Pending Mac Purchase

anothertwitch

anothertwitch

Registered
I've recently been granted a $2K windfall by the powers that be. Since I am an arts major I figure its high time to get off the PC and into a comfy new mac.

I have been looking with great admiration at the G5 line, but hey, I'm a college student and have things I need to spend money on besides a computer (paint, canvas, clothes, new glasses, software, etc)

SOOOOO.....

I got in here and found a reference to the Mac Master's site, and dual 1.25GHz G4s at $1600 bucks (dont know where the other poster got his 1299 information but it is not borne out at MacMasters.com)

At any rate there are some killer deals over there.

So before I drop a wad of cash on anything I wanted to gather some opinions -- is the difference in performance between the single proc G5 at 1.6 GHz and the dual G4 at 1.25 significant? wouldn't the dual G4 run circles around the G5? Also, has anyone heard of any single to dual upgrade path for the G5? Dualies are where its at :)

Any other gratuitous advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Cheers
 
first of all: not all applications will use the second proc of the Dual G4. In those cases it would be more a G5 1.6 vs. G4 1.25.
I would rather go for the G5, eventhough I don't know how much better the Dual G4 really performs. The G5 is more than just a proc update.
And I've never heard about any single2dual update. Was there any for the G4 powermacs?
 
anothertwitch said:
I've recently been granted a $2K windfall by the powers that be. Since I am an arts major I figure its high time to get off the PC and into a comfy new mac.

I have been looking with great admiration at the G5 line, but hey, I'm a college student and have things I need to spend money on besides a computer (paint, canvas, clothes, new glasses, software, etc)

SOOOOO.....

I got in here and found a reference to the Mac Master's site, and dual 1.25GHz G4s at $1600 bucks (dont know where the other poster got his 1299 information but it is not borne out at MacMasters.com)

At any rate there are some killer deals over there.

So before I drop a wad of cash on anything I wanted to gather some opinions -- is the difference in performance between the single proc G5 at 1.6 GHz and the dual G4 at 1.25 significant? wouldn't the dual G4 run circles around the G5? Also, has anyone heard of any single to dual upgrade path for the G5? Dualies are where its at :)

Any other gratuitous advice would be greatly appreciated :)

Cheers
Click to expand...


Have been back to MacMaster's site - the $1299 unit mentioned is there, just has a combodrive instead of superdrive.

Sorry for the mixup Jon :)
 
Go with the G5. You'll be happier in the long run. Sure, the dual G4 MAY be slightly faster than the G5 at certain tasks, but with the coming-of-age of 64-bit computing, I think you'll be happier with the G5.

Since you're a student, check out Apple's Educational discounts. They're pretty good -- usually $100 - $300 desktop machines like the G5. The single G5 goes for $1599 with an educational discount.
 
The G5 will be a better deal if you can afford it. Later on more applications will support dual processors and (eventually) the 64 bit 970 but the big difference is stuff like the much faster bus speed etc. Generally it's good to get the best machine you can afford at the time, you won't have any problems upgrading the G5 in a few years.
 
Yes I'm profoundly aware of the leap in bus bandwidth represents in terms of performance. However, my budget just wont accomodate the price tag of the G5 in a dual processor configuration, and dual processors are a definite requirement.

From what I've seen browsing on eBay, the dual G4 at 1.5MHz is not exactly losing value; from the look of things I could probably make a few hundred dollars profit if I turned it around as soon as it gets here. If I cant in six months (I intend to move onto the G5 platform as the price comes down later this year with the advent of 3GHz models) then I certainly wont be ashamed to keep it around for my living room (it is presently bound for my studio).

For those of you who may be following this thread, I DID NOT purchase from mac-bestbuys.com - there was just too much not to like about them. They still have not answered my email inquiry placed yesterday afternoon, they were not available by phone, and though they advertise themselves under three different domain names, only one of them actually resolves to their website. Further, information on their website hinted at possible future trouble (we will ship as the product becomes available in our warehouse) this tells me they dont have it in stock. No Thanks :) the comfort available for and add'l $200 in terms of immediate availability and hand-holding through the delivery process at http://www.smalldog.com was well worth it and makes the wait untill delivery much more tolerable.

Besides, I still need more paint, more canvas, some new shoes, books for my english class, well, you get the idea :)

Will let you know how things end up with the small dog purchase after the system actually arrives.

Be Well! and make something beautiful :)
 
And dual processors are a requirement because...?

I think if you got a 1.6 Ghz G5, or a used single-processor 1.8, you'd be quite happy with it. The G5 obviously has many advances over the G4, including the architecture, the noise (they emit almost none), and preparedness for the future. And this all costs extra, of course. But if you can get your hands on one, I definitely recommend you spring for a G5 rather than a G4. You'll probably find that OS X is good enough at utilizing the processor and architecture in such a way that you don't need another processor spinning away in there.

And hey, if you're really on a budget, another way to go is to get a cheap used Mac, like an old eMac or a graphite G4 or something, and use that until you can actually afford a dual processor G5. I currently do everything on this li'l ol' 400 Mhz iMac, and while it is fairly slow (at least in OS X), it is still quite capable. Mind you, that's not to say I wouldn't jump at the chance to get a faster computer, but it might not be absolutely necessary if you can't afford it at this point.
 
Just FYI, the way that companies can offer G4s/G5s at discounts is that they take orders from customers without having anything in stock, then, when they get enough orders to warrant a bulk discount from Apple, they order 2 - 300 machines and then ship them to the buyers. Problem is, there's only like a 50% chance that they'll ever collect 300 buyers, and then good luck getting your money back. Sometimes they DO deliver, though, but the wait time is months.

Glad to hear that you checked out smalldog.com. I like them -- they're reputable and I've never had a problem with them.
 
darn i was really hoping I could get the dual 1.25 powermac G4 and the 20" display. ElDiabloConCaca - are you sure? I was under the impression that they had both the model powermac and cinema display i wanted in stock, because the 17" apple display says under it - Not In Stock, as do some other items on their site. I would definately rather get a G5, but I also felt the Dual G4 would do me fine, and I especially wanted that 20" display. I am emailing them right now asking how they do their orders..........but I also am now thinking why not just get a g5.....itll end up lasting me a lot longer anyway.

Where to buy from though? I had quite a fiasco getting my iMac from the apple store online (www.apple.com) and definately do not want to have to deal with apple again. They canceled my order at least 5 times, each time my dad calling in (took 50 minutes to get someone on the line) and them saying, we don't know why it was canceled, everything was ok'ed, do it again and it will work. On the 6th try ( a month and a week later) the order finally worked, after my dad had to yell at various apple operators at how lousy their communication among themselves was.......and he finally got a smart person working at apple that said the whole thing was ridiculous and did the order for him over the phone and made sure everything went right. I could in fact get a 1.6 ghz G5, custom built with 512 mb ram, a 160 gb hd, and Ati Radeon 9800 pro (i REALLY want doom 3 to play good when i get it!) from the apple store, but am not sure if i want to deal with apple again :( . What are some other good places to buy from that are legit and do a good business that would have the g5 im looking for. Also, i heard apple is coming out with new displays some time in the near future......hopefully the prices will be lowered too? So i won't have to have the G5 hooked up to my oh so ugly emachines crt monitor for too long) :eek: ( you can hook up any newer monitor to the G5 can't you?) !
 
The "new display" rumor has been floating around since the release of the G5, and is completely unfounded. I think people are just expecting the monitor line to be updated to match the style of the G5, but as far as I know, no one knows for sure. It may or may not be true.

I've never had a problem ordering online from apple.com, and I do so about twice a month for various things... DVD-R disks, etc. I'm sorry to hear that your experience was so unpleasant. I don't think you're going to find a super deal anywhere else that totally kills Apple's offerings, but many places do offer freebies along with the purchase of a new system. Places like http://www.macmall.com and http://www.maczone.com and even http://www.macconnection.com offer to give you some extra ram or a cheapie printer along with your system purchase.

As for the monitor issue, yes, you can hook up any VGA, DVI or ADC monitor to your G5, just as with the G4s. If you wish to drive more than one monitor off of the stock card, you might need to invest in an adaptor if you wish to do anything other than a VGA monitor and an ADC monitor or a DVI and ADC monitor.

I'm still voting for the G5 for ya instead of the G4. You do know that Murphy's law suggests that within a month or two of you getting your G5 they'll be updated, right? That's the breaks, it sucks, but stuff gets updated and it usually isn't on a schedule that fits in with the purchaser's.

Good luck!
 
yeah but a dual 1.8 will last a lot longer.......and its competition will be against other G5's, not G4's, and for what I do its more then enough. How big is the speed bump gonna be? If they were making the dual 1.8 a dual 2.2ghz for the same price id definately wait, but I doubt that. Theyll be updated eventually, but therell be a price difference, and the dual 1.8 cant be too much worse then the dual 2.0.......anyway anothertwitch- I'd get the single 1.6 instead of the dual 1.25 G4. I think im going to look on ebay for one of those 21" flat panel apple studio displays, they were prettty cool and i could probably get a good deal on one :) .
 
i received this email just two minutes ago.

"Jonathan,

Not the case with us. Yes, we do buy bulk, however we buy inventory directly from
auctions and large companies that go out of business. We sell only what we have "in stock" and inspect and ship items that are new (sealed in box) not refurbished.
All items come with a one year warranty. If our website has "not in stock"
that means we do not have it available for shipping. Backorder items usually
take anywhere from 3-4 weeks to have in stock.

Feel free to contact me with any further questions.

Thank you.


Dennis Charalambides
President/Owner
Mac Master
e-mail: dennis@macmastershop.com"



what exactly is backorder? do you think theyre legit enough to buy from?
 
Well I can tell you that my G41.25DP system shipped from smalldog.com yesterday morning at 5:45AM, and is on time for delivery sometime Tuesday. :) I guess they did have it in stock...

Concerning the the relative merits of buying out on the bleeding edge vs. buying the prior latest-greatest model, I can summarize my current purchase philosophy as follows:

As I will be doing mostly animation and moderately complex video editing and effects, the dual proc definitely appeals. I had two concerns with the G5 at this point. First is I know its about to get a lot faster with the top-end offering from apple; I dont want to pay a premium price now and see a machine twice as fast for the same price in 6 months. Second, my budget just would not permit it. The philosophical arguments were far outweighed by the financial constraints; if I'd had the money I would have scored a dual 1.8, in spite of my other reseravtions.

The fact is, from what I've seen researching prices on eBay, I could probably knock down a two or three hundred dollar profit on this machine at auction if I were disposed to turn it around as soon as it got here. I think this will certainly change over time, but I can gurantee you that if you bought a reconditioned pc today you'd be hard pressed to resell it _at_all_, much less trying to recover any money on it.

Not to mention, as I am a SysAdmin in our art lab, where we have 10 new eMacs, 15 1GHz G4s, and a pair of 1.6GHz G5s, I can honestly say I can speak from experience when I say all of this hardware is up to any task I'm going to be setting it to, at least for the near future-- and I think that moving from my old 500MHz PC to this new dual G4 Mac will be getting me a lot of room to grow. :D
 
jonmichael23 said:
Not the case with us. Yes, we do buy bulk, however we buy inventory directly from auctions and large companies that go out of business. We sell only what we have "in stock" and inspect and ship items that are new (sealed in box) not refurbished.
Click to expand...

Did I read that right? They buy them used from defunct companies and sell them new? That doesn't make a bit of sense. I would pass on them. Especially since they don't seem to have anything in stock.

The Apple Store still has dual 1.25 G4s in stock for $1599, or a 1.6 G5 for $1799. And that doesn't take into consideration the discount for students.

I would buy legit, and skip the companies trying to sell to you at a discount, since they seem to have nothing in stock and are tough to get a hold of. For spending a thousand dollars or two, I would go direct to Apple. Even if you have another experience like you did ordering the iMac, at least you know your money's safe.
 
Sounds like they buy new equipment from companies going out of business. There are no negative reports about them on BBB. Maybe contact your State Attorney generals Office of Consumer Affairs to see if there are any complaints before buying from them.
 
FINALLY!

It got here, on time, within five days of my ordering it from smalldog.com.

Its badassed, its clean, looks and works great, can't wait to dump a gig of memory into it and get busy.

I'm Stoked :D

anotherTwitch
 
Awesome... I wish I could afford a new computer, I'm glad you were able to get what you wanted. Tell us how it goes. :)
 
It seems to be working really well, I'm doing a cinema4d project for school right now, I did manage to push it into a kernel (page) fault running iTunes and c4d at he same time in only 256MB ram :p

That problem should go away tomorrow when the rest of the ram gets here :D

Thanks for the asisstance with this purchase everyone, all of your comments and opinions were carefully weighed -- I really appreciate it, you were all a great deal of help :)

Regards,
anotherTwitch
 
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