REFURBISHED Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 VS. NEW Dual-core 2.3GHz PowerPC G5

[faustofernos]

I've noticed that Apple currently is selling refurbished PowerMacs. I was wondering which would be a better purchase, considering the line is going to Intel in a year.

For running Logic (recording an hour's worth of audio, then encoding to mp3 for a podcast) Garageband, iMovie, FinalCut, and Photoshop. Speed is important, but fan noise is important as well as useability for the future.

Help me out guys! What should I get? I need a new PowerMac now.

1-REFURBISHED Dual Processor 2.5 GHZ Single Core PowerMac
$2,049.00
Apple Certified Refurbished Power Mac G5
- Dual 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 processor
- 1.25GHz frontside bus/processor
- 512MB DDR400 SDRAM
- 160GB Serial ATA
- 8x SuperDrive
- Three PCI Slots
- ATI Radeon 9600 XT
- 128MB DDR video memory
- 56K internal modem

2-NEW Dual-Core 2.3GHZ Midrange Powermac
$2,499.00
- Dual-core 2.3GHz PowerPC G5 processor
- 1.15GHz frontside bus per processor
- 1MB L2 cache per core
- 512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-4200)
- 250GB Serial ATA hard drive
- 16x SuperDrive (double-layer)
- Three open PCI-Express expansion slots
- NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256MB GDDR SDRAM

 

[FFTT]

The dual 2.5 was the first liquid cooled tower and seems to have issues with
the cooling system and noise.

The dual 2.7 used a different supplier for the cooling system, but
I'd just go for a new dual core.

Adding the PCI-Express motherboard in the dual cores and Quad is a major revision replacing the PCI and PCI-X AGP graphics buss of the previous dual processors models.

The only reason one might go for a previous AGP model at this point would be to take advantage of current AGP audio cards that seem to be dragging
behind in the forced move to PCI-Express.

 

[dmw007]

I would go for the new Dual-Core 2.3GHz Power Mac G5. Though, I recommend upgrading the RAM to at least 1GB (preferably 2GB+).

 

[faustofernos]

Wont be using the pci ports except to upgrade the graphics card.

my bet is the newer 2.3 dual-core is quieter than the other ones, and will run smoother. But is it faster or slower (generally speaking) than the dual (single core) 2.5? it seems odd that it would be.

The dual 2.5 was the first liquid cooled tower and seems to have issues with
the cooling system and noise.

The dual 2.7 used a different supplier for the cooling system, but
I'd just go for a new dual core.

Adding the PCI-Express motherboard in the dual cores and Quad is a major revision replacing the PCI and PCI-X AGP graphics buss of the previous dual processors models.

The only reason one might go for a previous AGP model at this point would be to take advantage of current AGP audio cards that seem to be dragging
behind in the forced move to PCI-Express.