Just another iMac-dilemma

[espen]

Planning to buy an iMac. It will be used a lot for word/excel, and less often, but enough, for Indesign, photoshop and dreamweaver.

Also, this thing will replace both my ibook (which now works to just a little more than making notes) and my TV. So the dilemma is: Should I buy a G5 and a elgato's eyetv 200, or an Intel and eyetv EZ. Both these combinations run up to my financial debet-limit at the moment, so Intel/eyetv 200 will not work out without cutting food expenses for at least a couple of days.

I am not extremely worried about Rosetta on the adobe-stuff. I am actually more worried that the G5 will age much faster than the Intel. I want to keep this for quite a while, you see.

Thankful for your advice.

[psmith2.0]

Well, you kinda answer your question...

Go with Intel and just suck up the Rosetta thing for a while (is it truly that bad?)

:confused:

Rosetta seems to have become code for "crap". Is this valid, or is it Spec Whore bandwagon-jumping by some?

I don't know, I'm asking...

[espen]

Thank you for the answer (or good ability to analyze a question). Rosetta, I think, will serve at least me just fine since I am quite used to having large coffees while photoshop works on my G3.

I will probably still be questioning myself for a few days about the reduced G5. I wouldnt hurt me to save a few kroner. But after a couple of those few days, I guess I will fall down on the Intel-version.

But while I am here, has anyone tried using Indesign on Rosetta? On a german page, I saw someone experiencing not being able getting a plug-in for placing images to work. That would be annoying.

[Brave Ulysses]

Rosetta has been frustrating. Lots of spinning beach balls, lots of apps hanging, slow app launch times.

But it works well considering what it does. VLC played back 720P HD content while running in Rosetta so the performance isn't terrible.

It's just buggy.

[Banana]

Don't forget that G5 is pretty much parwise with whats out there in the market. It has another year in its life or something like that.

If you wanted a lappy, then intel would be logical choice. With iMac, G5 is going to last you better than rev A intel, with limited universal binaries, performance hit from Rosetta.

My $.02

[Satchmo]

I finally got around to visiting my local Apple store on the weekend. Wisely, Apple removed practically all the machines of Adobe CS products. The sales guy said, it doesn't show well, so we took them off.

Luckily one 20" iMac Duo Core did have Illustrator and PS loaded. I put Illustrator through it's paces and frankly, it wasn't too bad. Masks, duplicating and rotating large groups of objects was no problem under Rosetta. I'd almost say it was 80 percent of a G5 iMac...but that's just going on "feel".

But here's the bad part. Saving that .ai file took a good minute. It just chugged and chugged. And later when I went back to open the file, it came up as an empty page. It seemed to be processing or trying to redraw something as the scroll bars blinked intermittently from blue to white. Very strange. Very odd...very worrisome.

I don't know if I'd go Intel if your livlihood depended on Adobe products. If you can wait, do so...still too buggy for my liking.
That said, the iApps were very fast...especially iPhoto.:)

[ironlung]

A fellow norwegian! I had a imac G5, sold it on ebay, and went for an intel imac. I am actually very glad that I did. Just get an extra gig of ram and most programs shouldnt give you problems. I have no idea about photoshop though..

[psmith2.0]

Ooh, that's an interesting post, Satchmo...since I spend so much time in Illustrator (work and "real life").

:(

Oh well. I'm STILL going with Intel when the time comes (have a G5-based system at work, so all is fine there). I'll muddle through at home if I have to.

Now watch: I'll get an Intel iMac or whatever, and after eight or so months of a fairly dry freelancing period, I'll get hit up with nonstop sidework in Photoshop and Illustrator.

:lol:

That's how it happens, huh? Oh well...I'll worry about that bridge when I have to burn it...or something like that.

At least the core Apple stuff (OS, iLife, system apps, etc.) are all running natively and snappy (outside of Illustrator and Photoshop, the rest of my time is spent with Apple's stuff anyway).

[espen]

Hm. Some worrying responses here. Slowness in Rosetta would not kill me, but if basic functions just dont work, that means I will have to use my ibook on the side for another year, and maybe yet some months, depending on if I can afford a universal upgrade of Indesign/photoshop at release.

I think I will do the following: Buy the rebated G5. Be a little bit mad when content come out in a year and a half that runs poorly on the G5, but then buy a nice, portable macbook, and forget my worries.

...
Oh no oh no, I am starting to doubt my self again already... Guess I could have picked a better time to need a new computer.

Ok, decided: I'll buy the intel-iMac, and see what happens. Maybe I'll even learn something.

[Satchmo]

Oh well. I'm STILL going with Intel when the time comes (have a G5-based system at work, so all is fine there). I'll muddle through at home if I have to.

You almost need to have a G5 and Intel to get through this transitional phase. Especially since we use Illustrator so much and Adobe's not playing nice with Apple.

I'm thinking of picking up a 17" Intel iMac and use the G5 Tower at work if I really need to get something done in Illustrator. But I might just wait it out and see what kind of Intel Mini surfaces. By then, a rev. B Intel might be also be just around the corner.
As much as I know the apps will run on the G5 for years to come, the future is in Intel. I just hope the performance gains in Illustrator is substantial once it does go native.