You have 1000 pounds to spend on a computer...

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950
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Fi
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what would you buy and why? Apple or PC? Would you go second hand?

fankoo :)
 
Fi - PC because I have all the Windows software I need.......I just bought one from pcspecialists and really pleased with it. I created my own spec. this time rather than buying one directly from DELL. If you go onto their website you can built your own pc and see the running total costs. Also join their ne Forum site and ask questions on what pc units are best, they are a great bunch of lads and you can get your questions answered by the 'techies' of pcspecialists too.
http://www.pcspecialist.co.uk/contact-us/
Hope this helps
Dave
 
iMac or MacBook Pro 13 (I'm loving mine)
 
Well due to the way the student discount works I can get the i7 17" Macbook pro for £1530 with AppleCare after I claim the VAT back :) THEN I can claim the whole lot against tax so another £300 :) leaving an outlay of £1200ish....... I'd buy one of those and stick W7 on my current 17" Macbook Pro
 
for 1k Mac all the way, take a look at the mac refurb store, get the highest spec imac you can, for photo work the 27" is amazing but the 24" is excellent too. Don't even consider a PC you'll spend you're whole time replacing parts or waiting for windows and java updates!! :)

Your mac will last years :)
 
razor777 said:
What do you want out of it? A specialist device for photography or a jack of all trades that can do most things equally well?

A) Mac
B) PC
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? I wouldn't call a PC a specialist device for photography :shrug:
 
For me, a PC would be ideal, and it would be more cost effective.
 
This thread is basically just going to split up between the Apple and Windows fans with the Windows lot split between buy and build.

So.

a) Buy a Mac

b) Buy a Windows PC

c) Buy all the parts and build a Window PC

Right thats it you can close the thread now :)
 
grum said:
iMac

cowasaki - are you sure you're allowed to use student discount and claim back VAT etc?
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If you go into the store and buy the Apple Machine the invoice is in the name of the person paying so yes no problem.
 
justhitched said:
Don't even consider a PC you'll spend you're whole time replacing parts or waiting for windows and java updates!! :)

Your mac will last years :)
Click to expand...

Last time I checked a fresh install of snow leopard requires over a gig of updates.

And just 'no' about replacing parts.
 
neil_g said:
Last time I checked a fresh install of snow leopard requires over a gig of updates.

And just 'no' about replacing parts.
Click to expand...

I imagine that if you were to install from an original Snow Leopard DVD then that could be the case by now, but Apple updates the build on both new machines and boxed copies of their OS on a fairly regular basis.

But I'll throw in another vote for an iMac to get back on topic.
 
This is the same as any what camera do I buy thread.

Buy what you want, that suits you best not what everyone else likes.

simples:)
 
razor777 said:
Which is why I said A) for MAC :LOL:

B) pertained to 'jack of all trades'
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I'm sure Apple would love your idea of marketing:)

They have a small share at the moment. Selling Macs to photographers only might just shrink that even more:LOL:
 
cowasaki said:
This thread is basically just going to split up between the Apple and Windows fans with the Windows lot split between buy and build.

So.

a) Buy a Mac

b) Buy a Windows PC

c) Buy all the parts and build a Window PC

Right thats it you can close the thread now :)
Click to expand...


Well said!
 
Buy what you can afford! £1000 may not be enough for a decent mac.

Do you want a laptop or a desktop?

D you have a monitor already, will you need one or will you be happy with an all in one solution?

Quite frankly we need more information than a budget!

Darren is right though, any of the 3 options he has listed will get you a decent working PC (yes, a mac is a pc- it is a personal computer!), you just have to do it within your budget and making sure you get the bits you need.
 
Buy an Intel Mac & a copy of XP load it using boot camp

best of both worlds !

Al'
 
iMac with a student discount and some external storage for backup. Alternatively I could build myself a superfast PC for around £600 and have some change for monitors,software and accessories. I would probably go with a new iMac.
 
I needed to update my PC when the choice was OSX or Vista - so there was no choice.

I still think Windows is easier to use, more logical and better looking, but I love iphoto, I love time machine, I love no viruses, and I love the fact that although 18 months old the imac is now faster than it was when new.
 
I'd go for Mac (thinking back that is what I should have done 18 months ago), you can dual boot with windows if you really must have windows platform software. For £1k you could get something pretty quick PC spec wise.

If you're a student or can somehow find a work around (know a teacher?) who would buy a Mac for you to get the apple discount, do that.

Try www.overclockers.co.uk for some pretty decent pre-built PC's, 'overclocked' even, to get more bang for you buck, or build it yourself.
 
If you had £1000 why would you go second hand? Anyway PC for me, OS is irrelevant at this stage.

You want to spend your money on decent hardware the Intel i5 chips are meant to be very good, then you need a decent amount of memory 12gb ddr3 perhaps? Of course if you want to do some overclocking then a decent mobo, psu and heatsink.

Dont forget graphics card, hard drives, 120GB SSD for OS and a couple of 2TB drives for data? Oh dont forget dvd burner and maybe a card reader.

Or you can buy a pre-built machine which is already overclocked... for £1000 you can get a beast of a machine! Unless your a Mac guy.
 
BalSanghera said:
If you had £1000 why would you go second hand? Anyway PC for me, OS is irrelevant at this stage.

You want to spend your money on decent hardware the Intel i5 chips are meant to be very good, then you need a decent amount of memory 12gb ddr3 perhaps? Of course if you want to do some overclocking then a decent mobo, psu and heatsink.

Dont forget graphics card, hard drives, 120GB SSD for OS and a couple of 2TB drives for data? Oh dont forget dvd burner and maybe a card reader.

Or you can buy a pre-built machine which is already overclocked... for £1000 you can get a beast of a machine! Unless your a Mac guy.
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I would suggest that 12Gb Ram is a bit OTT for most people. I have 10Gb FB-Dimms in my Mac Pro and after a particularly intense day I looked at the stats..... I never actually went of 6Gb so my upgrade from 6Gb to 10Gb was a waste of money :)

Remember that a few years ago photography was considered an intense use for a computer. The base line for computers has gone up MASSIVELY in comparison to the actual requirement from photographers. With this in mind a normal everyday computer has the power to run CS5 so long as the OS is not sapping it all.

I can run CS4 on my son's 22" iMac G4 without ANY issues. It has 4Gb Ram and a reasonable 500Gb HD. The OS is barely ticking over and there is no virus or other protection required. The only thing that drags it to a halt is entering LIQUIFY but it only means a pause of 4 seconds or so.

I can run CS5 on my studio's 17" intel coreduo 1.84Ghz 2Gb 160Gb machine and again it works fine as does lightroom 3

My MacPro Quad Xeon 3GHz 10Gb 2.5Tb also works fine but despite probably being 6 times as faster as the others there is no real advantage...

My suggestion would be to spend more money on a decent monitor, keyboard, mouse and even tablet as these are the things that you interact with and they make the experience better.

So 27" iMac with it's wonderful screen and base level spec is MORE than enough

As would a £350 base unit plus the rest spent on the bits you see.


The simple matter is that we all fall into the trap of thinking we need more when we don't !! W7 and MacOS are both more than capable OSes we need to spend the money in the right places. You don't need 12 cores and 12Gb Ram for CS5 spend the money on your monitor!!
 
I did say 12gb perhaps? :naughty: lol I have 8gb and its more than enough but it is ddr2 but I use my machine for loads of different things such as streaming hd movies, encoding video footage and then theres my photography. Its all down to what you want to spend.

Personally £600 would be the max I would spend then the rest on a decent IPS panel if you really want to spend the whole £1000 :)
 
Got to be an iMac.

Have used and worked with PC's for over 15 years and only used a Mac in the past 6 months. Wish I'd have made the jump sooner!!! Never regretted it one bit

They just work!!!
 
cowasaki said:
My suggestion would be to spend more money on a decent monitor, keyboard, mouse and even tablet as these are the things that you interact with and they make the experience better.
Click to expand...

Wise words indeed.
 
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