eMac or just wait?

[niter]

The new eMacs are extremely appealing. My original plan was to eventually buy a G5 one day (I have an iBook 12" G4 right now) for all the more powerful things I want to do. However, there are two things that I realize about it....I do not want a G5 without an Apple monitor (and that is not going to happen)....And despite me saying about all these things that I want to do multimedia-wise probably will not go further than iMovie, iPhoto, and iDVD. I do not even have a video camera, yet (I plan to get one in the distant future).

The eMacs are an incredible price. They take little desk space and would look darn cute next to my iBook and iPod.

Should I just keep holding out for the G5?

 

[srobert]

You could always buy an eMac and resell it at a very good percentage of the orginal price in a few months. That's another advantage of Macs over PCs, they don't devalute as fast.

Besides, once you've used on the eMac for a few weeks, you'd be able to know if you really need the G5's extra power.

 

[Chaszmyr]

The G5 is incredible, and if you have the money to spend I think it's worth it over the eMac. However, it sounds as if money is an issue for you, so if I were you, I wouldn't plan on buying a PowerMac, but rather I would hold out however long it is (probably no later than January '05) and buy an iMac G5

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

Emac is a very nice value, we should know if Imac will get a G5 by WWDC. I would say wait till WWDC. Ars technica does not seem to think we are getting a G5 Imac anytime soon because the problems IBM is having. tough call.

 

[jxyama]

if the most complicated thing you are gonna do is iDVD/iMovie, i'd think G5 would be a waste. sure, it's faster, but are you really going to use it so often that it's worth paying nearly three times the price? (not even including the monitor...)

eMac just got updated - right now sounds like a very good time to buy.

 

[jxyama]

Emac is a very nice value, we should know if Imac will get a G5 by WWDC. I would say wait till WWDC. Ars technica does not seem to think we are getting a G5 Imac anytime soon because the problems IBM is having. tough call.

of course, if you wait until WWDC, then eMac will be 2+ months old then and you'll be asking "should i buy eMac now or wait?"

waiting until WWDC sounds like a good idea...

 

[srobert]

If you need a computer now, buy the eMac. Don't wait to WWDC. YOu can always sell the eMac in two months.

 

[Mantat]

As I always say: "Buy what you need!" If the eMac suit your need, why not get one? They are incredible value and the screen quality is very good.

Performance wise, I think you wont have any problem for your need. Even if you go up to Final Cut and DVD Studio Pro eventualy... Just make sure to upgrade the HD when you buy it.

 

[adamjay]

since the eMac was just updated this week, its safe to say that it is the best apple product to buy right now. My only gripe with the last eMac (Rev1 ATI Graphics), was the refresh rates on the screen were just weak. I'm a 1024x768 kinda guy, and the new eMac has 100hz refresh rate at this resolution so thats great! The doubled cache, 50% faster Hard Drive controller, and cpu speed bump help alot too. The last eMac was a good deal at $799, the new one is a steal.

My general rule is that unless your paycheck depends on performance with Final Cut Pro, Pro Tools, and/or Adobe CS.. the G5 is probably too much machine for you.

 

[aswitcher]

Use the money you save by buying and eMac to get a decent DV camera.

The new Canon MVX200 and MVX 250 (Elura 60 and 70 for USA) look pretty nice.

 

[xy14]

iBook+DV Camera

Actually, even my 933 Mhz G4 iBook does pretty good with video editing, so I would get the eMac. If all you are going to do is use iDVD, iMovie, and stuff, you can get the eMac for $1000 unless you want to waste $1500 more by getting an entry level G5 + a display and paying $2500..

 

[BigDawgES]

Me too!

I, too, am in the eMac/wait for PowerMac rev.2 dilemma. If I went for the eMac, I'd sell it when G5s are released.

Now, I was under the impression rumor sites had come to the general consensus that G5s would not be released until WWDC (and even then, I'd imagine the high end machine would take a while to ship). This makes good sense to me: if IBM can't get 2GHz 980FX chips to Apple fast enough for the XServe, surely it'll be a good wait before 2.5ers ship in any kind of quantity.

Now look at macosxrumors.com and macosrumors.com : Both chime in with "G5s in the near future".

My question is: does anyone in the know agree with this prediction, or are the above sites full of it? I know their credibility is on the low side. . .