with my two emacs and a possible g4 imac flower power coming in the near future, i was wondering if the g4 platform is simply out of date or totally outdated. the difference in terms is one is functional while the other is not.

if u are working on a g4 machine do u feel your machine is functional?

are u planning/hoping in the near future (w/in 6 months) to move away from the g4?

if so, would u buy a g5 platform machine or move right to the intel machines?

my kids and i use the emacs for the web, word processing, powerpoint, iphoto, itunes and some light excel spreadsheets. on one of the emacs (1.42/superdrive), i have cut video using imovie06 and burned the efforts to idvd for use by a client!

just wondering how others are thinking about the g4s.

thanks in advance for any and all insights

be well

rob

i had an old Powerbook G4 500mhz that I gave to my girlfriend. She has some money coming in and was thinking about buying her own laptop. We went to the apple store and i had her poke at a MacBook. She wasn't impressed.

You and I know that a MacBook runs circles around an old G4. Still, many basic tasks aren't going to show a speed difference.

When it comes to the basics, I expect that the G4 machines have a few more years in them.

---

I have an MDD 867 G4 that is absolutely fine for everything I do except that iTunes can be a bit sluggish (but I have about 250 GB of mp3s).

I *do* want to upgrade, but not really because of performance issues.

---

[www.zeemaps.com]

I still have G4s in use. I have one upstairs that a friend uses, plus my mom uses a G4 and there's another G4 a friend of mine uses. They're adequate for their needs.

I have a G4 that I personally use, but it's only for testing purposes (video cards) and the occasional hotline usage. It is just fast enough to run some decent video testing on the cards I modify for other G4 users.


Personally, I wouldn't be able to go back to a G4. I certainly wouldn't do it without 2GB RAM. Of course, that may have something to do with my being spoiled on a dual 1.8 G5 with 4 GB RAM.


BTW: Flower Power iMacs are G3s at 600 or 700 Mhz. (unless you got one of the die-swap upgrades on it).

MDD 867 dual, still truckin'
G4 Powerbook 15 / 1.0 still fine.


Want a c2d mini for the office.

I don't do any processor intensive work any more. My G4 is just a utility player--email, web, word processing, taxes and some spreadsheets. It is more than adequate for these tasks and probably will continue to be for at least a year or two. The same type of tasks on my daughter's MacBook and my "state of the art" Wintel at work really show no noticible difference. I plan to upgrade straight to an Macintel in the future--probably an iMac unless Apple creates a consumer minitower or a more user accessible Mac mini.

Duallie G4 1.25 dual boot machine with 1.75 gigs of RAM, 4 hard drives a Superdrive and a 52x CD burner. All inside one machine. Pretty damn zippy even by todays standards unless you are doing a long video compression or something.

And a B&W G4/550 with a gig o RAM and 3 drives (as a back-up to the duallie G4)

I'm doing fine with my MDD Dual 1.0Ghz with ATI 9600 Pro.

My current laptop is an iBook 900 MHz *G3* and it still does fine for the basic stuff I need it for... web, email and some Filemaker and word processing.

I think the trick with G4 is to have either dual processors or at the very least a good video card. Either of those will go a long way towards making them bearable when compared to the much faster current offereings.

Oh yeah... and lots of RAM Got 2 GB in my MDD.

I would love a new Mac, but my current one doesn't slow me down enough to make it worth the switch (yet!).

I may get a mini just to have an Intel CPU in the stable, since I will need to develop support disks to use with clients that are already on them.

Or a nice macBook... Hmm... that would be good. Wish that damn iBook would finally die for good.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2007 02:19PM by Jem.

G4's still work fine. our G5 is definitely peppier, but for most stuff the faster G4's "feel" adequate, while the slower G4's and G3's definitely "feel" sluggish these days. for new stuff, go intel, but maybe you can trade the emacs/imac towards a G5 and then pick up an intel if you're jones'n for speed, but frankly, kids and emacs are a good match.

---

Sometimes it is what it is...
and then there's times when it's really better.



==

I have an 867mhz G4 tower with 120GB HD, and 1.25G RAM.

I'm running MS Office 2004, iLife apps, and even Virtual PC, along with browsers, Appleworks, etc., and I am very satisfied in terms of using one app at a time. Especially when I'm running VPC, using other applications occasionally causes some slowness..

Very, very usable. Not quick, but very usable.

The problem is that one of these machines will cost you about $250, at a minimum, in good shape. That puts you nearly half-way to a refurbed Intel Mac Mini, which is a much faster machine. Unless you've got to have PCI slots, or high-end video, or $250 is all you can afford, the Mini is a much better value, IMHO.

I'm using a 1.5GHz G4 PB with 1.5GB of RAM. I don't see a noticeable difference in performance between it and my 2.0 GHz Intel iMac. I'm far from being a power user, but the PB runs Photoshop, In-Design, and all my other appsjust fine. If my PS CS was built for the Intel machines, I might notice a difference, but currently I don't.

I haven't upgraded the PB to Tiger yet (because I'm too cheap to buy it!), but, assuming it'll run Leopard, I plan to keep it for quite a while yet. The only thing about it that seems dated is the OS, and I have full control over that for the time being. I haven't been staying current with the rumors about specs for Leopard, so I might find I'm stuck on Tiger for a while. That wouldn't be the end of the world as far as I'm concerned.

My wife currently uses a PowerBook G4/667 and it still does what she wants to do just fine. My sons(9 and 5) use an eMac 1GHz. Again, does what they need right now.

Define happy... my G4 system is hanging in there.


My main Mac started out life as a G4 Quicksilver 733.

Currently it has been upgraded with a QS 867 processor, 1.5GB RAM, 256MB Radeon 9600 Pro XT video card, Samsung 18x Dual Layer Lightscribe DVD, 1 x 400GB & 1 x 500GB Seagate HDs attached to SIIG PCI ATA /133 controller card, 2 x Maxtor 160GB in RAID 0 for boot drive on built in ATA (formats out to just over 256GB ). All internal cooling fans have been replaced with either Pabst or NMB/Panasonic for improved flow/lower noise.

Have purchased, but not yet installed, an OWC PCI/ SATA controller card that will be going in to replace the RAID 0 array as soon as I buy a couple of SATA drives for it.

Currently searching for a decent ATX Power Supply for Grim to modify to power all these goodies, as I know that I am pushing the stock PS as it is!


All that being said I will soon be upgrading to a G5 Quad that is coming from a Mac-Tech friend of mine when he finally makes the jump to an Intel MacPro later this year.

---

Aloha, Ken


“I have developed significant attachments to several members even though I wouldn't recognize them if I sat next to one on a park bench. I'm often tempted when in an airport to walk around, hollering "The Løpe", to see if anyone other than the Homeland Security people will acknowledge me. ” - The Løpe

"If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what shall be orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion, or other matters of opinion, or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. If there are any circumstances which permit an exception, they do not now occur to us." Justice Robert Jackson



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/28/2007 03:08PM by Harbourmaster.

Still using a 2002 (800) Quicksilver for my desktop machine. Works fine, But I have to say I love my MBP and now that Adobe has announced CS3 (ouch!) I guess I'm in the market. (double ouch!!) How can a lowly illustrator afford all this?!

Quote
robfilms
with my two emacs and a possible g4 imac flower power coming in the near future, i was wondering if the g4 platform is simply out of date or totally outdated. the difference in terms is one is functional while the other is not.

An iMac Flower Power is a G3 not a G4.

I use 2 G4 PBs (insync) each day along with an iMac 600 G3 that my GF uses all day.

All run latest OSX.

Many years to go on these.

---

A man who is of "sound mind" is one who keeps the inner madman under lock and key.
(Paul Valery)

1.25 eMac at work.. working just fine.

29 mixed eMacs (800 to 1.4ghz) in the Lab. Also running fine and dandy for everything.

Dual Gig G4 MDD at home.. also working just fine. However, I DO once in a while wish for more speed.


I'm holding out until the first major revision of the Intel Mac tower line... then getting the low end on a refurb special after a few months... I'm in no rush, and don't have the cash for it right now anyway.

---

Paul F.
-----
A sword never kills anybody; it is a tool in the killer's hand. - Lucius Annaeus Seneca c. 5 BC - 65 AD
----
Good is the enemy of Excellent. Talent is not necessary for Excellence.
Persistence is necessary for Excellence. And Persistence is a Decision.
--

--

--
Eureka, CA

go2top-

u are right. mea culpa.

i saw on the everymac site the fp designation and thought flower power when i should have thought flat panel. [www.everymac.com]

thanks for the sharp eyes.

be well

rob

G3, G4, G5 and intel MB. A fast drive and lots of ram does wonders for a G3 iMac on light work. My G4 is a NAS, but fully functioning computer on its own, Digital Audio with a 1.2ghz upgrade card. Next is my video workhorse, my G5 2.0 iMac. Then the MacBook which is called upon to do it all. The biggest difference in all of them is heavy processor tasks and hard drive speed. For light work, the cost/benefit ratio definitely favors G4's across the board. G4 towers can be had for little over $100 (450mhz or lower/Sawtooth or lower).

I have both a G4 MDD and a powerbook G4 1.5ghz. Both are hanging in there. I would like to upgrade if I had a ton of cash sitting on my coffee table, but I am in no hurry. The MDD is starting to get a little long in the tooth though. It's starting to feel sluggish at times and is lot nosier than I like. Those new 20" & 24" intel iMacs are starting to look really good...

G4 933 is more than adequate for my needs. With more ram (currently only 640 megs), I'd probably be set for quite a while. I'd love to go with an Intel Mac but that would also mean that I'd probably waste a lot of time on games.

aquilles-

i also lust after the intel duo2 20" ($1299/refurb price) and 24" ($1699/refurb price).

when i happen to stop in an apple store those are the machine i love to play with.

sigh!

what is a father with a soon-to-go-to-college daughter to do?

sigh!

be well

rob

Yes, my main Mac is still a G4. Originally a Dual 500, upgraded 2 years ago to a Dual 1.3Ghz. It will probably keep plugging along for a while longer ... still does what I need it to do and I am not exactly a fan of the cheese grater design.

Cube, MDD, and a PB12.

The Cube is a bit slow but very servicable, and just too cool.

The MDD and PB are completely adequate for my needs.

That said, I want an Intel PowerBook in 12" or smaller. I want an Mac Pro smaller than the G5/Mac Pro box currently sold. I want a C2D mini.

Because my old iron is not obsolete, I'm not dying to get a MacBook (though I'm a little tempted) or the current Behemoth.

I'm just waiting, biding my time. If either of the aforemention every ship, I am so *there*.

---

I am that Masked Man.

All you can do, is all you can do.

There’s trouble — it's time to play the sound of my people.

Your boos mean nothing to me, I've seen what you cheer for.

Insisting on your rights without acknowledging your responsibilities isn’t freedom, it’s adolescence.

I've been to the edge of the map, and there be monsters.

We are a government of laws, not men.

Everybody counts or nobody counts.

When a good man is hurt,
all who would be called good
must suffer with him.

You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead.

There is no safety for honest men except
by believing all possible evil of evil men.

We don’t do focus groups. They just ensure that you don’t offend anyone, and produce bland inoffensive products. —Sir Jonathan Ive

An armed society is a polite society.
And hope is a lousy defense.

You make me pull, I'll put you down.

I *love* SIGs. It's Glocks I hate.

G4 iMac user here, works fine for my needs.
That doesn't mean that I don't want a new intel model, probably later this year.

I haven't outgrown my 12" 1.33GHz Powerbook G4 yet. The backlight on the screen is pretty dull, but for my needs I can get by. Even if Apple were to release a nice, light, small, ultra-portable 12-13" MacBook Pro, I would probably wait a while longer to upgrade to one.

In fact, I'd rather upgrade my fire-breathing, power-sucking PowerMac G5 first, even if I haven't technically outgrown the performance it provides.

G4/533 tower 400&500GB HDs 1.5GB RAM. Runs mostly as a server but it is the main machine for photo work. Photoshop touchups, editing and printing. It could be faster for this. Occasional video conversion and it's hideously slow for this - considering a processor upgrade for it or just a refurb dual-core Intel Mini.

Using a MacBook CD 2GHz @work and it's great so I'd upgrade to Intel (that Mini I mentioned), so no G5 for me.

I made a few 1 hour DVDs recently on the Macbook from video content stored in the G4 tower and in iMovie and iDVD, and the encoding wasn't terribly fast (though it had to move the data through 100bT ethernet between the 2 computers) and I'd bet that if I'd made the DVDs on the G4, I'd have given up as the encoding would've taken overnight or longer.

An old single processor G4 is not good enough for video work.

My 1.5 PB G4 does what I need and runs Classic on the few occaisions when I need it.

My wife's 700 G3 iBook serves her email and Internet needs just fine.

My 12" 1GHz G4 DVI suffices my basic computing needs. And my S/O's 500MHz G3 is functioning well for her. I am dreaming of a 15 inch Apple laptop

---

SoCal for now.

I have an MDD 1.25 that is now reduced to pretty much being a server, it was slowly being outdated as I have found myself relying more and more on the my MacBook Pro. It has been replaced by an Intel iMac for all the day to day stuff.

G4? I'm still G3 and below for my many Macs. The closeout deal 1.33GHz 12" G4 iBook I handpicked for my mother gets a fair amount of basic use. Even with only 512MB RAM, everything feels snappy. Of course, she only uses Opera for web/email, Stickies, and makes an occasional scan or print.

Even when I use her iBook so I can run software update or just as a matter of convenience when I am at her desk, I think things feel snappy. Again, I don't go much further than she does with the iBook, maybe using the included Encyclopedia app and TextEdit in addition to the basics mentioned above.

On a personal level, I can see myself snagging a G4 tower in the latter half of the year to step up my "backup computer/file server/CD burning station" which is currently a G3 upgraded Power Mac 7600. Or if I wanted something mobile, I'd probably just snag a refreshed/refurbished MacBook around the same time frame. Then again, I say something similar every year and I end up sticking with a 7 year old 500MHz iMac G3.


Nathan

My G4 800Mhz eMac with 768MB RAM & 7200 rpm drive is faster than the Windoze 1.8 GHz (384MB RAM) machine I have and feels faster than the wife's 1.4MHz G4 mini with 4500 rpm drive.

I want an Intel mini with 20 or 24" LCD - probably mounted in my Centris 610 case with a fast 3.5" HD.

Can't wait to get rid of USB 1.0 on the eMac.

adent-

i hardly agree about the usb 1.0 port-dog slow.

but remember how we mac folk were so excited that usb had finally come to the mac platform allowing us to plug in any peripheral and then adb could be history.

the times they be always changin'

be well

rob

My stock 1.33 iBook G4 is still doing alright. The lack of RAM is rather painful at times though, but it's still quite capable.

With that said, I'm considering upgrading to a MBP so that I can run Windows for the few things I need to.

---

_______________________________________________________________
Security is just a word. The act of being secure is entirely different.
"...but I think that to make your dream a reality, having a dream itself is a mandatory prerequisite"
From A Book: Walking Through The Impossible

Just because it has two clutches, shifts faster, uses a torque converter or has near-infinite gear ratios, requires less driver intervention and is more efficient doesn't make it better in my opinion.
Save The Manual Transmission

2002 G4 QS 733 with 1.5 GB RAM, dual Giga 1.8 CPU, ATI 9800 Mac Pro, SATA PCI card (not worth it IMHO), and happy.

Bought a refurb MB 2.0 Core Duo 2MB RAM in July 06 for wife. She uses XP on her BootCamp partition, and I have Tiger in my half.

Software features and hardware demands will be the determining factor as to when the QS is retired and given to a grandchild.

---

Ed (modelamac)

I think I will just put an OUT OF ORDER
sticker on my head and call it a day.

MDD 1.25 DP and a 1.67 15" PowerBook each with 1.5 gig RAM. PB should do for another year or so but the MDD is starting to show its age and slows to a crawl at times. I see a MacPro in the not too distant future.

The MDD should continue to do useful work as a media server.

---

Comedy Central: Best news channel that isn't a news channel.

Fox News: Best comedy channel that isn't a comedy channel.

I haven't gotten to read through all the posts yet, but I'll be curious to see everyone's comments.

I just traded a dual G4 MDD 867 with 1.5GB of RAM for a PBook G4 1.67 with an ATI Radeon 9700 chip and 1.5GB of RAM and I have to say I think the PBook is just as peppy as the MDD (measured on Photoshop performance as that's the only program I use that really taxes the processor). For what I'm doing (M$ Office and Adobe CS2), the PBook is more than adequate and I needed the portability. I would have loved to grab a Core 2 Duo MacBook Pro, but I needed the laptop ASAP and a new MBP was out of my price range and I couldn't wait around for refurbs to come back to the Apple store.

I also have an Intel Mac mini 1.66MHz, but it still has just the stock 512MB of RAM, which was the machine that actually replaced the MDD originally.

I think the G4 still has legs for about another year, depending on your needs, but it's on it's last legs.

~A

Apple probably hates all of you!!! ;)

Home eMac768 G4 and office iBook1.2 G4 are still chuggin' along quite nicely, thank you (knock on wood).

Would love to upgrade both, but have to save some more jingle before that can happen - maybe next year.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/29/2007 12:55PM by mrthuse.

I have a G4 iMac and a G4 iBook. I use the iMac daily for internet stuff, basic photo editing, word processing and iTunes. I don't notice any performance issues unless I am rolling all 4 of those at once, and then I think it is understandable.

I use the iBook as my on the road machine...I like it, but I prefer the desktop.

I don't forsee an upgrade for a few years yet (I hope!) I've had the iMac since March 2001 and the iBook since November 2004. When I do upgrade I'll probably look at what is available in the intel Mac and get that.

Jackie

I have a DA 533 DP G4 as my main machine. For 2/3 or more of the stuff I do it is plenty good enough. That includes browsing, email, taxes, network backups, and recording shows from cable through my Alchemy TV/DVR card. Some of the games I want to play are slow to work on it, so I am upgrading as mentioned in another thread. A dual 1.73 GHz 7448 should take care of those needs for another two or three years. Since it just arrived from OWC today, I will be installing it this weekend and see how much of an improvement that makes. When I do finally replace this G4 in a couple years or so, then it should serve well as my machine to handle backing up everything else and any legacy application I have not found a suitable replacement for.

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