New Desktop (Could You Recommend This?)

quinns2003

also these dont look too bad which have been mentioned in other threads

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_9910.htm

http://direct.tesco.com/q/R.204-6345.aspx

-TangleFoot-

quinns2003 wrote: »

http://www.aldi.co.uk/uk/html/offers/58_9910.htm

Looks nice... shame about the price.

This looks like a good all-rounder, though the case is a little tacky. Your thoughts?

Mobeer

-TangleFoot- wrote: »

Looks nice... shame about the price.

This looks like a good all-rounder, though the case is a little tacky. Your thoughts?

The case is ugly, but it can be changed to an Antec 300 (saving £1) or Coolermaster Elite 330 (saving £15).

Lady_of_D

Thank you for all the help, however I'm feeling slightly more confused than when I asked!

My friend who actually is a photographer owns a Mac and swears by it! However, I've always been very put off by them.

What are the pros and cons compared to Windows? How many of you would recommend a Mac? When looking for a new computer what should I be looking for specifically regarding processor etc? I'm also hearing a lot about triple and quad cores. What is the main difference?

I'm not really swayed by HD capacity at all. I find that most people are swayed by this and overlook poorer components elsewhere. I have an external hard drive anyway.

And whats with all this PC World hate?

-TangleFoot-

Lady_of_D wrote: »

What are the pros and cons compared to Windows? How many of you would recommend a Mac? When looking for a new computer what should I be looking for specifically regarding processor etc? I'm also hearing a lot about triple and quad cores. What is the main difference?

Apple is essentially about closed software on closed hardware; they control the whole setup from top to bottom. The system is less flexible as a result, but it's generally more stable and potentially more user-friendly than the Windows- or Linux-based equivalent. Personally I'd never consider getting a Mac to replace my desktop, but those MacBooks do look awfully tempting. If they were just a little smaller... but I digress.

If you're going to be editing images or transcoding video, you'll want as many processor cores as you can get. Extra cores effectively allow a system to do several things at once, sharing the load over several discrete processing units. Lots of RAM helps too, which means a 64-bit operating system may also be necessary. A fairly decent graphics card wouldn't hurt either.

Basically, what you're after is the same kind of system as the stereotypical gamer, with perhaps less of a focus on 3D graphics and more on sheer grunt.

isofa

Lady_of_D wrote: »

Thank you for all the help, however I'm feeling slightly more confused than when I asked!

My friend who actually is a photographer owns a Mac and swears by it! However, I've always been very put off by them.

What are the pros and cons compared to Windows? How many of you would recommend a Mac? When looking for a new computer what should I be looking for specifically regarding processor etc? I'm also hearing a lot about triple and quad cores. What is the main difference?

I'm not really swayed by HD capacity at all. I find that most people are swayed by this and overlook poorer components elsewhere. I have an external hard drive anyway.

And whats with all this PC World hate?

I use both platforms daily, at work and at home.

I use the Mac primarily for desktop design, publishing and photography (I do pro work). However Office on the Mac is no different to the PC, so if you are used to Word, Excel, Powerpoint, MS make Office should you want it. Actually I do all my photography accounts on the Mac using FileMaker as a database and Excel as the finance tracking. (I agree with Marty, Photoshop and actually most Adobe suite software is much better on a Mac IMO. Lightroom, Aperture and FinalCut Pro are also excellent, and some of these top end imaging/video packages aren't available on the PC at all.)

Why have you been put off by them?

I've been using Macs and PCs for the past 18 to 20 years, I can't recall any specific problems I've ever had with a Mac, they are very reliable.

PCs are in general more flexible, but nowadays, that's not much or an argument, both have a lot of software and nearly all peripherals work with both.

Macs are still more expensive (often cited), but to be fair you need to compare like with like, a MacBook Pro laptop with a top end Levono PC laptop, or a iMac with a Sony all-in-one, or a Mac Pro tower with a top end Sony or Dell Precision tower, then there is far less in the price stakes.

However if you are simply looking for "bang-per-buck" a fast PC will always be cheaper. However look what you get with each and don't dismiss the quality angle.

What not try in Apple stores or John Lewis, then look at your budget and see what you prefer.

Marty_J

Lady_of_D wrote: »

My friend who actually is a photographer owns a Mac and swears by it! However, I've always been very put off by them.

What are the pros and cons compared to Windows? How many of you would recommend a Mac?

Pretty much what isofa said.

The Mac has better colour management, supports loads of RAW files out of the box, and you can also use Automator to do everything from resizing a folder of photos to making a photo DVD at the click of a button.

My father-in-law just got a new camcorder, and he's still working on getting it to play nice with his PC. I plugged it into my Mac, and iMovie popped up and asked if I wanted to import the videos from it. No additional drivers, no additional software, nothing.

And when you consider that all Macs can run Windows as well as OS X nowadays anyway, buying one is a bit of a no-brainer. Unless you're a Windows gamer or like upgrading your computer's innards every few weeks, I can't see much of a reason to limit your options and stick with a PC.

With a Mac, you can use Mac software, use Windows software, and use Linux software. If you're a creative professional, or even just a dedicated amateur, you're missing out on too much to limit yourself to a PC. Many of the industry-standard applications either run better on a Mac, or else are only available for the Mac.