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[mosfet]

Well, once again I am stuck weighing the pros and cons of potential purchases.

Unfortunately the Dual G5 Powermac appears to be outside my grasp.
That leaves me with 2 potential options.

A. For $1250 I can get a 1.8ghz G5 Powermac with 512mb ram, 160gb HD.
B. For $1000 I can get a 1.6ghz G5 Powermac with 1gb, 80gb HD, and Airport Extreme.
Both have GF 5200FX graphics.

A couple of factoids:
I have 802.11g networking at home, but also wired where my desk is.
I only have $1300 right now.
I'm mostly going to do Photoshopping, webcomic graphics, mail, web browsing, etc.
I already have a PC (2.8ghz Cel-D, 1gb ram, ati9700)
I would like to possibly play games on the Powermac should my PC be out of commision.

I am currently leaning on the 1.6 because then I could by an ati 9600, a second gb of ram, and another 160gb HD.

My questions are:
1. Does the Plan B PM with upgrades sound like a good idea?
2. Is there any noticable difference between 1.6ghz and 1.8ghz G5?
3. Is the Ati 9600 a noticable upgrade over the GF 5200?

or, does someone happen to know where dual G5 Powermacs can be found for near $1400?

[lb969]

I'd go A, and get 1 GB ram MORE (1.5 Gb)

thats really all you'd need for what you describe....

[jeph]

For the sort of stuff you'd be using it for, another gig of RAM is going to be a lot more useful than .2gHz more speed. OS X is very RAM-hungry, I don't recommend running it with anything less than a gig if you can swing it. I've currently got 3gb in my dual 1.8gHz G5 and could definitely use more.

[lb969]

You're right on that jeph.

I didn't figure on him having OsX...

[mosfet]

My little powerbook was a 12" 1ghz G4 with 768mb of ram.  I probably don't have to point out how annoying that could be at times!

if only I had about $600 more. then I'd be able to do the dual 1.8 with extra ram.... I don't think my wife is too keen on the idea of selling my body.

Anyone have experience with using regular priced PC ram in a G5?
Its just standard PC3200 (1.6 uses 2700) DDR sticks, right?
I saw somewhere that Apple will switch back and forth between various brands.
My PC is running some Samsung 512mb sticks I was thinking of trying out in the G5.

[lb969]

apple swaps brands cause its cheaper.

If its the correct pin, you should be fine.

Ram is Ram is Ram is Ram (unless its high end DDR2 or DDR3 Ram)

[Matteh99]

Ram is your friend.  I have 1.25 gig's in my iMac 1.6 ghz and it does fine.  I Bet more would help but there are decreasing returns.  You can check the activity monitor and if there are a ton of page in's /  page out's then you need more ram.  If you are doing somthing heavy duty and those numbers just start to count up like mad..

Ram is Ram is Ram most of the time.  Some power books have issues with certian ram.  The 1.25 ghz 15 inch does somthing call bus slewing which basicaly means that the bus speed changed dynamicly to reduce power.  Some ram hates this and will make your life hell.  I don't think there are any problems with the power mac's though.

The computer store I work for gets memory from Datamem.com.  They have good prices and are good about returns.  Any trustworthy place would probably be fine though.

Eric

[jeph]

It's all about the Crucial memory.

[Matteh99]

Ohh I just though of something.

Is the single 1.8 the first model or is it one of the later ones?

The first one one could hold 8 gig's of ram and had PCI X slots.  The later ones are limited to 4 gigs of ram and had regular PCI slots.

I don't know if that matters to you or not but it is something to consider.

Eric

[mosfet]

Ram it is!

Unfortunately I can't seem to find the earlier 1.8's.  They're all the new ones.
If I found an older 1.8, I'd probably jump on that, but I'm not seeing them anywhere.  And I'm betting eBay is not the best of places to get one.

Any thoughts on getting PMs off eBay?

[Matteh99]

I have seen people get great deals on eBay.  Some one bought a 15 inch powerbook for dirt cheap with blotches on the screen that was under warrenty but the seller didn't know it.  They brought it in for service, we ran the serial and it was covered..  I have also seen people get screwed..  Mainly because they didn't know what to look for but I have seen "new" things that are definatly used and also things that were just DOA from the start.

Have you seen http://www.zug.com/pranks/powerbook/?  A link to it was posted on this forum a while back.

Eric

[nihilist]

4GB of low-latency OCZ DDR 400, only way to go.  

[mosfet]

well, I caved in.
I opened up the the Apple specials page this morning and what do I see?  A dual 1.8 Powermac for $1499.  So as soon as I get to work, I msg the wife, get the credit card info, and order the puppy!

The only downside is its only got 256mb of ram. WTF?! but ram can be upgraded, processors cant.

So, now I owe $300 to the credit card, and have no money for upgrades, but next week a dual 1.8 PM will arrive at my house!  Yeay!

I think its time to sell off a few things to pay the CC and for upgrades.

[tehpie]

Yeah man, definitely upgrade the ram. My iBook only handles 640mb, and i only have 384 in it, but there was a huge difference in performance from the standard 256 to the 384.

But nice deal on the dual 1.8. That's quite the catch!

[mosfet]

Kinda funny circumstances.
I ended up not only getting the dual 1.8 for myself, but we picked up the 1.6ghz with 1gb ram and Airport Extreme for my kid!

Her PC is a piece of trash, especially the Linksys WiFi card.
So finally, after days of constantly having to go fix her PC (P3 1.4ghz), we went and picked up the PM for her.

Unfortunately, we're now in the hole for $1300 instead of just $300, but now we've got a house with 2 G5 Powermacs and 1 G4 Powerbook.  (at least when mine comes in)

Wheres my G5!?  I can't wait!

whew!  Now we only have one computer in the house that I'll really have to worry about anymore.  (P3 1.26)  But this ones mine and doesn't really give many issues anyway

[mosfet]

double post, but I wanted to share my joy!

My Dual 1.8 Powermac came in!

The Apple Refurb Store site stated 256mb ram and 80gb Hard Drive, but it came with 1gb ram and 250gb HD!  Yeay!!!

Photoshop is so much nicer to use now!