Desktop PC / iMac ADVICE needed!

Marty_J

iMacs are wonderful computers. Reliable, well built, powerful, and absolutely gorgeous.

For photography, Mac OS X spanks Windows all day long (and has done for years). I know quite a few professional photographers, and every one of them uses a Mac.

I work in the music industry, where Macs are also the standard. You'll find few pro studios that choose PCs over Macs (I've certainly never been in one). They're extremely reliable, last a long time, and Mac OS X has a rock solid audio framework that is very powerful.

Don't forget to factor in the software you'll get with a Mac too; iPhoto, iMovie, Garageband and iDVD are all great programs and included in the iLife suite of applications that come with every new Mac.

If you want to save yourself a bit of money, keep an eye on the Apple Refurb Store. Everything on there is as good as new, and comes with a full warranty. The only real difference is that you'll pay 15 − 25% less.

Sput2001

As operating systems go Vista stinks (its a 21st century Win95), OSX is considered better.

Vista really isn't that bad, and if you bought a PC now you would almost certainly end up with Windows 7 anyway.

I know two pro photographers, one's a Mac devotee and the other, who regularly prints out his work (multiple-gigabyte files) onto 2+ metre canvases, uses PCs. Both are happy, but the PC user saved himself literally thousands of pounds by not going with Mac.

I regularly use Photoshop CS3 on a PC (running Vista) and it's fine.

isofa

davester wrote: »

your opening a can of worms here Janinie. Well heres my 2 cents to add to the fuel

Well Macs are about 100% more expenisve than a PC hardware equivlent. As operating systems go Vista stinks (its a 21st century Win95), OSX is considered better.

So PCs are free and Macs cost "100% more". Utter nonsense. Compare like with like. Top end Sony laptop vs top end Mac laptop = same price. Your pricing argument is best left in the early 1990s when I paid £1200 for a PC and £2500 for a Mac.

Additionally why is Vista so bad? Sure OS X is the better of the two, but Vista isn't bad, it's just XP is faster, and Windows 7 a better prospect.

davester wrote: »

Software prices are pretty comparable, but more likely to find a slightly better deal on PC software as there are more copies made. Easier to find upgrade parts for a PC

You are saying PC software is cheaper because more copies are made?! Utter nonsense. Perhaps look at the pricing for Office 2008 on a Mac vs Office 2007 on Windows, or maybe the Adobe CS suite... Or how about the industry standard Logic Audio for musicians... oh hang on that's only available on the Mac!

Easier to find upgrade parts, really, what about the massive selection of Mac third party dealers (www.macwarehouse.com, www.computerwarehouse, www.jigsaw24.com, www.cancomuk.com), as well as Apple themselves and stores like John Lewis?

RAM and HDs, the most upgraded parts of computers are universal across the board, it's only the very tricky upgrades in certain Mac laptops that make HDs hard to replace, but RAM is simple.

I use Windows for development projects: web, database, financial systems and so forth; Macs for design and photography, working at a very high level of output from 16-bit RAW files. I find the Mac faster to deal with these files than similarly spec'd PCs, because the OS is more efficient, let alone the colour management.

To the OP, with your budget and for music and photography, really you couldn't chose a better system to work with. A huge amount of photographers use Macs, and the same for musicians, for those tasks, it would be my platform of choice.

timbim_2

Once my laptop passes on from this world, I'm seriously considering getting a macbook pro. For me, the fact that they can run office and CS makes any other arguments fairly academic. I also respect the good build quality; I've seen a couple of the aluminium ones that have taken a beating that would have fully destroyed most plastic bodies, but survive with minor damage. The weight is another thing, as is battery. They're just designed better than most other laptops.

almillar

davester has quoted a tower computer with a seperate monitor. OP seems to be after an all in one computer, so comparing these prices is irrelevant, you pay a premium for all in one computers. Though I'm sure that makes it much easier for him to say that that PCs are half the price of Macs. Why not go to one of the better (?) PC Worlds and have a play with both types of computer. At this point if I was buying a PC I'd want to make sure I'd get Windows 7 when it comes out too.

annajo

My old pc near enough died on me a couple of years ago and i looked into either just updating to a newer desktop pc or getting a new imac. My cousin has had macs for years and swears by them, anyway ended up buying an imac for about £949 and i love it!

davester

My comments are based on that most computer shops have PC stuff not Mac stuff. I have seen better deals on PC software more oftern than Mac stuff , more brands of PC than Mac (does anyone other than Apple make Macs?). And IS he really interested in getting a £600 monitor? So still my half the price PC from Dell with its 4 cores etc with a monitor is still 3/4 of the price of that Mac and pees all over it in performance. Or you gonna tell me a Quad core is worse than that duel core?

I'm not say Macs are bad at what they do, Its more of can you justify the price difference.

davester

Paul_R wrote: »

If you've got kiddies they won't like the iMac, they won't be able to share the software with their mates. Or get chat room viruses on it. Shame.

:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

Marty_J

davester wrote: »

My comments are based on that most computer shops have PC stuff not Mac stuff.

The last time I was in PC World, they had loads of Apple stuff, both hardware and software.

The internet is often the best place for purchasing that kind of thing anyway, and there's certainly no shortage of Mac software.

I have seen better deals on PC software more oftern than Mac stuff

Do you look for deals on Mac software?

Just as a cursory example, the Mac version of Photoshop CS4 is £50 cheaper than the PC version on Amazon.

more brands of PC than Mac (does anyone other than Apple make Macs?).

That's a little like asking "does anyone other than Dell make Dells?".

And IS he really interested in getting a £600 monitor? So still my half the price PC from Dell with its 4 cores etc with a monitor is still 3/4 of the price of that Mac and pees all over it in performance. Or you gonna tell me a Quad core is worse than that duel core?

I'm not say Macs are bad at what they do, Its more of can you justify the price difference.

You talk as though the Dell does everything the Mac does, only cheaper. It might look that way on paper, or if you're only comparing certain features, but it doesn't really work out that way in real life. You can't run Mac OS X on the Dell for starters (well, it might be possible with a great deal of faffing), so you enjoy none of the benefits to photographers and other creative professionals that it offers.

You don't get iLife with the Dell. I know there are various Windows programs that you could cobble together to approximate it somewhat, but you won't have the same seamless experience it provides.

What is the screen like you get with the Dell? Apple put very nice displays in their computers.

What's the build quality like on the Dell? Apple are, if not the best there is, certainly up there with them.

How is Dell's customer service? Apple's is consistently rated as being the best there is in the PC industry.

Does the Dell have the same form factor as the iMac? I know people like to poo-poo the consideration of aesthetics as an example of shallowness, but that rather overlooks the fact that we live in the real world, in a real space, and we fill that space with objects. Nice looking things are a pleasure to use, ugly things are not. There's nothing shallow about this; it's just being human. We make positive associations and negative associations. These associations affect our experiences in a very real way.

And of course, there are practical considerations concerning the form factor too. Traditional PCs are generally a tangle of wires; iMacs are not. Personally, I'd rather have a clean and tidy computer room than one filled with tangled cables. My iMac makes my life easier, even when it's not plugged in. I can also pick it right up and carry it into a different room if I want to work somewhere else. When I moved to the States, I bought an iLugger and took my whole computer on the plane as hand luggage. You can put as many cores into a traditional PC as you like, but you aren't going to be doing that anytime soon with it. A PC wouldn't have out-performed my iMac if I had to leave the PC back in Ireland.

I'm not trying to argue that the iMac is obviously superior. It's clearly not for everyone as it has a number of drawbacks already mentioned here. But when you want a Mac, only a Mac will do. There isn't really much point talking about the extra expense or value for money. If someone who wants a £1,000 iMac spends £500 on a Dell instead, they haven't saved £500, they've wasted it.

You're a long time dead; use what makes you happy, whatever does what you want it to do, and take pleasure in someone else doing likewise.

i8change

Originally Posted by prowla
The problem with the iMac for me is that it's all your eggs in one basket, as opposed to a separate processor unit and screen.
That means when the time comes to upgrade, you have to replace the whole shebang.

The £499 Mac Mini seems to have the same graphics card as the iMac in your link.
It will have the software Marty J recommends and you can buy a seperate Display, Keyboard and external Hard Drive to back up photos. You may want 2GB of RAM for £40 extra though.
This would be the cheaper option if you want to try Apple and are not sure.
Samsung Displays are quite good and can be found at reasonable prices.
If for some reason it was not to your liking, you have the option to sell the Mac Mini after a while and replace it with a PC tower. You should get a good price for a second hand Mac Mini.