Is this G5 a good deal?

[AllGold]

I think it's a good deal... but only if it's under warranty and eliglble for Applecare. Because of my past experience, I would never buy any G5 that isn't covered.

As for noise, I've had both machines, and although not silent, the G5 will definitely be much, much quieter than the Quicksilver.

[Carthaigh]

Good deal. Buy it. The dual 2.3GHz G5 will be a good computer for a couple more years at least.

[Buzz]

1) couldn't say, so won't

2) PCI-X is a no-go, but w/ backward compatibility, probably not a deal killer

3) Noise? pretty much a crap shoot, as towers tend to vary, even amongst the same model. We go through a fair number of most models, and I tend to keep the quietest/most reliable one(s) from each run for longer term use here. That said, the exception has been the QS, keeping the high end dually, based on performance only, as it is about, if not the noisiest mac we've ever had. The MDD dually keeper, and the G5 2.3GHz DualCore seem silent by comparison, though they're not totally silent by any means. Both tend to modulate on warmer and hotter days, while staying quiet when its normal, or cooler out. I don't know what level of noise is bad for audio work, but if I did any, I'd use our MDD or G5 over the QS in a heartbeat based on comparative noise alone. Our QS is mostly used for cleaning up scanned images and documents and pdf'ing them, and a bit of surfing while the [even noisier] scanner is processing and doing its thing. There are tweaks that can quiet most machines, but the bottom line would probably be to listen to the machine, or have someone listen to it for you, before buying to at least assess what you're starting point would be. good luck, enjoy.