Trade iMac for PowerMac?

[Chasealicious]

I have a 17" iMac G5 which I've been offered to trade for a PowerMac G5. I'm leaning towards the straight machine-for-machine swap, as the specs are similar enough and the PowerMac would give me room for upgrading over the next year or two.

iMac specs: 2GHz, 2GB RAM, DL SuperDrive, 128 Radeon 9600, Airport + Bluetooth 2.0

PowerMac specs: Dual 1.8GHz, 2 GB RAM, SuperDrive, 64 GeForce 5200, Airport

The hard drives are irrelevant as they're both serial ATA and we'll just swap them out.

In theory, the iMac currently has just a few edges over the PowerMac (dual layer burner, better graphics,) but those are things that can easily be upgraded in the PowerMac. The only other thing I lose is that I currently use the screen spanning hack to run dual monitors on the iMac, if I switched for the PowerMac I would temporarily go back to one display.

But overall, I'll get more everyday benefit out of the extra processor than I will out of the burner/built-in graphics chip, and those things can all be upgraded later above and beyond what they are now or what the iMac could have done. I'm one of those guys who likes to play with things like this.

Both machines have almost a year of AppleCare left on them, and it comes from a trusted friend. Thoughts?

 

[Mr. MacBook]

Hell no.

A all-in-one is always sexier than the big fat ugly powermac which runs SUPER high temps.

 

[QCassidy352]

definitely go for it. The dual PM will be much faster than the imac, and you'll have room to grow in to a better video card and more RAM and HDs if you want to.

 

[FF_productions]

I'd accept the trade simply because of the expandability and the speed boost.

Although I would suggest switching over to Intel sometime soon, I won't bash the G5's because there is still plenty of speed left in those bad boys.

 

[eXan]

Hell no.

A all-in-one is always sexier than the big fat ugly powermac which runs SUPER high temps.

Personally, I think the PMG5 looks just as good, if not better than a 17" iMac G5.

Do you know the temratures the G5 is running on? I dont, but I doubt its any hotter than 75-82 degrees C the rev.B 17" iMac runs on (I have almost the same machine, just with 0.5 GB less memory)

To the OP: definately switch to the PM, the extra CPU alone makes the deal great!