Contemplating the Switch - Excuse My Enthusiasm

[Al Quitos]

Thanks, leftie. The only thing is, I would rather plug the wireless router into the cable jack for my 'Net connection, leaving me the freedom to stick the Mac wherever. I had a wired 'Net connection on my last computer, but it was very limiting on where I could put the computer, since it couldn't be far from the router and jack.

I think Express suits my needs except for the fact I can't plug the cable directly into it. Maybe I'll luck-out on cable-jack location in the place I get. lol

 

[mkrishnan]

Well, Express and Extreme are both appealing...I wish either the Express had a jack for the cable connection or the Extreme had passthrough audio. I need something that has some of the above features, and specifically those two. I'd hate to have to buy both.

I think your want and need list says Express more than Extreme or third-party. But you lost me on the cable connection thing. The Express *does* have a port to connect to your cable modem (unless you have a USB-only cable modem). It does NOT have a LAN port, to which you can connect wired devices that need net access. This is probably its biggest limitation, although based on the target market, it makes perfect sense.

One option might be to buy an 802.11g card for your Windows computer (<$30 if you shop around), and hook it up wirelessly. Additional advantage = that you can also stream iTunes from your Win computer.

Supposedly you could also buy a cheap 802.11g third-party router, with wired ports, hook your Win computer and cable modem up to it, and then have the Airport Express join that network.

I wouldn't worry about the cable company. So many people who own just one computer, but that one computer is a laptop, have wireless routers, that I have not really heard of any cable internet service provider that will force you to pay the networking fee just cuz you have a wireless router. And they cannot see whatever lives downstream of the router. They cannot practically tell if one device or five are sharing the net connection.

 

[macbaseball]

Video-editing will be occassional (and, yes, that is a big time difference, though). Audio-editing/mixing (electronic DJ-ing) will be a bit more frequent. Digital-image editing will be near-constant. lol

I'm thinking the low-end dual, with the 2.5 GB RAM setup suggested above and 500GB to start should be sufficient. And keeps the price relatively reasonable. Then I'll just bide my time until PB G5's come-out to add to my collection (for future....travel).

You guys are quite helpful in helping me figure out what I need (which is probably better than what I want lol)!

You will be much better off with this model. It gives you the capabilty to do video editing, yet you still have tons of RAM. 4 gigs in my opinion is excessive, although I'm sure it would be awesome.

 

[thecow]

If you want a cool wireless printer, I found one here. My neighbors have one and I set it up for them. When we were testing the copper function, I accidentally dropped the papers on the ground and I couldn't tell which one was the original. You can use it as a scanner as well as a printer and it will connect to your network wirelessly. It really isn't that expensive for a wireless printer and scanner. It can also fax for rare occasion that you might need to fax something.

 

[Al Quitos]

I think your want and need list says Express more than Extreme or third-party. But you lost me on the cable connection thing. The Express *does* have a port to connect to your cable modem (unless you have a USB-only cable modem). It does NOT have a LAN port, to which you can connect wired devices that need net access. This is probably its biggest limitation, although based on the target market, it makes perfect sense.

OK, what I mean is that the Express comes with an RJ-45 port (according to the pictures on Apple), and I want a coaxial cable connection (so I can plug it straight into the cable-jack in my place).

Unless we're talking about two different devices.

You will be much better off with this model. It gives you the capabilty to do video editing, yet you still have tons of RAM. 4 gigs in my opinion is excessive, although I'm sure it would be awesome.

Yeah, I'm thinkin' that it'll be my best bet, overall. And when the day comes that I actually need 4 GB of RAM, I'll still be good. lol

If you want a cool wireless printer, I found one here. My neighbors have one and I set it up for them. When we were testing the copper function, I accidentally dropped the papers on the ground and I couldn't tell which one was the original. You can use it as a scanner as well as a printer and it will connect to your network wirelessly. It really isn't that expensive for a wireless printer and scanner. It can also fax for rare occasion that you might need to fax something.

Thanks, I'll look into that a bit. I don't really like HP, but maybe I should be more open-minded. What I'd really like is a scanner that also scans 35mm film negatives...though I may buy a dedicated scanner for that; hrm.

 

[mkrishnan]

OK, what I mean is that the Express comes with an RJ-45 port (according to the pictures on Apple), and I want a coaxial cable connection (so I can plug it straight into the cable-jack in my place).

Unless we're talking about two different devices.

I rather think we are. The typical configuration is:

Cable outlet on wall -(coax)-> Cable Modem -(RJ45)-> router/gateway/switch -(wireless or RJ-45)-> computer

There are cable modems and DSL modems that have integrated routers, but they are very few in number, and you will be very limited in features they offer. For this reason, most people use a router that is separate from the cablemodem. Also, although I have not had this issue, cable modems seem to have a higher failure rates than routers. So your router is separated from any spikes that come through the cable line, etc, this way.

 

[zach]

If you want more HDD space.. There's always this.

http://www.g5drivebracket.com/

To my knowledge, the G5 has only two SATA inputs, and no IDE inputs, so to use what I just posted (or to cannibalize a 5.25 bay), you'll need a SATA or IDE card, which are rather expensive IIRC.

But hey, it's all in the name of more storage.

5 400 GB drives in one machine... Word.

 

[Al Quitos]

Word, indeed!

Bookmarked for possible future use.

 

[Al Quitos]

2.5gb RAM seems OK to me. 512 stock Apple (2 x 256) + 4 x 512 3rd-party.

Quick question... why 4x512 instead of, say, 2x1(GB)?

In other words, did you use the smaller sticks for any particular reason?

 

[Blue Velvet]

Quick question... why 4x512 instead of, say, 2x1(GB)?

In other words, did you use the smaller sticks for any particular reason?

Price/value. At the time (only 7 months ago) 1gb sticks were prohibitively expensive in the UK.

 

[Al Quitos]

Price/value. At the time (only 7 months ago) 1gb sticks were prohibitively expensive in the UK.

Any performance benefits to using larger over smaller sticks?