Anyone got a G5 imac?

[MikeyT]

Are these really as good as they say?

Gotta get one if they are - been reading up on them and as my old G3 at home has just about had it - the zip is knacked, the CD drive won't read anything and worse still, it's SCSI, not USB - I must come into the 21st century sometime.

At the mo I have to plug the digital camera in at work and then email stuff home or plug it into the wife's PC laptop and then email the pics to the Mac or put on a separate plugged-in SCSI zip drive at work and then take the drive and disc home and plug in again - it's not plug and play - have to restart every time - I'm slowly going mad ...

Plus the kids keep unplugging the Mac and plugging the laptop in to go on MSN as it won't wok on a Mac using OS9.2 ...

I think I know the answer to my own question really - just need to get this off my chest - and they're also under a grand ...

It's lunchtime – John Lewis here I come!

Edited for the link ...

www.johnlewis.com/Gifts+and+Flowers/Gifts+for+Everyone/Technology/Desktop+PCs+/230214189/Product.aspx


>> Edited by MikeyT on Wednesday 31st August 12:33

[mmm-five]

They are good, but not very upgradable - if you don't need a monitor then you can get a proper G5 for less than £1k from the 'Apple Certified Refurb Store'.

i.e. single 1.8 G5 for £800, or dual 1.8 G5 for £944.

Has the same warranty as a 'new' item, but you save 20-30%.

http://promo.euro.apple.com/promo/refurb/uk/

[MikeyT]

Cheers Tony, if it was work I'd love a proper one but as it's for home, space is at a premium where it's going so it'll have to be this one.

Someones just told me though that Quark 5 won't work on OSX? Only Quark 6 which you can't get a copy of apparently. Version five would only work in classic mode.

Sod it.

indesign ...

>> Edited by MikeyT on Wednesday 31st August 13:02

[mmm-five]

Quark 6.5 is the latest version, although I'm mostly using it for legacy stuff and switching everything over to InDesign.

[wanty1974]

I have one of these in work (typing on it now!) - an excellent piece of kit for me, running Quark 6.5 and Photoshop CS2, as well as Garage Band and Super Sudoku when I get board...

I'm thinking of getting one for my house, becuase as you say, space is at a premium and its the best piece of kit for the space it takes up. For current usage, I can't see any upgrade problems for a long time yet.

[wanty1974]

And yes, OSX = Quark 6, different coding apparently.

[MikeyT]

Cheers guys, apparently Quark 5 will work under the classic OS - but it's not as if I'm doing loads of Quark stuff anyway ...

But, if if works on the imac in classic mode - then presumably you lose all the nice bits of OSX - the launcher etc and all the other bits of software that it comes with ...

Maybe I'll have to bite the bullet and just get Quark 6.5 - what's the cheapest? I've seen £599 + VAT on one site.

6.5 is the nads though for net stuff too though now isn't it? Don't know the ins and outs - only on version 4 normally - but so you just design in Quark as you would and then save in some html format?? (Massively oversimplified there I know).

Mike

[Bacardi]

MikeyT said:

- then presumably you lose all the nice bits of OSX - the launcher etc and all the other bits of software that it comes with ...

Classic boots up on top of X so you only fell like your are 9 whilst in that app, i.e. the menu bar and open/save dialogues. When you're in the app, going down to the dock works just as you would expect, as do widgets. Just click outside the Quark window onto the desktop or X app and your back in X. Easy.

Personally, I've ditched Quark and gone to InDesign, nicer previews, works seamlessly with PS and Illustrator, everything built in, no need to upgrade all the XTs, so better still .

>> Edited by Bacardi on Wednesday 31st August 17:54

[Murph7355]

Can you still run classic under Tiger?

The G5 iMac is a great bit of kit. I use mine as a media centre (along with an EyeTV). Superb.

Even my mother's jaw dropped when she saw it - really neat looking machine.

Now all they have to do is release a 60" one

[wanty1974]

I run Classic under Tiger no probs (although now I only use Classic for Illustrator).

If you have Quark 5, you should be able to get an upgrade to Q6 for around £200, I think we paid about that for it last year...

[wildeep]

Didn't realise people still used classic, OS X has been out 5 years now!. Well worth upgrading to quark 6.5, has a features they should have had years ago including a table tool!.

G5 iMac is great, but PC world are doing a mini mac bundle with a 17" flat screen, keyboard and mouse for £400. Should be plenty fast enough for home use.

[mmm-five]

Maybe, but the Mac Mini PC World have is a slow G4 and has a small (40gb), slow HD in it, next to no RAM, tiny graphics card.

Now a Mac Mini G5 with 1gb RAM, ATI x800 video card and 250gb SATA drive would be worth looking at.

[wildeep]

A 1.25GHZ G4 will be plenty fast enough for everyday use unless you are a final cut pro junkie. Upgrade to 1GB RAM will only be another £100, its still £400 cheaper than an imac.

[MikeyT]

wildeep said:

Didn't realise people still used classic, OS X has been out 5 years now!. Well worth upgrading to quark 6.5, has a features they should have had years ago including a table tool!. G5 iMac is great, but PC world are doing a mini mac bundle with a 17" flat screen, keyboard and mouse for £400. Should be plenty fast enough for home use.

It's a weird situation ... our software at work was inherited from the mag's previous owners ... and we run Quark 3.32! We do have a version of 4 (nicked years ago) and also 5 (nicked again a couple of years ago), Our publishing boss is not a fan of Macs, is a PC guy and all the journos run the latest wireless laptops in the office while us designers and production guys run outdated software on old macs - mine's a G4.

I digress however ...

I fancy the 17" or 20" G5 imac with 1GB of ram (another £45 I think), but I'll be running Classic on top of OSX for the Quark I'll be using ... I'll be doing a fair bit of PS work at home so any ram will be beneficial I think. It can't hurt for the small extra money.

Just gotta decide on the screen size. Am I right in thinking a version of the Cassic OS comes with a new Mac anyway?

I did buy the original Quark - straight 3 - back in about 1992 ... probably a fortune to upgrade it now ... ad I've lost all the paperwork/original disks etc. May get 6.5 in time.

[Hirich]

I'm ready to be corrected, but I don't believe you get the Classic disk anymore. You can download it easily from apple.com (dial-up not recommended!)

[wanty1974]

Classic was pre-loaded in Tiger when I got my iMac... although I think IT may have downloaded it from Apple. Worth asking an Apple Expert!