Purchase current G4 or wait till MWNY 2002?

Posted:
in Future Apple Hardware edited January 2014
OK, I live in Canada, so the prices i talk about are all canadian. I can get a 933 G4 now w/o superdrive for $3173 from the apple store.



OR





wait till MWNY 2002 & then purchase a higher model or same as above for a reduced price.



I currently use a B & W G3 400 Mhz, 256 Ram, 6 G hd & 40 G hd.



what do you all think??????





thankz



i also plan to sell the radeon 7500 in the above & put in a Radeon 8500.
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Comments

  • Reply 1 of 22
    cosmocosmo Posts: 662member
    Well if u wait until MWNY, your will almost certainly be able to get a better machine for the same price, or the same machine for a cheaper. It really depends on how soon you need your new machine. If your business relies on your computer and time is money, it might not be worth it to wait, but if you B&W g3 is still ok for your needs and you aren't losing money because of it, then you can wait till MWNY.



    It also depends on what applications you use. If you use apps that take advantage of the g4, then your performance increase will be far greater than if you use apps that are not optimized.
  • Reply 2 of 22
    xiaxinxiaxin Posts: 44member
    The big IF is:

    if we do see G5 in the next several month, is it time to jump on the bandwagon of the 1st generation G5 machine?



    The answer is no, since the new machine somehow might have flaws, for example, the first generation PowerBook G4 had the slower than iBook firewire and not to mention the errata of the 1st generation PowerPC G4 microprocessors.



    and IF there's only the speed bump G4 we might see, why not going for the current cheaper machine by the time? Since the GeForce4 MX works pretty well for the Doom-like games in 1024x768/32 bit mode and the PowerPC G4/800/933/twin 1000 MHz is at least 5 times powerful than PowerPC G3/400 microprocessor.
  • Reply 3 of 22
    powerdocpowerdoc Posts: 8,123member
    I doubt that will see a G5 or a new mobo until MWSF 2003.



    The PPC 7455 has just been released in february, even if it's a minor revision of the G4 line,who is ready to bet that there will be a new revision of the G4 four months after. Considering that a the 7455 does not support DDR memory, i doubt that we will se a new mobo, by new mobo i mean a mobo with DDR ram.



    I a m sorry to said that but we will not see any big improvement until MWSF. Just expect for MWNY a small speedbump of the chip and perharps some minor change in the mobo, like inside bluetooth or ATA 100-133.
  • Reply 4 of 22
    matsumatsu Posts: 6,558member
    Buy now. From here on in, it's price bumps after every keynote! No point paying a hundred or so more for the same machine in 3-6 months time.



    [ 03-24-2002: Message edited by: Matsu ]</p>
  • Reply 5 of 22
    Why would you say that apple will charge more for new machines at MWNY???





    I do not NEED a need 'puter, i want one! I have had this B & W G3 for 3 years. Its still got alot of live left & i intend to keep it. Its just that i would like to have a speedy mac with all the extra goodies to play with! I like gadgits & the new G4s have more of them for me to play with. besides i can afford it, life is short & i like to upgrade about every 2-3 years.
  • Reply 6 of 22
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    get ev nova to tied you over until then... just wait.
  • Reply 7 of 22
    the REAL question is: at what Mhz will the G4 be bumped up to at MWNY 2002? (if at all)



    I figure 1 Ghz, 1.2 Ghz & 1.4 Ghz
  • Reply 8 of 22
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    If the G5 is meant to debut at 1.2Ghz, isn't it just around the corner, ie MWNY??
  • Reply 9 of 22
    snarksnark Posts: 5member
    Well, you've hung onto the B&W G3 for this long; so, what's another few months. Save up some more cash. Then buy the new system.

  • Reply 10 of 22
    kalikali Posts: 634member
    I'm in the same water as you, Deathlok2001, and I'm living in Canada too.



    I hesitated to buy a dual IGHz very recently, and I finally decided to wait until MWNY, but not more. There are 2 reasons why :



    1- I hate the GeF4 MX card in the dual, and I don't have any choice with the educational program at my school. It appears there are some minor (?) problems with the video card and I wont spend several thousands dollars on a machine with a crippled video card. Just look at the Apple forums about this.



    2- I want to have OS X version 10.2 on my new machine. IMO, the actual version isn't finished yet, at least not to my taste (wathever what others are saying). Of course, I may upgrade 10.1 -&gt; 10.2 when it comes out, but this is just another argument to me.



    I'm not in a hurry and I still can use my old MacIIci at home and the iMac at work. So I'm waiting. But like I said, I wont wait any longer than august.
  • Reply 11 of 22
    r-ager-age Posts: 21member
    I just powered up my New Dual 1GHz about an hour ago.

    leaving my PowerCenterPro 210Mhz to do the small things.(stable old box)



    looking to change the GeForce4MX card for a ATI 8500

    hoping to get both my 21CTRs to there full 1920 X 1440 (what's the best ADC to VGA or ADC to EVC adapter)



    Back'n the days of the first 8100/80, I told a good friend (after reading about the future of MP systems in MacUser ) I'd love to get a computer with 2 CPUs, and instead of 80MHz imagine 1000MHz

    TODAY i have my dream box



    Now that my first dream box is here in my house. To start dreaming of a future computer would be more like...

    ?Quad G5se 2GHz 128MB Xs- buffer (perCPU)

    Optic CPU aRk and Gigawire2

    June 2008?



    it's good to dream of the future hardware

    it's great to be able to buy it when it finally arrives
  • Reply 12 of 22
    thuh freakthuh freak Posts: 2,664member
    i think there will be new machines in NYC, but I think it'll just be speed bumps, and not mobo or g5. But, with a b&w g3 myself (350MHz), i think they can last a while longer. Mine runs x.1 fairly well, and i'm not in any dire need of a speed boost. but, when the dual fivers come out, im gonna b all over them. but, ur needs are likely diff from mine.
  • Reply 13 of 22
    This is what i am afraid of.Â* Mac games experiencing more & more delays, being released further & further from the PC release dates. More & more mac users getting a PC for gaming, which transpires into fewer & fewer mac users buying mac games. Then eventually the Mac gaming marketÂ* will expire!



    If i buy a New G4, i want to know that i can get the games i want on the mac. so far so good.
  • Reply 14 of 22
    These are some of the games i am very interested in obtaining in the future:



    Return to castle wolfenstien

    Max Payne

    Metal of Honor

    UT 2002

    Unreal 2

    Deus Ex 2

    Doom 3

    Halo

    Duke Nukem 4ever
  • Reply 15 of 22
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Here's the deal:



    MWNY, at a *minimum* will introduce one higher clocked model of the 7455 we have now - say a 1.2 GHz model. That means the 1GHz becomes the middle, 933 the low end. I just happened to get a chance to tinker around with a stock 933 and it was fast as hell. Much faster than I thought it would be. Blew my 500 out of the water where Finder responsiveness, app launching and the all-around performance were concerned.



    What I'm saying here is, IF you don't need the new computer now for something work-related, wait. Because it is *highly* likely that at the very least, you will be able to get this excellent 933 machine for around $1700, maybe less depending on how you configure it.



    It is less likely but still a probability in my mind that we will see a new version of the G4 (the .13µ process shrink everyone has been anticipating) - let's call it the 7470 since that's what The Register, in its infinite lack of wisdom, thinks it will be called. This chip will likely start off ~ 1.2 GHz and will likely be priced similarly to the 7455. Whether this new chip would use a souped up "MPX+" mobo running at 166Mhz and use the corresponding 333MHz DDR RAM, I have no idea. That eventuality in and of itself is probably less likely than the 7470. So maybe we'll see new chips on the same mobo, but that seems borderline illogical unless they integrate a new 3MB cache instead of 2MB. They have to address the bottleneck somewhere if they introduce faster chips.



    Less likely still, but still not a long-shot IMO, is the arrival of the G5, which I'll call the 7500. IF this chip is released, it is almost *guaranteed* to utilize a 500MHz RIO-based mobo, and an on-die DDR memory controller because this is the type of architecture MOT has designed around the G5 in general. Also guaranteed would be speeds of 1, 1.25 and perhaps 1.5 GHz. (The RIO-based archictecture can use half-multiples where bus speed is concerned; each CPU iteration doesn't have to go by steps of 500MHz - they can jump by 250 MHz at a time).



    Long story short, you'd be crazy not to wait so long as the need is just personal and not work-related. Even the worst case scenario would get you the same 933 machine from today for less money. And honestly, if that's all the more option you have, it would still be a good investment. The 933 is an excellent machine, especially when priced below 2K.



    [ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
  • Reply 16 of 22
    kalikali Posts: 634member
    I agree totally with you, Moog.



    And by then (MWNY), we could expect OS X 10.2 to be out with the new machines.



    So my decision is final, I'll wait.
  • Reply 17 of 22
    serranoserrano Posts: 1,806member
    don't put money down for anything that isn't ddr if you're coming from a b&w... the state of mac games is only improving
  • Reply 18 of 22
    the state of mac games is improving????...how so?



    i think i will wait. This old B & W G3 still has some life left in it.
  • Reply 19 of 22
    mattyjmattyj Posts: 898member
    What is the scale of the 133Mhz bus, because that has a ratio of 7.5:1 with the new 1Ghz G4s, which has to reaching is limit right? Doesn't that mean DDR is in the next speed bump, or even better, the G5? Is that the main reason why apple haven't updated the G4s bus?
  • Reply 20 of 22
    moogsmoogs Posts: 4,296member
    Basically Matty, the high-end G4 machines have reached the point where they are becoming memory-starved. If faster processors were added to the same 133MHz bus, you would not see much of a performance boost the way you did with this last update to the lineup. The processors would get faster, but the machines as a whole wouldn't perform much better than the existing ones.



    It's for that reason that *something* will likely be done with the UMA come the next revision. If not a total re-design using RIO on the Northbridge side, HT on the Southbridge side (or something similarly radical)...then perhaps a boost to the existing MPX-based architecure, moving it to 166 or 200 MHz, and then employing 166 MHz SDRAM or PC1600 DDR respectively (think I got those paired up right). Either way, it would be *really* dumb for Apple to slap even faster processors on the same UMA design because we won't be able to see the true benefits of the improved processor.



    [ 03-27-2002: Message edited by: Moogs ? ]</p>
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