Which is the best pre MacIntel G5?

midiw · Post by **midiw** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 8:34 am

I am looking to purchase a pre MacIntel G5.

Which is the best desktop pre MacIntel G5?

Frodo · Post by **Frodo** » Fri Mar 24, 2006 7:27 pm

The Quad 2.5 would get my vote.

Sticky Fox · Post by **Sticky Fox** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 8:06 am

What are you looking for? The only choices are the towers and the iMacs. There are some killer deals on iMacs right now, but they're rapidly disappearing. Only the quad tower is faster than the iMac duo*, but the speed advantage of the intels over the dual G5's is pretty marginal. Noone would laugh at you for buying a dual G5. If you drop a few grand on memory, it's a downright formidable machine.

I was very concerned about PowerPC compatibility when I bought mine, and I haven't yet run into any serious problems. Photoshop 7 runs just fine on the duo. Some shareware programs have reliability issues, but I have yet to notice any slowdown due to Rosetta.

If you want slots, S/PDIF input, more than 2G of RAM, or fiber channel, it's a no-brainer.

* My speed comparison is pretty much audio-centric. I compared a ton of user provided benchmarks in Logic and other audio production tools, and did my own side-by-side tests in stores.

midiw · Post by **midiw** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 9:00 am

Sticky Fox,

My basic computer needs are for audio/video production albeit on a very small scale.

I read MacFix ( http://www.macfixit.com/ ) daily and there have been reports of nothing but grief with the Interl-Based Macs.

No doubt those machines and the operatig system for those machines still need some tweeking by Apple.

I just don't have the temperament to deal with machine/system problems whereby I spend more time finding solutions then working in my music projects.

Sticky Fox · Post by **Sticky Fox** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 10:26 am

midiw wrote:Sticky Fox,

I just don't have the temperament to deal with machine/system problems whereby I spend more time finding solutions then working in my music projects.

Amen to that.

emulatorloo · Post by **emulatorloo** » Thu Mar 30, 2006 12:13 pm

midiw wrote:Sticky Fox,
My basic computer needs are for audio/video production albeit on a very small scale.

Buy the fastest that you can afford. Towers have advantages over imacs like dual processor, memory expansion, faster bus, drive expansion etc. There seem to be some great deals on older G5 duals @ apple store refurb area. For example, They have a dual 1.8 for 1299.00 that I would jump on if I could, but I need PCI-X slots for some of my cards so that one is out for me. You'll find links to apple refurb area at the first link below in the G5 deals section.

Here are some links to price trackers.

http://www.lowendmac.com/deals.shtml
http://www.macprices.com/

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Eleventh Hour Sound · Post by **Eleventh Hour Sound** » Fri Apr 14, 2006 8:17 am

G5 Quad : )