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castle3 · Nov 18, 2003, 04:38 PM

hello all! my girlfriend is wanting to get her first mac for her grad present. She has $2000 spending limit. Ive been to the educational site and configured a 17inch iMac that is as follows:
� 512MB DDR333 - 2 DIMMs
� 160GB Ultra ATA drive
� Final Cut Express preinstalled
� Keyboard/Mac OS X - U.S. English
� 17-inch flat panel LCD
� 1.25GHz PowerPC G4
� 4x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
� NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra
� Apple Keyboard
� Apple Mouse
� Apple Pro Speakers
total: 1,978.00
I, of course, recommended the G5, but shes dead set on the G4 iMac (the whole price thing), so basically we wanna know if this is a good decision for her. Shes real big into video editing photography/scanning and net surfing. Shes also gonna have other apps like sound recording software and webauthoring. Her father is a PC guy and she has come to me even though he is buying the mac. I only have the ibook 800mhz so i have little experience in mac desktop world. Also i want to know if theres anything else she would need get get software/hardware for the type of tasks she will be taking on. Thanks!

OldManMac · Nov 18, 2003, 05:46 PM

If she's big into video editing/photography, this is the machine at the price point she wishes to adhere to. She may be somewhat unhappy when rendering/burning large file DVDs, but at this price, that's what she can expect. I use an iMac 800Mhz, with 1GB RAM, for this, as a hobby, but next time I'm going G5, as I'm doing more of it.

Also, configure it with one RAM chip. One of them is a bear to get at, and if you want to upgrade to 1GB later on, you'd have to throw out both chips, and it would much simpler to install one 512Mb stick in the bottom slot, than to have to disassemble the machine.

castle3 · Nov 18, 2003, 06:06 PM

Thanks alot, ill be sure to relay that back to her. Thats a good idea about the stick of 512mb ram. I sure do wish she was getting the G5 but to tell you the truth i think the imac will be sufficient. As far as video editing. she considers it a hobby so shes not going to be making a full length film. If anything I will probably make something as serious as that.

Rev-O · Nov 18, 2003, 06:19 PM

Agreed, get one 512meg stick on the board and leave the one slot open. Almost bought something similar, but Apple announced the G5s and changed my mind.

On the video editing thing... goof around with it a bit in a pure hobbyist way . Got FC Express with my G5 ('cuz it was cheap), but find myself using iMovie more. FC Express is cool and powerful and all... but sometimes it's just overkill. Tons of cool plug-ins for iMovie. Unaware about the current incentives on FC Express, but could be money put towards 512 on the board.

Eug · Nov 18, 2003, 07:00 PM

Personally, I'd get a single G4 Power Mac, base model with 80 GB hard drive and SuperDrive, and then add 3rd party RAM, a second hard drive, and a Samsung 17" DVI LCD screen.

The price will be almost exactly the same as that 17" iMac as listed, and overall it will be a better machine (unless she's absolutely set on getting an all-in-one).

Actually, in truth, I'd bite the bullet and spend the extra cash to get the dual 1.25 G4 Power Mac. For $270 more you get a MUCH faster machine.

Can she afford $2250?

hadocon · Nov 18, 2003, 07:27 PM

She will love her iMac

FatMoMo · Nov 18, 2003, 08:29 PM

This is the "girlfriend". I have decided on The iMac, but with a few changes such as the single DIMM card as some of you suggested. I think considering I am upgrading from a 4 gig Comaq lap top which came out in 1999, I am getting manna from heaven with this one. It appears that people who have them really enjoy them. Now if it upgrades again next week I am gonna pass out...