What is the best deal?

[abe]

O.k., I see that I do not need the superdrive.

So, my questionis: what do you think is the best deal here?

I can get the 733 quicksilver with 640 MB RAM, 40 GB HD, CDRW 12X10X32, 56K Modem, NVIDIA GeForce2 MX mit 32 MB VRAM, USB und FireWire, 10/100/1000 BaseT

for $1440

And the new 800 quicksilver with 768 MB RAM, 40 GB Harddisk, 7200 rpm, CDRW 24x10x32, 4 x PCI, 2 x USB, 2 x Firewire, Gigabit Ethernet, Modem 56K, ATI Radeon 7500 mit 32 MB DDR SDRAM

for $ 1760
and for $1885 with 1.5 GB RAM

Thanks for your answers

 

[barkmonster]

I'd go for the 800Mhz G4.

here's why. In you're comparison you noted that the 800 has 2 x firewire and USB, so does the 733, that's not a plus point of the new machine. The plus points of the newer mac are:

Graphics

faster 3D performance, if you take into acount the charisma engine which smooths over the image by increasing the number of polygons before applying the textures (if I read that correctly on the Ati site), you'll get nicer looking, faster 3D performance than the GeForce2 MX plus it's dual head so you can keep you're CRT monitor (i assume you have one already) and later add an apple LCD as a second display. Also certain applications use hardware in the ATI chips to speed up screen redrawing. MacMAME or SNES9X for instance. I'm not sure if quicktime benefits too 'cos updating the ati drivers caused movies to play back a hell of a lot smoother on my old beige G3.

General Speed

The 7200rpm drive will not only speed up booting but it will speed up all the mundane things like opening applications and saving/copying files. Also it's likely that the G4 chip is a 7455, the new model with SOI, this technology allows the chip to run faster at lower temperatures, something which is bound to have at least a small advantage over the old 7450 chip in the 733.

Memory

Don't buy anything more than the 256Mb it comes with, buy an extra 512Mb from a third party like Crucial for less than half what apple would charge to add it, this should bring the price closer to what you're paying for the 733.

of course if you can get a 733 to that spec for that price and you don't care about HD speed or graphics performance, go for the 733. It now costs £999 + V.A.T. here in the UK for the base model with 128Mb so for what it's costing you it could be worth it if cost is an issue, infact you could probably pay a hundred or so more than you were going to pay for the 800 and get a 15" studio display to go with it.

Just a thought, hope it helps

 

[abe]

hi barkmonster

Thanks for your ideas. I guess your right with the grafic card and the disc.

The quicksilver offer comes already from a 3rd party reseller.

So I'd get 1.256 GB RAM for about $135 ... quite a good deal!

Comparing the 800 with the 933: do you think the 3rd level cache makes a big difference under MacOS X?

 

[menoinjun]

Yes...the third level makes a hell of a lot of difference, especially now that it is 2mb and DDR RAM!

Proof:

The old Digital Audio 533mhz G4 chips with the 1mb of L3 cache are actually faster in some tests than the Quicksilver 733 without the L3 cache. The tests that it is not faster in, it is very close!! It think http://www.xlr8yourmac.com has the benchmarks.

The size of the cache (1mb v. 2mb per chip) doesn't make a huge amount of difference, but the fact that it is there does! (and is DDR)

-Pete

 

[eyelikeart]

I think the 800 is more justifiable...

 

[MacUser1]

i'd say...

get the 800

 

[abe]

Thanks for your input. I'm gonna test the Macs today ...