- Joined
- Sep 22, 2010
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- Your Mac's Specs
- Black MacBook 2.2GHz C2D, 4GB Ram - iMac G4 700MHz, 512MB Ram
The time has come that I need to upgrade my computer. My little iBook just doesn't cut it anymore., I'm sick of waiting 45 minutes for a video to render in iMovie and I want to get into some gaming. I was checking Craigslist and Ebay for a used Mac that would fit my needs and my ever so limited budget and I'm leaning towards a PowerMac G5.
Now, to start off I know OS X 10.7 Lion is coming out fairly soon, and I know that the G5 maxes out at 10.5 Leopard. I'm not particularly worried about this, as I'm still running Tiger with no compatibility issues and I don't really care for the new applications such as the new iMovie. Although I am a tad worried about stuff such as digital cameras and other externals, as 99% are going to require an Intel Processor.
Hardware is my biggest issue, I really want the Quad Core G5, 2.5GHz model. The dual core just seems too slow for my needs, which is some moderate video editing and gaming. Another reason is that the Quad Core can take up to 16GB of ram instead of the Dual's max of 8. My iBook doesn't even know what hit it when I try to play even a moderately light game, never mind something that's considered "processor intensive"
I know the Quad Core is liquid cooled, and to me that's just a huge red flag. One leak and the computer fries itself. But, I really can't figure out what else I could do about it, there's at least a $200-$300 jump between early Intel Macs, and late PowerPC Macs that I've seen.
I checked MacTracker's Benchmarks and the Quad Core G5 is almost as powerful as other early intel Macs:
Quad Core G5: 3284
Mac Pro 2006, two 2.0 GHz: 3714
Mac Mini 2006, 1.66 GHz: 2094
And For kicks, my iBook G4 has a score of 689.
So, I Guess to sum it all up is, would a G5 be able to handle my needs, or should I want like a year and try to save up for an Intel Mac?
-Thanks ;D
Now, to start off I know OS X 10.7 Lion is coming out fairly soon, and I know that the G5 maxes out at 10.5 Leopard. I'm not particularly worried about this, as I'm still running Tiger with no compatibility issues and I don't really care for the new applications such as the new iMovie. Although I am a tad worried about stuff such as digital cameras and other externals, as 99% are going to require an Intel Processor.
Hardware is my biggest issue, I really want the Quad Core G5, 2.5GHz model. The dual core just seems too slow for my needs, which is some moderate video editing and gaming. Another reason is that the Quad Core can take up to 16GB of ram instead of the Dual's max of 8. My iBook doesn't even know what hit it when I try to play even a moderately light game, never mind something that's considered "processor intensive"
I know the Quad Core is liquid cooled, and to me that's just a huge red flag. One leak and the computer fries itself. But, I really can't figure out what else I could do about it, there's at least a $200-$300 jump between early Intel Macs, and late PowerPC Macs that I've seen.
I checked MacTracker's Benchmarks and the Quad Core G5 is almost as powerful as other early intel Macs:
Quad Core G5: 3284
Mac Pro 2006, two 2.0 GHz: 3714
Mac Mini 2006, 1.66 GHz: 2094
And For kicks, my iBook G4 has a score of 689.
So, I Guess to sum it all up is, would a G5 be able to handle my needs, or should I want like a year and try to save up for an Intel Mac?
-Thanks ;D