Technology apple g5 imac

[epalantequevoy]

ok i got a question/problem.

my school made me get a dell and i absolutely hate it. it takes 15 seconds to open any window (including the windows explorer things), and i'm positive that it doesn't have a virus or anything on it, because they reimaged the entire system yesterday. it's still just as bad as it was before, if not worse. and the system is a 1.6ghz pentium m in a dell latitude d610 with a 30gb hard drive and 1 gig of ram. should be pretty decent, right?

anyway, i'm fed up and am thinking about buying a mac. i was thinking about getting the basic ibook or powerbook (both 12 inch), but i just recently thought about getting a desktop since i already have this stupid dell laptop. my computing time is probably about 50/50 school/home, with perhaps a very slight bias towards computing at home.

so i'm wondering, and i did a search already, is there anything particularly good or bad about the basic g5 imac. it is better than the ibook, cheaper and better than the powerbook, but not portable. thoughts?

and should i wait until the new intel processors come out, or will the g5 be fine for the next 4 years?

thanks.

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[Iwy Em Hotep]

It is significantly faster than any Mac portable and will likely last you for the next four years, depending on your needs.

 

[southerndoc]

Do you absolutely need it now, or can you wait 6-9 months and get an Intel-based iMac? They will be faster.

However, you can always use the argument of waiting 2 years just to get one that's even faster. The G5's will still be supported even when Macs switch to Intel chips. It's the basis of the operating system that will allow this. Neat, huh?

I LOVE my iMac G5. It's fast, videochats easily with iChat and iSight, and never crashes.

Some problems with the iMacs:

1. No bass in the speakers. I ended up getting add-on speakers.
2. Capacitors leaking. This seems to be a hit or miss thing, and has been corrected (so I've heard) in the latest versions of the iMac.
3. Fan noise. Not the quietest machine, but not the loudest either. Quieter than my homebuilt PC, but not completely silent.

 

[data]

Do you absolutely need it now, or can you wait 6-9 months and get an Intel-based iMac? They will be faster.

However, you can always use the argument of waiting 2 years just to get one that's even faster. The G5's will still be supported even when Macs switch to Intel chips. It's the basis of the operating system that will allow this. Neat, huh?

I LOVE my iMac G5. It's fast, videochats easily with iChat and iSight, and never crashes.

Some problems with the iMacs:

1. No bass in the speakers. I ended up getting add-on speakers.
2. Capacitors leaking. This seems to be a hit or miss thing, and has been corrected (so I've heard) in the latest versions of the iMac.
3. Fan noise. Not the quietest machine, but not the loudest either. Quieter than my homebuilt PC, but not completely silent.

Don't buy the first model of imac with the intel chips. I don't trust it. And for sure its going to have problems. Don't get an apple its too expensive. They jip you on the useless accessories that you don't need and can get free with PC laptops/computers. If you are going to purchase an intel chip wait at least 1.5 years till the next update comes out then purchase it. Mind you that if intel chips doesn't crash.

 

[notJERRYFALWELL]

I like my iMac a lot. I've had it for over six months. The fan isn't as bad for me; It is completely silent unless I leave it awake for a few days. Then the fan gets really angry and loud, but remembering to put it to sleep at night has eliminated that problem. Its MUCH quieter than my previous iMac.

The machine is pretty powerful. My specs are modest, but I haven't had any problems. I haven't upgraded to tiger on this machine yet. I don't think that it gets loud enough because of the placement of the speakers, but I haven't felt the need to get external speakers.

iChat is awesome. And I've given up hope waiting for mac upgrades for the other messengers, but iChat is 100x better anyway, especially with iSight. What would be really cool is if they made iChat into something like Trillian, where you can communicate beyond .mac and AIM. Maybe they've done this for Tiger?

 

[southerndoc]

No, iChat still uses the AIM servers. So it's not compatible with other messenger systems (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.).

Tiger is awesome. The spotlight feature is incredible. I never thought I would use it, but I use it at least a few times per week. It's great when you have a lot of PDF's. I have nearly 500 journal articles in PDF format on my hard disk. Spotlight indexes the full-text of the PDF's. If I type in something in the spotlight menu that I want to find, Spotlight will show me the most relevant emails, pictures, PDF's, etc. Words cannot describe how powerful and seamless this technology is!

 

[mustangsally65]

Just to put things in perspective, I have a 1999 iMac (Blueberry) that I got when I started undergrad. I can still use it to surf the internet or type papers etc.

I have upgraded to an iBook, then to a PowerBook, but sometimes you just want to use a desktop. My iMac has the 400 MHz G3 processor, with a 10 gig hard drive and 256 RAM. It is still fast enough for me to do a lot of things on it, but I don't have a music library or anything on it, and sometimes I just have ot use the G4 PowerBook. 😉

But anyway, I think a G5 is fine for anybody. It can handle the movie production applications, and everyday applications you will be using for school.

I can't wait to upgrade to Tiger myself. I tried it out on my sister's computer this week, and I love it.

 

[data]

It is too slow. Go into an apple store and play around with it. You will then see how "fast" people keep saying that it is. I find pcs faster than the G5s. Even my own 733mhz seems faster. lol

 

[sunny123]

No, iChat still uses the AIM servers. So it's not compatible with other messenger systems (MSN, Yahoo, Google, etc.).

Tiger is awesome. The spotlight feature is incredible. I never thought I would use it, but I use it at least a few times per week. It's great when you have a lot of PDF's. I have nearly 500 journal articles in PDF format on my hard disk. Spotlight indexes the full-text of the PDF's. If I type in something in the spotlight menu that I want to find, Spotlight will show me the most relevant emails, pictures, PDF's, etc. Words cannot describe how powerful and seamless this technology is!

Here we go again... Let those flags start waving proudly

 

[southerndoc]

Here we go again... Let those flags start waving proudly

I forgot Windows also offered Spotlight-like features.

 

[vixenell]

The new iMac G5 has iSight built in!!! As well as a remote.

 

[southerndoc]

The new iMac G5 has iSight built in!!! As well as a remote.

Yep, and PCI Express graphics as well.

Should be a nice machine.

Still not dumping my current iMac. I love it. When the Intel chips come out, I'll reassess.