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Brook
User

Posts: 2

What is the better buy? - 2008/02/05 06:21 Hi folks,

It's time again to upgrade my computer and I'm looking at two possible systems: an emac G4 1.42GHz (1Gig, 160gb, Pioneer DVD/RW-CD) and an Imac G5 1.8ghz (256mb, 80gb, superdrive).

The imac doesn't come with a keyboard, mouse, or system software.

I think I can purchase the emac for $450 including shipping. I can buy the imac for $600 including shipping.

I'm planning on using photoshop and scanned-in images, but not in a big way.

What computer would be the better buy?

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stewieno1
User

Posts: 95

Re:What is the better buy? - 2008/02/08 20:24 Whichever has the better graphics card and max Ram capability. Of course it depends on how big a file you would be working on too but usually you need a fair amount of ram to make working on large PS files easy.

Which model of the three iMac G5/1.8's is it?
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/imac/index-imac.html

G5/1.8 17 inch - 2Gb Ram max , 64mb Radeon video card,
G5/1.8 20 inch - 2Gb Ram max , 64mb Radeon video card or
G5/1.8 17 inch ALS - 2Gb Ram max , 128mb Radeon video card ?
as opposed to the eMac
http://www.everymac.com/systems/apple/emac/index-emac.html
G4/1.42 ( 2005) 1Gb max , 64mb Radeon video card

I'd probably lean towards the iMac because of it's much faster processor.

Stewie

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krowmagnum
User

Posts: 794

Re:What is the better buy? - 2008/02/09 01:08 It depends on how much you want to spend. If the iMac is in your budget and you have the OS and peripherals already it's not a bad deal but the costs could add up buying the OS, keyboard and mouse.

Either Mac will do what you want easy enough but the iMac G5 will do it faster. The final cost of the iMac is going to be around $700. And you still need to add RAM to it. The 256MB of RAM in the G5 iMac isn't enough to do much and you really should have a minimum of 512MB, and 1GB would be best for Photoshop. It also depends on what version of Photoshop you will be using. CS 2 won't even install on a Mac with 256MB of RAM.

Personally I would kinda lean towards the eMac since it's got what you need already and it's more than sufficient for light Photoshop work. And the price difference leaves room for buying toys to go with it like a big external drive for storage and back-ups. There's also wireless keyboards and mice. All of which would be about the cost of the iMac without the needed add-ons.

So the eMac is the best buy in my opinion.

Also with the cost of the iMac G5 you are getting into the price range of a brand new Mac Mini & non-Apple LCD which I think would be a better option. First because it's brand new and secondly because I have never been a fan of the All-in-One Macs for the simple reason that if the monitor or board dies the rest of the Mac is useless. You will always end up with a half-functional Mac that is almost worthless for anything but parts. And with the the heat build-up in those two Macs it's bound to happen sooner or later.

Post edited by: krowmagnum, at: 2008/02/09 01:20

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