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pingvinen · Feb 15, 2003, 02:44 PM

I'm a PC user... :-) Not good - hihi, and now i'll do the switch to mac.

My Computer is a AMD XP 1800+ with 512 mb ram, and a Geforce 4 TI-4200.

Is use my PC for Photoshop, Flash.. and all the other products from Adobe and Macromedia etc.

Witch mac will be the perfect choise for me ?

Will a 1ghz powermac g4 be faster than my pc?
or do i need a dual 1.25 to feel more power ?

Please help me, witch mac schould i buy??

pingvinen · Feb 15, 2003, 02:47 PM

I looked at Apple.dk and i have about 18.000dkr
and for 18.000dkr u can get

Dual 1.25
256mb PC2700
Radeon 9000

Singel 1
512mb PC2100
Radeon 9000
DVD+r

is the dual feelable faster than the singel ? (Can u feel a diffrence)?

sorry for my bad english :-)

macosity · Feb 15, 2003, 03:02 PM

What kind of work do you do in those apps? if you're an enthusiast like me and the operations usually don't last more than 30 seconds or so (so in short, short processes), the single should suit you well. The Duals are really geared towards people that are crunching large files. I'm a web designer and my QS 867 MHz serves me well, but I know if I was into movies and DV, then I would probably want a Dual. BTW, if you want to save money, don't take a second thought about the DVDR. Unless you are chugging out family movies, the extra capability is rarely used. In the past year, I've used it once.

Hope This helps!

pingvinen · Feb 15, 2003, 03:37 PM

Thanks for your quick answer.

I'm thinking of the future.. Will the 1ghz be able to serve in about 2 years ? - I think the dual will keep running for a longer time.

Movies, naah just for fun :-)
Maybe it will be fun playing with some 3d-applications, and so on.

My primary use it Photoshop 7.01 for web use mostly, and then a lot of Programming stuff PHP, MySQL, C, C++.. U name it :-)

But should I go for 1ghz with a lot of memory, or a dual with 265mb?

Also I like the Cinema Wide screen from Apple, is there any other monitors in widescreen ? Samsung, Viewsonic etc??

Best Regards
Daniel Bahl
Denmark

alien · Feb 15, 2003, 04:53 PM

Hei Pingvinen!

The duals should be great for the work you will do. Even if not every app can take direct advantage of a second processor, many of the multimedia apps will. And Project Builder, Apple's developer environment, has recently added support for duals when compiling. From the release notes:

Project Builder now supports parallel builds. This makes full use of multiprocessor machines by running multiple build commands at once, for example to compile two or more source code files simultaneously.

You will probably end up with lots of web pages or terminal windows open simultaneously, while listening to iTunes, in addition to the "real" work you are doing in Photoshop or the other apps you mentioned. Better have duals if you want comparable performance to what you're used to on the PC. And yes, the duals will feel much better than the single in 2 years.

One good advice is to not buy RAM from Apple. Buy it elsewhere, it can be much cheaper. But you need at least 512MB in total to begin with, then you can add more later.

As for graphics card, the Radeon 9700 is currently the best. If you can't afford it, go with the 9000. It should be good enough for all of your 2D work. If you later are going to use 3D apps, buy the best card that's available at the time.

Lykke til, hilsen iBook-eier i Norge!

pingvinen · Feb 15, 2003, 05:15 PM

Hey again, and thanks for all your answers.

I think i go for the Dual, but if i buy dual, i can't afford more memory than the preinstalled 256mb.

How will a Dual 1.25 w. 256mb perform compared to my 1800+ PC ?

What about Imac ? are they slow ?? i like the design

Mac Zealot · Feb 15, 2003, 07:52 PM

Get the dual 1.25.

I don't care if you even have to strip it down a bit. The duals last longer and the extra bandwidth will make up for the lack of RAM.

I have a 2/800 here that still has 256 and satisfies my needs MUCH better than a 1800xp athlon would be.

Commodus · Feb 15, 2003, 07:53 PM

The iMac is probably not what you're looking for, as cool as it is - it's oriented more towards the average home user than someone who's doing a lot of performance-oriented work.

It's a tough call on the PowerMac. I'd go for the dual 1.25 GHz system myself; you can get extra memory later, after all, but a CPU upgrade isn't quite so trivial.

Also, don't forget that 3rd-party memory is much less expensive than getting it from Apple when you build your system. That may help facilitate your decision.

And lastly: there are widescreen displays from companies other than Apple, but they aren't necessarily what you'd like. Sony has the SDM-72W, but it's at a 1280x768 resolution and doesn't look like it has DVI input. At the opposite end are Samsung's 210T and 240T displays. They're cool, but much more expensive than what Apple has - and aren't really worth the cost. If you want widescreen, Apple's the best choice. Otherwise, you can probably go out and get a good conventional-ratio display from Formac or Samsung.

Mac Zealot · Feb 15, 2003, 08:17 PM

the new 1ghz imac has a 133 bus and I *think* cache.

it's better than the low end g4, if anything

Sophie · Feb 15, 2003, 09:22 PM

Originally posted by Mac Zealot:
the new 1ghz imac has a 133 bus and I *think* cache.

it's better than the low end g4, if anything

The I mac has only 256K on-chip level 2 cache at full processor speed and no level 3 cache.

Superchicken · Feb 15, 2003, 10:37 PM

I would go the dual Route, but if you can't afford that then I'd drop down from the low end power mac to the high end iMac... because honestly the low end power mac is joke right now... in my opinion apple shouldn't have even come out with it...

the 1Ghz iMac might be good I'd have to say the main thing you need to hink about is how much work you do at once. Dual processors is like having two computers they don't run twice as fast, they do twice as much. So you can be working in Photoshop and creating a .swf in flash at the same time with no lag at all and both going full tilt. But if you mainly work in one app at a time the duals will make little diff... ultimately if you're comming from a 1800+... I'd probably go with the Dual simply because it'll be the fastest and the strongest and it'll stay with you the longest... that said... if you don't like fan noise or something like that then the iMac's the better choise...

OreoCookie · Feb 16, 2003, 07:07 AM

Originally posted by pingvinen:
I looked at Apple.dk and i have about 18.000dkr
and for 18.000dkr u can get

Dual 1.25
256mb PC2700
Radeon 9000

Singel 1
512mb PC2100
Radeon 9000
DVD+r

is the dual feelable faster than the singel ? (Can u feel a diffrence)?

sorry for my bad english :-)

It speeds up Photoshop quite a bit ...
I'd go for the Dual 1.25. The middle model is usually the best buy.

cowerd · Feb 16, 2003, 10:13 AM

256 megs of RAM is not enough for any serious work. Also, you can try to find a cheap or used dual processor 1GHZ Powermac (last years model) and load up on RAM. 1GB of RAM is recommended for Photoshop work.

pingvinen · Feb 16, 2003, 12:43 PM

Thanks for all your answers, i think i'll go the dual 1.25, and then i take a little loan at a freind for a 512mb block.

thx
daniel

Mac Zealot · Feb 16, 2003, 03:26 PM

Originally posted by cowerd:
256 megs of RAM is not enough for any serious work. Also, you can try to find a cheap or used dual processor 1GHZ Powermac (last years model) and load up on RAM. 1GB of RAM is recommended for Photoshop work.

LOL. I wonder how I've done dozens of projects with 256.