So I'm looking to get a G5, but not totally sure which one to get and what accessories to go along with it.
Right now I'm still using my beige 266 G3 that I bought over 5 years ago. It sucks pretty bad at this point. I was hoping to get a new computer last year but didn't have the cash. I know people that have installed OS X on those beige machines, but I figured it would be fairly sluggish and that sticking with 9 would be better until I upgraded. But I'm sick of using 9 because lately it's been crashing at least several times a day (something funky going on with the extensions, but I have lost all patience with thing and don't want to reformat again). It's just a huge headache, and it doesn't help that I use 10.2.8 at work and it's only crashed once in six months, and then I go home to my piece of junk.
Now, someone mentioned to me that if I'm using a 266, I wouldn't need the power of the dual 2ghz and should go with the 1.8 (and just chuck a ton of RAM in there). It's true that at the moment I don't do any intensive video processing or game playing, but that's because I simply can't, not because I don't want to. I would love to be able to make my own DVDs and frag bots at lightning speed. I do some amateur poster design as well, so we're talking 11x17 size posters at 300 dpi, which of course takes forever on my current machine but would be a snap with virtually anything faster.
I think I'd like to go for the dual simply because I don't want to spend over 2 grand and feel left in the dust processor-wise after only a year or even less. Plus I think I could really harness the power of it if given the opportunity.
I probably would've bought the G5 a month ago but I was also told that a lot of times there are flaws (big flaws) in gen1 designs that are corrected in gen2. Obviously I don't want to drop $3k on something with major problems. Have any serious design issues been raised so far?
It might be that financially my best option will be to get the G5 in the next month. Massachusetts is planning to offer two tax-free days for holiday shoppers, which means I could score the Holy Grail of savings - the education discount and no tax. My only question here is: can I get the ATI 9800 Pro pre-installed through a retail store, or is that considered BTO? If so I will probably have to settle with the 9600. Is the 9800 highly recommended? I do hope to play some graphic-intensive games like UT2003.
Lastly, as far as monitors go, I'm thinking of splurging and getting the 23" cinema display. I've seen talk on here that they're likely to update these soon, however there's no way I can stick with my current 15" CRT. I wish I could actually see what the new design might look like, to see if it would be worth waiting, but if I can get it the edu discount without tax, I would be saving close to $300.
So is this all a no-brainer? Get the dual G5 and the big-honkin' monitor and be happy?
Right now I'm still using my beige 266 G3 that I bought over 5 years ago. It sucks pretty bad at this point. I was hoping to get a new computer last year but didn't have the cash. I know people that have installed OS X on those beige machines, but I figured it would be fairly sluggish and that sticking with 9 would be better until I upgraded. But I'm sick of using 9 because lately it's been crashing at least several times a day (something funky going on with the extensions, but I have lost all patience with thing and don't want to reformat again). It's just a huge headache, and it doesn't help that I use 10.2.8 at work and it's only crashed once in six months, and then I go home to my piece of junk.
Now, someone mentioned to me that if I'm using a 266, I wouldn't need the power of the dual 2ghz and should go with the 1.8 (and just chuck a ton of RAM in there). It's true that at the moment I don't do any intensive video processing or game playing, but that's because I simply can't, not because I don't want to. I would love to be able to make my own DVDs and frag bots at lightning speed. I do some amateur poster design as well, so we're talking 11x17 size posters at 300 dpi, which of course takes forever on my current machine but would be a snap with virtually anything faster.
I think I'd like to go for the dual simply because I don't want to spend over 2 grand and feel left in the dust processor-wise after only a year or even less. Plus I think I could really harness the power of it if given the opportunity.
I probably would've bought the G5 a month ago but I was also told that a lot of times there are flaws (big flaws) in gen1 designs that are corrected in gen2. Obviously I don't want to drop $3k on something with major problems. Have any serious design issues been raised so far?
It might be that financially my best option will be to get the G5 in the next month. Massachusetts is planning to offer two tax-free days for holiday shoppers, which means I could score the Holy Grail of savings - the education discount and no tax. My only question here is: can I get the ATI 9800 Pro pre-installed through a retail store, or is that considered BTO? If so I will probably have to settle with the 9600. Is the 9800 highly recommended? I do hope to play some graphic-intensive games like UT2003.
Lastly, as far as monitors go, I'm thinking of splurging and getting the 23" cinema display. I've seen talk on here that they're likely to update these soon, however there's no way I can stick with my current 15" CRT. I wish I could actually see what the new design might look like, to see if it would be worth waiting, but if I can get it the edu discount without tax, I would be saving close to $300.
So is this all a no-brainer? Get the dual G5 and the big-honkin' monitor and be happy?
