best mac to replace G4 933

[freescotland]

My wife is wanting to replace her G4 933 and I am looking for advice for the most mac under $1,000

She uses it almost exclusively for Indesign CS2 and Illustrator work with a little light photoshop and the basic email stuff. She does not run video or play games or things of that nature.

I was looking at some of the refurb imacs at apple store which seem to fall in my price range. We would want superdrive and I guess will add ram to get it to at least a gig.

The refurb mac minis look interesting but I understand it is not easy to add ram to these machines. Is that right?

I've seen a few used G5 1.6 in that price range as well. Any advice on these machines? I suppose I should stick with the Intels since everything is headed that way.

[tahoedrew]

If she's going to stick with CS2 for a while, I'd say go with a G5 (tower - if you're talking iMac then I think you're better off with a refurb intel iMac). CS2 will run a little quicker on the G5 with less RAM (again, if you go intel, you should get any machine to 2GB of RAM).

If your wife thinks she'll adopt CS3 when it comes out, then definitely go towards the intel machines.

~A

[clay]

Go with an intel imac--get the version with the biggest screen you can afford. Give it as much ram as you can afford, and you will be very happy.

I have a 1st gen 20" imac, and it's the best computer I've ever owned. I have 2 gb RAM and the 256 MB VRAM, and it's great. My boss just got a 24" imac, and that thing is a real work of art. These computers are such a great value for the price, and you can't really go wrong with any of the models.

All that being said, I wouldn't go any smaller than the 20", and also highly recommend hooking up a second monitor with the $20 apple adapter. I have a crappy 15" LCD hooked up as my second monitor, and it's so handy.

good luck, and please ask if you have any questions.

[jdc]

you cant go wrong with the imac -- unless she already has a great screen

if you dont got the imac route, wait for the mini to a core 2 duo chip -- i would be it also starts to get 1 gig of memory standard too like the macbook. you can always have an apple store install the ram for you, i think its a $25 charge, not much.

regardless of the CS2 vs CS3, the CS2 apps are all a lot faster in 10.4.8, speeds are equal to dual G5s, which is already waaaay past her 933

later if she does decide to upgrade to CS3 she will have a mac that takes full advantage of it, rather than a G5 that doesnt...

also dont forget that amazon has $75 rebates on imacs and doesnt charge tax or shipping to many states

[Mr645]

I would go for an Intel iMac. There are expandability limits but the Core2Duo is a powerful set up. The 2.16 iMac w/ C2D can keep up with a dual 2.5 G5 for about everything, but once you add CS3, it outpaces the dual G5 tower by about 25%

[OWC Larry]

You know - for $260 you could make that a 1.467GHz G4 or for $400 make it a Dual 1.6GHz G4.

Your current software is PPC optimized, you'll have to buy upgrades in the future when the Intel/PPC Univ Bins come out with Intel optimized code.

In the meantime - if a simple processor upgrade will get her some time extended on the current Mac - that money spent will come back to you in terms of:

A> Faster Intel Mac for the same money in 3 months, 6 months from now.

B> Significant savings on the same speed Intel Mac several months down the road when it's no longer the top offering.

And - by the time you would buy that new Mac - software will native for the Intel that you use and would benefit from said software upgrades.