[Powaqqatsi]

Hi there,

A friend of mine is studying audiovisual arts at the moment and he has an eMac 700mhz right now. But he would like to use a dual monitor set up to use with FCP which is impossible with the eMac (the videocard in the 700mhz does not support the spanning hack). So I told him to maybe switch to a second hand G4 PowerMac. Now as he is a student his budget is quite limited (actually he doesn't really have the money) he would need a powermac that is cheap. So I thought, hmm a duallie could work. So my question is: would it be worth it to switch from an eMac 700 to, let's say a PowerMac Dual 500/533 ? Or would the eMac still have an edge with his faster single CPU ?
Apps he will use mostly:
FCP 4.5 HD (main app)
Photoshop (also pretty important)
and iTunes, safari etc. (the basics)

[Busemann]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
Hi there,

A friend of mine is studying audiovisual arts at the moment and he has an eMac 700mhz right now. But he would like to use a dual monitor set up to use with FCP which is impossible with the eMac (the videocard in the 700mhz does not support the spanning hack). So I told him to maybe switch to a second hand G4 PowerMac. Now as he is a student his budget is quite limited (actually he doesn't really have the money) he would need a powermac that is cheap. So I thought, hmm a duallie could work. So my question is: would it be worth it to switch from an eMac 700 to, let's say a PowerMac Dual 500/533 ? Or would the eMac still have an edge with his faster single CPU ?
Apps he will use mostly:
FCP 4.5 HD (main app)
Photoshop (also pretty important)
and iTunes, safari etc. (the basics)

All of those apps are multi-processor aware, so the PM would be a little faster.

[Luca Rescigno]

The PowerMac would be better. About a year ago I went from a 1 GHz eMac to a dual 450 MHz PowerMac, and I saw only a small hit in performance. Just make sure he gets a new video card - it'll help performance and he'll need a new one anyway to handle dual monitors. There's always the $150 retail Radeon 9000, which is a good bet since most of the sub-$100 Radeon 8500s on eBay right now are only single monitor capable. Get that plus plenty of RAM (The dual 500 supports up to 2.0 GB!) and he'll have a really nice computer. I've always preferred old pro equipment over newer consumer stuff.

[Powaqqatsi]

some extra info: If I talk about speed I mean responsiveness, responsiveness is everything. If the dual 500 renders and image 10 seconds slower too bad, as long as it responds and *seems* (feels) faster.

[Busemann]

Originally posted by Powaqqatsi:
some extra info: If I talk about speed I mean responsiveness, responsiveness is everything. If the dual 500 renders and image 10 seconds slower too bad, as long as it responds and *seems* (feels) faster.

Aren't speed and responsiveness sort of the same thing? Anyways, I think the "snappiness" would be about equally good/bad on those machines. If he use only one app at a time, the eMac would perhaps be a little faster and vice versa.

[Mafia]

dualie, the video card expansion and storage expansion are worth it. plus fcp 4.5 and photoshop will benefit from dual processors.

[the_glassman]

I would go with a refurbished eMac 1 GHz for $549 with free shipping. With a second CRT it would make a good system. Overclock it to 1.4-1.5 GHz load it up with 1 GB ram and put in a dual layer DVD burner and you've got a kick ass system that will be both cheaper and quicker then an old dual Powermac.
Of course I'm kind of partial!

[Mafia]

Originally posted by the_glassman:
I would go with a refurbished eMac 1 GHz for $549 with free shipping. With a second CRT it would make a good system. Overclock it to 1.4-1.5 GHz load it up with 1 GB ram and put in a dual layer DVD burner and you've got a kick ass system that will be both cheaper and quicker then an old dual Powermac.
Of course I'm kind of partial!

dual monitors emacs are sweet.