Apple Power Mac G5 (June 2004) vs Apple Power Macintosh 8600/300

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Power Mac G5 (June 2004) compared with Power Macintosh 8600/300

	ApplePower Mac G5 (June 2004)	ApplePower Macintosh 8600/300
Overview
Released
Released	June 2004	August 1997
Performance
Processor
Processor	2 × PowerPC G5 1800 MHz (Power Mac June 2004), 2 × PowerPC G5 2000 MHz (Power Mac June 2004) or 2 × PowerPC G5 2500 MHz (Power Mac June 2004)	PowerPC 604e 300 MHz (Power Macintosh 8600/300)
CPU cores
CPU cores	2	1
Graphics
Graphics	NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra (64 MB) or ATI Radeon 9600 XT (128 MB)	–
Memory
Memory	256 MB, 512 MB, 4 GB or 8 GB (better)	32 MB
Storage
Storage	80 GB to 160 GB (better)	4 GB
CPU
CPU	Two physical PowerPC G5 processors at 1.8, 2 or 2.5 GHz, each with 512 KB L2 cache. Per-processor front-side bus is 900 MHz, 1 GHz or 1.25 GHz respectively. Only the dual 2.5 GHz uses the maker’s liquid-cooling system.	300 MHz PowerPC 604e with 64 KB L1 cache, 1 MB L2 cache, 100 MHz cache bus and 50 MHz system bus
GPU
GPU	Dual 1.8 and 2 GHz: NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra with 64 MB DDR. Dual 2.5 GHz: ATI Radeon 9600 XT with 128 MB DDR. Optional ATI Radeon 9800 XT with 256 MB occupies the adjacent PCI slot as well as AGP.	Built-in video with 2 MB VRAM, expandable to 4 MB; the latter is required for video mirroring
Memory type
Memory type	DDR400 PC3200 in matched pairs. Dual 1.8 GHz starts with 256 MB and has four DIMM slots with a 4 GB maximum. Dual 2 and 2.5 GHz start with 512 MB and have eight slots with an 8 GB maximum. Base and maximum memory rows retain each model’s stock storage and graphics.	32 MB standard with eight 168-pin DIMM slots, expandable to 512 MB according to Apple
Storage type
Storage type	Stock 80 GB on dual 1.8 GHz and 160 GB on dual 2/2.5 GHz; 7200 rpm Serial ATA. Two bays with 150 MB/s interfaces; optional 80, 160 or 250 GB drives, up to two 250 GB drives. One optical bay with 8x DVD-R SuperDrive; Combo drive is optional.	4 GB internal SCSI hard drive, 1.44 MB floppy, 24× CD-ROM and built-in Iomega Zip drive
Expansion slots
Expansion slots	AGP 8x Pro graphics slot. Dual 1.8 GHz has three 64-bit 33 MHz PCI slots. Dual 2 and 2.5 GHz have PCI-X: two 100 MHz and one 133 MHz slots.	Three PCI slots; Apple's launch release also describes a pre-wired 5.25-inch SCSI expansion bay and two 3.5-inch drive bays
Display
Screen
Screen	None built in	None built in
Connections
Ports
Ports	3 × USB-A, Ethernet, headphone jack	Ethernet
Ethernet
Ethernet	1 Gb/s	–
External displays
External displays	Up to 2	–
Front ports
Front ports	USB 2.0, FireWire 400 and headphone minijack.	–
Back ports
Back ports	Two USB 2.0, FireWire 800, FireWire 400, Gigabit Ethernet, V.92 modem, optical Toslink input/output and analogue audio line-in/out. Three chassis USB ports in total, plus keyboard USB 1.1 ports. Optional 54 Mbps AirPort Extreme and Bluetooth 1.1.	Apple Desktop Bus, external DB-25 SCSI, two serial ports, AAUI and 10BASE-T Ethernet, DB-15 video, stereo audio input and output, S-video and RCA video input and output, RCA audio input and output
External displays
External displays	ADC and DVI with included DVI-to-VGA adapter; two displays in extended or mirrored modes. A second ADC display requires a separate adapter.	–
Speakers
Speakers	Built-in speaker; analogue and optical connections for external audio.	–
Keyboard and mouse
Keyboard and mouse	Apple Keyboard, Apple Mouse, USB extension cable, DVI-to-VGA adapter, modem cable and AirPort antenna.	–
Design and power
Type
Type	Tower	Tower
Weight
Weight	20.2 kg	–
Width × depth × height
Width × depth × height	206 × 475 × 511 mm	–
Operating system
Operating system	macOS	macOS
Size and weight detail
Size and weight detail	Maker height 51.1 cm, width 20.6 cm, depth 47.5 cm; reference weight 20.2 kg varies with configuration.	Apple lists 17.3 × 9.7 × 17.3 inches (height × width × depth) and 35 lb
Power supply
Power supply	–	Apple lists a 560 W maximum
Materials
Materials	Aluminium enclosure with separate cooling zones.	–
In the box
In the box	Mac OS X Panther and iLife. The 1.8 and 2 GHz models were available on 9 June 2004. Apple initially stated July availability for the 2.5 GHz model, later than the generation’s first sale.	Apple's 5 August 1997 announcement says the 8600/300 was available immediately worldwide with Mac OS 8. Its support sheet lists original system software as 7.6.1.