[stuffedmonkey]

Looks like it is finally time to upgrade to a G5 tower. For all you recent owners out there.... I was wondering if I should go 1.8 or 2.0...

I'm wondering if the extra 2x200mhz,100 mhz bus, 4 ram slots and 80 gig of hd space are worth the extra $500? Any known defects in the line I should be wary of?

Thanks in advance for your help!

[fiesta cat]

Originally posted by stuffedmonkey:
I'm wondering if the extra 2x200mhz,100 mhz bus, 4 ram slots and 80 gig of hd space are worth the extra $500? Any known defects in the line I should be wary of?

If your on a budget (even if you aren't) use the extra $500 for another SATA drive (200GB+) and more memory (2x1GB) and get the 1.8Ghz. Get them at NewEgg or wherever, don't use Apple's extra memory/storage - it's way too expensive.

Let me put it like this - A machine that is 2x200mhz slower, but has a lot more memory and storage space, is much more useful, especially with OS X liking a lot of memory.

[Maflynn]

You forgot about the memory difference out of the box.
The 1.8 has 256 while the 2.0 has 512 meg.

The hard drive and memory alone make is worthwhile. 256meg is way to small to do any type of work and you will be spending money to increase that. 512meg is meager in its own right, but depending on what you do only have to increase it a little or hold off.

The hard drive space is large enough (for me at least) to last for a while.

Finally is PCI-X though its value imo is questionable at least for right now.

Mike

[jcadam]

Originally posted by Maflynn:
You forgot about the memory difference out of the box.
The 1.8 has 256 while the 2.0 has 512 meg.

The hard drive and memory alone make is worthwhile. 256meg is way to small to do any type of work and you will be spending money to increase that. 512meg is meager in its own right, but depending on what you do only have to increase it a little or hold off.

The hard drive space is large enough (for me at least) to last for a while.

Finally is PCI-X though its value imo is questionable at least for right now.

Mike

PCI-X won't be getting very far. PCs are switching to PCIe as a replacement for conventional PCI AND AGP. The next major PowerMac revision (whenever that is) will probably have PCI-Express (and a few regular PCI slots for compatiblity purposes).

[Zoom]

I just ordered the dual 1.8. I figured the $500 wasn't worth it. But I did upgrade the memory as a BTO option from 256 to 512. Apple's memory is more expensive, but since this rev only has 4 damn RAM slots (two of which come from Apple filled), I figured I would put 2x256 in and leave 2 slots open for me to add 2x256 more (total of 1GB). I'd just end up having to pull the Apple-installed RAM and selling it on eBay if I took the stock 2x128MB config.

The 80GB drive is disappointing, especially since the top end iMac now has 160GB. But I've got a 120GB drive in my current Mac which I'm going to put in an external FW case. Then it'll be portable. Or I may mount it internally with a PCI/IDE card.

But personally I would just buy a third-party SATA drive, as big as you can afford, and put it in the 1.8 instead of paying $500 more for a 2.0. You can get a lot of extra RAM and a big HD for that extra money.

[fiesta cat]

Originally posted by Zoom:
But personally I would just buy a third-party SATA drive, as big as you can afford, and put it in the 1.8 instead of paying $500 more for a 2.0. You can get a lot of extra RAM and a big HD for that extra money.

That's why I went with the 1.8- for less than $500 I put 2x1GB sticks and a 200G SATA in there and still was under $500.

[Maflynn]

Originally posted by jcadam:
PCI-X won't be getting very far. PCs are switching to PCIe as a replacement for conventional PCI AND AGP.

I agree completely, there may be some use for the PCI-X but it will be short lived (if at all).

Mike

[Disgruntled Head of C-3PO]

You really need to tell us what you plan on doing with the computer.

[DeathToWindows]

I got lucky in this regard... it was either buy a DP1.8w/9600 at the education price of $1850 or get a refurb Dp2.0 with 2x the HD and 2x the RAM for 1999... went for the dp2.0