Considering Dumping my trusty G4, Some ?s

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TheLordsServant

Gawd
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Sep 29, 2005
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Well, after two years, I'm slowly coming to the realization that perhaps it would be a good idea to sell my Powermac G4 Mirror Door 1Ghz DP, I'm kinda looking at either a Mini Mac or a base Macbook. Some people have told me that a base Macbook with 2GB RAM will be as fast my Powermac G4, which has 1.75GB RAM. I find this hard to believe, but I suppose it's possible. I'm guessing the Mini Mac will probably be slower than my Powermac mainly because of the shared graphics, as I have a Radeon 9000 64MB in my Powermac G4. So, I guess to sum up my question: How will a Mac Mini or a Macbook perform, not just CPU, or benchamrks, but real world performance. Also, what about a 20" iMac with the Radeon 2400? If I bought that, I'd wind up selling my PC, which is an eMachines T3522 3.33ghz Celeron, 1.5GB RAM, Radeon x600 Pro 256MB. In Boot Camp, would the iMac be as fast as my current PC setup?

Thanks!
 
I recently upgraded from a Powerbook g4 1.67ghz to a macbook pro 2.5ghz... When I was trying to find out what the power differences were I was pointed to this site:

http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2007/12/mac-performance-december-2007/

Power Mac G4 (Mirrored Drive Doors)
PowerPC G4 @ 1.25 GHz 705

MacBook (Late 2007)
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.20 GHz 2872

Mac mini (Mid 2007)
Intel Core 2 Duo @ 2.00 GHz 2619

It looks like it would be a pretty significant upgrade.
 
After over five years over ownership I dumped that same G4 in November for the iMac in my sig.

The baseline Macbook will be much much faster than that G4. The Mac mini will be faster as well but I personally am not a fan of that product line since IMO it is a poor value compared to even the baseline 20" iMac. Per dollar you are getting less of everything by the time you throw a monitor in there. Skip it.

In Boot Camp, the lowest level iMac running Windows in Boot Camp would annihilate the eMachine you have right now.

My vote is for the Macbook, or a 20" iMac if you don't want a notebook.
 
Serpico: That was kind of my thinking, I wouldn't mind having a Macbook at all, and I did some more comparison shopping, and the Mini is just too expensive for what it is, I've pretty much ruled that out as an option, I'll probably go for a Macbook, because then I can sell my old iBook G3 as well, and have one computer to do almost everything, but I may also decide to sell my two desktops and buy an iMac. Decisions, Decisions...


P.S: I know my eMachines sucks, I bought the computer on Black Friday 2006 for $189.99, and then got the video card given to me, and paid $16.99 for a 1GB RAM chip a couple weeks ago, until then, it had 512 :eek:
 
Do you do anything that is graphics-intensive in any way? If so forget about the MacBook or Mini, as it will be worse than what you have now. Some apps (ie Final Cut Pro I think) won't even run on the MacBook.....
 
Yes, Final Cut Pro WON'T work on MacBooks or Mac Minis, now that I just learned this I may have to upgrade...
 
Well, that does change things a little, I do some casual Final Cut, but I'm not a hardcore video editor or anything, say, once or twice a month I do some work in Final Cut, and it definitely would be nice to still be able to do that, so I guess I'm looking at a base iMac. The only other tasks I have to be able to do would be Photoshop, but I'm pretty sure that almost any Mac would handle that task just fine, but if Final Cut (I have the Express version) won't run on a Macbook, then I'm definitely looking at an iMac 20" And I have definitely ruled out a Mac Mini as an option, it just is way too much money for what I need, and the small size isn't really a big deal to me, I have a 20" Cine and G4 Tower for pete's sake, if I wanted small size I'd have something else :D I don't see how anyone would even consider the Mini, given it's price, performance, and specs
 
TheLordsServant said:
Well, that does change things a little, I do some casual Final Cut, but I'm not a hardcore video editor or anything, say, once or twice a month I do some work in Final Cut, and it definitely would be nice to still be able to do that, so I guess I'm looking at a base iMac. The only other tasks I have to be able to do would be Photoshop, but I'm pretty sure that almost any Mac would handle that task just fine, but if Final Cut (I have the Express version) won't run on a Macbook, then I'm definitely looking at an iMac 20" And I have definitely ruled out a Mac Mini as an option, it just is way too much money for what I need, and the small size isn't really a big deal to me, I have a 20" Cine and G4 Tower for pete's sake, if I wanted small size I'd have something else :D I don't see how anyone would even consider the Mini, given it's price, performance, and specs
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Well I've been using Adobe Premiere on the bootcamp side of my Macbook (Santa Rosa Late 2006) and it runs great on my machine. Remember, you're still only going to have a 13.3 in screen unless you use a separate LCD monitor ( your 20") for your Macbook. Plus you get the mobility. With mobility you'll end up having to a buy a decent bundle of accessories if you still want to use it as a 'desktop' type machine. Cases, mice, etc.


Now with the 20in you obviously know the pro's and cons. Though, as I see a pro you would have two 20in displays if you set up your iMac with your Cine display.

Forget about the mini of course, but just realize your pro's and con's. I would personally buy the 20in iMac and save up later for a Macbook if you feel you need it.
 
The 20" iMac and the Macbooks use lower quality screens also. Keep that in mind if you do any graphic/video work.
 
Yea, well using my 20" really isn't an option, as I have an ADC one, so it would involve me buying an adapter and all that, and I'll probably sell the display and buy a new display that uses DVI and then get an adapter for it. And, screen size doesn't really bother me, until the 20" I used a 15" LCD, so screen space isn't a big problem. I think I'll be ordering a 20" iMac
 
TheLordsServant said:
Yea, well using my 20" really isn't an option, as I have an ADC one, so it would involve me buying an adapter and all that, and I'll probably sell the display and buy a new display that uses DVI and then get an adapter for it. And, screen size doesn't really bother me, until the 20" I used a 15" LCD, so screen space isn't a big problem. I think I'll be ordering a 20" iMac
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What he is referring to is the panel type in the 20" iMac, not the size. The aluminum revision changed the panel type in the 20" from S-IPS to TN. I suspect this is due to supply issues since NEC and other high quality LCD manufacturers stopped selling 20" IPS displays late last year as well. Either way, the TN on the 20" iMac, while very evenly illuminated, does have the color dithering/banding issues that any other TN will have. It may not be a deal breaker and you can always hook up a separate IPS display if you really need one, it is just something to keep in mind.

The 24" is a different story since it uses a superb H-IPS panel. Again, if it is out of your price range then I wouldn't even sweat it and just go with the 20", especially if image work isn't the main point of the machine.
 
Image work is definitely not going to be the main point of the machine, my macs generally get used more as media centers for storing videos, music, and the like, and I have seen the displays on the new iMacs, and I didn't really see any problems at all. I've done a little Photoshop as well, at a friends house, and it seems to do quite well, I don't think I have any complains. So, I'll probably just the 20", the 24" is way out of my budget range.
 
TheLordsServant said:
Image work is definitely not going to be the main point of the machine, my macs generally get used more as media centers for storing videos, music, and the like, and I have seen the displays on the new iMacs, and I didn't really see any problems at all. I've done a little Photoshop as well, at a friends house, and it seems to do quite well, I don't think I have any complains. So, I'll probably just the 20", the 24" is way out of my budget range.
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In that case you should be fine.
 
Oh lol i thought when u guys were saying Macbooks you meant all the macbooks including the pros. Be really sad that When I get my new MBP that final cut wouldnt run on it.
 
OK, Now I'm really starting to get confused. I just read a macbook benchmark where they tested it with Final Cut Pro 5.1, and said that Final Cut Pro, will, in fact, run on a Macbook. Boy, this new technology is enough to make my head spin, and I thought I was pretty computer-literate. I did go out to the Apple store and tested a Macbook and a Macbook pro one after another, and I really don't see any reason to spend the extra money, with the increase in speed it offers. The screen size on the Macbook doesn't really bother me, it's plenty big enough for me, as I prefer portability over humongous screens anyway, I have a 12" iBook ;) The problem is, I still like the iMac, and the portable aspect of it is not that important, but I've heard a lot of bad things about the iMacs, is this true?


Sorry I'm being such a pain in the rear end, I just want to make sure I do the right thing.
 
TheLordsServant said:
OK, Now I'm really starting to get confused. I just read a macbook benchmark where they tested it with Final Cut Pro 5.1, and said that Final Cut Pro, will, in fact, run on a Macbook. Boy, this new technology is enough to make my head spin, and I thought I was pretty computer-literate. I did go out to the Apple store and tested a Macbook and a Macbook pro one after another, and I really don't see any reason to spend the extra money, with the increase in speed it offers. The screen size on the Macbook doesn't really bother me, it's plenty big enough for me, as I prefer portability over humongous screens anyway, I have a 12" iBook ;) The problem is, I still like the iMac, and the portable aspect of it is not that important, but I've heard a lot of bad things about the iMacs, is this true?


Sorry I'm being such a pain in the rear end, I just want to make sure I do the right thing.
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I think your doing a consumer's job, that is to research what your buying. Took me alot of question and a year of researching to put my money on the Macbook pro I just bought. Hell it would be dumb if you didnt ask questions before buying.
 
I think the biggest problem I see here is, I can my a Macbook Pro, but it's about $500 more, and I just don't see what I'm paying all that money for, considering that they now have the same processor, same RAM, same hard drive, etc. The only difference is, obviously the video RAM, but that's not all that important to me, and I'm actually not that big on the MBP keyboard. To really make the MBP affordable, I would have to buy a last-gen 2.2ghz, and then I think the Macbook 2.4 Penryn would be able to hold it's own against that, though on video-related stuff, it would definitely cream the Macbook, but for what I'm going to be using it for, the Macbook, I think, is just fine, I really think the only thing going for the Macbook Pro, for me anyway, is bragging rights, and I've never been one to be big on those, so I think my best bet is to try and sell what I have, and then I'll probably try for a White 2.4ghz MB, and then upgrade the RAM to 4GB.
 
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