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Advice for newbie

V

Viet-my

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Hey guys, I was hoping to get your opinions before I go out and waste alot of money. I run a Vietnamese newspaper and for this I'm constantly running photoshop and indesign. My question is would an Imac with the following configuration be enough or should I just buy a powermac? Would the dual be that much of a difference for just these two programs?

iMac
• 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 2 DIMMs
• 250GB Serial ATA drive
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module
• Keyboard and Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
• APP for iMac/eMac - Enrollment Kit
• 20-inch widescreen LCD
• 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB video memory
Subtotal $2,326.00

• Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5
• 2GB DDR400 SDRAM (PC3200) - 4x512
• 250GB Serial ATA - 7200rpm
• ATI Radeon 9600 XT w/128MB DDR SDRAM
• Apple Cinema Display (20" flat panel)
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module
• 56k V.92 internal modem
• 8x SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• Apple Keyboard & Apple Mouse - U.S. English
• Mac OS X - U.S. English
• APP for Power Mac (w/ or w/o display) - Enrollment Kit
Subtotal $4,323.00


Thanks in advance!
 
Unless you are doing some really high-powered Photoshop stuff, or working with really large files, the iMac should be powerful enough to run both InDesign and Photoshop without a hitch.

I don't know that you would immediately see significant performance differences for the type of applications you'd be using if you went with the PowerMac. However, if you are planning to grow, and as such have additional requirements in the future, I'd lean towards the PowerMac simply because it will give you some flexibility in expansion, which is generally important for a business user.
 
EMW, thanks for your reply. I decided on the Imac with the following config

• 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
• 250GB Serial ATA drive
• AirPort Extreme Card
• Bluetooth Module
• Keyboard and Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
• APP for iMac/eMac - Enrollment Kit
• 20-inch widescreen LCD
• 1.8GHz PowerPC G5
• SuperDrive (DVD-R/CD-RW)
• NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra w/64MB video memory

Subtotal $2,596.00

Got the 1 DIMM just in case we need more memory.

Thanks!
 
Viet-my said:
• 1GB DDR400 SDRAM - 1 DIMM
Click to expand...

i'd start by ordering from apple with a 512 MB RAM, maybe. or just take the 256 MB out and order whatever you need from third party. you are wasting a lot of money getting the 1 GB stick from apple. (and possibly time - because BTO will take longer...)

check here:

http://dealram.com/prices/27/512MB.html

i realize these are generic RAM prices, but for $500+ apple's charging, you can get two 1 GB RAMs kingston.
 
jxyama- Excuse me for my ignorance but I do not know much about this. Are there any cons to ordering generic memory? And If I change the order to 256mb is it easy to take that out and install 2 1gb sticks? I read somewhere here that it was better to order the original and install the generic in the other slot. The stick from apple with the edu discount was $472.00. I was gonna get the other stick from crucial. But I probably will order 2 off this sight, if thats the best way to go.
 
obviously, with the iMac being so new, I don't know how easy it is to put in the RAM. but if the back panel opens as advertised, i think it will take you less than 10 minutes to put in the RAM.

the generic RAMs are usually less fault tolerant. they are the lesser quality ones. but if you can get one with guarantees, you should be fine. for most cases, generic RAMs work just fine. but in this case, i saw kingston RAMs, (which is not generic) which you could get two of 1 GB RAMs for the price apple charges for one...
 
Apple is charging me $472. while 2 kingstons are only $468. And you say it isn't generic? Guess this is a no brainer then. Thanks man!
 
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