Mac performance.....and switchers

[Sheynk]

Hi guys

Now that I got an xbox (from my aunt on my b-day) I stopped playing PC games that much....lets face it BIG screen 5.1 yamaha speakers and a comfy couch beats my PC...sorry...

Anyway....how does the whole clock speed work on the G4 processor...I take it that they advertize that clock speed does not matter while architecture does.

The 12" powerbook has a 867mhz g4 and the other two powerbooks have the 1ghs....what is the speed/performance gap.

Are Macs ram hogs (in my experience with os 9 yes but what about 10).
Is 256 enough or the 640 $150 upgrade is a necesity

Is having a superdrive decreases other reading speeds (like DVD-Rs for PCs)

Do you ever get used to the 1 button mouse :?: :lol:

any SWITCHERS here? maybe you guys can tell me about your experiences

To be honest with you my Win XP never crashes on me. Even if an app. freezes it terminates it without a hitch and then sends that error report.

The other thing is software. I travel to europe over the summer to visit family and in Ukraine (and other countries of easter europe) all CDs are about 2bucks each. Be it photoshop or Unreal 2003 or Office. People overthere dont make even close to enough money to have a pc and buy legit software. I guess what Im asking is........Is the software that I will require more expensive than regular priced PC soft. Is it (kazaa friendly) cough cough. and WHAT APPS are bundled usually with systems.


Anything else you might want to add will be apreciated

Thanks in advance

[dean_shan]

Are Macs ram hogs (in my experience with os 9 yes but what about 10).
Is 256 enough or the 640 $150 upgrade is a necesity

Do you ever get used to the 1 button mouse :?: :lol:

The other thing is software. I travel to europe over the summer to visit family and in Ukraine (and other countries of easter europe) all CDs are about 2bucks each. Be it photoshop or Unreal 2003 or Office. People overthere dont make even close to enough money to have a pc and buy legit software. I guess what Im asking is........Is the software that I will require more expensive than regular priced PC soft. Is it (kazaa friendly) cough cough. and WHAT APPS are bundled usually with systems.


OK first things first. You're gonna want as much RAM as you can afford. More RAM more better. OS X needs quite a bit of RAM. You should go with the 640MB.

Second. You will never get used to the one button mouse. You will start to dispise Steve Jobs for refusing add another button :evil:. It get's anoying to press ctrl+mouse click but you get used to it. Although you can plug in a 2-button mouse and right-click. But if your like me and you have a notebook, pluging in a mouse is not always an option.

Third. Buying a CD in eastern europe for $2 that has photoshop sounds a little illegal :?. The price of Mac software is about the same as PC software. Adobe products cost the same amount. Same with other software that has a PC counterpart.
The apps that come with Mac OS X are Apple's iPrograms (iMovie, iCal, iSync, iPhoto, iTunes, iMovie, iDVD, iInsert any word) MS Internet Explorer. I would recomend downloading Safari (http://www.apple.com/safari/download/) as fast as you can. This is by far the best internet browser for Mac OS (and best of all it's free :D).

No I am not a switcher. I own a Windows machine and use it. I have an iBook because my school lends me one. Mac OSX is a lot better than 9 was. I would never consider buying a Mac if they stuck with 9. I realy like Mac OS X and might consider buying one when I'm done with school. What I also like about OS X is that you can connect to shared windows computers without any 3pty software or grief :D. This is a big plus for users that own windows comps. I hope this advice has helped you.

[dean_shan]

Oops, I forgot to talk about speed :oops:.

Anyway....how does the whole clock speed work on the G4 processor...I take it that they advertize that clock speed does not matter while architecture does.

The 12" powerbook has a 867mhz g4 and the other two powerbooks have the 1ghs....what is the speed/performance gap.

Is having a superdrive decreases other reading speeds (like DVD-Rs for PCs)


If you have a good deal of RAM you can't tell the differnce between a Mac and a PC when using Photoshop (at least I can't). Also I have noticed no difference between a 800MHz G4 and a 1GHz G4.

I have not used a superdrive so I can't help you out there. :(

[guinness]

I know you can use 2 button mice natively with OS X, which for Windows users should make it easier to navigate. In terms of speed, Apple now has G4's that run at 1.42 GHz, although very pricey IMO (cheapest 1.42 GHZ model is $2700).

[Sheynk]

thanks the 1.42 g4 is cool but its a: very pricey b: I thinking about getting a laptop (top of the line) in about a year

anymore input would be great

Does appleworks and keynote come bundeled?

Is MSFT office an absolute necesity?





thanks again


BTW....you are right..its not really legal but they give u a receipt and all. To be hosnest with you no one would ever think of paying that much money there, people just dont have it. But since I now have an xbox Im learning the hard way.

Is the 17" huge but thin?
...it gave me that impression from the TV ad.

anyway



thanks guys

[dean_shan]

Does appleworks and keynote come bundeled?

Is MSFT office an absolute necesity?

Is the 17" huge but thin?
...it gave me that impression from the TV ad.


AppleWorks comes bundled, at least mine did but that might just be the education model (my iBook is accualy the schools I'm just lucky and they let me have one for the year :D) Keynote does not come bundled. Keynote is $100.

MS office is not an absolute necesity. Appleworks can open MS word files. Although I like MS office more. Although a copy of office will cost you a couple of hundred bucks.

The 17" PowerBook is one inch thin. It is a little too big and too expence for my taste. Apple also has the same computer in 12" and 15" models if you like the look and feel of the 17" PowerBook.

[dMores]

i have recently "switched" to a g4 powerbook (887Mhz, 15"). i use it now as my main computer, email gets downloaded to the powerbook, and all the software i need for business are also purchased in their mac-versions.

to be honest, it's a bit tough at times. first of all, the notebook can never compete with the ease of use of a desktop, as far as screen size etc. are concerned.
i always plug in an external mouse (from microsoft ;)) so i can use both buttons, but when i'm just using the trackpad, ctrl-clicking is okay. since trackpad and huge button are awkward to use anyways, the added ctrl-click doesn't really make things worse.

i upped the standard 256Mb of the powerbook to 1gb, since i do a lot of graphics and need programs running simultaneously.

a macintosh is pretty fast. it's faster than a pc, sometimes, and sometimes you laugh at it for failing to display simple flash animations fluently. but since they're so different, there#s not really a basis to compare with.

you definately need ram. a mac that's dead slow with 128Mb will turn into a rocket when you bump up the ram. they're cheap (upgrade to 1Gb was only about EUR200) too.

regarding the photoshop issue: i have worked with photoshop for a long time, most of the time on legal versions running in school, or in the office. at home, when i needed to do something, i relied on a pirated version, i confess. but since i've started my own company, i needed to be legal, but couldn't afford the photoshop license. so i got photoshop elements at a fraction of the price.
i do screen-design, and elements has all i need. i don't need CMYK, no need for funky color-things, all the filters are there.
one thing i miss is the ruler, i use that a lot to straighten out a scan.

get elements, then earn some money and when you feel like you're missing out on something get the elements-to-photoshop upgrade. you'll even save a bit as compared to getting photoshop right away.

another advantage of my mac is that since i'm dealing mostly with graphic people, the chances of them using a mac too are pretty high, which can help eliminate conversion problems etc.

i don't regret getting the 887Mhz version, it's fast enough for everything i do. sometimes, encoding video takes a while, but it takes some time on my dual-athlon workstation at home too so it doesn't matter that much.
i only wish i would have gotten the faster one since it includes bluetooth and a superdrive. i recently learned how easy dvd-authoring actually is, and could definately use it. but since i don't have a superdrive, i'm dependant on my colleague's desktop g4 with dvd-writer.

do you need MS Office? yes you do. most files are being sent in DOC/PPS format, and you can't read those on a mac without an office suite.
(that's still on my to-buy-list)

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