Rating: 
Summary: Even pros don't see the vaulue anymore
Review: I have been a Mac afficianado for 20 years and owned or useed at least 20 models professionally. I know I will get a low "helpful" rating on this review, but I suspect professionals and some people who really understand where Mac has failed will agree.In my current firm, which is quite leading edge, we are now at about 75% pc based machines. The more experienced the designer, the more likely they are to have thrown in the towel on MAC. The fact is that for a given amount of money to spend on a system: $2,000; $2,500; $3000; $4,000, you name it, less or more, MAC is will deliver less performance, less upgradablity, and as anyone who has used panther (os x) knows (and this is incredible)...less stability. One example of how Apple has decided to treat us like fools is to equip this machine (and in the advertising copy breathless brag!) with 64 meg vidio card. Doesn't that say it all? I have spent years advocating Macs. All of us Apple fans have a hard time admitting it, but the truth is the entire G5 line is an overpriced insult. Price out what you will get in a pc for $3000, or even the $2600 you get this machine with the academic discount which you can get if you have a third cousin in grammer school (another insult is fixed pricing vs the "academic discount" option which rewards all apple buyers for lying). Look at the independent benchmarks (not the skewed ones where apple or its "friendly reviews have made with crippled win- pc's), compare them for the same money, Apple isn't slightly slower, it is way slower across the board. Don't even get me to start on the prices Apple charges for memory (the 1.8 dual comes with 256, that is just laughable, and here we have a $3,000 machine with only 512!!!). I mean it is gouging that is shameless. Now look at the apple cinema displays. 50% more money for what eveyone knows are the lowest spec displays on the market. they won't even publish the refresh rates .. and we know why.
Rating: 
Summary: Fastest machine Apple has ever produced
Review: I have been an Apple user for nearly 20 years and I have found the dual G5 to be the best and fastest machine they have produced. To the people who want to run VirtualPC or Softimage...go out and buy a cheap PC.
But there is no why I want Microsoft Viruses, Trojans and Worms running rampant on a PC, so I bought the Dual G5 and been in bliss ever since.
Rating:
Summary: G5, absolute rubbish couple with false ads
Review: I have worked with Apple computers all my life and had a chance to test the G5 in different configurations at work. I used to love Apple but they lost my trust with their outrageous claim of having produced the "fastest personal computer". Almost inmediatedly Apple's TV Spots were banned from Europe and thanks to savvy consumer watch organizations they have recently been banned in the US too, false advertising has plagued Apple since then. Based on my personal experience, the G5 is not even close to beating the competition neither in speed nor price. This sort of misleading advertising thinned Apple's reputation and sent Steve Jobs closer to the likes of Jeffrey Skilling (Enron's CEO) and DeLorean. The G5 is a fraud, may not be the worst fraud ever, but it is for a young designer who is trying to make it in the competitive world of Digital Design or Music (the very people that made Apple famous). Here is another fact, despite Jobs claims of G5 outrageous speeds, his own company, PIXAR, does not use G5s to render its current 2004 animated features, Steve Jobs uses Xeon Pentiums because they are much faster and cheaper! By the way, Apple plans to cut the G5 prices in half sooner than you think, so if you really want a G5, you may want to wait a little while.
Rating: 
Summary: Hard to beat for design
Review: I think the never ending PC - MAC battle is lame.
But PC harware fan is correct in his point about Pixar.
See below.
Pixar's new RenderFarm, used to create the digital images for each frame of animation in its movies, will consist of 1024 Intel® Xeon™ processors inside of eight new RackSaver BladeRack supercomputing clusters running Pixar's own RenderMan® software. The RenderFarm features two terabytes of memory and 60 terabytes of disk space. Each Intel Xeon processor at 2.8 GHz is about five times faster than the older RISC-based processors in Pixar's outgoing RenderFarm. Pixar is using the system for its film, "The Incredibles," scheduled for a 2004 release. Yes, Intel makes an incredible processor but so does Apple.
The G5 Dual 2GHz is my personal machine of choice for all my Graphic design and Photography. Yet I also have a 3GHz P4 which I love and use for software development - Visual Basic, C++, mainly. It's also a killer gaming machine. There are things I like about OS X and things I like about XP Pro.
If you are into graphic arts I'd say the G5 is hard to beat.
PS- It put my name as "A PC Hardware Fan" when I went to review so I don't think it is the same person posting multiple times.
Rating:
Summary: Video Card a Minor Problem at Best
Review: I've been a PC user since the good old days of the soldering iron, my last mac was an old powerbook running OS 6 or 7, either way - it was a long time ago. The main thing thats been keeping me from getting a Mac was price, and I must say - it's getting a lot better. I bought the dual 2.0Ghz configuration from the apple store along with the new 20" LCD (that still hasn't shipped ~_~) and it rocks. The biggest problem people have mentioned on the various reviews is the 64mb card - if it means that much to you, go to the Apple Store on their site and configure your own system with a 9800 or an x800 or a different 9600 if you'd like. I got a 9800 personally. I don't understand how anyone can claim a PC runs faster than this, perhaps with video games but for standard use (this coming from a person to whome standard refers to compiling java) its much better.
Rating:
Summary: Video Card a Minor Problem at Best
Review: I've been a PC user since the good old days of the soldering iron, my last mac was an old powerbook running OS 6 or 7, either way - it was a long time ago. The main thing thats been keeping me from getting a Mac was price, and I must say - it's getting a lot better. I bought the dual 2.0Ghz configuration from the apple store along with the new 20" LCD (that still hasn't shipped ~_~) and it rocks. The biggest problem people have mentioned on the various reviews is the 64mb card - if it means that much to you, go to the Apple Store on their site and configure your own system with a 9800 or an x800 or a different 9600 if you'd like. I got a 9800 personally. I don't understand how anyone can claim a PC runs faster than this, perhaps with video games but for standard use (this coming from a person to whome standard refers to compiling java) its much better.
Rating:
Summary: Work Horse of the Decade!
Review: I've been using this perfect machine since late November '03 for film-quality motion graphics and huge layered Photoshop files and I'm in love. I really cannot understand a negative review of this G5.
I just don't get it. I've been a design professional for a dozen years and Apple's technology has made my career fun again.
Period.
Rating: 
Summary: Decent computer
Review: It's not as fast as a P4, but it's a good system, and it's pretty cute. My main complaint is the weak graphics. I mean for 3 grand you think they could do better than a 64MB video card? You can hardly find a game that can run on that little video ram. It would also be nice if Apple could come up with a faster CPU. Frankly I buy them for the looks.
Rating: 
Summary: Good, but not as powerful as a PC
Review: OK, I feel I need to let all of you out there in on some information. MacWorld Magazines recently conducted a test pitting the G5 2GHz against an Athlon FX-51 and a Pentium 4 EE and the poor Mac was blown out of the water. The PCI-X in this machine is good for the future, and of course 8x AGP. Could be bundled with a better video card.
Rating:
Summary: Clear and full understanding
Review: On Apple's web site it says "Designed for whisper-quiet operation." Well, *maybe* it is *designed* for it. But it doesn't *achieve* it. This thing is loud! I'd like to know if anyone with the 2.5GHz model knows whether that is quieter, because maybe that is what I should buy instead. The 2.0 GHz model is one loud puppy, the fan noise is easily as lound as some servers at my office.
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