FRED JOHNSON Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 I'm posting this here as I intend to upgrade my architect package from 1.0 to 12.5 (I know, I know). I have a chance of getting an Emac for a give away price and wondering if anyone was using this machine. It will run VW only and I will also have to update plotter driver. Specs: 1Gz G4 (133MHZ) 1 GB SDRAM Superdrive 17" display ATI Raeon 7500, AGP 4 x support, 32 MB DDR SDRAM Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Not a nice machine to be frank. The QSs in the same building as us had some. They sounded like aeroplanes and they all went tits up eventually. There's a reason you're getting it for a giveaway price. Personally I couldn't imagine running VectorWorks on one of them but then I've been spoilt over the past few years in terms of hardware. Quote Link to comment
FRED JOHNSON Posted March 28, 2007 Author Share Posted March 28, 2007 Christiaan, Thanks for the info..guess a new intel Imac will be the way to go, I was probally just fooling myself. QSs?? not sure I know the term. Quote Link to comment
Jonathan Pickup Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 Christiaan means a Quantity Surveyor... I?ve still got an emac but I wouldn?t like to use VectorWorks on it every day as i was one of the old ones and is sloooow by today?s standards. Even at a give away price you will have to pay for it?s slow speed everyday that you use it. I might get one for the kids to use it, but for me, I?m worth more than that Quote Link to comment
FRED JOHNSON Posted March 28, 2007 Author Share Posted March 28, 2007 Actually, speed is relative..I'm using Architect 1.0 on a 450 mhz G4 tower with 512 ram and, for what I do, speed, in terms of response to command input, never has been as issue; started with G3. I'm getting older and spend more time as a spec writer than designer. I'm not sure what is meant by "speed", can someone shed some light on what "speed" means to them. I did notice the G4 was faster than the G3, but the time it took to produce a given set of documents did not seem to decrease with the benifit of the faster machine..I also price my services by the hour. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 (edited) Upgrading to VW 12 is going to require more umph from the computer to get going. Although you could use the eMac - as long as it will run the newer versions of OS 10 (a limitation of some older eMacs) - you may actually lose productivity because of the more powerful program running on a slightly better OS. It's likely the OS will consume most of the power of the eMac, making other operations just as slow. Some still believe up through OS 10.4.x is slower than OS 9, overall. This is definitely something to consider, or at least keep in the back of the mind. If you can afford the better computer, you are doing yourself a huge favor by going to the newer machine. Why not try to finish a 3 hour project in 2 hours? That's an extra 1 hour to work on another project, producing more revenue, or another hour to spend doing something even more entertaining - in my case it would be sleep! Edited March 28, 2007 by Katie Quote Link to comment
Tobias Posted March 28, 2007 Share Posted March 28, 2007 I think it depends what you are using it for, I have an old G4 400 (upgraded to 1ghz) and I can run VW fine on it,rendering things on the other hand is so slow that I just don't do it. The biggest draw back for the emac to me would be the screen size. Having two monitors is pretty sweet. As I'm actually beginning to earn money using the computer, it's time to start socking money for the new computer, but I'd say the emac will run VW 12.5, I just wouldn't plan on renering anything. Quote Link to comment
FRED JOHNSON Posted March 28, 2007 Author Share Posted March 28, 2007 I'm thinking that I have one more computer / cad upgrade left in this life (age & stuff) and the only reason to upgrade at all is that although everything works fine now, for what I do (no rendering) its all old stuff (computer, plotter, printer, plot driver)and if any one element goes I would have no choice but to start from scratch. 12.5 seems like such a great upgrade it may be time to bite the bullet sooner than later. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Fred, my advice would be that an iMac is currently the best value that Apple is offering for your kind of budget. They are very good machines compared to the eMacs. Quote Link to comment
FRED JOHNSON Posted March 29, 2007 Author Share Posted March 29, 2007 Just Curious re iMac... refurbished 2.0 Ghz G5 or new Intel.. my son , the graphic designer, has a new intel iMac which has to run non-universal apps photoshop, quark, etc.. and gets lots of sowtware crashes. Quote Link to comment
Christiaan Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 Definitely the intel mac with VW 12.5. You'll find it much quicker, plus it will just last longer. I haven't found any problems with those applications on the intel machine we have. Quote Link to comment
Travis Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 We have one of each (G5 and Intel CoreDuo) iMac. Both are solid; either will be a significant upgrade from what you've been using; the Intel is a noticeable step up in speed (especially rendering) from the G5. If you watch Apple's webstore, you can often pick up a factory reconditioned CoreDuo for 15?20% off list. We don't run Windows on the Intel very often, but haven't had crashing problems when we did. Good luck, Quote Link to comment
FRED JOHNSON Posted March 29, 2007 Author Share Posted March 29, 2007 Guys (& Katie) Thanks for the advice and time..the iMac is it. I'll be ready to purchase something in the next month so at that time I'll compare prices (new vs refurbished, etc.) got price for upgrading to 12.5 and x-rip so I need to keep those in mind. Quote Link to comment
Guest Posted March 29, 2007 Share Posted March 29, 2007 You might not need xrip for OS 10 - what printer are you using? Quote Link to comment
Vectorworks, Inc Employee Andrew Bell@NV Posted March 29, 2007 Vectorworks, Inc Employee Share Posted March 29, 2007 Go with an Intel iMac. Adobe is finally releasing Intel Mac-compatible betas of Photoshop. The developers here at NNA are almost all working either on Windows or on Intel Macs, so that Mac version is getting more testing. I suspect in the next couple of years, many software companies will start dropping PowerPC Mac support in new releases. (As usual, I can neither confirm nor deny NNA's plans regarding PowerPC support in future versions of VectorWorks.) Quote Link to comment
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