Apple G5 Mac Power
Apple Power Mac G5 Desktop M9592LL/A (Quad 2.5GHz PowerPC G5, 512 MB RAM, 250 GB Hard Drive, 16x Dbl Layer SuperDrive) 
The Power Mac G5 Quad is the ultimate creative platform. With two dual-core processors, at speeds up to 2.5GHz per core, the Power Mac G5 Quad doubles the punch of its dual-processor predecessor. Do the math: Quad-core processing means four Velocity Engines and eight double-precision floating-point units for blistering performance of up to 76.6 gigaflops. That means you can manipulate mountains of images or miles of footage. Crunch enormous data sets. Encode HD video or high-bit-rate audio. All at speeds you never imagined possible.
You’ll also be amazed by the flexible expansion options and a host of built-in cutting-edge abilities — from the dual Gigabit Ethernet and included SuperDrive, to all the ports available for connecting your USB or FireWire devices. It also has the very latest version of Mac OS X, with an incredible suite of software to make your life and work that much easier.
PCI Express architecture opens up a world of high-performance capabilities. NVIDIA GeForce 6600 graphics card with 256MB GDDR3 SDRAM, one single-link and dual-link DVi port Two open, full-length four-lane PCI Express slots, one PCI Express slot Dual 10/100/1000BASE-T (Gigabit) Ethernet ports with integrated wireless antenna (AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 2.0 optional) 16X SuperDrive with Double Layer support Software Included - iLife ‘05, QuickBooks New User Edition, Art Directors Toolkit, FileMaker Pro Trial, GraphicConverter, OmniGraffle and OmniOutliner, Microsoft Office 2004 Test Drive, Zinio Reader, Apple Hardware Test Connections - 1 FireWire 800, 2 FireWire 400 (one on front panel), 4 USB 2.0 (one on front panel), 2 USB 1.1 (one on keyboard), headphone minijack and speaker, optical digital audio input/out
Review by Jon McNinney “jonmaverick” (South BFE, Virginia) :
If you need it, buy it. Never mind how much it costs, by the time you add memory, monitors, applecare, peripherals and software, you will spend $8000 or more. If you want to read e-mail, surf the web, play games, or balance your checkbook: this is not the computer for you. If you want a computer to do desktop publishing, image manipulation, 3d animation, ray tracing, or all of them at once: this is the one.
First, buy the apple care protection. It is so cheap, it’s a no-brainer. Then, buy more memory. Remember, 4 Gigabytes is one Gig per processor, so don’t be cheap. Upgrades must be done 2 chips at a time. I started with four, 1 GB chips, in addition to the original 512 MB. This seemed to be a wise decision at the time. I can expand or replace, whichever is most economical, next time I want to upgrade. Next, purchase a good surge protector. A UPS would be better, but keep in mind: this system will draw a lot of power. The power supply in the CPU can draw up to 12 amps. That’s more than 1400 watts, before you even connect a monitor. A suitable surge protector should handle 15 amps continuously, and a 2000VA UPS is the minimum I would consider. It would not be a bad idea to give your computer system it’s own 20 amp breaker.
Next, buy your software. Adobe CS is about $1300, but worth the investment. It is a great package which I might someday review, if I ever get tired of playing with it. Next, monitors. Yes, plural. For graphic design and publishing, 2 is the minimum. It is so nice to be able to view your image full-screen with no toolboxes or palettes covering it up. Also, bigger is better.
Other nice accessories include: pen tablet, air-port card, I-pod or other portable drive, scanner, printer, and speakers. A fast, reliable internet connection is nice, too.
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