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PeteyNice

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 11, 2003
66
32
So, I bought a new 1.25 DP PM last week (coming TODAY yay!) and just saw the new iMac updates and wonder if I should just return the PM and get one of those.

For $200 *less* you get a SuperDrive and a 17" LCD.

Am I missing something?

I know the PM is faster but is it so much faster as to warrant the high premium?
 
Re: Are DP really that impressive?

Am I missing something?

Yes...

I know the PM is faster but is it so much faster as to warrant the high premium?

The premium is for the second processor AND expansion/upgrade capability. Neither of which is offered on the iMac (it's a closed box).
 
I've mentioned this quite a few times in the past, it all depends on what you're going to do with the machine.

So what are your plans? The other nice thing is that you can get multiple monitors and much bigger than the iMac.

D
 
Differences between iMac 17" G4 1 GHz and DP 1.25 GHz PowerMac:
  • PowerMac has L3 cache
  • different number of processors
  • the PowerMac has a faster memory bus
  • Expandability
Having L3 cache can help a lot speed wise. Having a second processor depends on what you're running on the system. But if you're going to be playing MP3s most of the time while working, you'll probably notice differences with the PowerMac.
 
It would be my home machine.
So, Internet, DVD playin' (burnin' if I had the iMac or buy a SuperDrive later), light word processing, some programming when I work from home (which basically means SSH and IE), and the odd game here and there. Certainly no Photoshop, FCP or anything like that.

It is a closed box, but I can always bump up the RAM, apparently. Other than that I don't know what I would want to upgrade. I do not need a better video card or sound card. Who knows what tomorrow will bring technology wise but I would think that by the time something that was "must have" came out that I could not use it will probably be a few years and time for a wholesale upgrade anyway.

Expandibility is great but most of the great new technological advances that would cause one to consider upgrading are mobo advances and could not be added to a PM (i.e. PPC970, PCI-x, faster FSB, real support for DDR, etc).

The only thing I could really see being upset about not being able to expand is the HD space. However, FireWire HDs are dropping in price.

I'd be losing the bigger cache and many people seem to feel that it makes a big difference.

So, we'll see. I think having the PM in front of me will make me keep it, but I am really interested in what those more knowledgeable about Macs than me have to say.
:cool:
 
The DP i have is quite nice. It isnt blazinly fast compared to a same clock speed imac, but the difference can certianly be seen. The reason i prefer the powermac is for the expandibilty. I have added 2 usb and 2 firewire ports, as well as just ordered a new m audio pci sound card. And just having a lcd on the desk and the tower on a shelf is nice too. Keep the powermac, you'll be in love.
 
huh?

What you can upgrade today:

hdd

RAM

Video card (You did get the Radeon right...)

2nd optical drive

Sound card (5.1 or something)

Monitor

In the near future:

CPU's (3rd party :()

Faster DVD burner

By purchasing what you have, you are not closed in to what you can do in the future. With a few upgrades here or there, and you should have a very useful machine for 3-5 years.

You made the right choice. :D
 
Re: huh?

Originally posted by yzedf


You made the right choice. :D

Glad to hear that... I ordered a dual 1.25 GHz myself, coming this week :cool:

I would like to add:
1 am able to compare a single 733 G4 (QS) with a dual 533 (GB ethernet) at work, and oh my, in OS X the dual 533 kills the single 733! Both have 512 MB SDRAM installed, swapped grfx cards for perfect comparisons (ATI 7500 and nVidia GeForce 2 MX): VPC, PhotoShop, NASCAR, F1 2000 CS all are a lot faster on the dual 533, honestly.

So compare a dual 1.25 (167 MHz bus) with a single 1 GHz (133 MHz) bus? Ha ha. :D
 
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