[mak_attack]

hi,

as you may or may not know, i have been looking for a powermac for the last few months.

in the local listings there is a 'as new' powermac for sale.

Dual 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
900MHz frontside bus/processor
512K L2 cache/processor
512MB DDR400 SDRAM
80GB Serial ATA
Upgraded Dual SuperDrive
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra

Would this be a good machine for the following:

Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Illustrator
Full Macromedia Studio
Final Cut
Maya
Toast
iPhoto
iMovie
iDVD
GarageBand
Other Music software
Also various other multimedia design based software.

I will use the machine daily but not at 100% professional level as i am still building up my skills.

How are people's experiences with the Dual 1.8?

It is on sale for �995 (Apple Refurb = �1079 with 256 Ram / Education = �1150 with 256 Ram)

thanks,

[Inocense]

I have never been more happy with a computer in my life!.. I have had mine for over a year now and it is an EXCELLENT machine. I work on PS CS on it while doing many other things at once. It handles the graphics intensive programs with ease. The Dual Processors will really help you out with that if your running a program that will utilize them, which it seems like you will be.

The G5 is fully upgradable in regards to graphics cards, LOADS of RAM and another hard drive.. So you will be allllll set..

It is a beautiful machine.. Next I would check into buying more RAM and I would recommend the company RAMJET.com or some other similar aftermarket Apple certified company instead of Apple. Apple tends to mark their RAM up a bit too much.. Although I heard that they did come down in price.. Might want to do a little research.. I have a gig total in mine and it cuts through PS CS like butter..

Final Cut pro and video apps might take a bit more RAM though so you may want to think about investing in it very soon..

Ram jet has G5 RAM for..

512mb $109
1Gig $199
2Gig $389

Lemme know if you have any more ?'s.....

[Inocense]

Hmmm.. Also check Apple's website.. They usually have better deals than those places that just sell refurb'd Apple comps.. Go on their website and look for the red save tag.. That is where they sell all their refurbished and clearance and sale items..

I don't know how much your money is compared to ours.. *LOL* So I am having trouble helping you in that department..

I would also highly recommend getting the extended Apple Care warrant plan but you have up to a year after purchase to do that.. It is a bit on the expensive side but without it I believe you only get like 90 days of phone tech support..

[mak_attack]

UK Apple Deals SUCK!!!

We have Refurbs once a week on a Weds.

In the local newspaper listing I can get the above spec for �995 that is slightly better than Apple's base dual 1.8's.

(Apple Refurb 1079 / Education 1150)

The machine still has 6 months warranty left on it from the seller.

I will upgrade the Ram / HDD once more � is available later on in the year.

�1 = $1.8787

So for US people looking at this post:
Local Newspaper = $1870
Apple Refurb = $2030
Education = $2160
New = $2535

The main question I asking is this machine good for the stated purpose bearing in mind the good value that its being sold at. Will it last and be durable?

thanks,

[Inocense]

Last and be durable?!?! OMG YES! heh.. And will be GREAT for that purpose.. But if I were you I would honestly save up some money and get the Dual 2.0 or 2.5 come March sometime.. It may ship out with the new OSX and the price will drop when the new G5's come out..

The Dual G5 2.5 is liquid cooled which in my opinion is just plain cool.. And the 2.0's and up have the PCI-X slots which are faster than AGP slots for the new graphics cards that are going to be coming out..

If the DP 1.8 is in your budget and you really don't want to spend any more, grab it! You can still put Apple Care on it if it is still under it's original 1 year Apple warranty!

The stock DP 2.0 comes with double the RAM (512) and double the HD space.. It's also expandable to 8 gig of RAM as opposed to the 4 gig the DP 1.8 will take.

Completely up to you.. You know the market out that way way better than I..

Either way, good luck!!!

You will be more than happy with either machine, I guarantee it!

[mak_attack]

"If the DP 1.8 is in your budget and you really don't want to spend any more, grab it!"

I do have the money for a dual 2.0 and 2.5 BUT I have so many other things that i need to pay for: Bills, Education Fees, Running a Car etc.....you get the picture lol.....

I do not want to go overboard and splash cash unnecessarily. Going for a dual 2.0 means spending around $2660 and 2.5 $3100 lol (� to $)

the dual 1.8 is around $1870

thanks,

[Inocense]

Ahhh.. Gotcha.. Well you could always upgrade in the future.. The G5's will definetly hold their value.. So go for it, grab the DP 1.8 while you can!

If you have any ?'s when you get it, don't hesitate to ask!

[Taipan]

Originally posted by Inocense:
The Dual G5 2.5 is liquid cooled which in my opinion is just plain cool.. And the 2.0's and up have the PCI-X slots which are faster than AGP slots for the new graphics cards that are going to be coming out..

Hi!

Personally, I don't find liquid cooling cool, I believe sooner or later it will get clear that water does not belong into a computer. But that's just my opinion. Second, I think you are confusing PCI-X with PCI Express. PCI Express is a new, faster standard for (not only) graphics cards, while PCI-X, which is used in the Powermacs, is more like a faster version of PCI. It has nothing to do with graphics cards. AFAIK there are no graphics cards available for PCI-X (definitely not on the Mac market), the only thing it's used for at the moment is SCSI or Network cards. And it looks like it will have a hard time competing with PCI Express, I wouldn't be surprised if it were dropped in the next revision of PowerMacs.

[mak_attack]

Inocense thanks for your +ve replies

What do you use your machine mainly for on a day to day basis?

School or Work purposes?

How do you find it performs and handles tasks?

Order of usage for me:

Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Illustrator for image manipulation and creation for web / posters etc
Full Macromedia Studio - Flash / Dreamweaver for Website creation / Director for interactive CD/DVD-Roms etc
Final Cut / iMovie - Not so intensive but at a good amateur level once skills are learnt. Mainly making short movies for given task or event.
Maya - For 3D image creation.
GarageBand - to aid sound input into movies created

Other:

iPhoto - to aid above
iMovie - to aid above
iDVD - to aid above
GarageBand - to aid above
Other Music software - to aid above
Other multimedia software once learnt to aid above.

Sufficient?

I will upgrade the machine with another 1 gb so i will have 1.5 gb

I will look to add a 2nd hard drive for storing data.

I will upgrade graphics card once prices drop.

Any other things i should look at for the dual 1.8?

Using machine to create many different multimedia products and ideas. Will be for academic and work enviroment usage.

thanks,

[Inocense]

Taipan.. DOH! ~smax self in forhead~ My bad.. I have issues with that whole PCI, PCI-X, and PCI Express thing.. *L*

mak.. You will be fine.. I use my G5 mainly for home computing purposes.. That is basically to surf the net, chat and play games such as Americas Army, Diablo, Unreal Tournament, etc etc etc.. I also utalize my G5 for school purposes to get my projects done at home. And those are the Photoshop CS projects..

I have never done any work on iMovie but iPhoto rocks!

You should be all set.. I can't think of anything else you will need except a good 2 button mouse with a scroll wheel..
Although the Apple mouse looks WAY cooler.. hehe..

Definetly work on getting the RAM upgrade though..

[Inocense]

Taipan..

Here is a question for you..

Anyway to put PCI Express ports into a G5 if they are not already there? Convert the AGP slot? I am sorry, I am lost.. Still trying to understand this whole PCI, PCI-X, PCI-E,AGP thing..

[MichiganRich]

Mark-
Just buy it, a great machine and it sounds like a really great deal as well. You can't go wrong with a PowerMac, especially a dually. I bought the base model 1.6 when they first came out, and it's been a wonderful machine. Get it before it's gone or you'll be kicking yourself for passing up the deal!

[meelk]

Originally posted by Inocense:
Taipan..

Here is a question for you..

Anyway to put PCI Express ports into a G5 if they are not already there? Convert the AGP slot? I am sorry, I am lost.. Still trying to understand this whole PCI, PCI-X, PCI-E,AGP thing..

pci-x is dead. it has never, and will never go anywhere. it was supposed to be a stop-gap between pci and pci-e and was essentially never needed.
It suprises me apple has no updated the G5s to include pci-e slots, and seriously, if I were you, I would wait until they do. Anyone telling you about "the fast new pci-x video cards" is essentially clueless.

[MORT A POTTY]

Originally posted by meelk:
pci-x is dead. it has never, and will never go anywhere. it was supposed to be a stop-gap between pci and pci-e and was essentially never needed.
It suprises me apple has no updated the G5s to include pci-e slots, and seriously, if I were you, I would wait until they do. Anyone telling you about "the fast new pci-x video cards" is essentially clueless.

this is true, except the fact that right now, nobody needs PCI-Express unless you're using an SLI setup which currently is unavailable on the Macintosh. Fact is, people aren't even maxing out the 8x AGP Pro slot. Yeah, PCI-E will be great when it's here (and believe me, I love the new bleeding-edge technologies) but there is no reason to hold off buying a computer for PCI-E. Not in the Mac world at least.

[mak_attack]

Grrrrrrrrrrrrr,

My indecisions have again cost me

I missed out on this bargain find

thanks for all the input to this post

Did find this just a short while ago.

Dual 2GHz G5 processors
1GB PC3200 DDR MEMORY 2 X 512MB
160GB Serial ATA 7200 RPM Hard Drives
DVD-R/CD-RW SuperDrive
ATI RADEON 9800 Graphics card

A far better machine than the previous find but its �1345 instead of �995.

Will try to now justify to myself the extra spending will get me a better machine scenario lol

thanks,

[jamil5454]

Get it.

[MichiganRich]

*LMAO* what did I say?!?! Don't pass up good deals!

[Inocense]

GRAB IT..

Better graphics card, more RAM and a bigger harddrive.. Less upgrading for you to do in the future..

~says in infomercial voice~

HURRY! CALL NOW WHILE SUPPLIES LAST!

hehe..

[Inocense]

And it is a DP 2 Ghz! heh.. Just get it .. for real..

Thanks for all the input on this whole PCI issue guys/girls.. My head spins with all that stuff.. heh..

[johnmccaig]

i specifically got the 1.8dually so i could have standard PCI slots as i run DSP cards for audio software, and i need the stability.

[Agent69]

When people speak against the dual 1.8ghz G5, it usually comes down to two things: 4 RAM slots and PCI instead of PCIx. However, for most people, those two limitations do not matter.

I think that the 1.8ghz dual is a good deal.

[Agent69]

Originally posted by johnmccaig:
i specifically got the 1.8dually so i could have standard PCI slots as i run DSP cards for audio software, and i need the stability.

Can't PCIx slots accept some regular PCI cards?

[Taipan]

Originally posted by Agent69:
Can't PCIx slots accept some regular PCI cards?

Yes, they accept PCI cards that use 3,3V, those that need 5V (usually older ones) won't run.

[johnmccaig]

Originally posted by Agent69:
Can't PCIx slots accept some regular PCI cards?

the deal is, i run UAD-1 Cards and they actually perform worse on a PCI-X G5
upto 20% less DSP power.. ...
made my decision easy.. altho, 2.5dual would be great (as i need raw CPU too)

[lebeau]

[QUOTE]Originally posted by mak_attack:
[B]hi,

I got a FREEZING (Dual 1.8) Start-Up from cold since November 2004. Bought in Canada with 2 X 512 Meg DIMMs added to original. Need shut down and restart to work. Every day! Now is at the retailer's shop for tests. Passed AHT. Waiting for further results.