Help me please!

[danhua76]

so here's the deal:

1. for video, you'll need larger hard drives. not sure what you're working on, but having around 200gb to 250gb is a good start.

2. for 3D work, you'll need a much better video card. unfortunately i do not know of any workstation level video cards for the mac. you'll probably be ok getting the highest end gaming card (from nvidia) for the mac.

3. for both video and 3D work, up the system ram. 1gb is ok, but you probably will see some slow downs. upgrade to 2gb or more if possible.

4. if the software you use supports multiple cpu's, then upgrade to dual cpu's.

so it's not gonna be cheap to upgrade these items. but if you're gonna do some heavy video and 3D work, it'll really help. if you're just a student starting out, then what you got should be ok for the time being.

[ktamiola]

Hi...

I think I can say few words about this computer - iMac in the configuration You are plannng to buy. We use 2 of them (as far as I know) in our labs and belive me or not their only advantage is they look nice in new office :)

Fact is the CPU in these computers in single configuration (not Dual or Cluster form) is a rubbish, especially when you want to work with 3d (I am not talking about Video where vecotorization of software is an advantege) - render stuff, use raytracing and related...

Another thing is upgrading, as it was mentioned previously You would like to have good and fast HDD matrix to store Your stuff and also to provide You with sufficient buffering during any kind of editing. There is no space inside and every kind of external HDD will be more expensive than internal one and also not as fast as native itnernal one...

GeForce FX5200 is nice when You want to play games from 2003/2004... It is not certified for pro apps, and its pure power without extreme drivers is just not enough to handle more complicated scenes (I do not want to go into details since I don't know what kind of 3d art are You interested in...)

Ah! There is one additional thing: software avability! Compare amount of software for 3d and 2d with stuff avalible for OSX and You will have more or less clear situation!

I strongly recommend AMD64 based PC ...

Choice is Yours!

Good luck...

[Freestyler_56]

Thanks danhua76 and ktamiola, you guys were helpful... about me, well, I'm just a student that is starting out, I'm trying to start learning on my own, I'm baiscly an illustartor but I feel like I gotta upgrade :) I feel like I can do better in video editing and 3d grafix..

Thanks again :)

[danhua76]

so i took a look at your config at apple. the same exact config with a 20" wide lcd (they had no 17 inch wide lcd ooption) went for about $2700. with an lcd from another company, the total might go down to about $2300.

here's what you get from dell for about $2200:

intel 2.8 ghz xeon (dual capable)
win xp pro
1gb ram
16x dvd r/rw (like superdrive)
2 hard drives: (1) 80gb. (1) 160gb
17" ultrasharp lcd flat panel monitor (vga/dvi)
128mb ati fireGL v3100 (dual vga or dvi capable)

for those who build their own systems, they say dell is not worth it. but for those unfamiliar with building systems, i would recommend buying from them. they provide decent support, and for the most part, their systems are quite reliable.

the system spec i gave you can be later further upgraded quite easily. it should last you for quite some time. my general rule is to buy a system that has the cheapest processor installed, and when processor prices fall, i upgrade to the higher end processors for a steal. after all, the processor is one of the most costly parts in your system.

as is, this system will help get you started down the path of digital content creation.

[MattClary]

For $2700 you could "probably" get a decent Boxx system. The benefit of Boxx is you can get AMD64 processors and they have more standard hardware that means you can upgrade later easier.

[danhua76]

true that!

i guess what it really boils down to is intent and money. what is this system for and how much are you willing to spend. a good general rule of thumb is to determine your maximum amount and then force yourself to spend an additional 10% more. this usually protects you from product obsolecence for a little longer.

anyhow, good luck finding your system!

[Vertizor]

Just curious, what computer (list specs too if you can) are you using now?

I'm not trying to bash Apple or anything, but specifically the iMac G5 it just isn't a good choice for a workstation. Out of the box yeah it can do some work, but the next important aspect of a workstation is expandability and the flexibility to expand.

Other than adding RAM, there's not much other options to upgrading an iMac (unless you count completely replace the main hard drive).

For roughly similar price, you can get an older G4 tower. Try:

www.powermax.com
www.smalldog.com

They tend to have more assortments of Macs. Look at it this way: you could probably get either new or used dual G4 tower. It'll be much more capable for the kind of work your describing. There's room in there for more hard drives, an AGP slot of video cards (however I think the best it can take is a GF3, not sure). Even though it's not a G5, today's software is really more optimized for G4 anyways. We still have some time to wait before we see more software optimized for the G5.

Just my thoughts.

[Freestyler_56]

Thanks everybody for your advices, I apperciate it.. :)

[Shizumauru]

I would also recommend to buy a PC.
Some weeks ago I looked on Apple's website - I dont find the specs very good and the prices are enormous. For example the RAM.

I would recommend you a RAID Disk Array for HDD performance, if you start working with bigger Filesizes and save often it sucks waiting everytime some seconds until the saving process has finished.

In general I would say that Macs are not very scalable, for example there is not much space for Disks (Max 2 as I saw) and you cannot switch components that easy as it's possible in a PC.

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