New to forum - G5 Questions
Looking for some advice....
A little background. I work as a freelance graphic designer in the Toronto area. I concentrate on print materials and usually work in Quark, Illustrator and a little Photoshop (simple close crops/feathers). I currently get by on a 9600/350 with 256mb ram running OS 9.1.
Time to get into the real digital age. I have just purchased a nifty digital camera (Canon SD300) and have picked up a 40gb iPod.
My question - can I get by with a G6 iMac 20"? I would bump ram to 2 gb and was wondering if....
1. Will I notice a increase in speed/power?
2. Will I need to get into a G5 tower with dual processors (very expensive when considering a new monitor/software/peripheals)?
3. Any reason to wait for something new (any new products in the rumour mill)?
Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks - HBK
A little background. I work as a freelance graphic designer in the Toronto area. I concentrate on print materials and usually work in Quark, Illustrator and a little Photoshop (simple close crops/feathers). I currently get by on a 9600/350 with 256mb ram running OS 9.1.
Time to get into the real digital age. I have just purchased a nifty digital camera (Canon SD300) and have picked up a 40gb iPod.
My question - can I get by with a G6 iMac 20"? I would bump ram to 2 gb and was wondering if....
1. Will I notice a increase in speed/power?
2. Will I need to get into a G5 tower with dual processors (very expensive when considering a new monitor/software/peripheals)?
3. Any reason to wait for something new (any new products in the rumour mill)?
Any insight would be appreciated. Thanks - HBK
Comments
Originally posted by hoganboykee
My question - can I get by with a G6 iMac 20
Can 128-bit processors run 32-bit software?
--B
Coming from a 9600, the G5 iMac will definitely show much more speed/power. Especially when you throw 2GB of RAM into it.
Not everyone *needs* a dual CPU system. You get what you paid for, but on the higher end, you pay exponentially more for what might be a linear increase in performance, if you get what I mean.
Some advice:
- Don't get the 17 inch iMac. The LCD on that is shockingly terrible with regards to color shifts as the viewing angle changes. The 20 inch uses the same technology as the standalone displays, so it is pretty darn good.
- No new macs run OS9 anymore. So you might need to upgrade your software, which adds up to the cost of the new set up. So, I can understand if you want to save a little on the hard ware.
Good luck shopping!
Im aware that I will need new software to run on the new O/S.
I guess my real question is....
Will the 20" G5 iMac with 2 gb of ram be sufficient to run Quark, Illustrator and Photoshop or will I have to upgrade to the G5 tower.
Thanks in advance!
Originally posted by drumsticks
- No new macs run OS9 anymore. So you might need to upgrade your software, which adds up to the cost of the new set up. So, I can understand if you want to save a little on the hard ware.
Not to be an unhelpful nitpicky bitch twice in a row, but all the new macs are still compatible with most OS 9 software, albeit in Classic Mode. This means that you start up in OS X, but can simultaneously run an OS 9 shell (?) and 9-compatible programs.
I have heard rumors for years that Classic would be phased out, and even though the new imacs aren't on the list in the above link, the phasing out is yet to happen.
Of course, Classic is slower, and doesn't take advantage of the way the new OS is integrated with the new hardware, but it will still fly with that RAM and a G5.
Speed bump rumored for Jan for the Powermacs. Macrumor's Buyer's Guide didn't consider the last 1.8 to be an upgrade to the regular line, so something might be in the pipeline.
Dual Processors sounds like overkill for what you're doing. And don't buy your RAM from Apple. Sorry, I'm just repeating old AI shibboleths since you're new here.
And if you're touchy about appearance, take a look at how your camera's USB/Firewire cable will hang off the back. Lots of whiners about this one.
--B
For RAM, http://www.crucial.com has good prices and are reliable.
Originally posted by bergz
Not to be an unhelpful nitpicky bitch twice in a row, but all the new macs are still compatible with most OS 9 software, albeit in Classic Mode. This means that you start up in OS X, but can simultaneously run an OS 9 shell (?) and 9-compatible programs.
I have heard rumors for years that Classic would be phased out, and even though the new imacs aren't on the list in the above link, the phasing out is yet to happen.
Of course, Classic is slower, and doesn't take advantage of the way the new OS is integrated with the new hardware, but it will still fly with that RAM and a G5.
I'm on a Dual 2Ghz with 1.5 gigs of RAM, and it is indeed speedy. Though I don't care how fast it runs. Classic still sucks. If something isn't OS X native, I generally don't use it. Now, I'm definitely not saying Apple should drop classic, but I still avoid it like the plague.