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Dual vs Single for design work?
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Fresh-Faced Recruit
Join Date: May 2003
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I am a graphic designer, using Dreamweaver, Flash, Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator for print and web work. How much difference (besides price) will there be owning a dual G4 or a single G4 processor? Any thoughts?
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I think Photoshop may be the only of those apps that's specifically multi-processor-aware, but there's system-wide benefits to having a dualie. If you're running OS X (which I suppose you'd have to be if you're buying a new box) the system wil divide tasks between the processors, and multi-tasking will be a lot smoother and faster than on a single processor box.
So if you want to burn CD's and upload files to an FTP server, while listening to iTunes and scanning in Photoshop, go dual.
I got a dual gig last june and flat-out love it.
CV
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When a true genius appears in the world you may know him by this sign, that the dunces are all in confederacy against him. -- Jonathan Swift.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Aug 2001
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Dual processors seem to have a longevity advanage. If I had a single processor 500 MHZ, I would be ITCHING for an upgrade. Now I just would like one. I'll be set on this dual 500 for another year or so probably.
Especially when I upgrade video sometime soooon.
I think overall you'll be able to multitask a little better, and listen to itunes, and do all your stuff with a dual.
Are you thinking about getting a tower now? Read up on IBM 970 before you buy. There is a reason the tower sales are in the toilet (other than the 167 mhz bus)
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Moderator  Join Date: May 2001
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Dual. Period. Last longer. Go for the middle model.
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I don't suffer from insanity, I enjoy every minute of it.
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Dedicated MacNNer
Join Date: Oct 2001
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Originally posted by jackson10:
I am a graphic designer, using Dreamweaver, Flash, Indesign, Photoshop, and Illustrator for print and web work. How much difference (besides price) will there be owning a dual G4 or a single G4 processor? Any thoughts?
Without a doubt go with duals. Even though Apple's current motherboard design probably isn't able to handle both CPUs at full load. The L3 cache helps significantly, but there still might be bottlenecks with the slower system bus and inability of G4s apple's currently shipping to make full use of DDR memory.
PowerPC 970s or something major at least are on the way soon. Everyone is expecting a major announcement at Apple's Worldwide Developer Conference next month. I'm not sure if you'd be interested in waiting...
You could always buy a machine now and sell it once the G5s (or whatever apple's going to call them..) are available and shipping...
(Last edited by RealMac; May 25, 2003 at 09:05 PM.
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It is in the moments of decision that your destiny is shaped.
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Mac Elite
Join Date: Jun 2000
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Dual! I still use a 3-year-old DP450 for all my design work and it's plenty fast enough for Photoshop/Fireworks/Flash. I vowed not to replace it till the 970's come out  (I bought a PC last year for gaming, though).
If I had gone with a Cube 450 as I originally planned, I doubt I'd still be running the same Mac. PS gets BIG bonuses from dual cpus, and OS X in general gets much better multitasking.
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Be happy.
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Thanks for all the feedback. I just bought the dual 1.25. Pretty nice. Moving my drives from my old tower (350Mhz B&W) went smoothly and so far not many problems. The noise is a bit much, but it seems that this was improved from earlier MDD (the noise is already giving me a headache, so i can't believe it was actually worse!) Copying/finder operations sometimes get strangely slow.
As for the 970, I am excited, but I would warn anyone on buying a 1st Gen Apple. I got the B&W the minute they arrived. Of course there were many problems, they most serious of which was ATA controller chips that Apple revised a couple of months later. The harddrive died frequently and because of the chipset I was unable to add any additional or replacement harddrives to the main bus. I had to replace with a PCI card.
I do love Apple, but buying into a new motherboard/processor/OS upgrade without getting out the kinks would just be, I don't know, foolish. Sorry, but leave that to the newbies.
jackson10
a mac user for, hey, almost 20 years!
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Originally posted by jackson10:
As for the 970, I am excited, but I would warn anyone on buying a 1st Gen Apple.
Thanx for the warning. I was gonna get the top-of-the-line model the minute they come out, but what you said made me think.
I think I will stay with my DA733 until the PPC970 go over 2Ghz, which will hopefully be the second revision.
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