[ceggers]

I heard that the G5 1.6 and the G5 1.8 are signifigantly different in speed and that it uses a different motherboard and that the 1.6 model can't support PCI-X, is the 1.8 worth the $400 price rise? is the first generation G5 even worth buying at all? Should I wait until the second generation G5s come out? will the next generation G5s be released anytime soon?

[triplezoom]

If you can afford the extra money for the 1.8, I would recommend getting it. Personally I am already stretching my budget by going for a 1.6 so unfortunately I really can't afford a 1.8.

The 1.8 has several advantages. It uses faster RAM, has 8 DIMM slots versus only 4 for the 1.6, and lacks PCI-X slots (as you mentioned). Personally, although it bothers me a bit that Apple employed a cheaper architecture for the low-end model, I think I will be pretty happy with my 1.6 GHz machine.

As for when we can expect faster, better G5s, my guess would be that we will see an announcement in Q1 2004. But who knows when they will be available...

[powerbook867]

I have a 1.6 I picked up at Apple store Buffalo last week. It was a hard decision, since I know spec wise the 1.8 and 2 x 2.0 are rated better performance wise. I could not be happier with my 1.6 coming from a powerbook 867. The only issue I have is the stock ram. For a pro machine, I expect more than 256. I went without the ram upgrade for a couple of days and the hard drive THRASHED. Did a top -u in terminal and the pageouts (virtual memory) were horrible. So I dropped 100 dollars at Circuit City and now all is well....

The box is sweet and I love the fact that I can upgrade it. I game a little and next year, instead of a new machine, I will pop for a new video card and more ram. This is the best machine I've ever owned and one of the nicer boxes I've worked on (I'm a unix admin)

Joe

[Commodus]

What you get depends on whether you want to customize. The 1.8 GHz model is the best choice if you want as much as you can get out of the box. The 512 MB of memory isn't such an issue, but remember that you'd get a 160 GB hard drive - that's important if you think you'll have a lot of content on your main disk.

There are some areas where it would make more sense to go with the 1.6. If you're going to be gaming, it might be better to stick with the 1.6 and use the money to get a Radeon 9800 with your order. Also, custom-ordering a 1.6 with a Combo drive gives you the least expensive G5 possible.

Don't expect a hardware update too soon. Given that G5s started shipping in August and only really hit their stride in September, you may only see faster models in February or March. Either you get one now, or hold off for a few months.

[zigzag]

I don't think the speed difference would be that important for most people. However, Eug Wanker did an analysis on another thread showing that if you equip a 1.6 with a 160GB hard drive and 512MB of RAM, it's only $150 less than a similarly equipped 1.8. That's based on Apple Store prices, so you could probably do better, but if you're going to beef up a 1.6 (which you will, because it only comes with 256 MB of RAM), it might be worth the extra $$ to just go with a 1.8 from the start, especially if you plan on keeping it for a long time. Those extra RAM slots might come in handy over the years. As for PCI-X, there don't appear to be any applications for it yet, but I assume that there will be down the road (but do you even use PCI slots?).

That said, I would love to have a 1.6 and it would probably serve most people very well. There haven't been any serious bugs that I'm aware of, so I don't see much reason to wait unless you want to get one with Panther installed. There will be faster machines down the road, but that's always true.

[idyll]

I went with the 1.6 G5 and couldn't be happier. It's slightly faster than my 2.4GHz Pentium 4 equipped PC, if that says anything.

[mitchell_pgh]

Yah, Apple is VERY smart...

If they came out with a 1.6 that was almost as fast as the 1.8, nobody would have purchased the 1.8...

Back in the old days... when the first PPC computers came out... there was the 6100, the 7100 and the 8100...

The 6100 and the 8100 sold like hotcakes...

the 7100 didn't...

[rogerkylin]

Originally posted by idyll:
I went with the 1.6 G5 and couldn't be happier. It's slightly faster than my 2.4GHz Pentium 4 equipped PC, if that says anything.

What do you mean by slightly faster? Running what application? Doing what process?

[The Mick]

You just have to look at what you need. I'll never need more than 4GB of RAM and I've never used a 64-bit PCI card for anything other than full-blown RAID controllers in PC servers. PC2700 DDR RAM is extremely fast, and more than enough speed for what I do. I really only play some games, surf the web, email and do some home video and digital picture editing. Would I like to have the 1.8? Sure. But I certainly don't need it. I could see where a pro Photoshop worker or someone who's in Quark and Final Cut Pro all day would need more.

[Eug]

1.6 or 1.8, make sure you get the Radeon 9600 Pro. Excellent $50 upgrade.

Personally I'd get the 1.8. Besides the additional CPU speed and the faster memory, there are the extra 4 memory slots.

[idyll]

Originally posted by rogerkylin:
What do you mean by slightly faster? Running what application? Doing what process?

Running Photoshop .

[chrisutley]

Yeah, buddy. I bought a 6100 the day they came out. I didn't have PPC apps besides graphic calculator, but I was happy just the same.

Originally posted by mitchell_pgh:
Yah, Apple is VERY smart...

If they came out with a 1.6 that was almost as fast as the 1.8, nobody would have purchased the 1.8...

Back in the old days... when the first PPC computers came out... there was the 6100, the 7100 and the 8100...

The 6100 and the 8100 sold like hotcakes...

the 7100 didn't...