What kind of G4 should I purchase?

[Film Student]

I'm looking to invest in a G4, but I'm not sure what exactly to look for as far as features, memory, processor, etc.  The main purpose would obviously be to edit.  can anyone help me?

[Recce]

Well, it all depends on your budget, obviously. I, myself, recently purchased an eMac G4 with Superdrive. It only came with 256mb of ram, which isn't really enoguh for editing(it'll do, but it might get annoying in the long run). I upgraded to 768mb of ram and I'm pretty happy with it. It has a 60gb HD and runs at 800mhz. I've been putting 1 hour videos together with the memory full and I haven't had any problems. Works like a charm. The whole thing set me back about 2000$ US(I'm quickly converting it from canadian, so its not an exact figure).

This would, I think, do, depending on what you wanna edit. The only problem is the memory. 60GB for video editing isn't much, and since the eMac is one piece, if you wanna add memory, you gotta get an external HD, which is a bit more pricy then internals.
So it really depends how much editing you'd be doing with it.
Is it for personal shorts, school projects?

[aclockworkjj]

this might intrest you

http://www.macmall.com/macmall/shop/detail.asp?dpno=130651

[phil marlowe]

mac is so fuckin expensive. why do none of you use pc's? i mean at least you can afford them. just pick up the parts seperatly and youll have three times as much power(or three times as much cash].

does FCP work poorly on the pc's or what?

[Ghostboy]

It doesn't work at all on PCs.

Go Apple!

[aclockworkjj]

why do none of you use pc's?

Cause we are all little Mac bitches....

At home I have Vaio...I love it....but at work I have a G4...love that too...I think it's all a matter of preference, and what you can afford.  Mac's are just kinda the professional standard, so that's why everyone wants one.  They are well worth the cash though....

[Jeremy Blackman]

I think this is good enough:



And then get this:

.

or would it have room for another internal drive?

[Cecil]

or would it have room for another internal drive?

i think it has room for 2

film student, what is your budget?

[Cecil]

why do none of you use pc's?

the problem with pcs is that they can be very unpredictable. they can work just great, but they can also be a pain in the ass and there seems to be no way to tell when it will decide to piss you off.

so when youre working on a project and something fucks up, making you lose hours of work, it aint fun. macs just work well. and theyre not as expensive as they seem

[Ghostboy]

Well, seeing as how some HP models are now selling for like 300 bucks or less, I think it's safe to say that Macs are still more expensive. But you get what you pay for. Plus, Macs are designed with creative endeavors in mind, so they naturally work better for that kind of thing.

I've got a g4 and an iMac and I couldn't be happier with them. I'm PC free in 2003.

[phil marlowe]

the problem with pcs is that they can be very unpredictable. they can work just great, but they can also be a pain in the ass and there seems to be no way to tell when it will decide to piss you off.

i think the pc's require alot of research and understanding in relation to the buying process. you want parts of a certain quality and you want them to work good with each other and that can be quite a job. but the reward can be really powerfull and youll have every option available when considering upgrading/expanding.

i personally like to check out the most modest prices of each individually piece of hardware that i want on the internet, and then order it and put it together myself.

mac is for luxury and luxury is for peasants.

[Cecil]

phil, im not talking about the quality of parts as much as im talking about windows.

[phil marlowe]

yeah, i know it can be really bitchy, especially ME, but i also heard that the newer XP editions should be quite stabil. i just think you have to keep your computer tidy and make shure you have a very limited amount of programs assisting it.

my pc is old, slow, messy and uses ME and works like hell. but i like its price and its possibilities.

[RegularKarate]

Macs rule... you should definately get one FS.

Shit, if you can afford it.. get a dual processor G4 tower... that shit rules, but I have the G4 Imac and it's pretty unbelievably good... and while it was the best G4 Imac you could buy when i got it (17" w/superdrive), it's processor speed is only 800mhz, now for the same price,you get the 1Ghz , not that I'm really complaining... I haven't had trouble with this baby at all.

Phil... Luxury Schmuxury, you want professional quality editing, you get a Mac, they run fuckin' circles.

Either way, if you want to do a substantial amount of editing, you'll need an external drive.

I was looking at the latest Emac in store recently and I still don't really get the difference between that and the Imac besides the look of the unit.

[Recce]

There's no real difference, except the eMac is less expensive. That's why i got it. I know the whole design of the G4 attracts a lot, but the eMac is pretty too. I'm very, very happy with it. Plus I got a superdrive.