An Inquisitive PC (XP) user...

[~~NeYo~~]

Hey!? i Started Blabbin' in tha Desktop Forum...
And totally love tha OS X Gui, in comparison 2 Luna,
and i have been like, hmmm... Shud i get a mac, instead of using my current PC, and upgrading it...
I have Many Questions...
"i am WAY outta my Depth here..." i hope u Guys Dont mind Fillin' me on somethings...

1stly, what Kinda "Mac" Would i be lookin 4... 2 run OS X Nicely?! Etc.... ?

It looks tha "Dogs" ... Hence (attached!)

NeYo

[serpicolugnut]

Is that english? :-)

It depends on what you want to do with it. If all you want to do is surf, send e-mail, rip/mix/burn CD's, write letters, etc. an iMac or iBook is a great machine. If you are looking to do serious graphic/audio/video, go with a PowerMac.

[sithious]

... you can, of course, look up what apple has to say about this here (http://www.apple.com) ...

it all depends on what you want to be doing:

if you want really smooth performance and you're into graphics/video editing, the newest games and stuff, i'd recommend a g4 powermac, but whatever you do, don't buy it from the applestore, as you can get virtually any apple product cheaper elsewhere ... lol :p
if your finances are a bit low and/or you think you don't need all that power, an imac will do, but you'll need to make sure you've got lots of ram ... there's a nice thread on this here (http://www.press3.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=10679), maybe even a second-hand g3 will do, any opinion on this from g3 users?

i certainly noticed the difference when i upgraded from imac to g4, and i certainly think it was well worth the money, there's no app i've come across so far that doesn't work really well on my setup, which is nice... and the way things are going, we're going to have nearly all the apps we need running natively on os x pretty soon, so we can do away with classic... on the other hand, that's the nice thing about x: you get two operating systems in one: os x and os 9.2 ... so there's tons of apps out there that'll work nicely ... :)

you can get loads of freeware and shareware apps from versiontracker (http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/index.shtml) and there's a lot of highly interesting mac-related links here at woz.org (http://www.woz.com/maclinks/) ...

hope this'll help you along a bit, let's see what all the others have to say for themselves ... :)

[vanguard]

Which mac should you buy. That's a good question, I found myself in the same place six months ago. Since you didn't mention what you'll be using it for I'll assume it's the normal home use (web, mail, a little gaming, etc.)

Because I needed to be conservative with the budget, wanted a notebook, and wasn't sure if I would like a mac after I bought it, I went with the iBook.

I'm really happy with this machine (I'm using it now). According to me, you can't go wrong with any of iBooks but I would buy the top one with a combo drive.

If you're looking for a desktop machine, it seems like the most experienced mac guys would wait until after the expo in Jan. Unlike PC companies which tweak their offerings every week, Apple tends to make only a few changes per year. That makes timing a little more important. Rumors of a new iMac (budget machine) and a new PowerMac run rampant.

I'm a long time computer guy. I've been making my living as a programmer or sys admin (in my earlier days) for about 8 years now. This mac is my favorite desktop machine ever. Welcome to the fray.

BTW, if you have the extra cash, the wireless networking is awesome. I don't use the airport hub (the Cisco offering is much more expensive but it's better. As an employee it's not more expensive for me) but I do use the airport card. I'm very happy with it.

Edited to fix a typo. Of course, it doesn't look like neyo is part of the grammer police. :)

[~~NeYo~~]

LMAO... U Guys Picking up on all my Grammar...
...RIGHT! ...
LOL...

I'll be Good! Thanks for all that, i never knew iMac's were "budget Machines" Thats Kind of Cool, although they do look good! (What Doesn't in Comparison 2 most PC's!? LOL)
...Thankfully... Mines' not 2 Bad... It's All Black, CDRW, DVDROM, CDROM As well!

Anyway, To Be honest, i just saw OS X, and was like, Wow... Thats Looks awesome, thats why i wanted it. It made my poor XP look Errrr... (u know the little expressions u guys use!)

I guess, i'd just want a system, that i could "play" with, as i have never even used a mac before! LoL... are there any PC users, who jumped from Windows to Mac, i'd Obviously like 2 use both, so is it like, learning linux!? Cus man, i have Mandrake (8.1)installed... But it looks Pants! (Guess thats why i lost interest!)

NeYo

[~~NeYo~~]

I notice how it appears, u Guys Need S**T loads of Memory, For Running a nice OS X Setup...
What are prices like, for say, 512MB?!

NeYo

[sithious]

ram is dirt cheap at the moment ... just look up the online stores ... :)

[vanguard]

Yeah, a lot of ram is helpful. I have 384mb on my iBook and I'm happy. However, if you're really on a budget you could

1. Stay out of classic
2. Keep only a two or three apps open.
3. Deal with a slow machine.

I would get all the machine you could then add ram later. Also, I wouldn't buy the ram from Apple, they charge far more than their resellers.

I checked ramjet.com and it looks like notebook ram is $60 for 256, $289 for 512mb. When I bought my extra 256mb I paid $70 before a $35 rebate.

If you get a desktop machine, 512 mb is $99.

You might find better prices if you shop around.

In regard to learning the mac, it's not too bad. You don't have to learn *nix. However, it's there if you like to get down and dirty. The beauty of the mac is that's it's easy to learn and easy to use. Try it, you'll like it.


Vanguard

[zerologic]

One thing people tend to forget is that you don't need the latest and greatest to run X. I have a dual 500 that runs X like a DREAM. I have 1GB of ram in too.

Just my thoughts.

0

[~~NeYo~~]

So, Like... What Kinda £££'s would ya be looking @ 4 a middle of tha range Desktop "Mac" (Nearly Sed PC! :()
...Which i cud use to "learn" and Surf...
And Run OS X Nicely!? (not like... 2GB RAM, 867MHz CPU! LOL)

NeYo

[AdmiralAK]

Whatever mac you choose to get its going to last you a while :)

I would suggest you get a G4 tower. Its (in my opinion) better than iMacs and more expandable (never really liked the all-in0one design).


Admiral

[jeb1138]

Everything will change in exactly 3 weeks on January 7th at the beginning of Macworld San Francisco when the new G4's/G5's will supposedly be announced. Of course, new G4's/G5's are only a rumor, but you can bet that prices will drop and new machinery will come out.

The "Mac world" is a bit different than the PC world in that new processors and machines usually come out at the annual Macworld Expos instead of just whenever, so buying any Mac a month before a Macworld Expo isn't that good of an idea, because prices always drop on all old machines after the new machines are announced.

[tagliatelle]

I love you girl!

[fryke]

if you want to try/surf/learn Mac OS X on a real Mac, buy a portable, because then you have an added value. Try the iBook with DVD-ROM drive. Max the RAM to 640 MB and there you are. If you buy a G4 tower with an appropriate display (which would be the 17" TFT) ;) ... you ain't going cheper.

Take a look at the iBook is my suggestion. Being portable is great and the iBook is quite cheap for such a great machine.

[edX]

see this thread (http://www.press3.com/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=8501) for some related advice that was recently given to someone in a similar predicament.:)

[tagliatelle]

Neyo the only thing I can say that we have already our Titanium and I know that each popstar will give you the same answer. And as shareholder of Realsoftware I can ask Martinatkinson to bring that Letter to apple code to the Mac and SF.

[~~NeYo~~]

Originally posted by Hervé Hinnekens
Neyo the only thing I can say that we have already our Titanium and I know that each popstar will give you the same answer. And as shareholder of Realsoftware I can ask Martinatkinson to bring that Letter to apple code to the Mac and SF.

Huh? i am Soo lost!?

Titanium?! All that springs 2 mind is, GeForce 3 Titanium 500!

Remember... i have never Used a mac... Hense tha Thread name!

NeYo

[tagliatelle]

Find some nice games for your computer and come back.

[~~NeYo~~]

Huh?! WTF!

I have Some Awesome Games, thanks...

But why!? WTF?
i am wondering wat u r on 'bout!?

NeYo

[AdmiralAK]

He is just herve,
he just is ;)
Dont try to decipher him...you will just be more confused :p


Admiral

[Matrix Agent]

Herve: master of all, speaker of gibberish.

[~~NeYo~~]

oh!? So i am NOT Alone!? Phew!
i Thought, just cus i am an (hehe) "Almighty" (LOL) MS XP (i know u guys are gonna masacre me 4 that! :p) he was Gibberin' @ me, and me alone!

Lol... tha "herve" Reminds of tha Expression u use, for wen Some's gonna chuck! LMAO!

NeYo

[~~NeYo~~]

Can Some1 Tell me tha Deal With one of these Cube thingies!?

They look Awesome...
But What Do They Offer, in terms of upgradibility?
could u just Chuck in some More Memory, etc?!
Also... Could i connect my 15" Dell (Black...hehe) Monitor into it?!
standard VGA!?

The Spec is see, was...
Apple Powermac Cube G4 450MHZ 64MB 20GB DVD 56K

as far as memory goes, i guess, from u guys, u'd want loads more.... but besides, how would it fair, on OSX ?!

Cheers Guys, i really appreciate Your input....as i know (and Obv, so do u, LOL!) JACk S**t bout Mac's ... but Really wanna learn...!
the chances are, i will buy one...;)

Cheers!

NeYo

[edX]

to even come close to understanding herve, one must search for all of his posts and read them from the beginning as a sort of stream of consciousness thing. he is the zen master among us. don't try to figure him out. just don't take anything he says too literally. he's always cryptic.

gotta love him though.
:cool:

[zerologic]

The Cube run X efficiently. It is no speed demon but it will certainly get the job done. Max it our with RAM and consider a larger drive. You'll be happy with it as a first/learning Mac for sure.

Then you can get the new Titanium laptop with the combo drive (droooooool) to complete the family. :)

:cool:

[~~NeYo~~]

Cheers Dude...!
DAMN 2 minds... here...

a mac (of some kind ..hehe)

Or...
Upgrade my K7 900MHz
new TFT, XP2000+ CPU and iWill DDR333 (PC2700) M\Board, 80GB HD, 1Gb DDR
Hmmmm...Choices!?