Dual G4 or Single G5

[Drew01]

I need a desktop computer to hold thousands of family photos and lots of music (piped to the stereo through some sort of wireless arrangement) and to occasionally edit video and burn dvds.

Does anyone have any comments on whether I'm better off with a Dual G4 1.25 or a single G5 1.6 (both at the very top of my budget).

I've been waiting for upgrades and resulting lower prices on refurbished computers for about six months now, and am about to give up.

Thanks!

[jkaz]

i've researched this thoroughly for somone who wants to do ALOT of video editing and dvd authoring, and i recommended the single processor g5.

because from what i've read, the biggest use of the dual processor is for rendering- in this case for video effects, etc.

64bit technology + all of the new up and coming potentials is a better route, in my opinion, for anyone that isn't going to be constantly using their machine as a render farm.

seeing how you will only occasionaly be editing or authoring, which in my opinion are the bigger processor power hogs, i definately recommend the g5

[AppleMatt]

The dual G4 would be a benefit when rendering, but looking to the future Apple is going to put everything they can into optimising Mac OS X and all their apps to push the G5 to it's limits.

You can expect the performance of all machines to go up with 10.4 etc, but I strongly believe the performance increase of G5's will be much greater than G4's. This is partly due to common sense, but also due to all the input we've been receiving about optimised compilers etc etc. It's just getting started.

Plus, just look at it

AppleMatt

[Horrortaxi]

Your demands are not too high. Any G4, and even a fast G3, can handle what you want to do.

But my basic rule of computer buying is to buy the biggest baddest thing you can afford. Just know that anything you buy off the shelf today is capable, so don't break the bank.

[naodx]

Maybe this will give you an idea on the difference in rendering speeds between a dual g4 and a single g5.

http://www.barefeats.com/fcp4.html

[Drew01]

This is all very helpful. Maybe a slightly-used single G4 is all I need.

An additional consideration for me is that the G5s are just so enormous.

Thanks.

[3-22]

Originally Posted by Drew01

I need a desktop computer to hold thousands of family photos and lots of music (piped to the stereo through some sort of wireless arrangement) and to occasionally edit video and burn dvds.

Does anyone have any comments on whether I'm better off with a Dual G4 1.25 or a single G5 1.6 (both at the very top of my budget).

I've been waiting for upgrades and resulting lower prices on refurbished computers for about six months now, and am about to give up.

Thanks!

As other people commented, what you mentioned isn't very taxing on the system. I'd suggest a used or preferably refurbed single 1Ghz if you want to keep the price down. Heck, even an eMac would work just fine. Upgrade the memory to atleast 1GB whatever you get. I know people who edit on an 867mhz without problems, just the final render might take a while but just let it run overnight.

[Keith Purfield]

When you say that they're at the top of your budget, did you pick more RAM than they'd come with?

Because if you did, and you picked it from Apple, you're wasting money. Always get the minimum RAM from Apple, and buy more for cheaper from Crucial, RAMJet or others.

[adrianjt]

i'm notorious for running off an oily rag, in recent years weve had the gamut, our current top spec is a pb12" 1.33 & a dp mdd 1.25 (these were the first new macs i'd bought since my 1st mac, an se30), both are fast enough for the prepress & design we do. at home i use a 466 with a 800mhz, (1mb cache) upgrade which worked out very cheap, from ebay, i find this system at least 20% faster than the qs 800 256kb cache, which i find about the same speed as a 533 1mb cache. anything with a 133 bus is really dropping in price, over christmas i saw a 400mhz agp go for $320au ($250us?) incredible. i think any digital audio or gigabit ethernet boxes offer the best power/price ratio, (but who wants to run tiger on a sub 733mhz box...)

one thing about apple is they are very careful with their price v performance, & the way they stage the release of technology, combo here, 400mb fw there, 600mhz bus here, 400mhz ddr ram there...the marketing deot are in on everything

id buy only what you really need, i mean whats another $700 going to achieve when you only sit there a few hours a day, just surf while you wait, whats the rush?, spend the rest on a itunes server, or a new pair of shoes

finally, i guess this is obvious to most, macs are incredibly reliable, i havent had any serious hardware failures (besides the occasional hard drive & power supply), so buying 2nd hand shouldnt matter

i know they are cool but being a fashion victim (when the money could be better spent) is not

dismounting high horse

hey maybe wait for the headless imac...$550??

[mrgreen4242]

Have you considered a maxed out 20" iMac? It's the same speed as a single CPU powermac, but you get a nice 20" screen. A 20" with 250gb HD, and 1gb of Apple ram (read: rip-off) and you're still at less than a base PM 1.8ghz w/ a 20" ACD... $2,225 (1.8ghz, 1gb, 250gb, SD, 5200ultra, 20" WS LCD) vs. $2500 (1.8ghz, 512mb, 160gb, SD, 5200ultra, 20" WS LCD).

Just a thought...

Rob

Oh, Xbench puts the single 1.8ghz G5 at a little faster than a DP 1.25ghz G4 in most tests, FWIW.

[Blue Velvet]

MDD G4s are very noisy, a crucial factor for some.

www.g4noise.com

[Lord Blackadder]

You should be fine with a G4 machine. I do everything you mention on my G4 (Dual 533), and it has no problems managing my photos, playing music through the Airport Express to a stereo, burning DVD's, and loads of other stuff. Any speed issues I have would be solved with a faster G4 like you are considering, provided you feed it 1GB+ of RAM.

Look for the last G4 towers Apple sold - a Dual 1.42, or Single 1.25 dual boot. As mentioned above, keep the noise issue in mind - However the last G4 towers (released in 2003 till being discontinued last summer) with Firewire 800 did not have the noise problem.

There are quite a few kits for dealing with MDD noise issues, so don't let that completely scare you away from G4s.

[Blue Velvet]

Originally Posted by Lord Blackadder

Look for the last G4 towers Apple sold - a Dual 1.42, or Single 1.25 dual boot. As mentioned above, keep the noise issue in mind - However the last G4 towers (released in 2003 till being discontinued last summer) with Firewire 800 did not have the noise problem.

There are quite a few kits for dealing with MDD noise issues, so don't let that completely scare you away from G4s.

I beg to differ being the (sometimes) proud owner of a dual 1.42 purchased July 2003.

If the noise issue had been fixed with these models, I dread to think what the unfixed models were like.

I eventually spent about 200 euros on a Verax kit (M10+M11) to shut the damned thing up. And it wasn't easy putting it in...

Before it was neutered, I couldn't use iTunes without waking up the neighbours.

[Sir_Giggles]

I'd go with a G5 simply because it is much much quieter. The high speed of the front side bus means multi-tasking is alot smoother. The chipset, memory architecture, SATA drives, pretty much everything is new and upgraded technology, even if you cant see it.

[slooksterPSV]

I suggest the G5, it'll be faster and run all apps natively for 32-bit. Since its 64-bit processor, its not being used to its fullest potential in sense that there aren't that many (if any) 64-bit apps out yet. G5 will better suit you and you won't have to upgrade it too often.

[Mertzen]

A tough question indeed .. dual really beats single but then again the G4 is so old .. the single PM G5 is basically a repackaged iMac with the same 1/3 CPU bus ..

If you don't have a screen I would look into a nicely loaded iMac G5 ..

[Sir_Giggles]

Originally Posted by Mertzen

A tough question indeed .. dual really beats single but then again the G4 is so old .. the single PM G5 is basically a repackaged iMac with the same 1/3 CPU bus ..

If you don't have a screen I would look into a nicely loaded iMac G5 ..

You can always look at refurbished or private sales of dual G5's. The latter no taxes.

[cluthz]

If you are on a budget I would get a iMac G5.
The 17 inch model can be had for $1299, even cheaper if you can get EDU discount. Even a eMac will do videoediting very well, and its only $799..
You will also need an additional 512MB RAM sick, shouldn't cost more than $80-$100.

Depending on how much video you'll edit (and how much music you have), might consider to get a larger HD. A new HD is easy to install in the iMac (it's often cheaper to replace it yourself than make apple upgrade it for you)

[840quadra]

I am in the same point as the topic starter.

Since I have a G3 upgraded to a G4 at this point, I am scrapping my project of building a G4 Quicksilver (in parts) and am going to buy a G5 Dual 2.0 for my next computer.

I am reading about the Tiger OS, which is mostly vented in the G5 direction, and I am excited to give it a try on a G5.

I am sure I will finish my Quicksiver project, since I alredy have a brand new Case (surpluss never used or had anything installed in it), Motherboard, and Power supply. I will just wait on it, and buy the fastest DP G4 Upgrade card I can find in a few months or so.