Mac Users... Advice Please

Jambo_84

Jambo_84

Messages
408
Name
Rob
Edit My Images
Yes
Hello all you Mac users, if you were going to buy a mac and wanted to do it the cheapest possible way just to see if you preferred it to a PC but needed it powerful enough for photo editing, what would you get? Buying used gear would be preferable, would a G4 do the trick?

Help!

Many thanks.
 
It depends on your budget...

I bought a Macbook black, second hand for £450 (previous to the current generation). Top notch condition etc...it's specs are better than my PC as it has dual core, and it does out perform my PC (which I wasn't expecting...as laptops always tend to be slower!).

I'd have thought, that if you bought a newer but more expensive model, it'd be easier to sell on than a cheaper older model, should you decide you're not a fan. I followed them on eBay for ages before buying privately, they always sold and got good prices too.
 
purpleclouds - thanks for the advice, I know what you're saying about buying a new one for resale purposes if I didn't like it but i don't think I want to spend that much in the first place so an older one which will still run PS is what I'm after

neil - G4's falling apart! Is that the laptop ones or the desktops? I'm looking at the desktop G4's (sorry if im talking rubbish here, i really don't know anything about macs except what i've been told about performance when editing etc...)
 
HI

http://www.talkphotography.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?p=1542208#post1542208

I am selling my intro to the mac world. I bought it off one of the members here. The weekend I bought it I was printing for an exhibition stand we were doing so I decided to put the mac to one side. However my PC suddenly decided to pack up and so I turned to the mac just as we were about to print the main sign - 72 inches x 24 inches.

The driver for the HP z3100 had taken about 30 minutes to load onto the PC but just 5 onto the mac. I also realised you got a lot more facilities such as print history, how much ink we had used, how much paper and I am talking about right back to when we bought the printer, prior to buying the mac.

If you are interested let me know. I am now looking to sell the mini mac because we are going to invest in a 2k pound mac, we have been so impressed with them

stew
 
Thanks for the offer Stu, I'll bear it in mind, just need to do a bit of research first.

Does anyone know if you can plug a Mac into a standard (PC) monitor?
 
I used the mac mini on a standard VGA screen when we first bought her, using a DVI to VGA adaptor. The Apple screens though are superb and I am glad I bought one
 
not sure about the current ones im running a quicksilver G4 not lap top and it is running leopard os x and runs fine make sure you get higher than a 733 mh or it will not run the latest software and im running though a vga adaptor pref go for a g5 good spec but this will cost around £400 used
also seems pretty fast at the moment with only 512 of ram but you need intel type if you are going to run os x leopard and vista on one machine
 
neil_g said:
the laptop G4 i mean :)

careful what you listen to.. regarding macs these days, they have no real performance advantage over the same spec PC as theyre all intel based now.
Click to expand...

I know with them being Intel based now they have no advantage there, however OS X is a huge advantage over Windows at the moment, Snow Leapard will hopefully continue that. Windows 7 is supposedly going to pull it back, but we heard that with Vista also.

As purpleclouds said the blackbook's are very well regarded, dont cost the earth, will do anything you need them to do and if you dont like it you will sell it no probs.
 
Regardless of whether you go for the mac mini one thing to bear in mind is that macs were brought out for the graphics industry. Just about every printing/repro house in the world uses them. We photographers being tight financially prefered the cheaper PCs. I remember a friend of mine paying £4500 for a mac classic back in the 80s!! PCs then were about £1000.

Macs use the memory more efficiently and an older mac will out perform a current PC. The screens are easier to calibrate and show colours more accurately.

They do take a bit of getting used to though. Being a pro photographer I work on photoshop every day and it is taking me ages to get used to seeing the desktop even when photoshop is open - (can I change that I wonder).

It really is true what people say though, macs just work. If you take my word for it you will not buy our mac mini or any other second user machine, just go and splash your cash for a £2k machine :D:D

stew
 
Isn't one of the main principles of Snow Leopard to reduce the OS footprint on system resources too? A newer OS and better performance...not something you can associate with Vista ;)
 
I once bought a Mac Mini and tried it for a week then took it back for a full refund cos i couldn't get on with it.

I now have a iMac and have learnt how to use it and i love it to death! I had a good PC that was superbly well behaved but i still prefer my Mac.

And i'm not an Apple-a-Hollic where i have to buy everything Apple, i don't even have an ipod!
 
There is no difference between a mac mini and an Imac as far as useage - we have both. The mac mini is superb in that it hardly takes any desk space, the Imac just looks fantastic. What was it that you did not get on with Andy?

stew
 
neil_g said:
the laptop G4 i mean :)

careful what you listen to.. regarding macs these days, they have no real performance advantage over the same spec PC as theyre all intel based now.
Click to expand...

You can't compare an intel mac running OS X with an intel PC running Windows.
 
Jambo_84 said:
Thanks for the offer Stu, I'll bear it in mind, just need to do a bit of research first.

Does anyone know if you can plug a Mac into a standard (PC) monitor?
Click to expand...

Yes you can and if you were to buy a cheap/low end Mac, it's going to do nothing to sell the performance of a new Mac at all!

I had a G4 powerbook, and it was fantastic. They were very, very well built despite what neil_g is claiming.
 
purpleclouds said:
Not at all..I run Vista on my PC..but Microsoft OSs seem to need a hardware upgrade with each release to make the most out of it!
Click to expand...

of course.. if youre going to bung in a load of new feature and make it look nicer you cant tell me its not going to have more of a resourse drain. plus theyre designed for the newer breed of machine anyway.
 
neil_g said:
of course.. if youre going to bung in a load of new feature and make it look nicer you cant tell me its not going to have more of a resourse drain. plus theyre designed for the newer breed of machine anyway.
Click to expand...

That's the problem...Microsoft are known as lazy programmers...OS X looks beautiful, and runs on relatively little in comparison to Vista!

I've turned all the good lookin' features off on my PC and it runs like a dream, having them turned on however makes it run like a 2 legged dog! OS X just works...and works well...however it looks!

Granted, it is designed to work on newer breed of machines...but why should you have to fork out on new hardware and new software for a few new features? Most of which won't be used by a lot of people!
 
neil_g said:
care to explain?
Click to expand...

They're running two different operating systems. OS X is a more efficient operating system than Windows, which is why you still get 4-5+ year old Macs running Leopard and Tiger. OS X uses less system resources as a whole than Windows and so it gets more out of the hardware.
 
purpleclouds said:
That's the problem...Microsoft are known as lazy programmers...OS X looks beautiful, and runs on relatively little in comparison to Vista!

I've turned all the good lookin' features off on my PC and it runs like a dream, having them turned on however makes it run like a 2 legged dog! OS X just works...and works well...however it looks!

Granted, it is designed to work on newer breed of machines...but why should you have to fork out on new hardware and new software for a few new features? Most of which won't be used by a lot of people!
Click to expand...

I run Windows XP on my Mac using VM Ware and like you say, turn off all the unnecessary features, and it runs pretty well, it runs very well considering it's sat in a window on my OS X desktop.
 
god someone used the "it just works" line..

since when has XP been resource hungry? sorry but if thats the case you need to examine your setup because it has issues.

personally i stand by my quote in the Mac vs PC thread.. in case you missed it:

our designers all use illustrator, now you tell me they couldnt use a windows copy on a good spec PC and get the same result. course not. if i went up there and did a blind test (hide the tower and OS) i bet none of them would notice. in fact it would probably be better because the integration with the rest of the network and apps would be better. no remote desktop sessions for some windows apps for example.
Click to expand...

thats based on real life support experience.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top