Good Buy/idea?

[HCMarkus]

'09 (4,1) is a sweet spot. Can be upgraded to 2010/12 (5,1) very easily.

[mikehalloran]

For many, a 2006 MP at $700 is a good buy. Compared to your G5, you won't believe the improvement - at first.

DP users really benefit from something capable of booting in 64bit. This will become more apparent over the next 3 years as more and more apps run 64.

I may outgrow my 2010 iMac i7 in the next 3 years. But, when I upgraded to OS 8 and DP 8, I expected performance to decline. Instead, the fact that they are now running 64bit noticeably improved the performance on my 2 year old machine over DP7 and OS 10.6. When Chrome and Office become 64bit, that should be an improvement also.

If looking at a tight budget, consider a 2011 or 2012 iMac i7 (trust me on the i7 part). Thunderbolt makes these expandable and DP8 works quite well. Won't be $700 but may compare favorably with a recent Mac Pro.

[dpg4macman]

Buss speed 667 MHz - I recommend Mac Mini i5 Buss speed 1600MHz. Twice the computer for the same price. IMO

$599. for the machine + $100 for 16g ram upgrade. Can't lose.

mvh