Liquid cooled Power Macs running Mac OS X 10.3.5

Preproduction models of Apple;s recently announced 2.5GHz liquid cooled Power Mac G5 computers are running a new version of the Mac OS X operating system, according to a couple of independent sources.

The company's lower-end 1.8 and 2.0 GHz Power Mac G5 continue to be supported by existing versions of Mac OS X, while the 2.5 GHz model currently requires a Mac OS build train from the unreleased Mac OS X 10.3.5 operating system.

Last week sources said that Apple had begun delivering beta versions of the Mac OS X 10.3.5 update to a limited number of developers in the form of a 39MB Mac OS X image. Meanwhile, Appleâ€™s highly populated Apple Developer Connection has yet to receive word of the update.

One source who attended last weekâ€™s World Wide Developer Conference confirmed that the 2.5 GHz Power Macs featured in Appleâ€™s ADC Labs were indeed running pre-release versions of Mac OS X 10.3.5.

Mac OS X 10.3.5 is reportedly slated for an official release by this Fall, although current builds of the system are said to contain noticeable key-command and â€œartifactingâ€ glitches.

Apple is expected to begin shipping its 2.5 GHz liquid cooled Power Mac G5 sometime this month, which may include a build of Mac OS X 10.3.5 prior to its public release, sources said.

Mac OS X 10.3.5 is widely rumored to be the most significant update to Mac OS X 10.3 Panther, since its release last year.

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