More then 1 TB space for each G5? How do you back that stuff up? Tapestream is not adequate. Just a firewire HD? What if there’s a fire?

RAM slots/addressability are important. A high end Mac tower should be expected to survive for 3-5 years in a pro environment (my DP G4 primarily used for Photoshop is now 5 years old, waiting for the MacIntel towers). True 64 bit operation will dramatically change the way RAM fits into system architecture. Given that full 64 bit operation is likely in 2007 with Leopard, a 2006-2007-2008-2009-2010-2011 box _should_ be capable of addressing more than 16 GB RAM.

Personally – even though I am a graphics user who needs lots of HD capacity, more than a TB – I do not think that forcing towers to have more than 2 hard drives is all that appropriate. Today BTO Macs are available with 1 TB of capacity on two drives, and it is reasonable to expect more than that on two drives of the MacIntels.

Each additional slot for a hard drive adds costly engineering that 95% of users don’t need and should not have to pay for: power supply capacity and heat removal. Even though I personally _need_ more than a TB I don’t particularly want it internal to the tower anyway, adding heat and cost that I do not want. I want fast additional external capacity RAID configurations like FW800 or eSATA via an Express Card that I can easily move around.

All this sounds cool. I would welcome the addition of built in card readers. But also how about more firewire 800 ports. I mean at least 1 more. I hope they keep the sleek aluminum case. I hated it at first (it looked like a prop from the original Star Trek set). But I soon began to appreciate its sleek beauty and uniqueness. Not to mention the damn thing is sturdy as hell and easy to get into. Someone suggested that since the Intel chips run cooler than the G5 chips there may not be a need for such an enclosure and therefore can be built using the cheaper plastic cases again. I hope they’re wrong. I would hate to see that happen. Also it wouldn’t hurt to be able to stick another optical drive in either.
Mike

I seriously doubt Apple would put memory card slots in the front of the machine. If they do, I think they would stick to one common pro format (compact flash?). How about adding drive bays? Then you could optionally add a card reader and/or removable harddrive. But then again, doing so means some serious design changes. If Apple, is willing to switch to Intel, who know’s what they’ll do next the PowerMac? The sky is the limit.

As for processor, I think they won’t start with single Core 2 Duo chip. It’s not enough to distinguish the pro lines from the consumer lines. How about start with a single Core 2 Duo chip and have a second empty socket to leave the door open for an optional future upgrade? Or perhaps they will go with everything quad? Of interesting note, if the current model is 64bit, you would expect the new model to be 64bit too. Sooooo, what processor will they really use?

Well now THAT would really get the Pro users attention! If it were to be such a ‘Powerbeast’ perhaps 10.5 would also make it possible to boot XP without having to restart. Just perfect for the webdevelopers. If they manage to keep the price resonable (as they have done for allmost all macs) it would rock!