Apple Buy iMac or Powermac? Or nothing?

Hello,

Currently I'm the proud owner of a 12" Powerbook (specs in sig) and when I'm at home its 12" desktop is expanded over a 20" Dell Widescreen TFT. It has proven to be a excellent combination. But since I've had enough of PC, I'm fully switching to Mac and I'm selling my Desktop PC (specs in sig).

The 1,Ghx G4 is doing a great job, but faster is always better. So I'm looking for a desktop mac. I don't have any budget, but the budget will be about 2000€. So now my choice is between

- iMac 20" (2,1Ghz G5; 1,5GB Ram; 250GB HD; Radeon X600; Airport & Bluetooth & iSight & remote) for 1916€

- Powermac (2Ghz dual-core G5; 1GB Ram; 250GB HD; Geforce 6600; Airport & Bluetooth) for: 2197€


Personally I think the iMac is a better choice.. it comes with everything standard, except alot of ram. Airport/Bluetooth/iSight/Frontrow-remote... all built in! Even a big harddrive comes standard. Oh, not to mention you get a 20" Widescreen with it aswell (worth at least 500€).

A real bargain.

But since I already have a 20" Widescreen display I might aswell use it (it has several connections and you can switch very easy between different inputs). So I might aswell go for the PowerMac. (This is the only reason, I'm considering this)

I know you I could connect the Dell display to the iMac and expand the desktop with a hack, but I have my doubts if that works well..

The Powermac has an endless amount of power, but do I really need all that power?

Here is a list of programs I will be running:
Adobe Creative suite 2 (Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign & Bridge)
Office for Mac (Word, Excell and Powerpoint)
MSN/Browser/Email client/FTP client
iTunes/iCal/Frontrow/Keynote
Mplayer/...

I don't really need this for work/school, although it comes in handy. Just personal use really.


The third option is that I save my money and buy a nice dSLR camera. (Nikon D-70 probably)

All idea's/opinions are very welcome. I know I'm kind of blur here.. because I don't have a clue. Personally I tend towards the iMac, because its a more interesting all-in-one package.

L

 

i say, buy an older single 1.8ghz g5 powermac from somewhere, and use your saved money for a digi-SLR camera. i have that particular powermac, and with the proper amount of ram (good luck doing anything whatsoever without at least 512mb... ive got 1.24gb) its a damned fast machine ans unless youre doing extreme 3D rendering, or high quality movie encoding/rendering, its all you need (even those two things it does pretty decently.)

i use mine for photoshop CS
sketchup 5
movie encoding (for my ipod)
iTunes
web browsing/instant messaging
Unreal Tournament 2004
and Quake 3: Arena

often times many of those at once without noticing any sort of sluggishness.
its really quite a wonderful machine.

so, to briefly sum this up, unless youre going to need massive computing power for thinks like HD movie rendering or 3D rendering with more polygons than the Earth's population, youll be fine with a single 1.6ghz Powermac G5 with at least 640mb ram and maybe a second SATA hard drive.


Cheers.

.::Simon

 

I'd go against buying second hand stuff, especially the more expensive Apple products. Simply because then you've got the option to buy Applecare, plus a 1yr warranty, which you won't get second hand.

Another thing to take into consideration, is the switch to intel.

 

the switch to intel is starting with the low end machines like the mac mini and the ibooks. the powermacs and imacs wont be happening till mid-late 2007.
and apple will still support the PPC versions of their software for a few years after that.
and as for buying second hand macs, www.macofalltrades.com has a great warrenty system. and you can buy the apple care plans from apple for 2nd hand stuff (i think)

 

Out of the two I would have the iMac for sure. Sell the Dell Widescreen if needs be, you ought to be able to get a good price considering they are so sought after.

Alternatively I used the Screen spanning hack on my iBook and it works beautifully. The only problem is the iBook's distinct lack of graphics ram (it has 32mb), so when spanning the pretty OSX interfaces (You know, the dashboard zooming etc) don't work so smoothly. It's not as pretty but it still works fine. However with the iMac I can't see this being too much of a problem since it has a MUCH more powerful graphics card (128Mb x600). iMac

 

You can buy Applecare within one year of the purchase date, my bad!

 

i really suggest against all-in-one computers because of the serious lack up upgradability in the future. in 6 months, that graphics card will be almost useless. so you'd eventually want to upgrade. that pretty much impossible in the imac. but the powermac its really quite easy.

 

I agree that the upgrade possibility's of the iMac or limited. But please, don't say a "ATI Radeon X600 XT with 128MB DDR video memory" is going to be useless in six months, thats just ridiculous. Notice that Games aren't mentioned in the things I use this for.

My powerbook has an 'NVIDIA GeForce FX Go5200 graphics card with 64MB DDR memory' and it still copes fine with everything I throw at it. I have used CS 2 on it and everything still works fine.

It is nice to know that it CAN be upgraded, but upgrading a mac is more expensive aswell.. so I was not planning on doing that. If I would get the powermac I would probably upgrade the Ram after a few months. But the iMac would have 1,5gig Ram.. thats double then my Powerbook has, I think that will be more then enough.

Buying second hand, I'm not considering. People ask crazy prices for second hand mac equipment. I have worked in a second hand electronics store and people don't part from there mac for a bargain price.

Selling the dell is not an option either as I use it for expanding my desktop on my Powerbook. Basically I love it too much...

So yeah, I think the iMac 20" Is the most sensible option. I would though, like to see this 'expanded desktop-hack' in person on a iMac. That would convince me!

Then I would have 2x 20" on it! That would make the iMac the perfection solution. As I would get to use this screen for 2 computers! + Bouth can work without it (can use it to watch TV).

L

I guess I can start saving up and looking for weekend-jobs. LoL.
Thanks for the help. Going to ask a mac-freak teacher at my school aswell. Maybe he knows more technical information on how well this hack works.

 

http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2004/10/imacscreenspanning/index.php

Although you've probably already seen that, just thought I'd share for the people that haven't

 

I had heard all that the article says but its nice to read it from a pretty good website! Still I would like to test this.. The graphics card in the iMac is alot better then in my Powerbook, so it should definatly be powerfull enough.

Thanks for all the help,
So far I've saved 50€ , only 1950 to go! lol

thanks
L

 

rofl, it's going to take you along time... have you ever considered buying something cheaper?

 

i'd go for the dual-PPCs everytime... no contest tbh.

CS2, FCP and motion will thnak you for it.

 

Indeed no contest. The powermac is offcours bitchin faster then the iMac. But do I really need that power.. my 1.5ghz G4 does 'ok'. So I think the 2.1ghz G5 will be quite comfortable.

My biggest question is about this 'dual-core 2ghz G5'.
They sell it as a "Dual 2ghz", but it isn't. It's not a dual cpu.. its 1 cpu with dualcore.

What does this mean performance wise? Whats the advantage here..

The powermac costs alot more, for alot less... (20" screen, isight, frontrow+remote, more ram, ...)

Webbyman: Just a slow start up to 100€ already, lol. But what can I buy thats cheaper?... iMac seems to be the cheapest solution.

 

Mac Mini?? or is that not powerful enough for wat you need???

 

seebul:
Please read my previous posts! Or at least the first one..

I currently have a 1,5Ghz G4 Powerbook. A 1,42Ghz G4 Mac Mini is actually DOWNGRADING from my current setup. The idea is to get something faster for desktop and keep the powerbook for portability.

L