Apple Begins Shipping Power Mac G5

Apple this week began shipping its long awaited Power Mac G5 hardware, first announced at WWDC 2003 in June. Only single processor configurations are currently available, with dual G5 machines set to reach customers later this month.

"The two single processor Power Mac G5 models are available now, so we wanted to get those into customers hands as soon as possible, and we’re right on track to deliver the dual 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 later this month," said Philip Schiller, senior vice president of Worldwide Product Marketing at Apple.

The G5 is the first 64-bit desktop processor and features a 1 GHz front side bus with support for up to 8GB of memory.

At the low end, the Power Mac G5 sports a 1.6 Ghz processor, 80GB hard drive and 256MB of RAM for $1,999 USD. A 1.8 Ghz G5 with 160GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM will run $2,399. Both models include the NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra graphics chipset.