To go for the Quad or not...
 

I'm ready to upgrade from my notebook and am looking to buy either the Dual G5 or the Quad.

Obviously both are exspensive, but the Quad is really up there. My question is, is it worth it to spend extra for the quad? I know there are speed improvements but is it really that much better than the dual?

You will see most of the speed difference if you are doing lots of work with maya or shake. Programs need to be coded and compiled to take advantage of the multiple processors to really see the advantage. Other than that, the system will do something akin to processor 1 for the system, processor 2 for mail, processor 1 for DOOM 3, processor 2 for program x.

If you are doing lots of 3d/compositing work, or scientific research, you will see great speed improvements. Other programs tend to be not coded to take advantage as it's not as necessary. I'm not sure if FCP is Multi Processor Aware, let me look it up...can't find that info, sorry. I would venture a guess that it is, they'd be silly not to expend resources there.

Have you thought about waiting for a bit until the Intel Powermacs come out? I imagine they'll be very nice, and maybe even smoke the G5's.

Aaron