G4/G5 buying tips and monitor questions

Hi there - I'm an avid reader of the forums who recently decided to help because I need some help. As you can see this is my first post but I'll try to integrate as much as I can.

I'm a graphic artist/digital painter with a passion for wacom tablets and multiple monitors. I'll try to make this as short as possible and I thank you for any help, in advance.

I am used to working on windows XP with an AMD X2 4200+ (I think its 2.2GHZ) with 2GB and three 21 inch CRTs

I like both macs and PCs but I have never owned a mac that I can work on (Just this cute little G3, miffle loves the G3 :3)

Recently I have seen little point in buying more and more PCs, I would like an new more versatile experience. I was originally looking at a G4 450MHZ or something along those lines. I doubt that will be able to run photoshop 7-CS2 very well at all, though.

What do you think about the CPU speed? Do I have to wait until a G5 comes onto ebay before a pounce?

I will be running Tiger for now, I think.

for about two weeks I have been looking for infomation on multiple monitor support on mac OS X so my biggest worry is three monitors will not be a viable option.

I am not adverse to adding extra PCI graphics cards if it all works alright, sounds really rather slick.

I understand for high resolutions I will want to be working with something minimum 700MHZ with 1GB of RAM?

Is there anything else I should note? Anything important about three monitors? everymac, lowendmac and even apple support are so sketchy on it!

Thanks again!

I've never run more than two monitors on one computer, so I will have to allow more experienced members comment on that.

On the CPU speed though, I would wait until you can grab onto a G5, and get one that is in the 1.8 GHz to 2.0 GHz range. Drawing/editing type programs (Photoshop comes to mind) tend to be real resource hogs. I would get the beefiest machine you can.

Most graphics cards only support up to 2 monitors, so to have 3 (or more) you will need a second graphics card. This will probably mean a slower PCI card.

Thanks very much for the replies you two! Very kind. I'll save for a G5, putting a bit away every week or so. Got about £520 at the moment and they generally sell for £700 and up

not too bad for such a powerful computer.

I have been doing some more reading, according to lowendmac the G5 lower models came with PCI 64bit slots max 4GB RAM and 450watt power supply. Thats not too bad at all considering 4Gb is probably the most i'd ever want to go up to.

The more expensive models with a max of 8GB of RAM and I think... 600watt power supply run some extra PCI-X slots.

Unlike PCI-E both PCI 64bit and PCI-X (I've never owned a PC with the super crazy PCI-X, haha) are backwards compatible with PCI devices, as far as I can see.

Would the G5 hardware have problems with something like the card below?

(I may need the drivers for it, I think. The cards on sale comes with a driver CD)

Seems like an interesting card. I hope 64MB will be enough to drive a 21inch CRT or a 19inch CRT (Both something like Dells, Sonys or HPs)

Final question I think, is it certain that the G5 will have no issues with a second card or will it reject it?

There was a short thread on G5 apple support forums on the topic but the person who was recommended a second card never did respond.

Radeon 7000 64MB PCI

A problem is the ebay listing says G3 and G4 only.

I would opt for either a dual high-end G4 or a G5 desktop at least. I do similar kind of things on a G4 400mhz and CS2 is sloooooow.. My 667mhz G4 Powerbook handles CS2 better, but not when you're dealing with lots of images, high-res images, or images/pieces with a lot of layers.

I would add another graphics card to a Mac tower for a 2nd or 3rd display, that way each monitor has a dedicated graphics card.

As long as it says "Mac Edition" or "Mac Compatible" on the box, and the machine you purchase has t he required slots for it, there should be no problems in adding a 2nd or 3rd PCI graphics card.

Wonderful! Wonderful reply!

Its great to see someone in a similar situation. Thanks a lot, G5 it is.

The dedicated AGP or PCI-E original graphics cards look good to drive two monitors but if I can get a model with extra PCI-E slots I can then by a PCI-E second/third graphics card to make sure I can run the required system.

Brilliant