Lowend Mac's for Graphic Design?

[matthutch]

hey well first of all as was mentioned above it is not the computer that makes the design it is the designer.

An iBook will be fine, yes a desktop such as the imacG5 or even an emac may be faster, but up until recently i have been working on an g3 400Mhz imac (was a red one ). If your using the apps that one would assume you will be using in graphic design or even web design the main thing is to make sure you have ram, and lots of it. I know people in the industry (graphic designers more then web design) along with myself who work extremely well on older machine, and even more who work on ibooks. Yes if you can afford the cash and you want something portable the powerbook is the better option, for nothing more then the extended desktop (it is mighty hard working in front of a small screen for long periods - especially in photoshop or illustrator - in my opinion), however as you said it is $1000(cant remember exactly??) extra for the powerbook.

Apple updated the ibook range last night (for me here in aus it was last night) and the 14 inch ones would perform pretty well for what you would be using - and you can always get the hack so you can span the moniters. Just make sure you remember, you can never have too much ram

Well welcome to the industry,

 

[Lancetx]

The new SP Power Mac G5 is another good alternative if you already have a usable CRT monitor around. Then you wouldn't have to worry about the lower resolution issues with the iBook.

 

[Peyote]

True, productivity is improved with faster technology but not necessarily made better. I know of many successful studios that work on equipment that is outdated. Yet the equipment does not prevent them from being any less productive then someone on a new G5. Work habits also contribute to the efficiency of development and although a faster computer would create more efficiency, it does not mean that the final work is produced any faster.

I think that the only time speed becomes an issue is in video editing, rendering, 3D development and complex digital imaging.

I agree with you that the poster's best option is the iMac but if they are in a budget then they should know that yes, the eMac will preform efficiently for them today, who knows what will happen in a year or two. I would assume that the eMac would just be an entry into their professional development and as they gain more work their needs will grow and change as well as their piggy bank.

-Web design does not require a G5. If it does then I know a lot of people who are in trouble.

It's not only in rendering or running programs that you benefit from a faster computer. Startup times, login times, file copying times, OS maintenance, these are all things that are sped up by a faster computer.

However my main arguement for the G5 over anyhthing with a G4, is that the G4 simply won't last. Can you honestly say that if you bought a G4 right now, that it would still keep up in 3 years, when G5 processors are around 4 Ghz at least, and programs have been written to take advantage of them? When you go to buy a computer...if you can afford it, you buy this year's model. You don't pick a model that's been outdated for over a year. Computers become outdated quick enough, especially now that the G5 is out...If I were in this guy's shoes, I wouldn't help myself have an outdated computer sooner, by investing in a processor that is already old.

When I shop for a Mac, I don't just look for what's going to be ok at running photoshop, because I know that I need to keep in mind future OS versions that will need more processing power, and applications will be written in 64-bit, which I won't be able to take advantage of unless I choose a Mac that will let me do that. In other words, I want a Mac that's going to last me and at least somewhat keep up with my changing needs....For those reasons, I wouldn't recommend a G4 to anyone that doesn't really need a laptop.

 

[Manzana]

Basically whatever machine I decide on I'm gonna get atleast 1 gb of ram but money is a bit of a factor.

How much does a 1GB stick cost for an ibook? 400-500? I think your best choice is still the emac for the ram you need and your budget. Plus the 7200 rpm hd would stomp all over the ibook's hd.

Certainly a G5 would be great, but not absolutely necessary right now. As it has been pointed out, people do get their work done without having the latest and greatest hardware.

The emac will last you at least three years, that is great value.

 

[dornoforpyros]

How much does a 1GB stick cost for an ibook? 400-500? I think your best choice is still the emac for the ram you need and your budget. Plus the 7200 rpm hd would stomp all over the ibook's hd.

Certainly a G5 would be great, but not absolutely necessary right now. As it has been pointed out, people do get their work done without having the latest and greatest hardware.

The emac will last you at least three years, that is great value.

ahh yes then perhaps the eMac is the way to go. As much as I wouldn't mind having a laptop performance definalty over rules sexiness. Besides I can always get a laptop at a later date.
Thanks for the input everyone.

 

[neut]

didn't realize eMacs supported multiple monitors...

*****
i bought a top of the line (almost... hey what's another 50mhz?) dual G4 450 with all the tricks for $4700 in 1996; im so glad i did. i hated my PC (slow) and the machines at school (imacs). the only good ones were the G3 towers and they were showing age. my G4 carried me till 2001. then i got a PB.

i still say try to invest in a nicer system now. that way it can take you through school and a little longer so you can get a new G6.

*to those argueing about technology making the designer... of course it doesn't; but it can hinder and frustrate one. im glad i had a fast system when i was a begining designer. even if my work wasn't good because of the system; it was good because i had so much time to spend on project rather than waiting for my computer to do something.

**technology can also make you broke.

peace.

 

[Mitthrawnuruodo]

hey well first of all as was mentioned above it is not the computer that makes the design it is the designer.

An iBook will be fine, yes a desktop such as the imacG5 or even an emac may be faster, but up until recently i have been working on an g3 400Mhz imac (was a red one ). If your using the apps that one would assume you will be using in graphic design or even web design the main thing is to make sure you have ram, and lots of it. I know people in the industry (graphic designers more then web design) along with myself who work extremely well on older machine, and even more who work on ibooks. Yes if you can afford the cash and you want something portable the powerbook is the better option, for nothing more then the extended desktop (it is mighty hard working in front of a small screen for long periods - especially in photoshop or illustrator - in my opinion), however as you said it is $1000(cant remember exactly??) extra for the powerbook.

I totally agree. My girlfriend is a designer and works daily with Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign (and Quark) and Dreamweaver. Her workhorse is my old 14" (1024x768) 400MHz Pismo with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HD. It does its job very nice. Of course it's not superfast when adding Photoshop filters on LARGE files, but the computer waits for her more often than she has to wait for it...

Any iBook will be more than good enough for a while. Take the 14" if you want a Superdrive, and the 12" if a combo drive is all you need. You'll love the portability, and for its price it's a very capable little machine...

Edit: Hey, dornoforpyros, I see you're leaning towards the eMac. Probably the best choice monywise, but I'd still go for the (new) 12" iBook... Once you've had a laptop for a while you'll never want to go back to a desktop...

 

[stevehaslip]

I totally agree. My girlfriend is a designer and works daily with Photoshop, Illustrator, Indesign (and Quark) and Dreamweaver. Her workhorse is my old 14" (1024x768) 400MHz Pismo with 512MB RAM and a 40GB HD. It does its job very nice. Of course it's not superfast when adding Photoshop filters on LARGE files, but the computer waits for her more often than she has to wait for it...

Any iBook will be more than good enough for a while. Take the 14" if you want a Superdrive, and the 12" if a combo drive is all you need. You'll love the portability, and for its price it's a very capable little machine...

Edit: Hey, dornoforpyros, I see you're leaning towards the eMac. Probably the best choice monywise, but I'd still go for the (new) 12" iBook... Once you've had a laptop for a while you'll never want to go back to a desktop...

you will go back to a desktop! when? when you send off a proof to a printer and it comes back with the colours clashing cos your ibook wasn't properly colour calibrated. You will be out of pocket because you went for a laptop. I'm not saying that the eMac will solve you problems, ideally you'd have a dual G5 and a 30" calibrated Cinema Display or top quality CRT. But you don't need that, you might just be learning.

Serious work gets done on desktops, i have a powerbook and always find myself going back to my G5 because it whips its ass when it comes to rendering etc. Laptops are good but thats why people still use desktops.

 

[Blue Velvet]

...when you send off a proof to a printer and it comes back with the colours clashing cos your ibook wasn't properly colour calibrated..

Proofs are the things that come BACK from the printer, if you or the job can afford them. Chromalins, pull-downs etc.

 

[cluthz]

didn't realize eMacs supported multiple monitors...

*****
i bought a top of the line (almost... hey what's another 50mhz?) dual G4 450 with all the tricks for $4700 in 1996; im so glad i did. i hated my PC (slow) and the machines at school (imacs). the only good ones were the G3 towers and they were showing age. my G4 carried me till 2001. then i got a PB.

Funny,
I bought i bought a G3/266 MT December 1997, I was then the top of the apple line, and it costed over $3500.
The dual 450 G4 wasn't introduced before summer 2000 (I bought a g4 400 then).. Wow, your $4700 G4 lasted for a half year.

And, the emacs doesn't support two monitors, but you can use the ibook screen spanning hack.

 

[kirk26]

Hey everyone, I'm in the market for my first computer(well the first one that I've owned) and I'm also a web/flash designer. My question is just how low end can I go with a Mac and still manage to get a useable machine for my work?
To get an idea of the work I'm doing check out:
http://www.jasondorn.com

Basically whatever machine I decide on I'm gonna get atleast 1 gb of ram but money is a bit of a factor.

So although I'm thinking I'd need something with a G5 chip in it but I keep getting tempted by eMacs and iBooks.

Would I be compelty SOL with one of these machines?

Yes, any current iBook or PowerBook can do all what you need.

 

[dornoforpyros]

you will go back to a desktop! when? when you send off a proof to a printer and it comes back with the colours clashing cos your ibook wasn't properly colour calibrated. You will be out of pocket because you went for a laptop. I'm not saying that the eMac will solve you problems, ideally you'd have a dual G5 and a 30" calibrated Cinema Display or top quality CRT. But you don't need that, you might just be learning.

Serious work gets done on desktops, i have a powerbook and always find myself going back to my G5 because it whips its ass when it comes to rendering etc. Laptops are good but thats why people still use desktops.

well considering 1% of what I do is print and the other 99% is web based that's not really a problem for me. Plus I have a desktop pee cee at work for my actually work. Whatever machine I end up buying will be for me at home and although I'd obviosly do some work at home it wouldn't be my work horse so to speak.

 

[combatcolin]

Right, dead simple

1ST Buy a refurb G5, or a previous gen G5 or a late model G4.

2ND Buy the BIGGEST monitor you can afford .

3RD Make sure you have at least 512mb to make life easy for yourself.

And finally...

4TH Next year buy the biggest Hard drive you can afford.

 

[Col127]

to sport a completely different opinion, you would get by just fine on a g4 machine. i've got a g4 450 mhz dual processor and it's been running for me just fine. i bought it in april 2001 for about $3200 cdn. as of late, i've seen them go for about $500 on ebay.ca. that sucks about technology

i'm a graphic design student, so i use programs like photoshop, illustrator, indesign, quark, acrobat, dreamweaver and flash and i've never felt my mac to be slow. i do work with large files too. the only time i wished i had a faster mac was rendering video, in after effects or premiere. but if you're not going to ever get into video, don't worry about it. granted, i have 896 mb of ram.

sure, a g5 tower would be nice, and it would total wipe the floor with an old g4, it really depends on your budget. it seemed to me that you were looking for the cheapeast mac that would suit your needs. if they aren't going to change, then i say find a g4. that'll be the most cost efficient solution. if you have other interests (like video for example) that you may pursue in the future, then go for a g5 if you can afford it.

i did just place an order for a dual 2.0 g5, but that's because i want to get into video. if i didn't, i would be using this g4 for years to come. i know a lot of professionals that still work with older g4s in os 9!

hope that helps.

 

[Jimong5]

flash runs great on a Dual 867 G4 just fine, and for a while, I had a friend running it fine on an iMac (600 G3, blue Dalmatian) In short, I think any current mac would be good.

As for MX vs 2004, I like 2004 more, because I felt MX had several flaws. examples: the palette had some quirks, It screwed up movies with long soundtracks at low bitrates too, and MX defaulted at a stupid zoom to fill the screen, rather than 100%, which I used most of the time to start anyway. Ill take a slowdown vs a quirky app anyday.

 

[stevehaslip]

Proofs are the things that come BACK from the printer, if you or the job can afford them. Chromalins, pull-downs etc.

oops my bad! thanks for correcting me, but my point still stands that you should buy as much computer as you can afford. Spend now and make it last, i will use my G5 for another 3 more (or so) years and i've had it for 1 already. I worked my arse of for my computer, spent more than i originally thought but it will last me for ages. I would seriously consider a low end/refurb G5 or G4.

 

[neut]

Funny,
I bought i bought a G3/266 MT December 1997, I was then the top of the apple line, and it costed over $3500.
The dual 450 G4 wasn't introduced before summer 2000 (I bought a g4 400 then).. Wow, your $4700 G4 lasted for a half year.

And, the emacs doesn't support two monitors, but you can use the ibook screen spanning hack.

i don't know what i was thinking with those dates... your right. i bought my 450 shortly after release 2000/2001. it lasted until the summer of 03. about 3.5 years. not bad. i could have kept using it much longer but i was tempted by the portability of the PB (tired of carrying my G4 to and from gigs).

i know about the hack, but i didn't realize it worked on more than the ibook. too bad my friends 867 imac isn't supported...


peace.

 

[slooksterPSV]

One site: http://www.baucomcomputers.com you could have a computer with only 256MB of RAM and those programs would run fine, maybe not simultaneously... well... it did run alright on a G3 with 256MB of RAM. I did those sorts of things in GD.

I think this would work just perfect for you if you don't need a brand new one: iMac/600 (Graphite or Snow) (256/40GB/CDRW/56k/FW/usb) . . . . .. . . $465

Be sure that if you do get a mac from apple you check out the refurb section. they have emacs for like $529 or that.

 

[solvs]

i know about the hack, but i didn't realize it worked on more than the ibook. too bad my friends 867 imac isn't supported...

867 MHz iMac? Do you mean the 800MHz G4 with the GF4MX card? Because it should work on that. Any G4 iMac, eMac, or iBook with a Radeon chip (though preferably with a 32MB chip). The only 867MHz G4s were the PowerMac and original 12" PowerBook, both of which have native spanning.

 

[neut]

867 MHz iMac? Do you mean the 800MHz G4 with the GF4MX card? The only 867MHz G4s were the PowerMac and original 12" PowerBook, both of which have native spanning.

..and the 867 was also released in the Ti PB; i know, i owned one. yeah, that's what i meant (800Mhz iMac).

Do you mean the 800MHz G4 with the GF4MX card? Because it should work on that. Any G4 iMac, eMac, or iBook with a Radeon chip (though preferably with a 32MB chip).

? Have you read the supported machines list ?

This iMac is not supported. Go ahead...try installing it.


peace.