You have 1000 pounds to spend on a computer...

Clearly lots of folks like Macs. I have never used one so cannot comment.

But if you go for a PC instead then, unless you want to do a lot more than photo editing, £1,000 sounds way over the top.

I have not use PCSpecialists but hear good things of them. One other to look at is Novatech.

Dave
 
There is so much utter fail in this thread that it makes my brain hurt.
 
I used PCSpecialist a few years a go configure a Laptop, and was very happy with it. You get the OS on a proper disk too, which was on of the reasons I went them. Another is that all it came with was the OS, not stuffed with useless stuff.

I think £1000 for a computer just for editing images is way too much, Mac or PC. :shrug: Although if you take a quality monitor (or two) out of that then you have a more realistic amount for a computer.

A multi core processor (the i5s seem to be getting good reviews), 8GB RAM (minimum), fast HD boot disk (maybe consider a Solid State Drive), and then maybe a few reasonable sized HDs for data. I would get a DirectX graphics card just because it gives options, though you don't need the greatest card for Photoshop, Lightroom etc.

A friend got a PC from Ebuyer for about £500-£600 and it seemed to install CS5 instantly which stunned me. :eek: My PC took a bout 5-10 minutes to install the program. It also ran the program very well too btw, but then so does my PC, and even my £400 laptop runs CS5 with no problems at all. ;)

If you know what you're doing, get one configured how you want it, if not ask people here what and where they have bought with similar specs.

Obviously that is after you've decided between Mac and PC. :shrug: :bonk: :lol:
 
Someone once asked me what I prefer (PC vs Mac) and it's a personal thing of course....

I said.....If windows PC where free of charge, I would still buy an Apple.

I think that says how much I prefer Apple and I was a die hard Pc user.

Stu

www.systeminsight.co.uk
 
Haha, that Commodore 64 mod is genius!

Anyway, back to the main subject. If I had a grand to spend on my PC, I'd get a new one!
But if I can't get the one I want, then I'd upgrade the current E6600 Duo processor, along with the bestest top of the range PCI-e graphics card I can get hold of.
 
guys thank you so much for all your advice and help - i decided to go with a 21.5 inch iMac, with 1tb of space and 4g of ram... its coming tomorrow and i am more excited than an excited thing... for the last few months i have had no computer (but a new born son) and have lots of photos to edit and play with :)

I am glad i am going mac, i have a deep love for things which 'just work' something no PC i have ever bought has done...

it was a toughie but the All-in-one function of the iMac is perfect for me... i couldnt find anything that came close to it in PC land and the iMac really didnt seem like an expensive option for me... i think similar to Mac users thinking that Macs never get virus's might be a bit outdated... PnC users thinking Macs are uber more expensive too, my iMac was 1100 with delivery... perfect for my needs :)

cant wait - thank you all xx
 
Imac 21.5" no question about it. Had mine since April & love it. Fantastic.
 
Congrats on the new purchase. Shame you fell for the old 'it just works' line though. It's marketing tosh and nowt else.
 
I have both, a 24" iMac 2.4GHz, 4 GB Ram and a top spec PC I built myself last month.
In all honesty, I use the PC more now.
The mac I have had for about 5 years and has become a pain in the ass. It randomly connects and disconnects from the internet, whether hard wired or wireless, it refuses to connect to the home network, the graphics card is overheating casuing the screen to lock and its running slower than anything else Ive ever had. It takes 5 minutes to load Safari, and about 8 to load Photoshop.

My PC is an Intel i5 with a Gforce gtx470 graphics card and 4GB ram and runs like a dream. It cost just over £800 to build myself, whereas the mac cost £1400 and I cant upgrade it any further.
Yes macs are nice to look at, and easy to use, but they arent the saints all the mac fanbois want you to beleive.
 
well i turned it on... it asked me what language i wanted everything, what language i wanted the keyboard and offered to transfer things from a harddisk... then it asked me what internet wireless i wanted to connect to and did everything for me

i turn it off, it goes off, i turn it on and it goes on - the screen is phenominal, my pictures are much cleaner and easier to edit with it compared to my old laptop (which was a PC and cost 1000 about 2 years ago)

i am definatly converted! in just a day! If this had been a PC purchase i would have spent the first half a day fannying about trying to get it to behave how i want it to (or even behave at all) With the iMac i was editing pictures in a few minutes :) Its fabby :D

and it really does 'just work' sorry but you might think its hype but its sooooo true

and of course a 5 year old computer is going to take ages to load... its 5 years old!
 
All i know is that i am far happier with my Mac than i have been with any previous PC purchase made in my whole life... fully converted
 
feeb said:
and it really does 'just work' sorry but you might think its hype but its sooooo true

and of course a 5 year old computer is going to take ages to load... its 5 years old!
Click to expand...

So in 5 years, you mac is going to be next to useless then?? and you wont be able to upgrade it any further to get any more life out of it, like I can with the PC I built.

My iMac spec can still be bought today, so it shouldnt matter how old it is, the truth is, Macs arent all roses and butterflies. Yes for the first year it will be wonderfull, but then things will start to happen and through your rose tinted glasses you will deny them, until after while you actually realise you just spent £1400 on a pretty white box.

Dont get me wrong, the screen of my Mac still amazes me (when it works) and I love my iphone, but you cant say that all PC's are crap and all Macs are brilliant, because its simply not true, as I have proved with my self build PC and my expensive white box.
 
Sounds like my PC that is 3 years old! :p

feeb said:
well i turned it on... it asked me what language i wanted everything, what language i wanted the keyboard and offered to transfer things from a harddisk... then it asked me what internet wireless i wanted to connect to and did everything for me

i turn it off, it goes off, i turn it on and it goes on - the screen is phenominal, my pictures are much cleaner and easier to edit with it compared to my old laptop (which was a PC and cost 1000 about 2 years ago)

i am definatly converted! in just a day! If this had been a PC purchase i would have spent the first half a day fannying about trying to get it to behave how i want it to (or even behave at all) With the iMac i was editing pictures in a few minutes :) Its fabby :D

and it really does 'just work' sorry but you might think its hype but its sooooo true

and of course a 5 year old computer is going to take ages to load... its 5 years old!
Click to expand...
 
feeb said:
All i know is that i am far happier with my Mac than i have been with any previous PC purchase made in my whole life... fully converted
Click to expand...

but your not comparing with A PC of today are you?
any thing bought today will be much better then your old ones
inside a mac is a PC trying to get out ;)
 
Love my Macbook Pro 13", but if I was buying a desktop machine, I'd definitely build it myself, best performance for the money.

Win 7 v Mac OSX are much of a muchness these days. Anyone saying one is drastically better than the other is talking out of their a**e.
 
alot of it was about space for me, i have a 13 week old son and dread the thought of a huge computer tower anywhere near him! we have a very small house... the iMac was good because its a 'stay at home computer' therefore making me less likely to trash it, but can be mounted on the wall completely out of the way, one wire, no boxes, leads or bits un bobs

if it werent for that space-saving necessity i probably would have bought a desktop, and probably wouldnt have gone apple

but for me at the moment that is not an option x
 
Excellent choice Fi, you'll go on enjoying it for many years and in 2 or 3 it will still be fast, unlike a PC which will be haveing java updates everytime you start it up!!
As for they're comparing similiar PC's to similar Macs...its the way Mcas crunch numbers that make them faster!

Whatever task it is...Macs do it better!!

I've a 27" with the screen that is phenominal and as fast as I need it and some!

I suppose it's like comparing Nikon to Canon...Canon just do it better! :) oh..did I just stir a hornets nest!!
 
justhitched said:
Excellent choice Fi, you'll go on enjoying it for many years and in 2 or 3 it will still be fast, unlike a PC which will be haveing java updates everytime you start it up!!
As for they're comparing similiar PC's to similar Macs...its the way Mcas crunch numbers that make them faster!

Whatever task it is...Macs do it better!!

I've a 27" with the screen that is phenominal and as fast as I need it and some!

I suppose it's like comparing Nikon to Canon...Canon just do it better! :) oh..did I just stir a hornets nest!!
Click to expand...

seriously?
 
TCR4x4 said:
I have both, a 24" iMac 2.4GHz, 4 GB Ram and a top spec PC I built myself last month.
In all honesty, I use the PC more now.
The mac I have had for about 5 years and has become a pain in the ass. It randomly connects and disconnects from the internet, whether hard wired or wireless, it refuses to connect to the home network, the graphics card is overheating casuing the screen to lock and its running slower than anything else Ive ever had. It takes 5 minutes to load Safari, and about 8 to load Photoshop.

My PC is an Intel i5 with a Gforce gtx470 graphics card and 4GB ram and runs like a dream. It cost just over £800 to build myself, whereas the mac cost £1400 and I cant upgrade it any further.
Yes macs are nice to look at, and easy to use, but they arent the saints all the mac fanbois want you to beleive.
Click to expand...

Macs need maintenance as well, like clearing your cache, defrag the drive. I have found that the more photos and albums you create = more fragments. I have had my Mac pro now for nearly 3 years. Just upgraded my wife's pc (i5 processor , raptor drive, 4gig mem, fast graphics (not as fast as gtx470) and my mac is still faster, Safari is up as soon as I click the icon as are the rest of my apps. I have win7 on a separate drive for gaming and my weather station. Also networked with wifes pc and sharing NAS drive. All I need now is the D7000 ! :)
 
I thought of another point about buying a Mac...QC, Quality Control.

With a self built, the QC, the maintenance is by the end user. With the mac the QC is done by Apple, the testing is done by Apple. You know the drivers will work, you know the parts sre compatible, you know you are buying more an appliance, not a computer.
 
Highlanderjc said:
Macs need maintenance as well, like clearing your cache, defrag the drive. I have found that the more photos and albums you create = more fragments. I have had my Mac pro now for nearly 3 years. Just upgraded my wife's pc (i5 processor , raptor drive, 4gig mem, fast graphics (not as fast as gtx470) and my mac is still faster, Safari is up as soon as I click the icon as are the rest of my apps. I have win7 on a separate drive for gaming and my weather station. Also networked with wifes pc and sharing NAS drive. All I need now is the D7000 ! :)
Click to expand...

I have noticed as well that Mac OS X launches applications faster than Windows. Even on my measly Asus Eee most apps only require one "bounce" of the dock icon.

Realistically though when you have a fast Mac and a fast PC, the half second longer that the PC takes to launch an app isn't a deal breaker.

It annoys me that OS X does not provide an uninstall utility like Windows does. Sure, dragging an app to the bin gets rid of it, but it doesn't get rid of the dependencies and library files that it may have linked to it. Although the Windows uninstallers aren't perfect either, they generally do a good enough job at getting rid of startup items and other extraneous clutter. Mac OS X also doesn't provide a defragmentation utility.



Raymond Lin said:
I thought of another point about buying a Mac...QC, Quality Control.

With a self built, the QC, the maintenance is by the end user. With the mac the QC is done by Apple, the testing is done by Apple. You know the drivers will work, you know the parts sre compatible, you know you are buying more an appliance, not a computer.
Click to expand...

That's a good way to put it. Computers aren't appliances but as you say, an Apple computer (especially under AppleCare) comes damn close.
 
subwax said:
Is this the Canon / Nikon of the PC world?
Click to expand...
yes macs are considered some of the best computers around,
because they just work. i don't think they could really be described as the Nikon's or Canons of the PC world though because mac are in a different league they have little competition in there target market, but if what you were asking is are macs the best id say yes :p
 
Llama said:
yes macs are considered some of the best computers around,
because they just work. i don't think they could really be described as the Nikon's or Canons of the PC world though because mac are in a different league they have little competition in there target market, but if what you were asking is are macs the best id say yes :p
Click to expand...

seriously?

(again)
 
trencheel303 said:
I have noticed as well that Mac OS X launches applications faster than Windows. Even on my measly Asus Eee most apps only require one "bounce" of the dock icon.

Realistically though when you have a fast Mac and a fast PC, the half second longer that the PC takes to launch an app isn't a deal breaker.

It annoys me that OS X does not provide an uninstall utility like Windows does. Sure, dragging an app to the bin gets rid of it, but it doesn't get rid of the dependencies and library files that it may have linked to it. Although the Windows uninstallers aren't perfect either, they generally do a good enough job at getting rid of startup items and other extraneous clutter. Mac OS X also doesn't provide a defragmentation utility.





That's a good way to put it. Computers aren't appliances but as you say, an Apple computer (especially under AppleCare) comes damn close.
Click to expand...

CleanMyMac is what I use to uninstall apps and it does a lot more besides. I also use http://www.coriolis-systems.com/iDefrag.php , and yes I did have to purchase them but it was what I thought to be a decent price.
 
£1000? You can save £500 if you build own PC. It is very easy, even a child can do this. ebuyer.com FTW
 
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