Mac G5-is This A Good Time To Buy New?, Is Apple coming out with new g5 soon? Options

[beyaRecords]

I would inclined to wait and see. For the same money you are paying now, in a few months time, you will be able to purchase a far more powerfull machine. Of course the apps are all important here, there's no point having a nice box with no software. Logic will be ported in the next few months, Nuendo the same (if it hasn't already been done).

This year will be an exciting year computer wise, hold onto your money and wait and see.

Beya

[mixfisto]

thanks everyone, i got my answer. i will be needing either a studio with a g5 (and have to pay for it) or to buy my own in the next month. I figure that the $1500 or so that I save by not renting studio time, will almost buy me a new g5. I figure that by the time apple comes out with the new intel version, and all the apps (PT, etc...) catch up, i will have more than enough use of the g5 to make it worthwhile. Plus, i would bet it will be a while before all the apps and 0s are fine tuned with all the bugs sorted out.
So buy now I will!!!

[gpax]

This is always a tough call, but to put it in perspective, there wil always be some better or best around the corner. Problem is, this time around you actually know what that will look like, and that it will happen for sure in the next year - unlike before when you weren't quite sure when or what the new models would boast.

That said, I bought my dual core G5 this past October when they first came out, fully knowing that intel macs were on the horizon. The immdiate increase in productivity was beyond what I expected, and I turned out my best work yet with all the new "headroom." For me, this is worth the investment, regardless of what happens in the coming year.

On a practical note - I remember waiting about 2.5 years total during the OS 9 - OS X transition for all my beloved apps to port over. There will be some waiting, depending on what you use, though perhaps by the time the intel mace replacement for the G5 comes out, many of these will have been released.

Incidentally, I guess the intel-version of a tower will no longer be a "G5," techincally speaking. I wonder what they'll call it?

pax

[rickenbacker]

The fact that none of Apple's own Pro apps (Logic, Final Cut, Soundtrack) will work with Rosetta until the (paid) upgrade is released in late-February suggests to me that Apple is rushing things a bit. There's also the financial matter of upgrading third-party software. Will it be a free Universal update from all the developers or will it cost "only" £50 or so for each update you need. £50 x a dozen little apps you rely on, well that's a whole lot of extra money you need to be spending, when a G4 or G5 right now won't require any of that money to be spent, ever.

For that reason, I'd either buy what I wanted right now and get to work, or wait at least six months (probably more) for the dust to settle on Rosetta and the Intel Macs generally before considering any purchase. The current PowerBooks are fourth generation, as stable as can be. The G5 PowerMacs have had a reasonable development cycle, too. Personally, I wouldn't want to ride the first wave of Intel Macs, helping Apple work out all the problems!

[lepetitmartien]

The current macintel share the same motherboard and are based on one of Intel already in use so it's not total virgin territory, but there may be some glitches with the OS, you never know.

The apps we need is more the problem, at best we'll start to have stuff available in the next weeks. We can't be sure it'll be perfect from day one, but if you need real work to be done now, the PPC line is the safe bet still for months if you have thing to sort out fast.

Don't expect Rosetta to be of much use for us save maybe the Nord G2 editor and similar things, Rosetta is really picky and save Office stuff…

On the G5 line, avoid only the mono 1.8 revB which was born under a bad star, the quad had some issues too but it's out of reach $$$ speaking anyway. Think about the RAM, you'll need 1GB or more (more is better). To start up a second SATA drive inside will do for audio files.

If macintel and apps come in smoothly and with dazzling power, you'll be able to move up the ladder by that time, and eventually sell the G5. Macs keep usually good resale value save if an earthquake happens.

The name for the towers? MacDesktop Pro !
(please, Steve, this "macbook" "pro" name is just ugly)

[rickenbacker]

Mmm, and if Apple sticks with the software-style naming convention, the next iBook should be the MacBook Express