Thinking of buying a Mac

[sweetdiesel]

I've been thinking of upgrading the home desktop for some time now. It's primarily the wifes computer and she uses it for editing with Photoshop, internet, and light word processing. I'd like to get into video editing as we have tons of DV tapes that we need to edit and archive.

We are currently PC users but would like to get into a Mac. I'm looking at the Mac Pro series. With our intended usage, what are the key components that should be upgraded or configured? I'll be purchasing the 30" Apple Cinema HD display at the same time.

Will there be any issues with transferring data from our PC to the Mac? We have about 750GB worth of files that will need to be moved. Also will there be any trouble running our current software on the Mac?

 

[HeartBreak]

The best, and easiest, way to move that amount of data is with an external hard drive. Or in your case, multiple drives.

The best way to get a 750GB External drive is this method:

Case:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-3-5-USB-2-0...yZ116258QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

edit; the listing for the case says a limit of 512gb; might have to go two 500gb drives, and just swap them out when one is full.

Drive:
http://cgi.ebay.com/NEW-SEALED-Seag...ryZ64463QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

A little pricey, but its' all in one, and provides you with a backup.

The PC should see the drive no problem; format it as Fat32 or NTFS; the Mac should see the files natively.

Aside from that, it's just an issue if a program will open it (most likely, there are some solutions out there to open just about any file a PC can create on a mac).

 

[swarmjt]

how much experience do you have with a mac? they are a lot different from a pc but i do like macs better.. so much more stable

 

[jetmechG550]

you will kick yourself for not doing it sooner!

 

[SMaxxin]

I have been curios about the Mac's for a while but I have a question. Are they really more stable than a pc or...Are they more stable because they are not compatible with a lot of the crap that most people put on a pc.

 

[retarded pilot]

I have been curios about the Mac's for a while but I have a question. Are they really more stable than a pc or...Are they more stable because they are not compatible with a lot of the crap that most people put on a pc.

you hit the nail on the head.

pc's try to be compatible with thousands of motherboards, video cards, modems etc... plus having the lions share of the market means virus's and malware will be written for the pc

apple has very tight control over who makes parts for them & their specs

i am also thinking of buying a mac, mostly for my internet surfing

 

[sweetdiesel]

apple has very tight control over who makes parts for them & their specs

I was talking to one of my co-workers who has been using a G5 mac for the last couple years. He recommended that instead of upgrading certain items such as more memory and hard drive space from Apple, that it is just as easy to purchase those components from another source at a lower cost and installing them yourself.

Are the memory chips and hard drives that Apple installs as an upgrade better than the stuff available at major computer retailers such as Frys Electronics, newegg.com etc. ?

 

[jetmechG550]

I use a macbook so I couldn't tell ya there. I am planning on getting an iMac for the office but unfortunately I have to keep pc's around for my wife's job. She works from home so the hospital supplied pc has to stay.

 

[retarded pilot]

i dont have an apple so all i think i know is second hand info..

that said, i think 3rd party "quality" ram would be as good as apple's as long as its the correct ram...hard drives i dont know?

i was speaking more to the fact you dont have yahoo's like me buying cheap parts from tigerdirect & building a apple from parts that "may" work well together, or might give a frustrating freeze up once in a while

but really I'm just speculating

 

[TalonOne]

I thinkn this is a good move.

I have a Mac Mini I use in the hobby office for Internet and the like. But my next notebook will be a mac for sure.

Some of your apps will not move over, but usually there is a native program to do the same tasks on the mac. If you really need to run windows stuff you can use the dual boot option or run Virtual PC for MAC and run the apps there.

I see huge defection from Microsoft and PCs in the years to come. Mac is making push and better yet the LINUX folks have built a very nice MS killer.

 

[jetmechG550]

MS Office for Mac works really well and anything created on a Mac can be compatibility checked to make sure it will open on a windows machine. I think this more or less comes in to play with Excel with formula's and such. There's also open office which is free and pretty much works with Word doc's and spreadsheets created in Excel and Powerpoint presentations. Aperture is like the Photoshop of Mac, it's a fantastic program and about 1/2 the cost of Photoshop. Garage band is fun to tinker with as well. If you feel the need to corrupt your machine with Windows XP you have two options, Parallels or Boot Camp. Parallels is about $80 and will open a Windows XP window while running in OS X. Boot Camp which is free for now, allows you to boot into either Windows or OS X.

 

[scoobydoo2u]

I am a firm believer in Mac, and it's nice to see all the mac users "come out of the closet"

I have not found the need yet for a program that I had on the Pc that I couldn't download or buy for mac!

And if your interested in gaming, don't listen to all this bull about "macs having no games" or "They aren't capable of running games". Just search gaming on mac, you will even see people that are people playing Call of duty 4 on macs and that is an amazingly detailed and Very fun game!

 

[Lessen]

I would love to go Mac as well. My catch.. VRC won't run on a Mac. Maybe by the time I NEED to upgrade my computer it will. :shrug:

 

[Monkey Wrench]

I, too, have been toying with the thought of getting into a Mac. My brother, who is a Cisco engineer, has one and swears by it! I'd like to get into better video editing applications other than those available for the PC and from what I understand, Mac is the way to go. I'll be eyeballing this thread, so SD, share what you settle on! Only drawback I have with going to a Mac now is price. Suckers aren't cheap!

 

[scoobydoo2u]

Only drawback I have with going to a Mac now is price. Suckers aren't cheap!

Neither are the "Brand name" RCs but you get what you pay for!
I'm sure most of you probably have a mac store nearby, you should stop in and look around their shop and see what you like!

I do agree they aren't cheap, I think I paid around 1,250 for my mac book, and
I know would do it again!

And for what you said about the video editing, I know the Macs can do some great video editing!

 

[jetmechG550]

there's always macmall.com sometimes you can find good deals there but it's a universally priced item meaning pretty much what apple says it is, that's it. One thing I would highly suggest to anyone buying a Mac for the first time is to pay the extra $100 or so and get Pro Care. It really entitles you to alot and will help so much with the transition from pc to Mac. With Pro Care you get one class a week at the Apple store, one on one lessons and right to head of the line at the Genius Bar if you have a problem, and that's no matter if you're at the store you bought your Mac or in England on vacation. I think they still give a year sub to Macworld mag too.

 

[Flameninja00]

mac! woot! i use them at school, definitely get one. the only problem is not enough programs for it... but its still worth it!

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

the new Intel Core/Core2's (and also the Apple-IBM-Motorola G5's) Macs basically run identical hardware that you usually upgrade with PCs...HDD, GFX (PCIe), RAM, CD/DVD...motherboard/chipsets/CPUs may be specifically designed

better to join up to an Mac forum and the 'geeks' there...they know their stuff inside out

 

[hamz9561]

If you need to run Windows on the new Core-based Macs, there is a program available called Bootcamp that will allow you to dual boot into Windows.

 

[hvymetalalchmst]

your just asking to crash your mac like that. dont you know, windows is no good for anything?