First Apple Machine

nickh

Happy Holidays to all and hello! (New To The Board)



I am looking at getting my first Mac computer. I have never been one to like any apple product at all until at my current job until I picked up several large production companies, and they only use Macs for their work. So, now after a while of selling all of these systems, curiousity has bitten me, and I am looking to purchase one.



Odly enough, I sell them, but know nothing about them. What is a good first starter computer? Should I go with a G5 because that is the best out there, or should I go with a G4 so save money and see if I like them? My use is just general on them, nothing to special, chatting, some gaming, some HTML work, and the usual.



If anyone does have any questions about some Apple products or wants some "special" pricing on some items(even PC if I am allowed to say that), below is my contact into if someone does have a question.



Thanks,



Nick Humphries

Corporate Account Executive

PC Mall Business Solutions

800-741-9199 ext 8265

[email protected]

MSN Messenger= [email protected]

AIM= NickPCMALL

placebo

If portability is not a concern, I'd recommend a iMac G5. It'll play most games at least reasonably, and has a good value and nice performance out of the box. I'd recommend adding an extra 256 or 512 megs of RAM to the paltry 256 that comes with it, though.

vox barbara

First - warm welcome and Happy Holidays to you too.



If portability is a concern, I'd rather - no, i'd strongly! - recommend a PB 12". In my humble opinion it is the best Apple Computer ever. This Mac is an amazingly good Performer for most common needs and far beyond.

Briefly: a sex-machine with additional computing abilities.

nickh

If I had known it was a sex machine, I would of had 30 of them by now Portability isn't a needed option, it would be a desktop. I think my wife would enjoy it more.....For the design stuff.....I hope. I know i am changing the subject, but when is the g5 laptop due out? I have been asked about 50 billion times, and have no idea.



What is a good Ghz I should go in at for a desktop? What programs are unknown in the PC world that I should know about for home computing?



Thanks,



Nick

Quote:

Originally posted by Vox Barbara

First - warm welcome and Happy Holidays to you too.



If portability is a concern, I'd rather - no, i'd strongly! - recommend a PB 12". In my humble opinion it is the best Apple Computer ever. This Mac is an amazingly good Performer for most common needs and far beyond.

Briefly: a sex-machine with additional computing abilities.

bborofka

Quote:

Originally posted by NickH

If I had known it was a sex machine, I would of had 30 of them by now Portability isn't a needed option, it would be a desktop. I think my wife would enjoy it more.....For the design stuff.....I hope. I know i am changing the subject, but when is the g5 laptop due out? I have been asked about 50 billion times, and have no idea.



What is a good Ghz I should go in at for a desktop? What programs are unknown in the PC world that I should know about for home computing?



Thanks,



Nick

If you don't need portability, then go with a desktop. Next you need to decide if you want flexibility or simplicity.



You could go with a single 1.8GHz Power Mac G5 which starts at $1499 then attach any monitor of your choice. Nice 19" CRTs can be had for around $200, not by Apple of course. Apple only makes high end LCDs, which are also nice if you have the money. The Power Macs go up to dual 2.0 and dual 2.5 GHz configurations, but you're looking at $1999+ for that, tower alone. All in all, I would recommend getting a G5 tower and display if flexibility and power is what you want the most. You'll be able to swap hard drives, replace video cards, add PCI cards, or just about anything else you'd want to do in a normal tower. The Power Mac is ideal for those that just want to use OS X to the fullest and not be constrained to an all-in-one design.



However, if you want simple, innovative, all-in-one design, look no further than the iMac G5. It's been heralded as one of the best personal computers ever designed and packs a lot of bang for its buck. They come with the computer permanently attached to the back of its 17" or 20" LCD, so you're going to be stuck with what you have for the life of the computer; aside from memory (which you can upgrade). You might be whining when you want to upgrade the iMac but don't want to have to get rid of it's great screen. This is the drawback of all-in-one designs (a niche market, imo). But the prices are decent for the iMacs, which could be had for less than a comparable Power Mac with LCD.



It all depends on your needs and desires. This is assuming you don't need portability, hence you don't need a laptop. Then it comes down to how much you're willing to spend.



As any Apple buyer should do, make sure you check out the full line of options at http://www.apple.com/store

bborofka

Quote:

Originally posted by NickH

What programs are unknown in the PC world that I should know about for home computing?

I forgot about this bit.



As far as software goes, Apple has almost all the bases covered with great programs. For web surfing, look no further than Safari. For general POP/SMTP email, check out Mail. Both of those programs integrate with Apple's own Address Book too, and if you use AIM, you'll definitely want to give iChat a try. There's also iCal, which is pretty simplistic in its current form, but works great with iSync, which you can use to synchronize all your contacts and calendar events with cell phones, PDAs, iPods, etc.



All these will come with your Mac, of course, and are easy to setup and use.



There's also the iLife suite of apps which will come with your new Mac. This includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD and GarageBand. You've probably heard of iTunes by now, it's the best music manager/player/ripper/burner/streamer out there and the only thing that works with the iPod. iPhoto is a great program for managing your digital photos if you have a digital camera. iMovie is great for making home videos with digital video cameras. Garageband is the newest member of this suite, and if you are musically inclined you will love this. I bought an adapter and plugged in my electric guitar into my PowerBook and I had dozens of professional quality sounded effects right at my disposal. I could also record tracks, add drums, and all sorts of stuff from a greatly intuitive interface. I've never used iDVD but I've heard it's great for making basic DVDs to share with family and friends.



Microsoft makes an office suite for Mac OS X too, called Office 2004. It has the usual Word, Excel, Powerpoint that you'd see in Windows, and also has Entourage which is a lot like Outlook.



I don't know what to recommend for HTML software, maybe someone else can suggest something good. I know that SubEthaEdit is a great little free code editing program. Transmit is the way to go if you use FTP (until Apple gives the Finder full FTP support), $25 from Panic.



Hope that helps. Let us know anymore questions you have.

mcq

If you're in Milwaukee, then there's a local Apple store over at Mayfair mall that you can go to for checking out the different products in Apple's lineup. It's much easier to go there and get a feel for all the products, and see what you like



As for which is right for you, if portability isn't a concern then a G5 iMac would be perfect. If you're not dealing with movie editing/burning DVD's, then the 17" combo model @ $1,299 would be a nice start. If you're doing any decent amount of gaming, then I'd suggest staying away from the eMac. While I wouldn't do much gaming on a Mac, the iMac may be okay for a decent number of games.



In any event, I'd load up on some RAM, with 512-768 MB as a comfortable area for solid usage. OS X loves ram.



As for software, here's a few:

SubEthaEdit - HTML editing

Imagewell - Image resize/upload via FTP

NewsFire - For keeping up with news via RSS feeds.

AdiumX - Multi protocol chat program



There should be some software threads floating around regarding freeware/shareware programs that most people use on these boards.



Special pricing is always welcome What do you have to offer?

nickh

Wow, thank you all very much, never expected this much help. Still not sure yet what to get, but getting there.

Quote:

Originally posted by MCQ

Special pricing is always welcome What do you have to offer? [/B]

Special pricing? Well, I working in the B2B side fro PCMall, we own MacMall, who is the #1 Apple Reseller in the nation. So, if there is anyone out there who is serious about purchasing some item, give me a call or shoot me an AIM. I think I owe it to atleast a few people who have posted on here for the help they have offered.



Thanks again all!

ijerry

It sounds like the iMac would be ideal for you to start out with because it is lower cost than a PowerMac and has everything to just get started. If you find that you like the Mac, then you can always go up, and the iMac would make an ideal second computer because of its size and functionality.



For Mac software. I just use your common system agnostic software like Toast, Adobe suite, Macromedia suite, and MS office. I actually don't really care for Safari that much(included Mac browser), I use Firefox, and that is true for both platforms as well, it is a great little browser.



Definitely up the ram in your new machine, as much as you can afford, and get it from a place like Ramjet, or if you can get a deal where you work all the better!



Welcome to the community!

vox barbara

Quote:

Originally posted by NickH

...

What programs are unknown in the PC world that I should know about for home computing?

...

Just ad Graphic Converter to your list. It is kinda Swiss army knife for any given graphic file. Its main purpose is converting graphic files, and it does so. 100%

midwinter

Quote:

Originally posted by Vox Barbara

Just ad Graphic Converter to your list. It is kinda Swiss army knife for any given graphic file. Its main purpose is converting graphic files, and it does so. 100%

GC comes with any of the "power" line, I believe. It did with my powerbook.

Quote:

What programs are unknown in the PC world that I should know about for home computing?

As others have said, Apple has most of the bases covered, but it really depends upon what you want/need your computer to do. Most of the major applications are available (Office, Dreamweaver, Photoshop, etc), and that's actually one of the more expensive elements of switching. Additionally, your peripherals (printers, scanners, etc) will most likely work with the Mac... sometimes without needing to install anything.



There are also lots and lots of pieces of software to do all kinds of things you might find useful--many of them are free. Try digging around on MacUpdate for applications or just ask here if you have any questions or concerns. We're a friendly lot.



Cheers

Scott

carson o'genic

Quote:

Originally posted by Vox Barbara

Just ad Graphic Converter to your list. It is kinda Swiss army knife for any given graphic file. Its main purpose is converting graphic files, and it does so. 100%

I wish 100%. It can't handle ClarisWorks or MacDraw native formats. But it is a great program that I use often.

mac on a mac

Congrats and welcome to the Mac world.

placebo

I recommend Proteus for AIM and other instant-messaging needs.



I'm content with Safari, but otherwise look into Mozilla Firefox.