| Author | Message | ||
     barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 196 Registered: 1-2003 |
looking to but a 23" display and a power mac G5 with 1.5 mb of ram. what else do i need? more ram? bluetooth? i will be ordering a wacom tablet as well. some of the photoshop files that i have been working on are 150mgs. thanks | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider  Post Number: 15371 Registered: 1-2003  |
Why a G5? Why not an Intel-based Mac Pro? They stopped making the G5, and it will be obsolete quickly. The Intel machine is much faster than any G5. And you'll need more memory, though it's hard to say how much. Get as much as you can afford. | ||
| barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 197 Registered: 1-2003 |
thanks tom. i just looked at this: Mac Pro 2GHz 1GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 15372 Registered: 1-2003 |
That's better. Be sure to get some kind of backup device. You could buy a couple of firewire external hard disks and alternate their usage. Don't buy them at Apple unless you don't mind paying too much. Or you could use DVD's for backups, but they would be slow. With hard disks, you can connect one at night before bed and have the backup run at night. Disconnect in the morning. You could probably fit a few backups on a hard disk. The advantage of DVD's is that you can buy an unlimited number of blanks. For heavy graphics work, I recommend bringing the system up to at least 4 GB of RAM. I'm not a graphics dude, though, so I hope one will chime in with a more considered view of how much RAM is enough. | ||
| Bailey Citizen Username: Baileymac Post Number: 417 Registered: 3-2005 |
I bought a LaCie Firewire external drive at the Apple Store about a year ago, and at the time, the price was in line with other online stores, cheaper than Best Buy. I've worked with Photoshop and files even larger than 150megs on my MacBook Pro with 1 Gig of ram, and opening the files takes a couple of seconds, but it's not awful. I'm going to double the ram, and when Adobe releases the Universal version of Photoshop next year, it should speed things up considerably. Currently, the Intel Macs use an emulator for non-universal apps, which works very well, and seamless. I'd guess everything will be Universal within the next year. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 15375 Registered: 1-2003 |
I've heard that Rosetta, the software that does G5 emulation, requires lots of RAM. | ||
| barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 198 Registered: 1-2003 |
thanks tom. i just looked at this: Mac Pro 2GHz 1GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive. | ||
| TarPit Coder Citizen Username: Tarpitcoder Post Number: 129 Registered: 12-2004  |
Double the RAM to 2 GB if you can't do 4 GB at the very least. 2 GB will let you undo many more graphics operations before the machine slows to a crawl. | ||
| Noo2wood Citizen Username: Noo2wood Post Number: 73 Registered: 4-2006 |
Here's what I just got in case you're a graphics person and interested: Mac Pro Quad Two 2.66GHz, Dual-Core Intel Xeon/250GB/1GBRAM Added 2GB RAM (2x1GB) 667MHz DDR2 FB DIMM ECC Memory Kit Plus the Adobe Web Bundle Quark 7.0 Microsoft Oem Office Mac 2004 | ||
| barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 199 Registered: 1-2003 |
thanks everyone. here is what i have decided on as of now: Mac Pro Quad Two 2.66GHz, Dual-Core Intel Xeon/250GB/1GBRAM Added 2GB RAM (2x1GB) 667MHz DDR2 FB DIMM ECC Memory Kit 23" display wacom wireless lacie backup wireless keyboard anything else? | ||
| Eponymous Citizen Username: Eponymous Post Number: 221 Registered: 6-2004 |
Get the RAM third-party. Apple is way too expensive. And get as much as you can afford, especially if you're doing graphics work. | ||
| Glock 17 Citizen Username: Glock17 Post Number: 1787 Registered: 7-2005  |
You don't need more than 1gig ram for photoshop. | ||
| Tom Reingold Supporter Username: Noglider Post Number: 15388 Registered: 1-2003 |
It depends. Rosetta uses a lot of RAM. And it might depend on the size of the images you use and the operations you are performing. | ||
| Monster© Supporter Username: Monster Post Number: 4572 Registered: 7-2002  |
Rosetta will run just fine with the configuration being bought. Get the RAM third party, buy the RAM in matching pairs, just talk to a customer service rep where you purchase it (if you buy a 1 gig stick, get two of them), I recommend purchasing from Other World Computing, Larry runs a very good place. Buy at least one external drive for backup, I don't care for Lacie, or Maxtor for that matter, I prefer Seagate drives, in OWC cases. For backup software I prefer SuperDuper by Shirt-Pocket. In conjunction with SuperDuper you may also like ChronoSync for synchronization of files and folders from the working drive to other locations. I also recommend buying AppleCare, you don't have to purchase it from Apple, and can often find it cheaper elsewhere online. | ||
| barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 200 Registered: 1-2003 |
thanks monster. ok i can purchase 4gb of ram from other word computing for $1149. is this overkill? how difficult is it to install? thinking of buying the mac and display from mac mall. no tax free shipping. i will look into a seagate backup and get shirt pocket and chronosync. will also purchace applecare. | ||
| Monster© Supporter Username: Monster Post Number: 4576 Registered: 7-2002 |
Extra memory can only be a good thing, the manual you get with your Mac Pro will probably have directions on installing RAM, and here is a PDF at Apple with instructions. Mac Mall is a good choice, since you are buying the Mac Pro and display from them you can always see what kind of deal you can work out to see if you can get the memory at a lower price than OWC, of course they may offer this already. | ||
| barbara wilhelm Citizen Username: Bartist Post Number: 201 Registered: 1-2003 |
monster, thanks for the pdf. mac mall wants close to $1500 for 4mb of ram. of course there is no tax. will make a purchase soon, thanks again for everyones imput. |
