iMac or Power Mac?

[phonezilla]

Hi folks,

I have done tons of reading, and I also have tons (well, months) of likely lead time before I actually buy a machine. However I'm now having a difficult time choosing between an iMac G5 and a Power Mac G5.

Currently, I'm on a G4 Cube with a 17" Studio Display. The biggest problems I face are a general slowness with the 450MHz CPU (rock!), and occasional USB audio dropouts... which turns out to be a pretty typical Cube issue. The system certainly isn't a dog, but it could be faster.

The majority of my work today involves Photoshop. I do pretty extensive editing of digital photos, and am looking to expand this in the future, perhaps to a commercial level. Plus if I had a SuperDrive, I suspect I'd dabble in video editing - so that expandability would be nice. As a bonus I enjoy GarageBand, but the Cube has issues with more than four tracks. Finally I am a web designer and developer by trade - but I don't consider things like TextWrangler to be very CPU intensive, as they run splendidly on the Cube.

My initial choice was the iMac G5, given I have a Cube. I greatly appreciate the quiet nature of the machine, I like the design quite a bit, and I also like its compact nature. But having seen the reports lately of "bulging capacitors" over at Macintouch and the like has left me wondering. So I'm also considering a Power Mac G5, but the caveat is that a new monitor would blow it out of my budget (I'm hovering around the $2k mark.) Thus I'd have to live with the 17". Now, I'm not against living with it - the monitor works just fine - but I do feel the pinch from time to time when working with that size of a screen.

In addition, I like being on an infrequent "massive upgrade" cycle. Back when I had a PC I was upgrading my kit every 18-24 months. The Cube is my first Mac, and it's about four years old. I like the idea of longetivity.

With the caveat that the Power Mac and iMac lineups could change before I buy, and I'll likely wait until Tiger's released to upgrade, what system(s) would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

[holbox]

Hi folks,

I have done tons of reading, and I also have tons (well, months) of likely lead time before I actually buy a machine. However I'm now having a difficult time choosing between an iMac G5 and a Power Mac G5.

Currently, I'm on a G4 Cube with a 17" Studio Display. The biggest problems I face are a general slowness with the 450MHz CPU (rock!), and occasional USB audio dropouts... which turns out to be a pretty typical Cube issue. The system certainly isn't a dog, but it could be faster.

The majority of my work today involves Photoshop. I do pretty extensive editing of digital photos, and am looking to expand this in the future, perhaps to a commercial level. Plus if I had a SuperDrive, I suspect I'd dabble in video editing - so that expandability would be nice. As a bonus I enjoy GarageBand, but the Cube has issues with more than four tracks. Finally I am a web designer and developer by trade - but I don't consider things like TextWrangler to be very CPU intensive, as they run splendidly on the Cube.

My initial choice was the iMac G5, given I have a Cube. I greatly appreciate the quiet nature of the machine, I like the design quite a bit, and I also like its compact nature. But having seen the reports lately of "bulging capacitors" over at Macintouch and the like has left me wondering. So I'm also considering a Power Mac G5, but the caveat is that a new monitor would blow it out of my budget (I'm hovering around the $2k mark.) Thus I'd have to live with the 17". Now, I'm not against living with it - the monitor works just fine - but I do feel the pinch from time to time when working with that size of a screen.

In addition, I like being on an infrequent "massive upgrade" cycle. Back when I had a PC I was upgrading my kit every 18-24 months. The Cube is my first Mac, and it's about four years old. I like the idea of longetivity.

With the caveat that the Power Mac and iMac lineups could change before I buy, and I'll likely wait until Tiger's released to upgrade, what system(s) would you recommend?

Thanks in advance.

I went thru a similar quandry a couple months ago and ended up buying the Power Mac G5 Dual 2 Ghz. I know it's more money, but I'm delighted with it and it's so fixable. This trading computers every few years is really more money in the long haul. Seems like every time I buy the best of whatever I'm getting, I keep it for years and it costs me less in the long run.

You can travel cross country in a Chevy or a Caddy. Both will get you there, but the Caddy is damn nice. "Twas the right move for me!

We seldom ever regret buying the best of anything!
:cool:

[kretara]

I would say get the PowerMac.
The PowerMac is much more expandable (PCI slots) and can run 2 monitors. With the iMac you are pretty much stuck with what you got plus, you can only run 1 monitor.
Spend the money now on a decent dual proc. PowerMac and next year buy yourself a Dell LCD (Dell's LCD's are pretty good quality, go on sale very often and are much less expensive than Apple's LCD's) to use with your 17".
Now you have an 17-19" LCD to use for your main viewing and the 17" to use for palletts.

[.Hack]

I say the iMac. Unless you're going to be using the PowerMac's full potential, don't buy it (when I say full potential I mean running hardcore hardcore applications and processes, most of which the iMac will run just fine!). So go for the iMac in my opinion...

[NaMo4184]

there is a program called screen expander or screen doctor for ibooks and imacs that lets u use to screens. i use it all the time with my ibook g4 with no problems. I don't know how well that would work with 2 large resolution screen. i used it on my 12 inch 1024x768 with my tv which is 720x480 or something. you will probably use the defualt i mac display and they 17 inch one you had before so i don't know if you card can handle it. hopefully the graphics card is upgraded with the next revision

[chipz]

Either computer would do the job for you, but I think the Power Mac G5 would be your best choice. It has the expandability you would want in the future. As far as a monitor...have you looked at the 20" Apple? The cost is $995. I've seen it for less at times, too. The 20" iMac is a good choice, but the possibility of expansion and upgrades is about zilch. You could upgrade the HD in the future, and maybe the RAM, but not much else. You can't change the video card either.

[phonezilla]

Either computer would do the job for you, but I think the Power Mac G5 would be your best choice. It has the expandability you would want in the future. As far as a monitor...have you looked at the 20" Apple? The cost is $995. I've seen it for less at times, too. The 20" iMac is a good choice, but the possibility of expansion and upgrades is about zilch. You could upgrade the HD in the future, and maybe the RAM, but not much else. You can't change the video card either.

I have definitely looked at the 20" Apple, and that's the one that is out of my price range. (Incidentally I paid the same amount for my 17" four years ago....)

I am leaning towards the Power Mac right now, especially given the refurb'ed prices on Apple's site. I know those vary but being able to snatch a dual 1.8 for $1699 ain't half bad.

Thanks for the advice, all.