So what to buy now? 2.5dual 2.3 dualcore 2.5quad?

parousia · October 20, 2005 1:19AM

So for the money what would you buy considering the announcements today?

I have the opportunity to buy

1) PM Dual 2.5 / $2900 canadian

2) PM Dual 2.7 / $2999 canadian

3) PM DualCore 2.3 / $2999 canadian

these 3 machines all seem VERY close in performance and I am a little stuck on what to do.

I am leaning at going for the dual 2.7 because I actually think it is the fastest of the 3 what do you think?

Parousia

leonard · October 20, 2005 8:42AM

Go for #3 if you don't need PCI cards. The dualcore 2.3 is about the same speed or a bit faster as a dual proc 2.5, but the dualcore 2.3 has the new PCI-Express slots and will likely have better graphics cards available. The 2.5 and 2.7 only have AGP 8x and who knows if there will be any better graphics cards coming for them which are faster than the Radeon X850XT.

hmurchison · October 20, 2005 9:27AM

If you don't have any legacy PCI-X cards get the computer with PCI Express. You don't want to cut yourself from the future of peripheral expansion to save a few bucks.

cheapfrag · October 20, 2005 1:02PM

Quote:

Originally posted by hmurchison

If you don't have any legacy PCI-X cards get the computer with PCI Express. You don't want to cut yourself from the future of peripheral expansion to save a few bucks.

If you are doing any development work (or not!) first JOIN ADC!!! The developer price for the Quad is @3199 compared to $3999 at the regular apple store ($800 diff). ADC is about $600 if i remember correctly (it saved me $500 on my dual 2GHz). Plus you get better prices on displays, ipods, etc... So if you are buying a complete package you can save some real dough.

You get preview builds of all OS updates, betas. Copies of active operating systems, tech support issues. If you are developing its is DEFINITELY worth it. And its pretty much worth it if you aren't developing too!

hmurchison · October 20, 2005 1:31PM

Student developer is only a $100 and you get a one time discount. nya nya :P

parousia · October 20, 2005 1:39PM

Do you really think that we will see MANY new PCIe options when nvidia and ATI may be looking at the new PCIe/MAC standard and saying...

"this is only a 1-1.5yr system standard until Intel, why should we dump resources into developing for a system that is EOL in such a short time?"

You would think that because there are so many more AGP/Mac systems still in circulation they would make better $ continuing the dev. for the older systems.

???

This is why I think I may get the dual 2.7... As well if you look at the speed tests that Apple has carried out between the Quad2.5 and the 2.7, the quad system has the newe top-of-the-line GFX card and the 2.7 only has the stock 9650...

I downloaded the PDF and I am pretty sure that this is the case.

I think that we should see a REAL comparasin once some of the site ie. BAREFEATS gets their hands on these systems.

parousia

programmer · October 20, 2005 10:23PM

Quote:

Originally posted by parousia

Do you really think that we will see MANY new PCIe options when nvidia and ATI may be looking at the new PCIe/MAC standard and saying...

"this is only a 1-1.5yr system standard until Intel, why should we dump resources into developing for a system that is EOL in such a short time?"

On the other hand, all the Intel-based Macs will be PCIe.

parousia · October 20, 2005 11:40PM

PCIe but will the drives / software that they make now work anyway?

Anyway I guess it doesn't really matter as today the video card options suck for the new PM and at least you have some options for the Dual2.7

parousia

carson o'genic · October 20, 2005 11:51PM

Benchmarks FYI:

http://media.99mac.se/g5_dualcore/

They look promising.

hmurchison · October 21, 2005 12:41AM

Quote:

Originally posted by parousia

PCIe but will the drives / software that they make now work anyway?

Anyway I guess it doesn't really matter as today the video card options suck for the new PM and at least you have some options for the Dual2.7

parousia

Not really. The mere fact that I "know" I can get a Nvidia 7800gtx or Quadro FX4500 pretty much blows the AGP Macs out the water. This isn't a PC like scenario where you're assured of having plenty of cards to upgrade to in the future. AGP Macs cards are going to go the way of the Dodo pretty damn quick.

You have a simple choice to make. Buy a slightly faster Powermac that will be obsolete sooner or hop in to a dual core system with better future proofing.

parousia · October 21, 2005 12:48AM

Only problem is that you cant get the 7800.......

It is not coming anytime soon either as I am in talks with Apple right now about the timeframe of its appearance and they have told me that they have no information on when the card will be available.

I can see the draw to the "new", but I cannot see the "AGP Macs cards are going to go the way of the Dodo pretty damn quick" arguments as these machines have been sold for the last 3 yrs and certainly there are going to be some AGP cards available for upgrade.

The problem is that there are no high end GFx cards available for the PM, only the SuperHighEnd.

Parousia

gon · October 21, 2005 1:45AM

So you want a high-end card, but not a Quadro?

And you can't deal with the in-box 6600 till the first 7800's become available, which would be the obvious way to go?

What exactly do you do with the machine again?

parousia · October 21, 2005 1:53AM

Not trying to be overly negative here, rereading my posts I see that perhaps it comes across that way.

I am a designer and photographer and will be buying the new Apeture as soon as it is released, not to mention just the daily duties and production work.

I really need a machine right now, and actually bought the 2.7 just today, I have it right now, as I type, and am waiting on the X800 which should be here tomorrow.

I dont normally spend a bunch of money on my machines in fact I was using the new iMac 2.0Ghz machine until last week when I ebayed it expecting to be getting the new machine, of course with the intro rumors I decided to wait a week to see what happened and I was very disappointed with the intro - except for the quadPM of course which is sweet.

I want the machine to really improve workflow speed, and I want it to last.

Thus the conundrum over the 2.3dualcore or the 2.7dual proc.

I appreciate your input, and advice.

parousia

hmurchison · October 21, 2005 10:27AM

parousia I don't envy your choice. On one hand you can get keep you 2.7 and keep the speed but not know what type of AGP card options will be available or you can jump into the waiting line for the new computers.

I guess the positive thing is you really can't go wrong. Either solution is one I'd love to have myself.

krassy · October 21, 2005 4:54PM

i'd like to buy a quad g5

throw in a 7800 GT and 2GB RAM

So what to buy now? 2.5dual 2.3 dualcore 2.5quad?

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