imac or powermac?

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atacinus

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okay, i.m debating between two systems...an imac [17incher] or a powermac G4 [can.t afford the G5]...what i want to do is edit digital video...i.m not talking like a dad who wants some shots of baby...this is something i do for a living. I understand the powermac is upgradeble harddrive wise, but that is not a point i care about...I have several external firewire harddrives anyway...i want to know the difference between a single 1.25ghz powermac G4 and a 1.25 ghz iMac...is there really even a difference...i looked at the tech specs for both, and ironicly, the only spec that wasn.t the same was the only thing i didn.t understand....on the powermac G4 it says it has an L3 chace of 1mb DDR SRAM...that isn.t true for the iMac...that is the ONLY difference i see...the processor speed is the same...hard drive the same...ram the same...system bus the same [167mhz]...basically i want to know can the iMac edit HIGH END final cut pro [not express] video? it seems as if it can and the only advantage of powermac is multiple displays and expandability...but if i don.t care about expandability and would rather have an iMac if possible...can it do what i need? Thanks to anyone who replies either to the thread or e.mail me directly. [[email protected]]

Christien
 
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M

Mr.Curlynose1

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I say go for the PowerMac. I believe what the cache is is the speed at which everything moves throught he system, which means it would make video editing faster for you. Having 2 monitors is nice too, plus the complete expandability of RAM, etc. I'm not dissing iMacs, that's the kind of Mac we have, but for what you're doing, I think you would be best with a PowerMac. iMacs are made for casual computing :cool:.
 
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atacinus

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i understand that opinion...but here.s the real question...between the two there is not a BIG price difference but the powermac is more expensive because i need a display and update the combo drive to a superdrive....but with the iMac, i already get a 17' WIDESCREEN display and a superdrive...for roughly the same computing power for about $250 less.....what i REALLY want to know is if anyone has an iMac with roughly the specs of the middle range one i.m looking at buying [1.25ghz 512mb ram et al] and uses final cut pro with it....is this possible? is this good? it looks comperable...but IS IT in actual usage...not just on paper...Thanks,

Christien
 
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imac bondie blue 233mhz 320mb ram 2 meg vram 4gig HD and a Beige G3 A/V 266 OCed to 300mhz 64mb ram
i think it depends on what you want to do with it and how long you want it usable i admit i have an mac classic but it is very limited in usability and i also have on of the first imacs and it only has one expantion slot that only 2 companys made video cards for and i cant find any of them.

now for the powermac i have a dsektop g3 and i have been able to find everything i need to make it = to a recent imac except for the system bus and other mobo features from more recent models.

if you want it for the long long run get the powermac it will pay for the extra money (depending on what you use it for) and you get the upgrade possibilitys w/pci and zif for any newer technlogy that come out.
 
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PowerMac G5 Dual 2GHz (June 2004), 2.5GB, Airport, black 5G iPod 30GB, white MacBook 2.0 2GB
Not only has the PowerMac fast Level 3 cache, which speeds up things significantly when shoveling large ammounts of data in and out the CPU (like, for example, video data), but also it has a better and upgradable graphics card, which is also a crucial option when it comes to video editing.
If you want to do professional video editing, with the two options you have, get the Powermac. It might have the same CPU speed (but not the same CPU actually, as the iMac uses the low power consumption CPUs of the PowerBooks), but the fact that it has L3 cache, better and upgradeable graphics and the fact that it can take up to 2GB of memory makes it the better option for your needs.

And also, the iMac shares the same IDE bus for the harddisk and optical drive, slowing things down when you access both at the same time. The PowerMac has 3 IDE busses, 1 for the 2 optical drives, and 2 for the 4 harddisk that can be put in. Video data is huge and needs space...lots of space!

There is a reason why the iMac was intended for consumer, while the Powermac was intended for professionals...
 
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for the reasons mentioned above, i would get the power mac too. ps, please register and enjoy using these boards
 
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Not to rain on anyone's parade, but has anyone else noticed the dates from the original posts? One would certainly hope he has made his decision by now. ;)

-Chris
 
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bassplayrr said:
Not to rain on anyone's parade, but has anyone else noticed the dates from the original posts? One would certainly hope he has made his decision by now. ;)

-Chris

Oops! You're right... :eek:neye:

Why does leverknight1 keep digging up old posts?? He/She did that on a couple of threads already...
 
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Avalon said:
Oops! You're right... :eek:neye:

Why does leverknight1 keep digging up old posts?? He/She did that on a couple of threads already...
yeah, i ran across those too. makes me feel like an *****
 
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Over on the Subaru forums that I frequent, a few trouble making users always dig old stuff up on purpose so that others will not read the date and post replies. After posting responses to old threads MANY times and then having those users make fun of me, I just began making a habbit out of checking the dates on all threads I reply to. Now it is just second nature. I don't think this user is digging up old threads to be a trouble maker though. I think they are just running searches, or digging through the archives to find as much info as they can, then posting without realizing how old the thread is. It's innocent I'm sure.

-Chris
 

iWhat

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I love it, when this happens! :cool:
 
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i was on a dodge forum and they had banned the milestone post count threads right before i made my 1000th post, so i dug up all the ones from 2 years prior just to **** off the mods. it was childish, but it was fun.
 
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I think that two years to wait for someone to reply to a thread is perfectly acceptable. I've written a few threads myself in the past that haven't had any replies yet, but I'm still waiting folks !!!! anytime between now and 2020 would be nice. :cool:
 

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