[awcopus]

My wife is considering an upgrade from her dual 1.42 GHz G4. She is a graphic designer, using primarily Quark and Photoshop and occasionally DreamWeaver and Flash.

Her machine is hooked up to a 22" ADC-based Apple Cinema Display.

It's between a MacPro and the 24" iMac. She thinks that for her purposes, the iMac is a superior value that will be plenty powerful enough for what she throws at it. FW800 gives her fast storage expandability.

$2809.00 gets her the following:

iMac, 24-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Wireless Keyboard & wireless Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA Drive
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

My counter to this is the following Mac Pro for $2838.00:

Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
One 16x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (4 x 512MB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Mac OS X - U.S. English
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)

Both systems come out at about $3000.00 with AppleCare.

I'm talking about expandability going forward. In a year she can upgrade to a 30" monitor, not an option with the iMac.

Of course, the Mac Pro doesn't include a monitor and I'm concerned about how she would keep the 22" monitor. Is there a way to connect an ADC display to a MacPro? A powered breakout box or something?

Anyway, your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

[rplatt1]

Originally Posted by awcopus

My wife is considering an upgrade from her dual 1.42 GHz G4. She is a graphic designer, using primarily Quark and Photoshop and occasionally DreamWeaver and Flash.

Her machine is hooked up to a 22" ADC-based Apple Cinema Display.

It's between a MacPro and the 24" iMac. She thinks that for her purposes, the iMac is a superior value that will be plenty powerful enough for what she throws at it. FW800 gives her fast storage expandability.

$2809.00 gets her the following:

iMac, 24-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Wireless Keyboard & wireless Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA Drive
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)

My counter to this is the following Mac Pro for $2838.00:

Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
One 16x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (4 x 512MB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Mac OS X - U.S. English
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)

Both systems come out at about $3000.00 with AppleCare.

I'm talking about expandability going forward. In a year she can upgrade to a 30" monitor, not an option with the iMac.

Of course, the Mac Pro doesn't include a monitor and I'm concerned about how she would keep the 22" monitor. Is there a way to connect an ADC display to a MacPro? A powered breakout box or something?

Anyway, your thoughts and opinions are welcome.

The following DVI to ADC connector will allow the older Cinema Display to be used with the Mac Pro: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL....8.25.7.11.0.3

[awcopus]

Originally Posted by rplatt1

The following DVI to ADC connector will allow the older Cinema Display to be used with the Mac Pro: The Apple Store (U.S.) - Apple DVI to ADC Display Adapter

Yeah, I just found that. Very cool. So, for an extra $100 I think the MacPro is definitely the better deal. Maybe I put in the difference so she can get the 2.66 machine instead.

The new iMac is amazing, but I think she's better off with a MacPro.

[P]

You can also use the same adapter (along with the regular mini-DVI to DVI) with the iMac to do screen spanning. I would definately get the iMac.

[iMacfan]

I'm in pretty much the same dilemma, but a home user who wants a very good computer that will stay good for a long time, and prove to be trouble free. Many thoughts are going round in my head:

1. The size of the Mac Pro, and the huge amount of electricity it uses are a bit much.

2. Is the iMac screen going to be good enough. Looking around, the similar size screens from Apple and Dell both have issues, and a decent, well built one (an Eizo) is 80% of the base price of the iMac. - then again, I'm pretty happy with my current old Samsung 18" LCD, but the response time is piss poor...

3. Will I be happy with having to ditch the huge display when it next comes the time to upgrade?

4. Will the screen have dead pixels? - Apple are notoriously bad about swapping, and the fact that the whole computer is bolted to the back makes it worse.

5. Even with the 7600GT, will I start to regret not having an X1900XT in a Mac Pro for gaming?

6. The price - a 'cut down' Mac Pro, with just 1Gb and a small HD, and the Eizo24" monitor is more expensive by a four figure sum of money!

Arrrghhh!

David

[Eug]

Originally Posted by awcopus

My wife is considering an upgrade from her dual 1.42 GHz G4. She is a graphic designer, using primarily Quark and Photoshop and occasionally DreamWeaver and Flash.

Her machine is hooked up to a 22" ADC-based Apple Cinema Display.

It's between a MacPro and the 24" iMac. She thinks that for her purposes, the iMac is a superior value that will be plenty powerful enough for what she throws at it. FW800 gives her fast storage expandability.

$2809.00 gets her the following:

iMac, 24-inch, Intel Core 2 Duo
Apple Wireless Keyboard & wireless Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X (US English)
NVIDIA GeForce 7600 GT 256MB SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA Drive
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
SuperDrive 8X (DVD+R DL/DVD�RW/CD-RW)

My counter to this is the following Mac Pro for $2838.00:

Both Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme
Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse - U.S. English
One 16x SuperDrive
Accessory kit
Two 2GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon
2GB (4 x 512MB)
500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s
Mac OS X - U.S. English
NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB (single-link DVI/dual-link DVI)

Both systems come out at about $3000.00 with AppleCare.

I'm talking about expandability going forward. In a year she can upgrade to a 30" monitor, not an option with the iMac.

Of course, the Mac Pro doesn't include a monitor and I'm concerned about how she would keep the 22" monitor. Is there a way to connect an ADC display to a MacPro? A powered breakout box or something?

Note: The resolution of the 22" Apple Cinema Display is only 1600x1024. ie. The 24" iMac actually gives her 40% more screen real estate. Even the 20" iMac has more pixels.

Thus, personally, I think the 24" iMac with AppleCare and an external Firewire 800 scratch disk is the best deal.

Remember also what P said. If you get that ADC/DVI adapter, you can run the iMac AND the 22" Apple Cinema Display at the same time right away.

[iREZ]

you do realize you could screen span with the imac to your adc right?

i dont see the point of having 4 cores for design unless adobe utilizes such a feature in cs3 which might not even be 64bit to begin with. i see the 20" and 24" as fine design machines and the machine will last her an easy 5 years if she wants. i work in prepress and before upgrading my system here to a dual core 2.0 g5, i was using a 733mhz g4 and was only a bit slower with my older machine than i am with my newer one. i personally would opt for the 24" imac.

also the 22" acd gives the same resolutions as todays 20" lcds (widescreen 20" lcds that is) so dont value the older monitor THAT much.

[Eug]

BTW, I wouldn't be surprised if the 24" iMac had better real-life colour, brightness, and contrast than that 22" ACD.

I'd say my 20" G5 iMac is at least equal but probably superior to my friend's 20" ADC-era ACD in those respects.

[Simon]

And if you take the iMac with the standard GPU (PS won't profit from getting the more expensive one) or with the standard 2.16 GHz CPU it'll be even better value.

I'd get her the iMac. She doesn't sound like somebody who needs 4 PCI slots or 4 drive bays.

Hook up the ACD to the iMac for 46" goodness.

[houstonmacbro]

i looked at the 17" iMac core2 duo (2GB) last night. talk about sweet and fast. don't let anyone tell you that the core2 duo is not faster. it is incredibly faster ... runs full screen 1080i at 24fps. not sure but i think i'm in love.

[Eug]

Originally Posted by houstonmacbro

i looked at the 17" iMac core2 duo (2GB) last night. talk about sweet and fast. don't let anyone tell you that the core2 duo is not faster. it is incredibly faster ... runs full screen 1080i at 24fps. not sure but i think i'm in love.

1080p you mean, but even a Mac mini can do that.

[P]

Originally Posted by houstonmacbro

i looked at the 17" iMac core2 duo (2GB) last night. talk about sweet and fast. don't let anyone tell you that the core2 duo is not faster. it is incredibly faster ... runs full screen 1080i at 24fps. not sure but i think i'm in love.

Noone said it isn't faster. Merom is claimed to be 20% faster at 20% less power. Improvements include vector math and 64 bit integer operations.

[mduell]

Originally Posted by P

Noone said it isn't faster. Merom is claimed to be 20% faster at 20% less power. Improvements include vector math and 64 bit integer operations.

Where'd you hear that? Merom is claimed to be 20% faster (benchmarks show 5-30% depending on app), but Intel has consistently stated that power consumption is flat. Just to clear up some possible ambiguity, the vector operations were improved, not added. 64-bit operations are all-new, but of marginal benefit.

[awcopus]

So, we'll be checking out 24" iMac in the Apple Store first. I think as soon as she sees the display, she'll be hooked.

Some Pro issues, that even affect buying a MacPro, frankly: does Quark7, the universal binary version, save backward compatible 6.5 versions of files. And Photoshop isn't going to be ready for a while. Maybe, if she can stand the fan noise 6 months longer, it's worth waiting for the new version of Photoshop. Can't imagine anything more frustrating than spending $3k for a new machine that runs Photoshop slowly, though I wonder if Photoshop under Rosetta on the 24" iMac will be faster than Photoshop on a dual 1.42 G4.

[houstonmacbro]

when i saw it book office as quickly as my dell at work under ht i was impressed.

[idyll]

1.42 dual G4 isn't too too bad. I'd wait a bit longer for Photoshop, then you can save up even more money and buy the best computer money can buy when Photoshop comes out!