Thinking SERIOUSLY about an iMac 20 inch

[Lionheart]

I'm a Mac believer. The only thing that bugs me is learning how to get the Mac to see the PC's on my network so I can print to the doggone printer that's shared out on my main desktop. One thing I'll try is a network printer and see if the MacBook can pick it up. OR, I can just set up a Mac network by adding an iMac, and attach the printer to that machine and share it out
I had a chance to test out the G5 against my P4 3.4GHz w/3 GB RAM/256MB GeForce6800Ultra with photoshop cs, resizing a jpg 3504x2336 at 72 dpi to 21600x14400 at 720 dpi. My PC got done in 39 seconds, the G5 did it in 20seconds. I LOVE OS-X.4 It just makes sense, especially installing/uninstalling. The search feature is MUCH faster than Windblows, the built in speakers ROCK! Cruising the web with Safari is much nicer, all the pics and windows actually show up, and the bookmark feature makes much more sense. It is the internet machine that Microsoft WISHES Xp was and isn't. So now I'm contemplating this:
iMac 20-inch 2GHz Intel Core Duo
Options:
ATI Radeon X1600/256MB VRAM
2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 2x1GB
250GB Serial ATA drive
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
Keyboard & Mighty Mouse + Mac OS X - U.S. English
Accessory kit
Unit Price: $2,074.00
Problem is that I needed a riding mower for my 6 acres, so I got a new Husqvuarna riding mower instead. I love it too, but I'd rather have the new iMac. Thanks all for listening to me wish out loud and sermonize about Mac Evangelism
Maybe for Christmas....

[Erik Stiegler]

I had a chance to test out the G5 against my P4 3.4GHz w/3 GB RAM/256MB GeForce6800Ultra with photoshop cs, resizing a jpg 3504x2336 at 72 dpi to 21600x14400 at 720 dpi. My PC got done in 39 seconds, the G5 did it in 20seconds.

My 2.4Ghz PC (2GB RAM) did that in Photoshop Elements 2 in 17 seconds.

[Lionheart]

huh? hmmm...I've got elements somewhere here. Does CS have THAT much overhead compared to elements? Time to test it out.

[Erik Stiegler]

I wouldn't think it does. Try giving it more memory. It sounds like it's probably starting to swap to the scratch disc before it finishes resizing the photo.

By Christmas hopefully Adobe will have a universal binary version of Photoshop CS3 available. That will rock.

[Lionheart]

Well, loaded up elements, an older version, 45 seconds with the same file. Tried increasing ram for CS to use from 50% to 75%, time improved from 39 sec to 27 seconds. Tried different images using identical resolutions, got everywhere from 7 seconds to 50 seconds. I guess it depends on the photo. Comparison is between the G5 and my desktop may be valid, if they're both using the same cache, memory and scratch settings-i did use the same file for the comparison. My pc was set at cache levels=8, mem usage=50, separate scratch disk from main drive. I'll have to ask my friend what settings he's got on his G5, but he's on a trip to the midwest.

[Erik Stiegler]

I tried blowing up a photo to about the same size (21600x16600) on an Intel iMac at work this morning, and it was suprisingly fast, even swapping to the hard drive some. About 20 seconds, and that's running under Rosetta. CS3 should be great.

On a side note, I was seriously impressed by the quality of those enlargements.