" Got my 2GHz DP G5 this morning. It was ordered on 7/3 through the edu channel.
It looks pretty funny sitting next to the old 'Gateway 2000' monitor connected to it; a temporary situation...
Eric M. "

I asked Eric if he could send a photo of the internals/run some real-world tests. (All the dual G5 results I've seen were from pre-production systems - not an actual shipped model.) I know many are going to think this is report is a hoax after having their day 1 orders (even EDU/student orders) delayed. Here's some of the photos he sent. (Quotes over the images are his.)

"An overview of the internals....Good lookin' organs"

"The RAM slots....Those lonely modules certainly need some company"

"The PCI compartment"

"A look at the heat sinks. There is certainly a large surface area to volume ratio here.
Looks more like an industrial heat exchanger than a CPU heat sink."

"I found this a little odd. There are four screws attached to the drive bay
fan enclosure that do nothing as far as I can tell."
(I suspect they may be spare screws for use when you add a 2nd hard drive perhaps,
although they look a bit large for that. (Turns out the screw heads are guides for the drive in the grooves.))

Note: The 4 large screws are for a 2nd hard drive. They screw directly into the drive and are used as guides/supports in the drive bay channels. (See the G5 Tech Docs/Info page here for links to Apple's G5 CIP page which has guides to installing drives, cards, and more.)

He also sent some initial test results. I later wrote to ask if he had run Software Updates (in case there were any updates specific to the G5 since the build). He had commented that "Other than the developer tools and X11, it's a clean OS".
Here's his system details from an ASP report:

(Standard Dual G5 config.)

• 512MB RAM (two 256MB dimms)
• Pioneer DVR-106D firmware A606
  (Note - several single G5s have been reported as having an OEM Sony DW-U10A drive. Both normally support DVD+R/+RW also, but may not with Apple OEM firmware.)
• OS X 10.2.7 (build 6S80)
• 160GB Hard Drive (Seagate ST3160023AS)
  (Seagate specs show 7200RPM/8MB cache, 8.5MS avg seek)
• ATI 9600 Pro/64MB (ID: RV350, ROM: 113-A13601-120)

I guess 10.2.7 adds native support for the DVR-106 drive (Panther betas were already reported as supporting it.) I asked if he could try a DVD+R or DVD+RW disc to see if the OEM Apple drive supported that media (the retail DVR-106/A06 does)

" I tested a Verbatim DVD+RW disk with no luck from the Finder or Disk Copy. The OS recognized it as a blank DVD and asked what to do with it. It 'mounted' in the Finder and allowed things to be 'copied' to it. But would not burn. Attached is the error message (and is about as vague as a Windows error message).

"Sorry, the operation could not be completed because an unexpected error occurred:
(Error Code -2147352509)."

I have Toast 5 but have not tried it. I'm assuming it will work. I'll let you know.
Eric "

Cinebench 2003 (v1) results: (NOTE: Scores in Italics are from a MDD Dual G4/1.25GHz w/9800 Pro card running 10.2.6)

****************************************************

Tester           : EMM

Processor        : PowerMac G5
MHz              : 2000
Number of CPUs   : 2
Operating System : 10.2.7

Graphics Card    : Radeon9600Pro
Resolution       : 1024 x 768
Color Depth      : Millions

****************************************************

Rendering (Single   CPU): 219 CB-CPU (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 120)
Rendering (Multiple CPU): 401 CB-CPU  (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 220)

Multiprocessor Speedup: 1.83  (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 1.83)

Shading (CINEMA 4D)                : 266 CB-GFX  (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 149)
Shading (OpenGL Software Lighting) : 661 CB-GFX  (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 411)
Shading (OpenGL Hardware Lighting) : 1168 CB-GFX  (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 875)

OpenGL Speedup: 4.40 (Dual G4 1.25GHz/9800 = 5.87)

****************************************************

iMovie DV->QT (CDROM size) Export Tests:

"Using the five iDVD clips (which I imported into iMovie) instead of the six iMovie clips took 88 seconds. The total video length was 1:36:17.
(he later wrote)
Got the (iMovie tutorial) files off an eMac.
It took 40 seconds (exactly) to export the six clips.
Eric"

iMovie to date does not seem to take advantage of dual CPUs as shown in past CPU Upgrade reviews comparison tests here, but I was curious as to how the G5 would compare. For reference a 1.467GHz G4 upgrade in my Digital Audio system took 41.6 seconds for the iMovie tutorial export.

iTunes AIFF->MP3/AIFF->AAC Conversion from Hard Drive: These tests are from another reader that had access to a Univ. Dual G5 2GHz system. (Thanks Nick!)

"I work at a university, and our dual 2Ghz G5 just arrived. I just did a quick iTunes benchmark, converting "Moment's Notice" (Coltrane) from AIFF, on the hard drive:

I just watched for the highest reached conversion speed factor:

Dual 2Ghz G5:
converting to 160 MP3: 45.6x
converting to 160 AAC: 33.5x

My 12" PowerBook G4 867Mhz:
converting to 160 MP3: 11.5x
converting to 160 AAC: 8.8x

The G5 is standard factory configuration.
The PowerBook is running Panther 7B53.

Both systems had nothing but iTunes running, and were not playing the tracks while converting them.
Nick M."

I asked Nick if he had access to a dual G4 system to run the same tests for comparison. (BTW - to the 6th grader that asked why Nick mentioned the song name - that's in case anyone else wanted to duplicate his test with the exact same song. (Different songs can be a different filesize/length etc. and of course different file sizes will result in different results/times to convert.)
He later sent more test results:

" I ran one of the tutorials for the molecular dynamics code GROMACS on the G5 and my old G4 500DP (Mac OS X 10.2.6).

I compiled the code using gcc on both machines (I haven't got it to compile with xlc). I used the default flags as determined by configure.
Eric

G5:

           Computing:      M-Number      M-Flop's  % Flop's
                    LJ     38.060171   1179.865301     1.5
               Coulomb     97.815325   2641.013775     3.3
            Coulomb(W)      6.783280    549.445680     0.7
          LJ + Coulomb     61.862979   2350.793202     2.9
          LJ + Coul(W)     18.950919   1743.484548     2.2
         LJ + Coul(WW)    266.802340  65366.573300    80.6
       Innerloop-Iatom    151.534110   1515.341100     1.9
              NS-Pairs     92.286518   1938.016878     2.4
          Reset In Box      1.373241     12.359169     0.0
               Shift-X     27.415482    164.492892     0.2
                CG-CoM      0.477453     13.846137     0.0
                Angles      1.385277    225.800151     0.3
               Propers      0.510102    116.813358     0.1
             Impropers      0.450090     93.618720     0.1
           Pos. Restr.      0.730146     36.507300     0.0
                Virial     13.842768    249.169824     0.3
                Update     13.707741    424.939971     0.5
               Stop-CM     13.705000    137.050000     0.2
             Calc-Ekin     13.710482    370.183014     0.5
                 Lincs      0.960576     57.634560     0.1
             Lincs-Mat     16.629972     66.519888     0.1
               Shake-V     13.707741    205.616115     0.3
             Shake-Vir     13.707741    246.739338     0.3
                Settle      4.252550   1373.573650     1.7
           Total                 81079.39787   100.0

                NODE (s)   Real (s)      (%)
        Time:     35.990     36.000    100.0
                (Mnbf/s)   (GFlops) (ps/NODE hour) (NODE hour/ns)
Performance:     74.358      2.253   1000.278      1.000


G4:

            Computing:      M-Number      M-Flop's  % Flop's
                    LJ     38.060171   1179.865301     1.5
               Coulomb     97.815325   2641.013775     3.3
            Coulomb(W)      6.783280    549.445680     0.7
          LJ + Coulomb     61.862979   2350.793202     2.9
          LJ + Coul(W)     18.950919   1743.484548     2.2
         LJ + Coul(WW)    266.802340  65366.573300    80.6
       Innerloop-Iatom    151.534110   1515.341100     1.9
              NS-Pairs     92.286518   1938.016878     2.4
          Reset In Box      1.373241     12.359169     0.0
               Shift-X     27.415482    164.492892     0.2
                CG-CoM      0.477453     13.846137     0.0
                Angles      1.385277    225.800151     0.3
               Propers      0.510102    116.813358     0.1
             Impropers      0.450090     93.618720     0.1
           Pos. Restr.      0.730146     36.507300     0.0
                Virial     13.842768    249.169824     0.3
                Update     13.707741    424.939971     0.5
               Stop-CM     13.705000    137.050000     0.2
             Calc-Ekin     13.710482    370.183014     0.5
                 Lincs      0.960576     57.634560     0.1
             Lincs-Mat     16.629972     66.519888     0.1
               Shake-V     13.707741    205.616115     0.3
             Shake-Vir     13.707741    246.739338     0.3
                Settle      4.252550   1373.573650     1.7
           Total                 81079.39787   100.0

                NODE (s)   Real (s)      (%)
        Time:    137.970    138.000    100.0
                (Mnbf/s)   (MFlops) (ps/NODE hour) (NODE hour/ns)
Performance:     19.397    587.660    260.926      3.833

PC Mag compares Dual G5 vs Dual G4 vs Dual 3GHz Xeon PC (Sept. 19th, 2003) PC Magazine has a review of the Dual G5 2GHz (www.pcmag.com/article2/0,4149,1274138,00.asp) that compares performance to a Dell Pecision 650 workstation with Dual 3GHz Xeon CPUs and a Dual 1.42GHz G4. You'll want to read all the pages (page 2 has apps test notes not on the results page) but the table of test results is on page 3. (The Avid Xpress Pro tests mentioned on page 2 are not listed on the results page however, at least not as of Sept. 20th.) Although they didn't mention it, hopefully they had the G5 Energy Saver set to "Highest" performance (see the power management/bus slewing note on the G5 Tech Docs page here about how this can affect cpu/bus speeds. Although it may have been running full speed in "Auto" mode during the tests, it's still preferred for performance tests to set it to highest performance.

PSBench7 (Photoshop7) G5 Results/Comparisons: (from the Sept. 17th, 2003 news page) (from a reader mail, I've used PSbench in past reviews/tests but not yet run it personally on a G5)

"Over on the Ars forums Ps7Bench results for a dual G5 have been posted. They are better than I thought they would be. Out front by a *very* nice margin. Some of the PS pros say that some of the tests in this bench are hardly ever used (e.g. watercolor filter). Hopefully a new PS bench will appear.
-ADDRAGYN
PS7Bench (www.geocities.com/sw_perf/PSBench.html)
Ars thread at arstechnica.infopop.net/OpenTopic/page?q=Y&a=tpc&s=50009562&f=48409524&m=7760969205&p=36.

Scores (Normalized, higher score is better)

2x 2000 G5 OSX 10.2.7 (G5 plugin) 555 (energy settings highest perf)
2x 3060 Xeon (OC'd 2400)          488
2x 2930 Xeon (OC'd 2400)          471
   3200 P4 (800MHz)               427
   3000 P4 (800MHz)               405
   3495 P4 (OC'd 3.06)            386
   3060 P4 XP Pro (533 FSB)       358 HT
2x 2200 Xeon PC 800 RDRAM CPQ Evo 357 HT
2x 1500 G4 (OC'd 1420)            348
2x 1333 G4 DDR OS9.2 (oc'd 1.25)  346
   1800 G5 OSX 10.2.7 (G5 plugin) 344 (energy settings highest perf)
2x 1420 G4 OSX 10.2.4             338
2x 2400+Athlon MP                 338
2x 1250 G4 OS 9.2.2j              337
   3200+Athlon XP                 332
   1800 Opteron(dual-chnlDDR 333) 332
2x 1333 G4 DDR OSX10.2.2(oc 1.25) 326
   1800 OPteron(singl-chnlDDR333) 320
   3000+Athlon XP                 318
2x 1250 G4 OSX 10.2.5             318
2x 1250 G4 DDR OSX 10.2.1         316
2x 1800 Athlon MP                 312
   2800+Athlon XP Barton          298
2x 2000 P4 Xeon                   286
2x 1200 G4Powerlogix(867MHzG4/QS) 285 upgraded
2x 1533 Athlon MP                 285
2x 1533 Athlon MP                 283
   2530 P4 mobile (OC'd 1400)     282
   2700 P4B (OC 2400, 600 MHz FSB)280
2x 1466 Athlon XP                 279
   1600 G5 OSX 10.2.7w/G5 Plugin  276 *MacNNscores
   2666 P4 (DDR 333)              269
2x 1000 G4 DDR 10.2               267
   2400+Athlon XP                 262
2x 1000 G4 OS9                    260
2x 1000 G4 OSX 10.1.5             254
   2400+Athlon                    252
   2400 P4B (800MHz)              251
   2400b (sis 648 DDR400)         251
   1600 Centrino IBM T40          250
   2400 P4 (533MHz bus)           249
   2400 P4 B                      241
   2340 P4 (overclock)            239
   1600 Centrino Dell D800        236
   2400 P4                        234
   1800+Athlon XP (1533 MHz)      226
   1577 oc'd Athlon XP (Lestat)   221
2x 1000 G4 OSX 10.2.2 (upgraded)  218 ?!(dual 533 logic board)
   1548 Athlon XP                 214
   1670 Athlon XP (2000+)         213
   1667 Athlon XP                 211
   1400 Athlon XP 1600+ xp pro    200
1x 1533 Athlon MP                 197
   1300 Centrino Sony VAIO Z1A    196
   1000 G4 17" Powrbk OSX 10.2.6  196
   2000 P4 Xeon                   194
   1400 Athlon XP 1600+'98SE      191
   1000 G4 OSX TiPbk 10.2.2       185
2x  533 G4 OSX 10.1.5             175
2x  533 G4 OS 9.2.2               174
   1800 P4                        173
   1200 AthlonMP                  168
   1508 Celeron (overclock)       167
   1400 PIII Tualatin             160 **?
2x  550 G4 OSX 10.2.3 (OC Cube)   160 **?
2x  500 G4 OSX                    152
2x  450 G4 OS9                    151
   1333 Athlon TBird              147
2x  450 G4 OSX 10.1.5             143
    800 G4 Pbook OSX  1MB L3      135
    733 G4 (miro7)                134
    667 G4 PBk OS9 noL3           127
    667 G4 PBk OSX 10.2.3 no L3   125
    466 G4 OS9                    123
    667 G4 OSX TiPBk 10.1.5 noL3  121
    866 PIII                      114
    466 G4 OSX 133 MHz bus        112
    550 G4 Powrbk OS9*            104
    500 G4 Pbook (OC'd 400)       103
1x  450 G4 OSX 100 MHz bus        101
   1000 Athlon TBird (PS6.01)     100
    550 G4 Powrbk OSX*             95
    933 Transmeta Crusoe Sony      78
    700 G3 iBook                   74
    600 G3 iBook OS 9.2.2j         70
    233 PII                        30