What to buy from Apple?

What are you planning on using the computers for? If they are just going to be a Internet box, with iLifing, eMacs or iBooks will do the job perfectly. If they are going to be for heavy Photo-shopping, then a PowerMac is the only option, IMHO. But before we can help, we need to know what you want to use the computers for.

You can add more RAM and bigger hard drives later. They are user-installable parts, meaning that even Apple things you're capable of installing them It is cheaper to buy the RAM from another source rather than from Apple.

but be carefull....

You just want to choose your memory very very carefully. Yes, you can save much money, but you definitely want to still buy a brand that has an excellent rep, such as Crutial. Funny, I was just thinking the same thing... I bought a G5 2 gig not long ago and bought all my memory from Kingston and it all made my computer crash. Turned out that Kingston had had a really really big bad batch and they replaced it all. But anyway, Ive heard really good things about Crutial. Anyone have some brand advice?

cruical is defently the source for RAM the hard drive updrages you should rpbably do from apple i dont know if they really over charge for that but for RAM they do and you should go to http://www.crucial.com and run the configurator

If you buy from Crucial, download a different browser and use that to shop online. Crucial charges you less if you don't have cookies from other online merchants.

Since you're an educator, I'd suggest going to a university book store in town that sells Apple computers so you can get the G5 PM right there with the education discount. Get a pair of G5 Dual 2.0GHz. It comes default with 512MB of Crucial/Micron brand RAM (2x256MB) and a Maxtor 160GB SATA HD. Get 2 more sticks of 256MB for each G5 from either Crucial.com or Newegg.com, which sells Crucial RAM cheaper than Crucial.com.

Although it is nice to go to a university's bookstore and buy the comp there in person I dont think you can get the edu discount unless you a student there. I know at my school they asked me when I bought my iPod and I had to show them my id card. If your thinking about going to some school store its probably worth your time to call to make sure they will let you get the discount without being a student at that school specifically...

Daveman Deluxe said:

If you buy from Crucial, download a different browser and use that to shop online. Crucial charges you less if you don't have cookies from other online merchants.

Click to expand...

Are you serious? That sounds pretty crazy.

Does RAM actually PERFORM differently when it is from different vendors?

Or is it just a "it might not work" situation?

nerd said:

Are you serious? That sounds pretty crazy.

Click to expand...

Dead serious.
Attached photo: Same RAM in both cases, the top version is in Safari, bottom is in Camino (which I had heretofore not used). I've seen differences as much as $20 for 512 MB of this particular RAM (I think PC2100 SODIMM).

Daveman Deluxe said:

Dead serious.
Attached photo: Same RAM in both cases, the top version is in Safari, bottom is in Camino (which I had heretofore not used). I've seen differences as much as $20 for 512 MB of this particular RAM (I think PC2100 SODIMM).

Click to expand...

That sucks. I wouldn't do buisness with them... I wonder if they give a better deal to Windows users. ;-) Crooks. At least when i bought my ram at the Apple store today, they overchaged me the same amount as anyone else. (Please note, I intended the last comment as a joke)

For ram make sure it from a quilty vendor. Also it might be help to find out what the CL is on the G5 ram (now if some knew that number off hand it would be great).

DDR400 (PC3200) has diffence in them them selves. Try to find a ram that has a CL of 2.0 because that among the faster ram you are going to get and since ti timing are the lowest you can get then it can easily ajust it self to the ramn that comes with it. it going to cost a little more but there no point to put slower ram with a processor as powerful as the PowerG5. the good stuff is the best way to go. Heck you could just take out the 256 that comes with ti and just install all the ram from the same manfactor so you know that there will not be a problem.

Daveman Deluxe said:

Dead serious.
Attached photo: Same RAM in both cases, the top version is in Safari, bottom is in Camino (which I had heretofore not used). I've seen differences as much as $20 for 512 MB of this particular RAM (I think PC2100 SODIMM).

Click to expand...

My understanding of the issue was that it wasn't necessarily whether you had cookies from other merchants (which Crucial's website can't even detect; a website can't read cookies from other sites at all). The problem is that the first time you visit Crucial's site, you get randomly assigned a cookie value. Based on this cookie value, you get random prices; some people get higher prices, some get lower prices.

Timelessblur said:

DDR400 (PC3200) has diffence in them them selves. Try to find a ram that has a CL of 2.0 because that among the faster ram you are going to get and since ti timing are the lowest you can get then it can easily ajust it self to the ramn that comes with it.

Click to expand...

Actually, I've heard reports that the G5 has many more problems with RAM that's timed at anything other than CL3. While some people have had CL2.5 RAM work OK, I know that the best results have come from CL3 RAM in the end.

numark said:

Actually, I've heard reports that the G5 has many more problems with RAM that's timed at anything other than CL3. While some people have had CL2.5 RAM work OK, I know that the best results have come from CL3 RAM in the end.

Click to expand...

some needs to find out. And why the hell is Apple using CL3 ram for a chip as fast as the G5. It slows down the computer. The reason I say use CL2 ram is it can always run slower at CL3. The only excuss I can think of is if it ECC ram but then apple would require you to have ECC ram.

Well the ram apple sells is even more of a rip off that I already though. You can get much better ram for a cheaper price. Well it is a pre built computer......