$2100 for New G5 Tower Dual 1.8 GHz??

[Gwobbie]

Is this a good deal? I need some opinions from the experienced Mac guys.

I'm considering a Mac for my video editing system.. and I ran into a place selling a Dual 1.8 GHz G5 Tower, 2 GB Ram, 160 GB HD, Superdrive, New with a 3 year warranty for about $2100 .. maybe $2200 with warranty.

It's just the system -- no monitor, etc.

They just have ONE of these left, and they say it's discontinued.. so there won't be anymore.

Let me know if I should act. I don't want this slippin' away if you guys don't know of better. I know there are miraculous deals on ebay and online.. just are they realiable? Obviously don't wanna get cheatet.

Hope to get some input soon. Thanks a lot.

Robbie

[terryj]

all day, every day, and no rip offs:

Small Dog G5 1
Small dog G5 2
Small Dog G5 3
add to any of those ram from Omni Technologies
and you got a spankin' system, with no BS.

Add applecare for $249.

and it beats your $2200 all day, everyday.

[hexxisoft]

I wouldnt pay 2200 for that.

[Gwobbie]

all day, every day, and no rip offs:

Small Dog G5 1
Small dog G5 2
Small Dog G5 3
add to any of those ram from Omni Technologies
and you got a spankin' system, with no BS.

Add applecare for $249.

and it beats your $2200 all day, everyday.

Yeah the one I'm talking about was $1599 as is.. but with the $150 applecare and a couple gigs of ram, + tax it gets to about $2000 or so, with tax.

Maybe I didn't look in the right spots on your links, but with the ram and tax, it seems they're about the same price.

[terryj]

hmmm...about the same price, or a few dollars less?
You asked if there were better deals to be had,
I just pointed out for what you said your total would be
that there are better prices out there, but you might have to buy from more than one dealer.

Small Dog is a reputable dealer in macs. Omni Tech is
an (up and coming) ram vendor, who are consistently beating old dogs like OWC.

$1649 +187+249=$2085 ( machine +ram+applecare)
Unless you live in vermont, there's no tax.
and that's still $115 less than your deal.

or try:

Apple Store

now you will pay tax, so say $1575 +187 + 245=$2011
( no tax through Omni and smalldog)

still beats $2200.00

Is the machine worth it as far as price...probably not.
The 1.8s are on their way out the door, but if you
bought it and had to turn around and sell it, you probably
could get about 2/3 the price YOU paid for it.

[Gwobbie]

All right, then what would you buy for that price? I'm inexperienced with apple prices.. but my budget's around $2200. I'd like the most power I can get for that. As I said, I'll be doing video work, possibly one hour to two hour-long projects, burnin' them to DVD, etc. Of course I don't like waiting for long renders, but I imagine this being much faster than my current Pentium 3 800Mhz HP desktop.

What's a recommended processor speed for an NLE Mac system, something I could get with my budget ($2200, with $2500 being the very highest)? Thanks for the input.

Robbie

[terryj]

Anything DUAL is apple's reccommendation,
if I was buying today I would go for no less
than a Dual 1.0, 1.25, and would try on a $2200
dollar budget to get all I needed,rather than just
one thing, so on $2500 or so, I'd shoot for a Dual 2.0,
BTO from apple, with no optical drive and base ram.
(1899.00 Small Dog has a comparable used model at $1699)
I'd then get max ram from Omni Tech ( $187)
and a Pioneer DVR -110 drive from New Egg
($57). I'd then add a WDSATA 250GBHD for
( $90). TotalCost: $2300.

You'd then have a Dual 2.0,
very fast optical Drive,
Max ram ( 2 GB)
and 410GB of HD space.


And you'd get a good NLE base, that would retain
most of its value until the arrival of the MacTels.

[Gwobbie]

The ram you're speaking off, off omni.. are you pickin' the generic stuff? I've heard there's good and bad ram.

Also, I've seen on Ebay some real eye-candy deals. Probably sound like a total newb asking if that's a worthy possibility.. but is it? Or is Ebay scam city for Macs?

Can I only get Apple care when I buy a system new?

Also, what you described, the 2 GHz system.. sounds like mine but with an upped processor. I heard the speed difference is minimal.

Is it possible to order a 2 GHz with maybe 256 mb ram, something really low (like you've been saying, I'd buy more from somewhere else).. 'cause the prices of the faster processor systems seem to be because of the ram and components that accompany them.. Just wondering if they have minimal, but fast processor, systems.. if that makes sense.

Thanks -- and what are the mactels?

[terryj]

omni---I'm pickin their dealram special stuff,
and so far on over 6 purchases, all ram works great.
Plus, it's lifetime warrented.

ebay---yes and no. depends on who you buy from, reputation, seller rating, etc.
plus all of ebay is AS IS...unlike say
powermax, smalldog, apple... you got a problem
when it arrives, they fix it. Ebay--no way, jose.

Applecare--theoretically yes, unless the system has passed
the Apple Ceritfied Refurbishment Process,
then you can put Applecare on it. Most ebay deals,
no warranty, no applecare.

2ghz---Speed diffrence is minimal over a dual 1.8,
but you asked if I had $2500 what I would buy...


Call Apple, and you can get any system you want CTBO
(Custom Built To Order). I know for a fact they'll sell you
machine with:

low ram
no modem
no ethernet
bare or no HDS
no optical drives

you just have to call.

mactels--you ARE a noob!

here:
Apple and Intel

[thoughton]

Nice reply Terry, but what's up with that weird link at the end? Driving traffic to your local MUG? I've seen worse lookin' pages ... but not many

[terryj]

not my local MUG....We don't have one here in my city...
.......just found the link in Google
when I googled "MacTel".