[anamorphic]

Dear all,

I bought an iBOOK G4 almost 2 years ago, and I've been pretty happy with it except these:
a). M$ Office 2004 always swollows more than 400MB RAM (and counting till she crashes) while running that fat and stupid Word.
b). It takes more than 3 minutes to render a cross-fade effect on Final Cut Pro.
c). Photoshop CS2 rarely crashes, but it certainly stutters all the time while editing pictures with canvas around 1600x1200, 72dpi.
d). I can merely play 480p HD movie smoothly. Forget the rest.

I am planning buying a new iMac (can't afford PowerMac). I know Apple's releasing FCP in Universal version in short, and Photoshop CS2 is not within 1 year or maybe even longer. So...

I am a film student. I don't need big chunck of performance but I certainly need SOME. I hope I can find a new iMac on which I don't have to wait forever for rendering 5 minutes clips. BTW, I don't do a lot visual effects, mostly just cross-fading or some really simple tricks (maybe not even 'tricks'). Please help me choose.

Should I just go with the old but matured G5 technology? or should I go with the new shining Intel chip, since Apple says it'll be 2x faster? Please help. Thank you guys.

[QuadG5Man]

Intel Core Duo would be the way to go, no doubt about it. The benefit of dual processors is huge. The Universal version of Final Cut is on the way.

[mduell]

Compared to your iBook G4, the iMac Core Duo will fly even in emulation.
Photoshop CS3 will be out in 7 - 13 months as a Universal Binary.