Questions Before Buying A New G5 Dual 2.7 Options

[bluetone78]

Hello all,
My G4 iMac just isn't cutting it anymore, so I need an upgrade. I was think about getting the G5 dual 2.7, but I had a bunch of questions first:

1. What's this I hear about an Intel Mac? When are they coming out? Are they going to be better than the dual G5's that are available now? Should I wait to buy untilt hey come out?

2. Obviously I'm gong to need more RAM - I've read good things about Corsair (in this forum, elsewhere). I also read talk of buying in "bundles"? what does that mean? How do I buy ram in bundles?

3. I'd like to have a seperate interal drive to put my samples, audio files, etc. Is there a good reason (performance wise) to get the dual 400GB drives factory installed from apple? If not, can anyone recommend a decent brand for this application?

4. Apple LCD displays vs other Brands?


Thanks so much,
Charles

[coldharbour]

1.  What's this I hear about an Intel Mac?  When are they coming out? Are they going to be better than the dual G5's that are available now?  Should I wait to buy untilt hey come out?

No reason to wait. x86 PowerMacs won't be out any time soon and as you're upgrading from a G4 iMac to G5 Dual 2.7 PowerMac you'll be making a huge leap that'll most probably keep you happy for a long time over the transition.

2.  Obviously I'm gong to need more RAM - I've read good things about Corsair (in this forum, elsewhere).  I also read talk of buying in "bundles"?  what does that mean?  How do I buy ram in bundles?

Corsair is good, Kingston is good and so are many other brands. I prefer Kingston for their quality, lifetime guarrantee and cheap price. Some retailers sell bundled RAM, it means that when you buy your machine from them they'll include some extra RAM "bundled" for special price or maybe even free.

3.  I'd like to have a seperate interal drive to put my samples, audio files, etc.  Is there a good reason (performance wise) to get the dual 400GB drives factory installed from apple?  If not, can anyone recommend a decent brand for this application?

Apple doesn't manufacture the hard drives included in the machines, so there's no special speed or other advantage. As you probably know, Apple's prices for RAM, hard drives etc. aren't the cheapest and installing new drives in a PowerMac is dead easy - so you'll probably save quite an amount of cash if you buy the drives separately from some other place.

I've never had any hard disk problems and I've never been too brand-specific about them (currently Maxtor, IBM and Western Digital), but probably someone else on this forum has more specific opinions about this matter.

You might also consider an external FireWire drive, it comes in very handy if you need to transfer your samples or be on the move for some other reason. FW is fast enough for all your audio purposes and you can also use it for booting & possible troubleshooting.