Should I Upgrade My PPC G5 To A Mac Pro?

[DC LONDON]

I have a 2.0ghz Dual Core PPC with 4.5GB SDRAM. It suits me fine for everything I am currently using it for; Audio and Graphic Design. But with the release of the Mac Pro and the upcoming Leopard I am wondering whether to upgrade or not while my G5 still has value in it. I wouldn't say I 'need' to upgrade at the minute but the longer I wait to upgrade to Intel the less my machine will be worth to sell on and the more I will have to pay to upgrade. How long will Apple support my type of machine? I cant imagine the base model Mac Pro (what I could realistically afford) being 'much' faster than what I am currently using but I want to keep up to date with new releases of programs in the future that I use, Adobe, Logic etc

On one hand I think sell while the G5 still has value, on the other I think I would only be upgrading for the sake of it and when the time comes to upgrade for 'speeds sake', I would just have to upgrade the Intel I bought anyway! Any advice would be warmly received!

HELP!

DC

 

[Naimfan]

I rather suspect you've already depreciated all the way down and that you're unlikely to lose much more in value. That's based on some of the discussion in Marketplace about how much PM G5s are worth, which is surprisingly low. But given that they appear to have bottomed out--with perhaps a little room to go down, but not much--I think I'd hold on to it until you need to upgrade. That way, you can see what the new Mac Pros look like.

(Surely new ones are coming someday, right?)

I don't think you'll lose much value at all if you wait until at least MWSF and see what new Mac Pros come out.

Bob

 

[Kendall015]

If you don't need the ability to run Windows apps, then I would stay stick with the G5. Technology will keep moving on, and eventually the current lineup of Mac Pros will look outdated too...so if you are happy right now, I would suggest sticking with the G5.

 

[DC LONDON]

Cheers for the replies; as I suspected. I am thinking I will hold on to it for the moment. Just another question, when Leopard is released should it run faster than Tiger on my machine or are they specifically being developed for Intels without much backward improvement?

 

[Kendall015]

Cheers for the replies; as I suspected. I am thinking I will hold on to it for the moment. Just another question, when Leopard is released should it run faster than Tiger on my machine or are they specifically being developed for Intels without much backward improvement?

Each new release of Mac OS X has ran faster than the previous, but I don't know how much more optimizing they can do at this point. Maybe someone who is running a prerelease version of Leopard can comment on this.

 

[Razzerman]

Cheers for the replies; as I suspected. I am thinking I will hold on to it for the moment. Just another question, when Leopard is released should it run faster than Tiger on my machine or are they specifically being developed for Intels without much backward improvement?

Looks like I'm in the same boat - I'll be waiting until February before I upgrade the old G5. By then at least Leopard will have been out a few months (with a few inevitable patches) and some nice & tasty new hardware should be kicking about. Patience is all that's required!

 

[jepjepjep]

I upgraded from a PowerMac dual 1.8 G5 to an Intel iMac core duo 2.0 GHz and couldn't be happier. The intel iMac just feels a lot snappier.

 

[yojitani]

I have a 2.0ghz Dual Core PPC with 4.5GB SDRAM. It suits me fine for everything I am currently using it for; Audio and Graphic Design. But with the release of the Mac Pro and the upcoming Leopard I am wondering whether to upgrade or not while my G5 still has value in it. I wouldn't say I 'need' to upgrade at the minute but the longer I wait to upgrade to Intel the less my machine will be worth to sell on and the more I will have to pay to upgrade. How long will Apple support my type of machine? I cant imagine the base model Mac Pro (what I could realistically afford) being 'much' faster than what I am currently using but I want to keep up to date with new releases of programs in the future that I use, Adobe, Logic etc

On one hand I think sell while the G5 still has value, on the other I think I would only be upgrading for the sake of it and when the time comes to upgrade for 'speeds sake', I would just have to upgrade the Intel I bought anyway! Any advice would be warmly received!

HELP!

DC

Hmm.. In fact, this is the reason I bought a Mac Pro not long after they came out. I had a dual 1.8G5, it did everything I needed it to, but watching it devalue frightened me off keeping it.

If I were you, I would have a look on ebay to see how much they are fetching right now. If they are selling for enough to make a Mac Pro purchase worth your while, I'd go for it, though you may want to part out the ram...

Mac Pros are odd things. My wife's imac feels faster when browsing the web, but when it comes to rendering film etc. it's a beast.