Help Me Pick A New Pc/mac

[JonMack]

you could just bosh windows on the mac and run all the software though....

check out software like parallells, boot camp, etc.

+1

When I installed Windows on my MBP it was the fastest Windows machine I had ever used (bearing in mind my housemate got a new XP laptop the same time i got my MBP, and I don't use PCs at all), then again I did install a super lightweight version of XP. But yeah, if you want a Mac, buy one, and just install Windows on it, not only do you get a sweet 20" screen, a nice keyboard and mouse, you get the joys of OS X and the insecurity and bugs of XP or Vista, what more could you want?!

[Krisboats]

Ok, ive talked to my old man and we've decided the iMac is a good choice.

heres the spec:

20inch 2.4 GHz

2.4GHz Intel

Core 2 Duo

1GB memory

320GB hard drive1

8x double-layer SuperDrive

ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB memory

£891.83

sound good?

I just spent £320'ish on a dual core processor 2GB of ram, new PSU, new motherboard and new ati x1900xt.

My system is now:

3.1Ghz intel core 2 duo

2GB RAM

160GB hard drive (got a new 250gb one on order for £30)

16x +/-DVDRW

512mb ATI X1900XT

Basically, for a lot less money you can get a much better pc system.

So chuck in a nice case at say £70, a new hard drive at £40 and a new 22" screen at £159 and for around £600 you've got a system thats easily twice as good.

[strat-trials]

krisboats = nail on head

nice system there!

also, google "openoffice" its an open source office program that is identicle to microsoft office, avoids piracy and is cross compatible with other office programs. And beauty is its free!

for image editing, use the "GIMP"programme. Can pretty much do anything photoshop can do. Also open source.

Cheers, Tom

[poopipe]

GIMP can't do everything photoshop can - its not bad though

parallells/bootcamp are not going to make anything cheaper - you buy your mac for twice as much as the equivalent pc, get bootcamp, then pay out hundreds of quid for vista in order to run apps you can't get on a mac - genius.

[Boswell]

I just spent £320'ish on a dual core processor 2GB of ram, new PSU, new motherboard and new ati x1900xt.

My system is now:

3.1Ghz intel core 2 duo

2GB RAM

160GB hard drive (got a new 250gb one on order for £30)

16x +/-DVDRW

512mb ATI X1900XT

Basically, for a lot less money you can get a much better pc system.

So chuck in a nice case at say £70, a new hard drive at £40 and a new 22" screen at £159 and for around £600 you've got a system thats easily twice as good.

Where did you buy that stuff from?

[Dai the Socket]

Apple Pages is the word processor and it's OK, but it's not compatible with Word docs which makes it a bit pointless in my eyes. My mac came with a free 1 month trial of that, but you have to buy the full version. Microsoft Office:Mac is great though.

All new macs come with iPhoto which is a kind of photo editing program but it's very basic - certainly no photoshop.

I've opened Word documents in Pages before, also it claims Office compatibility but I'm pretty sure it doesn't work Pages to Word. I'm using Word 2004 on my Mac and it's pretty good, and with Office '08 for Mac expected in January 2008 should be good.

Tomm, what version of iPhone you using? I've got to admit I thought the old iPhotos were a little wank, but the new iLife, iPhoto '08 (v7.1) is really good. Granted it isn't a patch on Photoshop for advanced effects and custom stuff especially RAW but even for when I'm processing my photos from working at the Plug, doing levels whilst exporting to a certain size is really good:

On top of that, I think what Jon and Janson said about running Windoze on your mac it's easy. Just download or use (if your mac is new) Bootcamp and it's soooo easy!

A lot of concerns about getting a mac is that firstly stuff isn't compatible. They're not sure what isn't compatible, just stuff - although once clearing up Office works fine and now stuff like Need for Speed Carbon, Madden, Sims etc. all work on OS X pretty much a lot of people are happy.

I think what might be a good idea is maybe going into an Apple store and having a proper look over a Mac - even if you're going to buy one second hand, then you'll get used to the OS and also get an idea of how they work compared to Windows based PC's.

Edited November 9, 2007 by Nick Carter

[James]

Cheers for all you help guys. I'l let you know what I buy!

love you all

[bikedude789]

Get an alien ware : http://www.alienware.co.uk/product_pages/d...ll_default.aspx

or a shuttle: http://eu.shuttle.com/en/DesktopDefault.aspx/tabid-2/

[Krisboats]

Where did you buy that stuff from?

www.overclockers.co.uk

The ram is even cheaper this week, £31+vat for 2gb of geil pc6400.

[Luke Drewery]

Basically, for a lot less money you can get a much better pc system.

End of.

My cousin has just payed £800 for a mac desktop, and its crashed and been a pain already, and thats just running photoshop, nothing too demanding. I do like Apples design and some of their software is impressive, but I generally prefer PC's for customisation abilities. And PC's are much better for gaming, which is my primary use for my computer at home.

I would recommend building your own PC, its not that hard and you can save a shed load. Just do some research on good parts suited to what you want, and go to somewhere like dabs.com, overclockers uk or play.com and get yourself some components then build. .

Luke.