what to buy or wait ??

[Mike6912]

I have to buy a new desktop or business computer,
i have to make some DVD's
at the moment i'm using my PB17 - 1GHz to do this and it works ok, but for a 24min. DVD rendering he needs about 6,5 hours.

Now i plan to buy this little baby :

Power Mac G5 Dual 2.3GHz
500GB Serial ATA-Harddrive - 7200 U/Min. 065-5979
DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW (16x SuperDrive Dual Layer) 065-5180
4GB 533 DDR2 Non-ECC SDRAM - 8x512MB 065-5964
AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth 065-6141
NVIDIA GeForce 6600 256MB SDRAM 065-5181
23"Apple Monitor
Apple Care

First question is it worth it to buy this new memory ECC SDRam or will the NON ECC SDRAM do, because the ECC is 600 CHF or 450 U$ more expensive.

and now the biggest question

OR should i wait until the new INTEL driven Mac's are out.

Please let me have your comments


Thanks for all of your advices

Best

Mike
Lugano Switzerland

[fryke]

You'll definitely see a good improvement in encoding DVDs when using a dual processor (or dual core) PowerMac G5 instead of a single processor PowerBook G4! The intel PowerMacs won't come out for quite a while, and you probably won't want the very first iteration. So my advice is to buy now, replace later (late 2007, early 2008 or something like that). I dunno about the RAM, but I guess more of the slower version gives you better performance than less of the quicker version, i.e. you need as much RAM as you can afford.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I would say you'd be better off getting a stripped-down top-end dual-dual-core machine rather than hopping up the low-end machine with a bunch of RAM and hard drives.

RAM and hard drives can always be had cheaper aftermarket, but processing speed is what you're really paying for -- I would maximize the processor (and graphics card, if you need it), and spend the money you saved on aftermarket RAM and hard drives.

[RGrphc2]

I would say you'd be better off getting a stripped-down top-end dual-dual-core machine rather than hopping up the low-end machine with a bunch of RAM and hard drives.

RAM and hard drives can always be had cheaper aftermarket, but processing speed is what you're really paying for -- I would maximize the processor (and graphics card, if you need it), and spend the money you saved on aftermarket RAM and hard drives.

Agreed Diablo, RAM & Harddrives from any computer company tend to be more expensive. I saw the 500 GB harddrive from the Powermac G5's for sale at best buy this week for $170.

and check out Dealram for RAM prices

[whitesaint]

Yea, I would say get a quad Powermac if you don't feel like waiting 6-9 months, whenever Macintels come out, besides most of the software for macs are already PowerPC based, where as on Intel OS X you'll have to wait a little bit to get all the software you want to run natively. I'm contemplating on whether to even make universal binaries because it seems every time they upgrade the OS(Panther -> Tiger), it breaks some of my software i write. it sure is a pain in the @$$

[Mikuro]

ECC RAM can correct some errors in the data, but at the cost of some speed. I don't know how likely such errors are, but I've never been convinced of the benefits of ECC RAM in personal systems. From what I've gathered, it's only really important on servers that need to run unattended for long periods of time. I'm no expert on the subject, though.

[Mike6912]

so i guess i'll go with a 4x2.5 GHz and 4 Gbyte and 250 GByte HD incl. the 7800 graphic card apple care and that's it same price like the original setup.

Again thanks again for the pro input.

Best

Mike from
Lugano Switzerland

[fryke]

You sure you didn't leave out the display in comparing the prices/options?