[Douglashh]

buy a closeout G4, probably 1GHz or 1.25GHz, and save about $700?

I use my current G4 533 for home business for word processing and spreadsheet work, printing photos, email, burning an occasional CD and surfing the web. Also I will be upgrading to Panther and not sure my 533 has enough horsepower for that. How much difference would I see between my 533 and 1.25 G4?

Thanks for the input,

Doug

[deboerjo]

Originally posted by Douglashh:
I use my current G4 533 for home business for word processing and spreadsheet work, printing photos, email, burning an occasional CD and surfing the web. Also I will be upgrading to Panther and not sure my 533 has enough horsepower for that. How much difference would I see between my 533 and 1.25 G4?

I'd say your current system is already well more then you need for what you do with it, I doubt there would be any readily preceptible difference at all. But hey, if you've got the money kicking around to buy computers on a whim I know a dirt-poor college student you can donate it to.

[slider]

It sounds like an iMac would be a good fit for you. But to answer your question, I would think you'll be fine with a g4. I think you will also see so OS speed improvemnets, as well as some apps opening quicker. I would really say just get a new mac for the better GPU, you're not doing anything intensive.

[AssassyN]

For what you do, I'd definitely say get a closeout G4 & use some leftover cash to get 1.5+gigs of RAM to speed up your typical tasks.

No need for a G5, the newer G4's will handle Panther fine.

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Dont worry, your machine has more than enough horsepower for Panther. The only thing is that you should have about 512 Mb ram, and a 32 Mb grafix card.

[hadocon]

Originally posted by Thain Esh Kelch:
Dont worry, your machine has more than enough horsepower for Panther. The only thing is that you should have about 512 Mb ram, and a 32 Mb grafix card.

Agreed. No nee to spend monie$ when you just use your computer for basic jobs. If you have some $ burning a hole in your pocket, get an iPod, more ram, better display...etc

[Apple Pro Underwear]

if you can afford a new computer — treat yourself. it will make you happier when you work. that leads to better work and more motivation to be even better.

your 533 is about 3-4 yrs old, i say if you're not cash strapped — buy the G5 and sell off the 533 for whatever you can get.

enjoy life. enjoy your work.

[Big Mac]

I do believe that one should be at the forefront of the technology buying cycle rather than the back. The G5s are going to have greater long-term viability than the G4s because as we move forward Apple and its third-parties will be targeting the G5 first and foremost. I bought my 8600/300 right when the G3s came out. It was a good deal and I love my machine (it has served me well), but Apple flip-flopped on OS X support and I was left in the cold. Despite the fact that my 8600/300 was arguably faster than the low end G3/233, the G3 got OS X support and I didn't. On the bright side, the beige G3s don't run OS X that great anyway. The point is that the G5s are more future proof.

With that said, the low end G5's price point is pretty high, and that makes the MDDs more palatable. If you're making a purchase you intend to hold for quite a few years, then you're probably better off with a G5. OTOH, if you plan on upgrading again in a couple of years, it maybe prudent to go with the G4 and save hundreds. I'd wait for the benchmarks comparing the low-end G5 to the G4s and make a decision at that point. I'm sure many of us are contemplating this very issue.

[cql]

I'm the same type of user you are. I've been using a ti550 powerbook for a year. I've just purchase the g4 1 gig for $1040 with my mom compusa discount. I can tell a major different from my PB with everday use. I orginally was going to get the 1.6 g5, but decided that i would use the money i save for the 20 ACD (BAD ASS DISPLAY, LET ME TELL YOU). I purchase a pioneer 106 dvdr drive. For my use i tink i'd made the right choice. Maybe in about a year or two i would get a mid level G5 when the price go down.

[DeathToWindows]

1.25DP @ 1600 US
2 GB RAM @ $300

OR

2 GB ram
ATI RADEON 9000 or GeForce 4Ti (look on net)

[Link]

If you're going to get a new machine, get the g5.

The 1.8ghz seems really good, albeit if you can find a discount, it IS the machine to have.

It has PCI-x, the g4 doesn't, it has a 900mhz bus, the g4 has a 167, it has agp 8x, the g4 has agp 4x....

Can you see where this is going? Now.. a Dual 1.25 scores 130 or so on xbench while a dual 2.0ghz g5 score 247 (or was it higher)....

XBENCH IS ALSO ONLY SINGLE CPU...

This maens a single 1.8 will whoop a single 1.25 g4

[Commodus]

Based on what it sounds like you (Douglashh) intend to do, you probably don't need a G5. You'd only want a G5 if you're worried about the relevance of your system over a long time (3+ years, I'd say) or if the cost to get the exact G4 you want is too close to the price of a G5.

Is the G4 533 a single- or dual-processor system? If it's dual, you may want to go for a dual-processor replacement. OS X loves duals and you may not see as much of a gain as you'd like by going to a single G4. A single G5, on the other hand...

[Apple Pro Underwear]

Originally posted by Commodus:
Based on what it sounds like you (Douglashh) intend to do, you probably don't need a G5. You'd only want a G5 if you're worried about the relevance of your system over a long time (3+ years, I'd say) or if the cost to get the exact G4 you want is too close to the price of a G5.

i think you're wrong.

if he can get his hands on a G5 now — he'll have a state of the art computer NOW for 2 years and it will probably last him 3 more years if not 4. That's six years.

A used 533 g4 will get you old tech now and will last him 2 or 3 more years on comparatively poor performace?

work hard, enjoy life and treat yourself to things you enjoy.

[mark9939]

If you do buy the G5, I'd wait until the Panther announcement. You don't wanna get stuck w/ the $129 upgrade fee after only a month or two with your machine.

Anyways, I say go for the G4. As much as I would like a G5 myself, I can't justify the expense. Get yourself a nice Cinema Display with it or something, max out the RAM, etc. You'll be a happy camper.

-M

[Thain Esh Kelch]

Based on what you expect to use the computer for, you absolute dont need a G5.. But if you want to be future-proof, go for the G5...

[slider]

Originally posted by mark9939:
If you do buy the G5, I'd wait until the Panther announcement. You don't wanna get stuck w/ the $129 upgrade fee after only a month or two with your machine.

Anyways, I say go for the G4. As much as I would like a G5 myself, I can't justify the expense. Get yourself a nice Cinema Display with it or something, max out the RAM, etc. You'll be a happy camper.

-M

That is actually a good piece of advice. Wouldn't it be funny if it turned out Apple actually had lower sales of the G5 then they had expected and suddenly when Panther is released they is a sudden surge in G5 sales with customers insisting they either be given a copy of Panther for free or it be preinstalled. That'd be a pretty clear message, and it would of course be based on past practices. Of course didn't Apple say if you bought within the last 30 days or something it would be like $29? Still makes the same point though.

Anyways my Dad and Sister are looking at the G5 right now not because they need it, but because they do want to be all set for the next 5-6 years. I understand their position, they don't want to have to spend $2000 every 2-3 years to be albe to use the lastest software, they are basic users, no pro stuff. Both will be coming from an iMac 333, I don't think they understand once they see the difference they might be catatonic for a bit.

[Link]

Meh. Just to drive the topic a ltitle off and reply to that last post.. I thinK I tried to go with the long run route..

I boughta dual 800 g4 after they came out and so far.. work-wise the machine is BETTER then when I first got it (huge speed increase with 10.2 over 10.0.4 lol)...

but then mac-wise the computer is becoming a banger.. I know many people who are updating from dual 800's and dual 867s (even a dude with a dual ghz) to g5s!

O_O I was like wtf?! WHERE DO YOU PEOPLE GET THE @#$&*@#$ING MONEY TO RETIRE A $3500 tower in TWO YEARS?!

Several people are actually *RETIRING* their quicksilvers, as in putting them in a closet or something.. i was shocked when I heard this.

And they say they're not rich...

[Apple Pro Underwear]

a

[Superchicken]

Panther will run faster than Jaguar. I'd say just wait for the next iMac Rev and get one of them. You get a nice display a machine that will draw all kinds of OOOs, it'll be quieter, and just plain look slick.
And for the work you're doing an iMac would be more than enough.

[Mskr]

OK. I'm going to go against what some people are saying here. I agree that everything that you're doing could be done on an iMac. I've done software development on an iMac 700 MHz, and it wasn't so bad; doing office stuff wouldn't be bad at all. The thing that concerns me about using an iMac in a professional setting is that as an all-in-one, is reliablity in terms of hardware. If any component goes bad, like the screen or the motherboard, you may have to replace the whole machine or pay a lot for a replacement part, since it'd be so specialized. Whereas, if you had a Power Mac, even if you had to replace the motherboard, it wouldn't be as much (I think), since a) there are probably more options and b) it's not as specialized. Also, I'm assuming that you have a decent monitor on your 533 right now. If your monitor isn't so good, maybe an iMac will make sense, as it's display is quite good.

In either case, if you buy a new machine and are going to be using it in a professional setting, get AppleCare just in case. We've had a couple of machines start to have problems (the worse has been an indigo "Egg" G3 iMac) that have been taken care of with no problems because we have AppleCare for each machine.

Ok, having said all that, I think that a good balance between price, longevity and speed would be a dual 1.25 GHz G4 Power Mac, but stripped down. The fully-loaded machine is over $3000, but stripping it down to these specs is very competitive:

• Dual 1.25GHz w/ 2MB L3 Cache per processor
• 256MB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) -1 DIMM
• 80GB Ultra ATA drive
• Optical 1 - Combo Drive (DVD/CD-RW)
• Optical 2 - None
• ATI Radeon 9000 Pro dual-display w/64MB DDR
• 56K internal modem
• Apple Pro Keyboard - U.S. English
• Mac OS - U.S. English

Subtotal $1,599.00

I took down the RAM to minimum because you can certainly buy it cheaper than what Apple sells it for. Taking the 2GB down to 256 strips $800 from the machine ! You probably don't need 2GB, and can get a two 512 MB DIMMs for $82 each from Crucial, bringing your total ram up to 1.25 GB for an additional $164 (total system price: $1784). Now, compare this with the single 1.6 GHz G5, which is $200 more, and I think it's pretty competitive. A dual processor machine has some advantages over a single CPU, especially if you use more than one application at a time. I think that this dual system will have sufficient legs to keep you happy for the next 3-4 years. The one thing that would push me towards a G5 is that these G4 Power Macs don't have USB 2.0 or FW800 support. However, you can always buy PCI cards for those if 2 years down the road, Apple comes out with a kick-a$$ peripheral that needs FW800, and probably for not much money (definitely less than the cost of a G5 now).

Anyway, if you did decide to get a G5, I'd say the single 1.8 GHz model is the best bang for the buck, as I'm not so impressed with the stripping down on the 1.6 GHz model (I mean, come on! No PCI-X in the low end? Why take this out? And slower memory?). But, at $2399, it's a bit more than the model that I spec out above...