Mac owners and Techies

[Holley]

Again, it sounds like you're justifying yourself ... if cash is tight get a MiniMac, it only costs about 50% more than a mid-range Dell (at least on this side of the Atlantic).

[Naokii]

Even though a Mac would definatly cost more and building a PC would allow more customization and power gains, how does a Mac match up and what are their overclocking potential? I never had a Mac before and would like to lean more about its internal hardware - like what is user replaceable or what kind of parts do they take - i.e could I just pick up a new PSU if the old one goes out without custom ordering ect.

[zwabbe]

Well i myself have a MacBook. (non pro) And pretty much all thats upgradable on it is the RAM. You can get them in with bigger Hard drives, but i dont know about upgrading after you got it.. From what i know the Desktop ones are pretty much the same. More assembled units then PC's and there interchangeableness.

Ive never looked into the high end desktops from mac, mainly because they cost heaps! but thats because there around the lines of Duo Quad cores and more for your high end design sort of stuff.

Also on your overclocking stuff, Ive never been interested, because my mac has never not performed to the ability i want it too.

But what you gotta remember is the Mac's are very very diffrent from the techie world of PC's. Macs are like one big plug and play. You dont get a mac for things like overclocking and changing out graphics cards as you go along etc.... when the time comes you want to step up performance, you buy a new Mac.

The idea behind a Mac is that anyone is meant to be able to take it home and use it without nowing the ins and outs of a delicate OS like Windows, Its designed for people like Designers, DJ's, Pod casters, People who care more about their music playlist and editing there vacation footage, Small time bands..etc..etc.. All the sort of people who really dont wanna put there time into knowing there OS and computer specs and not having to worry about performance or what the hell it means by Winsock errors or what Dll files there missing...

And the big one, Not worry about viruses.

Hope this helps in someways. I went Mac about a year ago and i would never go back. At times its fun to try and find a windows equivilent of software unless you wanna put an emulator or back ground copy of windows on your mac. Which in my mind defeats the purpose of having a mac.

Another issue to take to mind is if your a gamer. The world of gaming in mac is alot diffrent, alot of main stream games these days still dont support anything else but Windows. And even though thats slowly changing, you will still find yourself in a mac store shopping for mac games.

[Naokii]

If I go Mac, I'll just go pick up a PS3 for gaming. '> Im not much of a gamer, I want more of a workstation and a fun OS that doesnt nag me too death *glares at Windows* I'd use it for music and GFX apps like photoshop.

[Holley]

The old PowerMacs were tweakable, but the new stuff isn't made to be played with.  Personally I wouldn't want one (I've owned 3 and there's one on my desk at work for some reason, and I just don't like them) but hey, its your money '>

If you don't like Windows then don't run it, there's plenty of other things you can run on a PC.  Of course if Windows Vista nags you you can just switch the warnings off ...

[Furball]

The only macs that are in any way customizable are the towers... it's one of the reasons I sold mine and built my own PC '> The other reason is that I was using Linux more than OSX anyway, and Linux runs better on a pc (well, now that apple has switched to intel cpu's it won't matter that much, but my mac was a ppc...)

[Naokii]

I keep reading alot of reports how OSX smokes both XP and Vista. I used OSX awhile ago (Kinkos xD) and it seemed friendly enough..never tried Linux before, I heard a certain tech level is needed and there isnt much support. Extra: I plan on getting Photoshop CS3

[Holley]

Ubuntu Linux makes OSX look over-technical, and the support available is community based and usually as good as you can get from Apple (in fact, in the past Apple's support has been downright useless to me).  Extra: You can run The Gimp, which does the vast majority of what Photoshop can do (well most all of it apart from some of the fancy plugins), without having to spend any money.

But it soulds like you've already decided, so quit justifying yourself and go buy it already '>

[Narei Mooncatt]

Quote (zwabbe @ Dec. 06 2007, 5:39 am)

And the big one, Not worry about viruses.

I wouldn't discount them completely.  A while back on the Kim Komando show (radio computer tech show), she mentioned that the real reason virus' are not very prevalent on Macs are because they are not as popular as PC's in the general public.  There's not near the incentive to look for things to exploit in it, but there have been some Mac virus'.  If they start gaining market share, then you will likely start seeing them pop up more often.  Personally, if I had a Mac, I'd still have anti-spyware programs on it and treat it just like a pc in that regard.

[Naokii]

Quote (Holley @ Dec. 06 2007, 9:30 am)

Ubuntu Linux makes OSX look over-technical, and the support available is community based and usually as good as you can get from Apple (in fact, in the past Apple's support has been downright useless to me).  Extra: You can run The Gimp, which does the vast majority of what Photoshop can do (well most all of it apart from some of the fancy plugins), without having to spend any money. But it soulds like you've already decided, so quit justifying yourself and go buy it already '>

Haha if I had a good chunk of cash on hand, I probably would go out and buy a higher end Mac. '> As for GIMP...I'd rather drop a grand for legit Adobe software then mess around with the sloppy 3-window GIMP interface again. >.<

[Twizler the skunk]

I was able to do a few upgrades on my imac g3 with out any trouble, I doubled the ram and went from an old 8 gig hard drive to a 100 gig, then upgraded from os 8 to os 10.  But sadly i traded it off for this laptop

[Naokii]

Welp, I made up my mind. Its going to be alot, but still costs alittle less than an overpriced Alienware. Mac Pro with x2 Dual Cores [Quad Core] @ 3.0Ghz with 4GB of RAM, BABY! :3

[Desdinova]

Quote (Nikku @ Dec. 06 2007, 1:23 pm)

Welp, I made up my mind. Its going to be alot, but still costs alittle less than an overpriced Alienware. Mac Pro with x2 Dual Cores [Quad Core] @ 3.0Ghz with 4GB of RAM, BABY! :3

If I were you I'd just build my own PC with comparable parts for a fraction of the price. It's not too hard and you'll save a butt-load of money. Apple seems to charge premium prices for mid-range hardware, in my experience. And their high-end stuff will break the bank. Not to say Alienware is any better. Building your own is the only way to go, as far as I'm concerned.

[Naokii]

I know D: If it were that easy to build a pc and use OSX (without dling illegally and hacking ect) then I'd go that route. I've been wanting a mac for abit (2 years) and Windows just isnt productive enough/ I never once used Linux.

[Desdinova]

There's really no advantages of using OSX over Windows, other than aesthetic reasons or personal preference. Not that I'm a Windows fan, but it's a pretty powerful operating system and I'm sure it could do everything that OSX can. If you're worried about viruses and spyware, just make sure you keep Windows protected, that's all. It's not as hard as so many people make it out to be.

As far as Linux goes, it's a pretty simple operating system to use once you get the hang of it. There's just some learning involved. Ubuntu is a good distribution for beginners. Best of all, 99 percent of Linux distributions are completely and legally free.

[Tioa]

I second Ubuntu, It worked fine pretty much from the get go, that is till I messed with it, but thats just me, I love to customise... AKA break things.  Its not not much good for gaming, but if you are going to go the Mac rout your not going to be doing much gaming anyhow.  The best part about Ubuntu is that its free, all free, If you want a new program you just go to add/remove programs, and add it and thats it.  Another good thing is linux tends to run faster than windows, and even an older system will handle most tasks quickly.  The only hang up is by default some things are disabled, you need to enable dvd and mp3 playback for instance, but its really not that hard.  You can download the OS and burn it to a disk and run it off the disk with out installing it, so pretty much you can try it before you commit to it.  anyhow Ill shut up now, Here is a LINK though, if your interested.

[Desdinova]

Quote (Tioa @ Dec. 07 2007, 8:33 am)

I second Ubuntu, It worked fine pretty much from the get go, that is till I messed with it, but thats just me, I love to customise... AKA break things.  Its not not much good for gaming, but if you are going to go the Mac rout your not going to be doing much gaming anyhow.  The best part about Ubuntu is that its free, all free, If you want a new program you just go to add/remove programs, and add it and thats it.  Another good thing is linux tends to run faster than windows, and even an older system will handle most tasks quickly.  The only hang up is by default some things are disabled, you need to enable dvd and mp3 playback for instance, but its really not that hard.  You can download the OS and burn it to a disk and run it off the disk with out installing it, so pretty much you can try it before you commit to it.  anyhow Ill shut up now, Here is a LINK though, if your interested.

Couldn't have said it better myself. If it weren't for the massive amount of gaming I do, I'd use Linux exclusively.

[Naokii]

I hope I didnt come off arrogent or a fanboy. It really does depend on what you will use the computer for ect. Each OS has its ups and downs (Though I still shun Vista for the way it handles memory) :3

[Desdinova]

Quote (Naokii @ Dec. 07 2007, 7:17 pm)

I hope I didnt come off arrogent or a fanboy.

Not at all. I feel it's just wiser to spend less money and build a comparable PC than to buy into Apple's overpriced hardware. And in my experience, there's nothing OSX can do that Windows can't.

But if you have that kind of money to spend and actually want to, then don't let me stop you.

[Naokii]

I'm young and computers are always evolving. Tis fun to try new things! This would be my 3rd comp - 1st was a cheap HP with a celeron, 2nd was a P4 Gateway and now I'm after a Quad core Mac. At first I wanted to build a pc, but a friend of mine got OSX Leopard on my mind..

[Desdinova]

Quote (Naokii @ Dec. 07 2007, 8:01 pm)

I'm young and computers are always evolving. Tis fun to try new things! This would be my 3rd comp - 1st was a cheap HP with a celeron, 2nd was a P4 Gateway and now I'm after a Quad core Mac. At first I wanted to build a pc, but a friend of mine got OSX Leopard on my mind..

It's always nice to try new things, but it sounds like you're going to extraordinary lengths just to have a certain operating system. But maybe I'm looking too far into it.

[Naokii]

It goes alittle further than liking an OS or stability (not stupid enough to go to questionable sites with IE in Windows..) I read that OSX has better memory management and Photoshop CS3 runs better on a Mac (the test shown CS3 running on OSX and then XP [on the Mac])

[Naokii]

Instead of making an un-needed new thread, I'll just ask this here. >.> I decided to hold off the iMac and go to the Mac Pro 'cause upgradability. Would x2 3.0GHz intel Xeon's make that much diff over x2 2.66GHz intel Xeon's to justify the price diff?

[Holley]

Unless you're 1- rendering 3D movies or 2- Calculating the distances of stars 3- Using seizmic readings to predict oil fields or 4- Running a very heavy server app like a 10Gb Oracle DB, you're unlikely to notice the difference between a dual-core 2GHz machine and a 32-core 3GHz supercomputer.  Why? memory and disk bandwidth are limiting factors in a desktop computer, rather than the processor, which define how 'quick' it feels.

On a side note, I've just ordered a new PC, for the price of a base Minimac I have an AMD x64 dual-core, 2GHz, 2Gb ram, 160Gb HDD and 19" monitor.  I've downloaded the 64bit version of SuSE Linux ready to put on it as soon as its here '>

[Naokii]

Showoff haha that's cool. I made this a 5.5k budget (but that includes GFX apps, a Wacom Cintiq tablet, 5.1 surround sound and a high quality 24" monitor. Damn Mac made up 3k of that.