MAC or PC

[the Bardguy]

Originally Posted by bordelais7

Well, that answered the question.

I'd heard that you can get a mac for 500? Was I misinformed?

[bordelais7]

You can get this for $500...

[DadOf8]

Originally Posted by the Bardguy

I'd heard that you can get a mac for 500? Was I misinformed?

I think they start at about $2000. You could probably get a used one for $500. I built one of my PCs for around $400 and the other one (big time gaming machine) for around $1,000. If you know how to build them, you can get the parts your want and you save money too. Find someone that knows how to build one and get the parts to build one. I have bought parts at EBC and I've been okay. I know some people have had a bad experience there. PC Club is good from what I hear, but they're a little more than EBC. I didn't read all the posts, but what are you using it for? If you are going to be playing games like Doom 3, Half Life 2, Counter Strike Source, and FarCry, you need to get something it a fast processor, a lot of RAM, and a kick-butt graphics card. IMHO.

[devNull]

Originally Posted by the Bardguy

PC yes, MAC no. When I was in high school I used an Amiga (remember those?)

Of course!! They were great. My family has an Atari ST (in the same vein as Amiga). The thing still runs. An amazing piece of machinery.

Originally Posted by the Bardguy

We'd like to do photo and video stuff, not really processor intensive things, I think, but just enough to get rid of red eye, sharpen images, put together a few clips from family vacations, etc. E-mail, sure. Web surfing, sure.
Oh, I'd say between 500 - 1200.
I've heard that once you try Macs, you never go back.

Even basic photo and video stuff requires a fair bit of processing power. Based on what you want to do PC or Mac will be fine. Most people really like Mac for photo and video editting though. If those are probably going to be main tasks I would look at a Mac. iPhoto and iDVD are included and work quite well. Macs are more expensive, but you can still get something decent in your price range. If you want more info on which machines I would recommend feel free to PM me as the rest probably don't care about that discussion. If you do go with a PC photo editting software isn't hard to come by. Picasa (free from google) works well as an organizer and does basic editting (it isn't photoshop though). I don't know much about Windows video editting software. I haven't heard of any good free solutions there though. Adobe does put out a stripped down version of their flagship vidoe editting program called Adobe Premier Elements which is supposed to be decent, but has a fairly steep learning curve I understand (I only do photo editting...no video). You might want to consider the price of that in the cost of the machine. I would lean toward a Mac for the stability and usability. I had tried Linux (Mac OS X is built on similar technology to Linux) for a bit, but wasn't sold until I tried to add some new hardware and Windows ate itself for the second time in 3 months. I switched to Linux and have been very stable since then. I am a very happy customer. Anyway, from a Mac fan I would recommend at least taking a look at it b/c as you said you won't go back once you try it.

[devNull]

Originally Posted by DadOf8

I think they start at about $2000. You could probably get a used one for $500. I built one of my PCs for around $400 and the other one (big time gaming machine) for around $1,000. If you know how to build them, you can get the parts your want and you save money too. Find someone that knows how to build one and get the parts to build one. I have bought parts at EBC and I've been okay. I know some people have had a bad experience there. PC Club is good from what I hear, but they're a little more than EBC. I didn't read all the posts, but what are you using it for? If you are going to be playing games like Doom 3, Half Life 2, Counter Strike Source, and FarCry, you need to get something it a fast processor, a lot of RAM, and a kick-butt graphics card. IMHO.

$2,000??? You should go at least go out to Apple and look @ prices once in a while. You can get a decent eMac for under $1,200 and iMacs start @ $1,300. For $2,000 you can get a nice machine. If you are going to build it from parts at least use a reputable retailer that is willing to do exchanges on faulty components like www.newegg.com. The $500 Mac mini is beatiful. It is small and quiet. However it doesn't come with a very big hard drive (80 GB) or much RAM (256 MB) or a monitor or keyboard or mouse. You can of course add those or buy them separately, but it costs more.

[devNull]

Originally Posted by Aerick

I tried the Linux thing, and found it to be too much work to get what I needed. It was fun getting it setup, but for everyday use - not so much.

That is kind of funny. I guess it depends what you are used to using. Every time I have to use a Windows machine it drives me nuts. I am just so much less efficient there. Having only one desktop means I have to hunt for the window I want all of the time or go down to the bar at the bottom, no sloppy focus so I have to click on the window I want, not having a powerful command line interface for file management and starting apps unless someone has installed a Unix based CLI...the list goes on. The conversion to Linux was a bit bumpy (that was 4 years ago though) because not all of the apps I wanted were around, but I am actually quite pleased with my current setup.

[DadOf8]

Originally Posted by devNull

That is kind of funny. I guess it depends what you are used to using. Every time I have to use a Windows machine it drives me nuts. I am just so much less efficient there. Having only one desktop means I have to hunt for the window I want all of the time or go down to the bar at the bottom, no sloppy focus so I have to click on the window I want, not having a powerful command line interface for file management and starting apps unless someone has installed a Unix based CLI...the list goes on. The conversion to Linux was a bit bumpy (that was 4 years ago though) because not all of the apps I wanted were around, but I am actually quite pleased with my current setup.

I have to many things that run in Windows and WINE doesn't seem to work well with them. I'd use Linux if it did everything I wanted, it's just that Windows has less compatability issues. I still think Linux is the more stable OS.

[devNull]

Originally Posted by DadOf8

I have to many things that run in Windows and WINE doesn't seem to work well with them. I'd use Linux if it did everything I wanted, it's just that Windows has less compatability issues. I still think Linux is the more stable OS.

Very understandable. Getting odd stuff (and even some mainstream stuff) working in WINE is like black magic. My experience is also that it never works quite right even if it is "working." As more apps get pushed to the web Linux becomes a more viable option. Luckily I am just a grad student whose advisor is a Linux fan. If it doesn't work in Linux we just don't do it. I am not sure that works for most people though 🙁

[MomOf8]

😴

[devNull]

Originally Posted by MomOf8

😴

Funny...I often get that response when the conversation turns to technology. I guess it must be me. 🤐