The 24-hour interval Steve Jobs announced the first Intel - based Macs would be transport from Apple by next year , I got several tocopherol - mails from friend expect whether they should buy a new Mac now , or wait until the Mactel machines were discharge .

My answer was this — if you were planning to get a raw computer before the announcement , there ’s no reason to change your brain now . ( As Jason Snell , our editorial director , pointed out in our Intel transition guide , if you ’ve get an indisposed Mac , do youreallywant to expect another twelvemonth or two to exchange it ? ) I also secern them that I was planning to buy a young dual - processor Power Mac G5 myself , so I ’m putting my money where my back talk is .

Why am I buying a newfangled Mac now instead of waiting ? Well , the current system on my desk at home is a dual-867MHz Power Mac G4 ( Mirror Drive Door)—and to be honest , it no longer suits my needs . For example , I late installed MusicMagic Mixer ( part of Roxio ’s new The Boom Box ) , which is an app that dissect song in your iTunes library to make skilful play list . To go through my intact library ( confessedly prominent at 18,000 - plus songs ) was pass away to take more than a workweek of constant estimator power . Encoding television for wedding DVD I ’ve made for friends also take forever . ( In fact , I ’ve brought task into the agency just so I can use the dual-2.0GHz Power Mac G5 on my desk ) .

Part of the ground I ’m the multimedia beat individual atMacworldis that I actually enjoy playing around with sound and video apps , and things such as audio effect and real - time video transition benefit greatly from more computation king .

Since I bought my G4 roughly two - and - a - half class ago , I ’ve added RAM , replaced the Combo Drive with two Pioneer DVD burner ( one a dual - layer burner ) , swap out my stock hard drive for a grown one and added a second hard cause , pop up in a USB 2.0 PCI wag , and added a USB Bluetooth mental faculty . In other parole , I ’ve done pretty much everything I can do to keep it New ( other than installing a C.P.U. acclivity ) . I take myself a power user , and rather than sinking any more money into squeezing the last bit of in high spirits - end performance out of my current system , it ’s worth it to me to indue in a young one now . A unexampled Mac brings faster processors , faster RAM , faster bus pep pill , built - in USB 2.0 and ( optionally ) Bluetooth , a serial ATA hard drive , a strain 16x three-fold - level DVD burner , faster and more - hefty graphics , PCI - X , and more .

I had the melodic theme in my header to kick upstairs to a new Mac before Steve took the degree last week , and I do n’t see any reason to switch my mind now . you could always wait for something well , faster , and cheaper to get along along — but if that ’s the manner you look at thing , you ’ll never stop up buying anything . Technology go fast , and just like the old adage about how a car loses half its note value the minute you drive it off the lot , so a computer can be considered outdated by the time you ’ve unpacked the boxful it come in . But I ’m convinced that I ’ll be able to use a current Power Mac during and past the Intel switch , so I ’m quick .

If you do n’t need a new computer now , there ’s no reason to purchase one — but if you do , there ’s no good reason to look .