abpowell
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Buying First Mac - Need Experts Advice
I fried the cpu (my stupid mistake) on my PC and even though I could rebuild it (with a quad core 3.+Mhz) and faster ram for under $500, I have allowed my wife and children to talk me into buying an iMac to replace it as the family computer. Any of the iMacs are fine for their applications. I do some video editing as a hobby (with 5 kids I've got plenty to edit). Here are a few items I need your thoughts on.
"Preinstalled items" $150 for the extra 2GB of Ram?? Why can I buy it on Kingston's website for under $50? Am I missing something? Am I going to create PC-like stability issues? Even the apps like final cut express and Aperture are $50 less on Newegg. What's the extra $50 for, labor to install?
CPUs - I really need or for that matter want the 24" screen. But I do want the 3mhz CPU. More for whatever the future applications than what I'm doing now. I had an AMD dual core 2.4Mhz so I guess even the "loaded" 20" iMac would be slightly faster.
I think I will see a boost in the RAM chips from my old 184 pin DDR to the iMacs DDR2. But I did notice the CAS latency on the Kingston chips is 6 where my old Crucials were at 2.
I obviously know nothing about the architecture of a Mac so maybe they all work together to actually perform better. Are there any benchmark results that show how a Mac would rank vs a PC with similar CPU and RAM configuration (especially in speed of rendering video).
Any other buying tips would be most appreciated. Anything else I should look at that I may have missed? Hardware or apps.
On a final note, why don't they at least offer a 10,000 rpm HDD. It would help (I think) with video editing.
Thanks in advance for your advice
"Preinstalled items" $150 for the extra 2GB of Ram?? Why can I buy it on Kingston's website for under $50? Am I missing something? Am I going to create PC-like stability issues? Even the apps like final cut express and Aperture are $50 less on Newegg. What's the extra $50 for, labor to install?
CPUs - I really need or for that matter want the 24" screen. But I do want the 3mhz CPU. More for whatever the future applications than what I'm doing now. I had an AMD dual core 2.4Mhz so I guess even the "loaded" 20" iMac would be slightly faster.
I think I will see a boost in the RAM chips from my old 184 pin DDR to the iMacs DDR2. But I did notice the CAS latency on the Kingston chips is 6 where my old Crucials were at 2.
I obviously know nothing about the architecture of a Mac so maybe they all work together to actually perform better. Are there any benchmark results that show how a Mac would rank vs a PC with similar CPU and RAM configuration (especially in speed of rendering video).
Any other buying tips would be most appreciated. Anything else I should look at that I may have missed? Hardware or apps.
On a final note, why don't they at least offer a 10,000 rpm HDD. It would help (I think) with video editing.
Thanks in advance for your advice
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ASKER
Sold! I'm going to pick up my iMac today. Stayed tuned, I'm sure I'll have a lot of questions. It's going to feel like trying to write with my left hand for a while.
I'm not sure about HD speed, but he definitely only has 2 GB RAM and has the entire FC Studio 2 suite. He's just used it for post production editing of he and his friends latest full length film and I didn't hear him complain about any speed or performance issues.
Actually, I think you'll find the Mac interface very intuitive to use. Yes, it's pretty much totally different than Windows. I know that I made the transition to Mac without much fanfare. I did buy a book off eBay to help me become more familiar with the interface and it did help, but it really didn't take long at all to become totally familiar with the Mac. Now I don't even think about not having a Program Files folder or a C: drive. I'm still learning and find new things almost every day, but it fits just like a glove.
ASKER
"not having a Program Files folder or a C: drive"
What!!! HUH!!! OH NO!! I'm scared now. I'm going to be lost. How will I ever find anything. Between the the 4 HDDs on my PC (1 external) I think I have a total of 9-10 *:drives. A folder for each little peice of data I've ever entered (ok, not really that organized). This will be interesting.
What!!! HUH!!! OH NO!! I'm scared now. I'm going to be lost. How will I ever find anything. Between the the 4 HDDs on my PC (1 external) I think I have a total of 9-10 *:drives. A folder for each little peice of data I've ever entered (ok, not really that organized). This will be interesting.
ASKER
I think it will be more like trying to throw left handed for me. Which is even uglier than trying to write left handed.
ASKER