My local TigerTech Apple reseller at the University of Missouri is selling the 20-inch G5 iMacs with iSight for just $1299. The new Intel ones are the same as normal edu discount at $1599. With that said, I am switching from a Dual Core 2ghz PowerMac anyway. I am doing this to save money and figure the Intel Core Duo iMac 2ghz is going to be up there in terms of performance right now with the PowerMac dual core. Is that true?
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G5 or Intel
- Thread starter dwd3885
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The dual G5 can be faster than the Intel core duo
The G5 ddual core Power Mac can be faster than the Intel core Duo. It depends on what you do with the computers. The Power Mac can hold more RAM and can have internal RAID disks and can have a better graphics card. The G5 Power Mac could be much faster for things like editing video or other applications that move huge amounts of data around.
You have to look at the whole computer and what is the bottle neck for your major aplication. If the CPU is not the limiting factor then changing it out will not help much. That said for uses like transcoding audio/video files the CPU is the bottle neck
There are some practical conciderations too. Like the "pro apps" will not run on the Intel procesor. So no FCP on the Intel iMac. Resale value of the G4 based Macs will not be good in a few years if that matters
But then again if the major use of the computer is Word Procssing, Web and Email then the 20 G4 iMac is a bargin but then the Mac Mini would work for that.
Yes I know "totally unhelpfull" But if you want better advice you need to ask very specific questions.
dwd3885 said:
The G5 ddual core Power Mac can be faster than the Intel core Duo. It depends on what you do with the computers. The Power Mac can hold more RAM and can have internal RAID disks and can have a better graphics card. The G5 Power Mac could be much faster for things like editing video or other applications that move huge amounts of data around.
You have to look at the whole computer and what is the bottle neck for your major aplication. If the CPU is not the limiting factor then changing it out will not help much. That said for uses like transcoding audio/video files the CPU is the bottle neck
There are some practical conciderations too. Like the "pro apps" will not run on the Intel procesor. So no FCP on the Intel iMac. Resale value of the G4 based Macs will not be good in a few years if that matters
But then again if the major use of the computer is Word Procssing, Web and Email then the 20 G4 iMac is a bargin but then the Mac Mini would work for that.
Yes I know "totally unhelpfull" But if you want better advice you need to ask very specific questions.
ChrisA said:
yeah, i had more specific question, but my battery on my laptop was about to die so i had to post! lol.
After selling my Dell 2005FPW and Dual Core, I'd be saving major dough, which is my goal for doing this. But I wouldn't do it for an iMac G5 2.1ghz. I am also thinking that with Apple switching to intel in the next year, the G5 resale value will not be as high. I do buy computers every 2 years or more often though, so I can handle being able to only use a computer for a year and then selling it and buying a new one.
I know the intel imac won't run FCP or Photoshop stuff, but they will around March is what was said. Really, I would love to do all that stuff on my computer, but all I really do is encode movies, convert video files (all with podner and handbrake-both Universal already) and the basic stuff. SO I think the intel iMac would be great for that.
I thought I'd care about upgrading factors, but I really don't believe in that anymore, making a 5 year old computer last longer is not something I would love to do, I'd rather just buy a new one.
I would in essence be saving $700 to get the new intel imac instead of the dual core powermac 2ghz.
I do a lot of audio stuff as well, i'd love to do soundtrack pro stuff, but i can wait until it's universal. I'm actually wanting to go into the entertainment business in the audio production/mixing field.
I also know the review up at ars, but it compares the 1.83 imac to the 2.5 Dual CPU Powermac. I think a better comparision would be the 2ghz intel vs the 2ghz powermac
This is a lot I know. thanks for your input.
If you buy the intel imacs you can rest assured that you will have it for years to come. A G5 will eventually become unsupported in 2-3 years time, so you're throwing your money away unless you have a business and need the raw horsepower to make money. I'd go for a new intel imac for the peace of mind!