Advice for buying a PowerMac

Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
Need help decided what model PowerMac my school newspaper should get. I'm in charge of deciding because no one else know anything about computers. We will use the computer mostly for Creating pictures and stuff in Photoshop 7.01. Using Quark 5, and Office V.X. Also using Illustrator, ImageReady, Macromedia Dreamweaver MX, Final Cut Pro. We'll proably also be running Mathmatica 4.1. We also want this computer to last us for about 5years. We already have 2 17" Formac Displays ready to be unpacked and used. We also will be multitasking very heavily using, Photoshop, Illustrator, Office, Appleworks 6, Internet Explorer, and Dreamweaver all at the same time. Also for all this multitasking will it be better to get a SCSI drive or will a ATA/100 be fast enough



I think that pretty much covers it.



P.S We have a budget of about $3000 rounded.





Thanks for any suggestions.



[ 09-21-2002: Message edited by: Altivec_2.0 ]</p>
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    bungebunge Posts: 7,329member
    [quote]Originally posted by Altivec_2.0:

    <strong>Need help decided what model PowerMac my school newspaper should get.... We also want this computer to last us for about 5years. We already have 2 17" Formac Displays ready to be unpacked and used. We also will be multitasking very heavily using, Photoshop, Illustrator, Office, Appleworks 6, Internet Explorer, and Dreamweaver all at the same time. Also for all this multitasking will it be better to get a SCSI drive or will a ATA/100 be fast enough



    ...



    P.S We have a budget of about $3000 rounded.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Well you're dangerously close to being able to purchase the Dual 1.25 GHZ with the EDU discount, at least before tax & shipping.



    But if you're looking for a 5 year investment, I'd probably go with a SCSI setup in a dual 1 GHZ. The SCSI drives should last longer, 5 years wouldn't be a surprise at all. Also if you buy the dual GHZ you could get AppleCare for the machine (if your school doesn't have a maintenance contract) which will also help extend the life of the machine. It comes with the dual display video card, but I'm not sure if both of your monitors will work without an adapter.



    Personally, I don't think I'd consider the Dual 867 simply because you're going to be doing EVERYTHING with the machine. You'll be able to do everything, but maybe not in 3,4 or 5 years. The Dual GHZ will give you some added life.
  • Reply 2 of 22
    qaziiqazii Posts: 305member
    A dual 1.25 at education prices is $2673 Subtotal with Combo Drive, Geforce4MX, and no modem. I think a dual 1.25 if the best choice if you want 5 years and don't need a supoerdrive.
  • Reply 3 of 22
    emaneman Posts: 7,204member
    Buying advice belongs in General Discussion...
  • Reply 4 of 22
    Think that we should get the ATI 9000, or GeForce4, we'll be working alot on Photoshop, and somewhat Quark.
  • Reply 5 of 22
    SCSI drives last longer? not these dayz slower 5400 rpm drives last longer. a 5400 rpm SCSI drive is a rare thing these days. I have 10,000 RPM western digital that I use only for backups cause it gets so hot I aam afraid to leav it on all the time and its only supported with HD tool kit under mac os and never spins down.
  • Reply 6 of 22
    ebbyebby Posts: 3,110member
    [quote]Originally posted by bernard:

    <strong>I have 10,000 RPM western digital that I use only for backups cause it gets so hot I aam afraid to leav it on all the time and its only supported with HD tool kit under mac os and never spins down.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    I left a Western Digital hard drive on all night while I was rendering a DV project and it burned up! Yep, it had a head crash that warped one of the platters, which slowed down the RPM of the drive. The drive spent the rest of the night trying to spin up to 7200 RPM. The drive got so hot, it melted the plastic that touched it. It was still warm to the touch after an hour of cooling down. I never bought a Western Digital hard drive since.



    EDIT- I lost a 20 minute section of our project. And I cut holes into the case for ventalation. (Using a Maxtor Hard drive now)



    [ 09-22-2002: Message edited by: Ebby ]</p>
  • Reply 7 of 22
    oops, slow on the draw. moved to GD.
  • Reply 8 of 22
    mcqmcq Posts: 1,543member
    The stock Dual 1.25 GHz with a combo drive instead of a superdrive should be fine, since I doubt you'll need to be burning DVDs for the newspaper. I'd imagine 120GB should be enough space for now, if you need more just go get another 120GB drive elsewhere, $329 more for an additional one is crazy. Buy 512 of the PC2700 ram from somewhere, else and it should be a little over $3000 before taxes ($2913 for the PowerMac, say $127 for 512 of Kingston ram from <a href="http://www.googlegear.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=80065-K"; target="_blank">Googlegear</a>).
  • Reply 9 of 22
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    What school are we talking about? It really depends, are we talking about a highschool or a college/university?
  • Reply 10 of 22
    [quote]Originally posted by Altivec_2.0:

    <strong>Think that we should get the ATI 9000, or GeForce4, we'll be working alot on Photoshop, and somewhat Quark.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Ehh 2D stuff was passed a long time ago, only real differences are 3D nowadays, GF4MX will be fine.
  • Reply 11 of 22
    College.
  • Reply 12 of 22
    buy a dual one ghz powermac, the dual 1,25 ghz is not that faster : only 18 % (hard to notice a difference), add extra RAM an another HD of high quality with 8MB cache (better performance than even the SCSI 10 000 rpm HD) and buy with the difference a new Scanner or others stuff like that.



    If you suggest to buy the more expansive computer you will look suspect, if you buy the middle range model , you will appear wise.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    I'v decieded what were getting



    Dual 1Ghz G4

    256MB DDR Ram (Going to upgrade to 768MB)

    80GB HardDrive

    GeForce4MX

    Combo Drive.





    Just one more question. The PowerMac has 4 slots for Ram. Would it be faster in performance to fill all of them up with smaller sized ram(1x256MB and 2x128MB) or just buy one 512MB



    [ 09-22-2002: Message edited by: Altivec_2.0 ]</p>
  • Reply 14 of 22
    There is no performance difference between filling up all the slots and one large stick. Get the big moduals and save yourself some money and slots.
  • Reply 15 of 22
    qaziiqazii Posts: 305member
    Will a dual 1 still be useful in 5 years? Well 5 years ago, you would be buying a 604e machine, which would be quite slow for what you're doing now. And people consider the current range slow relative to the rest of the market. So I think the best plan would be to buy a dual 867 now and use the rest of the money to buy another low end PowerMac in 2-3 years.
  • Reply 16 of 22
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Yep, the top end machines aren't worth the premium, however, you're not spending your own money, so why not splurge? Do you have to spend the money on a computer or do you have 3000 to spend on any computer related stuff you need/want? That could change things around a bit. Another thing to consider is what machine do you use at home? If it's a mac, then that's what you get, if you use a PC, then get that. Keep in mind who installs the software on your work machine and how is that controlled (wink wink). If you have a lot of control, and the person signing the cheques doesn't know or care to know much, it might be a good opportunity to try out .mac. You have to swap work from home to work, right?
  • Reply 17 of 22
    I have all Mac's at home. We have 3000 to spend on just the computer and maybe some computer add-ons. Pretty sure I'll be doing all the installing of software. No one else really knows how. I'll proably be the only one using too. .mac is a good suggestion. 100MB iDisk would be perfect to transfer templates .etc to my home computer. Anyone have any other suggestions of possible add-on's?
  • Reply 18 of 22
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    [quote]Originally posted by smithjoel:

    <strong>There is no performance difference between filling up all the slots and one large stick. Get the big moduals and save yourself some money and slots.</strong><hr></blockquote>



    Same answer, the time where Apple made Interleave memory is over. Buy a single 512 MB Ram.



    For the Add on ; by order of need :

    - a printer (but i assume you have already one to print your newspaper)

    - a digital camera : very usefull to make some reports on events

    - a scanner

    - and a electrical device protection : very important for the HD.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    If you are looking at getting a ddr dual gig, you'd be better off getting a quicksilver dual gig. There is no speed difference at all. You'd be saving quite a bit of money. Ram for the quicksilvers is almost half as cheap as the ddr.



    The new ddr machines are the worst buy out there. Much more expensive than quicksilvers with the same performance. The little to no expandability difference is not worth it.



    Look around at the apple retailers..macmall, macconnection, smalldog, macwarehouse, etc.
  • Reply 20 of 22
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    I really don't think the price difference between DDR and SDR matters that much, and I haven't seen great discounts on QS dual GHz. Recently SDR prices have fallen, but DDR is also very cheap -- if you shop around you can get it for nearly SDR prices. A year or so from now DDR will be cheaper than SDR.
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