G-5 AND OSX

[wickedone]

I was palnaing on building a Nice system for $2600.00 or so for my last PC then I guy I work with talks about His G-4 and how he refuse's to use anything else now.

I went to Apple's Website and tried to see what a G-5 would cost me and wow they are very Proud of there machines. But I realy do like there 23" Monitor.

I dont seem to have the time to play games Like I use to So I am looking to build or Buy a PC that Is fast, Stable, Good for Downloading Music and Playing it, Good for Digital Pictures and Maybe DVR Movie Editing and Viewing Later on, AutoCad, I am sure I will find time later or at least I hope to play Games ( would loved to get back at Playing W.O.W.).

I now Dual-Core CPUs are not to far off so even the advatage a G-5 has with 2 CPUS may not be a advantage later on. I had planed to have a DFI NF4 MB with a AMD64 3200 Overclocked I hope to 2.5-2.6, as a base for my system then geting a Dual-Core later on to drop in.

With what I have said I plan on doing can you tell me If A G-5 would be worth the Price or what makes them worth so much.

Thanks and soory for the long Post.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Is there a CAD Program you like for Mac OS X?

 

[drag]

G-5's are nice. But I wouldn't want a single CPU machine.. they are realy kinda designed to be SMP and you'll get the most benifit from them when you do that.

Otherwise the build and design of the cases are very nice. And you get OS X, which is a definate improvement over Windows, IMO. Although with 10.4 coming out you'd probably want to wait till they start selling machines with 10.4 so you don't have to pay for the upgrade later on.

It's got unix goodies and it's stable and all that eye candy.

Other then and the motherboard (openfirmware vs PC bios for example) it's the same as a PC. Same harddrives, same video card, same wireless cards (although OS X is a great OS for wireless stuff), etc etc.

Software selection is limited a bit. It's definately a nice system, but the speed won't be the same as what you can get for 2600 dollars in PC-land, but if usability is more important then speed then your set.

 

[hopejr]

Tiger is going to be a hell of a lot faster on a G5 system than Panther is, so speed no longer really be an issue soon.

 

[sparkyclarky]

While I love my Mac, I want to state a few things. First of all, if you are very serious about music programs, the Mac is quite limited in this regard, as iTunes has a stranglehold on the Mac music player market. While I don't mind iTunes, I do miss the audio options available on Windows (EAC, J-River Media Center, dbpoweramp, foobar, etc.).

I doubt you'll have much luck on the CAD front, as macs generally don't swing in that direction.

Gaming wise, you're sort of out of luck. While Macs have many of the top PC games available, the platform just isn't as good for games as windows, as the ports tend to not be all that polished performance wise, and unless you are prepared to shell out the dough for a serious upgrade, the default graphics options on even the powermacs are pretty anemic. The Mac will be OK for casual gaming, but if you plan on doing it somewhat seriously, you could easily build a $500 PC to go in conjunction with your Mac that will game much better.

The G5s are nice, but they are spendy to be sure.

Perhaps you may want to consider buying a mini (with a RAM upgrade of course) just to get a feel for the OS, its available apps, and the general workflow it offers. Then, if you decide its a keeper, sell the mini (you'll be out maybe 100-200 bucks at most) and upgrade to your dream machine. Sure, this way will cost a bit more in the end, but the cost will likely be less overall than if you got a dual G5 and ended up not enjoying the experience....

 

[jamesbond007]

I agree with sparkyclarky when he says to get a Mac mini. It seems your needs are fairly straight-forward, minus the CAD issues. Minis are pretty nice in the fact you can use a KVM and switch between your Mac/existing PC until you know for sure you want to go the Apple route. The OS is obviously very different, in many good ways, of course. Get a mini, browse the web, sign up for the iTunes music store, edit your photos, etc. The mini will have no problems with that. I'm pretty sure the mini can also handle your video editing workloads, though it might be a bit cumbersome to do high-res playbacks. I remember in AT's review of using the Mini as a home theater DVR, the unit was able to record HDTV, but not able to play it back without some choppiness. Of course, that is a much higher bitrate than I'm guessing you'll be dealing with.

I also own an iMac and can say that the OS is really wierd at first and can be difficult to navigate, but once you learn the ropes, as with any OS, it gets very easy and managing your applications is a breeze.

 

[ArjSiv]

a G5 can handle most games pretty well and I believe there's an OSX version of WoW if it isn't already out yet.

As for CAD work I don't think there's an OSX port available quite yet. Most drafting work is still done on windows but I forsee a port being released within the next two years.

For anything on the creative side ( 3D/2D, video editing ), Macs have always lead the pack.

 

[wickedone]

Ok many thanks all, I felt that the guy at work was just saying that his G-4 Smoked every thing just becuase he had it and didnt want to admitthat is was not the best for all things like he said.
I will do a lot more looking into the G-5, If anything else I will make sure if I dont get a G-5 I will get somthing that is more Unix Based OS for a Second Operating system to work and paly around with, to be honest I dont have any issue's XP pro, It has seldom Crashed or me and when it did it was a software issue I think not the OS. Just tired of the security issues and Memory usage XP has.
Either way I think for sure I will get that 23 " Monitor that is one sweet looking Monitor and should be a huge upgrade over my 17 " Mag monitor.

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: sparkyclarky
While I love my Mac, I want to state a few things. First of all, if you are very serious about music programs, the Mac is quite limited in this regard, as iTunes has a stranglehold on the Mac music player market. While I don't mind iTunes, I do miss the audio options available on Windows (EAC, J-River Media Center, dbpoweramp, foobar, etc.).

I doubt you'll have much luck on the CAD front, as macs generally don't swing in that direction.

Gaming wise, you're sort of out of luck. While Macs have many of the top PC games available, the platform just isn't as good for games as windows, as the ports tend to not be all that polished performance wise, and unless you are prepared to shell out the dough for a serious upgrade, the default graphics options on even the powermacs are pretty anemic. The Mac will be OK for casual gaming, but if you plan on doing it somewhat seriously, you could easily build a $500 PC to go in conjunction with your Mac that will game much better.

The G5s are nice, but they are spendy to be sure.

Perhaps you may want to consider buying a mini (with a RAM upgrade of course) just to get a feel for the OS, its available apps, and the general workflow it offers. Then, if you decide its a keeper, sell the mini (you'll be out maybe 100-200 bucks at most) and upgrade to your dream machine. Sure, this way will cost a bit more in the end, but the cost will likely be less overall than if you got a dual G5 and ended up not enjoying the experience....

OS X is POSIX-compliant. That means that you can use xine, MPlayer, or most any other Linux media player, if you compile from source or if a pre-compiled version for OS X exists already.

I say this every time, but if game developers used OpenGL instead of Direct3D, ports will be much more polished and become profitable.

I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: bersl2
I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

You don't like Apple? Fine, but there's no reason to wish for its demise...

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2
I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

You don't like Apple? Fine, but there's no reason to wish for its demise...

???

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: bersl2

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2
I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

You don't like Apple? Fine, but there's no reason to wish for its demise...

???

Licensing out the hardware again would drive Apple to the brink of bankrupcy, again.

 

[bersl2]

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2
I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

You don't like Apple? Fine, but there's no reason to wish for its demise...

???

Licensing out the hardware again would drive Apple to the brink of bankrupcy, again.

Then let's consider it a wish, contrary to the facts.

 

[a7bats]

Well there's some CAD programs for Apple out there. Such as FreeCAD and Archicad. Also, I had some friends at SciArch who used Apple computers and some CAD program. I'm not exactly sure what's the name of the program. I'll probably ask soon.
You could also use Virtual PC on OS X to run PC programs.

Here's some links:

http://www.askoh.com/freecad

http://www.graphisoft.com/products/archicad/

http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products/virtualpc/virtualpc.aspx?pid=virtualpc

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: wickedone
Either way I think for sure I will get that 23 " Monitor that is one sweet looking Monitor and should be a huge upgrade over my 17 " Mag monitor.

Might I suggest the 24" Dell 2405FPW? (I think that's the right model number) I'm sure you can pick it up for less than the 23" Apple using some coupon in the hot deals thread.

 

[imported_Lucifer]

A CAD program I have heard was good is VectorWorks.

 

[daniel49]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007

Originally posted by: wickedone
Either way I think for sure I will get that 23 " Monitor that is one sweet looking Monitor and should be a huge upgrade over my 17 " Mag monitor.

Might I suggest the 24" Dell 2405FPW? (I think that's the right model number) I'm sure you can pick it up for less than the 23" Apple using some coupon in the hot deals thread.

just looked at that on dells site for just under 1200.00:Q

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: bersl2

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2

Originally posted by: n0cmonkey

Originally posted by: bersl2
I really wish Apple would allow other companies to make inexpensive PPC hardware that works with OS X. PPC is capable of so much more than it is currently being used for.

You don't like Apple? Fine, but there's no reason to wish for its demise...

???

Licensing out the hardware again would drive Apple to the brink of bankrupcy, again.

Then let's consider it a wish, contrary to the facts.

If you realy want a PowerPC computer outside of Apple's control. There are a couple people that make them..

Their's IBM OpenPOWER setups, runs Linux and costs around 5000 dollars for the low end model. Runs a POWER5 CPU and scsi disks and all that. I know that POWER is not quite the same as PowerPC.. but they are close enough. Same software will run on both, you'd have optimized kernels for one or the other though.

That's the high end.

Then on the low end there are The PegasOS boards. Work with a couple different OSes. Linux of course would be the most capable one.
http://www.ultraspec.us/pegasos.htm

The macmini is probably a better buy, unless you like building your own boxes and being able to add harddrives and such.

Some interesting things...
There is Power970 evaluation board for developing applications with.
http://www.970eval.com/

Maybe it will turn into a non-apple PPC worksation. Maybe not. Looks like they deal with mostly embedded stuff. http://www.momentum-cpu.com/prodselect/powerpc.html

Since it's not for commercial use it's a bit expensive though, $6000. There is a lesser version for 4500 though. Comes with full specs though on CD and online, I beleive... as in full specs for developing drivers and such if I am not mistaken.

Terrasoft sells these sorts of things and Apple desktops with their own Linux OS installed on them, yellowdog.
http://www.terrasoftsolutions.com/products/

Price wise it's not any better then Apple, but that's just how it goes.

edit:
Found this place that sells G4 and dual G5 setups. Even has OS X as optional, but completley different looking computers.
http://www.gvs9000.com/

No prices anywere though.

I have the suspicion that these are Apple setups in different cases though. Weird stuff.

 

[wickedone]

Ok thanks again for all the respones all, soory that I havnt returned any messages untill this morning but like I was saying I dont seem to have a lot of time now. Been working 40 hrs of ovetime a week scince the last week of Novmber/ geting my house ready to sale and buying one at the same time. I usaly check this site right after I get off work for a night shift and right before I return to work.

I did find a Store that only sales Apple PC's here in town once I get the chance I will go there and get a first hand look of there hardware. If I do buy one later, it will be the first of 8 pc's that I havent built my self.

 

[n0cmonkey]

Originally posted by: drag

Then on the low end there are The PegasOS boards. Work with a couple different OSes. Linux of course would be the most capable one.
http://www.ultraspec.us/pegasos.htm

With the way pegasos treated the OpenBSD developer, they won't get to see any of my money.