why buy a Mac ?

[FLiNcHY]

I'm using an ibook g3 700 ghz with airport card ($1788), + 640mb of ram ($315) and every thing is going smooth and easy. I do photoshop, iphoto, Keynote, dreamweaver on the mac and its sweet as hell. Itunes is really the best music program ever, the ipod is lovely and firewire rocks.

Its just simplicity at its simplest. Hard to describe. You have to really try it out yourself to get that feel good feeling immersed into you. Then you'll know what i'm talking about. Just take the plunge. I was all PC in my life till april03, when i bought the ibook for overseas studies.

3 things that a mac can't do and i really hope it can.

Use Nero: Stupid Roxio toast won't allow overburning. I've got a 700.3 mb file that can't be burnt because the limit is 700.2mb:dunno:

Play games: Sheesh, is warcraft 3 the only game worth playing on a mac? Until the day games selections are as widely available for macs as for PCs, macs will always be 2nd fiddle to microsoft.

Use P2P software: What? No kazaa, no edonkey, no emule. I gotta install virtual pc on my ibook which lags like hell just to download those dvd rips. Someone really needs to write some GUI software man.

Other than these 3 rather selfish issues, Macs rule everything else!

 

[song]

Did you add your ram to 640mb using Mac vendor or do it yourself at SLS?

The ram they quoted is high and if i get apple care , i want to add ram myself, would it void the warrenty like those dells computer?

song

Originally posted by FLiNcHY
I'm using an ibook g3 700 ghz with airport card ($1788), + 640mb of ram ($315) and every thing is going smooth and easy. I do photoshop, iphoto, Keynote, dreamweaver on the mac and its sweet as hell. Itunes is really the best music program ever, the ipod is lovely and firewire rocks.

Its just simplicity at its simplest. Hard to describe. You have to really try it out yourself to get that feel good feeling immersed into you. Then you'll know what i'm talking about. Just take the plunge. I was all PC in my life till april03, when i bought the ibook for overseas studies.

3 things that a mac can't do and i really hope it can.

Use Nero: Stupid Roxio toast won't allow overburning. I've got a 700.3 mb file that can't be burnt because the limit is 700.2mb:dunno:

Play games: Sheesh, is warcraft 3 the only game worth playing on a mac? Until the day games selections are as widely available for macs as for PCs, macs will always be 2nd fiddle to microsoft.

Use P2P software: What? No kazaa, no edonkey, no emule. I gotta install virtual pc on my ibook which lags like hell just to download those dvd rips. Someone really needs to write some GUI software man.

Other than these 3 rather selfish issues, Macs rule everything else!

 

[oeyvind]

You can add in the RAM by yourself, instruction is in the user manual.

If you do not damage anything while installing RAM, no warranty will be void.

Originally posted by song
Did you add your ram to 640mb using Mac vendor or do it yourself at SLS?

The ram they quoted is high and if i get apple care , i want to add ram myself, would it void the warrenty like those dells computer?

song

 

[jsbn]

Originally posted by song
Did you add your ram to 640mb using Mac vendor or do it yourself at SLS?

The ram they quoted is high and if i get apple care , i want to add ram myself, would it void the warrenty like those dells computer?

song

No sweat.

U can juz run down to Sim Lim and get a Kingston RAM. Juz make sure dat u get the correct size for ur iBook or ur iMac.

But it's juz idiot-proof when it comes to installation of such parts. There's a cover which u can access the RAM slots directly. Open up, snap ur RAM in, close up and boot up.

It's as simple as dat. Apple figured out that users usually upgrade RAMs and a Wireless LAN card, so they made it rather accessible to users with minimal technical expertise to install such stuff themselves without any assistance (other den following the instruction manual).

If u wanna have a test drive by urself, u can try AppleCentre@MI located at Level 5 Funan IT Mall. The service staff are rather friendly and knowledgeable to answer ur queries. Dat's one place I'd recommend for their service.

 

[desmondwong]

Originally posted by jsbn
...If u wanna have a test drive by urself, u can try AppleCentre@MI located at Level 5 Funan IT Mall. The service staff are rather friendly and knowledgeable to answer ur queries. Dat's one place I'd recommend for their service.

i second that.

 

[SNAG]

In my camp, there are 2 factions of computer users.

One is using a dual G4 (the fastest configuration) with an Apple Cinema Display 23", 5 X 200GB Maxtor external Firewire drive, running Final Cut Pro, and all that Adobe stuff.

Another PC system is Dual Pentium Xeon 3.06ghz with HT, with 1 GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX 3000 running on the same Adobe apps (with Premiere instead of Final Cut Pro.) on a 4U server.

And seriously, mac is still the way to go.

The display alone is enough to make you drool, and XP is still kinda unstable.
The bad side to Mac would be the limited s/w support.

Cost of the 2 systems?
Mac = ard $5k for the CPU (excluding the external drives)
PC = $10k (the 2 HT CPUs are 3k alone!)
So if you are seriously into serious editing, I suggest that you get the Mac.

 

[jsbn]

Originally posted by SNAG
In my camp, there are 2 factions of computer users.

One is using a dual G4 (the fastest configuration) with an Apple Cinema Display 23", 5 X 200GB Maxtor external Firewire drive, running Final Cut Pro, and all that Adobe stuff.

Another PC system is Dual Pentium Xeon 3.06ghz with HT, with 1 GB RAM, Nvidia Quadro FX 3000 running on the same Adobe apps (with Premiere instead of Final Cut Pro.) on a 4U server.

And seriously, mac is still the way to go.

The display alone is enough to make you drool, and XP is still kinda unstable.
The bad side to Mac would be the limited s/w support.

Cost of the 2 systems?
Mac = ard $5k for the CPU (excluding the external drives)
PC = $10k (the 2 HT CPUs are 3k alone!)
So if you are seriously into serious editing, I suggest that you get the Mac.

The idea of 'software support' for the Mac is rather subjective. It depends on wad u anyway.

But I suppose u wun have to get the IT guys to troubleshoot ur Mac so many times right?

 

[hazardman]

I've been using the Pbook 867 G4 for a couple months now. I love the color on the screen. And u can trust it to be 95% accurate. I think this is the most important factor for us photographers, besides speed and stability of the OS. OSx is great, only thing is i can't seem to get nikon capture 2 to detect my camera.

Nevertheless, i encourage u to make the switch. U won't regret it

Ps. I hope G5 powerbooks come out soon.

 

[Mystix]

always liked the mac for its design but havent taken the plunge yet becoz of the high costs. i heard nowadays its easier to diy upgrade.
can any1 tell me whether i can fit a normal pci audigy2 card and geforce fx card into a mac if i wanna upgrade myself? and how about harddisk? is it also using ata harddisks that pc uses?

 

[desmondwong]

Originally posted by Mystix
can any1 tell me whether i can fit a normal pci audigy2 card and geforce fx card into a mac if i wanna upgrade myself? and how about harddisk? is it also using ata harddisks that pc uses?

not sure if a creative soundcard upgrade is possible, but a gfx is possible. only downside is you lose the ADC connector should you use it on an apple display.

harddisk, ram and certain models of optical drives can be bought easily from SLS to upgrade your power mac. i recently just added a 40GB maxtor hdd and 512mb pc2700 twinmos ram into my dual 867 PM. no problems whatsoever.

 

[Mystix]

Originally posted by desmondwong
not sure if a creative soundcard upgrade is possible, but a gfx is possible. only downside is you lose the ADC connector should you use it on an apple display.

harddisk, ram and certain models of optical drives can be bought easily from SLS to upgrade your power mac. i recently just added a 40GB maxtor hdd and 512mb pc2700 twinmos ram into my dual 867 PM. no problems whatsoever.

sorry but wats a ADC connector?

 

[oeyvind]

Originally posted by Mystix
sorry but wats a ADC connector?

ADC, Apple Display Connector: A single cable with a quick-latch connector carries all digital video, USB and power signals from the Power Mac G4/G5 to the display.

To use the ADC equipped LCD display with DVI-I equipped PowerBook or AGP display card, you shall need a DVI-to-ADC adapter:

http://www.apple.com/displays/adapter.html

As for the Creative PCI audio card, the answer is yes.

 

[tomkruise]

talking about user friendliness, I have put my old iMac in my kids study rm for them to have fun since I got my Powerbook some yrs ago.
And i left it for them to explore themselves. After just a few days, my elder son, about 6 then, started to do everything smoothly...changing desktop fonts, settings etc and even shown me a few short-cut keystrokes which I didnt even know, installed and play games all by themselves.

The new OS is Unix based and comes with a lot of built-in goodies like imovies, iphoto etc and it is inexpensive, just slightly over $200.

 

[Mystix]

got another question may sound a little dumb but when u buy those powermac g4s and g5s they don't come with monitors am i right? have to use my own crt monitor if i dun buy their lcd displays rite.

 

[oeyvind]

Originally posted by Mystix
got another question may sound a little dumb but when u buy those powermac g4s and g5s they don't come with monitors am i right? have to use my own crt monitor if i dun buy their lcd displays rite.

u are correct, you can use any screen you want to.

 

[Mystix]

thanx man... really gian bout getting a mac now with the g5 comin out...which means the g4s gonna drop soon.

 

[jsbn]

Originally posted by Mystix
thanx man... really gian bout getting a mac now with the g5 comin out...which means the g4s gonna drop soon.

Prices never stop dropping.

But do see which fits into wad u're gonna do and get it.

 

[matthew]

Originally posted by tomkruise

The new OS is Unix based and comes with a lot of built-in goodies like imovies, iphoto etc and it is inexpensive, just slightly over $200.

And eats RAM like you wouldn't belive. Don't bother with less than 256Mb. Better have 512mb.


And its not 'unix based'. The kernel is Mach. Mach is not Unix. Unix is one of the 'personalities' that run on Mach and Apple have chosen to run part of the system in the Unix subsystem. (like printing). Other parts of the system run on Mach directly and are not talking through the Unix layer. (i.e their gaphics subsystem...).

One of the reasons why it eats heaps of RAM...

The only reason they can get away with all these software layers is that modern hardware is fast....


I have MacOS 10.3 running on an oldish G4 in my office. And it's slow. However being a developer preview, it won't be really optimised yet, the release version I expect will be a little snappier.

All versions of MacOSX have been stable for personal use. Have networks and non apple file servers in the mix and it's not so stable afterall...

(I support a network with about 500 macs and about 50 (and growing) windows PCs... I'll kill the next person who says MacOS is stable, 'cause OS9 aint. It's a mess. They should have stayed with 8.6. That was stable....)

 

[oeyvind]

Guess you working for Optus?

Darwin is BSD/UNIX, the kernel is based on a hybrid Mach 3/FreeBSD 4.4 microkernel.

Where is Darwin/Mac OS X lie? See the family tree at

http://www.levenez.com/unix/

Wonder if you read any NDA pertaining to Panther... if not, try not discuss it in public.

 

[jherek]

i am contemplating to buy a powerbook
however i need to use autocad and microstation and these softwares are available only in windows compatible.

i heard that with virtual pc ..i can work aroundd this.

any comments?