Hi, I am looking at switching from pc to mac and need a little advice. I am a Web Design / Multimedia student and I know I need a Mac to really work in this field. But I am wondering if I would be good on a G5 imac or should I shell out the dough and go with a power G5? I see that the imacs are smaller sizewise (dimensions and memory) but they may be enough to get the job done - designing web pages, photoshop work etc. I am wondering if the power macs come with a monitor? It doesn't seem that they do where the imac is a computer and monitor in one. I can see that the imac is clearly a consumer end machine but does that matter if it does the job? I also recently bought a ipaq 2215 pda and wonder if anyone knows if it is compatible with the mac? Thanks!

Hi! I'd like to correct a few assumptions you've made..firstly, that you really need a mac anymore to work in this feild..with the enournous improvement in processor power and video cards, to name but a few, PC's really have come a long way and are certainly viable alternatives..although i prefer macs myself. Also, Macs are not by any strectch anymore consumer end machines..besides being very effective servers, they're used a fair amount in business..the limiting factor against their more widespread use there, is the initial cost of outfitting a business with macs, as opposed to PC's.. I am a musician and multimedia artist myself, so have some professional experience with macs.. I think you're likely to be more productive with macs, but it depends on what you're doing.. I do a fair amount of video and graphic art design, and frankly, prefer the classic envoirement. If you were to get a G5, that option would not be available to you, as the last macs that run classic are the G4's. Why run classic anyways as opposed to OSX? Well, for starters , a lot of the high end graphics companies (including even Adobe) have limited support for X, or are discontinuing it..furthermore , i find the unix style envoirement unwieldy and the screen redraws don't appeal to me either.. There are some things that are better, such as the X quicktime version, but it's nice to be able to switch between the two Operating systems. If you did instead get soething like a 1 gigahertz G4, you'd be able to do this, and it would save a bundle in the process.... Which you would use for a really really good *monitor* !!! If you want any kind of productivity in multimedia, you've just gotta have a really good monitor and video card.. An iMac just isn't suitable, the monitors are, in my opinion, just adequate, there's little possibility of upgrading the video card (well, you could plug a second monitor in it, although i don't know for sure, but...) The iMacs are indeed the 'consumer end machines' that you were referring to. I have a gorgeous 20 inch apple crt monitor , and wouldn't ever want to have to do my work on an iMac screen! Furthermore, if need be, i can upgrade my monitor again.. Even if you do go with the G5 (which certainly has the *impressive* processor power for movies etc.) you'd really not regret going with a seperate monitor.... That's my 2 cents worth..HTH...good luck.

Simple! Just order a iMac G5 today. It has a big screen, a 64! bit processor, fast ram, good video card. Dell sells these things as workstations. The new iMac G5 is a wolf in sheeps clothes. It has plenty of power to do webdesign and multimedia. Just remember to buy more RAM when ordering. Mac OSX is Unix and unix likes memory! (as doe multimedia applications) Just go for it! If you have money to spare you can even get the 20" one.