iMac G5 & Intel Question

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Afternoon,

I'm looking for an iMac and have been offered a G5 2GHz with 1.5GB of RAM, SuperDrive etc. I originally was looking out for a CoreDuo (Intel) iMac, however I was wondering if there was that much difference as far as end-user speed or how quickly the G5 iMac would fall behind with regards to OS updates and software updates.

Is it worth paying more to get an Intel one, or are the G5's just as good. I'll mainly be using it for day-to-day use and some light video editing to start with..

I guess basically what i'm worried about, is coming from a 'PC' background, i'm used to buying a year old unit and having it become 'out of date' after a few months.. so i'm not sure what the lifespan of macs are, in terms of software, updates and things.

thanks,
Alan
 
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The G5's are just as good. Yes, the G5 is technically older hardware, but it is in no way obsolete, out of date, or inferior to the Intel.
Sure, there are going to be some people who haven't ever used a G5, or who haven't been using Macs long enough who will tell you to just get the Intel, but you will be more than fine with getting the G5.
 
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A G5 will run all the software out at present at a very good speed.

An Intel will run 99% of software, but programs not yet optimised will run more slowly than the G5. You'll have to wait for programs such as MS Office, Photoshop and Illustrator to become 'universal', which may be April/May time.

Long term, programs will probably stop being written for the G5 in 3, 4, 5 years time. The Intel is the much better long term proposition, but you'll have to pay in having to use some slightly slower software temporarily at the moment.
 
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Just sold my G5 for an Intel - the Intel is much faster although Photoshop won't be, Office is comparable speed wise.
 
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In general, there is a 1:1 correspondence between a G5's GHz rating and an Intel C2D's GHz rating. This is not perfect, but reasonably close, and held up by most performance tests I have read. Hence, the G5 iMac will run most things about the same speed as the Intel iMac. The Intel iMac *is* dual core, but most programs are not set up to take advantage of this, so I doubt you would see that much difference.

ALSO, the G5 will likely outperform the Intel on things such as Photoshop and Microsoft Office, which are not yet available in Intel compatible binaries.

My conclusion: go for the G5. I suspect it will be quite a bit less expensive, and will perform at a very similar level.
 

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