Mac Users-need opinions

[auraevans]

I need to buy a new Mac.

My G-4 laptop is about 6 or 7 years old.

I am debating for the I-Mac or a tower. I already have a nice cinema display so I wont need to shell out $ for the display if I go with a tower.

Can anyone offer any advice or opinions.

I need to process loads of digital photos and do video editing. I use photoshop and aperature at the same time.

I LOVE Macs!

[mish_mish]

My G4 is a little dilapidated so I will listen earnestly to other replies.

Hubs has a macbook of some sort.

[Lauren_]

I'm also using an older model G4, so I'm no help at all.

[mish_mish]

The letters have rubbed off the keys. Fortunately I type w/o looking!

[auraevans]

oh goodness, we are all in the same boat. somebody, help!

[mish_mish]

I think mine is five years old? I'm not even sure. I love it.

[zorba]

For what its worth...

I have a dual G4 tower at work, and a single G5 iMac at home; both with 1 meg of memory. I don't see a significant performance difference between the two.

This said, I'd tend to lean towards the tower in your particular situation, as you already have a nice display. I think a comparable tower without a display is "about" the same price as an iMac - but check.

[auraevans]

Thanks Zorba.

So, what is the point of the iMac anyhow? so the big tower isnt cluttering things up? Sorry if that is a dumb question...........

I am just trying to understand the pros and cons and differences between the two products.

[mmouse1534]

hhahah I read the title of this post and thought Ohhhh makeup! ;-) Yeah you can tell where my mind is! ;-)

[auraevans]

..l;,

[zorba]

Thanks Zorba.

So, what is the point of the iMac anyhow? so the big tower isnt cluttering things up?

Basically. Eliminates a lot of clutter. Its also a bit lower in performance as it only has one processor. I personally like the integrated design.

[zorba]

hhahah I read the title of this post and thought Ohhhh makeup! ;-) Yeah you can tell where my mind is! ;-)

I thought so at first - but its "Mac" not "MAC". That's how ya tell! ..g.:

[Sonja2]

I have an iMac. I love it. LOVE it.

[auraevans]

I am thinking an iMac.

I am spoiled by working with 2 displays and want to keep working that way. I need lots desktop to have all of those photos open to edit!!

[whitneync]

I have a MacBook, dual processor, and i LOVE LOVE LOVE it. I have Creative Suite 3 on it, and it all works flawlessly.

I highly recommend the MacBook.

Whitney

[ghazallah]

I top you all! I am still running G3s.

I have an Imac and a tower. The tower holds the extra hard drive and has bays for other devices and drives, also my Adobe Creative Suite lives on there. I have an Imac with a burner and i do all my surfin and burning on it so as to spare the tower unnecessary bugs it might pick up from surfing and downloading stuff. Yeh, it's a little cluttered... but you should see the rest of the room....

[zorba]

I am thinking an iMac.

I am spoiled by working with 2 displays and want to keep working that way. I need lots desktop to have all of those photos open to edit!!

Make sure your selected iMac supports that. I haven't a clue...

[auraevans]

I think I need a dual processor.

My G-4 has been crashing sometimes when I use aperture. It always crashes if I try to use aperture and photoshop CS3. I cant even open bridge, it just chokes.

[auraevans]

Make sure your selected iMac supports that. I haven't a clue...

ok, good point.

[najla86]

luv my MacBook black...was previously an iBook G4 user for about 4 years until I ran it into the ground

[TribalDancer]

Tower. Hands down. I have an iMac with dual processors and I adore it. But for heavy duty video and picture editing, having the room to grow alone is worth the price.

Oh and here is a little article on it:
Glenn Wolsey : Blog Archive : iMac Or Mac Pro, Which Desktop Mac Should You Buy?

[auraevans]

oh, excellent TribalDancer, thanks for your input and the link.

[EzmaSiddiqah]

My workhorse is a G5 dual processor, love the power in the tower. I just bought a mac book air to take with me with I travel, you'll have to pry it from my cold dead hands!!

[auraevans]

hahaha...........

i am surfing mac's stuff right now.

mac book air is a beautiful thing.

[TribalDancer]

hahaha...........

i am surfing mac's stuff right now.

mac book air is a beautiful thing.

MacBook Air is a very LIMITED thing. Great for students who need to take notes in class and want to cut down on bulk. Great for businesspeople who want it for notes, a one-on-one presentation, etc. But without a CD/DVD player or burner, without the storage capacity, without the peripheral connectors...it's a pretty weak product for much more than very specific needs. It's kind of like an iPod with a keyboard. ;)

[EzmaSiddiqah]

MacBook Air is a very LIMITED thing. Great for students who need to take notes in class and want to cut down on bulk. Great for businesspeople who want it for notes, a one-on-one presentation, etc. But without a CD/DVD player or burner, without the storage capacity, without the peripheral connectors...it's a pretty weak product for much more than very specific needs. It's kind of like an iPod with a keyboard. ;)

yup, not a replacement for my G5, or for me to use to design a trade show booth, but I bought the dvd/cd attachment, and have a satellite device, so when traveling can access the web from ANYWHERE, keep in contact with my clients, bhuz, google maps, etc. After I load my design software, can design almost anything on it. Will never get rid of it.

[RatedTotalPackage]

MacBook Air is a very LIMITED thing. Great for students who need to take notes in class and want to cut down on bulk. Great for businesspeople who want it for notes, a one-on-one presentation, etc. But without a CD/DVD player or burner, without the storage capacity, without the peripheral connectors...it's a pretty weak product for much more than very specific needs. It's kind of like an iPod with a keyboard. ;)

Doesn't it have the nonreplaceable battery as well?

[Serqet]

I would vote for a tower --- only because I have had problems with the CD/DVD burner/reader in the Imac and I think it is because it is slot-fed (sideways insertion) versus tray-fed (flat insertion). Then again, it could be my great ability to cause any and all electrical appliances (especially computers) to have hissy fits when I get near them!!!

In a year or so, I'm hoping to get a Mac Pro desktop with the new 8 core technology!! Being in graphic design, I need the processing speed -- Adobe products are such resource pigs!!

[amiraofannapolis]

If you do a lot of photoshop stuff and run adobe and anything like final cut pro, I would go for a tower. My husband is a photographer and videographer and he fills that puppy UP. He has a quad core I believe and plenty of external hard drives.

[ssipes]

This is off topic, but since it's an old thread that was magically reincarnated, here's a humorous tangent.

I can match just about anyone who thinks they might still be using the oldest still-functioning mac in the universe. The DNA sequencer in my lab connects to an old Power Macintosh running OS 7. The instrument will not interface with anything newer.

So, the DNA sequencer still works, and the Power Mac still analyzes the data, but it has become quite an issue trying to figure out how to get the data off the computer.

It has a 3.5 inch floppy disk drive and a read-only CD drive. No USB. No firewire. For a while, we had an external zip drive on it, but none of my newer computers do. It has an ethernet connection, but has a really hard time appletalking to anything running OSX (which would be all the other macs in my lab).

My graduate students are mostly PC-based folk, and they get really irritated having to deal with macs in general, but OS 7? Forget about it. I am the only one with any memories of how that works.

I got my tech support person to hoard power macs for me, in case this one croaks. Oh, it is also hard to find monitors that will interface with it.