Preserved Topic: mac vs. pc--the great debate. (Page 1 of 1)

Okay so I am looking to invest in a new computer system. I was planning on a Mac, cause well I use on at my college in the pub lab and have heard most designers use macs. However I went into a computer place today just to talk to someone and he told me that macs are getting kinda weak in the fact that they can become more costly and many designers a switching to PC plat because of the limits a Mac has. Soooooo, right now I am using a sony vaio which is crap as far as true color comes, and have a small hard drive, so I kinda need to invest in something else. He suggested an IBM thinkpad, which you can buy a monitor for that has true color (can't remember the name of it). Anyway, is this my best option? I do prefer laptops because of my limited area to work in. Just curious as to what ya'll would suggest.

My recommendation!

-cyoung

"...new computer system." or new laptop?

I built my PC, when I want a different part I buy it, vidcard, soundcard, whatever I feel like, part burns out, I replace it, I can get every single part for it within a day if I buy locally and cheap, (exept for shipping) when I buy online. When I get some extra cash I build a faster one. I dont know anyone that builds new apples, and then builds old apples out of parts they have from their obsession with upgrading....sure some people modify them apples but the source for parts is, you either get them from apple or...you get them from apple. For desktops I can mix and match just about anything together and I can build about 2 machines for the cost of the Mac. You made many mentions of laptops, this is where I dont see a difference between macs and PC's, its just personal preference. I wouldnt imagine trying to talk anyone out of a mac as most mac users tend to be a bit fanatical about their preference.

So to cut to the chase for a desktop graphic machine I would get...being reasonable of course...nothing too extreme

1 - AMD PALOMINO MP 1000MHZ
266MHZ 3D OEM $165.00

1 - AMD PALOMINO MP 1000MHZ
266MHZ 3D OEM $165.00

1 - TYAN THUNDER K7 S2462UNG AMD 760 MP CHIPSET
1xAGP(PRO)/5xPCI/4xDDR W/DUAL U160 SCSI & 3COM LAN
(CPU TYPE UAL AMD ATHLON MP) $499.00
(supports up to 3 GIG of PC2100 DDR ram, yuummy)

1 - 512MB PC2100 266MHZ ECC REG DDR DIMM $360.00
(you can get the rest later)

1 - SEAGATE CHEETAH 36.4GB ULTRA160 SCSI
10,000RPM 5.2MS 4MB BUFFER $479.00

1- SUPERMICRO CSE-017 750A FULL SERVER TOWER W/300W ps $135.00

1 - SONY 1.44MB FLOPPY DRIVE $13.50

1- CREATIVE LABS SOUNDBLASTER LIVE! PLATINUM PCI 5.1 $132.00

1 - GIGABYTE GEFORCE2 PRO 32MB 4.0 DDR W/TV OUT $119.00
(or the 64 meg, or mabye an oxygen card?)


1 - PLEXTOR 40MAX ULTRAPLEX 17/40X TRAY SCSI INT Detail Specs $96.00
(and a burner and.....)

I threw that together off mwave.com, they have great shipping
the total is about $2298.00+ shipping

Notice that this is all...Without a monitor, I think you can get great deals on monitors online, but the great deal evaporates when you get SCREWED on shipping. I buy my monitors locally. So for around 2500'ish you can have a 2000mhz, 512 meg ram with space to add 3gig ram, a 10000rpm SCSI HD, A Plextor-solidasarock-drive, 32meg graphics card, (yeah they make em faster, I didnt go nuts on this) and a soundcard for some tunes. If you have shelves of parts like I do or know someone who does you can pick up stuff cheap, I have two soundblaster live cards on the shelf directly across from me with an extra vidcard and some other parts.

As you come into more money you can just add on and pick up the 128 meg graphics card, 2.5 gig more ram, the 180 gig SCSI drive, the external RAID array, the Plextor burner, the 21" flatscreen monitor etc....

and the SPEED makes so much difference?.. heheeheh

We had a similar discussion about this here: http://www.ozoneasylum.com/Forum1/HTML/002271.html

I agree with Mr. milker there. If you want it mostly for gaming, I would lean towards a PC, just because of the plethora of software. I too, am struggling with which system to go for (if I ever do save up the money and buy one). I think Mac will win. Just my opinion, but since I'll be using solely for freelance design work, the people I deal with here are Mac-based. It's that simple, and if a client sends me something on a pc disk, I can read it. As far as I know, it doesn't work the other way around. It stinks how much they cost and that the user base is a small one, but hey, the programs I'll be using are available and run quite nicely. Just my opinion.

Oh and btw anyone who claims true color on a monitor, ANY monitor, is feeding you horseshit. Just my opinion.

Go with the Mac.

The salesman was lying to you because he doesn't sell any Macs. Designers aren't switching to PCs any time soon.

To throw something completely different into the mix.\

Why not go with a Linux system. You said that you would be wanting it for developement purposes. I can't think of better systesms to go with, that would be as cost effective.

With so much preinstalled software there is no way you can go wrong.

C++
Java
Perl
Python
Gimp
Apache
etc,.

It is all there or easily available for free.

It might be a little foreign if you have not used a linux build before, but it sure has some great things.
http://www.linux.org/vendors/systems.html

A nice link to different vendors.

You can get a pretty good linux system with all the software your heart desires for around $1500, you can get competent systems for even less.

I don't think the power here could be beat either.

You will not get the gaming that would be avaiable on the PC, but you would get everything that a developer could ever want.

If you are new to computing you may be in some trouble if you make this choice, because the only support you will get is other Linux users, the mailing lists, news groups etc. You would never be short of help if you took that rout, however you will not be able to call up your local vendor and have them solve all of you computing problems, because they are all MSIE teks, who know nothing other than windows... however that is another rant played over too many times.

Good luck, and I hope you get a good one.

Oh, and if you go with the PC make sure you get windows 2k!

Did I mention that OS 10 is built on Unix technology? So you might be getting something similar if you go with Linux, you just never know.

You should read some of the articles at CNET about the differences in the systems.

Yea. I think you should describe a little bit better what you are going to be using this system for. Sounds to me as if your looking to break into the designing world. Would yourself an expert, novice, or beginner? Personally, I would suggest staying away from the laptop market if you are trying to get into designing. I see it as a waste, but thats your own personal preference.


Which OS's are you more comfortable using? WindowsMe vs. Windows 2000 could be useful. Try the OS Death Match: Windows 2000 v. OSX. Both Mac OSX Super Guide and Windows 2000 Super Guide might be useful to you. Mage brought up a real good point about the Linux system. Depending on what you are looking for, you might want to keep an open mind about that.

Where are you as far as software? Are you looking to have the latest, greatest games? Are you looking to get your hands on some great Adobe products and editors, or what? Give us the info. I use both PC and Mac, and I find everything I need for my PC to be available for the mac. I don't however play games, so I don't mind the sacrafice in that sector.

More importantly, how much are you willing to spend? Both PC's and Macs can jump real fast in price without you even knowing. It just happens. Plan out exactly what you want before you leave to buy. Look up things online. Figure out what you can get for the least amount of money. Figure out how fast you need your system to be, how much memory, etc.

Just one more point. I don't believe macs come with any prepackaged software like PC's do. All my mac software (Photoshop, Illustrator, etc.) I had to buy seperate.

--------------
cheers.jay

Well I plan on using it for design. Such as graphics. I use adobe photoshop and adobe pagemaker. Mostly all the adobe products. And that is another issue. Right now all my adobe software is for PC. I checked and it would cost about $199 to switch to mac compliant for those programs. I would really prefer to work on Macs, since that is what I mainly use in my publication lab (i am editor of our campus magazine) and in the graphic design program they use macs.

I am prepared to spend around $3,000.

Also if I do go with the mac, which is better, and IMac or G4. If I have a Cd-r, I rarely use the floppy drive or anything else for that matter. So is there a huge difference in performance as far as IMac's and G4's are concerned?

Much thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it before I deal out that much cash.

There's a BIG difference between the iMac and the G4. The G4 is much more expandable and a hell of a lot faster. I gave my iMac to my son when I got my G4.. basicly went from a 350 mHz G3 to a 466 G4.. unbelievable difference, especially in Photoshop. Don't get me wrong though- the iMac is no slouch in that department. I would go G4 though, you'll be too limited in the upgrade department with the iMac. Not to mention you can have a big beautiful monitor with the tower. You can get a nice G4 system together for what you're looking to spend.

-cyoung

Yup, for $3k you can get a nice G4 and a solid monitor to go along with it. I'm still waiting to get mine here, but I've got a new 867mhz G4 with a DVD burner coming...

It seems like you've already made up your mind, you just want us to confirm it. So yes, get the G4 If you've got $3k to spend I'd get this, bump the memory up a bit and get a Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900u 19" monitor for about $400 from buy.com.

Chris


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