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Seeking Power Mac Recommendations?
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?"
Another question then; will this be a 'one user at a time' machine?
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.
GPL Deconstructed
just wanted to add:
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.
c-hack.com |
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.
:D) and use that instead. It can do basically anything the Linux box can (that I would need), and it runs commercial apps.
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