OSX Performance

I am looking into buying a G4 desktop for myself (I would love a dual-G4 powermac... lots of performance for a relatively nice price). In particular, it looks like the dual 500Mhz450Mhz G4 PowerMacs (with 512MB+ of RAM, 40GB+ hard disk) have the best price/performance ratio (they are going for about $300-$350 on eBay... relative to the price of an eMachines with a Celeron).

My question is this: How well (or poorly) would this perform (if it will even be supported) Mac OSX 10.4? Also, I know that Macs have been said to not be the snappiest things in the world. I realize that this isn't true of things like the dual-core, dual-processor PowerMac G5's, but I'm wondering how true this would be on a system like the one above

#340141

Tiger pwnz. It runs well on my g4 iBook but I am considering a iMac for xmas....

#340147

i would suggest waiting on the mactels.

#340358

it is worth waiting for a mactel for college next year...or should I just buy a g4 powerbook now? Do you think the prices can go anywhere but down?

#340485

If you wait till January you can get a widescreen mactel iBook w/ iSight most likely.

#340494

Yeah, I could wait until the mactels come out, but I'm really on a very low budget here. I'd already be selling a spare box as it is (which functions as my all-in-one serverLinux playground). I don't think any of the mactels are going to hit $350 (especially a widescreen notebook with iSight ;-)).

Maybe by then, some people will decide to get rid of their quad G5's for insanely low prices?

/me hopes desperately so!

While I'm at it, I've got a few other questions (since most of the good deals on eBay need parts replaced)

• Do Macs require Apple-branded peripherals, (i.e. can I use PC stuff)
  
  • Hard Drives
    
  • RAM
    

  [*]Do the Apple monitor-tuning utilities work with non-Apple monitors?

  [*]I'm gonna have to buy an Airport Express card if I want WiFi, aren't I?

  [*]How much does hardware acceleration of the graphics effect OSX Tiger's responsiveness?

  [*]Is it easy to dual-boot with Apple machines (suppose I want to keep my server functionality)?

  [*]Do we know if the mactels will support PC components like video cards, or will we still be chained to the "Mac Version" of these peripherals?

  (The idea came to mind that, should I get a mactel desktop, I could still get a low-end one, and potentially dual-boot Windows to keep gaming functionality.)

#342530

Get as much RAM as you can and you should be good

Attempting to answer your questions:

1. You can use PC stuff. Just make sure that it meets Mac requirements - everything should be in your Mac's manual or at www.apple.com/support. And of course it's better to get branded stuff - Kingston or Geil memory, not some no-name.

2. I suppose so, not sure though.

3. A lot. OS X passes GUI generation to graphics card so the better GPU you have, the smoother it runs. Not to mention that there are specific technologies like Core Image which handles most of eyecandy - not all gfx cards support it.

4. I have no idea :$ But I know that it's definitely possible to run Linux (Linus Torvalds does that ).

5. We don't know that but we can presume that they will. At this moment Macs support PC peripherals - the only real problem is to make them 'talk', i.e. find proper drivers.

I suggest you to wait until the expo in January - maybe you'll find new iBook or Mac mini appealing and cheap enough?

#342647

Sweet deal, that answered all of the important questions :-D.

Yeah, I'm a big Geil fanboy, so that's what I would have used anyways :-P. Good to know about the graphics card stuff too, looks like I'll just end up waiting for the Mactels to come out, and see what they offer. This is going to be a long month.

#343320

• Do Macs require Apple-branded peripherals, (i.e. can I use PC stuff)
  
  • Hard Drives
    
  • RAM
    

  [*]Do the Apple monitor-tuning utilities work with non-Apple monitors?

  [*]I'm gonna have to buy an Airport Express card if I want WiFi, aren't I?

  [*]How much does hardware acceleration of the graphics effect OSX Tiger's responsiveness?

  [*]Is it easy to dual-boot with Apple machines (suppose I want to keep my server functionality)?

  [*]Do we know if the mactels will support PC components like video cards, or will we still be chained to the "Mac Version" of these peripherals?

  (The idea came to mind that, should I get a mactel desktop, I could still get a low-end one, and potentially dual-boot Windows to keep gaming functionality.)

1. No

3. Airport Extreme card; Airport Express is one of the apple base stations

#346376

You don't need to buy any extra components to use Wifi. All Macs, except the low end mini, have Airport Extreme buitin now adays

#346379

You don't need to buy any extra components to use Wifi. All Macs, except the low end mini, have Airport Extreme buitin now adays

Double true

#346433

Yes, what apple does is, first release a product that doesn't include crap, aka airport and bluetooth, then 6 months later they release the same machine with those included, to make everyone that purchased one feel like **** gotta love apple.

#346628

Upgrades are just for the stopgap updates when they can't pump out any processors...

Makes it look like Apple is moving forward, when really they don't have anything to offer. (Or in the case of iBooks, they don't want it to coincide with the PowerBook line)

#346757