$5000 to spend help me spend it wisely

[munkees]

I was blown up by an antitank mine in 2004, so I can no longer exerise due to major back injuries. Keeping weight of is tough. lost $20 over christmas, and my wife gave me a new goal with reward. If I loose another $20 without staving myself, then I get to spend $5000 USD on computers.

This is what I do with my computies. I am an ex-unix programming looking at getting back into programming so want a programming system.

....Also I like to play games like SIMs, americas army ghost recon type games.

....Also I do my pictures, plus I like to do art work.

.....I am doing some animation with Animation master from hash inc, this requires some number crunching.

I looking to spend this money in about 3 months time, I will only take 8 weeks to lose it but I have a move to make back to the USA from Germany.

I want a 64bit intel so hopefully it will be avaliable and will wait for it.

 

[jtalerico]

When you say ex-unix what flavor of unix?

As far as a programming machine I would honestly go for a Quad Opteron machine. That would be a killer machine. Not sure if you wanted to go the OS X route but if so then the Quad G5 would also be awesome. Or you could wait for the new PowerMac's when they come out.

Good luck loosing the 20Lbs! Keep a good diet so you can keep it off.

 

[munkees]

sorry has to be Mac OS X

I used to be Solaris, linux , there was some older unixes. Lots of embedded unix like OSes like ChorusOS, windriver vxWorks (some what), and LynxOS. did jobs like protocol stacks, system buffers, ethernet drivers, HD IDE drivers, porting MIPS linux to a new MIPs chip.

 

[jtalerico]

Which did you prefer?

It is all about what you prefer and what enviorment you like.

For instance I love FreeBSD's package system.. I will always favor FreeBS (and OSX). But Which enviroment you felt more at home, is going to be the one you should stick with in your building enviorment. But a Quad or Dual Opteron machine would be awesome. If you want to stick with intel they also have a Dual Core 64bit, but not sure if any motherboard companys have came out with a Quad for the intel, i am sure there is.

 

[d_saum]

If it were me, I'd wait until the new intel based power macs err.. mac pro's or whatever they're going to be called come out and then choose. Also, for the games, I'd honestly look into getting an xbox or xbox 360. The original xbox has a TON of great shooters and when the backwards compatible list gets updated (from what I hear, they are updating it constantly), I'd go for the 360, then you can enjoy the best of both worlds. Consoles are the way to go for gaming! The powermac or whatever will cover the rest. Good luck!

On a side note, sorry to hear about your injury but I thank you hole heartedly for your service!

Dave

 

[watchmainspring]

I was blown up by an antitank mine in 2004, so I can no longer exerise due to major back injuries. Keeping weight of is tough. lost $20 over christmas, and my wife gave me a new goal with reward. If I loose another $20 without staving myself, then I get to spend $5000 USD on computers.

This is what I do with my computies. I am an ex-unix programming looking at getting back into programming so want a programming system.

....Also I like to play games like SIMs, americas army ghost recon type games.

....Also I do my pictures, plus I like to do art work.

.....I am doing some animation with Animation master from hash inc, this requires some number crunching.

I looking to spend this money in about 3 months time, I will only take 8 weeks to lose it but I have a move to make back to the USA from Germany.

I want a 64bit intel so hopefully it will be avaliable and will wait for it.

Def go for the macbook pro with some extra ram and and un upgraded HD. Grab a few games and you're good.

Just outta curiousity, where did you sustain injury from an anti-tank mine?

 

[munkees]

Unix

the UNIX that I like the most was Solaris, in the past I once own 25 Sparcs and a few ultra sparcs, that was until may 2001 when I wanted a unix laptop and purchased the iBook G3 500, then from that time forth, it been Apple, sold all the old crap, on ebay and purchased a G4 cube 768MB Ram 20GB HD DVDROM/CD-R 15inch Apple Studio Display for 2001 nice system, Also a Sawtooth 733 G4 with 1mb cache, ??HD and Superdrive 17" Apple Studio Display. It was the best setup until know. I missed my small sparc supercomputer, but would rather build a new one one day out of Macs.

I know Mac OS X for software, used to use FreeBSD in the past for server services like email, web, dns etc etc, for our labs dual t3 connection 90Mbit connection. we hosted the 97 Grammy for fun.

I refuse to purchase any MS products, can''t support them. They never invented a product market, just muslce every ones elses, looks like they was to go after .mac but for windoze.

the 360 is cool 3.2ghz 6 g5 cores, fastest home machine I ever seen, more memory in it, and then it could do apps (if writen) like photo video. Home PC my guess 10 years is history. waiting for the PS3, but I still like the computer interface over the console. I have a PS2, but like the keyboard etc.

I got my injuries in tikrit iraq, with 1st Infantry Division, my poor tank how ever died in the attack. RIP

 

[Lord Blackadder]

For $5000 you could buy a nicely configured Intel PowerMac and still have money left over for a good build-it-yourself gaming PC...$5000 is a nice chunk of cash so your options are pretty open. If you are willing to wait I'd say hold off until Apple announces the new PowerMacs...plus you'll have extra time to maybe knock off a few bonus pounds!


On a more serious note, thank you for putting yourself in harm's way for us. A very good friend of mine is a Marine SAW gunner...I think I'd rather be in an M1A1 myself.

 

[jtalerico]

I got my injuries in tikrit iraq, with 1st Infantry Division, my poor tank how ever died in the attack. RIP

HOORAHH!! Thank you for your service. I am sure that you can loose that weight with no problem.

 

[Kingsly]

Thank you for putting yourself in harms way. Good luck loosing the weight, I am sure many on MR including myself stand behind you.
I am sorry you lost your tank but I am glad you (and hopefully your crew) made it.
And people say we should cut defense R&D spending...

 

[uspcommuter]

First off, I am not married, but if I do I wish I have a wife like that

But anyways back to the hardware. A quadcore mactel if you can wait for it, my prediction is that it wont be around till the end of the summer. But on a personal note, a pimped out quadcore G5 PM is not bad. It really depends on when you need the machine.

Lastly, good luck on losing the 20 pounds. Just one tip tho, do not biege eat. Its ok to sneak in an extra cookie once in awhile but biege is Bad!!!!!!!!

 

[QCassidy352]

well, it's hard to offer advice since you won't be buying for 3 months, and it's anyone's guess what will be out in that time. But with that much money and the things you want to do, the quad G5 is the obvious choice. I mean (unless something else comes out) what else?

Very sorry to hear about your injuries. Any chance you could any sort of exercise at all? Like a stationary bike (really doesn't use anything but legs...). I'm sure you know your own condition very well; I only suggest it because losing weight is so much easier when you can increase the amount you burn as well as the amount you take in... Good luck!

 

[easymac800g4]

buy ten mac minis

 

[Chaszmyr]

If I were you I'd wait for Intel Pro Macs and then sell your iMac to get one of those and a 30'' cinema display.

 

[munkees]

thank you so far.

Thank you so far for you spport and Ideas, my question to you guys, now is how would you spend that money what configuration would you guys go for and why ?

I have been leaning to a Powermac and its replacement, and 30" wow does sound nice, was thinking getting 2 20" it cheap than one 30". Are the towers loud ?.

My Crew all walked away, minor bumb, I was the vehicle commander so I standing up in the hatch behind my machina gun at the time. we hit to the right side, blow right though the track and hull, just lucky did not go though the next layer between me and the wall in front of me, the blast was inches from my compartment, and that was bad news.

 

[Counterfit]

I suggest a top of the line tower (whether it be G5 or Intel by then), a 30" display, and, er, nothing else, because right now, that would put you at $5,798.

 

[AJBMatrix]

You could give it to me...I accept Cash, Check, Cashier Check, and Money Order.

Intel Mac Pro if I were you.

 

[iEdd]

If you have major back damages, or even permanent ones, shouldn't you get some kind of compensation from your work or whoever for what happened? Not just a few thousand, but $200k-$300k?

 

[macjakob]

Are the towers loud ?.

Hi munkees, no i don't think the towers are loud at all! My dad just bought himself a Quad G5, and i was surprised how quiet it was. You can hear it's running, but it's a nice "zen-like" whirr from the fans.

 

[generik]

If I were you I'd buy some Apple shares

 

[godbout]

If I were you I'd buy some Apple shares

Haha that is a good one

I have a question for all those saying wait for the Mac Pro (or whatever). What would you expect in it that would put it over the top of... say a quad G5? AFAICT the intel chips that they are showing now (core duo) are slower clock for clock than an equivalent G5. I know that these are not the chips that will be in the Mac Pro (I assume they will use Conroe). How Kicka** are the Conroe chips going to be? and what else do you expect to see? Sorry for hijacking the thread a little... To add my opinion I would pick up a dual 2.3 (pimped out of course) with 2x23" (or 2x20") ACD (or the Dell equivalent) a nice set of klipsch speakers, Mx518 mouse and a couple other little extras $5000 USD (I could only dream)

 

[Chaszmyr]

I have been leaning to a Powermac and its replacement, and 30" wow does sound nice, was thinking getting 2 20" it cheap than one 30". Are the towers loud ?.

Personally I'd rather have a 30'' than two 20''s, but there is nothing wrong with 20''s either. The towers are louder than other macs, but they're still quiet compared to most PC counterparts.

 

[munkees]

30"

30", that is a sweet monitor but still 2 x 20" is cheaper more screen.

 

[iEdd]

They'd be a way of working it out, but I just think of a 30" as 4 times the size of a 15" (providing they are both the same aspect ratio). 30" would be close to twice the size of a 20" though...

 

[Platform]

Well you have a new iMac CD, so buy a 23" ACD and another gig of RAM, or wait for new Intel pms