Before I buy...............

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Ok my girlfriend needs to get a mac. She is a graphic arts major and is using photoshop, illustrator and quark. The thing is we can't decide if she should spend the money it takes for a new G5 or if she should take advantage of getting a G4 from a friend for 200 and wait for the the new intel equipped mac to ship. Will the G4 work for her for a year or should she just go with what's current and hope that there are no major changes when the next generation comes out. Now please nobody jump down my throat or anything, she doesn't have a lot of cash so whichever she buys it is going to be a few years until she can even think of replacing it. So if you guys have some good advice I would really appreciate it. I'm trying to help her out but I haven't really been into the macs for a few years, so as you can imagine my advice is a little outdated. Thanks in advance.
 
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Ender81 said:
Ok my girlfriend needs to get a mac. She is a graphic arts major and is using photoshop, illustrator and quark. The thing is we can't decide if she should spend the money it takes for a new G5 or if she should take advantage of getting a G4 from a friend for 200 and wait for the the new intel equipped mac to ship. Will the G4 work for her for a year or should she just go with what's current and hope that there are no major changes when the next generation comes out. Now please nobody jump down my throat or anything, she doesn't have a lot of cash so whichever she buys it is going to be a few years until she can even think of replacing it. So if you guys have some good advice I would really appreciate it. I'm trying to help her out but I haven't really been into the macs for a few years, so as you can imagine my advice is a little outdated. Thanks in advance.

What are the specs on the G4?
 
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I'd figure if she decked it out with enough RAM (512MB minimum) she won't be bogged down with multi-tasking between PS and Illustrator and handling rendering times on filters/effects. I'm still running all of the CS on my comp (DP 1.25 G4 w/1GB RAM) and it keeps up rather well. I heard it'll be a year or so before the they ship with Intel so it should last til then. Specs will make all the difference though. ;)
 
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deus_ex_machina said:
I'd figure if she decked it out with enough RAM (512MB minimum) she won't be bogged down with multi-tasking between PS and Illustrator and handling rendering times on filters/effects. I'm still running all of the CS on my comp (DP 1.25 G4 w/1GB RAM) and it keeps up rather well. I heard it'll be a year or so before the they ship with Intel so it should last til then. Specs will make all the difference though. ;)
I don't have the exact specs off the top of my head but I can check. I do know that it is two years old
 
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Mine is two years old...first quarter 2003....at the very least its probably 867MHz single processor. Definitely fine for her needs. But if it has the 256MB starting RAM I'd bump to 512 (about $70-80) :)
 
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deus_ex_machina said:
Mine is two years old...first quarter 2003....at the very least its probably 867MHz single processor. Definitely fine for her needs. But if it has the 256MB starting RAM I'd bump to 512 (about $70-80) :)
Yeah I was definately going to give it some healthy upgrades is there anythign else besides RAM that would help it out? Graphics Card. anything like that? Thanks btw I really appreciate your time and help.
 
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I also think that the G4 sounds like the way to go for now. If she can get a great price on one like that.

I wouldn't bother changing the graphics card...
Maybe get a larger harddrive?
 
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large hard drive is must... I graduated graphic design and the projects ate up space fast. Mine was BTO w/120GB drive and worked great and backed up everything. Also (off on a tangent) if she happens to working on projects off-campus a portable drive to take to and from the university/school would be a wise investment. Food for thought ;) Good luck.
 
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deus_ex_machina said:
large hard drive is must... I graduated graphic design and the projects ate up space fast. Mine was BTO w/120GB drive and worked great and backed up everything. Also (off on a tangent) if she happens to working on projects off-campus a portable drive to take to and from the university/school would be a wise investment. Food for thought ;) Good luck.
The portable drive is a great idea, she is off-campus. Seems to be everyone is in agreement that the G4 is the way to go. And please feel free to go off on a tangent any information is a help. I want to make sure she is well equipped.
 
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Then earn yourself some brownie points and get her a 60GB iPod ;)
 
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xthisisRomancex

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as stated above for 200 i would get it.. i am running CS on a g4 cube ( 450mhz 820megs of ram) and it zooms. this machine is atleast 5 yrs old
 
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What OS do u have that Cube thisRomance?

it sounds like a beast of a thing
 
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Well I installed Tiger on a 400Mhz Powerbook G4 yesterday (the very first titanium model) and it doesn't exactly zoom, but it's no slouch either!
 

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