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Skypat · Mar 24, 2003, 01:29 PM

I am a happy dual 867 owner. My father wants to buy a new Mac soon and he wants to go with the dual 1,42 + cinema diplay. Good choice but isn't it a better idea to wait until this summer when Apple introduces the first G5 ?

What do you guys think ? My father can wait, and the main use of his system is Final cut pro/premiere editing.

Superchicken · Mar 24, 2003, 02:56 PM

If he can wait he would be out of his mind not to. The PPC 970 is estimated somewhere near twice as fast as a G4 at the same Mhz as I understand, and it's supposed to premier at 1.4-1.8Ghz hence it'd cream the current G4s, if your dad can wait till summer he really should.

Skypat · Mar 24, 2003, 03:24 PM

That's what I told him too. But I haven't read much about the possible date for an introduction of the G5 ...

ChrisB · Mar 24, 2003, 05:30 PM

I agree, at this point, since it's so much closer to summer, you should wait. Apple usually makes big PowerMac announcements during the summer - July-ish. MacWorld this year is a good realistic bet.

But...at the same time, there's never been a better time to get a good priced, good performing Mac. Look at it this way: it supplies are in good shape at the retailer now, then you know that you have some time before Apple releases the G5. If supplies are always slim, or backordered, then maybe you should wait.

Rodster · Mar 24, 2003, 05:38 PM

Smart move i'm also in agreement with waiting. I held off from ordering a dual 1.25 rig last week once I heard about Panther and the other speculations that go along with it.

superfula · Mar 24, 2003, 08:42 PM

Get the G4. No way will any G5 machines be announced this summer. From the date IBM has said they will start fabbing the processors, it will be next January at the earliest before any Mac's get the G5. They may even give only the xserves the new processor. Motorola still has a couple of processor upgrades in their timelime that have yet to be released.

D'Espice · Mar 25, 2003, 05:02 AM

Originally posted by superfula:
Get the G4. No way will any G5 machines be announced this summer. From the date IBM has said they will start fabbing the processors, it will be next January at the earliest before any Mac's get the G5. They may even give only the xserves the new processor. Motorola still has a couple of processor upgrades in their timelime that have yet to be released.

I'm afraid superfula is right, IBM is nowhere near producing the PPC970 and I'm afraid it'll take at least another year until the first IBM PPC970 powered PowerMacs are going to ship.

However there's no such thing as the right time for buying a new PC because no matter what you do, there will always be something new few months later. If he can wait, he should but I wouldn't wait for the PPC970 but rather faster or cheaper G4 powered PowerMacs.

DrBoar · Mar 25, 2003, 05:31 AM

D'Espice claim "'Im afraid superfula is right, IBM is nowhere near producing the PPC970 and I'm afraid it'll take at least another year until the first IBM PPC970 powered PowerMacs are going to ship"

Apple hava asked contractors about monufacturing a motherboard for single and dual 970 and they need the reply the 28 of this month. Dose that sound like the use of the 970 is a year away?

For IBM to compete perfomance wise with dual Intel Xeon in Linux they really need fast 970 around 2 Ghz or so. For Apple the internal competetion is a 1.42 Ghz G4. To get that performance the 970 need to run somewere between 320 and 620 MHz. IBM aimes at a start of 1.2 to 1.8 GHz. If Apple sould use a single 1.5 GHz 970 it is much faster than a dual 1.42 G4 and almost as fast as a P4 3 GHz. A dual 1.5 would be faster than a P4 at 3.0-3.6 GHz

Apple has been lagging behind since G4 staggered on stage in 1999 and will remain behind as long as it is there...

We might not get the 970 during the summer May-Aug but Sep-Oct. For such hevy work as video editing I would wait

ChrisB · Mar 25, 2003, 09:58 AM

Does any of this remind you of last year? :-)

We always seem to have this same dance around Spring/Summer - to buy or not to buy.

If you need to buy now, that's fine - it's not like you're getting screwed at all. Just make sure that the machine that you choose to buy has the upgrade path that you need.

Nonsuch · Mar 25, 2003, 10:14 AM

Originally posted by D'Espice:
I'm afraid superfula is right, IBM is nowhere near producing the PPC970 and I'm afraid it'll take at least another year until the first IBM PPC970 powered PowerMacs are going to ship.

I thought they were scheduled to go into production 2Q 2003? Which is, like, right about now?

proux · Mar 25, 2003, 11:29 AM

If I were at Apple I would do everything to get it out as fast as possible. There has been too much talk about how fast these processors are, sales are going down and people are thinking about switching. The sooner they announce the better, even with a shipping date 6/8 weeks after the announcement.
That is of course if IBM can get the chips out, which looks like they are.

All great stuffs.

Catfish_Man · Mar 25, 2003, 12:16 PM

Originally posted by Nonsuch:
I thought they were scheduled to go into production 2Q 2003? Which is, like, right about now?

The processor is supposed to go into production in the the second half of 2003. It's unclear how long it will take Apple to release a PowerMac based on it (My personal guess is Q403/Q104).

superfula · Mar 25, 2003, 12:37 PM

Originally posted by DrBoar:
D'Espice claim "'Im afraid superfula is right, IBM is nowhere near producing the PPC970 and I'm afraid it'll take at least another year until the first IBM PPC970 powered PowerMacs are going to ship"

Apple hava asked contractors about monufacturing a motherboard for single and dual 970 and they need the reply the 28 of this month. Dose that sound like the use of the 970 is a year away?

First of all, they were rumors. Nothing was confirmed. Second, the 970 was never mentioned in the rumors. Just that Apple was looking for manufacturers.

The production process is supposed to start 2nd Quarter, which could be as late as June. Figure AT LEAST 3 to 4 months from start of production until they are shipped. So Apple MAY get them by October. Then give them 2-3 months to produce their computers.

Face it people...970s in '03 won't/can't happen. If you need a computer, get one now. Otherwise you'll be waiting until next year.

Who even knows if they will be intro'd into the pmac right away. The xserves may get them first, then pmacs a couple months down the line.

Kerry · Mar 25, 2003, 03:28 PM

Buy now. As soon as anything comes out its obsolete and everybody is talking (and waiting) for the next big thing.

I just got bought the 1.25 dual and 20" cinema display and a bunch of ram. I couldn't be happier. I use it for ProTools, Photoshop, InDesign, and GoLive.

I still have and use a B&W G3/400 and a G4/466. I've gotten many years and my money's worth out of all of them. At this point how fast is fast enough? It use to be I waited for the computer to finish its task. Now, its waiting for me. The computers are now faster than my creativety can keep up with

And besides, look at all the fun he'll be missing out on, between now and... when ever the new stuff comes out.

Fink-Nottle · Mar 25, 2003, 07:14 PM

I would jump now. The G5 is a brand new chip which will have a new motherboard etc. If it gets released this summer (which many doubt) it will be expensive and it will be cutting edge... meaning that teething problems are likely. Unless you want a G5 Yikes... :-)

The current crop of machines are fast, upgradable and cheap.

Cheers!