Help with buying Mac Pro

[docdvm]

I am a hobbyist photographer with an expensive hobby! Presently I am using a powermac G5 1.6 and am considering buying a new desktop, either the MacPro or Powermac G5 Quad or Dual. Since my use is primarily Photoshop, Internet , Office Suite, Imageprint , Capture One, and Photo Mechanic, is it worthwhile to switch to an Intel processor. I am imagining that if I had to upgrade all my software or buy new Universal Software the cost would amount to more than the hardware.

The question , I guess in this regard is that would I get more enjoyment with the new unversal software that will be released. What improvements will be made? Running faster than a Powermac Quad is hard to imagine!! What benefits would a single user have? If you consider the cost of Photoshop CS3, Imageprint, and and Capture One or Aperture, add 2 Gig Ram, I would have nearly doubled the cost of the computer, right?

As far as new software for the Intel Macs, what do you expect will be released? I know that you can run XP, but will that just add the the headaches that we have been relieved of when we migrated to Macs?

Any thoughts?

 

[docdvm]

Second question concerning migration

I I were to migrate form the G5 1.6 to a Quad G5 can I just remove my 500 gig HD and install it in the Quad? Could it be that simple?

What about installing inn the ac Pro. I would guess that although they bot accept SATA drives they would not be accepted as bootable drives.

 

[twoodcc]

well you would probaby be fine with a G5 quad, but you're computer would be outdated, and so would the software.

not sure what new features and new software is coming out, but eventually the software will be just for intel.

you cannot take a G5 hard drive and drop it in a mac pro and expect it to work. you can use the hard drive, but you have to install universal software on it

 

[jelloshotsrule]

one question that would probably have a lot of importance in whether it's financially smart to switch to the intel procs...

would you upgrade to the latest software (cs3, etc) even with a powermac? do you care about the new features/improvements or would you only be upgrading to get the universal binary aspect?

 

[docdvm]

Universal Upgrade

Presently I am very happy with the software I have. I do not fully utilize the power of photoshop. Office X is all I need. Imageprint will work on the new Intel Macs albeit not universal. Capture One and Photo Mechanic likely will be replaced at some point by something like Aperture. I am not a gamer either. I do backeup some of my DVD titles and use itunes which should be even better with Universal versions.

What I am also concerned with is the fact that Macs were so trustworthy. We did not have the issues associated with Windows, Viruses, Drivers, etc. Are we not taking a step backwords in that respect. With more users making use of the dual boot options will we need to install virus checkers spam checkers, registry tools, etc to keep those applications functional. Is it worth the hassle?