Is a Mac for me ?

dUnKle

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Ok - maybe its time for a change
For 15 years or so (since the 486) I have been a PC user, but over last few months and years my uses have changed to where I am thinking I PC is perhaps not the best option.

I no longer game on a PC (have consoles for that) and am fed up with slow boot times and clunkyness of my existing PC

I use my PC for (pretty much in order of pref)

Internet
Email
Digital Camera
Music (listening not creating)
Video (watching not editing)
Downloading things off the net
UTorrent use (on occasion)

Would I be able to do all this on a mac ?
If I downloaded an avi file off the net either via torrent or other means would I still be able to copy them to my NAS drive and watch them on my XBMC ?

I know NOTHING about Macs at all but more and more people seem to be suggesting them

Have a budget of £500 or so (maybe little more) also have a Dell 24" WS Monitor for my PC - could I still use this ?

What should I get for my money ?
Seems 799 is basic for an Imac - would this be my best choice

Could a Mac be used as a HCPC and connected to my 50" DLP ?

Have seen at PC World (could just call in and collect so a bonus)

20" 2.16GHz for 779.97

or Apple Mac Mini for 299.97 although this has no monitor

Whats the difference between the two ? Am I just paying £500 just for a monitor ?
Would either of them allow me to do what I want ?

Also noticed APPLE MAC COMPUTERS - APPLE APPLE iMAC 17" 2.00GHz which seems within my budget

Also can I retain my ISP and email accounts (POP based)?
 
have you thought about stripping all the crap out of your pc to make it run smoother? theres a whole host of things that can be done to a pc to make it run that bit quicker. I've used macs plenty and still have to at work and dont think that just by getting a mac all your problems are solved.... mac owners would like you to believe this and so would Apple. They can be just as slow at times and theres a kinda myth around about them not getting errors... they do.. plenty of sometimes!!
They are good machines, just not worth extra money over a pc in my opinion. You are used to PC's and you shouldnt have a problem getting the most out of what you have... those windows magazines out always have tons of info about speeding the thing up!

One thing that really gets on my nerves is people saying "Mac OS is laid out just how you would expect it to be, everything is more logical"
No its not.... its just different and prettier depending on taste
No point getting an imac if you want to use your dell, you will have a useless 24" dell or a useless 17" imac screen....
could go for Mac mini and be annoyed and how it cant handle some stuff, or you have to go G5 or Powermac... big money

It needs a serious think...i wouldnt change.... id like to give that Mac TV thing a try though... looks fancy
 
Blimey

NOT the response I was expecting

My PC is 4 years old now - various parts are out of date, the motherboard etc would need to be replaced to allow me to upgrade CPU etc - that may result in me having to get new memory etc

Have had Vista since few days after it came out - im now up to my fourth reinstall - within days it gets bloated and just chugs

I know I could strip everything away, go back to XP and go from there, but even with XP I was having slow downs and a boot time that seemed to increase by the week

Everything I tried to tweak and enhance both OS just seems to bloat the PC even more. Even on fresh install of XP I am waiting around 3 to 4 minutes for boot. Current Vista boot is little over 5. Then I sit and wait and play "will it connect to my router" lottery and then I wait as Avast loads up and then, well you get the picture

Its certainly new machine time and seeing as I dont play games and use PC as mentioned above I thought Mac would be a good alternative. However your reply has taken me by suprise - thought everyone here would be urging me to go for it. Thanks for your honesty at the very least

If, however I do decide to go for one, maybe on impulse as I stroll around PC World what should I be looking for ? Understand that new Mac has just been released - how would I ensure I get the latest ?
 
Sorry mate, just spent 40 min on a loooong reply but the system logged me out and I couldn't retrieve the text. Bugger!

Read this article: http://***********/29m2t6

Basically, a mac will do everything you want it to do, in very similar ways a PC does things (or lets you do things) There are a lot of rubbish myths out there, fueled by mac haters, so it's difficult to get a balanced answer.

A couple of benefits that I find speaks for the mac:

-OSX - State of the art OS, years ahead of Vista (Even hardcore PC nuts admit that Vista is a virtual carbon-copy of OSX)
-Lack of viruses negates the need for complicated anti-virus software
-They look damn good on the desk
-Second hand value is very good (my computer, a powerbook 12", was bought in Jan 2002 for £1200. Today, one in good nick would fetch about £350. Now, that can't be said for a PC of the same age)

The people at the forum at macuser.co.uk are very helpful and nice if you have any more specific questions!

Good luck!
 
And to be honest, the bloke who replied first doesn't seem to be up on the fact that you can run XP natively on a mac these days and you have the benefit of two separate OS. He also mentions the G5. It is out of production since two years back. All macs now run on Intel processors, which means that you can run Windows on your mac.

Means that if you have some software that you need on XP you can just turn off and reboot in XP.

Connectivity is a breeze in OSX/mac No more problems like the ones you describe above.

ANd, again, OSX is an absolutely fantastic OS. I use XP at work and I know my way around computers quite well, and I can say that in terms of ease of use, stability etc OSX wins hands down. Of course you'll have to re-learn certain things, but it seriously doesn't take long to get to grips with.

When you go to PC world (Try to go to the apple store in London, or John Lewis. In fact JL gives an extra year's worth of warranty free of charge) look for the new iMac with an aluminium enclosure. That's the latest. Check it out on www.apple.com/imac

If you're looking at the minis, the latest (released 07 Aug) have the 'core 2 duo' processor but the previous ones had the 'core duo processor'
 
Live nowhere near a John Lewis and further still from London

Guess could order of the net but want to get look and feel of thing first

So if I got one of the new looking Aliminium ones from PC World and spent £700 or so and got one with 1024MB of RAM it would do what I want

Guess I am thinking in PC terms but 1024MB Ram does not seem like much

Also would I still be able to connect via USB to my NAS drive so that I could copy across video files to it ? The NAS drive would then have these files played back on XBMC

And I also assume my existing ISP and router and email accounts will work ?
 
Does your city/town have an Apple store, or retailer so that you could see for yourself, and compare the models?
I have to smile at your enquiry as to 'what macs can do'/can they do x,y,z, it seems llke you've heard they do something good/or are easy to use...BUT do they have all the features/can they do all the things that proper grown-up computers do?
(I'm exagerating lol)
Another responder mentioned the superior operating system, ease of use of it, and all the extra features that go with it. Macs have always led the way in home computers - they revolutionized home computing with the original Apple Macintosh computer (and thereafter, Apple computers were all referred to as Macs, even to this day.) This had a great operating system, the first great graphical interface in a home computer, and introduced the mouse which IBM PCs then adopted also. If there was one bug-bear of a difference, it was that some IBM software did not have a Mac counterpart (the vast majority now do). But again Apple forges ahead, and with the new Intel processors, you can run IBM software on the Mac also! - but be warned : when you do, you'll be running it in Windows, not the Mac operating system, and after your experience of working with the Mac OS, you may come to have disdain for Vista.
Your ISP server, email server etc are preserved - from a Mac owner's perspective, your question there is a bit like asking, but if I change from Dell to a Hewlett-Packard, can I..........?
The one caveat I see for you, is the amount of money you have to spend, and how the hardware features will compare with a basic Mac for that amount, verses say a new PC for the same price - I think you would need to check that the Mac has enough hard disc space for your needs, has an inbuilt CD/DVD burner/player, and at least 1 GB of memory (or how much extra it would cost to bump up it's memory to that.) Macs tend to cost more (and so are made less expensive by reducing those things with entry-level models), but the price reflects the quality, which is the hallmark of a Mac for me: I bought my first Mac, an original Macintosh, when they first cam out in 1984, and have had 3 more since, which I still have. They never broke down - I just upgraded as the features and speeds forged ahead, and a few months ago, I used the one that was my second, bought in 1992, and it still works like the day I bought it.
Any more questions, keep posting...but try to get your hands on one at a local store so he can demonstrate.
Good luck.
 
Have been searching for system requirements for NAS drives, which for the most part, seem Windows. However, at

http://www.macintouch.com/readerreports/harddrives/topic3300.html

owneers are discussing Mac compatible models - maybe your product is mentioned there, with the owner's experience.

Thanks

My NAS drive is also USB compatable - when connected via USB it seems to work as an external HD

Its only when its not connected via USB and is acting as a NAS drive does my XBox see it - Xbox is then used as media center in bedroom

The most strenous(sp) thing I can see me doing on whatever machine I get would probably be converting an .AVI file to a DVD or touching up photos

Gaming and the like will be done on consoles and 90% of the time its just net use and downloads

Quiet like the look of the 20" version - may go hunt one down for a look this weekend

Closest place would have to be PC world - know of no Apple stores close by
 
have you thought about stripping all the crap out of your pc to make it run smoother? theres a whole host of things that can be done to a pc to make it run that bit quicker. I've used macs plenty and still have to at work and dont think that just by getting a mac all your problems are solved.... mac owners would like you to believe this and so would Apple. They can be just as slow at times and theres a kinda myth around about them not getting errors... they do.. plenty of sometimes!!
They are good machines, just not worth extra money over a pc in my opinion. You are used to PC's and you shouldnt have a problem getting the most out of what you have... those windows magazines out always have tons of info about speeding the thing up!

One thing that really gets on my nerves is people saying "Mac OS is laid out just how you would expect it to be, everything is more logical"
No its not.... its just different and prettier depending on taste
No point getting an imac if you want to use your dell, you will have a useless 24" dell or a useless 17" imac screen....
could go for Mac mini and be annoyed and how it cant handle some stuff, or you have to go G5 or Powermac... big money

It needs a serious think...i wouldnt change.... id like to give that Mac TV thing a try though... looks fancy

I started on Macs (the Mac Plus) then went to PCs for years and finally came back to Mac last year. One point I would like to emphasise is that no matter how much shareware and other assorted crap I've put on my mac, it hasn't ever slowed. Of course there are occasional problems with software but my system has never crashed or frozen, requiring a reboot.

The Mac OS is a matter of taste but the more you use it, the more it makes sense. Tasks are actually easier in the long run.

With all due respect Ush, the powermac and G5 no longer exist so your information is way out of date. All new macs run dual core intel processors. Even the mac mini has a respectable performance with the latest upgrade.
 
Just another point Dunkle, many PC Worlds are still carrying the old white imac. Give it a couple of weeks and their range should refresh with the aluminium ones. Alternatively look at buying direct from the Apple store, which is very reliable.
 
re the NAS drive - it is not whether it is USB compatible (USB replaced the old serial port connectors on both Macs and PCs), but whether the software that operates your NAS drive is also available for a Mac (that is, La Cie and Maxtor drives come with both sets of software, so that either computer owner can buy it, and just load the relevant software for their computer.)
So - what model is your NAS and is Mac software (from the manufacturer) available for it? If you still have the CD ROM that had the software for loading, see if that also has a Mac driver on it as well.
re HCPC - Apple has a new revolutionary APPLETV which sits on your TV and allows it to communicate with your computer via wireless.
Again, forget about email and ISP - you might as well be asking, is a Mac able to send email and can I access the internet on it!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course you can! The OS has an inbuilt Set-up assistant for dial-up connections - you just enter the same details you did for Windows into the Mac eg name of ISP server, address, dail-up phone number etc. When I went broadband, I didn't even have to do that - the OS 'read' the BT ADSL router and set itself up!
?? Music : who created the iPod - and why? because Macs had iTunes on the computer for downloading and playing music...and then iPod allowed people to transfer their music from iTunes into iPod, and sounded the deathknell for the Walkman!
Video : Mac has an inbuilt DVDPlayer, also Quicktime for playing video streams in other formats, and VLC is a free third-party piece of software that is similar. Should you get into video more, it has inbuilt iDVD (you download from a camcorder, press a button, and it authors and burns a DVD of your holiday or whatever; and iMovie, if you want to edit the footage first!!!!!!
The major area for clarification is using the new Mac with wireless for your TV, and whether NAS will work with the Mac -otherwise, you would need to buy another storage drive and download your old files on to it.
So- even if you have to travel to the next town, or whatever, this is a big purchase, and I would strongly suggest you make this enjoyable by taking half a day at some Apple store playing, and talking with a salesman who can show you all about using your mac with a TV, what each mac comes with and/or what extra you will need, and price it out for you. DON'T try to do it blind by ordering over the internet at this stage.
In all events, delay buying till November - the next generation of the operating system comes out then, and will be standard on new machines then - otherwise, you'd have to fork out for the new OS if you wanted to upgrade. Alternatively, strike a deal with the retailer - buy now and get a free upgrade to the new OS (they would send you the package of discs for you to install) when it comes out in November.
Whereabouts do you live, and I'll hunt down the nearest Apple store (an authorized Apple retailer- great showrooms, wonderful service and demonstrations etc).
 
Nearest pple store is going to be Birmingham I guess

My NAS drive ? God dont know owt about it to be fair - got via Ebay few months ago

All I know is I can access it via network by typing http://storage
Its STORAGE series and its firmware is NAS-BASIC41
 
Then the store there is in the Bullring Shopping Centre, close to the railway station.
 
I think your PC is slow and clunky because it's 4 years old, so any PC you buy will seem better. One thing to bear in mind is you might not want to buy a computer that has a built in monitor (like the iMac you posted) as if you are anything like me your monitor will last longer than your computer.

1 Gig of ram should be fine, I would have said it would be fine on a PC too but don't know how hungry vista is. A properly tuned PC should boot in 30-40 seconds.

Macs are fine though and i'm sure you would be able to use it for your list of activities.
 
I think your PC is slow and clunky because it's 4 years old, so any PC you buy will seem better. One thing to bear in mind is you might not want to buy a computer that has a built in monitor (like the iMac you posted) as if you are anything like me your monitor will last longer than your computer.

1 Gig of ram should be fine, I would have said it would be fine on a PC too but don't know how hungry vista is. A properly tuned PC should boot in 30-40 seconds.

Macs are fine though and i'm sure you would be able to use it for your list of activities.

Cheers

And thanks to everyone for the advice so far

The PC I use is just so clunky - even on clean install - also the Mac seems a bit of a space savor - its just finding the £800

Oh and trying to work out if my NAS drive will work
 
dunkle ... I would certainly say for what you want to do a macmini would suffice and is your cheapest route in ... it comes with a dvi socket to hook up to your dell monitor and you could probably use your old pc keyboard and mouse if they are usb - alternatively you could try the new mac keyboards and mouse (complete with a right-click button and scroll ball !!)

It will ship with the iLife 08 suite (for free) which gives you photo editing/cataloging/web gallery/printing services, iTunes for music downloading/playing, iMovie for simple camcorder editing, iDVD for making MPEg-2 compatible dvds,Garageband for making music and podcasts and iWeb for building websites ...

It will also ship with a small IR remote control and FrontRow software for a media centre interface for watching purchased shows/or downloaded avi/mkv/QT shows (you'll need to download a free component callled Perian to get seamless avi/mkv playback) - it will play back 720p and 1080i with little probs but will choke on 1080p ...

You can get a program called connect360 which will stream music/video material to your xbox ...

It also has an optical audio output if you want to hook to your system for 5.1 output ...

Will have to look a little into hooking in to the NAS for you ...

rgds

Jon

Hope that gives a little reassurance for an easy entry ...
 
dunkle ... I would certainly say for what you want to do a macmini would suffice and is your cheapest route in ... it comes with a dvi socket to hook up to your dell monitor and you could probably use your old pc keyboard and mouse if they are usb - alternatively you could try the new mac keyboards and mouse (complete with a right-click button and scroll ball !!)

It will ship with the iLife 08 suite (for free) which gives you photo editing/cataloging/web gallery/printing services, iTunes for music downloading/playing, iMovie for simple camcorder editing, iDVD for making MPEg-2 compatible dvds,Garageband for making music and podcasts and iWeb for building websites ...

It will also ship with a small IR remote control and FrontRow software for a media centre interface for watching purchased shows/or downloaded avi/mkv/QT shows (you'll need to download a free component callled Perian to get seamless avi/mkv playback) - it will play back 720p and 1080i with little probs but will choke on 1080p ...

You can get a program called connect360 which will stream music/video material to your xbox ...

It also has an optical audio output if you want to hook to your system for 5.1 output ...

Will have to look a little into hooking in to the NAS for you ...

rgds

Jon

Hope that gives a little reassurance for an easy entry ...

Cheers

What would the IMac give me that the Mini would not ?

tempted to go perhaps for a Mini along with keyboard and place it with all my HC gear and get rid of computer desk and like and reclaim a room

What would a mini look like on a 50" DLP ?
Also what about DVD playback ? Can it be made multi region ?

£300 really does seem a good deal if will do all I want
 
mac mini would go well with your current monitor. Or a 20/24" imac and sell the 24" dell monitor. Good monitor so should still command a decent price.


I did exactly what you're contemplating, and am not regretting it in the slightest. My PC was getting clunky, slow to boot and it was very noisy. Yes, I could have bought a new one, or reinstalled windows. But I thought I'd try something different. I specifically wanted to be less involved with faffing about. Previously I'd enjoyed tweaking the PC or installing this and that. But now I just wanted something to do my main activities without needing that level of involvement from me. I just don't have the time or inclination anymore.


I love the way you put the Mac to sleep so its ready for you quickly when you need it. if you go for the .mac online account email is a piece of cake to set up, as is uploading photo galleries etc.

Takes a little time to get used to the different way of working, but I like it so far.

you can access NAS drives. I presume yours supports SAMBA, which the MAC should address directly. So you can just write to it without needing to connect it via USB.

It'll read NTFS formatted USB drives but not write to them, so you can copy any stuff off,then reformat either as a MAC format or FAT32
 
Thanks Rich - hoped you'd be along soon as a recent convert !!

I use my macmini on my 50" plasma and my 120" projector and works fine - you can set screen res all the way up to 1950 x 1050 if you need to !!

Apart from a v good quality screen, the imac will give you a faster processor, better video card, more internal storage and memory expansion, more connections (including a mini-dvi to hook up to your main dlp screen or your dell if you want a very wide extended desktop !!) and a v nice built-in webcam and good quality stereo speakers ... but at twice the price

With regards dvd playback it is very difficult to flash the internal drives that Apple use - if you have ripped your dvd's to your NAS then you can use vlc for R1 playback - you can overcome this by using an external dvd drive but kind of defeats the object !!

The bottom end (recently upgraded) mini with the new core 2 duo is £399 ...

Jon
 
Thanks Rich - hoped you'd be along soon as a recent convert !!

I use my macmini on my 50" plasma and my 120" projector and works fine - you can set screen res all the way up to 1950 x 1050 if you need to !!

Apart from a v good quality screen, the imac will give you a faster processor, better video card, more internal storage and memory expansion, more connections (including a mini-dvi to hook up to your dlp if you want to) and a v nice built-in webcam and good quality stereo speakers ... but at twice the price

With regards dvd playback it is very difficult to flash the internal drives that Apple use - if you have ripped your dvd's to your NAS then you can use vlc for R1 playback - you can overcome this by using an external dvd drive but kind of defeats the object !!

The bottom end (recently upgraded) mini with the new core 2 duo is £399 ...

Jon

Looks like may be the Mini - is that price including the keyboard and mouse ?
Very tempted - may try hold out til November though

Also no way at all of multi-region DVD playback ? Could get rid of DVD player and just hook up in cinema room then
 
I'm in the same boat as you dUnKle. I'll be hunting the shops for the mewly revised Mac Mini this weekend and if I don't find it I'll order on Monday from Apple direct.
I'm going for the £499 model as it comes with the super drive (cd burner) and 120gb of memory, 40 more than the £399 model.

Grant
 
No the mini doesn't come with keyboard or mouse - part of attraction/price - new apple aluminium wired keyboard is £29, mighty mouse £39 or wireless £49 (mini ships with bluetooth 2.0 and 802.11b/g but *not n* as standard) ...

Really hard to sort out multi-region - you could replace internal drive with a more easily flashable one but will void warrenty - Apple play by the region rules :-(

Grant - Superdrive in £499 is cd/dvd reader/writer - combo drive in £399 is cd/dvd reader cd writer ... also £499 has faster processor

Jon
 
ah - so the £399 can just burn CD's while the £499 can burn both CD's and DVD's.
Cheers for the clarifiaction.

Fingers crossed I find one in JL this weekend. Glasvegas is a bit far to travel for my nearest Apple shop
 
Bugger

So would need the 499 Mini as want DVD recorder
May as well go the extra 300 for the IMac
 

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