advice: imac 20 inch or Powermac G5 1,6

hea8 · December 30, 2003 2:24PM

Hi, i want to buy a mac, having a XP computer at the moment, but i'm a little unsure what to buy!

I narrowed it down to a imac 20 inch or a Powermac G5 1,6 .

Is there anybody that owns a G5 1,6 who can tell me if this computer brings value for money?

I'm hoping for suggestions and advice because i can't make up my mind!

Thank You all for helping out!!

alcimedes · December 30, 2003 2:31PM

purchasing advice = general discussion.

(besides, you'll get better respones there anyway)

lain · December 30, 2003 10:53PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hea8

Hi, i want to buy a mac, having a XP computer at the moment, but i'm a little unsure what to buy!

I narrowed it down to a imac 20 inch or a Powermac G5 1,6 .

Is there anybody that owns a G5 1,6 who can tell me if this computer brings value for money?

I'm hoping for suggestions and advice because i can't make up my mind!

Thank You all for helping out!!

20" iMac or G5 1.6 do not offer good performance per dollar.

As for value for money? It is down to you as to what you value.

But if its between those two systems I'd get a G5 1.6 with 19"LCD monitor (Samsung brand or something)... this should end up being cheaper than the iMac and twice as powerfull (at least) and when the G5 goes out of date u can still use the 19" LCD monitor for a G6 or whatever. Performance per dollar wise Id get a G5 dual 1.8 with above mentioned monitor... its just a matter of how much value you are willing to pay for.

Cheers!

BTW I own a G5 1.6 - its my first Mac.

edit: I forgot to mention that in January 2k4 there will be a big mac expo and there are expected to be price / performance changes for the better

so if you can hold on, wait for this show to finish and then plan your purchase... either way a G5 with a seperate monitor will be a better ($ for performance) purchase than an iMac.

hea8 · December 31, 2003 4:06AM

@ Lain / thanks, can you tell me if the G5 1,6 lives up to your

expectations? And you wrote that it is twice as fast as a imac G4 1,25 is that treu? I have a windows AMD 1900+ 1,6 will i notice a difference or is the speed the same as my AMD PC? Did You switch from windows to OS X and how do You manage?

Thanks for Your patience!!

Marcel (and all my best wishes for the New Year)

mattyj · December 31, 2003 5:54AM

If you do get a G5 1.6, which you should get instead of the iMac 20", be sure to get the radeon 9600 pro instead of the nVidia 5200 ultra card, it's only $50 extra and has a lot more power. Also, get another 256MB RAM, to make 512MB total.

mount_my_floppy · December 31, 2003 6:51AM

I vote for the G5. I hate all in ones. I really do. If you ever plan on doing any upgrading of any kind, save for keyboard and mouse and junk, its going to be sooooooooo much easier on the G5.

Really though I am going to need more background on what you are going to be doing with it to make an educated suggestion.

leonis · December 31, 2003 10:37AM

I will keep my opinion short and simple

iMac = Dead end machine. Can't upgrade the video card. Only thing you can put in is RAM

PowerMac = More "future proof" since you can upgrade and expand

malokata · December 31, 2003 1:04PM

Wait until mid-January. Hopefully you'll be asking a different question.

hea8 · December 31, 2003 1:10PM

? what do You mean ?

whisper · December 31, 2003 1:19PM

Yeah, go with the G5. It's more expandable and it's a newer architecture. But wait until MWSF is over.

luca · December 31, 2003 1:26PM

Yes, the PowerMacs are likely to get an update soon. They have gotten a January or February update for the past five years, and I don't think this year will be any different. Try to hold off buying one, and then you can get one as soon as they're updated. You could even get an old-model one (depending on how drastic the update is) for a hefty discount. If you could get a refurb (or just a left-over) dual 1.8 for the price of the current single 1.6, you'll be happy! Also, if you don't need the DVD burner, you may want to think of doing a BTO for a Combo drive - it chops $200 off the price, which you can put towards RAM, another hard drive, better video card, nice LCD monitor, whatever you want.

lain · December 31, 2003 10:15PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hea8

@ Lain / thanks, can you tell me if the G5 1,6 lives up to your

expectations? And you wrote that it is twice as fast as a imac G4 1,25 is that treu? I have a windows AMD 1900+ 1,6 will i notice a difference or is the speed the same as my AMD PC? Did You switch from windows to OS X and how do You manage?

Thanks for Your patience!!

Marcel (and all my best wishes for the New Year)

The G5 1.6 is roughly the same speed as a G4 dual 1.25. So twice the processor, twice the speed I recon. Check out some benchmarks @ www.macspeedzone.com

Dont forget that you can upgrade the various components inside the G5, in an iMac you can only add RAM to a maximum of 1gb.

I can not see any diff in speed between my work P4 2Ghz and my Mac. It depends what you use it for ofcourse. I use it for Internet / MP3 listening / Games and Graphic Design.

Even my home P3 1Ghz gives the Mac a run for its money, considering the price difference.

After about 2 months I am beggining to appreciate OSX more and more. It took me about a day or two to get used to the minor interface differences between the two OSes and about a week or two to be able to quickly set my mind back to WinXP mode when I am at work or using my other home machine.

Like Luca said, you can swap the SuperDrive (DVD & CD Burner) for a ComboDrive (DVD Reader and CD Burner) to save US$200 which you can use for that LCD monitor and extra RAM, I (and others) suggest that you add more RAM as the 256mb it's supplied with makes the computer start and stop a lot. I have 1.25Gb in my machine and it works smoothly.

lain · December 31, 2003 10:24PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hea8

? what do You mean ?

The person is refering to the Mac expo in Janurary, where Apple usualy makes hardware releases and changes and price ammendments.

edit: I forgot to mention, that Apple has a habbit of changing their prices/hardware every 6 monthsish without prior warning. The above mentioned show is the closest thing you gonna get to a warning. I was an unfortunate victim of this and had I brought my G5 5 days later I would have saved about 10%.

advice: imac 20 inch or Powermac G5 1,6

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