Is this a good deal?

[galstaph]

I am contemplating getting another mac to complement my ibook. i came across this one in a local paper:

"POWERMAC G5 with 1.6Ghz processor, 160 GB and 300 GB hard drives, 768 MB RAM, 4x DVD/CD burner, Radeon 9800 video card with 256 MB. Fantastic for video editing, working with music and photo files, games, etc. and works flawlessly. Has USB2 (3 ports), Firewire 400 (2 ports)/800 (1 port), Gigabit ethernet, and optical audio out. Comes with OS X 10.4 "Tiger" with installation disks and PowerMac G5 Software Install and Restore DVD. Software bundled by Apple includes iLife and Quicken. Video card can power 2 monitors and will include 2 17" NEC CRT monitors if you would like. $1000. obo"

Is this a good machine/deal? I know it would kick butt on my ibook, but would it be one of those "I should have spent 300$ more for a macbook or bought a intel mini" kinda regrets?

 

[miles01110]

For $1000 that's a pretty good buy IMO. If you are worried about lagging behind as far as intel goes, I would expect intel processor upgrades for G5 models out soon...so for maybe $1300 total you'd have a really good system.

 

[pianoman]

sounds like a good deal to me!

 

[michaeldmartin]

Personally; i'd get an imac instead; it'll be faster for just about anything.

 

[steamboat26]

Wouldn't it depend on which programs you plan to use? If you are trying to do some heavy editing/processor intensive non universal applications, i would go for the powermac. If you want to have intel and powerpc macs, or if the programs you use are universal; go for a mini, macbook, or imac.

 

[®îçhå®?]

It does sound like a good deal. If you buy it, say how you rte it and if it was good value in the end. See if he can preintall a few more apps on it as well such as photoshop or something to make it better value for you.

 

[Unspeaked]

I'm with the guy who says get an iMac instead.

A year or two down the road, the PPC chips are going to feel ancient; any Intel chip is going to still be relatively new.

I mean, that's a 3 year old machine.

Also, you've already get an iBook, so you don't want to paint yourself in the corner and have TWO legacy machines running pre-Intel chips.

But that's just my opinion...

 

[michaeldmartin]

Wouldn't it depend on which programs you plan to use? If you are trying to do some heavy editing/processor intensive non universal applications, i would go for the powermac. If you want to have intel and powerpc macs, or if the programs you use are universal; go for a mini, macbook, or imac.

The powerpc can be slightly faster after it significantly passes the the clock speed of the core duo because it's a laptop processor; a quad G5 will Encode a H.264 movie faster than an imac; a 1.6GHz g5 will encode SLOWER than the imac.

 

[KingYaba]

I'd rather have that G5 and the two monitors than a macbook.

 

[MovieCutter]

Eh, that's an ok deal. I'd spend the extra couple hundred on an iMac. The 1.6 G5 is a bit slow in my opinion. I mean, I bought a Dual 2Ghz G5 PowerMac off of eBay a while back for $1000 (same GPU, RAM, and HD), granted it had a dented case, but the thing worked like new.