What G4 Needed for A Graphics Student?

C

Coffee1970

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Hello, and thanks for reading.

Have a PC...an HP 3.0ghz Celeron with 512MB, etc, etc.

Want to get a Mac, most likely a PowerMac G4, because of cost and upgrading if need be in the future.

Will be taking graphics classes...do not know if they use macs or not, but we all know that many in the industry do, so would like to get one and play around with Adobe, etc, etc.

Will buy from eBay.....what to get?

Dual 500's are cheap.
Dual 800 little higher
933 or 1ghz can be had for under 400

What do I need to look for in terms of graphics cards?

Should I just get a G4 and upgrade little at a time when money is available?

How about a super cheapo Sawtooth G4 400?

Want to run Tiger as well...not worried about Leopard yet! :eek:)

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks, Brian.
 
Certainly, the G4 is a capable computer. You may also want to keep your eye out for lower prices on used G5, since Apple just announced the new Mac Pro. The reason why I make this suggestion is, as you upgrade the G4, you should keep in mind the cost, compared to purchasing a used G5.
 
Hello,

I personally agree with powermac. As the G4 is still a capable computer a used Power Mac G5 even a iMac G5 will have you more prepared for the future. Now the G4 is 3 generations behind.

Personally i own a iMac G4 700MHz as my own computer and even with 768Mb of RAM i wont run Tiger on it because of the major slow down. Going from Tiger back down to Panther made it about 10x faster.

Tiger is optimized for a super fast 1.4GHz G4 or G5 and the new Core Duo processors. Also on any computer you decided for Tiger to really run you will need atleast 768MB of RAM for it to be Acceptable.

Well thanks for the time!
 
it has often been said that the average lifetime for a PC is around 2 years, and for a mac, it's nearer 4 years.

a 400mhz Sawtooth is over 7 years old. although technically possible to do graphics work on it, it would be painful by todays standards.

what is your budget?
 
Threads merged. please do *NOT* create two threads with absolutely the same content in different forums. Create a thread where it _fits_. If it also fits another of our forums, well so be it. A moderator can later move it around if necessary.
 
Ooops, sorry about the multiple listings. :)

My budget is about a whopping 300.00...I know, I know, what do I expect, right?

I figure I could at least get my feet wet with Panther or Tiger for now, just messing around, being mostly familiar with Wintels.

I have seen g4's for less than 100.00 on eBay. Just something to mess with.
 
A 450 MHz G4 will be able to decently run OS X, with at least 1 GB RAM, but not much more. Still, it'll cost you less than $100.
Browsing the eBay completed listings, it looks like you may be able to get a pretty decent dual G4 for around $300. You could probably do "real" work on these machines, depending on what you're doing.

The Mac Minis are quite a step up from your budget, but you could run windows on a Mini, and get an upgrade to your Windows work. The Minis will be usable for much longer than a G4, and may hold value better. If you were seriously looking at the Mini, I'd recommend looking at the iMac as well, which is another big step, but defiantly worth the money. You can get significant discounts on these Macs by buying them as Certified Refurbished from the Apple website.
 
Yes Dollars :rolleyes:

Better to get a dual 500 or a single 800? (if I go the super cheapie route)

I know that the duals only work better with programs designed to use them efficiently.....which I thought was graphics programs.

I know that I should get a mac with firewire though.....would like to get a videocam and most use firewire.........

Which is faster....USB 2.0 or Firewire? Most older macs have at least FW400.

On many forums, people say to forget about the mini because of the subpar graphics...either the older 32 ati or the newer shared 32 or 64mb? And, the hard drive is supposed to be slower at 4200 instead of 7200 (or 5400) which can be a real bottleneck I guess.....

Maybe I should just get a POwermac g4...the best that I can afford, upgrade a little at a time, such as memory, better graphics if need be, and start being a Mac user!!! Yes? ;)
 
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