[janneh]

Hi all,

I'm going to switch to mac after 13 years of pc's. I'm using my pc mostly on surffing, little image editing, playing with digital camera and little office apps. So nothing heavy. I have thought the following macs:
1. Dual G4 1.25
2. SP 1.6 G5
3. iMac or eMac

I have 19" old panasonic monitor, but perhaps I will purchase a 17-19" lcd -display, but not mac's, it's too expensive. My PC is P3 933 MHz 512MB RAM Win XP Pro. I should expect to see quite huge performance boost with any of the candidates?

What comes to performance tests, I've read from the net, there are huge differences, but how about in real life. I read from somewhere, that one guy tried both iMac G4 1.25 GHz and G5 in apple store and didn't found any noticible difference in normal tasks. So what mac do you recommend. I understand that G4 is going to be burried, but heck, IMO the G4 has way better looking case than G5
I've decided to get minimum of 1 GB of RAM as suggested in these boards.

Thanks

Regards,
Janne

[i_wolf]

Definately get the G5 if you can afford it. In a single app maybe you won't tell the difference, but when you have multiple apps open at once, watch the G5 fly.
Another thing to consider is that the G5 is so new that software pretty much doesn't tap its power at all yet. It would be a much wiser long term investment to go the G5 route, because as more and more apps become G5 'aware' they will perform far better on G5.
However , i woudl recommend that you wait until the end of this month. There are strong rumors circulating at the moment that Apple will update the Powermac range on or around the 24th. So i wouldn't order anything until the end of next week!

[-Q-]

Originally posted by janneh:
Hi all,

I'm going to switch to mac after 13 years of pc's. I'm using my pc mostly on surffing, little image editing, playing with digital camera and little office apps. So nothing heavy. I have thought the following macs:
1. Dual G4 1.25
2. SP 1.6 G5
3. iMac or eMac

I have 19" old panasonic monitor, but perhaps I will purchase a 17-19" lcd -display, but not mac's, it's too expensive. My PC is P3 933 MHz 512MB RAM Win XP Pro. I should expect to see quite huge performance boost with any of the candidates?

So what mac do you recommend. I understand that G4 is going to be burried, but heck, IMO the G4 has way better looking case than G5

If you can get the Dual 1.25 for a good price, I'd probably recommend that of the three/four you've listed.

I guess it comes down to how often you want to replace your computer and how big a jump are you willing to take to get into the Mac world? B/c it's not just the price of the machine, but the price of the software as well.

If you're at all hesitant about getting a mac, I'd invest in the eMac. But if you're sure of your decision, go for the Dual 1.25. You'll definitely see good performance with the dual processors and the 1.6 G5 just really isn't worth the $ IMO.

That being said, I think you're drunk if you think the G4 case looks better than the G5. The G5 is a fine piece of engineering. But I may be biased.

[SouthPaW1227]

G5, all the way. If you get the G4 now you're killing it's resell value and EVERYTHING that comes down the pipe for your Mac from now will be primarily designed for the G5 and it's specs.

Wait until the SuperBowl before you purchase, though, as updates to the G5 line are imminent. Cheers!

[Nerozwei]

I'd also expect the G5 to be the best solution if you can afford it. I'd suggest a DP model, though. On the other hand if you can strike a good deal on an DP G4, iMac or eMac you could always sell it later and switch to a dual G5 setup

About the performance differences... What would you do with your Mac? In normal web surfing, etc. any of your choices should be quick enough. In my experience games on the Mac still suck. Macromedia MX apps also suffer performance and stability problems, but Photoshop is quite good on OS X.

BTW: Good to see another Finn on these boards

[i_wolf]

another thing to consider is that if you put the money into the dual G5, it will last you for absolutely ages.... that thing is one major power house and nothing is tapping it at the moment or probably in the near future so it has a great future. Having a duallie is lovely and when you have an OS that really can take advantage of both processors like os x why not? You certainly can notice the benefit when you have lots of massive photo's open and working in photoshop etc..

[bedoughty]

Check out this performance test:

Macspeedzone.com performance test

In most of the single application tests, the Dual 1.25 G4's are fairly neck and neck with the single 1.6 G5. However... look towards the last 1/3 of tests or so, when they start multitasking between applications. (such as encoding music in iTunes and working in Photoshop at the same time) The Dual 1.25 G4 begins to PUMMEL the single G5 in performance.

Looking at all those tests, and considering the fact that I'll be working in at least a couple different apps at a time, it's been my personal conclusion that the Dual G4 wins over a 1.6 G5.

[Lateralus]

I'm more of a fan of the Dual G4 than the Single G5 as well.

[pugdog]

I think the DP G5's are the way to go. Once you start getting in to your iApps - which are both addictive and fun - you will ruly appriciate the DP setup. Encoding and rendering are major issues with video edting and DVD creation. You'll want the two processors.

As to the G4 vs. G5. Get the latest and fastest that you can get now, so you'll be happier for longer

[bedoughty]

Uh pugdog, I think the reason this question was posed was becuase a budget is in effect... if $$ was no factor I'd buy TWO Dual G5 2.0 GHz's!! (Just in case one breaks down..) But the dual processor G4 1.25's and the G5 single 1.6 are within relatively the same price range.

That's why this debate is even going on in the first place...

[3.1416]

Originally posted by SouthPaW1227:
If you get the G4 now you're killing it's resell value

Although I doubt the 1.6 G5 is going to have great resale value given its limitations. Between the two, I'd go with the dual G4, although I agree with the others that you really want a dual G5 if you can possibly afford it.

[mindwaves]

ALWAYS go dual.

[Macpilot]

I'm using my pc mostly on surffing, little image editing, playing with digital camera and little office apps. So nothing heavy. I have thought the following macs:
1. Dual G4 1.25
2. SP 1.6 G5
3. iMac or eMac [/B]

Go for the iMac. It is plenty fast for what you want to do. It is quiet, and takes up little space on your desktop. The dual G4 is a noisy machine. The dual G4 and single G5 would be complete OVERKILL for your needs. OS X runs just fine on any G4 iMac that has enough RAM.

If you don't need it, don't buy it.

Hell, you can do all the things you want to do with an 800mhz iBook G3, and do them well!

Look into MacConnection and some of the other online places like Maczone and Macmall for "left-over" iMacs. This means they are new machines, just not the latest models. Depending on budget, I would get a 17" iMac and load it up with RAM (minimum 768 mb of RAM). You could buy a nice digital camera, printer, AppleCare, and TONS of RAM with the money you will save from not wasting your budget and deskspace on a tower and separate monitor.

[mac freak]

Wait a week. Then rewrite your options

[janneh]

Thank you very much for your excellent replies. As many here stated the DP G5 is way to go and I've decided to get one after Apple's possible upgrades. Well DP G5 costs over my budget and I may have to sell my wife, which is not all that bad after all
Few questions:

1. LCD -display. I've though to get 17" lcd Hercules PV 920Pro or ViewSonic VP171b. Both got good comments on Tom's Hardware monitor test. Both has DVI too, so I should not have any problems connecting it to DP G5? Any other good LCD's you suggest within 500-700$ range?

2. Audio. Logitech Z-640 5.1 system could suit to my needs (music listening + of course GarageBand fooling). Anyone has experience of it? Other suggestion within < 100$ range?

Thank you very much in advance

-janneh

[Eriamjh]

Get a refurbed dual 1.8G5.

[zigzag]

I agree with MacPilot. An eMac, iMac or iBook could easily handle the tasks you describe. A tower is complete overkill for web-surfing and the occasional photo edit. As MacPilot said, with the extra $$ you could buy some great peripherals.

That said, the problem arises when you get a Mac and find out how easy it is to do digital video, music, etc. Then you start filling up your hard drive and want a more powerful, versatile machine. But that could be a two-year process, especially if you don't have a DV camcorder yet. So it might still make sense to buy a modest machine now, use the extra $$ for peripherals, and upgrade later.

But if you can afford a dual G5 now, I certainly wouldn't talk you out of it. It's great machine and will last you a long time (I have one).

[janneh]

Thanks guys!

Local finnish mac reseller has DP 1.8 G5's in stock and I'm going to get one (it's impossible for me to wait and see what Apple announces if anything..) They are selling them with 2.780 � price tag. 512MB, 160GB, SuperDrive, NVidia 5200 ultra (!). I prefer ATI more, but I suppose I can always uprgade it later. But I'm sure 5200 Ultra will beat my current pc's GeForce 2, hehe.
Going to get 1 GB additional memory and I guess it'd best bet to order them from crucial. If everything goes right, I'll be here on next weekend testing my new signature!

(welp, I have an USB ADSL modem TeleWell TW-EA-100B and regardelss of having Linux RH 9 drivers, I couldn't get it work in RH. I hope things are easier with Mac os x)

Thanks again for you advices.

-janne

[Judge_Fire]

Onneksi olkoon,

a DP G5 is one sweet machine!

J