PowerMac worth 1850 euro's / 2240 USD ?

[Woutje]

Hi,

I've been interested in a mac for quite some time now, but have never bought one before. I'm studying multimedia and communicationstechnology at college, so I work with all the pro app's like Flash, Photoshop etc... Normally I'd say that a PowerMac is just what I need. But the pricetag just seems a bit too high for me. Where I live the cheapest powermac costs 1850 euro's (or 2240 USD), which is a 2x2ghz machine with 512 MB. It doesn't even have 1 gig of ram at that price and a radeon 9600 that's getting a bit passe. I've been playing with PC hardware all my life, juggling cards and ram's, so I do know a lot about PC's. I suppose the powermac has indeed a lot of processing power, but is it worth the high price? Normally I could get a 3Ghz AMD64 with 1 GB ram and a faster 3d card, plus a monitor at that price. With the powermac I'd even have to buy a monitor (i don't have a decent one to spare atm). So tell me, what's so great about this machine that makes it worth the price. What makes you guys spend so much money on this?

Oh yeah, this price is WITH the student discount!

 

[FFTT]

First of all, how soon will you need a new machine?

If you can wait through September. we may see something new out of the Paris Expo.

If you need something sooner, You should be looking at the G5 dual 2.3
running at least 1 GB of RAM and the 128MB GPU will hold you just fine.

You could actually get by on an iMac G5 2.0, but a tower is really the way to go for any serious production work.

As a professional, time is money and any G5 PowerMac running Tiger will greatly improve your workflow and overall ease of productivity over nearly any Microsoft Windows based system.
You must also consider where your system will be once Microsoft releases
Vista in some meaningful fashion. You could be spending a small fortune
in upgrades.

BTW,
Your existing Adobe and Macromedia licences should be transferable for a nominal shipping fee for the Mac versions CD's

I think you be amazed at how much the right operating system, software and the right hardware improve what you'll be doing every day for a living.

 

[plinden]

Hi,

I've been interested in a mac for quite some time now, but have never bought one before. I'm studying multimedia and communicationstechnology at college, so I work with all the pro app's like Flash, Photoshop etc... Normally I'd say that a PowerMac is just what I need. But the pricetag just seems a bit too high for me. Where I live the cheapest powermac costs 1850 euro's (or 2240 USD), which is a 2x2ghz machine with 512 MB. It doesn't even have 1 gig of ram at that price and a radeon 9600 that's getting a bit passe. I've been playing with PC hardware all my life, juggling cards and ram's, so I do know a lot about PC's. I suppose the powermac has indeed a lot of processing power, but is it worth the high price? Normally I could get a 3Ghz AMD64 with 1 GB ram and a faster 3d card, plus a monitor at that price. With the powermac I'd even have to buy a monitor (i don't have a decent one to spare atm). So tell me, what's so great about this machine that makes it worth the price. What makes you guys spend so much money on this?

Oh yeah, this price is WITH the student discount!

Well, for a start, AMD64s don't come at 3GHz - do you mean AMD Athlon 64 3000+, which is at 2Ghz?

Anyway, the dual 2GHz PowerMac would be close to twice as fast as a single AMD64 3000+ at some things (multiprocessor aware actions - the AMDs are slower anyway than P4s at multimedia apps at their "equivalency" rating, ie. 3GHz P4s) while being considerably slower at other things. The AMDs are great for gaming, while the Macs are not, due to several things, one of which is that games tend to be as well optimized for the MacOS. 3d graphics cards aren't really that important for what Macs are usually used for (whether or not you agree that gaming should be a higher priority for Apple, that's just a fact of life)

Probably the best reason for getting a Mac is the OS, but if that's the only reason, the price can't be justified.

You should choose depending on what you'll be using your computer for. If you are going to play highend games, you'd be better going for the AMD machine. But if you want to concentrate on pro apps, with productivity your highest priority, the PowerMac is better suited to you. Why not ask your course supervisor what they think?

 

[FF_productions]

What would be the problem with getting a 20 inch iMac g5? 2 ghz sure seems like enough for what you are doing..With that edu discount, you can add some ram to get full performance..

 

[1nsanity]

Well, for a start, AMD64s don't come at 3GHz - do you mean AMD Athlon 64 3000+, which is at 2Ghz?

I know I am being picky but its actually 1.8ghz for the 939 socket and 2ghz for the 7....socket.

 

[Woutje]

Why not ask your course supervisor what they think?

In my school everyone has a laptop (some high-end IBM machine with 1.7 Ghz Centrino's and 1600x1200 displays). This laptop can be bought via the school at very reasonable prices. So there aren't many people who have different machines. Out of the 500+ students in the first year, only one person has a mac...a powerbook with 17 inch I believe. So...It's kinda sad... There aren't a lot of mac-owners where I live (Belgium), but it's rapidly increasing thanks to the mini. For now I'm still waiting to see what products they will release soon. Maybe a new powerbook would be cool to use at school. I've really had enough of windows and it's slow ways of doing things. I've also taken a look at the mini (since it's only 600 euro's for the 2nd model), but the videocard and HD aren't good enough. Maybe...that'll change with the Intel CPU's...hell they might even come up with a powermini or whatever

So for now...I'm still exploring the reasons why I should switch...and how it's worth twice the cash (mac+tft vs regular pc).