Seeking Power Mac Recommendations? 152
Pauly asks: "I'm going to do something I've never done: I'm buying a Mac. I'm a long-time UNIX developer and user for whom the prospect of trading a noisy, heat-spewing workstation or two in favor of a civilized Mac is irresistible. I'm quite used to making x86/*NIX hardware decisions. However, I'm finding myself stumped as I look at the G4/OS X options."
"As attractive as the (i|e)Macs are, I'm pretty certain I'll be getting a G4 tower to re-use my subtantial dual-monitor investment. Specifically, for my needs as a developer and power-user, I wonder:
- Are modern G4 towers quieter and/or cooler than comparable x86 workstations?
- Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
- Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
- What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
- Does OS X make SMP worth the investment?
- Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?"
cool! (Score:1)
Quieter: Not quieter, but they run w/o cpu fans (at least, the older ones did (g4-400)).
Memory!!! OS X really needs alot (1GB in my machine)
Tough to say - if you like having the machine under warranty, then spend the extra $ to get everything from apple. Getting the machine repaired can be expensive.
SMP - Yes, OS X plays nice w/ SMP. It's worth it.
In my experience, no. IDE's pretty quick nowadays, and entirely sufficient for home use.
Quieter (Score:1)
I have 2 867 single CPU machines under my desk at work and you can't hear them run.
I run 512 MB RAM on my TiBook and G3 desktop and thats a nice stable amount of RAM for OS X and OS 9 (or X and Classic).
Re:Quieter (Score:1)
Re:Quieter (Score:1)
1 G3 466 (Beige) Tower - Quieter than a comperable PC
1 G3 233 AIO - Loudish powersupply fan, quieter than a PC
1 iMac 333 Lime - That iMac fan sound, not too loud
1 iMac 400 DV - Quiet
1 G3 400 Powerbook - Quiet and hot
1 G4 550 Powerbook - Quiet
1 Athlon 1600 MHz in a Lian Li case - Louder
1 Twin 433 Celeron in a Antec case with extra case fans - Loud
1 G3 300 Tower Server with 2 80GB IDE and 2 8 GB Ultra SCSI drives - about as loud as a comperable PC case
2 867 G5 Quicksilvers - and I say they are quiet
3 New Compaqs with Zeons - Louder than hell.
All these are in different places I work each and everyday.
Maybe your "Quickhoover" has out of balance fans.
Re:Quieter (Score:1)
Re:Quieter (Score:1)
Talk about a slip.
G4 QS.
Sorry, it was hot and I was tired.
Some Answers (Score:5, Informative)
Heat and Noise
Granted my old PC was a monster with all those fans, but I've been shocked by how quite the G4 I bought for my wife is. The amount of heat is about the same, but I've found the cases to transfer the heat better than some of the PC cases I've owned in the past.
SMP Support
My god, I couldn't believe how well OS X handles this. I often just open the CPU monitor to watch the near perfect load balancing. I had a 400 MHz dual G4. Under OS 9, there were only a handful of applications that could even use both processors. Now, OS X takes care of that detail and it's like an instant speed boost.
Memory vs MHz
Even when I purchased PCs, I always took memory as a more critical upgrade that the small MHz difference that I could find. To this day, I have maxed out all of my machines with memory, even if it means passing up the next processor line. Memory is cheaper and still makes a difference in how fast applications will respond.
Good luck with the Mac upgrade.
Re:Some Answers (Score:2)
The lowest frequency Apple produced dual CPU G4s at was 450MHz, to my recollection.
Buying a PowerMac (Score:5, Informative)
I'd recommending just getting the minimum configuration you can with the processor speed you want. You can purchase aftermarket hard drives, memory and other components later for substantially less.
For what one family member does with his G4 the SMP support is extremely helpful in terms of raw performance, but you've got to look at your applications and see if they exploit SMP. If you're writing your own code you can obviously make it support SMP, but you didn't really say what you were doing.
IDE on Apple's seem to work a lot better by default than IDE on PCs. I screw around with digital video, my sisters G4/733 captures via firewire without dropping a frame on the internal IDE drive. In order to duplicate this on my Windows 2000 box I had to install a second drive on a seperate bus from the system drive.
That didn't answer your question of course, but I just thought I'd point out that the comparision might not be so cut and dry.
I'd advice getting an aftermarket SCSI card and drive if you do decide to go that way however, you can save some money over Apple's prices.
Re:Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
As far as I know, SMP support in OS X occurs at the kernel level. Sure, applications can make better use of SMP capability (if it's available) by being multithreaded, but the OS will balance the running processes between both processors automatically even if the currently running applications aren't multithreaded.
Re:Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
- PowerLogix [powerlogix.com] is now offering G4 update cards and such.
- Newer Technology [newertech.com] has recently been reincarnated... or at least transferred to new ownership. This is really promising, so please don't slashdot their site and put them out of business again
:-)
So, no, there aren't great options, but there are options.(yes, they are the people that were always 200Mhz ahead of Apple and had outstanding benchmarks as well, which is more important)
Re:Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
Re:Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
For what one family member does with his G4 the SMP support is extremely helpful in terms of raw performance, but you've got to look at your applications and see if they exploit SMP. If you're writing your own code you can obviously make it support SMP, but you didn't really say what you were doing.
I think you're confusing SMP with the AltiVec coprocessor. Apps have to be designed to use the AltiVec, not SMP.
Re:Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
A dual G4, or a dual anything, by it's very nature is SMP. SMP stands for symmetric multi-processing. Having more than one processor in a desktop machine generally means SMP.
And just for the record, both of those G4's have AltiVec as well. That's (afaik) an instruction set.
Some answers (Score:5, Informative)
Glad to hear you're making the switch! I have zero regrets and my life has become much simpler without the constant worry about my hardware & unix config. Good luck!
I'm a new user as well (Score:4, Informative)
2.)Spend money on Megahertz, and go for a G4. Macs don't lend themselves to cpu upgrades *as much* as some intel cpu's, so go with a clockspped you'll be happy with. As for memory, see #3.
3.)Look for the CPU and CD/DVD drive when shopping for a desktop. IDE drives are a breeze to add on to a new G4 desktop after the fact, and Apple's memory isn't very competitively prices. (Crucial memory works well for me). Apple's super-mega-loaded machines are nice, but go for what you need. The superdrives are awesome.
4.)Go for the Titanium GeForce card, as it has a ADC *and* DVI connector for nice dual flatpanel support. If you're doing VGA monitors, think about the GeForce4MX that has an ADC and VGA. It depends on what you are going to be doing, as 2 displays do require more resources on your card to operate well. As for Jaguar, I dunno. For Quartz extreme, any GeForce for the mac should be fine.
5.)I hear good things about duals, but my single 933mhz works great for Photoshop & Final Cut Pro.
6.)Unless it's a server/multiuser machine, IDE is a better all-around solution for you. Firewire external drives work great in OSX, and IDE's a re cheap
**Disclaimer**
Your Mileage May Vary, but I hope this helps.
Re:I'm a new user as well (Score:2)
Choosing a Mac in 3 easy steps (Score:2, Informative)
- Choose a style: tower, laptop, desktop (iMac)
- Choose a CPU speed: this is where cost can deviate the most
- Choose options: DVD recordable, type of display, etc.
I recommend generally not buying things like RAM directly from Apple, it's easy to add yourself. Mac OS X should have a minimum of 384MB of RAM, but hey it's cheap. I also would say save your money on SCSI. FireWire is the way to add external drives.Getting an SMP box is definately beneficial under Mac OS X, but a killer video card will buy you a lot more perceivable performance for everyday use. You probably should just plan on getting the video card directly from Apple with your machine.
All the other things like mice and stuff work so easily on Mac OS X. Anything USB or FireWire should most likely just work when you plug them in.
Answers (Score:5, Informative)
PowerMac towers tend to be quieter than x86 boxes. They also tend to be cooler. Design pays.
Memory trumps megahertz, in general, under MacOS X, especially with lots of GUI apps running.
I tend to buy from Apple, except for RAM, but upgrade later from third parties. Get the extended warranty; you probably won't need it but you'll be annoyed if you need it and don't have it.
I'm not really qualified to answer about the video cards, but I've got a couple of friends who have dual GeForce 4 cards and are happy with them.
The SMP support is fantastic!
Unless you are running a server, the SCSI drives are no longer a great deal better than IDE.
Extended Warranty (Score:2)
Remember if you buy on a credit card, the factory warranty is usually doubled. Ask your bank. I always skip the extended warranty and get a second year free on a platinum Mastercard; you can even extend further for less than Apple.
answers (Score:2)
SCSI? only if you have money to waste.
Questions about unreleased software? Ug, just don't ask.
Welll.... (Score:5, Informative)
I do believe so. I recall some seriously loud fans on my roommates computers, and my DP 800 isn't nearly that loud. But I haven't done a scientific comparison by any means.
Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
Depends on what you need it for. You will need at least 512 MB RAM. If you want super-fast processing, then spend the spare money on MHz, since it's tough to upgrade the macs for processor later. It's not so tricky with RAM.
Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
With RAM, not Apple for sure. Everything else in the computer itself, go with Apple. You can get plenty better prices with after-market RAM.
What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
I'll be getting the GeForce4 Ti with the new machines I'll be ordering. It has two monitor inputs, and will work with the Quartz Extreme acceleration.
Does OS X make SMP worth the investment?
Depends on how much your time is worth. 2 1 GHz Processors will be slower than 1 2 GHz processor, but it's still plenty fast in OS X. If you want speed, get the Dual Processors. They are certainly nice.
Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?
If you're not running a server, and you're not some anti-IDE frea...I mean, pro-SCSI evangelist, then no, don't bother with SCSI. for day to day use, IDE is well worth the price. SCSI is more reliable, and it has advantages in being full-duplex apparently, but I haven't run into any bottlenecks using it for my needs, which is print publishing.
Hope this helps
=Brian
Re:Welll.... (Score:2)
I would advise, however, to check prices on extra hard drives too. I seem to recall that Apple marks up RAM and Hard Drives equally (which is a ridiculous amount). I think you can get plenty better prices on hard drives, like a Maxtor Quiet drive (the ones with fluid bearings).
as the current owner of a g4-400 (Score:2)
if i was to buy a machine now, i would spec it with dual 1ghz's and the ati 8500. .
one word to the wise, make sure you allow you mac to go through all of its schedualed maintanance tasks regularly, i think their defaulted to weekly. i was shutting down my box every time i wasnt using it for about a month and i became sluggish. make sure you let it run overnight so the maintainance programs can do their job, they run at like 1 am or something like that. but youd probably do this anyways.
hope this helps
Re:as the current owner of a g4-400 (Score:2, Informative)
You can change the times that the scripts are run - just edit
Alternatively, go to http://www.nonamescriptware.com and get Cronathon which will do the job whenever you like. They have some other nice stuff there too.
Another app that you can use is MacJanitor:
http://personalpages.tds.net/~brian_
chang
Not ready for Server use (Score:2)
Re:Not ready for Server use (Score:1)
Re:Not ready for Server use (Score:2)
On the other hand, you could use a firewire tape drive, or a backup server.
New PowerMacs RSN! (Score:3, Interesting)
some answers.. (Score:1, Informative)
1. They are MUCH cooler than x86. if you open up a g4 while its running, and touch the heatsink, its not a single bit warm.
2. memory is so cheap that you shouldn't worry about it. MHZ and Memory aren't really comparable in money terms for a Mac. There is too big of a gap. I would spend what you think you can on the MHZ, and try to save for at least a stick of 512 to drop in there.
3.I'd say shop around, that goes for anything you buy, there really isn't anything you get special from buying from apple. If you are gonna pay cash, maybe try ebay,there are some good deals to be found there.
4. if you buy one of the CURRENT quicksilvers, ie 800, 933, dual 1ghz. You can buy an adapter from www.drbott.com for $35 that will convert the ADC video port on the video card to vga. I have done this and am using dual monitors on my G4, and the best part is that BOTH monitors are accelerated under jaguar. If i had gotten an add on pci card, only my main monitor would have been accelerated.
5. Os X completely takes advantage of dual CPUS. Developers do not have to write their apps to take advantage of SMP systems, like windows does. Every app under Os X will feel the dual cpus, from aol instant messanger to Adobe Photoshop to Quake III.
Let me know if you have any other questions. you can email me here [mailto]
BEFORE YOU BUY...! (Score:5, Interesting)
OTOH, the current line of hardware is still very robust (albeit lacking badly in system bus, if you ask me) and may be found at cheaper prices as any new hardware is made available.
Generally, the most savvy Macintosh users don't buy anything during the months before the January and July trade shows, but Apple also introduces new product outside of the trade show more often as well.
Re:BEFORE YOU BUY...! (Score:2)
I'm almost certain of it.
(see my post above)
Re:BEFORE YOU BUY...! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:BEFORE YOU BUY...! (Score:4, Informative)
the normal reps don't usually know about this -- you'll have to order through the developer's phone number.
enjoy
Developer discounts (Score:1)
More information on Apple's developer's program here [apple.com].
Re:BEFORE YOU BUY...! (Score:2)
You must have gotten the student-price ADC membership. The other ones are a bit more pricey.
http://developer.apple.com/membership/descripti
even more answers... (Score:1)
2) Think about what you want/need the system to do.
3) I find they are quite less noisy then say Athelon based systems. 1 fan (power) vs 6 (my dad's tower we built last week).
4) At least go dual, get as little RAM as you can from apple (same for HD if you desire more then base) and get it somewhere else. Remember once you have the mac you can replace virtually every part, yes even teh CPU.
5) If you can find some dealer that offers say no tax it can come out to be cheaper, always shop around.
6)Go for a GeForce 4 Ti with the dual head display, and you can get converters so you don't need to get new monitors.
7) SMP: YES YES YES!!! I have a dual 450, and it makes all the difference in the world.
8) As others have said IDE is fine unless your running a server or doing very heavy HD access stuff like pro video editing.
I hope this all made sense and was helpful, and welcome to the platform.
Slings and arrows of outrageous answers (Score:4, Informative)
I have a G4/833 Tower, as well as a Pentium IV 1.7 Ghz. The 1.7 is in a steel ATX supertower with a processor fan, two 4" smart fans, and a fan on the video card. It's noisy.
The G4 has an excellent enclosure for heat dissipation, and uses a processor heatsink and one 3" case fan. It produces the same percieved noise levels as the whitenoise from my external computer speakers when I crank them all the way up.
Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
It really depends on your application. I develop on my Mac, and I do some Photoshop work, as well. Memory is definitely an issue for me, and I have 512MB of memory. I use PC-133 SDRAM, which is thankfully very inexpensive. You have four slots to work with, and I'd recommend configuring at least 384 MB of RAM for mid-user applications. If you want to be a power-user, get a half-gig or more. And buy all of the processor power that you can afford. You won't be sorry.
Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
I like using the Apple Store for the "build-to-order" config options, just because it's handy. For things like RAM, unless you're taking advantage of some sort of promotional deal, get the RAM from a third party. Almost all RAM is lifetime-guaranteed, anyway. I really like getting into the G4 case. You just pull the latch, open the hood, and look around.
What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
Jaguar's not out yet, but I don't think it's gonna cause me to change my config. I use the GeForce 4 card that came with it along with a Radeon 8500 for my dual-head setup. It's actually probably a little bit of overkill, but everything works great.
Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?"
Not for my use, but a good friend of mine does a ton of video editing, and he swears by his SCSI-3 RAID. It's certainly noticeably faster, but it's also a lot of $$. I love the speed of my Mac, and I also like to avoid spending lots of $$ for frills. I'd say that if you're thinking of going SCSI-1, don't waste your time. Only SCSI-2 or -3 are going to make a noticeable difference over Ultra-ATA, IMHO.
Re:Slings and arrows of outrageous answers (Score:2)
Um..
SCSI-1 topped out at I think 5MB/s ?
(It's rather difficult to buy a SCSI-1 card for a powermac these days too)
Re:Slings and arrows of outrageous answers (Score:2)
This is also to say that a 15KRPM Ultra320 SCSI disk will happily work on a 15-year-old Mac, or an Amiga or Atari or IBM PC(tm) with some manner of SCSI interface, given only the correct adapters and termination.
It makes things fun.
Rackmounting Macs? (Score:2)
What's involved in rackmounting Mac hardware? Any real world, prior experience advice out there?
--
Evan
Re:Rackmounting Macs? (Score:2)
failing that, I do believe you can mount the standard towers (they take up 6u though)
failing that, it's beginning to look like the PowerMac will get a big revamp at the upcoming Macworld, so *shrug* nobody outside apple can answer your question WRT to the 'new' PowerMacs
Workstation XServe is too noisy.... (Score:2, Informative)
more info and experiences at this guys homepage [mac.com]
I've got one arriving next week, and from all reports, I'll be wanting to look into whacking it into my networking cabinet just to get it out of my room...
Not quite sure why Apple are marketing it as a workstation though....
Using Xserve as a rackmount workstation
Digital video professionals who are thinking of using Xserve as a rackmount workstation can get built-to-order units from the Apple Store.
Re:Workstation XServe is too noisy.... (Score:2)
the rackmount formfactor makes it PERFECT for a DAW (as it can sit in the rack with the effects hardware).. that clashes slightly with the apparent noise though?
exactly my point. (Score:1)
I've never heard how noisy one of the Marathon rackmounts ends up being either, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's noisier than a vanilla G4 is.
Better off getting those rackmout replacements for the G4 handles. Sure your box ends up taking up 6 rack units, but it would surely be quieter... though putting cds in and out could be a problem...
Re:Rackmounting Macs? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Rackmounting Macs? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Rackmounting Macs? (Score:2)
Get the cheapest one (Score:2, Insightful)
Anyway, the cheap ones have a better $ per MHz value: an 800MHz G4 goes for $1600 ($2/MHz). The 933MHz version goes for $2300 ($2.46/MHz).
Re:Get the cheapest one (Score:3, Informative)
It may not make enough of a difference, but it's something to consider. As always, there's BTO customization.
But please wait until MWNY.
As an Intel Linux / Mac OSX user... (Score:2)
YES. I have a high end AMD gaming system with a tweaked out case. Despite buying quality fans it is still very loud. The G4 towers are silent in comparison and the apple case still puts my PC case w/window to shame. The AMD system is probably a faster for windows only games, but that's a mute point, isn't it?
* Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
Memory. I think this has always been true. As a rule of thumb try and double the default memory that Apple packages with their hardware.
* Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
Unless you want to be dangerously grey market, stick with apple or its official retailers. They all have the same prices. Direct from apple gives you more customization options, while a trip to CompUSA may get you an extra scanner and instant gratification.
* What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
Don't know this one.. Maybe wait until it is released?
* Does OS X make SMP worth the investment?
Hardly anything makes SMP worth the investment for non-servers. The exception might be if you're doing lots of compiling, ripping, and video encoding. No one wants to admit it, but for many consumery applications (games, cheap software) SMP systems tend to expose more software and driver bugs that single CPU systems.
* Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?"
Not if you only have a single drive. I just spent a week with iozone and a 15K RPM SCSI Cheetah drive. Sure it's faster than 7200RPM IDE but not that much faster and it costs a ridiculous amount, and it runs so hot that you *know* you're going to have higher failure rates. Not worth it for a single internal drive. It's more worth it for RAID setups. Don't worry about SCSI on the G4 tower, however.. If you need a fast disk for video work just hook up an external one with Firewire.
NOOO!!! (Score:4, Informative)
Re:NOOO!!! (Score:1)
Re:NOOO!!! (Score:2)
If you are buying one of the new G4 iMacs (I know, the poster specifically excluded them), buy a 512MB upgrade as one chip and have Apple install it in the internal slot. Why? The internal slot for the G4 iMac is very close to being non-user serviceable. It can be done, but you have to have a lot of equipment to do it, and be comfortable with dealing with heat pipes, faraday cages and heat conducting paste, which has to be cleaned off and re-applied every time you access internals. Urgh. Having seen the service manual for the G4 iMac, I'm glad I got the 512MB installed by Apple.
The "external" slot for RAM and for an AirPort card are very easy to get to, however. Don't bother having Apple fill those. Of course, I did bother, which essentially made my iMac the most expensive model one could have purchased (until they raised the price $100). I did it for piece of mind, and I wanted to see if I could own a computer that I won't need or want to open. My other Macs are all used to my grimy claws poking around inside. I like fiddling, but I wanted to see just how low maintenance the iMac can be, for myself and for anyone who asks. So far (3.5 months), no worries. My tools are getting dusty.
Again, this only applies to the G4 iMac. Everything else is simple to upgrade yourself.
Re:NOOO!!! (Score:2)
Oh, foo. Forgot the hard drives. Right, right, max those out as well.
SMP on OS X (Score:4, Informative)
So, if you are not running SMP aware apps, but do regularly run processor intensive apps in the background then the dual processors are worth it if only because of lost productivity due to a nonresponsive GUI otherwise. On the other hand, if you only run processor intensive task while away from the machine then save yourself the money and wait (and pray) for a faster CPU.
Re:Does this fix the apache hole? (Score:1)
I'm curious...What benchmarks are you talking about exactly? And I do mean, exactly. From what I know, the overhead is not an issue at all. It sounds like you have a software or hardware problem unrelated to the actual machine itself. I am also a mathematician, and sigh, it is strange that Mathematica is not dual processor aware that I know of (Windows 2000 version at least). It would help a lot to do simulations on non-serialized/simultaneous systems of equations in Mathematica if it could divy the computations among the CPU's. There are SMP aware modules that you can use with Mathematica and the Mathematica kernel. I just sent Wolfram Research an email as I was typing this response about SMP awareness in Mathematica. I am switching to Macintosh OSX as soon as this fall comes around (I am hoping at least) or next spring for sure. And I have used Mathematica on Linux and I like it in that environment (much better than Windows 2000), so I am looking forward to it on Mac OSX. You can Mathematica in a parallel computing environment such as Mosix and others, so I don't see why Wolfram can't make Mathematica SMP aware. I am going to wait for their response. But, SMP on Mac OSX is not a problem.
Re:Does this fix the apache hole? (Score:1)
I believe I ran the spec95 benchmarks. The difference between a uniprocessor and a dual processor were only about 1-2% if I recall, so the overhead is small, but it exists. If you are really interested send me a note (mukasa@jeol.com) and I will run it again and send you the results.
I wouldn't call myself a mathematician, I just use Mathematica a lot. As I said I am running Mathematica on a dual G4 box and as far as I know none of the standard distribution is SMP aware. I suppose this is due to the difficulty of parallelizing the language since most machine specific behaviour is abstracted away. Otherwise it runs very well on the Mac. I mostly use it for symbolic calculations and numerical algorithm development so I don't make a lot of plots, but from the Mathematic on OS X presentation from Wolfram [wolfram.com] it seems there are some advantages to using Quartz for graphics.
Then again, I do believe there was a version of Mathematica for the Connection Machine that was SMP aware. Maybe they can dust it off and reincorporate it into the standard version.
how about laptops? (Score:1)
Re:how about laptops? (Score:2)
Re:Apple Laptop Keyboards Unsuitable for Unix User (Score:1)
Unix Development on OS X, what to buy... (Score:1)
Are you doing something brutal computationally? Or are you developing generic large programs? Generally, unless you really need an enormous amount of CPU power, or a huge amount of disk storage, an iMac or G4 PowerBook will be nearly as fast.
The iMac will buy you a small foot print. Mine has 768M of memory a SuperDrive and a 60G hard Disk. I'm still trying to put it to full use.
A G4 PowerBook will buy you portability. Recent models include DVI support so if you want that external monitor you can have it. In addition, you'll be able to cart your development environment with you!
All systems have FireWire and USB 1.x and will provide for plenty of expandability when it comes to storage and input peripherals.
A must buy for any new Mac will be a USB hub of some type, as those peripherals do tend to multiply quickly.
As for Memory vs. CPU, I'd always pick memory. As everyone else has already pointed out, all CPUs waiting for SWAP run at the same effective clock speed.
Wait a week (Score:2)
That's what I'm doing. I have the money budgeted, but I can't really stomach spending it on a dual 1.0ghz box that's still stuck on PC-133 SDRAM.
And the rule of thumb when buying from Apple is get as little as possible from the Apple store and buy the rest of the components elsewhere. Nowadays, that mostly means memory (cheaper from Crucial) and disk (cheaper from anywhere.)
'jfb
If you really want to know about CPUs.... (Score:5, Informative)
To summarize, he would say:
That said, before you do anything, WAIT. Wait until after MacWorld next week and wait until Jaguar is announced (it is supposed to ship in August, so it will probably be announced at MacWorld). Jaguar, with QuartzExtreme, will probably have a big impact on the card you want for dual monitor support.
From my experience, build to order your G4. Get the minimum RAM (single stick; if you have to choose between a 128 stick and a 256 stick you might want to go with the 256), minimum hard drive (optional, Apple isn't horrible and since you have to have one you might want to get one you'll keep) and get rid of things you don't need ($29 modem). RAM you can from Crucial or PriceWatch. Hard drive from PriceWatch or somewhere else. SuperDrives are nice.
Get the best CPU you can (see BadAndy's advice above). You don't really upgrade your CPU, so this is critical.
Don't get it from Apple, but do get RAM. It makes the biggest difference in OS X responsiveness. RAM is cheap, and while I am fine with 160MB in my iBook most of the time, I notice a difference on my slower home machine with 384MB. OS X's window server can basically use as much as you give it.
Hope that helps,
Nathan (n8_f@maccom)
A couple answers of my own (Score:4, Informative)
To explain my motives, I'm tired of incessantly admining/configuring/fighting the system at home. I have the money to pay Apple to do that for me now. I still advocate Linux on the desktop at work, but I don't get paid to tinker at home.
Actually, between the girl and I, we'll be doing all sorts of development (one of us always seems to be working from home). She'll be spanking the memory writing Java Swing code in JBuilder, and I'll be spanking the CPU's with computationally intense C++ financial modelling algorithms. I also plan on picking up Objective C along with making some GUI toys for XML authoring I've been tinkering with on Linux using QT.
Especially for her, screen real-estate is tantamount in importance (our current workstation uses dual 19" monitors). Therefore, I think I'll have to stick to a tower to power our current screen real-estate (and eventually a Studio Display) even though I would MUCH rather have the iMac -- I'm a staunch minimalist at heart.
That may be true, but I'm not necessarily good at one of them. Ok, either of them....
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:3, Insightful)
Because it may make more sense to have a fairly hefty tower + some terminal like device (iBook, iMac, eMac, etc), rather an end-all-be-all tower.
Meaning you take the iBook and log in as necessary to the tower (wireless natch!) to do your C++ compute intensive stuff while she gets the tower to do her JBuilder stuff.
Every tower comes with a dual head video card. The base card is a Radeon 7500 I believe, upwards to the GeForce4MX up to the GF4Ti. I don't think the Radeon will do you poorly at all.
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:1)
I like this idea. Hmm, those iBooks are pretty damn cool too...
I'm morphing into such a fan of Apple luxury hardware!
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:2)
It is only those who can't afford it who bitch about Macs vs PCs!
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:3, Funny)
Chuckle. Maybe you'd better keep away from "cocoa". Once you start using ObjC and InterfaceBuilder, it's REAL hard to go back...
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm paid to admin Win95/98/2k/NT/XP (and unix - sun/linux/irix) at work, and this is the exact reason I have a mac at home (and on my desk at work).
I spend enough time fixing other people's systems - I don't want to fix my own. I am provided with a Linux box at work.. but I bought my own iBook (soon to be powerbook G4
Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:1)
The thing with OS X is that it just works, which can be boring at times. I use a mac at work and home, but my situation is the opposite as I work in OS X at work and and stay up late tinkering at home in Linux (going back and forth to os x, depending on my mood). I use 2 monitors at work, and believe me, just plugging in the 2nd monitor and it working is a lot better than messing around with xinerama or other dual head hacks.
Oh yeah, to get your dream mac machine, you are always going to pay ~$3000 (Depending on what your dream is). It has been this way forever, so don't spend too much time looking for a bargain.
Have fun!!Re:A couple answers of my own (Score:1)
Tower... or TiBook? (Score:2)
Plug in a monitor, and you're dual-headed.
Plug in a USB keyboard & mouse, and you're feeling like a desktop.
The only downside to the TiBooks is that you don't get FANTASTIC airport reception, like the iBooks do...
enumerated answers (Score:3, Informative)
Shop around before you buy. With Apples current attitude toward industry standard parts, you can, generally, use all sorts of commodity, over-the-counter parts that are labled for PCs (NOTE: video cards don't follow this rule. Niether do modems. For most other types of cards you can either find Mac drivers online, or you can download programs from the manuacturers to flash that card's ROM for Mac use. It is best to do some research before you buy)
Best by what measure? The ATI 7500 is a nice enough card (I use a RADEON 7000 PCI at home in B&W G3) but I'd prefer an 8500. It's a shame that Apple doesn't offer it. OTOH, the NVidia card does sound very nice. I don't know, what are you planning to use the machine for? Most applications, IMO, don't benefit too much from SMP, and the premium kills and 'sweet spot' opportunity. Still, it depends on your application. On a server, sure, but not for most desktop applications. Besides, you can always add a third-party SCSI card at a later date.Overall, my advice is to buy a middle of the line machine, skimp on memory directly from Apple (upgrade though a third party), possibly skimp on the hard drive as well (upgrade through a third party), get the best optical drive and video card Apple offers (software support is vital for both, so get them from Apple), and everything else is a toss-up. Buying middle of the line saves you some money, which is good since this is your first Mac: if you discover you don't like Apple products (not that I think that's likely to happen) you won't feel so bad about the money you spent. Once you are comfortable with Apple hardware, you can decide home much (or little) you want to spend on your next machine.
In general, unless there are compelling reasons to go for the top of the line, buying middle of the line is a good policy. When your machine is, inevitably, made obsolete, you won't feel so bad, since you weren't cutting edge to begin with. With Macs, you have the added advantage of, generally, being able to upgrade the system (new CPU, memory, disks, etc.) without needing an entirely new motherboard, so the middle of the line system will last longer than similar systems on the PC side.
Re:enumerated answers (Score:2)
Thanks for the very informative post - it's certainly been worthwhile for me.
Just a quick question though - I'm looking into buying an iBook within the next two months or so. How would your stated reccomendations fit in with that? (apart from the obvious differences)
Re:enumerated answers (Score:2)
For laptops of all stripes, not just Apple products, I think it is better to get everything from one source. It is much more difficult to do third party upgrades on laptops than on desktop machines and the upgrades don't tend to be as competitively priced.
That said, the current crop of Apple laptops seem to use standard memory components (both the current iBooks and PowerBook G4s use standard SO-DIMMs) and the hard drives have been 2.5" IDE drives ever since 1996 or so, so you can probably upgrade either the memory or hard drive from third parties for a much better price than Apple would offer.
As for how easy it is to work on the Apple laptops: they have been much easier to deal with than most PC laptops ever since the days of the PB1400 (back in '96 or '97) when Apple stated putting all the upgradable components directly under the flip-out keyboard. Things are still a bit cramped, but you don't need to dismantle the entire machine just to add memory.
My favorite with the current iBook is the smaller 12" model, just because it is a bit more compact than the 14" model. The 12", however, doesn't have as long a battery life as the 14", so you need to decide which is more important to you, size of battery life.
If I were in the market, I'd get the bottom of the line iBook with minimum memory. Then I'd immediately add extra memory from a third-party, but I would wait on the hard drive upgrade until I really needed it.
In general, the trick with buying Apple products isn't how to get the lowest price at the outset, but how to minimize total expenditure over the life of the system. This tends to mean buying a system that just meets your current needs and then upgrading piecemeal over the next 3 to 5 years.
Apple machines tend to last much longer than their PC counterparts, not because they are better built (though some are) but because they are better designed for expansion: The maximum memory limits on Apple devices tend to be higher than similar PCs and you can often upgrade the CPU without requiring a complete motherboard swap. This means that my 7 year old PowerMac 8500 is still a decent machine, with 768MB of RAM (and still room to expand), a $200 G3 CPU upgrade, a RAGE-128 video card, and a couple of SCSI hard disks.
My switch to a PowerMac (Score:2, Informative)
Are modern G4 towers quieter and/or cooler than comparable x86 workstations?
My new machine is far quieter than my old machine, but far from silent. With the clocks going up on the G4, and the near-excessive nVidia offerings, cooling is becoming much more important. But, it has fewer fans than my old PC, and they're put in places where they actually do things.
Is it wiser to spend money on memory or megahertz?
Both. You can always get more memory later, and it will be worth it. MacOS X will eat your memory as fast as you can feed it, especially if you're doing anything video-related.
Is it best to buy everything directly from Apple, or just a minimum to be fleshed out with cheaper, after-market add-ons?
Mine came with the academic discount, so it would have been more expensive to get individual components. I'd say finding your own hard disks would be cheaper, and same with ram.
What's the best video option for dual-head on Jaguar?
GeForce4 Ti 4600. Ouch. I've never been motion sick from a 3d shooter until Apple mailed me that hog.
Does OS X make SMP worth the investment?
I think so. It's nice to be encoding a 10-gig MPEG4 and have no noticable slowdown in my other applications. Again, I think it depends on what you want to use the machine for.
Is the SCSI performance gain great enough to be worth the investment over IDE?"
I don't have SCSI, but the IDE drives have been just fine. Although I haven't looked into it myself, setting up a RAID with IDE drives is probably trivial, which could give a good performance boost on your disks.
My PowerMac is the most expensive machine I've ever burned my bank account on, but as I've had trouble-free operation and excessive performance, it's worth it. That whole BSD-ness behind the Apple makes my heart melt.
RAM Craziness (Score:2, Insightful)
Unless, of course, you get the RAM direct from Apple. No offense to them or anything, but they rip you off when it comes to RAM. Go to Crucial Technology [crucial.com] and get yourself just as much ram for half as much money.
Good Luck with the new machine!
Some points (Score:2, Insightful)
2) The G4 runs pretty cool.
3) Buy a dual system from Apple but skimp on the drive and ram. Add those from the many other places (http://www.dealmac.com) is a safe bet. A number of test have shown the Western Digital 120GB Special Edition drive to be way fast.
4) Max the Ram. It is cheap and worth it. Max it to 1.5 GB and never look back. My old 350Mhz G4 has 1.5 GB and still is pumping along.
5) Get a video card that suits your needs.
And most of all, welcome and enjoy the heck out of it.
BZ
"A general Mac purchasing guide" or "Some Tips" (Score:5, Informative)
Most of this was written to help a friend out, I've updated it to reflect the situation you've discribed. I've included a couple of URL's below that should help in your search for a good Mac for your purposes. It might be worth noting that when you're buying an Apple, it often is a better deal to get a refurbished model and purchase additional AppleCare service agreements. Any reputable dealer will have more information on this for you, if you ask.
Go for MHz over memory. Memory can be added later. Invest in MHz. Also, it seems to be more prudent to buy your memory separately from the computer, for the dealers often use memory to pad the profit margin. For instance, Apple's current rate for 512MB memory on the PowerMac G4 is $300, vs. $71 at a memory retailer. Same thing goes for hard disk drives, though the difference won't be as great, and depending on the model it may be less trouble to buy what they're offering than to do the upgrade yourself. For reference, I have recently found an 80GB 7200RPM drive with an 8MB Buffer for about $114. That's a large, fast drive that surpasses most OEM hardware...
One thing you may want to keep in mind is that Macworld New York is coming up at the end of the month, and Apple may be introducing new hardware, or updating current line-ups at that time. The signs are good, and point to some changes I've been anxiously awaiting for some time now. For instance, Apple recently introduced xServe, which is a rackmount server with a motherboard that uses DDR memory. This change in memory type is an advance that should have been made some time ago, and may percolate down to the non-server models at Macworld NY. If you must buy now, go with the xServe, 1GHz Dual processor: as a professional, it would not be a bad investment. As a home user, it probably isn't suited to your needs, so a tower would be a better choice, but that DDR sure looks yummy!
http://dealmac.com/ [dealmac.com]
Tips on hardware and software deals.
http://dealnn.com/ [dealnn.com]
Tips on hardware and software deals. Different though.
http://www.ramseeker.com/ [ramseeker.com]
Good memory prices, provides merchant reviews. Another deal-site, not a retailer.
http://www.powermax.com/ [powermax.com]
Reasonable retailer, offers new, used and refurbished. Does packages.
http://www.smalldog.com/ [smalldog.com]
http://www.smalldog.com/SmallDogPriceList.txt [smalldog.com]
Another reasonable retailer, offers new, used and refurbished. Does packages too. Second address is for the pricelist, gives a No BS rundown of the equipment they carry.
Now I've only listed a couple of places here, if you want more let me know. I think you'll notice that the big names (The Apple Store, MacMall, Etc.) aren't listed above, because I figured you could find those easily enough. If you want a list of big guys, email me. They have good deals too sometimes.
Oh, forgot to mention - Apple runs all kinds of rebates and promo's all the time so check their site out for the forms and such. And you don't always have to purchase directly from Apple to qualify, either.
I know I've not answered every specific question, but hopefully you haven't been too swamped with replies at this point and this will help with your purchase.
Good Luck!
PS: I bought an Power Mac G4 450 DP when they were first announced about two years ago, and still use it day-to-day for motion graphics, web development, video work, and fun. I've got 768MB RAM, and am running OS X v. 10.1.5, and my biggest bottleneck at this point is my hard disk drive speed. I will probably be investing in the drive I mentioned above: Western Digital model #WD800JB can be found on PriceWatch.com [pricewatch.com] by searching for "8mb 7200" and if you want the larger model (120GB) look for model #WD1200JB.
Re:"A general Mac purchasing guide" or "Some Tips" (Score:2)
I don't see yer email address here, so I'll just say here: Yes, please give up a brain dump of all this info you consider obvious. I'm still a neophyte in this realm and can use the head start.
noise/heat and SCSI (Score:3, Insightful)
My g4 tower runs cool enough so that i can keep it in the closet (with the door closed most of the time), which just about kills any noise. I'd say it's maybe a little quieter than a PC when it's out in the open.
In my last machine (g3), I had the IDE drive that came with it and a SCSI drive installed, and I didn't really notice a difference. Also, make sure you definitely need it before you go with the SCSI option. Some applications (Pro Tools, for instance) don't even support it.
Unless you run memory-intensive apps (like 3D ones) and you know you need it, I say get 256 RAM and spend the rest on processor speed. You can always buy more RAM later, and it'll just get cheaper. Not so with processor speed. I probably don't need to mention to get quality RAM. Newer (the company), for example.
No-Brainer (Score:1)
Definitely get the dual 1 GHz, which comes with 512 MB RAM (plenty, most likely). Plus, looks like you can get a $500 credit towards an Apple display (which are gorgeous things) with that machine right now. Really nice feature of the displays is that they only have one cable to the computer, supplies signal, power, and USB. Less clutter! I must say, all this talk is making me a tad jealous. Good luck to you.
power mac decision (Score:1)
Memory (Score:2)
Wait until next week for the new machines.
Max out your RAM by buying from a third party.
I recently installed a couple of sticks of RAM in my Mac. It literally took less than 2.5 minutes (150 seconds) between the time the disk stopped spinning to the time I pushed the power button to turn it back on. And I wasn't hurrying or being hasty.
One additional thing to buy... (Score:2)
1. Buy a better keyboard. The one with the G4's is slightly small and doesn't have good arrow keys. The Microsoft Office keyboard is pretty good, although the function keys are in groups of 3 instead of groups of 4 which makes me screw up a lot. Combine it with QuickKeys and you are in power user nirvana.
2. Buy a better mouse. Once again the Microsoft optical mouse is great. Unfortunately not enough programs on the Mac use the context menu in an intelligent fashion. (IMO) Still this is a very nice mouse and more and more applications support the scroll wheel. It'll still seem like a step down from Windows, but the Mac is more consistent than most Linux apps with regards to the mouse. (IMO) So you'll enjoy it.
Once I did these two things my enjoyment of OSX went up enormously. Some may slam me for picking Microsoft hardware. I don't know who they subcontract to for their stuff, but it is by far the best I've found. My favorite keyboard is still an old Northgate Omnikey keyboard I got off eBay. But unfortunately there's no old school PC Keyboard adapter -> USB. The MS Keyboard is probably my second favorite - minus those damn function keys.
I just did this (Score:3, Interesting)
Yes, it is quieter, but not silent. I just did what you are doing, and have a few complaints. I still love the Mac platform, but it's got some rough edges. I actually preferred OS 9 as a user because it's much crisper on the same hardware.
MHZ is most important The Mac GUI is inefficient, and everything happens with a fade or zoom. So it's slow by design as well as slow because it's a pig. A dual G4 1GHz makes for an acceptable GUI. My dual G4 500 is too slow - even typing is sluggish. I'm not kidding, it's really a problem.
The keyboard is odd Pet peeve: Home, End, Page Up and Page Down don't do what you expect - they are nearly useless.
Page Up and Page Down always move the scrollbar, not the cursor. And Home and End move to the beginning and end of the document, respectively. This is inexcusable in my opinion. Every time I hit end I lose my place!
The terminal window is broken so you'll want to find a new xterm right away - GLTerm is $10 shareware and seems to work pretty well
The ports tree is missing! I never realized how convenient it was until it was gone.
Apple gouges for Memory and everything else. When I bought mine, Crucial memory was HALF the price of Apple memory. Extra hard drives are also best purchased elsewhere. But stuff that requires drivers, like video cards and scsi cards is best bought from apple, or from a company that makes an apple specific version. Odd hardware on the PCI buss will make it impossible to put the Mac to sleep. (or worse, impossible to wake up.)
If you are thinking about running Virtual PC for any reason, the Dual G4 1GHz is a must - and you should probably wait a month or two for the speed bump.
SMP is flawless of couse single threaded programs will only take advantage of 1 CPU
SCSI is worth it although you might want to consider the $400 adaptec 160 SCSI card (specifically for macintosh) and a $250 36G Ultra 160 hard drive, as a way to both save a few hundred bucks and to get that nice quiet drive you really want.
Think different This is not a PC. You want to spend more than you normally would because it's not upgradeable and because you will keep it longer than you have ever kept a PC. Get something that works for you now and you will still be using it in 3 years.
Re:I just did this (Score:2)
Re:I just did this (Score:2)
It's no worse than dealing with UNIX keyboard weirdness. Under the Mac, if you want to go to the end of the line, hit Command-(Right). For the beginning, hit Command-(Left). Using the Command key with the Up and Down arrows will move your cursor to the beginning or end of the document. Similarly, if you want a cursor that moves as you page up and down, using the Option key with the Up and Down arrow keys will do the job in many applications. (However, in others, it will move by paragraph.) Using the Option key with the Left and Right arrow keys will almost always move word-by-word.
Basically, the arrows keys on the Mac are for moving the text cursor, and the Home/End/Page Up/Page Down keys are for looking around the text without moving the cursor (which needs no side-to-side equivalent). It's a logical layout. It's just different from the Windows world.
Re:I just did this (Score:2)
If you do happen to lose your place then the easiest way to find where the cursor is to simply hit an arrow key. When the cursor is moved with the arrow key the window will snap back to where the cursor is in order to show the movement.
I'm not sure exactly what is broken with the terminal window, as it seems to work just fine to me. If you are having some sort of problem with it then another recommendation is to install OroborOSX [ic.ac.uk], a X-window server and theme all packaged in one. It makes your xwindow applications running under it look and act almost exactly like MacOS X applications. Not only that but it comes with a version of xterm which seems to work perfectly.
A great utility which does a lot of what the ports tree does is Fink [sourceforge.net]. Fink contains tons of useful programs such as GIMP, Gnome, kde, etc and it will grab and install either pre-compiled binaries or you can have it compile from source.
Where to by and what to look for (Score:1, Flamebait)
I've been purchasing Macs for our small company for years. Here are a few tips for getting the most bang for your buck...
First off I'd like to say that you'll probably be happiest with a tower. Anyone who likes to tinker with hardware should get a G4 tower. iMacs are great little boxes, but they don't leave much room to play around.
Processor speed increases happen slower in the Mac world than PC, so your not as prone to be left behind if you go with a slower processor. While the higher end models end up costing close to twice the lowest end (like 200mhz is worth it?)... that math for buying a higher end model never paned out for me (unless you have a lot of $$ to burn).
I usually go to the Apple site to see what the current line up has to offer. Then I call around the catalog resellers (free memory is good) to see what they have available. Quite often they have a model just below the low end (considered hot a few months ago) for a substaintial discount. Or the same things listed on the Apple site, but at better prices... it's rare I can't find a better deal with a catalog reseller. Here are a few companies to look up:
ClubMac
MacWarehouse
MacMall
Other World Computing (OWC)
CRW
PS these guys usually don't have they're best deals listed on their websites.
Good Luck
mostly the best you can afford (Score:1)
Probably Macs are quieter than cheap PCs. If you have a reasonable quiet PC, there will likely be no difference.
Memory vs. Megahertz.
Macs have a problem will speed in OS X. I do not know if this is going to be fixed. On my 256K 550 MHz PowerBook, with a HD more than 1/2 full, Mac OS X is slow. If you are buying a tower, I wouldn't worry about the installed memory. You will probably just add 512K chips to it as time goes on. It looks like there are three free slots, each supporting 512K, for a total of 1.5G. Apple generally charges too much for memory, so it can add later.
In terms of speed, go and play with the machines to see what seems reasonable. If you are going to spend a lot of time at the command line and Emac, you will not need a lot of speed. If you are going to spend at lot of time dealing with graphics, buy as much speed as you can afford. If I were buying a machine, and had the cash, I would get the 933MHZ PPC G4 at $2.3K.
The Apple vs. Retail Store thing
I have bought from both. The retail outlets do not get the latest stuff very quickly, nor are they immediately responsive to price changes. The retail chains also are not able to customize the systems as cheaply as Apple, although this is not such an issue with a tower. I would look at the local retailers and compare their stock to the online stock. If you can find something locally, go ahead and buy it. I will save the week shipping. If you do not like to shop, just order online. They are fast and courteous.
The best video.
I don't know.
OS X and SMP
I don't know.
SCSI and IDE.
I have always been a SCSI person. I have quite a number of SCSI devices from when Apple actually supported the adapter. I added a SCSI card to my G4, it was made to work with the G4. However, the card is not 100% compatable with the G4, and often interferes with my G$ sleep mode, and even, on occasion, makes the mouse go away on wake up.
So, if you are going to SCSI, make sure the card you use works very well. I do not believe that Apple is committed to SCSI. For example, the CDRW and harddisk they sell are Firewire, USB, IDE, but no SCSI.
not quiet! (Score:2, Informative)
The G4/733, as all the other Quicksilver macs, has two big fans (three actually, but the third is quite small and doesn't make a lot of noice), one for the PSU and one for the slots. Since the cooling for the CPU on that model is the same as the cooling for the dual 1GHz model, it's possible to disconnect the slot fan and almost reduce the noice level bu half. But that's only if you have ONE harddrive and no other expansion cards but the gfx-adapter.
It worked for me but your milage may vary. I'm a happy iBook owner now since my mac is quiet, small and portable.
Buying a PowerMac (Score:1)
I tend to agree with most of the replies about processor and RAM so I won't add anything more there, and I don't know enough about SMP to reply intelligently. SO I won't.
There are plenty of good apps out there for the Mac to run under OS X including Photoshop for the artists out there, and Mac Office X is great. The only thing I hope for is a version of Outlook for OS X.
I have found plenty of good tools as well such as the normal DNS suite - finger, ping, whois, etc. - much of them included with OS X itself. I have VPN and VNC apps as well.
All in all a great upgrade and I hope you enjoy your new purchase.
A Few Additions (Score:2)
First, I don't recommend buying directly from Apple, either in a store or online. Buy from a mail order dealer that does not operate in your state. Apple charges sales tax wherever you are; some mail order catalogs (depending on your location) do not. Call and ask. You'll save a nice chunk of change by not paying sales tax. When I bought a Titanium PowerBook in December, I spent the tax I saved on getting a gig of RAM. The sales tax would have been $247 here in New York City; minus shipping, that still put me about $200 in the clear. The RAM cost exactly $300. Plus, I sold the two 256MB chips it came with to a friend and came out better than even.
Second, while I do agree that your life will be more trouble-free in general when using a Mac for your work, the BSD layer is still BSD. Apple hasn't done much to simplify it, if anything, and they've certainly made a few changes that might take some getting used to. Be careful when installing the GNU ports for Darwin: they'll fuck you up if you're innattentive because they like to replace or move Apple-installed bits.
Third, I'd second the OroborOSX recommendation. Too sweet have it sitting there in the dock, running the GIMP and Xterm and Abiword and what all, with no extra window clutter of the other window managers and themes for XWindows. It's faster running in rootless mode, too, running strictly in XWindows.
L3 Cache (Score:2)
Don't buy RAM from Apple; it's way overpriced (like double). A local Mac dealer will sell you RAM for a fair price. You can probably get a better price from other (non-Mac) dealers, but you have to pay attention to what you're buying, rather than saying "QuickSilver. Gimmie RAM." The stock configs come with 256 MB which is comfortable, but an extra 512 MB from a local dealer doesn't cost much if you want to add it in.
Go for megahertz!!! The baseline machines (800 MHz) do NOT have an L3 cache. This is a huge deal, because the G4s they're using only have 256 K on-chip (1:1 speed) L2 cache. That's tiny for a RISC architecture. The other G4s have 2 MB L3 caches, which is a huge gain. I remember an Apple hardware guy (I was at MWNY when the QuickSilvers were released) saying that a G4 with 2 MB of L3 cache can encode MPEG-2 entirely in cache RAM. Apple even boasts the effectiveness on their main PowerMac [apple.com] page.
That said, the original G4/733 (first Superdrive) had 1 MB L3 cache. The next G4/733 (QuickSilver low-end) had none. The QuickSilver may have been a lot cheaper, but a lot slower too :P
At this point, you've missed most of the promotions the Apple Store has had (cash back on G4s and discounted display bundles; Firefly hard drives for free), as they expired at the beginning of this month. You may as well wait until Macworld, and get the old stock at blow-out prices if they do announce anything new.
If you really want speed (and feel the need to geek-out), go for an Xserve. They have the fastest hardware available (such as memory design; DDR ram, whereas the current G4s only have DDR L3 caches). The downside is expandability (# of expansion cards you can shove in the box). Mount it under your desk :)
Re:why (Score:1)
Re:Remember to buy the Development Kit (Score:1)
Mod Flamebait (Score:2)
Re:Let's all buy fucking Macs, then. (Score:2)
Oh, wait, they haven't done any of that, have they?