There has been some talk recently about the updating of Apple’s G5 power macs. A power mac is a huge investment. What is the life span of one? It seems to me (and correct me if I’m wrong) that it probably would have a pretty long life span considering (1) the amount of CPU power and RAM it holds, (2) it supports 64-bit computing, and Apple hasn’t yet released a 64-bit OS, and (3) OS X is a unix OS, which I’ve always thought runs better on older hardware. Is a five or six year long life span (or longer) unreasonable to expect?
A bonus is you don’t have to run
adaware every day
worry about Viruses.
And there stable… im investing into a g5 later on… i had to sell my 17" pb to pay rent and bills but im using a 2 year old apple ibook for now and never or have no problems… they may be expensive but think about all the software LEGALY that you have to buy to protect your pc.
average computer lifespan (LF) is where w=length of warranty and k=length of average tv commercial:
LF=W+1/K
you must mean computers that get hyper like Hewlet-Scrapyards. My 1989 Amiga 500 is still running as a TV messaging board 24-7.
Doesn’t matter what you get you feel like it’s a slug within a year. Can a G5 plug into a G4 board? If I get a G5 will there be a G6 that won’t plug on a year later?
I dunno what to say about this life time thing… i guess it all comes down to needs and want’s and power… some people actually need a g5 some people don’t. i see lots of studio artist’s running g4 500’s and stuff… and they don’t care… it is pretty cool how you can get a dual or not dual 500 mhz g4 load it with 1gig memory and slap in a new 120gig hdd with out updating any bios or any thing… at tthe time they came out the pc’s could not just do this. and pc’s didnt support that amount of ram… also a friends g3 350 smirf took a 200 gig hard drive with out problems and there about 5 years or so old… now you go back that far with a pc and they just wont work unless you have additional hard ware…
I’m not the one to defend PCs… they picked the worst chip of the time and stuck with it. The newest 3 Gig P4 still inherits the flaws of the 8086…
It was time for Intel to make a totally new ‘non backward compatible’ chip years ago. Still waiting… It still can’t multitask worth a shit. Format a disk and play a game at the same time, hah. Even running Linux you can see a 2 Gig system sputter and cough a lot.
Transmeta is the only chip I’m aware of that’s actually new architechture.
MY IDEA FOR A "LONG LIFE SYSTEM"
256 bit bus card with plug-in ram and CPU. As they grow they take more lines. Just plug it in.
OS on a chip. New “Windows”? just plug it in. Just include the BIOS, the basic OS and basic libraries on the chip. start the applications when called from the HDD. perhaps a choice of chips work station, server, game box…
Onboard hardware that can be turned off in BIOS to add better sound video etc. onboard ntsc video in/out.
Vents in the TOP of the cases where heat rises to. Chip radiators.
sell you my Amiga 4000! Bindare Dhundat.
Don’t buy the high end, Dave, if you’re worried about lifespan.
You can get 4 or 5 low end Macs for the price of the most expensive G5. Get a new one every 18 months and you’ll be ahead.
My G4 lasted me 3 years exactly.
Does this mean the hardware no longer worked? Or the computer longer did what you wanted it to do, that is, no longer supported the latest software?
No, everything worked fine on it, I upgraded every major component, video card, hard drive, CPU, RAM, burner etc.
It was just not the top end anymore. It’s a lot of money to maintain that.
If you just want to learn unix and stuff, get a cheap PC. If you want to get a Mac, get a cheap eMac or iBook. You’ll spend very little compared to a G5.
If you were to buy a digital camera, would you spend $6000 or $500? Depends if you’re really into it, and if you really have to have the best or not.
My little 600 mhz ibook with 640mb ram and a airport card does every thing i want.
Yeah, I actually use my G3 iBook more than the G5, which is strange.
Portable. : O ) small FUCKING durable as hell… and plenty of power do to all kinds of thing’s… Id like a g5 for the other stuff that is power hungry but ill wait for the new one’s coming out…
Thank you for all the advice. I appreciate it. My biggest problem right now is convincing my wife that it’s a good idea to switch to a Mac, which requires us to spend money on a new machine.
Heh…ive been trying to convince my wife that a Mac of some variety would be a Good Thing™ to have. Alas, it has yet come to pass that this idea bear fruit.
It’s only really cheap if your time is worth nothing.
you still have to put a hard drive spu ram cd rom into that…
but i would rather have this…
i missed out on a G4/400 that got repopped from here. coulda got it for $250 18 mos ago, but no one told me!
these are what i like w el cheapo athlon cips
athlons get to hot…
id rather have a g3 300 than a athlon…