Pending Mac Purchase

anothertwitch · #1 February 3rd, 2004, 08:46 AM

I've recently been granted a $2K windfall by the powers that be. Since I am an arts major I figure its high time to get off the PC and into a comfy new mac.

I have been looking with great admiration at the G5 line, but hey, I'm a college student and have things I need to spend money on besides a computer (paint, canvas, clothes, new glasses, software, etc)

SOOOOO.....

I got in here and found a reference to the Mac Master's site, and dual 1.25GHz G4s at $1600 bucks (dont know where the other poster got his 1299 information but it is not borne out at MacMasters.com)

At any rate there are some killer deals over there.

So before I drop a wad of cash on anything I wanted to gather some opinions -- is the difference in performance between the single proc G5 at 1.6 GHz and the dual G4 at 1.25 significant? wouldn't the dual G4 run circles around the G5? Also, has anyone heard of any single to dual upgrade path for the G5? Dualies are where its at

Any other gratuitous advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Zammy-Sam · #2 February 3rd, 2004, 09:28 AM

first of all: not all applications will use the second proc of the Dual G4. In those cases it would be more a G5 1.6 vs. G4 1.25.
I would rather go for the G5, eventhough I don't know how much better the Dual G4 really performs. The G5 is more than just a proc update.
And I've never heard about any single2dual update. Was there any for the G4 powermacs?

anothertwitch · #3 February 3rd, 2004, 09:51 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by anothertwitch

I've recently been granted a $2K windfall by the powers that be. Since I am an arts major I figure its high time to get off the PC and into a comfy new mac.

I have been looking with great admiration at the G5 line, but hey, I'm a college student and have things I need to spend money on besides a computer (paint, canvas, clothes, new glasses, software, etc)

SOOOOO.....

I got in here and found a reference to the Mac Master's site, and dual 1.25GHz G4s at $1600 bucks (dont know where the other poster got his 1299 information but it is not borne out at MacMasters.com)

At any rate there are some killer deals over there.

So before I drop a wad of cash on anything I wanted to gather some opinions -- is the difference in performance between the single proc G5 at 1.6 GHz and the dual G4 at 1.25 significant? wouldn't the dual G4 run circles around the G5? Also, has anyone heard of any single to dual upgrade path for the G5? Dualies are where its at

Any other gratuitous advice would be greatly appreciated

Cheers

Have been back to MacMaster's site - the $1299 unit mentioned is there, just has a combodrive instead of superdrive.

Sorry for the mixup Jon

ElDiabloConCaca · #4 February 3rd, 2004, 11:09 AM

Go with the G5. You'll be happier in the long run. Sure, the dual G4 MAY be slightly faster than the G5 at certain tasks, but with the coming-of-age of 64-bit computing, I think you'll be happier with the G5.

Since you're a student, check out Apple's Educational discounts. They're pretty good -- usually $100 - $300 desktop machines like the G5. The single G5 goes for $1599 with an educational discount.

Randman · #5 February 3rd, 2004, 11:16 AM

Consider a laptop as well. Wireless and portable.

monktus · #6 February 5th, 2004, 04:23 AM

The G5 will be a better deal if you can afford it. Later on more applications will support dual processors and (eventually) the 64 bit 970 but the big difference is stuff like the much faster bus speed etc. Generally it's good to get the best machine you can afford at the time, you won't have any problems upgrading the G5 in a few years.

anothertwitch · #7 February 5th, 2004, 10:23 AM

Yes I'm profoundly aware of the leap in bus bandwidth represents in terms of performance. However, my budget just wont accomodate the price tag of the G5 in a dual processor configuration, and dual processors are a definite requirement.

From what I've seen browsing on eBay, the dual G4 at 1.5MHz is not exactly losing value; from the look of things I could probably make a few hundred dollars profit if I turned it around as soon as it gets here. If I cant in six months (I intend to move onto the G5 platform as the price comes down later this year with the advent of 3GHz models) then I certainly wont be ashamed to keep it around for my living room (it is presently bound for my studio).

For those of you who may be following this thread, I DID NOT purchase from mac-bestbuys.com - there was just too much not to like about them. They still have not answered my email inquiry placed yesterday afternoon, they were not available by phone, and though they advertise themselves under three different domain names, only one of them actually resolves to their website. Further, information on their website hinted at possible future trouble (we will ship as the product becomes available in our warehouse) this tells me they dont have it in stock. No Thanks

the comfort available for and add'l $200 in terms of immediate availability and hand-holding through the delivery process at http://www.smalldog.com was well worth it and makes the wait untill delivery much more tolerable.

Besides, I still need more paint, more canvas, some new shoes, books for my english class, well, you get the idea

Will let you know how things end up with the small dog purchase after the system actually arrives.

Be Well! and make something beautiful

Arden · #8 February 5th, 2004, 02:41 PM

And dual processors are a requirement because...?

I think if you got a 1.6 Ghz G5, or a used single-processor 1.8, you'd be quite happy with it. The G5 obviously has many advances over the G4, including the architecture, the noise (they emit almost none), and preparedness for the future. And this all costs extra, of course. But if you can get your hands on one, I definitely recommend you spring for a G5 rather than a G4. You'll probably find that OS X is good enough at utilizing the processor and architecture in such a way that you don't need another processor spinning away in there.

And hey, if you're really on a budget, another way to go is to get a cheap used Mac, like an old eMac or a graphite G4 or something, and use that until you can actually afford a dual processor G5. I currently do everything on this li'l ol' 400 Mhz iMac, and while it is fairly slow (at least in OS X), it is still quite capable. Mind you, that's not to say I wouldn't jump at the chance to get a faster computer, but it might not be absolutely necessary if you can't afford it at this point.