[G5] hi! keep g4dp - or purchase g5dp?

[Zane H. Healy]

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 at aracnet.com (primary)    | OpenVMS Enthusiast         |
| MONK::HEALYZH (DECnet)           | Classic Computer Collector |
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