After MWNY I was of the mind that I would just pick-up a few more dual G4/450 machines. I have one, and it gets the job done with a fair amount of authority. I just feel the new line-up is too expensive and should have been all dual machines across the board.
Anyhow, I write this on my Pismo while my dualie churns out a FCP file that I would like to output faster than it it being output, but we also sometimes have volume rendering to do as well.
A dual G4/450 seems to be $1500-$1700 on ebay. A dual G4/800 sans DVD-R and cheapened as much as possible (but with GeForce3) is $2970 or so.
Seems a no brainer, I could get two of the older computers and have decent power and multi-machine flexibility. Plus, I'd take less of of a percentage hit on their eventual resale.
But, does the dual 800 have twice the power? I assume it's a little like an automobile, if you double the horsepower, you do not double the top speed- diminishing gains at the top due ineffiencies elsewhere.
But, the dual 800 has a more powerful cache structure (2MB @ 200MHz and 256k @ 800MHz) and a 133 bus and perhaps enhanced memory throughput?
The older dual has 1MB cache and a 100MHz bus and my memory bandwidth seems to hover around the 240MB/s level.
I do the hard stuff, render After Effects, render Cinema 4d, Final Cut Pro, Photoshop, etc.
Some of the programs actually kick-ass with the dual (Cinema 4d) and some claim to, but seems a little less efficient (FCP & AE).
The DVD-R is a non-issue as we are getting a standalone firewire unit so we can also use it with our PC machines. RAM is a non-issue since it's so cheap.
How would you spend around $3000?
2 older G4/450 machines or 1 new dual 800?
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