New PC, should I just buy a Mac?

chrism_scotland

chrism_scotland

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Ok needing to replace my Windows PC as it is now creaking!
The main thing its going to be used for it image editing and I don't do much demanding aside from that, just browse the web, watch video, listen to music and maybe play Football Manager.
I haven't got a huge amount of Windows software I would be losing and I don't mind using Fusion, I was really wondering how powerful a Mac Mini would be for running Photoshop?
I imagine that it would be fine if my 4 year old Pentium 4 is just about running everything as well as I like it!!!
Half thinking about getting a 13" Macbook just now and buying the Mac Mini later so that I had a laptop and home setup.
 
If all you're going to be really using is Photoshop then general computer usage (web, video, music, etc), then it doesn't really matter which you go with, imho.

Personally though, I'd go for a PC. Everything I've heard from Mac owners (although please correct me if I'm wrong) is that it's much more difficult and/or costly to upgrade individual components (processor, ram, graphics cards, etc) as time marches on to allow it to keep up with improving (debatable) and more intensive (certainly) software.
 
Macs are slightly more to buy outright but everyone say they are the easiest operating system going & I use an iMac 20" software is a little bit more but its worth it cos if you have a problem you just take it to the nearest mac dealer & they help you with any problems my advice go for a MAC :D
 
FWIW, I got a year or so old 20" iMac for a bit less than the price of a mac mini new, not to replace a pc, but to run along side. It runs CS4 very happily indeed, aswell as various other software, links into my otherwise pc network happily enough and has a fantastic screen. So impressed that it is generally my main computer now, whilst I have a pc laptop for sitting in bed browsing the web and still have a superquick desktop pc should i need it. Just another idea to throw into the pot for you ;)
 
as a long time PC user who only got his first mac a couple of years ago I'd say the switch has saved me a lot of headaches in terms of maintaining windows etc. The mac os is just so much better thought out than any version of windows up to XP (haven't used anything more recent). Also, two years on, it still runs as fast as it did when new and I'm not itching to upgrade anything... so, as has been said, it may be more difficult to upgrade but you're unlikely to need to as often.

Also, I kept my old PC to use for running windows only software and that has only seen the light of day once as I have either used a windows emulator or mac equivalent software.

BUT - the initial outlay is much higher for a mac so it's all swings and roundabouts, as with anything in life.

EDIT: To answer your question a bit more directly... I've found for equivalent machine specs running mac osx seems to give a better performance than windows, must be more efficient coding!
 
I would get a mac (I am sort of biased), their laptops are more affordable than desktops, yet still very powerful and portable. Most importantly for editing you need a calibrated S-IPS type external monitor.
 
I Built pc's for family for a fair few years, although they were all good stable systems i just got fed up of constantly fedup of faffing about drivers conflicts deleting virus's.

The only real reson for so much upgrading on a pc is simply to play games the main cost each time the graphics card.

For games i would stick to a consul.

I moved to an imac 20" a refurbed one. Loved it still do infact on it now, so neat a tidy everything is all built into the screen so no tower or base unit.

I upgraded the memory apple allows you to do that and not affect warranty and is accessed from a panel at the screen base.

This is now a main family unit and as you say is used mainly for the net and school stuff some photo edditing. I love the parental controls so i can set time limits for all the kids seperate accounts including start times and auto shut off times.

This was my unit and used for as above mainly edditing.

I now have a macbook pro 13" would have loved the 17" but having seen and used the 13" it seams a lot bigger than you think.

I know they are not cheep but no desire to upgrade and intend to keep for a good few years.

The 20" and 24" imacs like mine are coming up a lot more on the refurb apple site now they have been upgraded you could even end up with one never used it has been known.
They come with full years warranty.. they are mostly the ones from the stores and mine was as new not a mark to it.

Lots of mac advocates on here but now ive tried them i will never go back to windcrawl pc's.

Refurb link here, you will see what i mean... also just click any of the highlighted apple texts on this page and you will go to the pple store and just type refurb in the search bar to the left and you will go to refub section and just click on the imac link....
http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/home/specialdeals/mac?mco=MTM3NTA4Mzc
 
Sounds good to me mate have a look around for the best price i know there is a refurb on there but that is only £40 less than i paid for mine new from dixons.

Now apple store would not price match as there was not a store you could walk in and get it from as dixons are online only now but if there is a store you can walk into nearby they will likely match, i wanted it from apple store as snow leopard had just come out and wanted that.
However after reading on apple site about upgrade they just needed the serial number and for £7.50 posted me the upgrade disk to take it upto snow leopard
which was nice.

Have a look for a any voucher codes online i nearly got another £50 off but the voucher code had just expired 2 days before doh.

Oh the mac book is a tuff cookie i had mine in my hand and turned suddenly and realy whacked it into a solid wood door frame knocking it from my hand and it crashing to the floor...still works fine and just tiny slither off the edge of the screen lid alluminium.
 
mah1880 said:
The mac os is just so much better thought out than any version of windows up to XP (haven't used anything more recent).
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Well, XP did come out over 8 years ago. Apple have had some time to catch up since then, although Win2K Pro was much more stable than XP imo. The only reason I went up to XP was because software forced me to.

I've tried Macs several times over the past 15 or so years and have yet to see a real reason to make me switch.

james_death said:
The only real reson for so much upgrading on a pc is simply to play games the main cost each time the graphics card.
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That may be your reason, but not everybody's. I used to have an Athlon dual core 2Ghz machine with 4GB of RAM. It wasn't even close to being enough when I made the switch from SD to HD video editing. New motherboard, quad core 2.5Ghz processor, another 4GB of RAM, keep using the same graphics card, hard drives, optical drives, capture cards, etc and away we go.
 
Upgrade your pc, just buy a new motherboard, processor and ram and you'll have a complete upgrade for about £100-250ish. You should contemplate doing this regardless of whether or not you buy a mac
 
Kaouthia said:
Well, XP did come out over 8 years ago. Apple have had some time to catch up since then, although Win2K Pro was much more stable than XP imo. The only reason I went up to XP was because software forced me to.

I've tried Macs several times over the past 15 or so years and have yet to see a real reason to make me switch.



That may be your reason, but not everybody's. I used to have an Athlon dual core 2Ghz machine with 4GB of RAM. It wasn't even close to being enough when I made the switch from SD to HD video editing. New motherboard, quad core 2.5Ghz processor, another 4GB of RAM, keep using the same graphics card, hard drives, optical drives, capture cards, etc and away we go.
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As you say that would be my need and i never gave a thought to video Doh.. i never upgraded mine much i just never got round to unwrapping games and im old school anyway jetset willy etc.

Im not dismissing the PC but im much happier with a mac and as a lot of others have found its horses for courses and for what a lot of folk want to do the apple does it in spades and so much already there with no need for extra software, my office suite was free as its the open office.
 
hughes_jh said:
Upgrade your pc, just buy a new motherboard, processor and ram and you'll have a complete upgrade for about £100-250ish. You should contemplate doing this regardless of whether or not you buy a mac
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I think it would probably take more than that, need a new case and GPU too so I might as well go whole hog, I could build a decent spec i5 system for around £450, might add a new monitor too as my current one is 19" and not as high res and I could do with for photo editing.
 
Well it all comes down to pc or mac again...

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

When i get round to adding another monitor that can conect to the imac or the macbook i want one that turns about for the portrait shots automatically changing the aspect.
 
I own both PC and Mac and can't help myself posting in these threads...

There is nothing my PC can't do which my mac can, as i run Hakintosh on the PC aswell and Windows

I am not limited to upgradeablity on my PC, i can swap my GPU, OverClock, watercool the list is endless....My pc in terms of value is 1000 times better for the price and how long it will last...

PC's are however for the more technicality minded, well people who build there own machines, not talking about the average PC World customer....

Apple say that Macs are for people who "Think Different" well i don't believe that and it falls under 3 categories.

1) People who have to much money to spend
2) People who work in Media
3) People who want to look good


I have my mac for the build quality and battery life, and if im honest because they look cool.

I have no advantage when using my Mac over my pc apart from the fact its portable.

So my advice to you, get someone to build you a custom built computer, or places like Novatech sell pre-built custom machines to suit your neeed.
 
james_death said:
Well it all comes down to pc or mac again.
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PC vs. Mac is really no different to Nikon vs. Canon. They're both reliable and very capable when you know what you're doing and it all really comes down to personal preference and the advantages & disadvantages you may get from each camp.

I'm with thehitmen regarding Novatech, I've used them plenty in the past, although I don't feel their prices are as competitive as they once were. There are many online retailers with identical products for quite a bit less (but Novatech do come up on top a fair share of the time on some products too), so I shop around a dozen or so different places online and will often order different parts from all of them to build up a new system at the best price.

Edit : 4) People who believe that because Macs were better than PCs for graphics & video 20-30 years ago, they still are.
 
thehitmen said:
There is nothing my PC can't do which my mac can, as i run Hakintosh on the PC aswell and Windows
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I respectfully disagree. While your PC can do everything that your Mac does, it also needs to have antivirus and antispyware installed which are RAM hogs and periodic runs of these do slow down your computer terribly.

I'm not saying Macs can't have viruses or spyware, just that there aren't many at this point and this makes it so much simpler and easier to use.

Apart from gaming, which Macs aren't terribly good at, I would prefer a Mac over a PC any day. Aesthetically pleasing, ease of use and of course, that style factor.

More expensive, yes. But like anything else, you get what you pay for.

Almost like comparing your Canon 18-55mm kit lens with a 17-55mm f/2.8. Just because the numbers look kinda similar, doesn't make it so. :)
 
You could always convert your PC into a media centre for your tv and buy a new Mac to use as your computer
 
nuttyboy78 said:
I'm not saying Macs can't have viruses or spyware, just that there aren't many at this point and this makes it so much simpler and easier to use.
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Which is why, as a Mac user, you shouldn't be promoting them to other people. The more popular they get, the more likely somebody is to get off their butt and seek out vulnerabilities. ;)

Admittedly, that's probably not as easy as it used to be given that it's now based off a BSD *nix core.

nuttyboy78 said:
Aesthetically pleasing
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It'd sit under my desk out of sight regardless. ;)

nuttyboy78 said:
More expensive, yes. But like anything else, you get what you pay for.

Almost like comparing your Canon 18-55mm kit lens with a 17-55mm f/2.8. Just because the numbers look kinda similar, doesn't make it so. :)
Click to expand...
I hardly see how that's an analogous comparison tbh. It's more like comparing a 70-200mm f/2.8 ED-IF VR to a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.
 
Kaouthia said:
I hardly see how that's an analogous comparison tbh. It's more like comparing a 70-200mm f/2.8 ED-IF VR to a 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.
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Ah, but you see, that's no comparison. Apples and oranges, Canons and Nikons..... The Canons are too far ahead, I'm afraid :exit:
 
lol
 
Get yourself to an Apple shop and have a play with one. Don't take your wallet.

Don't get caught up in the hype. Mac's are computers that's all. Sleek smooth and well designed. They will cost you more than a PC , but they work well.

You may need to buy new software as it's possible what you have wont run on a mac, but you can always use Parallells of similar to run windows on a Mac. ( Sort of defeats the object I always thought).

If you go for an iMac try and do a deal to exchange the wireless keyboard for a full size one with numeric keys.

Are Macs cool, not really, are they stylish Yes, big difference.

( He says sitting in front of his new 27" iMac. , Now that is defiantly one up on a PC)
 
Chappers said:
He says sitting in front of his new 27" iMac. , Now that is defiantly one up on a PC)
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That's ok, I'm perfectly happy with the pair of HP 24" L2475w monitors and the LG 42" 1080 100Hz telly hooked up to my PC ;)
 
I'd get a Mac personally...I shared an old Toshiba XP, until 2 yrs a go got the MacBook 13' and never looked back.
 
chrism_scotland said:
I think I might be better just paying a bit more for a 13" Macbook Pro and then I can plug it into a screen when I'm home, probably the most cost effective option, I did try an older Macbook and I found it be be a decent little performer!
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If you are looking at a Mac Mini and a Macbook this would certainly be a good bet. When I'm back at base I just hook my Macbook upto an external monitor, keyboard and graphics tablet, it may aswell be a desktop and no need to sync files etc.
 
here we go again.

OSX is not better than Windows and Windows is not better than OSX. Personal preference which one you use, they BOTH crash, they both do the same thing, they just look a little different.

go out and try OSX in an Apple store and go and try Windows 7 and see what you prefer. Then buy the winner.

End of thread.
 
neil_g said:
here we go again.

OSX is not better than Windows and Windows is not better than OSX. Personal preference which one you use, they BOTH crash, they both do the same thing, they just look a little different.

go out and try OSX in an Apple store and go and try Windows 7 and see what you prefer. Then buy the winner.

End of thread.
Click to expand...

The OS argument is always an interesting one, I do think Windows has a distinct disadvantage though in the breadth of hardware (ignoring any USB devices) it is expected to support - Apple only have a comparatively small subset of hardware to work with.

Then of course you can always throw in Linux as a 3rd option, assuming you actually want to learn how everything works ;)
 
mah1880 said:
The OS argument is always an interesting one, I do think Windows has a distinct disadvantage though in the breadth of hardware (ignoring any USB devices) it is expected to support - Apple only have a comparatively small subset of hardware to work with.
Click to expand...

for the most part the decent mainstream motherboard/graphics/sound hardware vendors have pulled their fingers out in respect to drivers, even MS on native drivers (at least i found in W7) are pretty good. the only issues ive had recently was when i installed the W7 RC and my USB wireless adaptor took a little fettling to work.

but then if youre buying an off the shelf pre-installed PC (as you would with a Mac) then thats really a non-issue anyway.
 
neil_g said:
for the most part the decent mainstream motherboard/graphics/sound hardware vendors have pulled their fingers out in respect to drivers, even MS on native drivers (at least i found in W7) are pretty good.
Click to expand...

Sorry this is going a bit o/t - Neil I hadn't realised that, I have to admit to being a bit out of touch with recent hardware developments. Anyway, it's good news that the major players are pulling in the same direction.
 
Take my advice and get yourself a 64bit PC with windows 7 and you won't have any problems using Photoshop or Lightroom.... The 64 bit versions are streets ahead of my old 32 bit ones and windows 7 is excellent. It found all the drivers for an old Vaio within 20 mins and I had a lovely new install which ran faster on the same hardware as the old XP box. You can use lots more ram than was possible with the old 32 bit ones. I skipped Vista altogether as its a resource hungry pile of %7.... Just stick to mainstream producers like DELL HP etc ... My brother in law rang me this very morning to get the OK for the spcification on a new dell machine as above for less than £550. INCLUDING the OS !
 
neil_g said:
here we go again.

OSX is not better than Windows and Windows is not better than OSX. Personal preference which one you use, they BOTH crash, they both do the same thing, they just look a little different.

go out and try OSX in an Apple store and go and try Windows 7 and see what you prefer. Then buy the winner.

End of thread.
Click to expand...

:agree:

This is the best advice you'll get in this thread. Go try them both :) (I know you've got a PC, but Windows 7 from what I understand is a vast improvement)

Dave.
 
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