Unbiased Advice Please

zeus[19]

Hello,



I wish for an unbiased comparison of these 2 systems and which to purchase...



A) Emac 700 mgh.. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...9.3.1.1.0?13,9 stats at this website



or 1.53 ghz athlon processor

windows xp with 256 mb ram, 16 mg video card, cd-rw/dvd rom



which one will have the faster speed and would you recomend as i am not entirely clear on how macintosh speeds compare to that of pc's



thanks in advance

bodhi

eMac = Mac OSX



PC = Windows XP



That pretty much sums it up.



Get the eMac.

banana

No question about speed. The Athlon will do it. Depends what YOU want to do with it. Most folks here are Mac through and through but most will give you good advice. Have you particular apps you want to run?

stunned

If you have never used OS X before, I suggest u go to an Apple store to try it out first. Next, u should make a list of software which u would need to and ask the Apple staff whether these are available.



One thing to note, macs are definately slower. But offers a much better computing expereince. Its a trade off.

the general

Quote:

Originally posted by zeus[19]

Hello,



I wish for an unbiased comparison of these 2 systems and which to purchase...



A) Emac 700 mgh.. http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPL...9.3.1.1.0?13,9 stats at this website



or 1.53 ghz athlon processor

windows xp with 256 mb ram, 16 mg video card, cd-rw/dvd rom



which one will have the faster speed and would you recomend as i am not entirely clear on how macintosh speeds compare to that of pc's



thanks in advance

the real question is, WHAT are YOU going to do with it? not sure about everyone else, but I dont go around recommending just macs, it all depends what you want to do.

stagflation steve

Get an HP or Compaq AMD PC,

ast3r3x

Quote:

Originally posted by Stagflation Steve

Get an HP or Compaq AMD PC,

wtf are u telling him?



dont get a compaq...HP i know is quality build ur own u get ALOT better for cheaper...though u don't see the type to be able to do that

steve

Don't get an eMac. It's the biggest waste of money in Apple's lineup at this point, now that they've purged themselves of the old iMacs. If you're going to go with one $999 Mac, get an iBook instead.



The only Macs that hold a candle to their PC counterparts are the laptops. If you're not going to get an iBook, it'd be a crime not to go with the PC.

barto

For the price of an eMac 700, I got a 1.53 with a Radeon 9500 (64mb), 768MB memory, 48X Burner, 16X DVD-ROM, 40GB 7200rpm hard drive, 17" Flat CRT.... Who's ripping you off?



In terms of raw speed, the Athlon is faster. The question is what you indend to do with the computer. The only reason to get a PC (IMHO) is if you are a gamer/l33t h4x0r. Mac OS X rocks.



Barto

jc

What are you going to do with your computer.



If you are a hard core gamer get the PC



If you are an artist get the mac



everything else is in a grey area between



warning: here comes a biased opinnion

(of course macs crash less and make you smile more)

powerdoc

Yes take a PC if you are a gamer.



Otherwise take a mac, i will be slower (but difficult to find it out in most current tasks : frankly i do not have the feeling in office that my athlon 2400 scream my good old G4 533) but more friendly. Mac os X rocks.

majormatt

Actually, if you can....try to find a dual 867, it will be plenty fast and serve you years into the future.

alcimedes

games are the only real reason for a PC for 98% of the people who buy them.



then there are some programs (like AutoCAD) that are PC only.



like others said, what do you plan to do with it?

zeus[19]

Hi,

Thanx for all replys....



Only reason that the I'm limited to the emac is that i would be trading in the computer i currently have which is the 1.53 athlon....anywase...



for computer uses i mainly use for downloading music/ making cds, I may be starting up a flash website in the near future as well....i don't play games to often. I also use my computer for word processing and the such...but the errors of windows are irritating at the moment..



any other advice would be appreciated

kraig911

A client of ours set up an Emac as their fileserver for filemaker server... works like a champ. Personally I'd get an Imac not an Emac, for sake of pure sexiness.... the dude with the ibook hit the nail on the head. I'd keep both of your computers, on the downloading music side, on macs its not as easy to download music, as kazaa won't program for it because pop-ups/unders don't really work on macs like they do on your PC, so they can't track you and send you porn as easy.... But for media, like making CD's, video editing (what I do) Graphic design I can tell you buck for buck the mac will pay in dividends. I have a friend who still works on his old powermac from 94' running OS 8 and it still kicks A**. OS X is so sexy too.

alcimedes

that and the fact that the legal downloading of music will take off on the Mac platform within a few weeks here is something to keep in mind.



from what you've said, i think a Mac would be an excellent fit for you.



only do it if you want to learn something new though. it can be frustrating to switch from a Mac to a PC, takes a while to get back to the same level of proficency you had on your old platform. in your case though i would recommend a mac with no reservations.

jc

Quote:

Originally posted by zeus[19]

Hi,



for computer uses i mainly use for downloading music/ making cds, I may be starting up a flash website in the near future as well....i don't play games to often. I also use my computer for word processing and the such...but the errors of windows are irritating at the moment..



any other advice would be appreciated

MAC

luca

I'd say get the Mac. Yes, the PC will kill the eMac if you're running SETI@home or something, but at the same time the eMac will be a more enjoyable experience. However, I'd suggest looking at a refurbished eMac instead - it's $849 for a refurbished one from Apple as opposed to $999 new. Your link didn't work by the way, you can't just post links to the Apple Store... you'll have to tell us what the stats are. Although they're not that customizable anyway, so I suppose it's just the $999 700 MHz Combo version. Anyway, Apple has them for $849 refurbished, and you can even get a lower-end model (say, a CD-ROM version) for $699 at www.powermax.com .



If that PC is going to have a 16 MB graphics card, why bother? You need a 64 MB graphics card to really take advantage of the PC's speed anyway. The way I see it, PCs are suitable only for the speed advantage they offer, and if you're not going to be playing games and using a powerful graphics card then there's no point.



Another good deal in the Mac world right now is the $799 600 MHz CD-ROM iBook. Again, just a plain CD-ROM drive, but the 600 MHz version has a nice 16 MB graphics card so it should be just enough to run OS X comfortably.

costique

I'd say don't think much about hardware because for the tasks you mentioned eMac is more than enough and 1.53GHz Athlon is overkill. Think about the OS. Think about the software you are going to install.

Compare prices for software rather than hardware because in a year this hardware will be considered old junk. If you really don't give a damn about software prices, compare Windows XP and Mac OS X. Whichever you like more, should decide your choice of hardware.

drcreations

The best advice for you will be this:



Go to an Apple Store, (if one is available) play around with ALL the Macs, ask lots of questions about software and the such. If it feels right for, then do it. Also, if you have any friends who use Macs, talk with them and ask them what they "DONT' like about their Macs. You'll get a pretty good idea of what your getting into if you just take these steps. Good Luck to ya!

zeus[19]

Does apple not have any p2p software available?

I thought they had somthing called LimeWire, although i have not tried it. What is this "legal" music downloading that you speak of??



Thanks