Ready to buy that new Mac but need advice!

[frogbison]

My G3 OS 8.6 just isn't cutting it anymore. It's five years old, for cryin' out loud!! I'm thinking about a IMac G5 but worry about having everything in one piece. Who has had experience with this machine. What kind of life can I expect from them?

Can anyone recommend a consumer ratings site?

90% of my computer use is on the net, but I do use memory intensive programs such as Photoshop, et al, the other 10%. Do I really need to buy the G5 desktop, or do you think the IMac will fill the bill?

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

1. Take that G3 and...

Load Mandriva Linux PPC 2005LE on it. RawkZ.

mandriva is free. Then consider buying a new Mac.

[frogbison]

6. Got a better site than below?

http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/

And, thanks.

[Tandalayo_Scheisskopf]

9. Yeah...

http://www1.mandrivalinux.com/en/ftp.php3

[frogbison]

13. Thank you again!

Looks much more straightforward than the one I found. I'm off to look it over....

[okieinpain]

2. macs, man I can remember when I use to want one.

[frogbison]

7. So, what've you got

that's so great?

[okieinpain]

16. just a plain old intel. takes care of me and the family.

I can upgrade the processor, drop in more memory, hard drive, video card, sound card, man the list goes on and on. hell I can even drop in a mother board, processor and memory, and run from there. I will give you that windows is kinda sucky, but you can't have everything.

[IChing]

3. I have a 15 "powerbook and photoshop with it

no problem (semi professional)
the mobility laying on the couch in my living room surfing the net is great
Plus it is enough for adobe cs for me.

But if you need the extra power the iMac is great
I have 1.25 gig of memory in my PB.

[frogbison]

8. Worry about notebooks

Being portable, how stable are they? Have considered them as well.

[noahmijo]

4. Unless you're doing hardcore video or graphics a G4 will suit you

just fine. I still use my 2 year old Powermac for photo editing and light movie editing and it still blazes.

[tsakshaug]

5. I have some of these at work

The new flat iMacs are nice, no problems with them. They actually come apart for service fairly easily...don't ask about taking apart and eMac. The iMac should do everything you need.
Have some of the mini macs, still in the box

[Boo Boo]

10. If it was me I'd get the iMac

Unless you really need every scintilla of speed, the G5 iMac is already silly-fast. Save some money. I have a G4 iMac and it is a fast computer. I can't remember the last time I thought "Gee, I wish I had a faster machine." The G5 iMac is much faster than my mine. My feeling about the tower machines is that you'll know if you need it. I sense that you probably have already guessed that you don't?

If you were doing digital film production (movies) and you had specialized hardware that required expansion slots, or you could really use dual processors for doing large time-critical 3D rendering jobs, then you would need the tower. But if you don't have some specialized need, the iMac is plenty fast. Compared to what you have now... you're not even going to believe it. The G5 iMac is WAY more powerful than what you're currently using. With the cash you save you can get the 20" version and load it up with an additional 512M of memory. Will a gigabyte of memory be enough for ya?! :7

Here's something else to look forward to: OS X. My G4 shipped with 10.2.x and that's the version that I've been running ever since, until a couple weeks ago when I upgraded to Tiger. Man oh man. Not only does it have lots of great features, but my machine has gotten even faster. Turns out Apple has rewritten the graphics engine to make maximum use of the accelerated graphics processors they put in these machines, and the difference is really noticeable---it's not just for games anymore. Now the main processor is relieved of the ordinary window drawing duties as well, which means more processor time available for data crunching. So not only has the graphics performance improved, but the machine is running faster overall. OS X "Tiger" absolutely rocks.

I promise you that when your run your new iMac for the first time you will be completely besides yourself with glee, OK? In fact, I'm right on the edge of buying one of the latest 20" G5s myself.

My $0.02.

[frogbison]

12. "Will a gigabyte of memory be enough for ya?!"

Sweet Jesus! I THINK so! You have confirmed what I had been told. I also heard that the IMac G5 was rated PC Magazine's Machine Of The Year for 2004!!!!!

edited for benign reasons.....

[benburch]

11. I have several iMacs...

But none that new;

An original iMac, Rev A Bondi Blue

A graphite G3 800 MHz

And a 1GHz eMac (USB 1)

And all are still in use every day, 24/7 running White Rose.

No problems.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

14. If you're on a G3 with OS 8.6, you're going to be stunned by OS X

I have a G4 iBook with a 1.07GB processor and 512 MB of memory, and I can keep several programs open at once without any trouble, like this afternoon, when I had Mail, Safari (browser), MS Word, and Adobe Acrobat Reader open and iTunes playing a CD.

Now, on the rare occasions when I go back to Classic (9.2), it looks clunky.

[Susang]

15. I just got the new 2.0 GHz G5 iMac with superdrive

Through the amazing generosity of my friends and family, I was given it as a gift for my recent 40th birthday, to replace my 7 year old Grape 333MHz 2nd generation iMac. It had pretty much reached the end of it's viability. :-(

I couldn't be happier. It's a brilliant machine and the new version OS X (Tiger) is amazing. I'm quite happy with the performance I'm getting with the built in memory, though I plan to upgrade to at least 1 GB as soon as I can afford it.

I really like the size and design of the iMac and it has freed up a ton of space on my desktop. The wireless keyboard and mouse, along with the built in Airport Extreme card have made it easy for me to work anywhere in the house I choose.