Thinking of changing from PC to IMAC, advice please.

chocolatepennyfarthing

Looking at changing our pc and thinking about changing over to IMAC. Just wondering about pros/cons of doing this. As a 50 something with not massive IT experience is it very difficult to get used to? I currently have IPhone and Ipad and have heard it makes sense to go for imac as all work together. I presume I could get word/excel etc installed? Would I be able to remove emails/documents etc from current pc and transfer over to IMAC? Any advice appreciated

System

It is easy to get used to doing but you have to put aside the "In Windows I'd do it this way" mindset, those who don't find it the hardest to move over. Many things are different, especially installing software. If you've ever used Linux, especially one using a Gnome desktop, you'll find a lot of OS X very familiar. " and @ keys are in opposite places to where they are on a PC keyboard as it follows the US layout with an added £ sign, most shortcuts such as CTRL-C, CTRL-V, CTRL-P are the same but using the CMD key instead of CTRL.

Document transfer is easy, email transfer is much more complicated as it depends on what you're using at the moment and intend to use. If your email provider uses IMAP and you use IMAP instead of POP3 with nothing stored in local folders then it is simply a case of entering the account details in Mail and you're off and running.

You will need to purchase OS X versions of MS Office if you intend to use that.

If there are some things which are Windows only with no OS X alternative then you could install Virtualbox, create a virtual PC on that and install Windows on the virtual PC or it is possible to dual boot OS X and Windows and Apple provide the tools to do that.

EveryWhere

It all depends on how much you value your iPhone and iPad 'working together' with your personal computer.

Honestly? I cannot remember reading anything more ridiculous today. Paying more than £1000 to ensure seamless integration with an iPhone and iPad.

I think you should buy am iMac if you actually make use of the functions that an iMAC can provide or if you don't care about how much you spend and you just want it to all look nice together. But certainly not just because it works better with your iPhone/iPad. That's just crazy.
What doesn't work with your current PC?

chocolatepennyfarthing

Current PC very slow when browsing, over 5 years old and wasn't a very expensive one when purchased.
My questions were really the pros/cons of changing over and how difficult it is to change from using pc to MAC.

EveryWhere

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Current PC very slow when browsing, over 5 years old and wasn't a very expensive one when purchased.
My questions were really the pros/cons of changing over and how difficult it is to change from using pc to MAC.

No one can give you the pro and cons without knowing what you want to do in the first place. If you are doing high quality photo editing then someone might suggest that am iMAC is worth the hassle of changing.

If just everyday browsing and office tasks, refurb your current PC or get one that's up to spec. Either way we are talking £200 or less and not £1000.

What's the brand name and model number of the current PC? That way we can have an idea the current specification and capability.

Age isn't really an issue. My current PC is perhaps nine years old, but with the addition of a solid state drive and graphics cards, costing around £45, it is speedy and completes all tasks from Office to Entertainment with ease.

zagubov

I find macs are relatively hassle-free and their OS is pretty intuitive. They're not very MSE if you buy them new.
You might to better to look for a refurbished one from a local dealer, or online on ebay. If you do need to buy new, any family member involved in education might get a discount.

The OS was tinkered with for years without improving it. Older ones may still be useable. OS 10.6 is good and then they're not great until you get to about OS10.10.

As for Office, 2004 was good, 2008 not so much and 2011 is fine again. Cheaply available on ebay (£30-60 or thereabouts).

libra10

As an older PC user, several years ago I sold my Sony Vaio PC and, on my son's advice, bought an Apple Macbook.

It took a while to set up as I wanted, little features such as backspace (using the delete button) didn't work as when using a PC. But using Apple support community (a very helpful resource, just like MSE), it was easy to find solutions to such issues.

The bar at the bottom of screen is very helpful for doing tasks,
and the Apple Mail programme works OK, I integrated my mail programme into the new Apple programme, with no problems. I also purchased Office for Apple, and it worked fine.

I also liked that when someone texted my iphone, I could immediately text back, using my Macbook.

I kept the Macbook for 3 years, then decided to let my son have it, and bought another PC - a Lenovo Yoga 2, which I love because it has a scrolling touch screen.

One reason that I let my son have the Macbook was because my Roboform (password manager) didn't work quite as well as it does using a PC.

I keep looking at my son's Macbook and wondering whether I should have kept it, but if looking at Apple computers, check whether the model has a scrolling screen. They make such a difference. I should imagine all Apple computers are now fitted with SSD cards. My son fitted one to ours, and it makes such a difference in speed.

Good luck!

EveryWhere

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Current PC very slow when browsing, over 5 years old and wasn't a very expensive one when purchased.
My questions were really the pros/cons of changing over and how difficult it is to change from using pc to MAC.

There is a very recent thread featuring someone who had a similar problem and thought a new machine was the answer.
£25 SSD later, she is now very happy with her newly refurbished machine. A completely animal altogether. From a sloth to a cheetah. She did all of the work by herself.

Frozen_up_north

My old desktop PC was showing it's age, it's about 10 years old with 4GB of RAM running Windows 10 64 bit.

A friend had recently bought a refurbished Dell 7010 Optiplex on eBay and sent me details, I bought a similar one for £219.99, this is the spec:

Base unit only, i7 processor (3.4GHz), 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD drive, DVD/CD reader, 4 x USB 3, 6 x USB 2, AMD-RADEON graphics card, proper Microsoft reseller install of Windows 10 Home and 6 months warranty.

I would struggle to source the parts to make one for that price, fair enough it is second user, but it runs like greased lightning and boots up/shuts down in just a few seconds. The only useful omission is a DVD writer, I bought an external one for £12 (again eBay).

I wouldn't bother refreshing an old PC, or going the iThing route, when such good value "speedy" computers are around.

EveryWhere

Frozen_up_north wrote: »

My old desktop PC was showing it's age, it's about 10 years old with 4GB of RAM running Windows 10 64 bit.

A friend had recently bought a refurbished Dell 7010 Optiplex on eBay and sent me details, I bought a similar one for £219.99, this is the spec:

Base unit only, i7 processor (3.4GHz), 16GB of RAM, 128GB SSD drive, DVD/CD reader, 4 x USB 3, 6 x USB 2, AMD-RADEON graphics card, proper Microsoft reseller install of Windows 10 Home and 6 months warranty.

I would struggle to source the parts to make one for that price, fair enough it is second user, but it runs like greased lightning and boots up/shuts down in just a few seconds. The only useful omission is a DVD writer, I bought an external one for £12 (again eBay).

I wouldn't bother refreshing an old PC, or going the iThing route, when such good value "speedy" computers are around.

Why would you spoil your post with such a nonsense statement at the end??

Optiplex 7010 at six years old is actually older than the OP's PC if she is correct that it is five years old.

I 'refreshed' my more than eight year old PC for £45, not £220. I have little need for a second gen i7 CPU or 16GB of RAM. Core 2 Duo Processor E8400 6M Cache, 3.00 GHz, 1333 MHz FSB paired with 4GB of RAM and SSD and dedicated graphics is more than enough for my needs. Certainly speedy enough.
So paying another £175 is not necessary. Plus it already has an optical drive onboard, so another £12 saved. £187 not spent and a more than adequate PC.
My whole PC including the SSD upgrade actually cost me £65, as I just took the graphics card from a discarded PC. But I allocated £20 for the graphics card for the purpose of fairness. Actually I spent just £25 to refresh the PC.
So, yes, it can be worth refreshing an old PC. But we need to know the current spec.

debitcardmayhem

chocolatepennyfarthing wrote: »

Looking at changing our pc and thinking about changing over to IMAC. Just wondering about pros/cons of doing this. As a 50 something with not massive IT experience is it very difficult to get used to? I currently have IPhone and Ipad and have heard it makes sense to go for imac as all work together. I presume I could get word/excel etc installed? Would I be able to remove emails/documents etc from current pc and transfer over to IMAC? Any advice appreciated

Responding to your question, Yes you can buy one, no massive IT experience, OK can you learn ? only you can answer that. You state "our pc" how many is we/our, are they ready to learn with you or even advance faster than you? There are no real pros/cons except for you need to ask for " I presume I could get word/excel etc installed? Would I be able to remove emails/documents etc from current pc and transfer over to IMAC?". My choice would be learn how to make your current pc faster better at circa <£100 or if that doesn't suit your needs then feel free to spend c £1000 and then find you/they don't get on well with the iMac. This is my opinion not advice and I have nothing against Apple kit (except price) it is just my opinion