Deciding which mac to get....

wakisanwakisan
Posted:
in Mac Software edited January 2014
Hey guys im new here



I'm a graphic and web designer, working mainly with flash, illustrator and photoshop. I would like to know your opinion on which mac to choose. Im thinking about the iMac 17" 2GHz. Also thinking about bumping it up to 1 gig of ram. i dont need a laptop since ill be working from home. and i definetly cant afford the power mac. though friends are telling me its worth it to save up for that. It doesnt sound like the imac is that bad of a choice. can people who have experience with these programs on a mac tell me your opinion? It would help a great deal. Thanks



kyle

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 14
    kwsanderskwsanders Posts: 327member
    It sounds like you have about narrowed it down. Considering you are in graphic design, I might opt for the 20" iMac if you find it in the budget, but other than that, it is about your only choice if you cannot afford the PowerMac. The Mac mini would not be up to snuff with the 5400 rpm drive, IMHO.
  • Reply 2 of 14
    aslan^aslan^ Posts: 599member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by kwsanders

    It sounds like you have about narrowed it down. Considering you are in graphic design, I might opt for the 20" iMac if you find it in the budget, but other than that, it is about your only choice if you cannot afford the PowerMac. The Mac mini would not be up to snuff with the 5400 rpm drive, IMHO.



    I disagree...



    People have used slower computers than the mini to do great graphic design in the past, what has changed?



    Before the G5, people still stood by the G4 and stated that it did everything they neeed it to, including graphic design, movie editing, music production etc...



    Granted the mini is no speed demon by todays standards, but if the reason you are apprehensive about an imac is because its an AIO then you are right, AIO's are not suitable for today's savvy consumer... consider saving up for a PowerMac and in the meantime spend your money on getting a good monitor and a mini to go with it
  • Reply 3 of 14
    wakisanwakisan Posts: 9member
    thanks guys. now im thinking about the 20"! mo money mo money. oh well. it'll also be my widescreen dvd player for my room then. thanks!
  • Reply 4 of 14
    andersanders Posts: 6,523member
    If I was you I would try to make it possible to get a Powermac. There is a couple of ways to go:



    -Look at the refurb pages at Apple.

    -Buy a powermac and the 20 inch widescreen from Dell

    -Buy a used Mac mini for peanuts and a VERY good screen (23 inch from Apple or Dell) now and save for the Powermac.

    -Student discount?
  • Reply 5 of 14
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Get the G5 iMac 17 or 20! Stay as far away from the Mini or any other G4 if possible. Don't listen to those who said they've created great artistic visions of grander with a G4 because it's all fluff to make their purchase more viable. The G4 is dead and very slow for OSX. The iMac should hold you off just fine for a while and plus it's a nice looking machine.
  • Reply 6 of 14
    wakisanwakisan Posts: 9member
    thanks for the advice everyone. ive made my purchase. imac 20" with 2 gigs of ram. I am beyond siked.
  • Reply 7 of 14
    kaiwaikaiwai Posts: 246member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by wakisan

    thanks for the advice everyone. ive made my purchase. imac 20" with 2 gigs of ram. I am beyond siked.



    You're a lucky lad; I bought a 20inch model as well; tried to get a 2gig dual channel kit, but the computer company I was going to buy off said it would take 2 months so I settled for this nice ultra-low latency 1gig kit, which worked out nice. It has cool light gizmo's, too bad I can't see the darn things
  • Reply 8 of 14
    aslan^aslan^ Posts: 599member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Relic

    Get the G5 iMac 17 or 20! Stay as far away from the Mini or any other G4 if possible. Don't listen to those who said they've created great artistic visions of grander with a G4 because it's all fluff to make their purchase more viable. The G4 is dead and very slow for OSX. The iMac should hold you off just fine for a while and plus it's a nice looking machine.



    That's about the dumbest thing I've heard in ages !



    "to make their purchase more viable"



    What does that mean ? I'm sure plenty of people have *upgraded* from lesser computers to a mini, my other mac is an ibook 600, now that was dead out of the water, it didn't even pick up speed until Panther came out, my K62-400 of the time ran faster than it. I guess maybe with what you're saying I would be better off putting OS 9 back on it and using that instead because OS X is so slow.
  • Reply 9 of 14
    relicrelic Posts: 4,735member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by AsLan^

    That's about the dumbest thing I've heard in ages !



    "to make their purchase more viable"



    What does that mean ? I'm sure plenty of people have *upgraded* from lesser computers to a mini, my other mac is an ibook 600, now that was dead out of the water, it didn't even pick up speed until Panther came out, my K62-400 of the time ran faster than it. I guess maybe with what you're saying I would be better off putting OS 9 back on it and using that instead because OS X is so slow.



    Read the guys original post dude, he starts off with graphic designer, thinking about the iMac, thinking about 2Ghz, thinking about 1 gig of ram. With that in mind you know he can afford it if he?s thinking upgrading an already expensive computer. So why in the hell would anyone encourage him to go for a machine that?ll be obsolete before it even gets to his door or even one that?s less then what his original enquiry was about. I?m sure they?re a lot?s of people who are happy with their Mac-Mini purchases but I doubt there professional. If they are they suck because they aint makin the mulla necessary for decent hardware. Unless he?s a Buddhist Monk who?s patience is infinite and likes the swift kick to the nuts as a morning wake up call why would anyone even bring up an entry-level snails pace movin computer designed for grandma.



    Stupidest thing you heard, pppssaaa, what about running a 23-inch monitor with a 32mb card embedded graphics card.
  • Reply 10 of 14
    wakisanwakisan Posts: 9member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by Relic

    Unless he?s a Buddhist Monk who?s patience is infinite and likes the swift kick to the nuts as a morning wake up call





    Hahaha. damn son.
  • Reply 11 of 14
    needanewmacneedanewmac Posts: 37member
    Relics response hit the mark. Do not know about the programs used above. The mac mini is a nice office machine. But if you do Video on it, after it's finished it has so many extra Swap files (that's plural) in it, It's just crazy, it cannot handle video, not enough memory, even if loaded with 1 GB. I use a dual 2.5 G5 and even that will have a swap file extra sometimes and that's with 4 GB of memory.
  • Reply 12 of 14
    spiers69spiers69 Posts: 418member
    Quote:

    Originally posted by NeedAnewMac

    Swap files (that's plural) in it



    what is/are swap files?
  • Reply 13 of 14
    wakisanwakisan Posts: 9member
    Hey everyone. again thanks for the help. it finally came a few days ago and its oh so nice. i see from the apple website that they JUST came out with an upgraded imac with built in camera and remote. and also upgradable to 2.5 gigs ram. but this one is more than perfect. there really is a difference between mac and pc for sure.
  • Reply 14 of 14
    kenaustuskenaustus Posts: 924member
    Don't worry about the new iMacs. I ordered my 20" G5 iMac at 6AM on the day it was announced and haven't looked back or regretted it at all. (I do have iSight).



    If you want to play with OS X software on the cheap check out:



    http://osx.hyperjeff.net/Apps/



    Ad free and has a list of 13,000+ OS X apps, everything from freeware to full commercial apps. Apple also has a good site (Made4Mac), but Jeff seems to have more.



    Have fun with the iMac!
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