Advice needed

A

andrewcole

Registered
I have a dilemma...

The new G5 can be bought for 1799 dollars (sans superdrive).

The Dual G4 powermac can be bought for 1599.

My questions: Which one is faster and would it be wise to buy the G4

I am on a limited budget so, although 200 dollars may seem rather trivial, taking out a loan for 1600 would be more affordable for me.

I'd appreciate any comments.
 
I'm not a tech head but if your looking for just any comment. I try for the G5. If you are all set up with Monitor, keyboard, Mouse ect I think the $200 extra would be worth the hassle.
 
G5 is faster, and that 64bit CPU will pay off more than a Velocity Engine in the future.
But it won't be availible 'till August

On a side note:
You? Here? You are ACEC, right?
 
If you want to stay one step ahead of the curve, obviously go with the G5. But if history has taught us any lessons, it's that software companies are still playing catch up with Apple's new platform - OSX. Look at Quark. Only recently did they release an OSX native product. Some companies are quicker than others to migrate to OSX. But it's safe to say that we'd expect the pace to pick up quickly as OSX is maturing.

You have to look at the longevity of these systems. 1-2 years of this migration to OSX really isn't a long time at all and it wasn't a rough time because we had Classic environment and dual boot to OS9 to fall back on. But the jump to a 64 bit platform will probably take more time to really blend in. What we're doing is trying to predict how long it'll take for 64 bit software to go main stream and that's the amount of time the G4 has left in its life. You might be safe with it for another 2-3 years, so where do you see yourself in that 2-3 years in the future?
 
Thanks for you replies.

Lycander hits the situation on the head. It will probably take the software companies a few years to get on the ball.

Where do I see myself in 2 or 3 years? Probably just finishing the payments on the machine I would buy now :)

If the situation rises where I would need to get a 64 bit CPU, then I'd probably sell the machine on ebay and buy a new one.

I would like to know the speed comparisons between the Dual 1.25Ghz G4 Powermac and the Single processor 1.6Ghz G5. I'm not sure I can find any benchmarks since the new machine is still in its preliminary stages of production.


I must say the G5 specifications are very impressive, but I'm not really sure what to do. I suppose thats why I posted here :)
 
The cost would be more than $200 in price alone. Just getting enough ram will be more on the G5. What would you use the Mac for? And how much of a hurry are you in?
Depending on what you need the Apple for, you could also consider low-balling it. Get an iMac or iBook, or a used Mac. The cost would be lower to pay off, then you can still upgrade to a G5, in say 18 months. Just something else to consider.
 
Actually....For a base model 17" Imac it would be 1799...However...The dual G4 is only 1599....I have a a nice monitor and all that.

The only thing that depresses me about the G4 is that it doesn't have 5.1 sound.

I'd be using it for a media workstation. Music, graphics, movies, etc....but nothing intensive.

I would love a new iMac, however for 40 dollars more I could get a G5.

You see the predicament I am in :) I'm not quite sure what I *need* nor want. I want it all.

You see, I'm a current PC user. I've used a celeron 450 for about 4 years (3 of those years were on a 14" monitor, too :() I want to make the "switch", but I want to get a nice machine. I think I want to make up for years of a lagging machine by buying a nice G5, but I'm not sure I'd use it to its full potential.
 
OK, I'm starting to see the situation. A dual G4 will be sufficient for a long time forward, and until the G5's come out they are really cheap.
 
Also, if you're wanting surround then it doesn't matter which machine you get, its dependent on the sound card you buy. OSX can handle up to 7.1 natively but of course you'd need a card with 7 (or rather 8) outs. Unless you can output surround with the S/PDIF on the G5, anynody know?
 
If even $200 are a big thing for you then a Dual G4 is the only way to Mac heaven :D...

However, if you can fix your $200 problem go for the G5 as it is faster, quiter, better looking :p , more future-proof, etc.

One other thing to consider is that with the Dual G4 you will get probably more RAM, bigger Hard Disk and SuperDrive probably :rolleyes:
 
Hey, when the G5 does come out from IBM in chip form, I bet there will be lots of upgrade companies that will make a ZIF upgrade available for a G4... This brings up an interesting question... Can a G5 run in tandem with a G4 on the same system?
 
Originally posted by MrNivit1
Hey, when the G5 does come out from IBM in chip form, I bet there will be lots of upgrade companies that will make a ZIF upgrade available for a G4... This brings up an interesting question... Can a G5 run in tandem with a G4 on the same system?
Click to expand...
My gut feeling is no. Remember, the 1.6 GHz G5 model uses a 800 MHz FSB, the mid and high end models use a 1 GHz FSB. Older G4 systems only have a 133 MHz FSB so even a socket add on would not be able to compensate for this difference in bus speed, further more you are seriously handicapping the system if you run a G5 with just PC133 RAM. The lack of HyperTransport in old G4 logic boards isn't an issue because the 970 GPU doesn't make use of HT for CPU to Memory access... yet. That's coming with the 980 chip.
 
I think I've figured out what I'm going to do...

I'm going to wait until Macworld NY (which is in a few weeks...and I will be buying a couple 15 dollar exhibition passes to browse around) and see what happens there. If nothing that great comes from it, then I will get a base model G5.

I have been looking at the 17" iMac and am very impressed with its look, but I'm not sure that its as speedy as I would want it to be. I have been behind the times for so long with my current computer ... I want something that would make other people go, "nice!" ;-)
 
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