I swore a mighty oath, declaring that I would not buy a new computer until high-speed Internet service became available in my neighborhood. Lo, it has come to pass that ComCast is introducing 1.5 Mbps cable service this week. I now seek to make good on my oath, lest I be cast into oblivion by Megahertz, the Greek god of clock speed.
I like Macs. I like 'em a lot, and I want a new one. I see that the G5s are the lastest, and still rather costly. I see that the extremely cool iMac has a G4 processor. I see that my wife plans to buy a PC laptop soon. I’d like to set these up for wireless networking, along with wireless access to the Internet. So…
If I get a standard cable modem and plug it into an Apple Airport base, will I be able to put an Airport card into my wife’s laptop and thus grant her wireless access to the account? Is there something else you’d recommend?
What’s the G5 got that the G4 ain’t? Is there some qualitative difference between the generations, an increment in performance that could only matter to gamers and video editors, or something between the two extremes?
What am I missing out on if I get the G4 iMac instead of a G4 tower, or a G5?
As far as modems and wireless gear, is there anything in particular I should avoid?
I plan to buy my own modem and do the “Free customer installation”; is this a mistake? Are there any questions I ought to be asking that I’m not?
You should have no problem with either computer connecting wirelessly to any 802.11g or 802.11b (which is slower) base-station. Personally, I use Airport because it is simple to set-up and administer but am not familiar with any other manufacturers.
The G5 is MUCH faster than the G4 and sports a whole host of hardware improvements over the previous generation—faster front side bus, access to more RAM, etc. The current models will be a year old in June (August if someone really wants to get technical), so I’d suggest waiting a little bit for new models to be introduced—They’ve been rumored to arrive last month, last week, tomorrow, next Tuesday…
The iMac and G5 are very different machines. One is geared to the home user and the other to the pro market. Obviously, the iMac is cheaper, but you really should compare the specs to see which one meets your needs. If all you’re going to do is cruse the web, read email and write letters, the iMac will probably suit you just fine. On the other hand, if you want to do a lot of video editing, game playing or heavy duty recording in GarageBand (the coolest application ever!) a G5 may be for you.
4 & 5) I can’t help you here. I will make one unsolicited suggestion, though. Since you’re going wireless—and if you chose to go with the iMac—I would recommend a PowerBook or iBook. Once you’ve experienced the freedom of using your computer in the bedroom, living room and kitchen you’ll wonder how you every lived without it.
Here’s my personal experience since that’s about as far as my knowledge with wireless goes, but it should help. I’ve got cable modem service with Time Warner cable. My computer is a PC running XP. My mom’s is an iBook with well, at least 10.2. We use a netgear router with 802.11g. My computer’s got a linksys card and hers uses the internal airport connection to communicate. Neither computer had any trouble getting on the network.
The only hitch, soon to be its own thread actually, was when I installed a printer router. The PC is all for it, but the Mac can’t recognize it properly.
I suspect if you had an airport base station, a PC with a wireless card could connect just as well as our system, but I can’t say for sure.
-Lil
Well, thanks. I did see the specs listed, but I can’t claim to know how important each item is. I’ve found that web surfing is far more demanding than many people think, because of the proliferation of Flash animation, videos (which I’d like to watch), etc. I know my G3/300 seems to choke on the feed from my 28.8k modem sometimes, although that may just be a memory issue.
I see Apple’s VP says that the G5 isn’t going to be in a Powerbook until, maybe, Summer 2005; if I’m going for the Powerbook (which does sound pretty neat, especially the 17" :D), that’s too long to wait. They have just retooled the Powerbooks to make better use of the G4. What new models are you referring to?
Until you’ve paid $600.00 for 16MB of RAM, don’t complain to me about expensive memory.
[/old fogey mode]
I second the Powerbook option. I went wireless a few years ago and gradually just stopped using my desktop machine. I’m using a practically antique 400 Mhz G3 Pismo and it still works extremely well for web browsing. In fact, the only thing at which it’s really sluggish is anything related to digital photography. 5 MP pictures put quite a strain on a system.
I wouldn’t wait for a G5 Powerbook; unless you’re doing extremely demanding processing, a G4 should be fine. And a G5 Powerbook is necessarily going to be hot and heavy. Myself, I’d be content buying one of the recently discontinued G4s (except that the Pismo refuses to die.)
Thanks again. I have now received the “connection kit” (a pair of co-ax cables, a splitter, a CD, and two pamphlets); I have also received, contrary to my instructions, a cable modem (to be leased at $3/mo.). I had intended to buy my own modem, perhaps a D-link. This modem is a Scientific Atlanta DPC2100; SA is a very big noise in the cable box business, and has apparently got the ComCast contract for modems (do they even sell to the public?) Does anyone know about this company’s quality? This modem?
I am now wondering whether to send this modem back; doing so could make customer service a little difficult. OTOH, leasing at $3/mo. will outstrip the cost of a retail modem in 2 years – would I be replacing it by that time anyway? Any advice?
FWIW, the modem has both ethernet and USB connectivity, and came with both cables. I have an ethernet card, and my wife has USB, so we could each connect by wire for the time being.
Never buy memory from Apple – it’s a scam, and even the die-hard Mac-heads don’t do it.
Just go to a decent RAM vendor (I like Crucial myself), find something that matches the specs, and buy it. Just be aware that MacOS X is sensitive to bad RAM, so make sure you get the good stuff.
