been shopping

I will be starting back to college this fall, and the department strongly suggests owning a Mac in order to operate on the same system/format as all the classwork is geared toward.

I currently own P4 desktops and a laptop, and have a couple questions while shopping for my new mac...(love the justification this gives me to buy)

My laptop, a P4 3.2 ghz system gets extremely hot while operating under normal conditions. Normal conditions as defined by me is sitting on a hard surface and being used for 5 hours straight, as I will sit there and use it that long. How does the Mac G4 processor currently used in their laptops perform under similar conditions?

Anyone who routinely uses more than one Mac that could chime in with thier opinions of the differences/comparisons in performance would be appreciated.

I simply cannot decide on the G5 tower, iMac, or the powerbook.... My classes will be covering art and my main concern will be using Photoshop CS2 and editing photographs both individually and bulk processing. My kids use Macs at school, so this would allow them to use the same system at home as well.

All input is greatly appreciated.

Odin

Your going to find that the G4 chip is still going to run warm like your P4 is now..with the speed these machines produce and in such a small case; heat is expected. you would be able to get away with using your PC machines but they are right things are just going to gel better using a mac, plus your user experience with be more enjoyable.

For what your going to be doing a portable would be perfect i think, i would be thinking a high end ibook ( 14" w superdrive $1899.99 CDN) or you could even go with a 12 or 15" powerbook (1899.99-2899.99 CDN). I suggestsed these models because you will have enough power to us CS2, i would suggest adding some ram however.

The joy of these machines is that they all have a built in microphone so you are able to record your lectures, and convert them to mp3 for studying (or selling to the people that missed class that day). You can also hook these machines up to a VGA or DVI monitor when you come home and use it as a desktop computer.

Personally i find the powerbook runs warmer than the ibook specially when it's sitting on your lap, its kinda nice though cause it will keep you warm in the winter and really warm in the summer.

Odin_aa said:

My laptop, a P4 3.2 ghz system gets extremely hot while operating under normal conditions. Normal conditions as defined by me is sitting on a hard surface and being used for 5 hours straight, as I will sit there and use it that long. How does the Mac G4 processor currently used in their laptops perform under similar conditions?

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I think a 3.2ghz laptop gets hotter than a G4 laptop, but I wouldn't want either sitting on my lap. If you want a cooler running PC laptop get an Pentium-M, they are great processors and run much cooler than a P4.

Really, it depends on what you're doing. You can sit at a G4 PowerBook for five hours browsing the web, checking eMail, and listening to music, and it will only get warm.

Sit for two hours doing heavy image editing, and it'll get nice and toasty, and the fan will spin up to vacuum cleaner speed.

As far as speed goes...a G4 PowerBook will be okay for Photoshop work, given enough memory (I'd suggest a gigabyte or more.) A G5 would be faster, of course.

Thank you for the information. I read a few other posts concerning the powerbook and heat, I was hoping their chip was more like the Pentium M. So, leaning more and more toward just picking up a G5 tower and spending the big bucks.
If trying to save a small amount of money and purchased a non- apple monitor (yes, the apple monitors are very nice) does the calibration for working with photographs I have heard so much about work with other brand monitors or is that only when using the apple monitor?

any other money saving tips of upgrades after the initial purchase other than the RAM?

Thanks again.

If you're only going to be using Photoshop as your most taxing application, then a G5 tower might be overkill. It will run super fast, and work great, but I think any of the iMac G5s would work just as well. I still run an iMac 800, and use Photoshop and occasionally Final Cut Pro, and while it may run a little slower than I'd like, the newer iMacs outperform my old iMac by leaps and bounds. The thing I like especially about iMacs is that it's an all in one machine, I love the fact that I don't have to have a separate monitor.

Yes, any monitor will work with all the calibration stuff.

Ram is the big one, just don't buy it from Apple. They'll rape you on price. Get it from a 3rd party, it's very easy to install yourself. I'd recommend 1 GB for whatever you get.

If you do change your mind and go for the portable, I'd say go for either the 15" or 17" Powerbook. If you get the 15" get the better video card, you won't regret it.

As for heat, they do get hot. I've heard that the smaller models are hotter than the bigger models. However, if I don't use mine on my lap and leave it on a hard surface, it remains quite cool. Even on the lap, it isn't bad, I've done 5-6 hours of heavy graphics work with it on my lap and was fine (I just may never get to have kids someday, lol).

The difference of a G4 and G5 is actually pretty big when it comes to media. Although my powerbook is very fast in all of CS2, a G5 desktop will still easily outgun it.

Also, Apple has student discounts. Make sure to use them when you buy whatever you get.

I'm still learning about PPC architecture -- but from my experience with my new 12" PB is that the PPC doesn't have the advanced sleep functions that the mobile x86 cpus have -- meaning a true sleep state where all circuits AND the cpu are totally powered off and only DRAM is recieving a trickle current to keep your session saved.

On a full charge my old Thinkpad could stay closed (asleep) for almost 2 weeks - open it up and its ready to go and still have almost an hour of batt time left ------- My PB can only stay closed for 4 - 5 days before its battery is shot. So beware of this --- otherwise its a great laptop

Ex_PC_Puke said:

I'm still learning about PPC architecture -- but from my experience with my new 12" PB is that the PPC doesn't have the advanced sleep functions that the mobile x86 cpus have -- meaning a true sleep state where all circuits AND the cpu are totally powered off and only DRAM is recieving a trickle current to keep your session saved.

On a full charge my old Thinkpad could stay closed (asleep) for almost 2 weeks - open it up and its ready to go and still have almost an hour of batt time left ------- My PB can only stay closed for 4 - 5 days before its battery is shot. So beware of this --- otherwise its a great laptop

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Hmmm, you actually get away from your computer for DAYS? lol, your lucky. The only time my Powerbook gets to sleep is about 4 hours when I sleep at night!

damontgo said:

If you're only going to be using Photoshop as your most taxing application, then a G5 tower might be overkill. It will run super fast, and work great, but I think any of the iMac G5s would work just as well. The thing I like especially about iMacs is that it's an all in one machine, I love the fact that I don't have to have a separate monitor

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Although CS2 is my most used application, there will be others and if the G5 is as fast as all the hype I may end up getting into the video editing on a computer again. I found it too slow on the P4 2.8 or 3.2 ghz tower I have at home although it was top of the line 3 years ago when I bought it.

When currently editing photographs, it is extremely slow (well in the I want it now and not wait kind of world we live in). I work with very large (over 30mb) image files on a regular basis and edit large batch files of over 100 images on a daily basis. Too fast will not be an issue for me, although I do thank you for the input on the imac. The imac sounds like a great machine to pick up for the wife and kids to use so they stay off the machine I get for myself.

rs2sensen said:

Yes, any monitor will work with all the calibration stuff.

Ram is the big one, just don't buy it from Apple. They'll rape you on price. Get it from a 3rd party, it's very easy to install yourself. I'd recommend 1 GB for whatever you get.

The difference of a G4 and G5 is actually pretty big when it comes to media. Although my powerbook is very fast in all of CS2, a G5 desktop will still easily outgun it.

Also, Apple has student discounts. Make sure to use them when you buy whatever you get.

Click to expand...

Thanks for the monitor information, could not find anything searching that would specifically mention the calibration issue. If I were a rich man the 30" apple monitor would be mine. As is, it will be the 20" or other brand.
Yes, I will be either buying with the student discount from the apple store or from the schools store that also carries them (stopping by both today), the apple online store is also giving away a free ipod with the purchase of a mac system to students *bonus

I found memory here: Memory

Thanks to all again for your input. I think my mind is set on the G5 tower. Reasons:
1. have a laptop that operates great to bring to school if needed.
2. upgrade potential, this will become the machine used for my small buisness
3. speed. I hate waiting (now to decide on which of the top two processor speeds)

Well, after all this "internal termoil" on which system to buy....IBM or MAC, Power G5 or IMAC or Powerbook...

I picked up a Powermac G5 Desktop along with the 20" cinema display yesterday. Got a free Ipod mini (well after rebate), also picked up the camera for ichat use, copy of virtual PC, Microsoft Office for Mac, Adobe Creative suite CS2.

The G5 is the 2.3 ghz version with a 250GB HD, bluetooth, airport, 1 Gig Ram, the base video card. So far, I have only unpacked and loaded software.

The wife is pissed.

The wife is pissed.

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4 words: GIVE HER THE iPOD!

That may help,

Also as I browse some of the other thread here it makes me wonder...is there somewhere that I can learn some of the MAC lingo? Learn about things such as "widget"

Here. Seriously, if you have any questions, no matter how small and silly they seem, this forum is a great place to come for help, people will give you straight answers and wont patronize you for being new to Mac.

Also useful:

Open OS X help, select 'switching from windows' and then 'What's it called on my mac' to get a list of common windows terms in mac-lingo