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PowerMac G5 or New iMac 24"?

allymmpink

allymmpink

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 30, 2008
20
0
Hey everyone,
I am currently looking to upgrade from my 17" iMac 1.83 GHz Intel Core Duo, 1.5GB 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (with an external Maxtor 1TB) - to either:
- iMac 24" - 2.8GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, With an upgraded 4GB of ram, and 320gb hard drive. for approx AU$2400.
OR
- I have found on eBay a PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz, with 8GB of ram, and a 1TB Hard Drive - for AU$1,649. Buy it now... (And would then have to buy a monitor ect)

So. I currently run Photoshop CS3, Final Cut Express Suite, M Office 2004, iWork 2006, iLife 2006 - but am looking to upgrade to Final Cut Studio 2 at the moment. I will obviously need a larger and faster computer than my current, - because it is painfully slow already and has basically run of space, as it is. Without final cut studio.
Can you advise me as to what to do?
THANKS EVERYONE! :D

:apple:
 
iMac+

Speaking from experience. I own a PowerMac G5 2.3 (dual-core model, late 2005) with 8GB of memory and 10K WD raptors in RAID0. My parents just recently bought a 24" iMac 2.8Ghz with 2GB of memory and 750GB drive.

My experience with Adobe applications, Lightroom2.2, Photoshop CS3/4, Flash CS4 is that the iMac is substantially faster. Those apps from watching Activity Monitor are generally CPU intensive and the Intel Core 2 Duo is just plain faster than the G5 anymore.

For day-to-day tasks, the PowerMac is more than fast enough, but for anything involving photography or video (I often encode DVDs to iPod video using Handbrake) the iMac is a clear winner between those two.

I am personally waiting for Apple to release some Intel i7 Mac Pros... I hope I can last that long.
 
also

The 24" iMac monitor was really nice to work with too. I could have done without the Glossy coating garbage, but overall it was nice.

It is no substitute though for the 20/23/30" cinema displays though. Even though that monitor is over 3 years old, it performs like a champ. (I recently bought a 30" and Adobe's creative suite has been so much nicer to work with on 30" display)
 
thank you so much for that, I was thinking the iMac would be the better option, because it is the newest update. Would you suggest then saving up for another monitor, to work with the 24"? Even if it is one of the older ones, I think I can get one off eBay for around $200. - Do you think this would be a good idea?
 
I am not sure you can connect an external monitor to an iMac. Anyway, Snow Leopard will be Intel only, so with PowerPC being completely phased out, the iMac is a no brainer between those two.

An alternative option would be looking at an older Mac Pro (used) if you wanted to go the full desktop route. At least with that option you would be 64-bit Intel (for Snow Leopard) and could easily upgrade the memory in the future (especially since memory will only get cheaper as time passes)
 
hmm, yeah - I see your point. I am still running tiger on both my macs, so will snow leopard be such a huge jump - when comparing to leopard?
 
jedijoe said:
I am not sure you can connect an external monitor to an iMac. Anyway, Snow Leopard will be Intel only, so with PowerPC being completely phased out, the iMac is a no brainer between those two.

An alternative option would be looking at an older Mac Pro (used) if you wanted to go the full desktop route. At least with that option you would be 64-bit Intel (for Snow Leopard) and could easily upgrade the memory in the future (especially since memory will only get cheaper as time passes)
Click to expand...

You can connect an external monitor to an iMac, it has mini DVI so you have to get an adapter. I have my 17" iMac connected to a 19" Samsung monitor.

Also I thought all Core2Duos were 64 bit?
 
allymmpink said:
hmm, yeah - I see your point. I am still running tiger on both my macs, so will snow leopard be such a huge jump - when comparing to leopard?
Click to expand...

Hard to say. From the developer seeds and rumors, Snow Leopard is supposed to be really focus on performance and such, instead of just raw features, so in my opinion, since both of my current Macs are 3 years old, if I was buying a Mac today, I would make sure it supported Apple's future software track. (since I would plan on having the Mac for longer than say the usually lifespan of a PC)

And yes, All C2D are 64-bit and all Xeons used in Mac Pros are 64-bit.
 
hmm. ok.
Well, after all this help, I'm thinking I'll still go with the iMac, and maybe save up for another monitor later. The iMac will be compatible with snow leopard? Right? And I think that will be the main concern when it comes out.
Well, I am probably off to purchase my beautiful new iMac tomorrow, yeheeee!
Haha. It will be a great difference to my mere 17" 1.5gb. Oh the excitement is a little too overwhelming.
But before I do, the iMac is strong enough to handle final cut studio - correct? Thanks again.
 
The iMac will be compatible with Snow Leopard, but it is also due for an update anytime now and you can bet the updated one with run Snow Leopard better than the current one.
 
allymmpink said:
hmm. ok.
But before I do, the iMac is strong enough to handle final cut studio - correct? Thanks again.
Click to expand...

I have no experience with Final Cut or Adobe's Premiere, but I sure those can be very hard disk intensive as well as CPU extensive based off the video you were working with (ie 1080p streams, etc)

If your current 17" iMac works fairly well in final cut now for what you do, its probably fair to say the newer one will be faster.

... I also forgot to mention, my parents 24" iMac had the upgraded graphics option (NVIDIA 8800), which may or may not made a difference in applications like CS4 which use OpenGL and the graphics card more and more.
 
ugh. the one thing about apple that annoys me is their release dates. They never give anything away and then POOF - new model is out.
Do you think the new model will look the same? Because all of the new macbooks/pros have just been upgraded to look the same as the desktop.
And when you say more compatible with leopard - how so?
thanks.
 
Well Snow Leopard focuses more on using the GPU, the new iMacs will be updated with this in mind just like the new MacBooks were updated with this in mind, and will be faster than the previous iMacs at running Snow Leopard because of it.

Edit: Yes I believe the new iMacs will have the same design as the current iMacs, they were redesigned not too long ago, not time for a change yet.
 
its likely that the new iMacs will see similar updates like the MacBook Pro, NVIDIA chipset, 1067Mhz DDR3 memory and probably NVIDIA 9XXX series option for a video card.

Computers and tech are updated all the time. It sucks, but it is how it is. Apple is slightly worse with its super secret plans... At this point for me, I've waited 3 years using a PPC desktop and I refuse to buy a 1.5+ year old MacPro/Intel technology. I will be waiting until they update that desktop. :)
 
Yeah save your money on the 4GB RAM and get it 3rd party and upgrade the HDD to 500GB from Apple and it will come out to about the same price if not less.
 
Yes, all Core 2 Duo CPUs are 64-Bit. Actually, Apple has completely transitioned to 64-Bit Intel CPUs for quite a while now (the only exception being the AppleTV, but that little box hardly counts).

Going for a PowerPC has quit making sense more than three years ago when the first Intel iMac was released (which already was faster than a Dual G5 2 GHz PowerMac at that time).

And from everthing we know (or can guess), just like Apple's own Java 6 implementation, Snow Leopard won't even run on PowerPC machines anymore.
 
Def go for iMac 24", first off Core 2 Duo is faster then G5 in everything.. and you wont have to pay for a monitor..
 
MasterNile said:
Well Snow Leopard focuses more on using the GPU, the new iMacs will be updated with this in mind just like the new MacBooks were updated with this in mind, and will be faster than the previous iMacs at running Snow Leopard because of it.

Edit: Yes I believe the new iMacs will have the same design as the current iMacs, they were redesigned not too long ago, not time for a change yet.
Click to expand...

The MB's and MBP's were all redesigned to look like the iMac to begin with.
 
Unless you feel you need more internal storage or more pci slots I would opt for the iMac. I know people who have five hard drives in their G5 with the help of an aftermarket bracket.

IMO the iMac is unsightly all-in-one-ugly-as-hell but it may suit your needs better if you don't need the expansion of a tower.
 
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