I'm thinking about getting a Mac... help?

[Meri]

Thanks for all the feedback! ^_^ Did you know that Apple gives a student discount?! I swear... those guys are so wonderful! I've been looking at all sorts of stuff (even asked my brother about a few things) and after listening to your advice as well... I think I've figured out everything I want. =D

Power Mac G5
1 GB DDR Ram
160 GB HD
ATI Radeon 9600 TX w/128 DDR SDRAM
AND
with a crappy screen!

*WHEEE!*

I think I should have no problems with adobe or trying to play WoW now... mwa ha ha ha! Oh... I'm going to be so broke... but it'll be worth it!

 

[andydude117]

Which G5 are you getting? (what speed)

 

[g5orbust]

These days a PC's usability is alot longer than previously, once they got fast enough to play dvd's,edit video, and other intensive tasks, after that the need for speed is mostly gaming,They may become obsolete from a technology standpoint pretty quickly but from a usefulness one I dont suspect a new G5 or emac will be disposable PC's.Ive got machines that are 10yrs old and still get used, they have their uses.Dont need much for websurfing or general office tasks.Even stuff like photoshop isnt that resource hungry, even with the bloated resource hungry OS's it runs on these days.

Apple stuff holds it value quite well too, shop around for old imacs, and powermacs, they command a high price in the used PC business and are still around.Their x86 architecture competitors in the same relative speeds sell for much much less, consdering at production time old PC's and Apple products were closely matched price wise than they are now, that says alot.

This is true. Apple computers have lots of "nostalgia" value.

I admit, I misstated what I was trying to say. When I said a computer usability is at most 4 years, I did not mean that at 4 years the computer mysteriously stops working. What I meant is that by that time the computer lags so far behind the development curve that it can really no longer accomodate any of the current hardware of the time and that it is essentially relegated to the secondary usage (web hosting, etc.) heap, if it still functions well.

 

[algu7344]

Well, this is my opinion.

Mac's are ok in the home. Ill give it that. But the integrated screen gives you problems with upgrading.

Secondly, how do you go through 4 pc's in 4 years? And you think Mac's will be better for security? with $5000 it costs for a G5 or whatever, think of how sweet of a PC you can build. And considering it doesnt have DOS how are you gonna configure anything? Just my opinion. Not trying to start a fight. But with what you said. It looks pretty good for the average user.

Good luck.

 

[g5orbust]

Well, this is my opinion.

Mac's are ok in the home. Ill give it that. But the integrated screen gives you problems with upgrading.

Secondly, how do you go through 4 pc's in 4 years? And you think Mac's will be better for security? with $5000 it costs for a G5 or whatever, think of how sweet of a PC you can build. And considering it doesnt have DOS how are you gonna configure anything? Just my opinion. Not trying to start a fight. But with what you said. It looks pretty good for the average user.

Good luck.

OSX has a command line, very similar to your DOS prompt. And not all Macs have integrated screens.

 

[Meri]

Secondly, how do you go through 4 pc's in 4 years? And you think Mac's will be better for security? with $5000 it costs for a G5 or whatever, think of how sweet of a PC you can build.

I went through all those PC's because of viruses and sometimes just the crappiness of them... when I brought it to the shop they were like "I just can't fix this," Or with as much as they were going to have to replace I might as well just buy a new computer.

The computer I'm going to get is going to be around $1,800 for the power mac. It's not going to be decked out all the way - no way in heck! But I will be able to upgrade it at least. I checked out Alienware with the similar properties and they were about the same price (the mac was cheaper by 10 bucks).

I still am looking at the alienware a little... but... I just want to have a computer that will last a while. While I was drooling over that cool looking alien PC... I couldn't help but think that I'll be tossing around $1,800 down the drain because it'll break within the next year. (Sorry for being so pessimistic... but after I've went through so many... it's just made me really worry). I really do like PC's and the way they work - but I just want something to last for once.

 

[algu7344]

Maybe your computer is not well protected? I have never lost a PC to a virus... DO you have any anti-virus programs at all?

 

[horndude]

a virus isnt likely to cause physical harm to a computer in any way

There are some codes out there that can do harm but they are far and few between, at any rate, most it might do is destroy a hard drive

 

[algu7344]

Well they are some I have seen that erase CMOS settings, and the average user might take it to the average technician and get the average response. "its broke"

 

[Qiranworms]

a virus isnt likely to cause physical harm to a computer in any way

There are some codes out there that can do harm but they are far and few between, at any rate, most it might do is destroy a hard drive

You could possibly force a refresh rate that's far too high for a monitor to handle, you might be able to damage some older CRTs that wouldn't protect themselves against such a thing. Not sure...but it's something worth considering