[Foo_Fighter25]

I'm a freelance web designer, and most of my work is primarily done on PC. However I do have a Mac Mini and recently I 've become tempted to move over to the Mac as my workstation platform. Question is, which would be a better solution (performacne, bang for the buck, economical) for my needs...a 20" iMac G5 or the entry level PowerMac G5?

[Chuckit]

I think it mainly depends on whether or not you're happy with the iMac's monitor. For most design work, I don't think the difference would be that great otherwise (not enough to justify the difference in cost, anyway).

[art_director]

If you intend to stick with web design you'll be fine with the iMac or a Mini. Go into print and the answer changes rapidly. A G5 tower is preferrable for handling larger files. Of course it's a lot more expensive but then you can get 8GB RAM under the hood. Which, truth be told, few people really need.

[art_director]

Let me add that those dual processors are oh, so nice. And I can't wait to heat them up when Tiger comes out.

[Foo_Fighter25]

Thanks for the tip. I will say that Mac mini is a zippy little system, but I always get the impression that I'm using the wrong tool for the job. So it comes down to either the 20" iMac or entry level G5 which are probably on same par in terms of performance. I'm not making a decision right away, since my funds are rather limited right now (thanks to Uncle Sam picking my pockets).

[piot]

I am using the 20 inch iMac G5 for web design as we speak (or as I type!)
Quicktime is happily crunching down and resizing large (100 MB) mpg files into nice little "Flash friendly" bite sized chunks for a prodiction company's site.

I bought it for the screen first.....power second. Though I did max the ram! Its a lovely machine. If you are not in a hurry....Apple will probably bump the 20 inch to 2 GB G5 in a month or so. (?)

[Foo_Fighter25]

Thanks for sharing, piot. How well does the 20" iMac's display compare to the the 20" Cinema display? I haven't actually seen a 20" iMac in the flesh, but I'm assuming it's good.

[Foo_Fighter25]

Another factor in the iMac's favor is that it it very quiet. I've heard a lot of complaints from PowerMac G5 users that the towers are noisy (from all 9 fans running).

[Chuckit]

I've got a lab with them side-by-side, and they don't generally seem to be noisier than the G4s were. But we aren't doing 3D renders or anything, so maybe your friends are just abusing the machines a lot more than we are.

[ntt]

I would also recommend keeping a PC around. The abomination known as Internet Explorer is still dominant, and any web designs should be tested on it.

Unless you want to take the 'high road'.

[art_director]

"Another factor in the iMac's favor is that it it very quiet. I've heard a lot of complaints from PowerMac G5 users that the towers are noisy (from all 9 fans running)."

Not in my experience.

My wife and I share a home office and her iMac sits six feet from my G5. My observations:

- The G5 tower fans kicks on regularly - so what? How else are the dual processors going to keep from over heating? You just tone it out, or as in my case, you have headphones on and don't usually notice it.

- The iMac's fan runs loudly and often - again, so what? The processor needs to be cooled. Not a problem. I believe the iMac's fan runs more freuqently.

- One complaint about the iMac - it often falls asleep and cannot be woken up. We've noticed that this happens more frequently when she has her iPaq h5555 Pocket PC dock connected but it also happens without it connected. Also, on occasion, it falls asleep and the fan runs on high until it's hut down. The OS is up-to-date and I run DiskWarrior weekly so things should be in good working order. Despite these things it's a great maching.

[Foo_Fighter25]

This might be a silly question, but how stable is the 20" model? From the looks of it, the narrow base would seem to have a difficult time supporting the large wide display.

[Randman]

The 20 is very, very stable. And still quite adjustable.

[art_director]

They're all very stable and they're great machines.