Order G5 now? Or wait a few more months?

[LuvAussies]

I'd like to order the Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5. I know it won't ship until September, but is there any reason anyone can think of to wait longer?

Like waiting a few more months in case there are any 'bugs' with the new G5s?

Any recommendations? It's hard waiting, I have a 300Mhz b/w G3, and I want to make movie DVDs!

 

[iGav]

Re: Order G5 now? Or wait a few more months?

Originally posted by LuvAussies
I'd like to order the Dual 2GHz PowerPC G5. I know it won't ship until September, but is there any reason anyone can think of to wait longer?

Like waiting a few more months in case there are any 'bugs' with the new G5s?

Any recommendations? It's hard waiting, I have a 300Mhz b/w G3, and I want to make movie DVDs!

I can't see why you'd want to wait.... I can't imagine there to be any major problems with the G5!

I guess the fact that they aren't shipping with Panther could be an issue, but I think you'll get the money-off-update-coupons with it to allow you to update on the cheap like the Jaguar updates...

I'd say buy now... it's cool to be among the first owners of new technology!!

 

[LuvAussies]

I don't WANT to wait, that's my problem! ;-)

I'm not worried about Panther, in the Government store it'll probably be pretty cheap.

It's fun to be one of the first, but I always worry about a '1.0 version' of anything. ;-) I know they fixed at least 2 things on the b/w G3 a few months after I got mine, but I never had problems with them anyway.

I do trust Apple... so I probably won't be able to wait! I'm hoping it'll last me 5 years.... or more!

 

[LuvAussies]

I could always order it now, and I'll have plenty of time (a good 4-6 weeks) to change my mind! (Which I know I won't!)

 

[plutnicki]

1st year anything

I've always avoided first year cars, motorcycles, electronics, appliances, etc... I always wait until at least the second revision of a new technology. You usually get more bang for your buck, and bug fixes.

OTOH, it's the early adopters that fuel the industry.

You're probably safe, but if you're not in a rush, you might wait until the first wave are off the production floor and in people's hands before placing the order. That way you'll have some clue about what growing pains are in store.

One rule of electronic design, there are bugs that will show in your first proto's, there are bugs that won't show until you get them into the hands of Quality Assurance and there are, unfortunately, bugs that won't rear their ugly heads until you've built a few thousand units...

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
I don't WANT to wait, that's my problem! ;-)

I'm not worried about Panther, in the Government store it'll probably be pretty cheap.

It's fun to be one of the first, but I always worry about a '1.0 version' of anything. ;-) I know they fixed at least 2 things on the b/w G3 a few months after I got mine, but I never had problems with them anyway.

I do trust Apple... so I probably won't be able to wait! I'm hoping it'll last me 5 years.... or more!

Don't wait....

You could spend X months waiting, and those months turn into years etc etc...

You'll find the G5 to be so much more productive than your G3 and like you said you haven't encountered the problems with your G3 that Apple had fixed with later revisions!

Now iGav suggests you should open your wallet, pull out the plastic, swallow hard, part with those $, and buy a great machine!!

They await your order....

G

 

[LuvAussies]

Okay, I couldn't stand it any longer, I broke down and placed my order. I have plenty of time to cancel it before it ships, that's for sure!

I was fine with my G3 until I got my digital camcorder! That's the only thing that makes the wait so painful! ;-) Everything else is fine. It's only recently (upgrading to Jaguar) started to show hesitation, so I'd get a couple more years out of it easily if I hadn't gotten into the movie stuff!

Hopefully I won't pick up any more new hobbies that make me need another for at least 5 more years! ;-)

And hopefully there won't be any issues with this first round of machines!

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
Okay, I couldn't stand it any longer, I broke down and placed my order. I have plenty of time to cancel it before it ships, that's for sure!

I was fine with my G3 until I got my digital camcorder! That's the only thing that makes the wait so painful! ;-) Everything else is fine. It's only recently (upgrading to Jaguar) started to show hesitation, so I'd get a couple more years out of it easily if I hadn't gotten into the movie stuff!

Hopefully I won't pick up any more new hobbies that make me need another for at least 5 more years! ;-)

And hopefully there won't be any issues with this first round of machines!

Yey!! good on ya fella!!

how long on the delivery time???

 

[LuvAussies]

;-) I'm a GIRL, can't you tell by my voice? ;-)

Sure, easy for you to say, it's not your money! ;-)

It says 7-10 weeks, but on macosrumors.com it said:

"Apple expects to be fully caught up on all pre-orders by about the second week in September, and new orders should begin immediately shipping before the end of that month."

So hopefully by the end of September!

 

[MacFan25]

I don't think you will need to worry. Remember, that you always have AppleCare for the first year, and can get it for three years.

Congrats, on the order!

 

[Thirteenva]

I'm also curious about the delivery time.

I'm about to place a G5 order for work and the apple retailers i talked to said there is an 8-10 week delivery time for orders placed today.

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
;-) I'm a GIRL, can't you tell by my voice? ;-)

Sure, easy for you to say, it's not your money! ;-)

It says 7-10 weeks, but on macosrumors.com it said:

"Apple expects to be fully caught up on all pre-orders by about the second week in September, and new orders should begin immediately shipping before the end of that month."

So hopefully by the end of September!

oop's... what can I say, the line has a bad reception, I couldn't tell, long distance call etc etc...

I know what it's like parting with the cash though, I spent all of last year waiting for Apple to double the speed of the PowerBook (I had the original PowerBook G4 500 and as a general rule I wait for computers to double in speed before I buy) so I bought the 1GHz PowerBook, and the same month I had it delivered they announced a price cut and a 17" version.... it's all in the Karma!! heh-heh!!

You'll find it so much more productive though.... I have a friend who is in EXACTLY the same boat as you, she has a B&W G3 and is toying with the idea of buying a G5... I think she's having trouble with the psychological_barrier of parting with that amount of notes in one go... and whether she can justify such a lavish expense on one item, even though it'll increase her productivity ten fold!! Actually you're not her are you??? _

Either way, you won't be better prepared for a DV onslaught with any other machine...

So what kind of projects you planning to use it for??

 

[LuvAussies]

Originally posted by iGAV
oop's... what can I say, the line has a bad reception, I couldn't tell, long distance call etc etc...

I know what it's like parting with the cash though, I spent all of last year waiting for Apple to double the speed of the PowerBook (I had the original PowerBook G4 500 and as a general rule I wait for computers to double in speed before I buy) so I bought the 1GHz PowerBook, and the same month I had it delivered they announced a price cut and a 17" version.... it's all in the Karma!! heh-heh!!

You'll find it so much more productive though.... I have a friend who is in EXACTLY the same boat as you, she has a B&W G3 and is toying with the idea of buying a G5... I think she's having trouble with the psychological_barrier of parting with that amount of notes in one go... and whether she can justify such a lavish expense on one item, even though it'll increase her productivity ten fold!! Actually you're not her are you??? _

Either way, you won't be better prepared for a DV onslaught with any other machine...

So what kind of projects you planning to use it for??

I was fine with this G3 until I started the DV, and I still love my G3, so I plan to keep it all to myself! Mine mine mine!

When I found out I really need a G4 for things like iDVD, the G5 had already come out, otherwise I probably would have ended up with a G4, so it's perfect timing I suppose! I could play the waiting game forever, I know they plan on 3ghz chips for next year, but I'm sure the 2x2 will be more than enough for a while! Just think of all of the time wasted by sticking with the G3, that takes 13 hours to convert a 26 minute .mov to .m2v!

I was going to go with the 1.6, then realized the 1.8 is a much better deal, but wait, the 2x2 is only $500 more once I added in my options! And with its speed, I'd probably get another year or two out of it than the 1.8 anyway if not more.

You'll laugh, but I got the camcorder to tape my dogs, especially agility practice and trials! I made a cute 26 minute movie of them to send to friends & family who can't visit, and to the breeder! I got hooked on the video editing with iMovie, bought a DVD burner only to find out my computer is too out of date to have the kind of fun I really want to have. So I'm in a holding pattern until I get a new one! And I can't wait to open that box and unpack the goods! ;-)

My goodness, besides web pages, graphics, music, and movies now, what else is there? (I'm sure I'll come up with something!)

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
I could play the waiting game forever, I know they plan on 3ghz chips for next year, but I'm sure the 2x2 will be more than enough for a while! Just think of all of the time wasted by sticking with the G3, that takes 13 hours to convert a 26 minute .mov to .m2v!

I was going to go with the 1.6, then realized the 1.8 is a much better deal, but wait, the 2x2 is only $500 more once I added in my options! And with its speed, I'd probably get another year or two out of it than the 1.8 anyway if not more.

You'll laugh, but I got the camcorder to tape my dogs, especially agility practice and trials! I made a cute 26 minute movie of them to send to friends & family who can't visit, and to the breeder! I got hooked on the video editing with iMovie, bought a DVD burner only to find out my computer is too out of date to have the kind of fun I really want to have. So I'm in a holding pattern until I get a new one! And I can't wait to open that box and unpack the goods! ;-)

My goodness, besides web pages, graphics, music, and movies now, what else is there? (I'm sure I'll come up with something!)

I think it'safe enough buying a new machine at the start of a cycle, the only time it's worth waiting is when the product update cycle is nearing it's end, like on the PowerBooks, it'd be mad to buy one now because you're basically paying a premium over the model that will replace it in a matter of weeks...

If you've managed to stretch the G3 this long, then I doubt you'll have any problems stretching a G5 out for a similar duration.... unless they start incorporating HDTV in iMovie that is....

It's amazing what the increase in speed can do to help not only productivity but also creativity, especially when it comes to DV work, the ability to preview stuff in realtime is a huge bonus, because it allows you to tweak and change stuff far faster than with an old machine, I remember waiting for machines to render 2 minutes of footage in 16-20 hours, only to discover that the concept didn't work and required changing... now you can do a preview comp in memory in minutes.... mayzin'!!

The hardest part is just waiting for it to be delivered... you just know those weeks are going to drag, drag, drag!! it'll be worth it in the end though!!

You should set yourself up with a website and upload footage onto that, as well as the DVD... kind of like outtakes and that kind of thing!! It'll allow you to keep people more up-to-date than for ever burning DVD's!!

It's kind of incredible that Apple has made this kind of thing so easily accessible to joe-public, only a few years ago, this kind of work was the domain of creative agencies only charging X thousands of $ to do it!!

G

 

[LuvAussies]

I never did much high demand stuff on my G3, maybe a little photo stuff, but nothing like the demand of video. I had no idea how COOL even just iMovie was until I got started playing with it, and I got hooked! And I can't wait to use iDVD!

You're right, streaming it on the web is probably a better way. Heck, I can do that with my G3! I'll have to give it a try. There are a few people who aren't computer savvy who won't have a plug in, or don't have high speed connections, so those will have to get vido tapes. I doubt they have DVD players either! ;-)

I've got a lot going on over the next few weeks, so hopefully that will keep me busy enough to make it go faster! I have my first agility competition on 8/31, so I will be anxious to do something with the video of that!

I agree, it's amazing how much we can do, even just on my 'wimpy' G3! ;-) And it's amazing how simple some of the coolest stuff is!

Is it September yet????

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
You're right, streaming it on the web is probably a better way. Heck, I can do that with my G3! I'll have to give it a try. There are a few people who aren't computer savvy who won't have a plug in, or don't have high speed connections, so those will have to get vido tapes. I doubt they have DVD players either! ;-)

I've got a lot going on over the next few weeks, so hopefully that will keep me busy enough to make it go faster! I have my first agility competition on 8/31, so I will be anxious to do something with the video of that!

I agree, it's amazing how much we can do, even just on my 'wimpy' G3! ;-) And it's amazing how simple some of the coolest stuff is!

Is it September yet????

Well you could also build yourself an application in Director that would sit on your relatives desktops (computer ones, not the wood kind) that when you open it would connect to a database and download the footage that you put online, without the need for doing anything else, and would play within the application (not that I'm giving you any more idea's about what you could use your G5 for you understand... hee-hee!!

I hate waiting for things... I don't have the patience....

Septemeber isn't all that far off, you never know, Apple might even surprised you... MIGHT being the word...

 

[Freg3000]

I'd say don't buy the 1st of the 1st revision. It's not like Apple is going to wait until they give the G5 a 6 month scheduled speed boast if there was a big problem. Take the eMacs for example. The first batch had some of those screen problems, but those were later resolved, without a "revision." I'd wait until you are in the middle oF the product cycle. It's the best time I think- it's before you get into the last weeks before and update, and week after the first machines were out.

A happy medium.

P.S. After two weeks of vacation, it feels good to be back at MacRumors!

 

[rundevilrun]

Originally posted by iGAV
I know what it's like parting with the cash though, I spent all of last year waiting for Apple to double the speed of the PowerBook (I had the original PowerBook G4 500 and as a general rule I wait for computers to double in speed before I buy) so I bought the 1GHz PowerBook, and the same month I had it delivered they announced a price cut and a 17" version.... it's all in the Karma!! heh-heh!!

I too have found that waiting until you can get twice the performance at about the original price works out well for me. The computer geek in me gets the latest tech and the financial geek in me gets decent resale value on my old machine. Those 2 geeks are always fighting...

 

[jayscheuerle]

Just remember that Apple's last version of the G4 tower had a serious fan-noise problem when first released.

You wouldn't have to wait long to hear of problems if you frequent these boards. These machines cost a lot of money. I'd wait a couple of weeks after the first ones get in users hands before I'd put my trust in a product. Let others be the suckers working for you! - j

 

[LuvAussies]

So if you got one with this fan noise problem, did Apple refuse to fix it ?

 

[LuvAussies]

Also, the single processor models will be out at least a month before I get mine, that should be a good test and give me time to cancel if I chicken out. ;-)

I can't imagine thousands of machines going out with problems, and Apple not fixing them!

There were work-arounds for the issues with the rev1 G3 b/w that I have, that I never even knew were problems until a month ago.

I'm still 'on the fence' on this issue, more feedback please!

 

[Dahl]

I have making videos in Premiere and After Effects on my old G3 and DV camera, but I'm so ready for the G5. I'm dying to start making DVD's, I have a lot of great video from around the globe, but it's hard to do anything of longer length.

But I don't get how people just buy an untested product ( before it's out ), not that I don't like it. It's great for Apple and it helps them fix the bugs earlier. I will probably get the 1.8 or dual 2.0, but I would like to see some reviews first.

 

[iGav]

Originally posted by LuvAussies
Also, the single processor models will be out at least a month before I get mine, that should be a good test and give me time to cancel if I chicken out. ;-)

I can't imagine thousands of machines going out with problems, and Apple not fixing them!

There were work-arounds for the issues with the rev1 G3 b/w that I have, that I never even knew were problems until a month ago.

I'm still 'on the fence' on this issue, more feedback please!

It'll be fine... *deep breath*

I really don't think you have anything to worry about personally, if there does happen to be a problem with it, you can get it fixed....

There's no guarantee that something might not be wrong with the Rev B as well.... and for that matter the Rev C.... and all that waiting just means you spend less time being creatively productive!!

Is it September yet??

 

[LuvAussies]

Now you're thinking like I'm thinking. If it's bad enough that something doesn't work, Apple will fix it. Sometimes bugs aren't caught until months later too! And Rev B could break something else!

Any and all models can have some sort of issue, so I'm sticking with my order!

Like you said, the lost productivity can make up for a lot! I want to do DV, and my G3 is holding me back, as much as I still love it!

I'll have to post a new thread on what to do with my G3 when I get my G5! I don't want to get rid of it, and it's too soon to make it a piece of furniture! ;-)

 

[Dahl]

Sell it or trade it in. That's what I'm am thinking of doing.
These two places might have an option for you:
http://www.powermax.com/
http://www.macsolutions.com/