G5

Yesterday the IT department here at the university finally delivered my new computer, a Macintosh G5. It was supposed to arrive this summer, but everything seems to run about three months late here. Nor is it what I requested. I asked for a dual 2.5GHz machine with a 250GB hard drive, 2GB of RAM and a 23″ monitor. What I got is a dual 1.8GHz machine with a 150GB drive and a 20″ monitor.

But at least I got my RAM.

I spent most of the day making the transition to the new machine. I’d braced myself for an ordeal, something akin to a brain transplant, but actually it was the smoothest upgrade I think I’ve ever done. The only real glitch was that my old G4 wouldn’t boot into target mode, which would have allowed me to attach its hard drive to the new system via FireWire and transfer data at superfast speed. This didn’t work because my old G4 was a custom build with a SCSI drive. (Apparently you need to have an ATA drive on bus 0.) So I booted the new machine into target mode and transferred some files that way, and then did the rest over the local network, and it was all pretty easy.

I wonder if these old Hitachi RasterOps Mc 8115 monitors are worth anything. They cost about $1000 each. I remember that I was so excited when I first got them five years ago. Two years later I was still beside myself. I really thought that the 3200 pixel wide display was something to rejoice in. But I’m tired of looking at those CRTs. Side by side with the new display, they just look old and blurry and dim. And they weigh a ton.

My new display may only be 1680 pixels wide, but it’s much easier on the eyes.