First off, what's your price range? You can get a decent refurb iMac for $950, add some RAM and your just a bit above $1000. I'd get an Intel Mac if you can since you'll get more life out of it. Sooner or later Apple will dump PPC support I'm sure. OS X 10.5 still supports PPC, so you're okay at least for a few years. I do wonder what will happen with the OS upgrade since there will be many under-the-hood changes. In the past this has meant that developers don't support older OS versions in new editions of their software. But, if you don't mind using older software versions, none of this is an issue.
As for memory I'd get at least 2 GB. I use a 1.2 GHz G4 Powerbook with with 1 GB RAM and it's really basic for most of the RAW converters and image processing software out there. Memory will serve you better that speed, but if you can get around 1 GHz+ you'll be good. If you have the cash or get lucky, go for one of the last G5 towers, they have the same case as the current Mac Pros. Really good and stable machine. They also had tons of drive bays. For an external drive have at least 120 GB that will give you plenty of space. If you're going to be using Photoshop you can use the big external drive from scratch space. Firewire 400, USB 2.0, or eSATA are all find external connection protocols from photo storage. As for used computers I'd check out some of the dealers below. They've all been in business for years, have solid reputations, and good customer support. http://www.shrevesystems.com/ http://www.powermax.com/ http://www.smalldog.com/ http://www.computerloft.com/ - Great if you are in the Boston area Low End Mac keeps a list of used dealers as well. They are also good resource for information on older Macs. Look at their site before you get something to make sure the line wasn't a lemon or has some weird configuation querks that might work against you (not too common for macs made in the last 6 years or so though). http://lowendmac.com/dealers/index.shtml Hope that helps. Tyler On Wed, 25 Jun 2008 19:20:32 -0400, "Walter Hamler" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> said: > Knowing that several of you use Macs, I am looking for advice. > I am looking at getting a used/refurbished G4 or G5 to use for > photography ONLY. > I know I want a big external drive for storage backup, but what about > internal main drive ? > I am looking for size/speed/memory recommendations as well as possible > sources. > I have looked at an Apple site for refurbished stuff but all they had > were iMacs in the 1k to 2k price range. > > Walt > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- Tyler Heibeck [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://tyler.heibeck.name AIM: TylerChem -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
