06-24-2006, 04:34 AM

I've been back and forth about whether or not I should save up enought to get the 2GHZ Macbook or the 2GHZ Powermac G5.

Im interested in the Macbook becuase I will probably be doing a bit of traveling and Ive fantisied on what it would be like to be able to go on trips with a Macbook by my side. Being able to finally go take my work with me. Like play with it at school on on days were not doing anything and show my friends some of my Music, or play my itunes on long road trips (while I dont have a iPod yet) or watch a movie in the backseat.

On the other hand If I get a Macbook I want be able to run alot the programs I would like to once I get it and defently futher down the road. I will be probably using my computer for a lot of music programs like Reason 3.0 and connecting some addition hardware, basicly for my home studio. And futher down the road I hope to use it for video editing and programs like Shake 4.1 and Final Cut Pro Studios. Also selling some Photoshop templates to help pay for the food and water Im gonna need after starving myself to pay for either one of these.

I am sure the Mackbook will be able to handle the music part being I will only probably be useing one program for that, and maybe only a keyboard or so additionally. And mabey the Photoshop part since this onld PC here handled it ok.

Im only 16 and I am gonna be paying for this on my own, or mostly on my on so im kinda on a budget. Once I get close enough I can probably get about $500-$600 out of my parents so... Please help me decide.

06-24-2006, 11:28 PM

Simply, my advice would be to stay with the PPC based Macs for the next 9 months or so. The Intel Macs have to emulate a large amount of the commercially available software, which means it is slow. Photoshop is a key example of this. On the other hand the PPC based machines (just the Power Mac G5s at this point) run *all* the available software full tilt.

As you read this, a thought may be crossing your mind which likely goes something like this... "but wait a minute, the G5 is dead ended hardware. Why would I buy dead ended hardware?". This couldn't be farther from the truth. What is the expected service life of the average home/office computer? Less than five years. I *guarantee* that over the next 5 year period, all new software wil come out as Universal Binaries, which means support for both Power PC chip and Intel chip architectures. For validation of this assertion, look to history - Apple's last core transition, from Motorola 68K to PPC. For the expected lifetime of the new computer you are now contemplating buying, you can expect to have access to every existing title that is out there now (without Rosetta interpretation) *and* access to any new titles you may wish to buy.

So, I would recommend the Power Mac. I'll leave you to sort out the finances! :-)

06-25-2006, 12:26 AM

Well they are on 2 different ends of the Mac world, one is a high power desktop, one is a light on the go laptop. The PowerMac will be TONS more money, for a PowerMac and a nice screen you can get a MacBook and a iMac

I don't think you need the power of a PowerMac, if a MacBook might give you all the power you need.

Get a MacBook, if "down the road" you need to more power you can look for an intel PowerMac(or Mac Pro)