Used G5 power mac towers.. some questions

[neliconcept]

Lance, im assuming you have worked with these at your work right?

im just looking for something to handle photoshop and illustrator pretty well so i dont have to bog down my laptop all the time.

I almost got one on ebay for about 500 dollars the other day, and so far they have been going for about 800 the ones im looking for.

im thinking dual 2.0ghz or a dual core 2 or something of those sorts. i think i need at least two processors or a dual core at best. i doubt i need two dual cores. id like the machine be able to handle more than 4gb of ram max, if i can support up to 8 or better 16 then that would be great.

any suggestions on year/computer # or spec sheet that i should look for?

[Lee]

processors and ram will make things faster, but really a regular dual core mac with 2 or 4 gigs of ram will fit the bill amazingly well for photoshop.

i use a 24" imac 3.0 with 4 gig at work and ps and ai are a breeze... i use ps and ai at home on my 3.6ghz dual core with 2 gigs of ram and again, it's quick and fail safe.

we just got a sweet apple xserve in last week, 16 gigs of ram 8 dual core processors 6 tb of hd space.... mmmm. the thing cranks.

[2ndGen]

imho, if you do not make a living out of it, and not planning working on publishing and video stuff, a mac is just a waste. being in the printing business for the last 8 years, i've seen so many people their only reason for using a Mac is because it looks cool not because the HAVE to use it. if you are using it just for ps and ai, a regular dual core, 4gb ram pc is just fine. plus, pc softwares are free.

[drguitarum2005]

plus, pc softwares are free.


do you mind explaining that?

To the OP:

i have a mac as a only, daily, tried-and-true computer. i use it for word processing, internet surfing, email checking, photoshopping, etc. If it's an Intel mac, you can always install windows and then people who say Windows is better can be quiet. Anywho, that's not the point of this thread and Lord knows we don't need a Mac vs. PC thread again.

A single dual-core with 2 gigs will be fine, as was mentioned above. My 2.0 ghz Core Duo (not even core 2 Duo) with 2 gigs of ram runs photoshop CS3 with no issues at all. a faster Core 2 Duo with the same RAM or even a gig or two more will work awesome. If you can get a dual-dual core G5 tower, however, for a price you can afford I don't see why not. Having too much power isn't going to hurt you other than possibly your wallet.

With what's out now days, it's really hard to go wrong. Either way, enjoy your new computer!

[Lee]

what software is free on pc? certainly not ps and ai.

by the way, ram is insanely cheap now, mac/pc/whatever, all cheap.

macsales.com has awesome deals on ram.

[2ndGen]

my point is for what you are intended to do, why limit yourself to Mac. there's only one manufacture makes Mac in the whole world, thousands others make PC. you can buy a brand new Dell dual core 2gb ram pc with a 19" LCD monitor for $400. software is free, if you look hard enough, buddy. save some money buy a Wacom tablet pen if you are really into graphic stuff, that thing is 100 times better than a mouse.

[Good Times]

Blake,

Pretty much what Lee said. Surprisingly I'm still on an old PowerBook G4 using CS2 :) It's f'in slow but it works for me.

But I do have a bunch of the similar G5's that you mention but with a grip of memory. All of our machines (except for my laptop) are maxed out on the memory to ease the pain when using the Adobe products.

Btw which CS version are you going to run? If you're running an older version like CS2 then I recommend you try to stick to a machine that's PPC cuz it runs faster than the Intel based Mac version. CS3+ has been revamped for the Intel architecture so if you have the latest software look for Intel based macs.

Good luck!

[neliconcept]

imho, if you do not make a living out of it, and not planning working on publishing and video stuff, a mac is just a waste. being in the printing business for the last 8 years, i've seen so many people their only reason for using a Mac is because it looks cool not because the HAVE to use it. if you are using it just for ps and ai, a regular dual core, 4gb ram pc is just fine. plus, pc softwares are free.


because i have a macbook pro and i have the CS3 suite and its only for mac, not a PC version suite, so PC is absolutely out of the question right now, and ive built PCs, to be honest, cooling setups for them are a hell of a lot worse then the way Mac cools a g5/mac pro tower.

Lee, i think i may just go with an older built tower as i see you have experience with the two programs, thanks for the insight.

still need to find a good deal.

Lance.. really cs3 wont work to well on a ppc machine? hmm well im running cs3 on my intel based macbook pro but intel mac pros arent in the price range that im necessarily looking for.

[neliconcept]

i really need to learn how to stop skimming what i read from peoples post.

forgot to see what lance said about maxed mem. i plan to do the same after a while, i think processor speed is decently important but the amount of memory the machine can hold is probably priority unless im looking at it all wrong.

couple of more questions.

can the older g5s, post 2004, take more then one graphics card like the newer units can?

also possible to get 1 year warrienties on these machines from apple paying extra for it?

[Good Times]

Blake,

I don't think the G5's support the swapping of the graphics card. I have one G5 running dual 2.5's with the mem maxed our running CS3 with no problems. Been wanting to upgrade all of our older units w/ the mac pros but they're pretty $$ :)

One thing you might consider is checking the apple store for returns. I'm tempted to pick up a return/refurb mbp (new model release) at a significantly discounted rate. You'd have to get chummy w/ one of the employees there to get them to find you a sweatheart deal but if you do that'll be your best bet :D

[neliconcept]

i got this model

http://support.apple.com/kb/SP80

its the dual 1.8 one, though it only maxes out to 4gb (im hoping 8gb with 2gb sticks per slot) but i got it reallllllly cheap, 400 dollars cheap. so its going to do what i need it to for sure.

[mastacox]

For the record, you could build yourself a quad-core PC with 2gb (or maybe even 4gb) of ram and some serious hard drive space for around $700, not including monitor. You could probably build a dual core system with lots of ram and hard drive space for about $400. The priciest parts are basically the CPU and motherboard, and your limiting factor is finding a motherboard that supports the CPU and ram that you'll want. Once you find a CPU/Mobo/RAM combo that fits your needs, the rest is easy.

Those prices are hardware only, so software would be more. Also, if you want 4gb of ram or more keep in mind that your system needs to be a 64 bit system, so either Windows Vista 64-bit install or Windows XP 64 bit (assuming you build a PC of course).

[neliconcept]

For the record, you could build yourself a quad-core PC with 2gb (or maybe even 4gb) of ram and some serious hard drive space for around $700, not including monitor. You could probably build a dual core system with lots of ram and hard drive space for about $400. The priciest parts are basically the CPU and motherboard, and your limiting factor is finding a motherboard that supports the CPU and ram that you'll want. Once you find a CPU/Mobo/RAM combo that fits your needs, the rest is easy.

Those prices are hardware only, so software would be more. Also, if you want 4gb of ram or more keep in mind that your system needs to be a 64 bit system, so either Windows Vista 64-bit install or Windows XP 64 bit (assuming you build a PC of course).


i would have gone PC if my CS3 suite was a PC based software suite but its mac based so i was limited plus now i can start looking for another g5 tower and use it as a server only, im basically setting up my personal studio.

[2ndGen]

http://i172.photobucket.com/albums/w38/tonniechengca/290.jpg


j/k

keep an eye on craig's list, too. try to buy from someone local so you can test it before handing out the money, so you konw it works as it's supposed to. good luck.

[neliconcept]

gonna update this thread

i have the mac running well with 2gbs of ram and mac osx 10.5 aka leopard. CS3 runs like it should, i havent done a huge file on illustrator yet, which i know will start to bog it down, but thats expected, i cant afford an 8 core machine