Should I buy a G5?

Question

I've snooped around this forum to see if there are any ongoing issues with the G5's. There seem to be some problems - but I'm wondering if these issues are tied to a specific model (of the 4) G5's that were released.
Here's the story: My trusty Dual 1Ghz G4 has all but kicked the bucket. It's not the end of the world because I had been planning, for MANY months, to buy something new this year anyway. My original plan was to buy a new base-model Mac Pro. At the end of the day, probably about $3100 or so....
But I need to upgrade some software as well. And the money for these apps would be coming out of the same cash pool as the new Mac. So in a cost-savings effort I started looking at older models - G5's.
Note two things:
1.) This G5 would only be a "band-aid", meaning that at the very beginning of 2009, I'd be back on track to buy a brand-new MacPro. No questions asked!
2.) I'm strictly looking at the last of the PPC G5's. I'm focused on Dual-core 2.3 G5's - nothing but -and it's looks like they are going for around $1,200 on eBay.
So what are the issues with the G5's? More critically, do these issues affect the dual-cores 2.3 models? I've been shopping the refurb'ed area of the Apple Store as well. By the time you get one of these - plus pay tax and add RAM you're at around $2300 - $2800, depending on the exact configuration. The difference in $2800 and $1200 is a fair amount of other hardware / software that I could buy. So I'm somewhat torn. I thought I had my mind made up - go with the "cheap" box. But if a G5 ends up with some catastrophic failure, in 4 four months, then what did I really save? To make it more complicated, I've even started to toy with the idea of buying a refurb'ed 24" iMac. If I did this, it would be another band-aid as I'd still get a new MacPro next year if I ended up with an iMac now. I know - I'm all over the place now.....
So, what do you folks think? Just so you know, the apps I'm going to be running are the Final Cut suite (editing DV only) and the Adobe suite - mostly After Effects. Not exactly light-lifting. (It's not simply going to be an iTunes, e-mail, web machine that I'm after.)
Thanks for any suggestions!

Answer 1

I hear what you're saying. But it's become quite clear that a Mac Pro is the way to go for me.
If there were a more substantial difference in the prices between the used G5's and the Mac Pro's then it might be more of a contest. But, I was completely prepared to spend about $1350 for a G5. I can get a Mac Pro for $800 more. That's acceptable for me. And if that G5 I bought were to poop out on me - I'm stuck. There's no guessing how likely that scenario really is. In fact the Mac Pro I'd get may konk out in a week too. The likelihoods here are somewhat irrelevant. But "IF" it went down like that - I'd have a Warranty with the MacPro. I'd have recourse. And it'd be eligible to supplement this with AppleCare. The vast majority of the G5's out there don't have any AppleCare left on them. So if it goes south - I'd have another Apple-emblazoned doorstop.
It's time to make the leap anyway. Intel is the future. Leopard has proven to be stable with all the apps I'm going to be using it for: Adobe Suite, After Effects, FCS2. I do like design work, but frankly the video apps I use require even more processing power, typically. Developers are going to write software that's optimized for the current OS X and it's implementation on the Intel architecture. The Mac Pro is just a more forward-thinking way to go.
Thanks for your input! Oh - and a PC is out of the question!