G5 Impressions

[yadmonkey]

I am thinking about getting a new Powermac and hoping for some advice. Do I go with a sexy G5, a proven G4, or put a few bucks into a new hard drive and push some more life out of my 400mHz G4 until a revised G5 comes out?

What are people's overall impressions of the new G5's? Obviously every model has some problems, but I am especially wary of the first iteration of any new hardware (first G4, first iMac, etc).

Thanks!

 

[G5trinity]

My simple advice.

I love my dual 2 Ghz G5. I see alot of performance increase over my single G4 500mhz. However if you can I would wait for production to settle in, also I wouldn't buy a G5 unless you get the 2 Ghz because the dual G4's are equivalant in useable power to the single G5's. However I have not seen a single G5 running Panther, and that may make all the diffence. I do video and film work on my machine so the dual Processors and faster bus made since for me. Well that and my G4 was starting to fall behind in the software it could run. DVD SP 2 needs 733 and up, Shake needs 867 up.

 

[oingoboingo]

Re: G5 Impressions

Originally posted by yadmonkey
I am thinking about getting a new Powermac and hoping for some advice. Do I go with a sexy G5, a proven G4, or put a few bucks into a new hard drive and push some more life out of my 400mHz G4 until a revised G5 comes out?

What are people's overall impressions of the new G5's? Obviously every model has some problems, but I am especially wary of the first iteration of any new hardware (first G4, first iMac, etc).

Thanks!

As the (proud?) owner of a DOA 1.6GHz G5 system (still waiting for a replacement to arrive), I'd recommend spending a little bit of cash on your 400MHz G4 to tide you over, and then purchase a G5 when the second revision is released. You'll probably get a speed bumped CPU, you'll get Panther, and you'll hopefully get a system which isn't plagued by various random crashes and freezes like my G5 was. I don't think buying a new G4 at this stage would be a good move...optimised software for the G5 will start to dribble out soon from software developers, and the performance gap between the old architecture and the new one will only keep increasing.

Just my AUD $0.02 worth...

 

[yadmonkey]

Thanks to both of you for your input. Anyone else?

 

[KCK]

A dual G5 owner here and I've had no problems in the 3 weeks I've had mine. I figure the dual G5 was worth the extra money since I probably will have a longer life before needing upgrading or replacement. I can't wait to see if Panther will really provide a speed boost.

 

[jywv8]

I like my G5

I've had my G5 for about three weeks now. I haven't had any problems with the machine itself. I had one compatibility problem with my USB flash card reader (which exposed me to my first kernel panic), but that's it.

My previous computer was a very noisy 466 MHz G4, so the G5 seems very fast and quiet to me...although I swear it has gotten noisier lately...maybe I'm just imagining things or have just become more sensitive to it. Basically, I have no complaints. It looks fantastic and works great. I'm completely satisfied with my purchase.

Still, if your current computer doesn't bother you, then I would wait for the next revision. It'll only get better. If I had had a faster computer before, say, a 866 Mhz G4 or something, I probably would have waited, but I personally couldn't take OS X on the 466 MHz anymore.

 

[yadmonkey]

OK, so does anyone care to speculate when Apple will update the G5 line? January? Next summer?