Just wondering, for those who have been on Macs for awhile, how often you replace your mac and why?<br><br>I have a G4/500 and I use it for home use. When the dual ghz came out, I wanted one so badly! But, I'm gonna wait till the G5 comes out, or a year after they do. Right now mine runs fine, but to have a dual...mmmmmmmmmmmmmm <br><br>

We don't seem to replace them, rather we add to our collection. Right now we have three in operation; a PM 5500, blueberry slot loading imac G3 350, and an Indigo imac G3 500 cdrw. A fourth imac, (233), is on loan to my mother-in-law. With six people in our family my ultimate goal is to have six macs. Our next purchase will be the flat panel imac. Probably later this year.<br><br>

Funny you should ask that right now. I have just decided not to replace my current Mac after pondering a new one for a few months. In the past, I have bought a new Mac every two and a half years or so. Since I use it to make a living, every purchase should be cost-efficient; that's why my rule of thumb has always been not to upgrade unless the new machine is at least twice as fast as the old one. Recent lack of progress in cpu speed has enabled me to put off a purchase for some time.<br><br>Now, the machine I do my work on is an old, rev1 beige G3 desktop which I have upgraded to a 466 Mhz G3 along with a faster video card. The dual gig G4 is definitely at least twice as fast as that, but my other rule of thumb has been to never buy the top-of-the-line, since it generally costs too much relative to the extra speed you might get. The next one down is the 933 mhz G4, which is really only barely twice as fast as my current machine, discounting Altivec.<br><br>So my decision (for now) was to buy a Sonnet Tango USB/Firewire card, more memory and a fast Firewire external hard drive. Fortunately, since most of my work is in Illustrator, I have that option to stand pat; if I used Photoshop all day, my decision might be made for me.<br><br>Ironically, OSX would be detrimental for me. Epson has seen fit not to release drivers for the EPS3000 printer, a wide ethernet printer which cost me $3,000 (Cdn). This despite the fact that Epson still sells it on their Web site! Additionally, there are no PostScript RIPs that I know of which work in OSX. Although I am aware that I will eventually have to go that way, OSX is definitely going to cost me some money and functionality.<br><br>John<br>[color:red]I don't need no...</font color=red>

I bought my G4 466 last year, in January. And my iBook this year, in February. First I had an... LC475.<br><br>

appears to be what I've been doing.<br><br>SE30<br>7100av<br>G3 266<br>iMac 800<br><br>Reason for upgrading? I know the difference between what I WANT and what I NEED:<br><br>If I want it -- I need it -- I buy it!<br><br>I also bought a couple of iMac Rev A's for the grandkids (kept them here for a while to play with them long enough to know I didn't want one for myself at the time. Now that I am retired, this flat panel iMac suits me to a "T" (whatever that means ???).<br><br>If I use Lasruk's rule and don't upgrade until something twice as fast, I might not be around to have to worry about upgrading again , but I hope so. I am spending my children's inheritance. <br><br>Kate<br><br>

Actually I should have said adding to the collection..but now I can't edit it.<br><br>Yeah, I agree about not upgrading it unless it's a least double. I think I'll hold off until they do even more upgrading, like the bus speed and all that.<br><br>The only reason I would go top of the line is cause of the dual processors...if they would just go all dual like they did 2 years ago!<br><br>

'97 - Mac #1 - 8500/180 - still have it as an internet gateway.<br>'97 - Mac #2 - 6100/66 - bookkeeping & fax - replaced with...<br>'98 - Mac #3 - Rev.A iMac - replaced #2<br>'98 - Mac #4 - 9600/300 - took over graphics work from 8500 - recently upgraded to G4/400 & added 40GB EIDE HD<br>2000 - Mac #5 - 8600/200 - for home - recently upgraded to G4/400 - 40GB EIDE HD being added this week<br><br>No urgency to upgrade to OS X, therefore no urgency to upgrade hardware! YAY!!! <br><br>[color:red]Alec</font color=red>

B/W G3 350, 384MB ram. Upraded the HDD to a 30GB 7200rpm one a few months back. Graphics are cr@p. <br><br>Looking to go G4 933 with 1GB ram and 60GB HDD, plus better graphics, sometime in June. OS X will be on it so I guess I'll be dipping my toe in the OS around then. (At least then I should begin to understand what some of these X posts are about) <br><br>Probably won't upgrade again for 3-4 years.<br><br>G5? What G5...*sigh*<br><br>

We accumulate them as well. So far the only Mac that I've owned that has died is a Classic II, which gave up the ghost about a year ago--I'm sure it's fixable, but it's not worth the money. The 512Ke is still plugging away, though .<br><br>About buying a new machine. I got my son an iBook last year, so it'll probably be a while before we acquire another computer. I do lust after the DP Gig, though.<br><br>So who doesn't, right? <br><br>And that's true too.--Shakespeare, King Lear

MachOne, I would recommend waiting till after MWNY in July before getting a new mac. Either you will get a better Mac at the same price as the current 933 or the 933 will be a lot cheaper! <br><br>