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Buy a NEW Mac?

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Jonathan Richard Smith

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I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
 
Jonathan Richard Smith,

I personally find the choices in the new PowerBook line would actually put the purchase of a new PowerMac (I have a dual 500) off until the IBM 970 chip arrives this fall. The only question I would ask is whether you will operate in a tethered mode and whether you need the portability.

I find that dual processors are a benefit for only the few programs that actually use them, Photoshop being one of the most important, but that the same dual processors really start to show their mettle with lots of concurrent applications. If you do a lot of printing, hook up a bunch of printers and let them print in the background. You probably won't even know they are there most of the time. As for the 867 vs the 1G, I would think that you won't notice that big of a difference, so I would save some money and go with the dual 867.

My idea of a sweet setup is a 12 inch PowerBook tethered to a 1Ds or 14n...

while sitting up on one of the many peaks in the Sierra, cranking out panoramas and time lapse.

For what its worth, some even believe that there is a 17 inch dual processor version on the horizon.

tom
 
Hello Jonathan Richa...

It's the nature of the beast.
They always are making Macs faster and better.
Should one buy ? should one wait ?
You have to jump sometime.
Will a new Mac be worth-the-price-faster than your current one ?
Yes.

Additionally....
The new chip set will be nice, but the speed limit (bottle neck) really is the
Frontside bus.
It's 167 mHz on the dual 1 and dual 1.25.
Second bottle neck is the read-write speed of your hard drive(s).
(For max speed, and more money, SCCI just came out with Ultra 320.)

When you buy your new Mac, make sure to get AT LEAST TWO hard drives.
(A pair of 80G or a pair of 120G HD's)( or more)
One fab thing about new Macs is that they can take 4 HD's internally !!

There is no point upgrading without making a quantum leep.
This new one has to make you happy for a least 4 or 5 years !
 
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new
mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB
Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was
waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a
price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really
like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is
it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My
question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy
something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and
buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
Click to expand...
I also have a G4 400mhz, with 768mg ram, 20gb HD, 100gb HD

I am in the same situation as you right now. I personally see the dual 867mhz the best deal, but i dont see dual 867mhz a big speed boost from my 400mhz G4. I can see mabey installing a 800mhz proseccor upgrade card for like 500$ then in the fall of 03 when mac releases powermac go out and buy a brand new computer.

It really just comes down to do you really need a new computer right now? Can you wait?
But if you wait forever you will never have a new computer.

One of these days your just going to have to buy a computer and use it.

my 2¢
JJ
 
Hi,

The dual 1ghz absolutely smokes the 400mhz. I have 1.25 gig of ram and I can be running a big photoshop action on a couple of hundred images in the background while surfing the net etc. Using OSX Jaguar really allows the machine to kick and both cpus are used. The faster bus speeds make a huge difference but I will be investing in a couple of ultra scsi disks to speed up the saving and opening side of things.

It is a big speed bump.

Regards,

Richard
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new
mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB
Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was
waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a
price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really
like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is
it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My
question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy
something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and
buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
Click to expand...
 
The extra grand doesn't just get you the processor. You also upgrade the bus, extra 20 gig on the hard drive, upgrade the memory speed, upgrade the video card and go from combo drive to Superdrive. I went to the Apple site, and upgrading to superdrive, hard drive (20 gig) and video card to what comes standard on the dual 1 gig takes the dual 867 to $2049. Of course, you still have the slower bus and memory. Can't speak to the other upgrades, but I'd definitely get a superdrive. DVD prices are falling, and CDs really aren't big enough to hold a full shooting session. You also get the benefit of being able to burn your DVD movies. Probably my biggest regret in buying the flat panel iMac is not getting a superdrive.
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new
mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB
Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was
waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a
price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really
like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is
it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My
question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy
something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and
buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
Click to expand...
--
http://homepage.mac.com/stefancook
 
Stephen Cook said:
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new
mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB
Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was
waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a
price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really
like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is
it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My
question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy
something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and
buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
Click to expand...
--
http://homepage.mac.com/stefancook
Click to expand...
WAIT
for a few more weeks as FIREWIRE 800 and USB 2 is just around the corner.

A lot of the new external drives are now coming out with USB and Firewire built into the units (together).

GR
-----

And on another note-anybody know why when I burn a DVD/R (via Toast) using the new white Formac recorder,people cant read it on a PC.

I made some quick time movies (from iMovie),which were to large for a CD (which their PC could read),and put them on a DVD,but then cant be read on a PC.

Never ending problems
 
George Richardson said:
WAIT
for a few more weeks as FIREWIRE 800 and USB 2 is just around the
corner.

A lot of the new external drives are now coming out with USB and
Firewire built into the units (together).

GR
-----
And on another note-anybody know why when I burn a DVD/R (via
Toast) using the new white Formac recorder,people cant read it on a
PC.

I made some quick time movies (from iMovie),which were to large for
a CD (which their PC could read),and put them on a DVD,but then
cant be read on a PC.

Never ending problems
Click to expand...
I have my doubts about the firewire and USB upgrades being "right around the corner". But the longer you can wait, the better. However, if you need a real increase in workflow speed, the dual 1 GHz machine will give you a very nice bump.

George, I've often found that the quicktime movies have problems due to the codecs used. Are you sure that the codec you used is compatible on the PC you're trying to play it on? That can be a major pain.
--
--Jim--
 
Firewire 800 is on the new Powerbooks.

As for the upgrade I have a dual 1 gig and the speed difference between this Mac and the 867 is not that big.
But the noise of the 1 gig Macs is something else!

The Superdrive is OK but only burns CDs at x8 so i have put a Liteon burner in the spare bay and it burns at x52 x22 x52 and that's on the cheapest media.
 
JLK said:
JLK said:
WAIT
for a few more weeks as FIREWIRE 800 and USB 2 is just around the
corner.

A lot of the new external drives are now coming out with USB and
Firewire built into the units (together).

GR
-----
And on another note-anybody know why when I burn a DVD/R (via
Toast) using the new white Formac recorder,people cant read it on a
PC.

I made some quick time movies (from iMovie),which were to large for
a CD (which their PC could read),and put them on a DVD,but then
cant be read on a PC.

Never ending problems
Click to expand...
I have my doubts about the firewire and USB upgrades being "right
around the corner". But the longer you can wait, the better.
However, if you need a real increase in workflow speed, the dual 1
GHz machine will give you a very nice bump.

George, I've often found that the quicktime movies have problems

due to the codecs used. Im not sure what that is all I know is that from iMovie I made a uncompessed Quicktime,and then put it on a DVD via toast,there seems to be only one way in toast to burn the QT (according to the instructions).What more can one do.To be honest I find DVD-RAM the best as it simply acts like a normal hard drive,so maybe I will ask the people at the other end to buy one,and then MAYBE problem solved-but we battle on.regards GR. Are you sure that the codec you used is
compatible on the PC you're trying to play it on? That can be a
major pain.
--
--Jim--
Click to expand...
 
Hi There,

I dont want to get flamed here but have you considered looking into a PC? A raid card for PC is less then half the price of a Radi for Mac and it would give you a big boost on the disk side.

Also if you look at this comparison between PC and Mac, the PC's win hands down and they are cheaper:

http://www.robgalbraith.com/diginews/2003-01/2003_01_07_macpc.html

I can immage that you might have allready invested in software for your Mac but PC's will allways stay cheaper then Mac's so it might be worth it in the long run. In the end only you know what is best for you. Hope this helps...

Peter Marina
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
I'm a professional photographer and am considering buying a new
mac. My current Mac is a G4 400mhz with 1.7gigs of RAM with a 10GB
Hard drive and OS X plus 9.2.2. and its about 3.5 yrs old. I was
waiting until 1-8-02 to find out if Apple was going to announce a
price cut or newer models but atlas they did not. I would really
like the dual 1ghz but I find the dual 867mhz more affordable (is
it really worth the extra $1000 for only a 266mhz boost?) My
question is should I wait? I do realize that as soon as I buy
something, the NEXT big thing comes out. Or should I go ahead and
buy the Dual 867? Any advice would be greatly appricated. Thank you
Jonathan
Click to expand...
--
Peter Marina
 
Hi Peter
I wouldn't flame you but when you buy a mac you're buying more than a processor.

You buy a well engineered good designed product that seems to be the envy of other users.

Apple are the only company that make both the hardware and the OS software. Everything in one package that you choose to pay a premium for.
If you prefer PCs then that's great I would never take issue with that.

I have considered both in the past and decide that the Mac is for me and a dual 1gig may be slower than a similar priced PC but it's still fast, fast enough for me.

Not only that it's running OS 10.2.3 and is linked to a 266mhz G3 and an 8-year-old Quadra 650 all happily working away with each other.
Any all very useful...
Whatever they choose may they have as much fun as I have had with my Macs.
 
Peter Marina said:
I dont want to get flamed here but have you considered looking into
a PC? A raid card for PC is less then half the price of a Radi for
Mac and it would give you a big boost on the disk side.
Click to expand...
This isn't a flame, but for your information RAID support is built into the operating system in OS X and has been extended to include journaling in OS 10.2.n. Therefore a specialised card is not required.

Mike
 
Well I did it... I bought the DUAL 1GHZ. I'd like to thank everyone for there insite. To answer the question of why don't I go PC... My wife has a 2.6GHZ Sony, so but I have to much invested in photoshop, Illustrator, Flah etc to ever make the jump. It would cost me every bit of another $2000 just to convert my software. I'm by no means anti PC but with XP being the most stable operating system that Mr. Gates has released I've been able to crash it over 10-15 times in the past 3 months (almost every time I use it for work), where as OSX has crash 2-3 times since I've used it in the past year...and in most cases those crashes (OSX) were my fault and not just because the operating system didn't want to work.
 
Hi,

You have the same machine as me. If you want it to really scoot along invest in an ultra scsi card and an ultra scsi drive or two. Use the Ultra scsi's as your main system drive and the other for virtual memory for PD and Illustrator. 10.2.3 is excellent and I am running everything on OSX apart from Entourage (latest version arrives next week under the Apple deal) and Quark XPress. XPress still runs very, very quickly indeed and prints to my Epson 7500 OS9 drivers with no problems.

Check out the following url for the chaepest that I've ever seen them. Not available to me as I'm UK based....

Regards,

Richard

http://www.compgeeks.com/details.asp?invtid=dk32dj-36mw&sourceid=00383844896384409613
Jonathan Richard Smith said:
Well I did it... I bought the DUAL 1GHZ. I'd like to thank everyone
for there insite. To answer the question of why don't I go PC... My
wife has a 2.6GHZ Sony, so but I have to much invested in
photoshop, Illustrator, Flah etc to ever make the jump. It would
cost me every bit of another $2000 just to convert my software. I'm
by no means anti PC but with XP being the most stable operating
system that Mr. Gates has released I've been able to crash it over
10-15 times in the past 3 months (almost every time I use it for
work), where as OSX has crash 2-3 times since I've used it in the
past year...and in most cases those crashes (OSX) were my fault and
not just because the operating system didn't want to work.
Click to expand...
 
Mike,

Thanx for the info about the the OS supported RAID. Can you tell me what is Journaling?

cheers
mac_mike said:
Peter Marina said:
I dont want to get flamed here but have you considered looking into
a PC? A raid card for PC is less then half the price of a Radi for
Mac and it would give you a big boost on the disk side.
Click to expand...
This isn't a flame, but for your information RAID support is built
into the operating system in OS X and has been extended to include
journaling in OS 10.2.n. Therefore a specialised card is not
required.

Mike
Click to expand...
--
Peter Marina
 
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