[damosan]

I'm toying with upgrade from my iBook to one of the two above machines through the Apple Store school section.

My question is how does a 1.25 DP compare to a 1.6 G5? The DP machine is (naturally) quite a bit cheaper than the G5 box. Is the G5 premium worth the several hundred dollar difference?

How would both machines handle kitted out with 512 megs?

I spend most of my time typing but I do play the occasional game as well as code now and then.

Any suggestions?

[osxisfun]

buy the g5. in the long run you will be happier...

[superfula]

Try doing a search on this topic. It's been covered extensively.

[Anand]

Try doing a search but I will throw my two cents in. Buy the dual machine. I have a 1.6 Ghz G5 with 1.25 GB ram. I have also used a 1.4 Ghz G4 (not dual but upgrade) and I find the 1.4 G4 a much better machine. A dual machine would be even better. People will probably go nuts when I say this but I would rather have a G4 on a fast bus than a G5. The G4 is a great chip that is slowed only by the bus. If it ever gets a fast bus it will be amazing. The single G5's are a dissapointment.

[FlatLyna]

I had the exact same dilemna as you!
What I ended up with was a MDD DP1.25 FW800 with the Apple Studio 17" panel and JBL Creature speakers for the same price as the G5 1.6 alone!! In my mind it was a killer deal, and as much as I find the specs of the G5's very appealing, I'm not totally convinced on the 1.6's performance front verses the DP G4's. In another 12-18 months though with more OS and application optimisations it'll more than likely be a different story.

My single gripe with my G4 is the fan noise, which while quite low is especially noticeable to me because I have a near silent home built Athlon box. I'd expect the G5 to beat the MDD G4's easily on the noise front.

As much as I like the G5's, I think the single processor versions right now will depreciate more than any dual CPU model will. I suspect that as soon as the initial spike of orders has passed, Apple may well go for single CPU on the bottom model and 2 dual models.. perhaps 1.8SP, DP2.0 and DP2.4
Of course much depends on processor availability from IBM etc.

The choice with rev B or C G5's will be much clearer!

[damosan]

Originally posted by FlatLyna:
I had the exact same dilemna as you!

<sigh>

I've decided to wait for two things. They may not make sense but they're working for me today.

I'm with you in thinking that Apple will probably drop the 1.6 during the next rev (having a single 1.8 at the low end and dual 1.8/2 as the middle step and high end).

How long have the G5s been out? We at the six month update point soon?

The other reason is that I want to wait until 10.3 has a few minor releases under it's belt.

Until then I'll just continue using my iBook with 10.2.8.

Damo

[Dalhectar]

Judging from Barefeats, I'd go with the dual G4.

[zigzag]

I disagree with most here. If it's true that you mostly do typing with an occasional game, it doesn't sound like you have much use for a dual, and in the absence of a particular need for the G4, I would go with the G5. All else being equal, I'd rather go with tomorrow's architecture than yesterday's, not to mention the fact that the G5 is quieter, etc. The G5 will probably outperform the dual G4 in the apps you'll be using, especially as things get optimized for the G5.

Anyway, that's what I would do, but I can only speak for myself.

[OsakaBill]

My advice would be to wait. A good friend once advised me to never by the Rev. A version of anything if at all possible. No matter how well Apple has tested these machines, 1000's of real world users will find bugs that Apple missed.

I also have found that dual processors make a big difference in performance. My 450 MHz DP PowerMac rips MP3s in roughly the same time as my 1 GHz PowerBook. iTunes is MP aware.

But dual processors can have other advantages too. My PowerMac crunches 1 SETI@Home unit in 12.5 hours. My PowerBook does a unit in about 7.5 hours. (Notice that performance didn't scale linearly.) However, my PowerMac can crunch 2 work units at the same time. Therefore, my PowerMac spits out 2 Seti work units in 12.5 hours whereas my PowerBook takes 15 hours.

[Tariq-1]

For what you do which does not seem to include things such as Graphics or DV, I think you would be better off with a Powerbook, a G4 iBook or even the 17" iMac with 64MB Geforce 5200 Ultra Graphics(plenty for gaming). The 15" PowerBook has the 9600 Radeon Video card with 64MB of Ram which would handle your games and the screen would be plenty big enough for you. The entry level $1999 is a great price for what you get. If you are set on a Desktop now, the Dual 1.25 is the best bang for the buck around. I just returned my 12" 1GHZ PB for the Dual 1.25(at $1399! for a Refurb at the Apple store). Tried and True design with no first generation hick-ups and faster than all but the Dual G5 according to Barefeats and Xbench scores in most areas. If you decide on a G5, wait till Jan. for the new ones. Keep in mind though that Apple will most likely NOT add a Dual G5 for under $2200 for some time though - I'm guessing late summer 2004.

Tariq

Originally posted by damosan:
I'm toying with upgrade from my iBook to one of the two above machines through the Apple Store school section.

My question is how does a 1.25 DP compare to a 1.6 G5? The DP machine is (naturally) quite a bit cheaper than the G5 box. Is the G5 premium worth the several hundred dollar difference?

How would both machines handle kitted out with 512 megs?

I spend most of my time typing but I do play the occasional game as well as code now and then.

Any suggestions?

[FlatLyna]

Having used dual and single cpu macs I just can't see me going back to a single - the creamy smoothness is just too damn nice.

I do think a G5 Dual 1.6 might be an interesting option though, especially at the right price. Can the stripped down 1.6 motherboard accommodate twin processors I wonder?

[bmuki]

We waited and waited for the G5s too. However, when they finally came out we got the dual 1.25 GHz G4.

"We" means my wife and I (no kids yet). We anticipated 10.3's forthcoming Fast User Switching option. When we realized we would be able to both stay logged in 24/7 with all our crap up (Mail, iChat, iCal, etc.) we wanted a system that would never slow down just because we were both taxing the system. For example, my wife plays the Sims at full speed while my account runs 10 little programs. Sims on one processor, my crap on the other. OS X does this extremely well.

This intended usage would utillize both processors well. So, in practice dual 1.25 GHz almost equals 2.5 GHz for us. No available single G5 could compete with that.

With the extra money we saved, we bought 1.25 Gb of RAM, a 20" Cinema Display, a used second 17" Dell monitor from a friend for $50. No G5 with less RAM and a tiny 17" Cinema display could replace what we got.

[nek]

Originally posted by damosan:
I'm with you in thinking that Apple will probably drop the 1.6 during the next rev (having a single 1.8 at the low end and dual 1.8/2 as the middle step and high end).

How long have the G5s been out? We at the six month update point soon?

The other reason is that I want to wait until 10.3 has a few minor releases under it's belt.

Since Apple plans to be at 3GHz by next summer, I would expect a speed increase fairly soon. January would be the latest, but if they wait that long then I would expect single 2.0GHz, dual 2.2GHz, and dual 2.4GHz. If you're willing to wait a couple of months, then definitely buy a G5.

As far as 10.3 is concerned, I would have to disagree. I've been using it since yesterday and I have no complaints. And since the minor 10.3.x releases are all free, why wait?

[damosan]

Originally posted by nek:

As far as 10.3 is concerned, I would have to disagree. I've been using it since yesterday and I have no complaints. And since the minor 10.3.x releases are all free, why wait?

I'm in the middle of a semester right now and don't want to have any problems with my iBook until the end of december.

I'll probably end up upgrading before then anyway though.

Damo

[videian28]

you cannot add another processor to any single chip g5, I called apple on that, thats why I went with a dual 1.42 instead of a g5 single

if they were upgradeable at a later date, alot more would have been sold