jmufellow said:
I have been battling in my mind as to which Mac to get. Portability would be nice (aka powerbook), but it comes at a hefty cost. My major in college is Media Arts and Design and I will be doing a lot of digital video stuff. They recommend you to have a mac and Final Cut Pro. Would an iMac G5 be good for this? How are the innards different than the powerbook or powermac?
Please only post if you know what you are saying...ie no "well I don't see why the iMac wouldn't be fine for you" blah blah.. Thanks in advance
First off you get a G5. The Apple trainers often use g4 17" PBs, but they are not as nice as using a g5. Secondary, you can get more screen real estate. I'll let somebody comment about backside cache's etc, but if you are really going to get into editing, I really would max the memory, get at least one secondary drive, and then get the best computer I could afford. I have used (an own) FCP on a 12" 1ghz PB, and it's doable, but it's so slow and small when compared to a G5 iMac, or tower with twin LCD's.
Here's the question, if you had a desktop computer, would a cheap 300$ G3 iBook meet the marjority of you portable computer needs for a few years? If so, then I would go for the iMac and get an elchepo iBook for takeing notes and writing papers. If not, then get the best PB you can. Also, don't froget you will need at least one external firewire drive, Apple's creative suite, memory, and (if your portable) AppleCare, a spare battery, and a case.