Media Gurus: Advice Needed

[typewriterchimp]

Hi everyone,

I need some buying advice for a graphics/media machine on the cheap. Here is a close approximation of what it will be used for:

adobe photoshop and adobe imageready CS2
final cut pro (video captured using sony dv cam)
sound editing using Audacity
rare use of flash and dreamweaver

since this is a budget machine, I know that performance isn't going to rock my socks, so I'm not going for g5 performance here. But what kind of g4 would handle this work? A dual 500mhz system? A single processor 800 quicksilver?

And since I'm asking: is it better to go with a powermac or mac mini? the mini will give a fast g4, but I'm concerned that it can't hold enough ram. and I would definitely have to buy a more expensive, external drive to hold footage and other media. I'm leaning toward a powermac (although obvioulsy I have no clue which kind) because I have dvd burner and new hdd that I can swipe from my "old" pc.

I appreciate any advice any folks can offer. Budget enthusiasts, frugal pros, tech heads, chime in!

thanks

-c

 

[FF_productions]

What is your budget?

 

[typewriterchimp]

budget:

600 bucks w/no display. I have a nice 17" lg screen already.

-c

 

[maxterpiece]

600 bucks w/no display. I have a nice 17" lg screen already.

-c

hop around on ebay for a couple of weeks. Look for cheap buy-it-nows. I would try to find the first 1.6ghz G5 tower. They average around $700-$900, depending on RAM, but if you spend some time on it I bet you could find one for $600 or so.

 

[iEdd]

What maxterpiece said sounds impressive. You were expecting an 800MHz for $600, but if you can break the budget and go to about $800 a 1.6Ghz G5 would be much nicer with better VRAM, RAM and HDD.