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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?"
MacWorld New York is RSN (17th), the current towers have (apparently) been EOL'd and this is floating around That's an Apple logic board (allegedly), it has DDR memory slots... it's a strange shape AND it's not an Xserve board.. you do the math :)
Wait until next week, when the Macworld Expo trade show begins. Next Tuesday is the Keynote address by the Apple CEO, that showmaster himself, Steve Jobs. It's possible that a new Power Mac G4 box will be announced then, which may influence your decision.
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.
Vos teneo officium eram periculosus ut vos recipero is.
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.