dual G4

[Noize Anomaly]

i am trying to see if getting a dual G4 powermac might solve my power problem until i save up for a dual G5. i can't seem to find anywhere that sells them though. i live in oshawa ontario. i have checked cpused, clickonmacs, macdoc and i found nothing.

do you guys think that a dual G4 powermac would outperform a g5 imac for audio production?

[Child of Cupertino]

I say go for the G5 iMac, if you don't need PCI slots:

http://www.barefeats.com/imacg5.html

[Tim]

if you can afford an iMac, I'd add a couple bucks and get a used dual say 1.8 or so. They're comin down in price.

[Child of Cupertino]

What he said :) Duallies rock!

[Noize Anomaly]

the trouble is, i am doing this so i can have something to use while i save for a dual g5, so i don't want to send the $2000 plus for the imac. the very most i want to spend on this system is $1500 after taxes. if i spend any more than that i will have to wait even longer and i cannot do that. i need something ASAP. I am a guitar teacher at a music school and unfortunately that means i get paid once a month. so even if i am 300 hundred dollars short i still have to wait an extra month. i'm just trying to figure out my options. what do you think?

p.s. why is it that i can find every single mac ever made for sale EXCEPT the dual g4?

[Tim]

I don't know when you figure on doing this, but I had considered selling my 17" 1.8 iMac to move it up to a tower.

[Noize Anomaly]

depending on how much you want for it, i could buy it as early as the first week of october. unfortunately summer is VERY slow in the music teaching business, plenty of time for wanton drunkeness of varying magnitudes. but in the fall things are booming again so i will quickly have the cash.

[Tim]

that'd be about when I'd want to as well. It's mint shape, lightly used, upgraded to 160 gig drive, and 1 gig of ram. It is still under warranty if you want to get applecare on it. (recommended)

[Noize Anomaly]

i would most certainly do that. name your price. don't worry, i'm not a ferengi.

[Child of Cupertino]

p.s. why is it that i can find every single mac ever made for sale EXCEPT the dual g4?

Probably because that's the type of Powermac that would stave off a G5 acquisition, whereas with a slower or single G4, the owner might want to sell it for a G5. But, you should be able to find some sub 1GHz duals out there (dual 867 would be the slowest I'd bother buying for music -- and load up on the RAM big time if you want to do virtual synthesis and sampling/FX. Even Garageband, with its use of virtual instruments and effects, will want lots of RAM if you get ambitious with it.

it's interesting to note that the G4 platform wasn't above 1GHz for very long before the G5 came. The first dual 1GHz was released 02/02, dual 1.25 on 08/02, the rare dual 1.42GHz monster on 02/03 -- which was killed only four months later, where single and dual 1.25Ghz systems rode out the remaining life-span of Apple's Pro G4 line. And the first G5 Powermacs hit the streets in mid-July. Despite this, Apple kept selling single G4 Powermacs for several months to continue offering Mac OS 9 bootability.

Have you checked at ehmac.ca for used gear?

[Tim]

yea see this?
http://www.ehmac.ca/classifieds/showproduct.php?product=3197

[Noize Anomaly]

how much would you want for your imac tim?

[Tim]

probably 1400, a new one is 1599 plus tax w/o the superdrive, and the 1 gig ram.

[Child of Cupertino]

That's a great deal :)

[Noize Anomaly]

that sounds fair to me. that machine would most definitely hold up to a lot of the stuff i will be throwing at it for recording. all of my plugins are eating my poor machine alive. like i said, i will be getting the money some time in the first week of october. so you have a deal if you want to sell it.

what city do you live in?

[Tim]

I am in toronto.

[Noize Anomaly]

ok that sounds good. like i said, i can't buy it until the first week of october (which is when i get my september check), so if you still want to sell it then, i can come pick it up.