Which PowerMac?

[gwest]

Trying to decide between the dual 2 and 2.3.

I'm not too worried about the limited memory expansion of the 2- 4G should be fine. I'm more concerned about the significance of PCI-X slots for potential upgrading.

I do VHS to DVD work, presently with a Formac Studio Firewire device, and am curious as to whether a dedicated Capture Card, which could be PCI-X based, should be a consideration at some point if it would deliver higher quality. I know nothing about these cards, but I don't want to limit possibilities.

My primary work is video editing/photography. Any advice on this issue? Any other differences between the two machine that I should consider? And is the 2.3 running liquid cooling, or is that just the 2.7?

Thanks!

 

[wdlove]

Only the 2.7 has the liquid cooling. Both have the layer superdrive. The FSB is faster on the 2.3 and you can add more memory. With the 2.0 you could of course add more memory with the money saved on the higher priced model.

 

[neildmitchell]

Dual 2 G5

We have recently bought a dual 2 G5, 2 gig Ram at work with Final Cut Studio pro. I am currenlty working on a DVD at work. and the system handles is just fine.

We went with the dual 2 because of budget. We mostly work on print projects in-house, the DVD is a new venture in trying to re-create our catalogs in DVD format. We most likely will not be venturing into large video editing or heavy duty sound editing projects, so the dual 2 suits us fine.

I did configure different G5 systems online to compare features, power, and which system would not be obsolete in the near future for our purposes. Theres nothing worse then buying a sytem and a year later discover that you need to buy a new system beacuse you made the wrong choices for the long term.

Since your work is mainly video, DVD, sound editing etc.. I would go for the top of the line 2.7. I discovered that there really wasnt much of a diff. between the dual 2 and the dual 2.3

 

[cube]

You can put Ultra320 SCSI of Fibre Channel cards if you get PCI-X.

 

[wiseguy27]

Trying to decide between the dual 2 and 2.3.

I'm not too worried about the limited memory expansion of the 2- 4G should be fine.

It's not just a limit on the amount of RAM. Assume you want to upgrade to 4GB. On a dual 2GHz with four RAM slots, you would be spending more money to upgrade than you would with a 2.3GHz with eight RAM slots. With the former, you would have to throw away or sell the existing RAM (remember that two of the four slots are already used by the memory Apple installs when you buy the Mac). With eight RAM slots in the 2.3GHz, you can upgrade slowly whenever you can afford to buy some RAM (and go on for a longer time without having to remove the existing ones).

 

[macorama]

With eight RAM slots in the 2.3GHz, you can upgrade slowly whenever you can afford to buy some RAM

Yes, but the price difference between the 2.3GHz and the 2GHz is £300, so if you get the 2GHz model that £300 saving should cover having to chuck some RAM when upgrading, yes?

So the best option would be set a budget, then get the 2GHz, and put as much RAM as you can afford in it.

 

[wiseguy27]

depends

Yes, but the price difference between the 2.3GHz and the 2GHz is £300, so if you get the 2GHz model that £300 saving should cover having to chuck some RAM when upgrading, yes?

I wasn't just talking about chucking the Apple RAM and upgrading it immediately. My point was also about upgrading gradually in the future. Now if the OP buys a 2GHz with, say 2GB RAM and wants to upgrade to 4GB later, the current 2GB would also have to be chucked out! Considering the high cost of 1GB RAM modules (currently), having more RAM slots seems to be a better option. Of course, this also depends on how much memory the OP needs. I feel that having four slots is a limiting factor (in terms of cost of replacement) if one wants to go for 4GB.

So the best option would be set a budget, then get the 2GHz, and put as much RAM as you can afford in it.

I would suggest setting a budget, geting the 2.3GHz with minimal RAM and upgrading later whenever some money can be set aside for this purpose. No chucking away existing RAM (or bothering to sell it) for sometime.

 

[dmw007]

My 2 cents (for what its worth)
-Go with the dual 2.3GHz PowerMac
why?
-faster CPUs
-faster fsbs
-twice the amount of ram expansion and 4 more dimms to occupy with ram
-pci-x for expansion
-plus you get a larger hard drive standard with the 2.3 model

 

[FFTT]

You still have another good option if you're trying to get the best you can on a budget.

Most of the Apple Resellers still have a good stock of the older but still NEW
Rev B 2.0 dual G5's.
The newer Rev C's use the previous 1.8 dual motherboard
and that's why their expansion is limited to 4 GB RAM and PCI

Unlike the newer Rev C 2.0, the older Rev B model still allows for full 8 GB of RAM and has PCI-X.

The average price for these units runs $1899 US and usually gets you an additional 512MB RAM free.

 

[javiercr]

beware, PCI-X is not PCI-E

just in case you're getting confused with this, PCI-X is NOT PCI-E (PCI-Express). You can add faster cards for things like extra gigabit networks cards but if you're thinking of PCI-Express graphics cards PCI-X is not for that, Mac's still can't take PCI-E cards, hopefully (and quite probably) ATI will continue making AGP cards for a while to be able to upgrade for a few years.