switching from a Mac to PC?

hey guys,

before i go on with my question, i am asking that you do not turn this into a mac/pc fight night. i LOVE my mac and i know that the macs are great and i also know that pc's are great. now, i have owned my powerbook G4 for 2 years now and it has been just great. i was all set with upgrading to a duel core iMac 20" next month (i don't need a laptop anymore) but.... last week i had a chance to play with a pc with Vista installed and i was very impressed. on the way home, i started thinking about what i should do and i this is what i came up with:

1) i would like a pc so i can upgrade my hardware without buying a new computer.
2) with a pc i can get 4gig of ram which will be very nice for PS
3) i would like to join my friends for some Battle field action
4) i love not having any spyware or viruses on my mac
5) during my MBA, there were a few times when i needed a specific software but it wasn't available for the mac
6) my main use for the computer will be online and photograpy. the ability to have 2-3 hard drives inside a computer would be very nice.
7) i really don't use any specific dedicated mac software except for iTunes...

your thoughts??

Intel macs run Windows now, that's a big thing to remember.
Vista.. I would STRONGLY recommend not buying a computer for use right now to use with "Vista". I am using a rtm copy right now and it gets worse and worse by the day (glitch wise and software / driver support.)
iTunes runs on Windows.

Have you tried apple aperture? That's one piece of software I think a lot of photographers move to Mac to use in itself.

blonde wrote in post #2423244
hey guys,

before i go on with my question, i am asking that you do not turn this into a mac/pc fight night. i LOVE my mac and i know that the macs are great and i also know that pc's are great. now, i have owned my powerbook G4 for 2 years now and it has been just great. i was all set with upgrading to a duel core iMac 20" next month (i don't need a laptop anymore) but.... last week i had a chance to play with a pc with Vista installed and i was very impressed. on the way home, i started thinking about what i should do and i this is what i came up with:

1) i would like a pc so i can upgrade my hardware without buying a new computer.
2) with a pc i can get 4gig of ram which will be very nice for PS
3) i would like to join my friends for some Battle field action
4) i love not having any spyware or viruses on my mac
5) during my MBA, there were a few times when i needed a specific software but it wasn't available for the mac
6) my main use for the computer will be online and photograpy. the ability to have 2-3 hard drives inside a computer would be very nice.
7) i really don't use any specific dedicated mac software except for iTunes...

your thoughts??

I'm one of those schyzophrenic individuals that uses both. I'm locked into using Windows because of business software I must use. I've generally divided the roles for each machine just that way---business on the PC, everything else on the Mac. That includes all my photo processing, etc.

Honestly, there isn't much differnece between them, and when Vista and OS 10.5 come out next year, the differences will be even less. Mac still wins in the 'cool factor', but realisticaly, that edge is narrowing from a lot of the high-end PCs that are out there.

It sounds like you have legitimate reasons for switching to PC. I don't think you'll be hurting yourself.

Owning both a mac and XP machine, I can say fairly certainly say that I prefer the mac, largely for the interface and functionality. Now, I can't speak on how that will relate to Vista, but remember that Vista may still be a while: it was due out years ago. I like my XP machine but I love my Macbook, so take that for what you will. In addition to my macbook, I regularly use an iMac, and I must say that they are quite nice, and I imagine that the new, dual core iMacs will be even better. Once CS3 is fully released in universal, I don't see there being any real barriers to using a mac, unless (as you mentioned) you happen to enjoy computer games. However, remember that with the new dual core intel macs, you can run XP natively, and run whatever PC apps you want without any pain.

i know about the intel macs but i will still get stuck with hardware that i can't upgrade and a max of 3 gigs or ram

belmondo wrote in post #2423286
Mac still wins in the 'cool factor',

Blonde, I'm going to recommend a heavy dose of the Mac vs. Pc commercials....you'll come out of this soon....

in an ideal world, i would own a mac pro but i don't have nor wish to spend so much money when i can just buy a $1600 desktop that has 4gig ram, 2.13 duel core and come with a 20" wide screen.

Permagrin wrote in post #2423295
Blonde, I'm going to recommend a heavy dose of the Mac vs. Pc commercials....you'll come out of this soon....

as much as i like the commercials (and i do), the computer is in my room and the only person that would be impressed is me and the wife. the cool factor is not up on my list at all..

blonde wrote in post #2423300
in an ideal world, i would own a mac pro but i don't have nor wish to spend so much money when i can just buy a $1600 desktop that has 4gig ram, 2.13 duel core and come with a 20" wide screen.

Of course, with the MacPro, you don't have to do it all at one time. Right now, I'm running a MacPro with 4 drives in it. 2X250g, 300G, and 750G. That's 1.5TB. It's compltely expandable, and adding drives and memory is a snap. That's the 'cool factor' I'm talking about. Also, the 24" iMac is probably the sexiest machine out there right now.

blonde wrote in post #2423290
i know about the intel macs but i will still get stuck with hardware that i can't upgrade and a max of 3 gigs or ram

Ah. Well, as much as I love upgrading my PC, I also hate having to deal with hardware conflicts, which is most liekly why my next computer will be a Mac. With a Mac, specific hardware is designated to run the OS, so more or less you won't encounter a lot of the problems you do when building or swapping out parts in a PC.
I've spent countless nights stressing myself out with hardware problems on my PC. Trying every logical bios setting, reformatting, googling windows error lines for hours, and then having to replace my hardware with something else.

I almost switched over to a Mac last month and bought the 24" iMac. Like you said, in the end it was the upgradability that got me to stay PC. Don't get me wrong, I'd love a MacPro but at that price I'd be able to get a pretty sweet PC setup. Not sure if I'll end up getting my free Vista upgrade or not as some people I know are testing it and say it's a system hog. I'm looking for basic funtionality, not how pretty things look.

belmondo wrote in post #2423312
Of course, with the MacPro, you don't have to do it all at one time. Right now, I'm running a MacPro with 4 drives in it. 2X250g, 300G, and 750G. That's 1.5TB. It's compltely expandable, and adding drives and memory is a snap. That's the 'cool factor' I'm talking about. Also, the 24" iMac is probably the sexiest machine out there right now.

i hear you Tom but even a bare bone one is still $2500 and that is without a screen!!!! as for the 24" iMac, i checked it out and i would much rather use the 20" and add a second 20" screen.

Jag- i hear you man, i had the same issues when i was using windows before i bought the mac.


i wish that apple would build a comupter that is build like a pc but has the hardware of the mac. ie, i wish that it was possible to add more ram (more than 3gig) and add more drives etc...

blonde wrote in post #2423330
i hear you Tom but even a bare bone one is still $2500 and that is without a screen!!!! as for the 24" iMac, i checked it out and i would much rather use the 20" and add a second 20" screen.

Jag- i hear you man, i had the same issues when i was using windows before i bought the mac.


i wish that apple would build a comupter that is build like a pc but has the hardware of the mac. ie, i wish that it was possible to add more ram (more than 3gig) and add more drives etc...

Mind I ask, what's this 3gb of ram thing all about? I'm a Mac newb, I know literally nothing about them except some of the specifications of their laptops I've been looking at.
Is this a software limitation? A limitation with the hardware (ram slots, maximum supported by motherboard, etc), or what?
Still, 2gb is plenty I think, I'm not sure if Mac is large as a memory hog as Windows.
BTW, I dream one day they create a "mac mini" or something that is affordable, has a good graphics card, and is ideal for media center and digital editing. The iMac is nice, but I do not want an integrated screen (i'd rather use a KVM with my monitor or get a second monitor)

belmondo wrote in post #2423312
Of course, with the MacPro, you don't have to do it all at one time. Right now, I'm running a MacPro with 4 drives in it. 2X250g, 300G, and 750G. That's 1.5TB. It's compltely expandable, and adding drives and memory is a snap. That's the 'cool factor' I'm talking about. Also, the 24" iMac is probably the sexiest machine out there right now.

Apparently Bel, you haven't seen the self portrait I posted the other day.

J/K, sorry but I couldn't resist!

i think that the 3 gig limitation is actually due to physical limitations (only 2 slots and one of them has an integrated 1gig from the factory). and yes, 2 gig is nice but when you work with CS2 + firefox and maybe itunes in the background, 2 gigs run out real fast.