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I'm ready to purchase a PM G5 2.5 and...

J

jtt

macrumors regular
Original poster
Apr 10, 2005
116
0
would like your all's opinions on a few things.

iHave several friends that are teachers and was going to see if they could
get the educational discount for me. is this kosher?

The ram will be purchased thru Crucial at $56.64 a stick x 4 sticks.
iFound a 250 gig internal Maxtor drive on NewEgg for $132.
As for the video card (the Ultra), it appears it can only be purchased thru Apple.
Is this correct?

and iWas thinking about getting a Rosewill 3.5" USB 2.0/IEEE1394a (FireWire400)/IEEE1394b (FireWire800)
Aluminum External Enclosure (very nice looking) for my current 120 gig in my G3.

Thanks and great forum btw!

That's it for now. But iPlan on adding a few extra goodies later down the line.
 
jtt said:
would like your all's opinions on a few things.

iHave several friends that are teachers and was going to see if they could
get the educational discount for me. is this kosher?
Click to expand...

I personally do not think it is right, and it really is not because your friends will not be the primary user. It is up to you.
 
Maybe I'll go back and get my Masters. :D
Two years?
 
jtt said:
would like your all's opinions on a few things.

iHave several friends that are teachers and was going to see if they could
get the educational discount for me. is this kosher?
Click to expand...
I personally wouldn't do it, but I guess it is up to you to do what you think is right...
 
mmmm DP 2.5Ghz PM mmmm
I got one a few weeks back with the Ultra and the 30" LCD.. I picked up the whole thing at the Apple store and everyone gave me a dirty "you SOB" look even the employees it seems like.

Anyways I love the PM its definately speedy the OS is great (10.3.8) and the 30" LCD is beautiful though I blew $7,060 with 480 on tax and another 80 for iWork and the system but so far so good. I wanted the PM as my first system (never had a Mac before but used a IIc at school back in the day). I do quite a bit of web work and just odd jobs for people though I'm 23 so I'm still young and I want the PM so I could have it for 3-4 years without any major upgrades though I'm waiting for Tiger to come out.

Anyways great system and the OS just works though if you're coming off a Windows platform you'd have to take a day or two to learn the OS.
 
jtt said:
would like your all's opinions on a few things.

iHave several friends that are teachers and was going to see if they could
get the educational discount for me. is this kosher?
Click to expand...

Go ahead, it's fine, but just order it yourself through the online edu store.
 
There's no problem having your teacher friends ordering your system for you including education discounts on any Apple software you need.

You simply need to fax a teachers photo I.D. and have it shipped to you if you're buying online.

I would hang in there till WWDC in June before making any final decision.

The wait should be well worth it.
 
I could get up on my very high horse and tell you that it's a wee bit morally wrong to take advantage of Apple's generous education discounts, buuuuuuut, I'm not gonna! ;)

I'm sure Apple will appreciate the switch one way or the other. :D

Enjoy your PowerMac, they're incredible - but I'm sure you'll find this out for yourself...
 
First, getting a friend to order the machine for you isn't the most honest way of buying a new powermac... but I would exactly blame you. Maybe they decided to buy it for themselves, but decided they didn't like it as soon as the box arrived and decided to sell it to you at cost. Yeh.. maybe they did. :)

Second, 250gb for $132, is okay... but not an exceptional price. If you look around there are better prices out there. I picked up a 160gb two weeks ago for $40, a 250gb a year ago for $85..


Third, the harddrive in your g3 is probably not going exceed the bandwidth limitations of 1394a. Buying a 1394b enclosure is overkill, I realize you have the technology and want to use it, but at this point its pricey luxury that itsn't called for.
 
Thanks everyone.

cr2sh said:
Second, 250gb for $132, is okay... but not an exceptional price. If you look around there are better prices out there. I picked up a 160gb two weeks ago for $40, a 250gb a year ago for $85..

Third, the harddrive in your g3 is probably not going exceed the bandwidth limitations of 1394a. Buying a 1394b enclosure is overkill, I realize you have the technology and want to use it, but at this point its pricey luxury that itsn't called for.
Click to expand...

Where did you find the prices on those two drives? wow
The 120gb drive in my g3 is a brand new Maxtor *cough*.
Why would the enclosure be overkill? Is FW800 that limited at this point?

As for waiting on the new PM line: they won't ship til the end of the year
and i'm not going (can't) wait that long. or should I wait for the prices to
drop before the announcement of the new g5's? hmmmm
 
cr2sh Second said:
You say you picked up a 250GB Hard drive a year ago for only $85? The lowest price I can find today is still about $100 and that price is usually for less than stellar drives. $85? I don't think so unless you are talking about used stuff or you got lucky and found a great rebate deal.
Click to expand...
 
Blue Velvet said:
Maxtor HDs don't get good press on this forum. But Seagates do... :)
Click to expand...

I have 3 Maxtor drives. They are all great... DiamondMax 10's. I'll vouch for them.

Hitachi... well, that's a different story.
:)
 
jtt said:
Thanks everyone.



Where did you find the prices on those two drives? wow
The 120gb drive in my g3 is a brand new Maxtor *cough*.
Why would the enclosure be overkill? Is FW800 that limited at this point?

As for waiting on the new PM line: they won't ship til the end of the year
and i'm not going (can't) wait that long. or should I wait for the prices to
drop before the announcement of the new g5's? hmmmm
Click to expand...

The 160GB WD came from BestBuy, the 250GB WD for $85 came from CircuitCity. These are rebate combination prices... the 160gb 7200 WD (originally $130) had a $60 rebate from WesternDigital and a $30 rebate from bestbuy (if I would have purchased it online I would have also gotten a $10 gift card). It was an insane deal. That's 4gb per dollar!

Here's a link.

All of these deals were found on www.techbargains.com, they do a great job of posting this stuff. The best deal they have up now is a 160gb for $60 at OfficeMax. Bleh. If you're patient and persistant you can get much better prices.
 
i have only had one maxtor drive NOT fail on me (out of four), seagates rule and are dead quiet.
 
Ironically Seagate and Maxtor are the same company. Amazing warranties I have found with my Maxtor drives.

Anyway, definitely wait a little while because PowerMacs will be out soon and/or WWDC on the 6th of June. IF you can wait that long, it'll be worth it. Otherwise the 2.5DP is a great machine.

About using an edu discount. It's not really right and I'd only say maybe if you still have your student debt.
 
jtt said:
Why would the enclosure be overkill? Is FW800 that limited at this point?
Click to expand...

Your 120gb, 7200rpm harddrive has a maximum data transfer rate somewhere around 600Mbps... that's the absolute fastest it can transfer data and it will only do it very short amount of time (0.02 sec with a 2MB cache). The sustained transfer rate will be MUCH lower than that, somewhere around 300Mbps.

Now considering that your 1394a transfers at 400Mbps.... there isn't much need to plop down the extra $100 to get the 800Mbps bandwidth that bravo provides us.

Again.. its your money. You decide!
 
SpaceMagic said:
Ironically Seagate and Maxtor are the same company. Amazing warranties I have found with my Maxtor drives.
Click to expand...

in what way shape or form are they the same company?
 
cr2sh said:
Your 120gb, 7200rpm harddrive has a maximum data transfer rate somewhere around 600Mbps... that's the absolute fastest it can transfer data and it will only do it very short amount of time (0.02 sec with a 2MB cache). The sustained transfer rate will be MUCH lower than that, somewhere around 300Mbps.

Now considering that your 1394a transfers at 400Mbps.... there isn't much need to plop down the extra $100 to get the 800Mbps bandwidth that bravo provides us.

Again.. its your money. You decide!
Click to expand...

What kind of drive would you recommend for that particular enclosure?
I want to build this thing right and use it to its full potential - high end video,
a lot of hi res photoshop work and print layouts (Indesign).

What other goodies would you recommend to add on?
 
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