600Mhz G3 iMac vs 500Mhz G4 PowerMac, which would you choose?

spiers69spiers69
Posted:
in General Discussion edited January 2014
hey everyone,

im looking at second hand Macs.

These are the two computers im looking at...



"In the left corner we have...."



G4 500Mhz Powermac system with the following:

640Mb SDRAM



ATY Rage 128 Pro Display card



25gig internal hard drive



USB & Firewire ports



Pre-loaded with MAC OS X Panther 10.3.9



"And in the right corner we have...."



600 MHz PowerPC 750cx (G3) processor

256 MB of RAM

a 40.0 GB Ultra ATA hard drive,

a slot-loading 8X/4X/24X CD-RW drive,

ATI Rage 128 Ultra (2x AGP)



These are both listed on eBay, are in Australia, and will probably both fall within my pricerange (maybe). While im not expecting to get exactly either of these, i am doing some research into it.



So would 500Mhz with a G4 chip feel better than 600Mhz with a G3 (assuming both had the same amount of RAM)?

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 12
    wingnutwingnut Posts: 197member
    I'd say the G4, if only for upgrade possibilities. If I'm not mistaken, you can upgrade the CPU to a faster G4, and you could get a much better PCI graphics card as well (Like the ATI 9000pro). The iMac is much more limited on options, IMO.
  • Reply 2 of 12
    xoolxool Posts: 2,460member
    I'd suggest the G4 too. Years ago the G4's advantages over the G3 were less important, but now I wouldn't really consider a G3 machine unless you only use the machine for email, web surfing, and the occasional low-impact game.



    So yeah... what are you gonna use the Mac for?
  • Reply 3 of 12
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    mainly listening to music (thru this great amp+speakers i have in my room), but later on i might get back into Photoshop and use digital images in my art and textiles designs (for school)
  • Reply 4 of 12
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    G4 definitely. a lot of online aussie mac stores now carry g4 upgrade stuff for when you want to start beefing the machine up gradually



    --better GPU, sonnet CPU upgrades, RAM, 7200rpm drives, etc, etc, also you're opening up to very very wide LCD display options, particularly with a new GPU card that has DVI out



    enjoy matey
  • Reply 5 of 12
    mynameheremynamehere Posts: 560member
    most definitely the G4...that's one nice rig...and as someone pointed out, very upgradeable.



    Also, this might just be my opinion, but iMac's tend to have crappy sound quality (I have one of the original fruitiMacs)
  • Reply 6 of 12
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    here's teh g4 stock

    http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...ac_g4_500.html
  • Reply 7 of 12
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    you guys have been pretty helpful! thank you.

    im not going to have the money available right now to bid on either auction right now, but i'll keep watching 2nd hand G4 PowerMacs and get an idea of prices.... thanks all. I'll let you know what happens.
  • Reply 8 of 12
    objra10objra10 Posts: 679member
    Buying Advice goes in General Discussion.... moving accordingly
  • Reply 9 of 12
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    here's teh g4 stock

    http://www.everymac.com/systems/appl...ac_g4_500.html



    ive already checked out the specs for a whole stack of older Macs using MacTracker (great app!)
  • Reply 10 of 12
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by sunilraman

    G4 definitely. a lot of online aussie mac stores now carry g4 upgrade stuff for when you want to start beefing the machine up gradually





    can you point me in the direction of any of these online shops? thanks
  • Reply 11 of 12
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    really quick question: any PowerMac from the Jan 1999 G3 onwards can read DVDs, right?
  • Reply 12 of 12
    sunilramansunilraman Posts: 8,133member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by spiers69

    can you point me in the direction of any of these online shops? thanks



    http://www.streetwise.com.au

    http://www.epowermac.com.au



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