Need help deciding what to get, please read!

[davidc2182]

Well I'm almost done finalizing my new macintosh purchase, but I went to an apple store today and tested something random on the machines, and it was boot up time, why is it that the iMac 20 1.25 GHz inch and iBook 14 inch 1GHz G4 boot up faster than the Powerbook g4 1.25GHZ and the Powermac G5 Single or Dual 1.8?

And about the graphincs on the iMac, if I want to play games am I going to be satisfied with the iMac 20 inch's GPU or is it too weak? What about the iBook's GPU?


Thanks,
David.

 

[cpjakes]

Apples and Oranges

The biggest question for you is portability. What do you want? If you ever want to not be tethered to a desk or take your work with you/game with friends, then the answer is obvious. I don't believe it is fair to compare specs on portables vs. desktops as power management and cooling issues can drastically mess with the numbers.

As for the boot time on those machines, I wouldn't necessarily trust display models. They have been used by many people for various tasks, who knows what parts of the systems have been altered or what software has been installed. The iBook and iMac have not been on display as long as the PowerBook and PowerMac. I'm not sure how much routine maintenance is performed on these machines, so this is just a guess.

And like many other Mac users, I rarely reboot my machines (other than Software Update on both my PowerBook 550 and PowerMac G4 DP 450.

cpjakes

Edit: And as for your gaming question, I can't answer accurately because I don't own either machine, but it depends on your gaming. If you want to play Tetris, you're fine. But if you want to get into any FPS games (UT2003, Halo - when it arrives , etc...) then you'll be happier with the iMac due to its larger graphics memory. It won't be a Radeon Pro 9800, but it should be sufficient.

 

[sparkleytone]

Rule #1: boot time does NOT matter

Rule #2: boot time is INSIGNIFICANT

Rule #3: UNIX does not boot fast

Other than that, your major decision-maker is whether or not you need portability. If you want the best longevity for high-end gaming on the Mac, you will need a G5 with either a 9600 or 9800.

 

[pinto32]

Made my first trip to an Apple Store this past Friday (WOW!!!!), and I noticed that the iBooks, eMacs, and most of the iMacs only had a few basic programs installed, while the G5's and Powerbooks were loaded with close to 30 programs....everything from Office, to Photoshop, to Dreamweaver, to Fireworks.....there's yout extra boot time right there....

 

[Sun Baked]

Re: Need help deciding what to get, please read!

Originally posted by davidc2182
Why is it that the iMac 20 1.25 GHz inch and iBook 14 inch 1GHz G4 boot up faster than the Powerbook g4 1.25GHZ and the Powermac G5 Single or Dual 1.8?

RAM Check...

The more you have the longer it'll take to do a cold boot.

Plus the G5s may have some additional system checks in the boot process with all the additional hardware doodads.

Sleeping and warm restarts get around the system/RAM check lag.

So don't dwell on it unless you buy a dual G5 with 8GB and shut the machine down completely every time you walk away from the machine for more than 5 minutes.

 

[Dont Hurt Me]

fx5200 graphics is about the weakest being made and the imac's video chip is just that, no upgrade path. its a great machine other then its slow cpu and video chip.