[Coffee1970]

Hello, and thanks for reading.

Have a PC...an HP 4.0ghz Celeron with 512MB, etc, etc.

Want to get a Mac, most likely a PowerMac G4, because of cost and upgrading if need be in the future.

Will be taking graphics classes...do not know if they use macs or not, but we all know that many in the industry do, so would like to get one and play around with Adobe, etc, etc.

Will buy from eBay.....what to get?

Dual 500's are cheap.
Dual 800 little higher
933 or 1ghz can be had for under 400

What do I need to look for in terms of graphics cards?

Should I just get a G4 and upgrade little at a time when money is available?

How about a super cheapo Sawtooth G4 400?

Want to run Tiger as well...not worried about Leopard yet! :o)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Brian.

[mitchell_pgh]

It all boils down to how much you have to spend.

Give us a number and I think that would guide many of us much better.

[Mithras]

Honestly you'd be better off with a new Mac mini than an old G4...

[mitchell_pgh]

Originally Posted by Mithras

Honestly you'd be better off with a new Mac mini than an old G4...

My thoughts exactly.

A mini will run Windows (if your school uses the dark side) and will also run Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign/Quark well enough. By the time you really need a faster system, it will be time to upgrade.

[moonmonkey]

Get the mini, they are tons faster than those creaky old machines you are looking at.

[iREZ]

i agree with the mini...but a dual 1ghz still serves quite well for design work. im assuming by graphics you mean graphic design. also, dont worry bout your hardware but rather focus on your work instead. a person could have a brand new mac pro 3.0 and a 30" monitor with the latest software and still suck. infact, im confident enough to say that you could probably do just fine with a g4 and illustrator 8 or 10 for most of the stuff you'd do in class...its not the tech, its the worth of your work and ideas.

if you mean computer graphics and not design then you should definitely not go anything below a g5 as processing power is important in this field.