- Joined
- Aug 26, 2007
- Messages
- 77
- Reaction score
- 1
- Points
- 8
- Location
- New York City
- Your Mac's Specs
- Current iPhone and iPod owner, Future Mac Owner
Greetings, all…
Sometime by the end of November I’m planning to toss my Dell PC out the window and upgrade to a Mac. I’ll most likely be using Boot Camp / Fusion and Windows XP Pro for certain applications that are PC-only, but Mac OS X Leopard for everything else.
Right now I mostly use my computer for fairly basic household stuff (email, web surfing, finances, etc.), but I will also increasingly be using it for architectural design and 3D renderings using ArchiCAD, Rhino (when the Mac version comes out), and 3D Studio MAX and AutoCAD via Windows. I also use Photoshop on a fairly regular basis, and I'm looking forward to learning InDesign.
I'm trying to decide whether to get the 24" 2.8 GHz iMac ($2149 w/ student discount) or the base-model Mac Pro tower ($2299 w/ student discount, or $2199 refurbished). The pros and cons of each:
24” iMac: More features for the money, beautiful design, doesn’t take up much space, but lacks expandability. I'm also concerned about some of the display issues that have been posted here as well as on the Apple discussion forums; the ATI graphics card seems problematic.
Mac Pro tower: Can be vastly expanded and customized over time, but more expensive overall. Display would need to be purchased separately (my existing 19” Dell display could be used in the interim). The nVidia graphics card seems to have a better reputation than the ATI.
Any suggestions? Thanks…..
Sometime by the end of November I’m planning to toss my Dell PC out the window and upgrade to a Mac. I’ll most likely be using Boot Camp / Fusion and Windows XP Pro for certain applications that are PC-only, but Mac OS X Leopard for everything else.
Right now I mostly use my computer for fairly basic household stuff (email, web surfing, finances, etc.), but I will also increasingly be using it for architectural design and 3D renderings using ArchiCAD, Rhino (when the Mac version comes out), and 3D Studio MAX and AutoCAD via Windows. I also use Photoshop on a fairly regular basis, and I'm looking forward to learning InDesign.
I'm trying to decide whether to get the 24" 2.8 GHz iMac ($2149 w/ student discount) or the base-model Mac Pro tower ($2299 w/ student discount, or $2199 refurbished). The pros and cons of each:
24” iMac: More features for the money, beautiful design, doesn’t take up much space, but lacks expandability. I'm also concerned about some of the display issues that have been posted here as well as on the Apple discussion forums; the ATI graphics card seems problematic.
Mac Pro tower: Can be vastly expanded and customized over time, but more expensive overall. Display would need to be purchased separately (my existing 19” Dell display could be used in the interim). The nVidia graphics card seems to have a better reputation than the ATI.
Any suggestions? Thanks…..