05-06-2004, 11:46 PM

running a dual 1ghz mac g4 with 1gb ram, and a super drive.


the computer is fast, and for the most part is pretty reliable, everybody told me that a mac was better for graphics work, well i use a pc at work all day long in photoshop and image ready and i really cant tell a diffrence in the speed of photoshop on either machine, my pc feels just as fast if not faster and its just a pentium 2000ghz.

i have upgraded to panther but im still not really impressed with my mac, yah it looks really nice but i fill gyped out of my money for a prettier desktop. I have had issues with apple care, and serious issues with the superdrive.

When i first bought the apple it worked for a week and somehow the motherboard fried, i took it back and instead of them giving me a new mac, they just replaced the motherboard, about a month later the superdrive started acting up, if i put a cd in, it will not show up on the puter until i tap the cd tray door 3 times, and if that doesnt work some times if i kick the apple on the side of the case it will spin up. evidently my box is plagued with the pioneer drive and that this is normal, well applecare wont do anything about it,


For a sytem that is usb and firewire based, i wish they would of gave me more than 2 ports on the damm box, every device i have is usb and i had to go out and buy a stupid hub just so i can hook everything up, my crappy pc at work has 6 usb port.

and lastly games, i got unreal tourny 04 and was excited, it works and plays great on my mac and my awesome display, yesterday i went out and got some headphones with a mic, only to find that there is not a microphone hook up on the soundcard,


does anybody feel the way i do about switching.

05-06-2004, 11:58 PM

Well firstly I'm sorry if you're not happy with it. Have you maintained it with Mac Janitor? The CD drive not working until you hit the case seems like a lose connection Maybe my Mac is newer, but it has many ports and a built in mic. Now about swtching back to pc... There is no way I'd ever use a doz pc again - I don't think I have to list anything to make that point. My pc is still here, running Linux

05-07-2004, 12:09 AM

I can't help you with your superdrive/applecare problem, but I'll try and address the other two points you brought up.

Yes, the lack of USB ports is very annoying. It's a small consolation that the apple keyboard has two ports on it so basically by plugging that in you don't lose the use of a USB port (since the keyboard takes up one and a mouse takes up one on the keyboard, leaving you with one free).

I'm not so sure about the powermac having no headphone port. According to MacAddict it has two audio out ports. Are you looking in the right place? They'll be the smaller 3.5mm ones of course.

05-07-2004, 03:48 AM

my powerbook has two usb ports..though I'm also not using an external keyboard and mouse. I don't know what to tell you. I don't really worry about speed when using my mac. I worry about stability, usibility, ease of control, and dependabilty. I get that with a mac. I usually don't with my pc. My pc if fast...and I can't necessarily tell a defference between my 1.8ghz atholon and my 1 ghz g4 processor. but there is just something about this beautiful aluminium laptop that just gets me. It's so easy and reliable...wonderful..that's all I can say....though interestingly enough, I'm experiencing a strange clicking nois from my computer...heard about this before, and apparenlty it's nothing to worry about....though...when I get close to my laptop..I don't seem to hear it..maybe it has something to do with my having a few drinks?..who knows..anywho...yeah....I love mac, and have a pc...there you have it..

05-07-2004, 07:07 AM

As a recent switcher myself, my only regret is that Apple's quality control is absolutely horrible. Every single Apple product that I have ever bought, I have had to return for another one, because it was defective. That REALLY bothers me.

But the fact is, I've never wanted to switch back. My Mac is slower than my PC, but it's so much more enjoyable to use, and so much sleeker and more reliable. I love this little Mac.

05-07-2004, 12:10 PM

I guess I have been one of the lucky ones.. all the mac products that I have purchased have worked great and I havent had to send it back.. I hope those statistics continue for me

05-07-2004, 12:16 PM

maybe im just being picky or maybe i just have add extreme luck with my pc products,

i have never had a pc fail on me, my work pc's are running fine and i litterally havent rebooted in months. The only reason i even switched is that my fiance moved in with me and her mac was newer and much more expensive than my gaming system and we were limited on space so i switched for her (lol)

Dont get me wrong it does look neater, but im a 7 button mouse kind of guy.

Is it normal for it to take 3 hours to upgrade to panther, i was litterally pulling my hair out.

05-07-2004, 12:19 PM

NO it shouldnt take that long at all! 1 hour max if all you are doing is an upgrade. For me a did a clean install so of course that took me a lot longer since I had to move all my files back and make sure I had moved back all the preference files that I needed, etc etc.

Im a 7 button mouse kind of guy also.. so I bought a nice kensington and it works beautifully.. no reason to give that up when moving to mac

05-07-2004, 12:30 PM

haha

yah it took about 3 hours to install, but then again i was upgrading from 10.1 so maybe that was it, plus i wanted to keep the classic enviroment (though im not sure why)

i litterly went back and fourth from living room to office to check the install it toooooook fooooorrrrever.

05-07-2004, 02:34 PM

My experience is this: win ME 2 major crashes, somewhere about 30 BSOD reboot recovery... Switch to Mac and Linux, all uptime ALL uptime and I am extremely happy with my Mac, I use it the most

05-07-2004, 03:11 PM

well im not talking bout me, me is the biggest joke of an os ever.


i only run 2000 and xp pro

05-07-2004, 04:48 PM

XP is very stable, I use it at school. If it weren't for all the viruses out there, Windows XP would be a very respectible OS.

05-08-2004, 03:40 AM

So i guess its just me. My PC is great and all, but my mac will always be there. I like my schools Dual G5 so im really a mac user.

05-08-2004, 06:39 AM

xp is prettty impressive in comparision with other windows version (2000 is good too)....I still have some problems with them..but nothing too terrible...the virus thing is the main problem...and it's just so much nicer using os x...but maybe that's just me...

05-08-2004, 08:35 PM

Use G5 for major graphical stuff --- great for video editing, encoding, etc.

xp is good if you have good hardware, and you don't put lot of junky software on ypur system. XP works best with lots of RAM, speed, a good video card, and a good motherboard. Otherwise, XP has mega problems.

G5 is better and faster for high-end stuff than windows based systems -- you can get a pc system thats 64bit, etc, but it costs more and xp doesn't really use 64bit that well.

--nate