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Splurge or upgrade?

I

iMacZealot

macrumors 68020
Original poster
Mar 11, 2005
2,237
3
I have a perfectly fine iMac G5 that will turn two years old on 5.5.07 (bought it on 5.5.05, first one in the state.) I use it for a lot of FinalCut Express movies, music, web, and homework. I've saved up close to $600, and I'm deciding whether or not I should save up for a MacBook or just upgrade all the stuff that I have now.

I thought about upping my RAM from 512 MB to 1.5 GB. Will that speed up FCE? Is that worth the $200? What about just upping it to 1 GB? What difference will that have vs. 1.5?

I've also been planning on upgrading to Leopard when it comes out, and if it's good enough, iWork. Not sure about iLife yet.

I may also have to buy a new external hard disk soon because the internal and two external ones I have (total: 340 GB) already have 268 GB on them.

On the other hand, I could use a portable. I almost got an iBook G4 two years ago, but my dad gave me the money to upgrade to the iMac G5. One of the things I like about the MacBook is its bigger widescreen display and iSight. I'll probably be travelling a lot, which is where I get my footage and send it to my client, and it may be nice to start working on stuff on the trip, save it to one of my external hard disks, and finish it on the G5. I may need a laptop for school, too. It might be helpful to have one. (High school, not college.) My sister's still in college, so I can use her education discount. I could probably just get a 2.0 GHz White one because I'd be mostly likely using the external hard disks for my videos. I do have FCE 3.0 disks, 3.0 upgrade disks (long story), and 3.5 upgrade disks, but none of them are universal, so I'd have to get that preinstalled at $99, no problem. So, that's a $1300 computer.

I'm not sure whether I should upgrade all the stuff I have now or save for a MacBook (my parents might give me some money.) What do you think I should do?

Thanks!

(P.S. I just realised that my thread title made no sense. It should be "Splurge or Save."
 
i bought a powermac g5 that would have been two years old this april. i sold it two months ago and bought myself a c2d macbook with slightly more ram (2gb) and similar specs otherwise. the macbook overall feels snappier, has a faster super drive, has built-in isight and support for windows (though i don't use it). i don't regret the decision, and i'm loving my purchase. don't upgrade, splurge! that is, if you can afford it.
 
While the newer Intel machines are faster, running FCE on a 13" screen does not sound pleasant. 512MB of RAM is not enough for any Mac. The best use of your money is to add an extra GB of RAM (which is less than $100 even from the most reliable sources). Save the rest of your money.
 
Well, we can always beat you up and take your computer.

That way the choice is out of your hands and entirely up to the insurance company.
 
Well, the whole point of the MacBook really is so I can import my footage (which last time was over four hours of video), start editing on the MacBook, and then put the project on one of my external hard disks (I have two of those tiny SmartDisk FireLite drives) and finish it when I get home on the G5. I could also use it at school for papers and stuff.

A 13 inch widescreen is definitely better than a 4:3 12" iBook, though!

I've always been wary about 3rd party RAM whenever I see people on here buy it. I'm worried if it's not the same quality, and, while I can probably do it, I'm afraid about installing it, too.

While buying a MacBook certainly would be nice, I feel that my G5 may start to mistrust me. :) Seriously, why buy another computer when I can upgrade the already wonderful computer I have now?
 
I would buy the RAM and save the rest :D

Keep saving - then see how you feel with the added RAM!

I have bought RAM from Crucial and had experience to use their warranty on it and i would do it again in a heartbeat!

Good luck!
 
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