PowerMac G5 rig up to IntelMac: possible?

[peteag]

Will the PowerPC architecture be supported after 2007 when Intel-Macs are finally finished. Because I want to buy such an PowerMac G5 Model but what if it's useless and no longer be supported by Apple? And: what about buying a PowerMac G5 now and rig it up to an Intel-Mac later??? Is this possible?

[Episode]

First of all, stop doubleposting. And yes, PPC will be supported after that too for few years since most of the mac are still PPC-based even in 2007. It actually really doesn't matter what's inside your computer if you use universal binaries (Xcode 2.1 already supports them) which work on both of the processors. And no, I don't think you can upgrade your Powermac G5 to Intel-Mac later.

[peteag]

sorry for me double-posting but i was recently in the apple store and my hands were rebelling against me. so it's very important for me to know if buying or not. there will be no upgrade kits with a new motherboard and new processors? because if I buy a powermac now many many hardware in it is still goog working even for an intelmac. so what to do with all that hardware?

[Episode]

Um, there is no reason for not to buy new powermac now. If you need one now, go on and buy one.

There never has been any upgrade kits from Apple (at least not official and not from Apple itself), because they usually just sell completly new computer if you want faster speeds etc. Software will keep working on both systems after the switch. When the time comes and you need to upgrade your computer, you can then buy Intel-Mac and still use same software that you used on your Powermac G5.

Some people just don't understand that switching the processor architecture doesn't mean that their old computer becomes obsolete in one night. As I said, new binaries that are made with Xcode 2.1 have a possibility to run natively on both architectures, on ppc and x86, so it really doesn't matter what you have. The support for PPC will end after majority of mac users have been switched to Intel and that might take a little bit long than last time when Apple switched from Motorola 68k processors to Powerpc. Even the switch to OSX from OS9 didn't happen in one night as many of the customers continued to use their old programs that only worked on their old system.

[peteag]

Did you have a mac? I want to buy a 2.3GHz dual cpu powermac. does this is enough for very special works like hd-videoediting, 3d animation, compositing a.s.o?

[Episode]

Yeah, it's enough :)