Price Difference dual 1.25 vs. 1.42 ghz

[coopdog]

? Power Mac G4 Dual 1.25GHz w/1MB L3 per proc.
? 1GB DDR333 SDRAM (PC2700) - 2 DIMMs
? 120GB Ultra ATA drive
? Optical 1 - Apple SuperDrive
? Optical 2 - None
? NVIDIA GeForce4 Titanium w/128MB DDR
? 56K internal modem

= $2,949.00 USD

The same setup but with a Dual 1.42GHz is
$3,249.00 USD

A difference of $300 USD. Is it worth the $300 bucks more??? I would plan to keep a new mac for about 3-4 years, Do you think that after that time either of the models would be totaly out of date and slow??? How about the video card is it worth upgrading from 64MB to 128? Man thoes seem so fast!!! I want one so bad!

 

[macktheknife]

I'm not sure if 100 or 200 Mhz will make that much of a difference when your machine is already pretty fast. However, since you did mention you wanted to keep this for the next 3-4 years, it might be better to just get top-of-the-line now and enjoy the increased performance down the road.

Here's the way I usually look at it. If you plan on keeping your PowerMac for 3 years, and you buy the $2,949 model, you will essentially pay about $81.92. If you buy the $3,249 model, your monthly price rises to $90.25. Could you afford to pay an extra $10 per month? If you're a poor student working at some fast-food joint part-time, that's about an hour's worth of work. If you have a decent white-collar job, that's not even half of an hour worth of work.

If you plan to keep it for four years, the monthly costs of the $2,949 model and the $3,249 model will cost $61.44 and $67.69, respectively--a difference of about $5 per month. Can you afford to skip a MacDonald's Value Meal for one day in a month?

 

[Bear]

Re: Price Difference dual 1.25 vs. 1.42 ghz

Originally posted by coopdog
...

A difference of $300 USD. Is it worth the $300 bucks more??? I would plan to keep a new mac for about 3-4 years, Do you think that after that time either of the models would be totaly out of date and slow??? How about the video card is it worth upgrading from 64MB to 128? Man thoes seem so fast!!! I want one so bad!

Not only do you get faster processors on the DP1.42, you also get more L3 cache which will help with performance. And as macktheknife stated, when spread over 3 or 4 years, it's not much money.

As for the video board choice, some of it depends on what you are using the machine for. However, it is also only a few dollars a month spread over that period of time.

I went for the DP1.42 and the 128MB video card. It seems worthwhile.

 

[macphisto]

If it is a difference of $300, I would go with the 1.42s. That way you get 2Mb of L3 cache to back the screaming 1.42, plus you get the top of the line which will suit you for a few years. And while you are at it, I would definitely go with the Radeon 9700. From everything that I have heard and read it about it says that it screams. And for the same price as the Ti card, I would go for it.

 

[Bear]

Originally posted by macphisto
If it is a difference of $300, I would go with the 1.42s. That way you get 2Mb of L3 cache to back the screaming 1.42, plus you get the top of the line which will suit you for a few years. And while you are at it, I would definitely go with the Radeon 9700. From everything that I have heard and read it about it says that it screams. And for the same price as the Ti card, I would go for it.

Unfortunatly the 9700 is not available to order yet. Nor is its price really known.

However if it had been available when I ordered my system, I would've sprung for it. I just didn't want to wait that much longer.

 

[Santiago]

How many times have you heard, "Darn, this thing is slow..." versus how many times have you heard, "My computer is just too fast...I should have saved myself a little bit of money..." ?

 

[Doctor Q]

Your profile says you like gaming. Gaming is one of the types of applications (others example: video editing, 3D graphics design, global weather simulation) where the more processing power the better, so MHz differences and the benefits of more cache can actually matter. People who buy the fastest machine possible and then use it for e-mail and for taking the red eye out of the photos of junior's birthday party are spending too much on the hardware. Same thing with the video card.

 

[crazzyeddie]

Get the Dual 1.42... its worth the $300.

Graphics card: Not worth it right now, unless you MUST run every game at super-high resoltions. The Radeon 9000 is a great card, and with ATI coming out with yet another card in jsut a few months, the price of the 9700 will drop, or you have the option of something much better.

 

[coopdog]

cache?

I have never understood what the cache actually does...

Thanks a lot for the replies, I do graphic, gaming, and movie editing.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Re: cache?

Originally posted by coopdog
I have never understood what the cache actually does...

Thanks a lot for the replies, I do graphic, gaming, and movie editing.

Holds those instructions that the cpu is constantly using over and over, otherwise it has to go fetch em if im not mistaken and whenever your playing fetch thats going to take time hence slower.

 

[iWantAMac]

1.42, go for it.