Impatient Buying Advice

[tri3limited]

Hi,
I'm a FCS2 video and motion graphics editor currently constrained to a macbook and looking to go desktop. My plan is to get a 24" iMac in a few months before moving onto a Pro later on once my freelancing has paid off a bit better, just left college an'all! Motion isn't the be all and end all at the moment.

However, a friend has offered me an old iMac (PPC) with the following specs for a mere £250. Is it worth saving that towards the 24" or buying it, keeping it for a while and then eBaying it for £50 more???

Specs;
Machine Model: iMac G5 17"
CPU Type: PowerPC G5 (3.0)
Number Of CPUs: 1
CPU Speed: 1.8 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU): 512 KB
Memory: 1 GB
Bus Speed: 600 MHz
Boot ROM Version: 5.2.2f4

Look forward to your responses!!

 

[fluidedge]

price seems fair to me.

It'll be fine for cutting clips together - whether i'd want to be producing heavy graphics on it is another matter...

 

[LethalWolfe]

Odds are your Macbook is just as fast, if not faster, than that iMac. The multi-core intel chips just kill the G5's.


Lethal

 

[fluidedge]

Odds are your Macbook is just as fast, if not faster, than that iMac. The multi-core intel chips just kill the G5's.


Lethal

good point - i missed that. The macbook will be much better than that G5. Spend the £250 on a 24" monitor instead

 

[TheReef]

Here in Aus, you can snap up G5 iMacs on eBay for around $400-500 AU.

That mac will be fine for basic editing and you'll benefit from the larger screen up from your laptop, but if you already have a much faster MacBook, could you put up with the screen size for a while until you get your 24"? As the above poster said a 24" monitor may be a better idea, especially for when you get a Mac Pro, you will already have a good screen to use.

EDIT: Motion on that Mac won't be pretty. You really need at least a Radeon 9800 Pro to use it decently.

 

[tri3limited]

thanks for all of your replies! u think ill leave it then as all of the advice were the downsides i was thinking of... i think ill just keep the money for the 24" stepping stone as ive already got two 32" screens for my pc suite that i connect my macbook to, its never too happy about it tho!

Thanks everyone!