Closing the book on ~16 years of PC use.
Hello fellow MACers.
Since the mid-80's i've used a PC. Pre-windows 3.1 (DOS), 95, 98, ME, NT, XP.. i know ~10 programming languages ranging from BASIC > Pascal > Visual Basic > HTML/PHP/etc.. i've played nearly EVERY major video game release since Wolfenstein 3D > Duke Nukem > Doom > Quake > Sims > Warcraft > Unreal 1, UT99, UT2k* > Doom 3 > CoD > etc... hacking (escorted out of high school by police ~6 years ago), internet - BBS > Prodigy > AOL when it shipped on 1.4 disks (sadly), networking, the list goes on....
My priorities have changed; i've grown resentful to computers. They are TOO involved (specifically Microsoft) in our lives, both inhuman and cold. The question now is WHAT the computer can do for me, not whats IN the computer.
I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd want a Mac. In fact, up until Panther release I insulted them heavily and with logical reason to some extent.
I bought a 12" iBook a month ago and love it. I used an Apple at work last year ~40 hrs a week but I still craved my PC, sometimes carrying it to work so i didnt have to use the Apple. I don't know what it was but the iBook was my cupid arrow.
So now i decided to take the full step -- it's a scary step. I've been soo involved with a PC; I can do everything on it. But I guess that's why it's time... there is no new territory, everything has been done and done 10 times over. I need a new challenge, a new door...
As soon as I sell my hoss I'm picking up the 20" iMac and by next year if business continues to go strong, a dual G5 tower and 30" screen.
As much as i resented the Apple ~1-2 years ago, I always admired Steve's passion. It's why I'm switching. His passion drives the passion in customers thus fostering a great community of both programmers and end-users.
PC's are wretched and I'm sick of it... I'm a designer and I can't believe i've used something soo imperfect for soo long.(although, my XP is skinned and looks 80% like Panther -- though it obviously performs NOTHING like it).
So I have a few questions regarding my soon-to-be iMac purchase.
1) I thought i heard a possibility of a special 'graphics card upgrade' that matches the footprint. After looking at the photos it looked as if the g.card is built into the iMac. Can anyone confirm?
2) There is an Apple store in austin so I can get my iMac as soon as I sell my pc the only draw back is that i want bluetooth built in b/c, well, it's the Apple way. The BT USB looks sooo ugly. If there was a nice, fitting white one -- i could do with an external. Anyone find one yet? How long is the wait? Are iMacs on 'backorder' if i get one 'custom' built?
3) Anythign you can suggest to make my transition smooth would be helpful.
Thanks - sorry for rant. New to the community. Below is my old PC to be R.I.P.-ed soon. IF anyone's interested, it's still a bad ass computer -- i just REALLY want an iMac.
Best,
Colin
Since the mid-80's i've used a PC. Pre-windows 3.1 (DOS), 95, 98, ME, NT, XP.. i know ~10 programming languages ranging from BASIC > Pascal > Visual Basic > HTML/PHP/etc.. i've played nearly EVERY major video game release since Wolfenstein 3D > Duke Nukem > Doom > Quake > Sims > Warcraft > Unreal 1, UT99, UT2k* > Doom 3 > CoD > etc... hacking (escorted out of high school by police ~6 years ago), internet - BBS > Prodigy > AOL when it shipped on 1.4 disks (sadly), networking, the list goes on....
My priorities have changed; i've grown resentful to computers. They are TOO involved (specifically Microsoft) in our lives, both inhuman and cold. The question now is WHAT the computer can do for me, not whats IN the computer.
I never in my wildest dreams thought I'd want a Mac. In fact, up until Panther release I insulted them heavily and with logical reason to some extent.
I bought a 12" iBook a month ago and love it. I used an Apple at work last year ~40 hrs a week but I still craved my PC, sometimes carrying it to work so i didnt have to use the Apple. I don't know what it was but the iBook was my cupid arrow.
So now i decided to take the full step -- it's a scary step. I've been soo involved with a PC; I can do everything on it. But I guess that's why it's time... there is no new territory, everything has been done and done 10 times over. I need a new challenge, a new door...
As soon as I sell my hoss I'm picking up the 20" iMac and by next year if business continues to go strong, a dual G5 tower and 30" screen.
As much as i resented the Apple ~1-2 years ago, I always admired Steve's passion. It's why I'm switching. His passion drives the passion in customers thus fostering a great community of both programmers and end-users.
PC's are wretched and I'm sick of it... I'm a designer and I can't believe i've used something soo imperfect for soo long.(although, my XP is skinned and looks 80% like Panther -- though it obviously performs NOTHING like it).
So I have a few questions regarding my soon-to-be iMac purchase.
1) I thought i heard a possibility of a special 'graphics card upgrade' that matches the footprint. After looking at the photos it looked as if the g.card is built into the iMac. Can anyone confirm?
2) There is an Apple store in austin so I can get my iMac as soon as I sell my pc the only draw back is that i want bluetooth built in b/c, well, it's the Apple way. The BT USB looks sooo ugly. If there was a nice, fitting white one -- i could do with an external. Anyone find one yet? How long is the wait? Are iMacs on 'backorder' if i get one 'custom' built?
3) Anythign you can suggest to make my transition smooth would be helpful.
Thanks - sorry for rant. New to the community. Below is my old PC to be R.I.P.-ed soon. IF anyone's interested, it's still a bad ass computer -- i just REALLY want an iMac.
Best,
Colin
Comments
nothing wrong in using both os's
use the x86 for games or put linux on it
if you want a nice file server
gaming wise a pc is a hard to beat
unix wise osx gives you unix with a nice gui
keep both...best of both worlds
1) The graphics card is soldered on the iMac motherboard. According to Apple though, the midplane assembly (which contains the GPU) is a user-replaceable part. This does not mean that Apple will eventually come out with upgrades, but does open the door for that possibility. A third party vendor could also fill this market as well.
2) The Bluetooth option is BTO only if you want the internal module. Personally, I will wait to get it that way. Others have chosen to use the USB attachment, and state that is works very well. Considering the iMac has the ports on the back, I can't see how the dongle would get in the way, but it will take one of your USB ports.
3) "I switched" about 2 years ago, and had very few problems doing so. The biggest problem I had was that I had used Microsoft Works for my documents and had to convert them all to Office formats. Besides that, everything else went smoothly. It did take awhile to get used to OSX after nearly 20 years of DOS & Windows. Things worked differently, and looked different, but after a couple weeks things were going smoothly.
Good luck with your switch! Though keeping your PC could come in handy as stated in the post above mine.
Thanks for the info -- the only reason i dont want the BT module is b/c it's offered internally. no sense in A) wasting a USB port and
I've always used Office and never works so everything should be gravy.
Cheers.
:c
The iMac is a great machine (I have one on order). But regarding bluetooth, while I have it in my iBook -- I use it to connect to the internet via my bluetooth cell phone -- I do not see the point of getting it in a stationary computer. I mean, you are hardly going to link with a cell phone unless you have a very specific need, and to be honest I am not a fan of wireless keyboards and mice.
The standard wired keyboard and mouse does me just fine.
But i think you solidified my decision; i'll hold off on the bluetooth -- i'm not a huge fan of wireless mice as it is... although a wireless keyboard is nice.
*cheers*
As I mentioned in my last post, I got my iBook with a built in bluetooth modem. I use it on the road with a Nokia 6310i cell phone, which has a GPRS modem built in. So any time I want to, no matter where I am (coverage in Ireland seems to be 100%), I can click connect and surf the internet, use email and iChat at up to 57kbps. Yes, it is slow, but it is fine for checking email on the road, or even doing some light web surfing, or catching up on iChat. Heck, I have even used it to upload web site updates for a client, which took a few minutes but worked as it should.
With 3G mobile phones on the way soon, I hope I will be able to get a broadband connection through the bluetooth modem in the near future.
Back to your iMac G5 purchase, what would do as I already suggested is not bother with the bluetooth module, and instead get some extra memory. The cheapest way to do that is to get it from Apple with just the stock memory, and than purchase 2x 512 DDR 400 modules separately, bringing it up to 1 GB for about $175. Feel the speed.
I guess now there's nothing to play with in Windows anymore. By now we would have normally had an upgrade but XP is here for another 2-3 years. Longhorn sounds like a right mish-mash of things. Windows seems to be getting bigger and bigger and more clogged up. I thought MS were supposed to be writing a brand new OS from scratch rather than adding things on all the time.
I've been using PearPC and I just love Mac OS X. It is gorgeous to look at and I can only imagine how fast it must be on a proper dual processor PowerMac. It runs reasonably on my 3.0GHz P4.
I just built a little Shuttle XPC for my gaming needs but I'm saving like mad for a PowerMac. The only thing I wonder about now is whether I really need this Shuttle box. Most of the FPS games I've got on my PC are available for Mac anyway. Should I flog my Shuttle and use that money to get a Radeon 9800XT card or the nVidia 6800? I'm aspiring to be a Mac developer - I would love to join something like Aspyr and help port PC games to Mac.
Anyhow, enough ranting for me. It's time to make a decision, I think...
The internal module is only $45, which is good, but you might as well pay the $89 which gets you the module, plus a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. Obviously, if you're someone who prefers the wired versions, then this wouldn't make sense.
I think that a lot of the beauty of this machine comes from the ability to keep the wires to a minimum. If you're concerned about aesthetics, I'd be using Airport Extreme and Bluetooth. While it's true you won't need to use bt to connect on the road like a laptop user, if you have a bt cell phone or bt pda it (or will in the future), it would be nice to be able to sync up without having to connect using wires. Basically, I think adding bt is definitely worth it as it's not too expensive and it will help future-proof the machine, to a certain extent. It probably will make you wait a little longer for your machine, but you might want to order BTO anyway to get a bigger HD, etc. I'd be willing to wait a few extra weeks to be truly satisfied with my computer for the long haul.
I live in austin, Aspyr offices are right on Congress near the heart of the 'downtown district' area. Actually, i have an aquantinace-friend that works there; one time i went up to their offices and they are really cool.
He opened a closet door and handed out free games.... oollaaalala. have to pay him a visit once i get my imac.
:c
response time is bad in games or so ive heard
logitech mx700 or the new laser one
these are cordless rechargable mice & are very very good
Originally posted by madmax559
DO NOT get a bluetooth mouse
response time is bad in games or so ive heard
logitech mx700 or the new laser one
these are cordless rechargable mice & are very very good
Well, I wouldn't really worry about that. You could try it out and see how you like it. If not, most people have a USB mouse lying around that could be plugged in, or it woudln't be expensive to add one. Unless you're gaming all day long, I don't know that the mere chance that you might have a gaming slowdown is enough of a reason to avoid a BT mouse altogether.
Originally posted by jnrjr79
Well, I wouldn't really worry about that. You could try it out and see how you like it. If not, most people have a USB mouse lying around that could be plugged in, or it woudln't be expensive to add one. Unless you're gaming all day long, I don't know that the mere chance that you might have a gaming slowdown is enough of a reason to avoid a BT mouse altogether.
Lag is a deadly killer, no matter what form it comes in.
perhaps those..
I know i'm going to get the 61-keyboard though; i miss not having a piano. I have creative 5.1 on my pc -- don't really care for it. The sound is pretty dry and hissy.
And yes, it HAS To be white -- no questions asked.