New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

Hey folks, just curious on your take on this perplexing issue I am having!

I have the money to buy a new system. PC or iMac. Now I have never given Apple computers much credit, as I have always been a dabbler in pc programming, and more so a gamer. But in the last few years (4+) I have been playing less and less new games and staying with strategy (lower graphic hogging) games. And it occured to me while planning to build a new PC system (specs below) that I am getting older now (we will say early 30's) and I play games less, and do more programming (Web Based, VB.NET, ASP.NET), Photoediting, and playing music than anything else. Well okay, I surf the Net more often than I game these days.

So I got to thinking would the new iMac G5 be a better choice?

I mean I can still use the my documents, pdf's, gifs' etc with the iMac, and it will talk to my current P3 1Ghz PC no problem. And the printer I have will work just fine as well. Dollars to build/purchase is the same!

What are your opinions? Don't make the decision for me, but rather voice you opinions either way. Good or bad.

Specs for the PC System

Asus P4P800-E Deluxe Motherboard

Intel P4 3.0E CPU 1MB L2 Cache

2 X 512MB PC3200 Kingston RAM

Asus V9999 Nvidia 6800 GE/TD 256MB AGP Video Card

80GB Western Digital IDE Hard Drive

80GB Wester Digital SATA Hard Drive

LG-GSA 4120B DVD-Writer

LG 52X32X52X CDRW

SB Audiology LZ Sound Card

Thanks

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

As an avid mac user and Steve Job's cult member, I'm going with the iMac G5. I know people just like you who were tottering between the Mac and PC and they wet themselves with joy after purchasing the Mac. It's much better for music, whether your a pro or a amatuer. You'll also love the 64-bit optimized version of Photoshop CS. There is also Tiger coming out soon, a drool worthy new operating system. Apples are also much more secure due to their rock solid Unix base. And being a programmer, you'll love the Unix and standard X11 GUI.

The best reason is the pure sex appeal of the iMac.

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

I've always used a pc at work, however, at home, I've always used a mac.
I'm not much of a gamer..I seldom play.. don't even own a ps/x box etc..
My kids however, play so they simply play online..
..as far my imac, I think is for those that just want to do work and not spent too much time troubleshooting pc etc...My imac is 5yrs old and never had to open it but once..that was just to add more memory. I use it for music (itunes/garage band etc), photo & movie editing (home use)..
...I also have a pc where i have become more tech inclined..not that I want to learn, but have no choice..there's always something going on w/pc..
..anyway, these are my 2cents.

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

i have limited experience of PCs running Windows. Those I have used seem quite unstable compared to Macs running System 7 8 or 9. Compared to my present G4 Mac running OSX (system 10.3) Windows is in my humble opinion extremely unstable, as well as being a cumbersome interface to use. Without doubt I would say that OSX's Unix based system is less subject to crashes, glitches and outside interfrence than any other main stream OS.

Previously the down side for some users will have been the lack of availability of some progs. This is now much less of an issue than before. In fact some of Apples own bundled i programs (imovie, iphoto etc) are what persuade some people to buy in the first place.

Hope this helps your decision making.

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

definitly go for the new iMac, you won't regret it as MacOS X (which I assume it'll be running as its OS) is VERY stable, based of Linux, looks VERY nice and lots of apps are being developed for it and ported to it, you can even get the Microsoft Office suite for it if you really still want to use it although AppleWorks is a nice change (Apples office suite)

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

I think that you could get open office as well on mac which is free. :)

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

Hello,

I too love the Mac, although with the abundent Intel hardware I have around, I have gotten quite deep in to Linux too. My main desktop is a OS X Powerbook G3; my main server is a Pentium III 550 Mhz running Fedora Core 3.

You can get games for Mac OS X. I recently completed Diablo II on OS X, and finished up the expansion pack too. There are other games out there too... perhaps not the most wiz-bang flashy bongo box the die-hard gamer desires, but then again, for that type of experience, perhaps a dedicated game station (XBox, Playstation) would be a better solution. I use my computer to fix things, and get work done. And I have not completely mastered XChess yet either, so I still ahve a game here to completely learn.

There are ways to make a Windows box stable... I'll be honest and say that I prefer Windows 2000 to Windows XP (eXtra Problems). Windows requires a continual vigalance to keep clean and secure, but it is not an impossible task.

There are ways to corrupt an OS X box or a Linux box too. If you explore these operating systems, you will need to secure them. They initially are more secure upon installation, but they are not perfect either. They are not nearly as naked as Windows 2000/XP are.

Looking at the dates, I can tell this is quite an old post, so I am betting that the original poster has made his purchase, and is moving right along.

OpenOffice is available for the Mac OS X, but it is not a traditional OS X Aqua program... it will look a little funny, it will not have the look and feel that you expect, but it will work, and will be stable. It does look and feel like the Linux version of OpenOffice. Just be sure that when you are setting up your Mac, that you add on the Unix extras, as you will need Darwin setup properly to make it work. I use it regularly, and have since removed Microsoft from my system.

Christian

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

I recently purchased an iMAC G5 and I love it. If your going to work with graphics and the like, a MAC is your better choice. I am still learning how to use my new MAC because I have been a PC junky all my life lol, but from the looks of it, I will never go back to using a PC again.

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

I am also in the process of making the Mac vs. PC decision. I am going to be doing design work, so the obvious choice would seem to be Mac. I've talked to several people who are designers that use a PC and they say that it's just fine and less expensive. I'd like to get opinions on this. I'm also curious if anyone thinks the Apple's decision to use intel processors should have any bearing on the decision. Most people I talk to are religiously loyal to one or the other and give me reasons like "it's just better". I'd like to know why one may be better than the other.

Rosette, if you read this, I'd like to know what made you make the switch and what issues you may have had. I need to make a decison soon. I don't want to buy all my Adobe and Macromedia programs for one only to find out I should be using the other.

Re: New iMac vs New PC - A purchase choice?
 

I just came across an interesting comment in one of the other forums. It's pure speculation, but what if the Intel based Macs will also run Windows? Has anyone here heard anything like that?

If that's true, then my decison is made.