Intel Mac upgrade

[Sheppy]

Hello All,
I have been running a Power Mac G5 in our prepress for 6 years now. This machine has been a workhorse and has never given me ONE bit of trouble. Unfortunately our biggest client is upgrading to CS5 in a couple of months so we will have to make the move to an Intel Mac. I was hoping that maybe somone else has made this switch recently as well and I am trying to figure out what software will run on it and what won't. Suitcase X1? Pitstop Pro. 7.22? Quark 7??? Dynastrip 4.2? Any help is greatly appreciated.

 

[EZPower]

We went with iMac 27"

Quark 8
Suitcase Fusion 3
CS5
Pit Stop Pro 8

The only problem we see so far, is the direct printing of PDF files to Xerox 700 is a major problem. The intel Mac and Xerox do not play nice.

We print PDF files from our old Mac.

 

[Ddog]

Intel Mac

Intel Mac

I'm using a 8 core Mac Pro running 10.6.5. I use CS5, Acrobat 9, Prinergy 4.1, Preps 5.3, Pitstop 10, Suitcase Fusion 3, Office 2008 with *no* issues at all.

 

[Steve_S]

Went from a G4 to an iMac 24

CS5
Quark 8
Linotype FontXplorer Pro


Everything is good, except some direct printing from acrobat as a previous post mentioned. But we use Odystar, so our PDF's go through a workflow as a general rule. No issues with Pitstop but it is rarely used on the workstation as we have it built in to the workflow also. You will enjoy the better performance with Creative Suite - it is noticeable on the Intel boxes.

 

[wizscape]

Went from G4 to 8-core Mac Pro with 10.5.8.

CS5
Acrobat 8
Quark 7.5
Pistop 7.52
FontXplorer X

Direct print to DocuSP, ECRM RIP, Onyx RIP with no problems.

 

[prepressguru]

Intel macs have been on the market for a long time I doubt you will have any trouble with it. Just get the best one you can afford. But set aside some of the budget for some software updates. It looks like you have an old version of pitstop. Most likely running with acrobat 7? If you can upgrade to Acrobat 9 (well I guess you will with CS5) and a newer set of plugins. It will be much more stable. Quark 7.5 will be a bit tricky under OS X 10.6. as it doesn't play nice. But you can get it to work.

Enjoy your new Mac!

p

 

[squirrelbones]

Dont forget that Appletalk is gone with the latest version(s) in OS X

 

[aorta]

We had a problem printing direct to the Xerox also. Unclick the "collated" button in the print dialogue window and see if that makes any difference.

 

[jrhmobile]

You'll be pleased ...

You'll be pleased ...

... with the improvements since G5 days ...

My configuration
2 Machines --

MacBook Pro 15"
6GB of RAM
320GB HD
OSX 10.6.5
external keyboard, mouse & monitor at production station; stand-alone with USB mouse when I take it on client site

iMac 24"
8GB of RAM
500GB HD
OSX 10.6.5

Both machines run --
CS5 Master Collection
QuarkXPress 8
Acrobat 9
Suitcase Fusion
Mac Office 2008
Snapz Pro X

I run a gigabit Ethernet router to access the Internet my cable modem and pass files between the two Macs and two WinTel PCs with similar hardware specs and software (no Quark on the WinTel PCs, but I might change that on one station to accommodate a prospective client) and run to my output devices.

 

[pacart]

Yes, you can run pitstop 7 on the intel machine, i use Acrobat 7 with pitstop on my new 6-core mac pro and it works fine. FYI, upgradability to pitstop 10 from v.7 ends in december so we will be upgrading and its a lot cheaper than buying the non upgrade.

some of my older programs that still work are:

Freehand MX
Quark 6.52
CS3 premium
eye one

Everyday prepress programs are:

CS5 design premium
Suitcase Fusion 3
Command Workstation 5.2
Microsoft Office 2008
Nexus 9.0.3

 

[graficworx]

There is a way in CS to backsave for an older version. I do it all the time. Also, if your clients are willing to send you all PDF's, then the upgrade might not be necessary, but don't let me get in the way of that shinny new toy

OSX 10.6 removed appletalk, so if you have anything that utilizes it, keep that old G5 around. Our imagesetter has a hardware RIP that utilizes appletalk, so I have a G5 setup that acts as a print server to the RIP, and our other Intel Macs print to it fine. Other thing to consider is Intel Macs do away with OS 9 support, which seems like not a big deal, but some people still have aging Pagemaker installations for comparability issues. Other than that, make sure you get all the updates installed from Adobe.

 

[davec]

I have several Intel Macs printing to our Xerox 700. What RIP are you using?

Edit - Sorry I missed the last post. GraphicWorx supplied the answer first!

When I need to print to AppleTalk only printers, I do the following.

Set the printer up on a G5 Mac.
Share the printer to the other Macs.

Print from the Intel Mac to the AppleTalk Printer via the G5.
Works a charm and on a good network, there is little to no lag!

Hope this helps.

We went with iMac 27"

Quark 8
Suitcase Fusion 3
CS5
Pit Stop Pro 8

The only problem we see so far, is the direct printing of PDF files to Xerox 700 is a major problem. The intel Mac and Xerox do not play nice.

We print PDF files from our old Mac.

 

[pmkprog]

I'm lazy and didn't read through all of the posts, but if it worked in 10x, then it will probably work on the new Mac. I have been running Quark 6.5 and up and CS1 and up. I don't see any issues for you.