iMac G5 Worth it for first Desktop Mac?

I would find a cheap intel based Mac Mini instead since they will run much faster.

tomthedude said:

Hi,
Before I start, I would just like to say I have NEVER owned a Mac.

I have seen that iMac G5's are going for quite cheap on eBay. Would you say it is worth it for a first time Mac user? I will probably upgrade the RAM and HDD, and sell it for a higher price eventually. Good choice?
-Tom-

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As long as its substantially cheaper than a refurb, it'll run just great!

G5 iMacs are nice!
I'm fond of them, and would like the 24" myself.

xxjuicymintxx said:

G5 iMacs are nice!
I'm fond of them, and would like the 24" myself.

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im pretty sure they never made a 24inch g5 imac

but yea i think the g5 is a nice entry system!

I have a 2.5 year old 20" iMac G5 (rev.B); I've upgraded the memory to 2GB and installed Leopard and it runs beautifully for MOST of what I use it for.

There are only two issues I've come across:

1. Making adjustments to 12 megapixel RAW photographs in Aperture takes several seconds (so I'm waiting for a 24" 2.8GHz C2D model to arrive any day now to replace it so my parents can have the G5 which will be perfect for their JPEG photos)

2. It struggles to play 720p movie trailers - sometimes it's perfectly smooth, sometimes it stutters a bit.

Overall it's been a fantastic reliable computer so long as you're not planning to do seriously heavy duty photo editing (or of course AVCHD video editing which is even more of a strain on a processor). It can obviously cope just fine with 'basic' photo and video processing and runs Photoshop CS3 surprisingly snappily.

It looks great too, a very original design which graces our living room (and acts as our TV too).

I'd see if you could find a cheapish Intel one before you get a G5 or at least the G5 17". The G5 17" is loud and tons of them have faulty power supplies and logic boards. Most of the bad ones should have been replaced already but the Repair Extension Program for most of them has ended.

If it's purely a question of price grab a G5 20" and it will still do pretty much anything you want.

jonathandodson said:

I'd see if you could find a cheapish Intel one before you get a G5 or at least the G5 17". The G5 17" is loud and tons of them have faulty power supplies and logic boards. Most of the bad ones should have been replaced already but the Repair Extension Program for most of them has ended.

If it's purely a question of price grab a G5 20" and it will still do pretty much anything you want.

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my brothers 17 had never had problems and always worked fine nothing ever wrong with it and its a 1.8ghz 250gb 512mb could use a ram upgrade espically on leopard and using the cs3 premium suite. otherwise i think the imac g5 is a great choice .