Forums | MacLife

Yeah, Dual 1ghz are good. I would almost wait, unless you got a really nice deal or need it now.

I'd recommend one of the used Quicksilver G4s, the 700 or 867MHz ones.  I'm still on my 867 and she absolutely flies.

I'll sell you my three week old eMac with 800 MHz G4, DVD-R, Tilt & Swivel Stand, and Airport Card.

I just purchases this sytem at the end of december, but already need to sell.

mpaulton@mac.com if interested.

My bad. PM me if you are interested 

I have a G4/466 (digital audio model). For nearly everything I do it is plenty fast enough (or maybe I'm just slooow).

I do digital video and the only time I need to get up and leave for awhile is when compressing video for output to Quicktime or VCD using Toast. Well, also rendering transitions in iMove is a little slow too, but, not unbearable. I also fiddle around with photos using Photoshop Elements II. I'm not a professional, so don't use many features that require rendering. However, for usual tasks like contrast, fill, brightness, cropping, resizing, etc, my G4/466 takes only a few seconds or less. The machine is very solid running OS X and has plenty of room for expansion.

You can probably pick up a used G4/466, 533, etc for less then $1000, maybe a few hundred depending on what is in it. Then spend big $$$ on a 17" or 19" Apple LCD monitor. The LCD's are much easier on your eyes. I need "special focus" glasses to use CRT's but, not for LCD's.
Of course you should always buy the newest technology you can afford and make use of.

Anyway, that's my 2

Buy new. It's worth a few extra bucks to get a system that will last longer. You'll be enjoying great speed with the newest applications long after you forget about the money you could have saved by buying an older machine. Just wait until Apple releases the next iteration in a month or two.

I suppose I shouldnt bother pointing out that boxhead managed to buy a 3ghz Pentium like 3 months before they were announced.

Microsoft Moviemaker 2.

[stifles a giggle]

The deciding factor to me between an older G4 and an iMac is what percentage of work do you do in Photoshop?  If it's not a lot, then I would try the high end eMac or iMac widescreen.

Don't discount the expandability of the G4. Things are going to feel a little crowded in a few years with the limited hard drive space afforded in an eMac or iMac. I also don't really see how a G4 tower would perform better in Photoshop than an eMac or iMac G4 as opposed to any other software application.

One thing Box was right about was eBay. You can find some good prices there but most of things are overpriced
I laughed at the rest of his post

I think dual 500 or something like that would be a nice choice. It shouldnt be too expensive, its quite fast and you will probably want to replace it in a year or so when you will be able to get PPC970 for a good price.

Btw, what about iMac/eMac ? 17" iMac is a good computer with good screen.

Go laptop.  It is after all, "The Year of the Notebooks."  Just kidding.  Anyway, you should check out what that dude is asking for his almost new eMac.  Sounds like an interesting prospect.

thanks for the advice you all. i looked at the education discounts but they sucked compared to the student developer store prices, which is where i was looking to purchase the Mac new. If I get a dual 867 from the apple store, will I have to pay sales tax? also, how loud are the dual 867s? I have heard that the older ones sound like a leafblower, how about the latest ones? i think i will wait until the end of the month and see if the prices drop/speed gets bumped. i do want to get an LCD over the CRT for 2 reasons, desk space/look and I like how the LCD looks ( I love my Ibook display.) I have thought about getting the widescreen Imac for $1500, but I am not sure it will offer the same performance that I will need. Box of heads, until you start talking about Avid, Final Cut, and Premeir then I can't take your video editing advice very seriously. Soderbergh's latest movie was edited on Macs. They can't be that bad 

what is the Lacie brightness like, when compared to an LCD?