PM G5 Dual 1.8 4GB RAM - How useful??

That's a plenty capable machine, and very expandable... you should be able to plunk down 16 GB RAM.

It'll be good for photoshopping, Aperture/Lightroom, should be fine for video editing too (FCS etc).

It's not as fast as your MBP, but you can have a hell of a lot more storage (and RAM) in it.

Firefly2002 said:

That's a plenty capable machine, and very expandable... you should be able to plunk down 16 GB RAM.

It'll be good for photoshopping, Aperture/Lightroom, should be fine for video editing too (FCS etc).

It's not as fast as your MBP, but you can have a hell of a lot more storage (and RAM) in it.

Click to expand...

That is all true except for the ram. There were two models of the Dual 1.8Ghz G5s, one with 4 slots for memory and one with 8 slots for memory. Each slot can hold a maximum of 1gig.

I have the 8 gig model and I love my G5, its my Tivo unit and it works like a champ. I am so glad I got it instead of a Mini!!!!

-iGrant

I got the dual 2.0 late 2005 model (supports 16 gigs of ram, 4 pci-e slots) instead of a new mini. I love it. Aside from being a G5 and soon to be unsupported its amazing. It benchmarks the same as my macbook which is saying something considering the age difference.

4 gigs of ram is more then enough for anything too. That machine should scream with leopard on it!

iGrant said:

That is all true except for the ram. There were two models of the Dual 1.8Ghz G5s, one with 4 slots for memory and one with 8 slots for memory. Each slot can hold a maximum of 1gig.

I have the 8 gig model and I love my G5, its my Tivo unit and it works like a champ. I am so glad I got it instead of a Mini!!!!

-iGrant

Click to expand...

Oh hm. I'd thought that it was only the 1.6 that was crippled like that. I also thought that Barefeats had shown you could actually use 2 GB DIMMs..... was that on a different model, then?

Firefly2002 said:

Oh hm. I'd thought that it was only the 1.6 that was crippled like that. I also thought that Barefeats had shown you could actually use 2 GB DIMMs..... was that on a different model, then?

Click to expand...

The Dual-Processor G5s (that is, all models up to 2 GHz which were produced before October 2005) use PC3200 DDR memory, the maximum RAM module is 1 GB

The Dual-core G5s (2 GHz and up) introduced Oct 2005 use DDR2-533 memory and can take 2 GB modules.

Note that there is an overlap in speed at the 2 GHz mark, so you have to be careful in specifying which machine you have.

I recently bought a used dual 2.0 G5 with 5 gigs of Ram (close to what you have) and I was impressed with it's speed using Photoshop CS2. I'm not an experienced computer user, but I was doing 300mg files with reasonable speed. With the expansion options, expecially the graphic cards, a second HD for a scratch disk, I think the dual 1.8 G5 is a great option. Right now they sell for decent prices on Craig's list. If you are patient like I was, a very good deal will swing your way with all the features you want.

I am going to stick with CS2 and Tiger so that I can squeeze out the performance of what the G5 was designed for. Hopefully getting the previous generation of software is an option for you.

Mike

Leopard

A good dual G5 will rock with Leopard as Leopard is designed to take more advantage of multiple processors than Tiger ever did.

I've heard conflicting reports on that, and would love to hear from some designers on it, in practical terms (i.e., noticeable performance). I had heard that Leopard actually runs slower on G5s, and then others say it runs faster. So far I've stuck with Tiger...