iMacs, there is a (free) patch that enables that feature too. And RAM expansion, most people don't really put more than 2 GB of RAM in their mac (except for maybe you video guys out there). Just some thoughts.

Rosaget said:

Another thing to note is the difference (or lack there of) between the single 1.8Ghz PM G5 and the iMac G5 with the 1.8Ghz processor. The specs are almost identical minus the expansion and the 4x superdrive vs the 8x superdrive in the PM. Mind you they are the same price BUT the imac has the display. I can't see why anyone would buy the PM when you could go for the iMac. Most people don't use there expansion slots anyways. As for dual display for iMacs, there is a (free) patch that enables that feature too. And RAM expansion, most people don't really put more than 2 GB of RAM in their mac (except for maybe you video guys out there). Just some thoughts.

Click to expand...

Well, you found the answers yourself already...those who need expansion, more RAM and being more flexible for upgrading will buy the G5 tower, others will buy the iMac.

It is more or less the same price, but features differ. the iMac has the screen, but is very limited when it comes to upgrades (2GB max, 1HD, no PCI, no AGP upgrade possible). And that is why both are at the same price. Performance-wise, both are similar (with the same RAM ammount).
It's the features the one has and the other doesn't which makes the difference, it always depends of what you want/need.