Startup problems--time for a new machine?

I have an imac G5 that I bought last February. In the last few weeks I've been experiencing serious startup problems. When turned on, the screen goes gray and the lines and pixels fragment and shimmer. It takes a long time to go to the main screen and often the screen isn't stable and freezes. It takes me eight to ten startups to get the system stable.
I've repaired disk permissions, repaired h-drive, reset Pram. Still a mess. My husband wants me to just get a new one and get something that is not an Apple this time. I'm resisting that.
I don't want to lose all my data and I've backed up what I can but I'm worried the data is corrupted and if I load it on to a new machine, I will experience the same problems.
Any advice? I'm not even sure if this is a hardware or software problem. I'm out of warranty so I am on my own, but I'm frustrated to be having these problems with such a new machine.
Thanks for any advice,
Cassandra
iMac G5   Mac OS X (10.4.6)  

Cassandra, in addition to Barbara's excellent suggestion: looking to see if you qualify for the program, please make sure that you have an external FireWire drive and clone your drive, (SuperDuper is an excellent choice for backing up, cloning and making scehduled backups).
Let us know how you made out,
Miriam
Rev A 20" iMac G5, 15"iMac G4, 15"iMac G3 DVD Mac OS X (10.4.6)

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