$5000 to spend help me spend it wisely

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

Obviously, the 30th Anniversary Mac...

...or at least, you can put the 5,000 towards one....(how much was the 20th again?)

CP

 

[progx]

i'd say go to the PowerMac G5s or sweep up one of the 20" iMacs before they're gone.

whoever said get the MacBook Pro and snag a few games? i don't think the Sims 2 works with the new Mactels. you're better off sticking with the PowerPC G5 for now, it's ready for the 64-bit app world; not to mention ahead of its time.

or now, you can go build a VoodooPC with an AMD 64 and stray away from Intel that's what i'm doing, you don't have to be restricted to Apple hardware to enjoy Mac OS X now. you may have to get WINE or something, but since the AMD 64s use the same EPS coding found in the Intel Core Duos, you may just be able to pop a copy of 10.4 in.

h**p://www.voodoopc.com/

just so you know, they cost way more than a PowerMac Quad G5. so, i leave with the choice.

and you have my sympathies for your horrible accident. i hope you can shed that 20 lbs!

 

[progx]

Obviously, the 30th Anniversary Mac...

...or at least, you can put the 5,000 towards one....(how much was the 20th again?)

CP

actually you can get them on eBay for less than $1,000 last i checked.

not a bad keepsake, won't do anything for you though, can't run OS X or play any of the new games (dating back to 1999-2000).

again, great thing to have, they'll never make a thing like it again.

 

[AvSRoCkCO1067]

actually you can get them on eBay for less than $1,000 last i checked.

not a bad keepsake, won't do anything for you though, can't run OS X or play any of the new games (dating back to 1999-2000).

again, great thing to have, they'll never make a thing like it again.

I meant how much were they when they came out; I'm assuming that Apple may come out with a 30th Anniversary Mac on April 1st of this year (or around about that time...)

Shrug; who knows

CP

 

[iEdd]

What the 20th cost is irrelevant. Our pismo cost about $5000 when it was new, you can get a macbook pro now that is at least 10 times better for $3200.

 

[cgratti]

I'd buy a decent Powermac with alot of ram and spend about $1000 on a kickass gaming PC!

Unreal Tournament 2007 will be here in June!

 

[Counterfit]

or now, you can go build a VoodooPC with an AMD 64 and stray away from Intel that's what i'm doing, you don't have to be restricted to Apple hardware to enjoy Mac OS X now. you may have to get WINE or something, but since the AMD 64s use the same EPS coding found in the Intel Core Duos, you may just be able to pop a copy of 10.4 in.

h**p://www.voodoopc.com/

He did say OS X only, and I doubt that the major amount of trouble it would be to install OS X on a VooDoo would be worth it. Then figure in the cost.



Also, they're beyond ugly.

 

[medic350]

Personally, I'd probably go with the quad core G5 mac. The biggest reason is that we know it's stable. I'm not a huge fan of buying something so radically different as soon as it comes out. Even if the quad core intel is faster (which it may very well be), do you really need anything faster than a quad core G5?? Sure, rosetta works pretty well, but i'd rather run natively and not everything runs in rosetta anyway. Currently, I've got a 20" iMac G5. I bought it less than a year ago and of course, the intel iMac which is supposedly faster is already out. I'm not upset about it at all though. I LOVE my mac! It's faster than it needs to be and if you didn't know what was running inside, you'd probably never be able to tell.

As far as displays go, I'd go for the 30" ACD over dual 20" displays. Sure, you'll get more space with two 20's, but it's just not the same having two screens. I don't know if you've ever seen the 30" in person, but it's massive. I can't imagine needing more screen space. In my opinion, one 30" looks more impressive than 2 20" screens.

In response to your question about noise...macs are, in general, very quiet. The tower is louder than the iMac, but still very quiet compared to PC standards. Both the iMac and the PowerMacs use cooling zones with separate fans in each zone. These fans turn on and off (as well as speed up or slow down) based on the heat in a particular zone. Instead of running constantly on full power as they do in PC's, they only run when they're needed, at the speed they're needed. The zones are quite obvious if you open up any of the computers (the powermacs have 4 zones and 9 fans). Even when the fans are all being used, the computer remains quiet. When the computer isn't being used, it's damn near silent.

 

[macjakob]

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...

2 x 20":

1680 x 1050 = 1.764.000 x 2 = 3.528.000 pixels

1 x 30"

2560 x 1600 = 4.096.000 pixels

So with one 30-incher you get more than 500.000 extra pixels versus 2 20-inchers. Of course, it's also a lot more expensive , but as medic250 said: One 30" is a lot more impressive than dual 20's

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

2 x 20":

1680 x 1050 = 1.764.000 x 2 = 3.528.000 pixels

1 x 30"

2560 x 1600 = 4.096.000 pixels

So with one 30-incher you get more than 500.000 extra pixels versus 2 20-inchers. Of course, it's also a lot more expensive , but as medic250 said: One 30" is a lot more impressive than dual 20's

And quoting iGary, the 30"s height is just amazing for applications.

 

[munkees]

When I get back to the US, I guess I need to check out those 30" to really see what they are all about. I hope apple will have an intel quad this year, that is 64bit. I want the new chips from now on, my guess the new powermac might come with better graphics, the current range is geeting old.

see this question is helping me, BTW only 18lbs left to go.

 

[munkees]

What do you think ?

From what I was reading about the 64bit New PowerMac Intel, is it going to be september + time frame. That means I will be able to probably put at least $8000, now all options are change this is what I am looking at

Quad intel 64bit, hopefully about 3+ghz.
4GB 667+ (SHOULD BE QUICKER) DDR2 Non ECC SDRAM- 4x1GB
500GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
(SOMETHING NEWER) NVIDIA GeForce 7800 GT 256 MB SDRAM
Apple Cinema HD Display (30" flat panel)
AirPort Extreme + Bluetooth built-in
16x SuperDrive DL (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW) (BLUE RAY?)
Apple Keyboard & Mighty Mouse - U.S English
Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
AppleCare Protection Plan for Power Mac (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll
this should be less than $8000 so that leave 500 to spend on some more software.

 

[Glenn Wolsey]

Thats an awesome machine, its what I'm looking at getting except probably a 23" monitor. Great choice, and good luck towards the goal!

 

[Mord]

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?

somehow i doubt he got blownupby an anti tank mine working at walmart

 

[munkees]

somehow i doubt he got blownupby an anti tank mine working at walmart

sorry Hector, the Army does not like to part with its money, I have a spatic right leg now, numb sensation in hand and left leg, and the army still has not let me go, I can do my job, shot my weapon, do physical Training, so I help out the as the computer guy for 235 people, adminstrating accounts, and installing softwae.

The army spends a long time investigating every case, then they try to find ways not to pay out. I rearing the end, and now fighting this department, that does not like to spend army money on it soldiers. When I am out the VA will revalulate my case and I should end up with a monthly check, for the rest of my life.

It tough, I married with one two years, old and 90% of all job out there I cannot do anymore. Still hoping to find a job somewhere to write code for the Apple platform. I was always a great UNIX / embedded programmer, and I Know unix internals, network and device drivers well. Know I am learn the GUI side.

I refuse to get a job supporting Microosft unless it is to develope mac software.

 

[toothpaste]

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.

With two displays the graphics cards works harder, fan is active more and the machine can get "louder" than usual. If you do graphics work a 30" is the way to go. A nice 23" from apple or a 24" from dell should suffice.

 

[Mord]

personally i'd get two dell 24" screens and a second graphics card. (with the current config i'dget a 7800GT and a 6600 in a quad g5)

OR, get a 30" and a 20" and run the 20" in portrait

 

[munkees]

Maybe I should get a few systems.

I was watching CSI 5th Season and NY on my 20" using the cool front row.

It was so clear, that I hate my TV, so I am now looking at changing my mind.

I want to get a LCD about 20" that is clear to view like the iMac, then hopefully with the new mac mini, with front row and and eyeTV I can dump my TV and DVD, put a nice set of BOSE speakers and I have a nice TV, or do you think the new mac mini will come with optical audio, then can put it into my 8 year old sony home 5.1 system.

these my guess would cost about $1200. This would be cheaper than buying a LCD HD TV, when I could have more with an LCD mac mini and usb TV.

Then with the 4000 - 7000 I want a 30" HD apple display with hopefully an quad 64bit intel 4GB RAM, 512 MB video, and as much HD space as I can afford. To cut cost will purchase RAM and HD external is some much cheaper.

Does this sound like a nice setup?

 

[Chaszmyr]

Maybe I should get a few systems.

I was watching CSI 5th Season and NY on my 20" using the cool front row.

It was so clear, that I hate my TV, so I am now looking at changing my mind.

I want to get a LCD about 20" that is clear to view like the iMac, then hopefully with the new mac mini, with front row and and eyeTV I can dump my TV and DVD, put a nice set of BOSE speakers and I have a nice TV, or do you think the new mac mini will come with optical audio, then can put it into my 8 year old sony home 5.1 system.

these my guess would cost about $1200. This would be cheaper than buying a LCD HD TV, when I could have more with an LCD mac mini and usb TV.

Then with the 4000 - 7000 I want a 30" HD apple display with hopefully an quad 64bit intel 4GB RAM, 512 MB video, and as much HD space as I can afford. To cut cost will purchase RAM and HD external is some much cheaper.

Does this sound like a nice setup?

I don't know if you worked out the price on any of this stuff, but I see no way you'd get good quality stuff and be able to afford it on the budget you've suggested. ($500 for a mac mini, a few hundred for the 20'' LCD, a few hundred for the EyETV if you don't already have it, and Bose speakers are expensive) Oh and also, video quality on this mac mini, especially when using eye tv, wouldn't be any better than a new TV... probably not even as good.

I'd say http://www.electronics-expo.com/product.jsp?x=KLVS23A10&zipz=11001 would be a better option than the Mac mini setup.

 

[munkees]

for the mac mini, i will be going for the cheapest one, I can update the mem later, but I do not need a superdrive, have 2 of them in the house. the eyeTV 500 for HD is 199 refurbished.

keyboard + mouse < 100

Dell E196FP (3 yr warrenty) 19", these are nice, seen them at work.

boise companion speaker $80. These little speaker are just amazing. A lot better than my harmon/karmon stick speaks whiched cost sooo much money.

but my guess the new intel mini should have digital out, a new graphics card in it.

so lets look at cost

499 for mac mini $698 with bluetooth wireless keyboard and mouse.
$269 Dell 19"FP
$199 eyeTV 500 HD
total price
$1166
using my sony 5.1 digital speaker system/decoder

upgrade for the future, are HD monitor, and more mem. He I have nice graphics for game playing, plus internet, moive etc. The new mini should have frontrow. it would be a nice setup. Better picture, LCDs will come done more in price in the future. So getting a HD should not be difficult.

My TV is only 19" and it big enough, so I not losing but gaining quality.

 

[Mord]

try to get a widescreen lcd, then the HDTV will fit, otherwise it'll be like a 16" screen with two giant black bars.

 

[generik]

I'd still say get the Apple shares.

Firstly money will grow into more money.. also it will serve to the temptation (aka that 5 grand) from your mind while others are working out the Rev A kinks for you, and finally you can just cash out on your shares towards the end of the year and have a very Apple Christmas '06

 

[jacobj]

I'd still say get the Apple shares.

Firstly money will grow into more money.. also it will serve to the temptation (aka that 5 grand) from your mind while others are working out the Rev A kinks for you, and finally you can just cash out on your shares towards the end of the year and have a very Apple Christmas '06

If going for the shares '06 could be a great or cr*p year.. It all depends on how the intel transition goes..

I'm doing my bit to keep them high!

 

[Counterfit]

but my guess the new intel mini should have digital out, a new graphics card in it.

If not, you'll need a USB adapter of some sort (M-Audio Transit will do, if

my sony 5.1 digital speaker system/decoder

will take another optical source), or there's the M-Audio Sonica Theater if you need to do coaxial digital (it's slightly more expensive, but also does 7.1 directly to powered speakers if you need.)