[Mallrat]

i was at the apple store... the G5 looks cool, but man is it heavy and big. Real big.

so i went to the apple website and saw the G4 were still for sale.

I was thinking of buying an iMac so i assume any G4 i get will be just as good if not better.

Since I'm so used to iMac and Ibooks.... I almost forgot you cna upgrade towers.

My question is the G4 lacks usb 2.0 and FW 800... I assume I can just buy these later on a card?

Is a dual processor the way to go if I can afford it? sounds cool?

I use Final Cut Pro. I want to upgrade to 4. How much faster is a dual over the other choices.

Also, you can upgrade the internal harddrive. Is using the internal drive, better than using an external firewire drive.

I used an external drive and it worked great, but since you can now by a 160 GB drive for so little. I was thinking maybe I should buy it with an internal harddrive and have Final Cut run super fast.

Of coures the 1299 low G4 sounds great too!

-matt

[willab]

Yes you can put 4 IDE hard drives in the G4, or two SATA drives in the G5. FCP 4 supposedly runs better on a G5. You can buy a card for USB 2, I don't know about FW 800.

[scottiB]

Hey,

I've seen the G5s and know what you mean regarding size, but, in fact, the G5 weighs three pounds less than a G4 and is about an inch narrower. The G5, though, does appear much more massive.

Yep, you can upgrade the G4s to USB 2.0 and FW 800:

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/allegro800.html

http://www.sonnettech.com/product/tango_2.html

Other manufacturers make comparable cards, too.

I use FCP3 and have a G4 Dual/800 (and stepped up to this from an iMac DV). Once you go dual, you never want anything else. I couldn't emphasize that any more strongly (if you can swing it financially).

Rather than upgrading a tower's drive, simply add another one to it. The G4 has room for three additional drives, and it's quite easy to install them.

Considering these tests:

http://www.macworld.com/2003/09/revi...g5testresults/

http://www.barefeats.com/g5.html

I'd be looking at a DP 1.25 or 1.4 G4. Apple is selling refurbished 1.4s for $1999.

[kiwibabe]

Take my advice and buy the G5. Bought mine yesterday, am in love with it. My cat uses it for a butt warmer.

[Mac Write]

Unless you can afford a DP 2GHZ G5, go DP G4. mine arrived Friday and WOW it's awsome. Final Cut Pro 4 will fly on this beast since each version (according to my friend) has been getting more and more optimized.

I have come to realize over the last few months that DP is the only way to go. I could have gotten a G5 1.6GHZ but opted for the DP G4 with SuperDrive and Combo Drive.

This thing flies! Also it runs Mac OS 9 so the G4 is the perfect intermediate computer. then get a G5 in like 2005. That's what I am doing (and keeping my G4 I might add).

[Link]

IMHO the dual g4s are awesome. Dual 1.25ghz and they still have twice the expandability of the g5.

The only thing you miss is the 800mhz bus, which isn't really a huge loss I don't think :shrug: I'd go for the g5 just because the case is so darn cool but yeah, you do get more with the g4.

For the prie of a low end g5 you can have a g4 with everything including geforce 4 ti, dual optical drives etc.

[cambro]

Originally posted by Link:
IMHO the dual g4s are awesome. Dual 1.25ghz and they still have twice the expandability of the g5....

Ahh how perceptions change!!
6 months ago, all everyone talked about was how the G4 Powermac line sucked.

I wouldn't get a single G4, but a dual G4 is definitely a good option.

[BrunoBruin]

Originally posted by scottiB:
I use FCP3 and have a G4 Dual/800 (and stepped up to this from an iMac DV). Once you go dual, you never want anything else. I couldn't emphasize that any more strongly (if you can swing it financially).

I absolutely agree, go dual. The other advantage here is that the duals come with 2MB of L3 cache per processor, while the single has just 1MB. Definitely worth the extra cost.

[SalBaker]

I hope your decision is not going to be based on size or weight of a desktop tower?

Anyway, it depends on what your needs are. I use Photoshop and music production/soft-sampler software. Photoshop runs great on my home SP 733 G4, but I can barely run the music apps. I almost bought a dual 1.42 G4, but then they bought me one at work. It is much better, but still completely chokes on complicated music projects long before my friend's cheap PC (running the Windows version of the same apps.)

So since I want to stay with Mac, I gave up on G4's and ordered a dual G5.

[dfiler]

Originally posted by cambro:
Ahh how perceptions change!!
6 months ago, all everyone talked about was how the G4 Powermac line sucked.

I wouldn't get a single G4, but a dual G4 is definitely a good option.

I agree with your advice, a G5 and a duel-G4 have comparible price/performance ratios.

Perhaps the decreased whining is not changed perceptions... but rather... speed-obsessed teenagers have moved on to complaining about something else.

[idyll]

The G5 will be better in the long run. The base SINGLE 1.6 G5 is already as fast as a DUAL 1.4GHz G4 and as applications become more optimized for the G5s we will see even greater increases in performance. I got the 1.6 G5 myself and it's faster than my 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 PC. Before this system I had a dual 867MHz G4 which I found to be utterly slow compared to my PC. But now I have ditched my PC completely.

It's your choice.

[Mallrat]

Originally posted by idyll:
The G5 will be better in the long run. The base SINGLE 1.6 G5 is already as fast as a DUAL 1.4GHz G4 and as applications become more optimized for the G5s we will see even greater increases in performance. I got the 1.6 G5 myself and it's faster than my 2.4 GHz Pentium 4 PC. Before this system I had a dual 867MHz G4 which I found to be utterly slow compared to my PC. But now I have ditched my PC completely.

It's your choice.

Well my choice will probably be easy when I actually got to buy one 2 or 3 months from now and all the G4's are gone.

My biggest concern is cost. Seems that the dual is a great deal.... but if the lower end G5 is just as fast then I'll be okay...

when do you think they will update the G5 and will the price go down?

I assume it will. Seems like they come out high and drop 300 bucks when they update.

[Vader’s Pinch of Death]

Originally posted by Mallrat:
i was at the apple store... the G5 looks cool, but man is it heavy and big. Real big.

Do you live in a house with low ceilings and flimsy desks?

[Link]

Originally posted by cambro:
Ahh how perceptions change!!
6 months ago, all everyone talked about was how the G4 Powermac line sucked.

I wouldn't get a single G4, but a dual G4 is definitely a good option.

I own a dual g4 and have the whole time

Did I say anything negative? Don't really remember but I WAS glad the g5 came out ^_______^

I would love a dual g5 but can't afford one. Too bad.

[Centris650]

Along the same line as the original poster I love the new G5's but I'm now under a budget crunch. The wife has started her own CPA office and the money we had for a powerbook (or G5 tower, it depended on what I wanted in January) is now gone. My iBook 466 is still a good machine but is showing it's age. However, I cam across a "refreshed" dual 1Ghz G4 (w/Superdrive) for $1000 at the Apple Store in NC. I couldn't pass it up. Sure, I'd like a DP 1.25 or DP1.42 (heck for that matter a DP 2.0) but the cash just isn't there. The way I look at it is looking at the current G4 line (from PB to eMac) a DP 1 GHZ machine for $1000 is a steal.

Anyway, my suggestion, call some Apple stores near you and ask for what they have in their "refreshed" stock. You'd be surprised what you can get and for how much.

[Chinasaur]

The refurb'd Dual 1.25Ghz for $1300 is very tempting. I have a B&W 800 and I don't want to buy another single Mac CPU again since I started using Duals with BeOS and Linux.

Duals spoil you in your performance expectations. Once you feel the throughput of a dual proc machine, I always feel something is missing when I hop back on a single.

I have the money, now I just have to talk myself into the purchase

Thanks for beating this one around peeps...gave me some good insight and information between 4's and 5's.

[sodamnregistered2]

Originally posted by cambro:
Ahh how perceptions change!!
6 months ago, all everyone talked about was how the G4 Powermac line sucked.

I wouldn't get a single G4, but a dual G4 is definitely a good option.

The suck was in direct proportion to the cost when the G4 was the only game in town.

Now that the dual 1.25 G4 is priced pretty well, it looks a lot better.

[Webscreamer]

Jesus... go with the G4. U will never get your G5 from the online Apple Store for at least 3 months after your order.

oh, and the ship date means nothing.