Thinking about a G5..................

[stainlessliquid]

The G5's are a horrible deal. They cost way too much for what you get. Unless for some reason you absolutely need a tower, then the G5 is a really bad buy. You would be taking a huge step back in power from your PC if you got a G5... huge.

The old Core Duo chips smoked the G5 powermacs, its not even a contest with the new Core 2 Duo chips.

Any of the intel macs are decent and have much better value than the insanely priced powermacs.

 

[heatmiser]

The G5's are a horrible deal. They cost way too much for what you get. Unless for some reason you absolutely need a tower, then the G5 is a really bad buy. You would be taking a huge step back in power from your PC if you got a G5... huge.

The old Core Duo chips smoked the G5 powermacs, its not even a contest with the new Core 2 Duo chips.

Any of the intel macs are decent and have much better value than the insanely priced powermacs.

What he said. At this point, it doesn't make sense to invest in pre-CD hardware on any platform. The idea of sinking money into a G5 when there are blazing fast PCs available for equal amount makes my head hurt.

 

[flyinmac]

What he said. At this point, it doesn't make sense to invest in pre-CD hardware on any platform. The idea of sinking money into a G5 when there are blazing fast PCs available for equal amount makes my head hurt.

Yeah, some nut here on Craigslist wants as much as the price of a Mac Pro for his old G5 tower.

Let's see, reliable new faster Mac Pro. Or, leaky corrosive liquid pouring out of a failure prone G5. Hmmmm. That's a tough one.

 

[Silencio]

The older PowerMac G5 towers (Dual 1.8GHz and Dual 2.0GHz) aren't too bad in terms of price/performance. They're still pretty darned quick and, if you make sure you get one with 8 RAM slots, you can load it up with 8GB of RAM relatively cheaply. Their reliability has been pretty respectable for me over the years. You could do well with a budget of $800-850 and a little patience for the right deal to come along.

But I do think a Mac mini C2D would make a better machine to start off with especially considering your main machine is already a higher-end quad-core PC. Smaller, quieter, more versatile in some ways, can be repurposed in quite a few interesting ways if you decide you need a more powerful/expandable Mac later.

 

[Eric S.]

The old Core Duo chips smoked the G5 powermacs, its not even a contest with the new Core 2 Duo chips.

Based on what? According to Geekbench , higher-speed dual-core G5's are competitive with Core Duo's. Quad-core G5's smoke the Core Duo's and are competitive with dual-core C2D's.

Concern about being left behind by Snow Leopard and future OS releases is a factor favoring Intel-based systems. But performance-wise the G5 is fine unless one needs top of the line Mac Pro speed. And Power Mac G5 systems also offer expandability not found in any Intel system besides the Mac Pro.

 

[Techguy172]

Based on what? According to Geekbench , higher-speed dual-core G5's are competitive with Core Duo's. Quad-core G5's smoke the Core Duo's and are competitive with dual-core C2D's.

Concern about being left behind by Snow Leopard and future OS releases is a factor favoring Intel-based systems. But performance-wise the G5 is fine unless one needs top of the line Mac Pro speed. And Power Mac G5 systems also offer expandability not found in any Intel system besides the Mac Pro.

Your comparing a Dual-core against a Quad-core it's just impressive the core 2 can compete and beat it in many respects.

The only G5 that was expandable was the PowerMac G5, Apple always only has had the most expensive systems expandable.

 

[Eric S.]

Your comparing a Dual-core against a Quad-core it's just impressive the core 2 can compete and beat it in many respects.

The previous claim was "The old Core Duo chips smoked the G5 powermacs." Not true. It certainly does depend on which G5 you are comparing.

The only G5 that was expandable was the PowerMac G5, Apple always only has had the most expensive systems expandable.

Right, Power Mac G5. I had the impression that's what the original poster was considering, not the iMac. Sorry if that was not the case.

 

[kabunaru]

If you want a PowerMac G5, get it. Nobody is going to stop you from getting it and it's your money. Use it to your heart's desires. If you are feeling like the G5 is a good choice, get it.

 

[sysiphus]

I had a dual 1.8ghz Powermac G5 with 2.5gb of RAM, a nice RAID array, and a Geforce 6800GT--one of the best cards available for that particular model. My parents still use it today...I'm on a 2.16ghz Core Duo/2gb RAM Macbook Pro now, and while the Intel machine shines on playback of .mkv (high def) files etc, the G5 isn't doing badly, considering that it's from June 2004. The Powermac G5s were probably the least expandable Powermac towers ever made, but they were solid machines--IF they were air-cooled models. Avoid a liquid-cooled G5 at all costs--the liquid cooling modules were horrible. That said, if you've got your heart set on a Powermac G5, and go into it with your eyes open regarding the fact that you'd be buying a platform that is aging/on the way out the door (regarding software support), you'll get a nice machine, with a higher build quality than a consumer-level machine (assembled in Ireland vs. China). If I were you, I'd get a used Core Duo Mac Mini to test the waters (~400USD), then jump into a Mac Pro if you decide that it's for you. Good luck!