MacTek Talk: Hands on with a Power Mac G5

Computerworld - With Apple's latest Power Macintoshes showing up in stores now (except for the dual 2-GHz models), readers have asked about the performance of the new G5. I had one of the $1,999 1.6-GHz models for several days last week, time enough to put it through its paces and see how it measures up while I configured it for a client.
The first thing I noticed when I pulled the G5 out of the box was the size of the thing. The G5 is surprisingly bigger than the previous-generation Power Mac G4s, which have been more or less the same size for over three years (see related story).
Of course, the first thing I did was take the machine apart, partly out of curiosity and partly for the configuration work. Apple's Web site and movies illustrate how easy it is to get at the machine's innards. By simply flipping a handle at the rear of the G5 and removing the side panel (both of which are much sturdier than in the G4s), you can view the G5's insides through a transparent plastic cover, which is shaped to maximize airflow through its four thermal zones. Removing the plastic cover provides access to the guts of the G5, and it's here that you see the beauty of Apple's design. I was able to install RAM, as well as remove and replace the hard drive, all without needing even a screwdriver. Except for the PCI and graphics cards, there are no screws to undo and misplace, and even those slots are easily accessible.
There are other nice touches, as well. For instance, additional firewire and USB ports are now located on the front of the machine, a first for any Macintosh. These front-mounted ports are a godsend for anyone who spends any amount of time plugging and unplugging peripherals into his computer.
After setting up my client's account information, I shut down the computer so I could gauge how quickly it would load the desktop from a cold boot. Once the G5 got beyond the initial Apple logo, start-up was nearly instantaneous. I was impressed at the speed for a single-processor machine. The G5, running a specialized version of the operating system (Mac OS X 10.2.7) for this machine, was very responsive, and I was able to launch several applications at once without much of a drop in responsiveness. I should note, too, that this computer is very quiet. There was only one point during heavy use that I thought I heard the fans