G5 or Intel?

[Dan 7.1]

Intel. I'm not even sure why a G5 is still a consideration at this point. Unless you just really like the PPC platform, 2 internal HD limit, purchased obsolescence, and knifing yourself in the face, an Intel machines is the way to go.

 

[QuadSix50]

Intel. I'm not even sure why a G5 is still a consideration at this point. Unless you just really like the PPC platform, 2 internal HD limit, purchased obsolescence, and knifing yourself in the face, an Intel machines is the way to go.

Me thinks someone missed out on the subtlety seminar...

 

[Dan 7.1]

that may very well be, but G5's are still not cheap and considering how much more powerful even the first-gen 32bit Intels are (unless you plan on getting a last-generation G5, which are even more expensive), a used Intel Mac is just a more practical purchase at this point.

Now, if Classic support is a must and you don't mind being stuck with Tiger (which is a perfectly fine OS in its own right), then a G5 is obviously your best option.

But realistically what do you just have to run under classic that you cannot find a free or open source alternative which is OS X compatible for? The Apple software market is flooded with thousands of excellent free or shareware utilities which in many cases are better for some things than their counterparts from corporations (insert Linux fans).

 

[QuadSix50]

that may very well be, but G5's are still not cheap and considering how much more powerful even the first-gen 32bit Intels are (unless you plan on getting a last-generation G5, which are even more expensive), a used Intel Mac is just a more practical purchase at this point.
Now, if Classic support is a must and you don't mind being stuck with Tiger (which is a perfectly fine OS in its own right), then a G5 is obviously your best option.

But realistically what do you just have to run under classic that you cannot find a free or open source alternative which is OS X compatible for? The Apple software market is flooded with thousands of excellent free or shareware utilities which in many cases are better for some things than their counterparts from corporations (insert Linux fans).

I do agree with you. I was just making a funny at the time.

Still, even the first-gen Intel Mac Pros and iMacs tend to be quite pricey compared to the G5 Macs. But yes, if Classic is a must then a G5 would probably be best. Then again, a late-model G4 Power Mac would serve you just as well for a lot less, or just find yourself a classic Mac that can run Mac OS 9 and move to an Intel Mac. The cost of a G4 or earlier to run OS 9 shouldn't make a dent on the prospect of purchasing an Intel Mac.

 

[returningmacuser]

that may very well be, but G5's are still not cheap and considering how much more powerful even the first-gen 32bit Intels are (unless you plan on getting a last-generation G5, which are even more expensive), a used Intel Mac is just a more practical purchase at this point.
Now, if Classic support is a must and you don't mind being stuck with Tiger (which is a perfectly fine OS in its own right), then a G5 is obviously your best option.

But realistically what do you just have to run under classic that you cannot find a free or open source alternative which is OS X compatible for? The Apple software market is flooded with thousands of excellent free or shareware utilities which in many cases are better for some things than their counterparts from corporations (insert Linux fans).

I do agree with you. I was just making a funny at the time.

Still, even the first-gen Intel Mac Pros and iMacs tend to be quite pricey compared to the G5 Macs. But yes, if Classic is a must then a G5 would probably be best. Then again, a late-model G4 Power Mac would serve you just as well for a lot less, or just find yourself a classic Mac that can run Mac OS 9 and move to an Intel Mac. The cost of a G4 or earlier to run OS 9 shouldn't make a dent on the prospect of purchasing an Intel Mac.

Alternatively, you could install a CPU upgrade in an early model G4 like my Sawtooth (such as the MAXPower G4/7448), and get all the compatibility of the pure classic Mac OS at much faster speeds.

 

[Dan 7.1]

Except that only works if you already have a G4 Tower, and RedJack states he has a G4 Powerbook. The upgrades are also pretty pricey, so you're still looking at around $100-500 for the machine then another $100-400 for the ugprade, depending on which chip you get, and thats not including a larger HD, more RAM, better VGA...

Really its not as cost efficient as you might think unless you already own all of these things.

 

[Redjack]

I have a few old and reliable G3 and my G4 powerbook to help me with my Classic *fix* but honestly I've played around with Apple's new gear at their Store and it's so zippy compared to anything I have PC or Mac.

I just thought that I can get a cheaper system (on the used circuit) that is somewhat reliable for a few more years but it sounds like the G5's have a leaky cooling system problem that you can't predict. Plus Intels allow dual boot, and with today's newer systems, using Virtualization software is pretty reliable (even for games, but I'm not a big gamer). My only issue is mostly software compatibility with windows-only software (from work, certain statistics documents and such).

I've been drooling over the quad Core G5 towers that can be got relatively cheaply (compared to Xeon Mac Pro towers) but the benchmarks I've seen just goes to show that Intel+Leopard are a good pairing. Too bad they are way out of my price range, but I'm keeping my radars out for good deals. Thanks for the advice!

 

[Dan 7.1]

Well not all G5s are liquid cooled, basically if its clock speed is 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0, regardless of processor count, its air-cooled and thus has no chance of spontaneous combustion. All of the air-cooled G5's at my old place of business are still alive and kicking and performing their duties just fine.

Its just that you can get a used Intel mac for around the same price as a decent G5 and even the oldest Intels are still much faster than everything but the very fastest G5's. Case in point, according to the Geekbench 2 scores in MacTracker, the first-generation 1.83GHz MacBook Pro (thats the Yonah based model), is only slower than the Quad-G5, a machine that still goes for quite a bit on eBay. It even out-paces the dual 2.7 behemoth. And as I mentioned earlier, there is no guarantee that Apple will continue to support G5's, or the PPC platform at all, for very much longer. Steve is not a fan of looking backwards. It is definitely a shaft to people who have invested alot into their PPC machines, but as a potential buyer of a "new" machine it would be beneficial to just get the newer technology and avoid that mess.

There were also two different types of cooling units, one by Panasonic and one by...somebody else, i forget who, the one by Panasonic actually works brilliantly and has a much lower failure rate than the other. Everytime you hear about a G5 catching fire or leaking, its one of the earlier, crappier designs with the O-rings i mentioned earlier.

 

[trag]

Not even all the G4's could boot into OS9 directly, you just had classic support under OSX.

I think the last gen MDD were the non OS 9.

The Mirror Door Drive G4s spanned the boots-OS9/Doesn't-boot-OS9 transition.

If a MDD machine has a 800 Mbps Firewire port, then it will not boot OS9.

If a MDD machine lacks the 800 Mbps Firewire port then it will boot OS9.

However, getting the machines to run OS9 properly can be a challenge. There's a ROM file which needs to be in the system folder and if you don't have an original set of system disks it can be a pain getting things configured properly. If you do have an original set of disks, apparently it can still be a pain.

I have an MDD running Tiger 4.11 which will boot into OS9 but which won't run QuickTime for some reason. I can't remember if it crashes on boot if QT tries to load or if it just complains. I need to revisit it and fix things up.

 

[quinterro]

There were also two different types of cooling units, one by Panasonic and one by...somebody else, i forget who, the one by Panasonic actually works brilliantly and has a much lower failure rate than the other. Everytime you hear about a G5 catching fire or leaking, its one of the earlier, crappier designs with the O-rings i mentioned earlier.

I believe the other one is Delphi.

 

[Dan 7.1]

I believe the other one is Delphi.

yeah that sounds about right.