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I'm buying a brand new imac G5- this week!

(yay for mortgage redraw facilities )

I can't decide whether to go for the all-out model with the 20" screen and 250gb hard drive, or just the cheaper one with 17" screen and 160gb hard drive. Perhaps then spend the money I would have spent on the better model on upgrading the RAM (they come with 512mb, which isn't much these days, and are upgradeable to 2gb - but then I've heard that RAM is effectively doubled in speed in a Mac system, the same as processor speed?). The main question is whether or not I need the extra hard drive space...I've gotten along with 20gb on my PC laptop for a while now, but undoubtedly this small space contributes to the problems I experience with this machine.

Another question I had (and quite a stupid one really) - are PC games exactly that, will they only work on PC? Or will some of them work on Macs too? I don't recall ever seeing any Mac versions of PC games. It's not that big an issue to me as I only play Sims2 and can keep playing that on my laptop, but just curious really.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Congrats!

PC games are PC games. Very few games are made for Mac anymore, and most that are come a year or so after the PC versions. Unless you get an emulator (which will run pretty slow), you won't be able to play PC games on your Mac.

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Yea, the school that I work at has nothing but macs and I am always being made fun of it by my business world friends. They say that mac doesnt cut it in todays world. I have to admit that the little bomb comes up on our screens at school pretty often...that means the computer has crashed.
As a result, I just bought a Dell at a good price and I had some experts tell me It'll be an awesome gamer computer too. I've always used PC's at home. My business world friends would never forgive me for buying apple.

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The calming qualities of a good aquarium are irrefutable

upgrading the memory is a GREAT idea. you should consider getting as much memory as you can when you buy it. macs run much much faster when they have plenty of memory, like 512MB or better (much better if possible ). as far as games go, sims2 is available for mac, as are other "big" titles. in a year or so when the intel based macs start rolling out, apple will release a program called "rosetta" which is supposed to translate between intel-based programs and mac-based programs, so you should be able to run just about any pc program when that comes out.

as for the person whose macs are always crashing, are you using osX?? if you are still using os9 ("macOS" then that is the problem, since osX is relatively maintenance free and hardly ever has any major crashes. the fact that you see a little bomb icon tells me that you are not using osX on those machines, so it's no wonder that you are having so many problems with them.

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Definitely get more RAM for your iMac G5. 1GB is minimum IMO. OS X works much better with more RAMs.
As for the model, it really depends on whether you can "live" with a 17" screen (which is plenty big for me). A 20" display of course is *fabulous*, but unless you're doing to do a lot of movie watching on it from a distance or do work that requires a lot of screen space (e.g. CAD, Photo/Movie editing, etc.) I'd spend the extra money on more RAM and other gadgets (nice speakers, etc.). 160g is a lot for hard drive, unless you do a lot of movie editing and such.

Anyways, enjoy your new toy! I'm jealous.

-P

Meh, I hate macs

Hello, not to be rude, but I am just wondering what you use your computer for?

I love Macs, but I am also a graphic/web/multimedia/film developer and designer, so Macs were the computers originally used for this and not a PC so I do lean to Macs.

But all the software is now available for PCs and you could buy a faster and better PC for less than half the money you are going to spend on a MAC.

Just if your asking about playing PC games on a MAC, I think you might be better off going for a PC!!!! Plus it is much cheaper to update a PC and keep it with the up with new technology that a MAC!!!

I am not trying to start a PC versus MAC fight, I have been in too many of those, and I get both sides, both computer are good for seperate things etc!!!!!!!!

Anyway, whatever computer you get, enjoy!!!!!

I'm a graphic designer too, so that's what this machine will mostly be used for, as well as general word/internet stuff.

I have many reasons for wanting to buy a Mac and made that decision long ago, regardless of the extra cost, I think it's really going to suit my needs best.

No problem about the game really - I was planning to keep my laptop anyway, just in case I do need portability at some time, so I can just play on there.

Thanks for the advice so far - still not sure which I should go for, but it definitely sounds like I should be planning to upgrade the RAM a bit either way .

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

Buy a Mac! Buy a Mac! BUY A MAC! (sorry for shouting)

I changed to Mac's (G4 dual with 1G RAM) about 3 years ago and I can't fault them. Friends PC's have crashed, burned, destroyed themselves or been destroyed via viruses etc but mine keeps going.
Definitely get as much RAM as you can afford.
As for games yeah there aren't that many out there for Macs but I don't play them anyway so no great loss.
As for a screen, again go for the best you can but less important than RAM.

Have fun!

Go Mac!!!!!!!!!!!!

We love both of ours and would never go back to a windows based platform. No I do not want to start a Mac v PC war. I get bored of those. All I know is that I have never had a virus nor has Hubby, we run very little anti virus software. Graphic and photographic work on them is excellent.

We have Panther not too sure on Tiger as a feel that widgets are a way for virus's to get in , appreciate that you can turn off widgets but not many people would know how to get into the machine to do that.

As for games, we have never had a problem. Amazon do loads of dual machine rated games as well as Mac only. Of course why not go to an Apple store and buy the games right out of the store. Remember Apple have an online site that send you the games directly. We have all the Sim games on Mac as well as Civilization III, Railroad Tycoon etc etc etc. Also Mac do great educational packages.

They make the Sims game for the Mac. You'd have to start over as far as your houses and people are concerned, but you would be able to play on the mac.

Macs are pretty awesome for a lot of things. They don't crash nearly as much as PCs, IME. Also, there are like 1000 PC viruses to every one Mac virus.

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They shade the glow of it with their mossy-misty costumes,
They wear masks of silk, porcelain, brass, and silver,
So as not to mislead with their own, ordinary faces.

actually, macs *do* get viruses, but they get viruses that can be passed to pc's. in other words, the mac is like a carrier for viruses, but so far there have been very very very very very few mac viruses (something like less than 100 in the entire history of the mac, and only 1 or 2 for osX)

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"That's the trouble with political jokes in this country... they get elected!" -- Dave Lippman

Arrrr, see now it makes more sense to me

In answer to your question, I would go 160gb and get more ram.
160 is still quite a lot of space, and you could always get a portable drive later on if you need more space. Plus with a portable you can take it with you and attach to someone else's computer to share files etc. You should also have a DVD burner with that.

I would get the ram so your computer runs nice and fast and you can get your work completed quicker. Rather than waiting for large photoshop files to open and save etc...

Anyway enjoy, but don't drool to much over the keyboard

Well, the new Mac has been postponed

Seeing as how my partner is the one who pays most of our mortgage, I felt obliged to make sure he didn't mind me redrawing some to buy this computer. As it turned out, even though he was the one who suggested it in the first place, he'd been thinking and decided he wasn't comfortable with doing that when we haven't been paying it off for very long. He felt it was a 'lack of discipline' to use the money that way. I can't disagree with him really, and although he left the decision up to me, i coudn't go and use the money knowing that it was basically his money and he didn't feel comfortable with it.

*sigh* so i'll keep plodding along with my laptop I guess. I don't have much hope of saving for the Mac, unless I get a lot more freelance work coming in, so I probably won't be able to buy it until that far-off, distant day sometime next year that will be known as 'Settlement on my Lawsuit Day'.

The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it. - Oscar Wilde

business world friends. They say that mac doesnt cut it in todays world

They may say this because what they use at their work is a pc. PCs are more popular but doesn't make it better (ever hear of VHS vs Beta?)

PC use is more widespread but Macs are used for design and have more flexible systems that can be tailored by skilled users. Microsoft pitches to lowest common denominator and assumes we won't want to file manage.

I am on pc at work but if I bought a system would get a MAC. My colleague has a mac laptop and has shown me a few things that got me enthused.


.... btw I think it is a good thing to postpone the redraw. See if you can save up instead. Having the money sitting on the mortgage is a winner to reduce the interest. Your partner is on the right track about not using equity for consumables; Jan Somers has great books on this if you are interested, she is an Aussie. A friend recommended her books to me and it changed my life. All the best!



Last edited by wish-ga at 23-Aug-2005 23:07

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