From august.ham at verizon.net Sun Nov 11 15:24:03 2007 From: august.ham at verizon.net (YOUR FRIEND, CHRIS) Date: Sun Nov 11 15:24:16 2007 Subject: [G5] hi! keep g4dp - or purchase g5dp? Message-ID: <30AC7107-90AD-11DC-9B5D-003065B79FCC@verizon.net> Greetings! i have a 2000 g4 450dp. i'm on a tight budget {obviously!} and trying to determine if i would be better off by upgrading it {ram, video card, 2nd hdd - and possibly processor} OR purchasing a dual 2.0 g5. the machine i'm looking at is number: M9032LL/A http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac/Power_Mac_G5.html and has a radeon 9800 pro 128 card, 4.5gb ram, 250gb hd and a firewire 400 card; 10.3.x can anybody PLEASE advise me: 1- is this a good unit to choose; reliable, lack of issues, bad components etc. ? 2- is this a wise economic decision versus uprgrading the g4; most importantly in so far as being able to carry me into the future for a good long while as the g4 has {8 years!} - and do these projected longevity gains, as well as in performance increase, justify the price difference over upgrading? as i see it, all i'll have to do is add another hdd to the g5, which is inexpensive. i'm primarily using it for internet {ebay, burning cd's, music, videos} and very light photo editing. i just bought a copy of tiger; i've read of some dual g5's having problems with leopard. any thoughts? 3- what is a fair price for this unit? the seller is waiting for me to make an offer; if it is within my price range, and based on feedback here a good unit i'll grab it! many many thanks in advance! chris From healyzh at aracnet.com Sun Nov 11 17:13:32 2007 From: healyzh at aracnet.com (Zane H. Healy) Date: Sun Nov 11 17:13:42 2007 Subject: [G5] hi! keep g4dp - or purchase g5dp? In-Reply-To: <30AC7107-90AD-11DC-9B5D-003065B79FCC@verizon.net> References: <30AC7107-90AD-11DC-9B5D-003065B79FCC@verizon.net> Message-ID: At 6:24 PM -0500 11/11/07, YOUR FRIEND, CHRIS wrote: >Greetings! > >i have a 2000 g4 450dp. i'm on a tight budget {obviously!} and >trying to determine if i would be better off by upgrading it {ram, >video card, 2nd hdd - and possibly processor} No idea what upgrades are available, but with that CPU you are going to be really hurting. I upgraded just over 4 years ago from my G4/450 AGP to my G5 2x2. >OR > >purchasing a dual 2.0 g5. the machine i'm looking at is number: M9032LL/A > >http://support.apple.com/specs/powermac/Power_Mac_G5.html > >and has a radeon 9800 pro 128 card, 4.5gb ram, 250gb hd and a >firewire 400 card; 10.3.x This is a *NICE* system. The difference between it and mine are that I have 5.5Gb RAM, and a 750Gb & 320Gb HD's. The *ONLY* thing I've found that feels slow on this system is the latest version of Adobe Acrobat. I'm really surprised how well it has continued to feel "fast". I bought a Rev.0 G4/450AGP system the day they shipped, and after a couple years it was feeling slow (painfully slow by the time I upgraded it). I've not had that with the G5. >can anybody PLEASE advise me: > >1- is this a good unit to choose; reliable, lack of issues, bad >components etc. ? I had to have the Video card replaced just over a year ago, *THANKFULLY* it was just before Applecare ran out on it. > >2- is this a wise economic decision versus uprgrading the g4; most >importantly in so far as being able to carry me into the future for >a good long while as the g4 has {8 years!} - and do these projected >longevity gains, as well as in performance increase, justify the >price difference over upgrading? as i see it, all i'll have to do is >add another hdd to the g5, which is inexpensive. >i'm primarily using it for internet {ebay, burning cd's, music, >videos} and very light photo editing. i just bought a copy of tiger; >i've read of some dual g5's having problems with leopard. any >thoughts? I don't think it's worth upgrading an 8 year old system. Realistically the life of a Mac is about 4 years (I'm just hitting that with my G5 2x2), I hope to get at least 6 years out of my G5 2x2. >3- what is a fair price for this unit? the seller is waiting for me >to make an offer; if it is within my price range, and based on >feedback here a good unit i'll grab it! I've no idea, check eBay, there is one with the base 512Mb RAM and 160Gb HD sitting at $787. Looks like you can expect $740-1400 depending on the config. The downside is, you're looking to buy a used box that you can't easily get repaired. You'll pretty much need to buy a low-end G5 2x2 to fix it if it breaks. BTW, this list is basically dead, not sure how much of a response you'll see. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh@aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ | From baron58 at sbcglobal.net Sun Nov 11 21:53:17 2007 From: baron58 at sbcglobal.net (Jack) Date: Sun Nov 11 21:53:30 2007 Subject: [G5] hi! keep g4dp - or purchase g5dp? In-Reply-To: References: <30AC7107-90AD-11DC-9B5D-003065B79FCC@verizon.net> Message-ID: <4737EA4D.1010500@sbcglobal.net> Zane H. Healy wrote: > At 6:24 PM -0500 11/11/07, YOUR FRIEND, CHRIS wrote: >> Greetings! >> >> i have a 2000 g4 450dp. i'm on a tight budget {obviously!} and trying >> to determine if i would be better off by upgrading it {ram, video >> card, 2nd hdd - and possibly processor} > > No idea what upgrades are available, but with that CPU you are going > to be really hurting. I upgraded just over 4 years ago from my G4/450 > AGP to my G5 2x2. As a Mac user since the 9-inch screen days I agree with Zane's advice. I urge Chris NOT to put any more money into a G4. I have been using a G5 2x2 for three years and it does not feel dated in any way. I do put more hours on my MacBook just for the sake of convenience, but the G5 does everything I ask of it, including photo processing, web site work (with ancient MacOS 9-only software) with aplomb, and would run two really big screens if I wanted. The G5 will of reach the end of its supported life at some time in the future, but your G4 is already there. The new MacOS 10.5 requires a minimum of an 867 MHz G4 processor. Who knows if 10.6 will support G4's at all? I'd guess the G4 will reach the end of its useful life for all but the most undemanding and/or underfunded Mac-lover within two years or less. Decent G5 prices are showing on eBay, if you are watchful. In fact, if you are not welded solid to the idea of a DP, why not consider a SP G5? They are going for very attractive prices. I suspect they represent a performance boost over your lowly DP .450 for the kind of computing you do, and you would be set for several years--enjoying a quality computing experience and not having to worry abut the wisdom of your investment. I am running two SP 1.8's with airport extreme cards on our home wireless network now for use by other members of the family and everybody is happy to be out of their old G4's and into the G5's. Jack From healyzh at aracnet.com Sun Nov 11 22:19:41 2007 From: healyzh at aracnet.com (Zane H. Healy) Date: Sun Nov 11 22:19:49 2007 Subject: [G5] hi! keep g4dp - or purchase g5dp? In-Reply-To: <4737EA4D.1010500@sbcglobal.net> References: <30AC7107-90AD-11DC-9B5D-003065B79FCC@verizon.net> <4737EA4D.1010500@sbcglobal.net> Message-ID: Chris, Jack's post made me think, why go with a G5 2x2, unless you're like me and need the RAM, since you're still on a G4 it doesn't sound like you are, why not go with either a Mac Mini or a MacBook. If it wasn't for my RAM usage, I'd actually consider a Mac Mini (my RAM requirements are part of why I'm not even considering an upgrade right now). Also as he notes, a single processor G5 will seriously out perform that G4/2x450Mhz system you're currently running. Or do you have my other problem, and have some classic Mac software that makes it hard to move off of 10.4.x and PPC? If so you might look into emulation to run that software. This is an issue I need to resolve prior to upgrading to 10.5. Zane -- | Zane H. Healy | UNIX Systems Administrator | | healyzh@aracnet.com (primary) | OpenVMS Enthusiast | | MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet) | Classic Computer Collector | +----------------------------------+----------------------------+ | Empire of the Petal Throne and Traveller Role Playing, | | PDP-10 Emulation and Zane's Computer Museum. | | http://www.aracnet.com/~healyzh/ |