Brand new iMac. Keep or sell?

[ojwk]

Ahoy.

I was recently given a brand new iMac (the bottom of the line one) and don't really know whether I either want or need it.

I'm currently using a PowerMac G5 dual 1.8GHz, 3GB RAM with about 1.25TB of storage paired with an old Dell 2005FPW.

I've had this setup for a long while now but truth be told, can't really see any reason to unbox this iMac and start using it. The only possible reason I can see is that it would allow me to dabble with the iPhone SDK in Xcode - but that really isn't a priority.

My PowerMac still feels extremely fast, I never have to wait for Photoshop filters or anything else to load for that matter.

The one thing I'd like would be a bigger desktop and I think I would benefit from a 30" display more than an iMac. Are there any inherent advantages of upgrading my ageing PowerMac that I am unaware of? The concept of a streamlined Snow Leopard OS is appealing to the OCD/geek side of my personality even though I don't really suffer from any performance issues at present.

The 9400M negates any desire I would have to put bootcamp on it.

I'm not imminently keen on the idea of an iMac sitting on my desk, principally because I think they look extraordinarily ugly. Huge great big chunky bezel and glossy screen whereas my ageing plasticky Dell 2005FPW at least has a very thin border and a matte finish.

The 1920x1080 resolution is something that is likely to swing me to the iMac. With the 2005FPW in tandem vertically orientated for news articles/documents and the like, I think my screen real estate would be vastly improved.

If I choose to keep the iMac I will have to deal with migrating the modest 200GB or so on my PowerMac over to the new computer. This includes many applications that I no longer have the discs for. Will the integrity of these applications be preserved along with things like 'open recent file' lists?

So should I sell the brand-new never opened entry level iMac for £900 or so and keep the PowerMac or keep the iMac and sell my prized PowerMac for whatever I can get for it?

 

[Winni]

So should I sell the brand-new never opened entry level iMac for £900 or so and keep the PowerMac or keep the iMac and sell my prized PowerMac for whatever I can get for it?

I think you'll be lucky if you get something like 300 bucks for the PowerMac. Thanks to Apple, PowerMacs are obsolete, dead technology.

To add insult to injury, that iMac that you are not interested in opening will run circles around your PowerMac. Oh, and you can connect a second screen to it as well.

I also don't get your problem with the nVidia card. They run great in Boot Camp (and in Linux or FreeBSD) - just don't use Apple's crappy drivers. Go to nVidia.com and download their original drivers instead.

In short: You're better off with the iMac.

 

[ojwk]

I think you'll be lucky if you get something like 300 bucks for the PowerMac. Thanks to Apple, PowerMacs are obsolete, dead technology.

To add insult to injury, that iMac that you are not interested in opening will run circles around your PowerMac. Oh, and you can connect a second screen to it as well.

I also don't get your problem with the nVidia card. They run great in Boot Camp (and in Linux or FreeBSD) - just don't use Apple's crappy drivers. Go to nVidia.com and download their original drivers instead.

In short: You're better off with the iMac.

My problem with the Nvidia card is that the only reason I would want to run Windows would be to play games and the only games I would want to play would require a half-decent graphics card.

I don't have any other requirement to run Windows at all.

My PowerMac is obsolete insofar as that it is unsupported for Snow Leopard but it is certainly not obsolete or dead technology for my purposes.
I run Photoshop + Illustrator CS3, iWork '09, iLife '09, Final Cut Pro and don't encounter any problems. The only app that I encounter resistance in is Final Cut Pro when editing video with obscure dimensions/compressed formats. Could the iMac fully negate the lag of RT rendering in these cases?