I need your help!

[flyers2thecup]

Well....i'm considering breaking down and going against all that is holy....and buy a MAC!

i've been so anti MAC my whole life, that i have no idea how to even turn one on! I was shopping for a new IPOD and couldn't help but notice the sleek looking laptops. problem is, i have no idea what i'm doing. i may as well be viewing a page written in japanese.

first off...are the specs the same for PC vs MAC? meaning, should i be looking for the same stuff i like in a pc? Processor, Ram amount, vid card, etc etc. will my printer work with it? can i set up a wireless network with one PC and one MAC?

i was hoping someone with some MAC experience can guide me through these uncharted waters!

How's this look?

[flyers2thecup]

i'll take it that means there are no mac users out there. oh well.

[DVDCoverArt]

First, why do you want a MAC?

In my opinion one of the biggest reasons NOT to buy a Mac is that it is a Proprietary system, which makes it very expensive to upgrade and maintain if you need to buy a part for it, and software is very expensive.

The most important question however is why? If you are simply having some problems with your current system and think that by buying a Mac it will solve your current problems and prevent any future problem that is not a reason to buy a Mac.

My sister is in the Graphics design field and the only reason she owns a Mac is because that is still what the majority of the industry uses, but that is the only reason she owns one.

When Apple comes out with a new operating system a lot of times you have to buy new software because the new operating system is not backwards compatible. The list goes on and on and on. Unless you are a Graphics professional who needs to exchange files with other Mac users, I can't think of a logical reason to buy a Mac.
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DVDCoverArt
Site Master

[flyers2thecup]

it all stems from my frustration with performance on my current pc coupled with the fact that i'd like to also have a laptop.

there are times that my pc DRAGS to almost a halt! i've got 2 gig of ram and can't figure out why it's happening. my first thought was that maybe getting a mac for using the PSP would help. i could take psp off my desktop.

i was having the same type of issue when i had a gig of ram...ran memtest86...it reported a an error. i didn't feel like trying to weed out which one it was....so upgraded to two gig of ram. i ran memtest on the new ram, and got no errors. but yet, it still bogs down.

plus they look so cool!

[tkboxer]

I agree with all the Boss said plus support for Mac can be hard to come by, checkout in your area who could repair your Mac if you bought one.
Plus you would need to buy a lot of the same software to you already own to run on a Mac. Mac did come out with a download recently called Bootcamp which essentially makes your Mac a dual boot machine meaning it can run under Mac OS or Windows, interestingly enough though, it is not supported by Mac and you would probably boot to Windows more than you would Mac (because you have more Windows programs) so where is the advantage to buying Mac? I do believe the build quality is higher in a Mac but then again so is the price. I can understand your desire though, their machines are really slick looking and when you think of all the Windows virus/hacking constant updating issues a Mac looks quite tempting. Good luck with your decision.
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No matter how many times you try...you can't clone the dirt off your screen.

[bobflemming]

I could never take MAC's seriously after i found out the only way to eject a floppy is to drag the floppy icon into the trash can!!! - it may not be the same with modern MAC's.

Everyone i know who has owned a MAC always raves about how great they are,
Everyone who ownes a PC always moans about how bad they are,

This does not mean MAC's are better than PC's just says something about us users
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A day without wine is like a day without sunshine -hic!

[DVDCoverArt]

Based on some of the problems you mentioned I have a few questions.

1. How often do you defrag your hard drive?

2. When was the last time you did a fresh install of Windows?

3. What size hard drive do you have and how much free space is on it?

4. Do you let Windows set the size of the Page File?

One thing I would do right now is open a Dos box from the Start/Run menu and type CMD. That will open a Dos Box.

Then type: chkdsk /f /r

Hit enter and say yes to the question that comes up.

This checks your hard disk for File and hard drive errors as well as some other important things. If it finds any errors it will attempt to fix them, it will also check the unused space on the drive for errors. It is a 5 step process.
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DVDCoverArt
Site Master

[daripper]

Flyers m8, do what the boss said to do and also do you have any type of
spyware checker installed on your system? I have had numerous people to
bring their systems to me for an upgrade because of the same symptoms
that you are describing and the only thing wrong with it was that they were
loaded down with spyware. I of course cleaned their systems of all the nasty
spyware and told them they didn't need to spend a lot of money on any kind
of upgrades unless they were bound and determined to have it upgraded and
all of them were very surprised at how much faster it was after the cleaning.
Another thing is are you using CS2 if so then it is a known fact that CS2 is a
memory hog and has a memory leakage problem that is why I'm sticking to
using PS 7.0 and not upgrading to CS2 myself.

OOps just happen to think you use Paint Shop Pro so CS2 isn't the
problem maybe the spyware thing then.
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[DeadeyeRich]

I hate proprietary systems and parts. That's why some of us build our own systems. It's not all that difficult to do. Maximum PC magazine recently had an article on how to build your own notebook. They tell you where to order the parts and give the benchmark specs. I've only opened up my Vaio notebook to upgrade the hard drive. It is a little more tedious because there are alot of tiny screws and parts, and not much room to move around in. With the right tools and a bit of patience it can be done.
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If you can remember the sixties........you weren't there.

[herk]

wow, there is quite a bit of mac bashing here. I am a long time mac users and IT professional. I support both Macs and windows machine and even some linux boxes. My personal preference is still a mac.

The Boss has some valid points in that upgrades are harder to come by, but all the new macs that are out nowadays uses industry standard Rams, video cards, hard drives. Those are the items people usually upgrades. How many regular joe users are going to replace their own motherboards or swap out the processor? Besides since Apple has gone Intel, the difference in motherboard architecture has become even lower.
As for software, software written for the mac is not any more expensive than for the PC. The mac software are more expensive mentality is probably true 10 yrs ago, but not anymore. For most day to day apps, there is an OSX equivalent. MSoffice, quicken, CS2, Elements.

I deal with PC and Mac users every day and the frustrations I see on the PC side is that not everyone is a gear head. Not everyone wants to spend all day repairing viruses, spyware, or have to install XP once every 6 months because it got corrupted somehow. Most users just want their computers to work for them and not have to deal with all the techie stuff.

My recommendation is that if you area techie, get a PC so you can hack away all you like. but if you are a regular joe user, get a mac and not have all the maintenance headaches that comes with windows. And if you buy an Intel Mac and want to run a Windows only app, you can do that by using a Virtual Machine by Parallels. www.parallels.com. It lets you boot a bunch of different OSes, including all versions of Windows, as an application inside OSX.

[DVDCoverArt]

[hyoogy]

mac,s are expensive but look nice

[herk]

yeah, macs are a little bit more expensive, but the prices are coming down for what you get with it. A Mac mini is only $599 and you get the new intel core dual 2ghz. It is a pretty speedy machine for the size.