buying an imac: g5 or intel?

[unispherephoto]

my 500 mhhz g4 tibook is on its last legs...so heres the question: for roughly the same price i could get either a 1.8 ghz imac g5 with a 20" screen or a 17" 1.9 ghz intel version.
anyone have suggestions? i'm leaning toward the larger screen since i dont run super intensive apps all that often (some photoshop, final cut, reason) and thus performance shouldnt differ much. but am i stranding myself with the older chip? getting set up for obsolescence?
as much as id like it, i cant afford the 20" intel, so please dont suggest getting that.

thanks

[SubaruWRC]

Originally Posted by unispherephoto

my 500 mhhz g4 tibook is on its last legs...

Why?

but am i stranding myself with the older chip? getting set up for obsolescence?

Yes.

as much as id like it, i cant afford the 20" intel, so please dont suggest getting that.

thanks

Save your money, buy the Intel 20" iMac. The screen size is never something you should ever try to save money on.

[unispherephoto]

wow. that was helpful.
you told me the ONE thing i asked specifically not to bother mentioning.
i need to buy a new computer _now_ and i cant afford the 20" intel.

[ElDiabloConCaca]

Your 500MHz PowerBook is still very usable by today's standards -- I work solely on a 500MHz G4 machine with a 100MHz bus and it suits me well for heavy design work. Still, I understand that some people will not put up with the amount of progress-bar waiting that I do, so your point is very valid...

With that being said, I do not think you'll be setting yourself up for obsolecense with a G5-based Macintosh. They'll still be fully supported for the next 4 or 5 years at least, and probably beyond that. They're quite nice processors, too. Saying that purchasing a G5-based Macintosh is setting yourself up for obsolecense is like saying that purchasing a 2005-model car instead of a brand-spankin' new 2006 model car is setting yourself up for obsolecense: it's simply not true. I don't know why SubaruWRX said that. Universal Binary applications (applications that run natively on PPC or Intel processors) will be available -- in fact, you'd be stranding yourself MORESO, at least for a while, if you went with the Intel iMac, since not all software currently runs (or runs all that great) on the Intel-based Macintoshes. In addition, your Final Cut Pro will not run at all on the Intel-based machines, and requires a $50 cross-grade from Apple to get it running on the Intel processor.

What are you more concerned with -- raw performance and bragging rights, or a big screen and a great computer even if it's not bleeding-edge new? If the former, go with the 17" Intel iMac. If the latter, 20" G5 iMac.

I would get the 20" G5-based iMac if I were in your situation, but then again, I use computers until they just won't run anymore. Your level of proficiency and ability to be productive is not based upon how fast the processor is inside your computer. A 500 GHz processor will not increase your artistic ability, nor will it make you type any faster or cut video any better.

Just my few cents worth...

[unispherephoto]

thanks, eldiablo. thats pretty much what i was thinking. i'd fix my powerbook, but its got hard drive issues, a broken optical drive and a cracked case, so i'm not feeling like putting $400 into it.

[Mikuro]

There's some relevant discussion at this thread: Will the future software be still working for G5?


"Obsolete" is such a subjective word. My father still uses a 9-year-old Power Mac 9600 with an "obsolete" 604e processor running the "dead" Mac OS 9 that works like a horse every day. It's not obsolete if it's still useful, right?

I guess you've been using your TiBook for 4 or 5 years now. If you expect your machines to last for that long (as well you should!), then it's hard to say. Certainly Intel-based machines will be more useful in 4 or 5 years. On the other hand, as someone who uses computers for a good long while, you're probably accustomed to being off the cutting edge, so maybe that won't matter so much to you. Hmm.

It all comes down to your personal expectations, I guess, and I can't offer any advice on that.

I wonder if there will be any Blu-Ray/HD-DVD drives that work with PPC-based Macs. Hmm. I hadn't even considered that before, but that's something that would be important to me. And while I think Apple has said that OS 10.5 Leopard will by universal, who knows what's in store for 10.6 or 10.7?

[ElDiabloConCaca]

I would assume that the Blu-ray/HD-DVD situation would be the same as it is now for DVD-R and dual-layer DVD-R drives... as long as they use an interface that the Mac can handle (IDE, SATA, etc.), then it's simply a matter of drivers. I don't see why they would be processor-dependent... maybe I'm misunderstanding your comment?

[fryke]

If you really need the computer _now_, I'd go with a Mac mini and a 20" display (doesn't have to be Apple, any DVI-display would do). Later, you can replace that mini with an intel Mac mini but keep display/keyboard/other external peripherals. I'd just _look_ into it before buying an iMac.