Thinking about switching but...

the lack of configuration flexibility on the IMac is a bit of a killer. I don't buy new hardware often, my current pc is ~7 yrs old, so I want the fastest processor possible for extended usable life. In an imac I would have to get a 27" but I really don't want a screen that big, too much for my space. If I go 21.5" the fastest I can get is Core 2 Duo 3.33GHz w\8GB ram. I can get an HP w\monitor i7 950 processor and 8 gigs ram and 20.5 monitor for about the same price. I know the monitor will not be as good as the IMAC but the processing power is so much more. Can anyone give me some ideas or alternatives to point me back to mac. Yes I know the os is great but power is just not there. Thank you.

What do you do with your computers that a Core2Duo at 3.33 Ghz with 8GB of RAM isn't enough power?

If it's true power and flexibility you want, then the Mac Pro is the solution.

I currently have a Mac Mini at 1.83Ghz and I develop iPhone applications on it and it works fine for me. I also have a machine running Linux that's running at 2.13 Ghz and that works perfectly fine. Could I use more power? Absolutely, but do I need it? Not especially.

I do things like video encoding (AVI -> Flash) and other things as well, but in most cases I let it churn while I'm doing other things..

So your use of the computer is going to determine what you need..

Regards

Unless you run a server off of your machine at home, 3.33GHz will be plenty of power for you for a loooooong time. That with 8GB RAM will be smokin. I would say stop worrying and get the iMac 20.5", you won't be disappointed, I promise.

I assume with that much RAM you are looking at a 64 bit windows rig.

Bear in mind that OS X, even running a 32 bit kernal will be able to use all that RAM

Before you go HP, type hp forum in your browser and check under freezes and lock ups. Over two hundred pages of complaints. Think it over. For a pc, go to maxforcepc.com.

What has processor speed got to do with usable life?

If price vs hardware is all your basing your Choice on you are forgetting to factor in the only real reason to buy a Mac. And that would be the OS. Hardware is hardware !

Oh and welcome to Mac-Forums !

I agree with Clayneal, it's all about the OS. Apple do not manufacture hardware as such, the sweet spot is knowing that you are getting the worlds most reliable ad loved OS.

Personally, I use Windows at work as I'm sure everyone does and when I go I spend another 4 hours in front of my iMac! It's like being on vacation.

I just upgraded from a 24" 2.93 to a 27" 3.06 and I've even notice a performance boost. Things like installing CS4 even, used to take ages when I reformatted on my old iMac, but when I installed on my new machine it was super fast. Less then 1/4 the time it usually took.

No one really knows what you are wanting this super machine to do yet anyway??

Oh, I have to add I only have 4G Ram for now, But I will soon upgrade to 8G just for the fun of it

I'm a newbie too and I would like to add this about the RAM question:

If you compare (for example), 8MB of RAM in the PC and then the same size RAM in the MAC, the Mac RAM is more efficiently used due to the Apple architecture. Apple built hardware running Apple software doesn't have to worry about 3rd party configurations and can get more out of the equivalent RAM than a PC can.
And as for monitors being monitors..they all look good until you do a side by side comparison with a mac screen vs a 3rd party monitor!
I have always ran dual monitor setups with my PC and still have a second monitor (mostly for Photoshop) with my imac and it is almost sad to see how poor the quality on my 19" Acer is compared to my 20" imac. Words don't describe the differences.
My imac is less than a half a year old, but I immediately came to the conclusion that there is no way in **** I will ever go back to the frustrations of a PC in this mortal lifetime.

@randoo53, I'm going to have disagree on the RAM part of your argument. Yes, apple builds the hardware that their OS runs on, but it's just a Intel based architecture, nothing so Apple specific. I think EVERY OS can make good use of any amount of RAM that you have. Different OS' have different way of dealing with it, but to say that Mac OS is going to do a better job with available RAM as opposed to another OS (even on Mac) isn't accurate..

Regards

Raz0rEdge said:

@randoo53, I'm going to have disagree on the RAM part of your argument. Yes, apple builds the hardware that their OS runs on, but it's just a Intel based architecture, nothing so Apple specific. I think EVERY OS can make good use of any amount of RAM that you have. Different OS' have different way of dealing with it, but to say that Mac OS is going to do a better job with available RAM as opposed to another OS (even on Mac) isn't accurate..

Regards

Click to expand...

Good point Razor, mea culpa. I'm not a computer expert but I DID stay at a Holiday Inn last night!
Question for you though: Assuming all software (including the OS) runs through the RAM, if my 4Gig of Ram doesn't have to deal with all of the 3rd party manufacturers protocol that a standard PC does (aren't most PCs built via various parts assembled to allow for different brands talking to each other?) wouldn't that make my 4Gig slightly more efficient as it processes comparable software on each rig? (this assumes all numbers for the mac and PC to be the same like RAM, processor speed, same program running, etc)
I ask because I truly don't know but just assumed that to be the case. (after the fact I now realize what we can do with the word assume too)

Macs just have that sweet spot..Ive got old G3 Macs that load a web page faster than an HP Pc with 2.8 G cpu.

If both computers cost about the same, then what's to lose? Both processors clock at the same rate (unless you upgrade the iMacs processor to 3.33 GHz, both have 8GB RAM (I'm guessing after you upgraded that as well).

But only one can run OS X and Windows 7.

The other does not. I think it's apparent what the better choice is here...

As for speed, I have done fine with my 2.1 GHz 1GB RAM MacBook for a little over a year. Yes, rendering video and processor intensive software will get my fans running high, but she gets the job done.

Just my two cents.

Thanks for responses so far. I will be using the MAC \ PC for home use but also photo editing running Photoshop, Lightroom and Nikon software. All are RAM hungry. Since this will be the machine I use for 5 - 7 years I want to make sure it is configured to last. I know macs have been the prefered choice of graphics folks for years but pc's have gotten better at this task. I am just trying to decide if what I preceive as a near end of life processor will still be viable 3 -5 years down the road as opposed to the newest available processor. I know technology changes quickly and today's processors will be obsolete in a year or two I just don't want to be farther behind the curve than I have to be. I really like macs and the os it's just the inability to get a faster \ newer processor in a screen size that works for me that I am having a hard time with. I look forward to other coments and suggestions.

randoo53 said:

Good point Razor, mea culpa. I'm not a computer expert but I DID stay at a Holiday Inn last night!
Question for you though: Assuming all software (including the OS) runs through the RAM, if my 4Gig of Ram doesn't have to deal with all of the 3rd party manufacturers protocol that a standard PC does (aren't most PCs built via various parts assembled to allow for different brands talking to each other?) wouldn't that make my 4Gig slightly more efficient as it processes comparable software on each rig? (this assumes all numbers for the mac and PC to be the same like RAM, processor speed, same program running, etc)
I ask because I truly don't know but just assumed that to be the case. (after the fact I now realize what we can do with the word assume too)

Click to expand...

The complexities of dealing with any and all available RAM is left to the OS that's running. So the available physical RAM is managed by the OS to divy out the various applications that request their use. As and when the available RAM begins to run low, different OS' have different schemes of dealing with that, but at the most basic level this usually involves some sort of a physical SWAP area where parts of RAM are sent while that RAM space is made available to incoming applications..

In Windows, this is the pagefile.sys that's sitting at the root of your system partition. In Linux this is a separate partition formatted as SWAP, (I'm too new to Macs to comment on this paging scheme), and Mac must have something similar..

The true differences and benefits here comes in how aggressive the OS is using available RAM. Linux (and perhaps other Unix) OS tends to try to use as much of the physical RAM as possible before attempting to augment with "virtual RAM", whereas Windows tries to keep a good cushion of physical RAM and ends up using "virtual RAM" a little faster, and if you are using a very memory intensive application, this can be detrimental.

The VM (Virtual Manager) that deals with RAM in all of it's glory is worthy of a full book being written about it, and I definitely can't do it enough justice here..

Suffice is to say that the more RAM you have, the less you'll need to use "virtual RAM" (which is usually a file/partition on the HD) and the performance of your applications is good, the less RAM you have, the more swapping you're doing and if you have a slow HD, this brings down the overall performance..

Regards

trave1guy said:

Thanks for responses so far. I will be using the MAC \ PC for home use but also photo editing running Photoshop, Lightroom and Nikon software. All are RAM hungry. Since this will be the machine I use for 5 - 7 years I want to make sure it is configured to last......

Click to expand...

You will have more than necessary speed with 3.33 and 8gigs of ram. I run all of the adobe suite software and interactive 3d modeling and rendering programs every day. I have 3.06 ghz processor with 4 gigs of ram, and all of my programs run quickly.

Hi, I'm a newbie too and I've been drooling over the new iMac with the high resolution 27" screen. I currently have a PC laptop and am looking for a desktop computer with a large screen to use at home, mainly for multimedia task like editing photos, video etc. I have never bought a Mac before. My only Apple product is my iPod. I will like to know :

1) Can I use the 27" iMac as an external monitor for my PC laptop?

2) Can I port over files by using a USB key? Will the Mac read files like photos, movies, MP3s directly copied out from my PC automatically or I need to do some conversion or reformat? Vice versa, can files copied out from a Mac be able to be read in a PC?

3) Can I port over my existing iTunes library from my laptop to the Mac?

4) Can I open microsoft office files in a Mac for viewing if not editing?

5) Does the Mac comes with wired and wireless internet support build in? Any special setup to connect the Mac to the internet?

6) Does the Mac also support other view file format like WMV, Divx, Real or it only can support quicktime?

7) Is it possible to run Windows programs ( simple ones ) directly from the Mac?

8) Is it true that unlike Windows PC, a Mac never hangs?


Sorry if some questions appear rather dumb since I've very new to the Mac platform. Thanks in advance!

ben123 said:

Hi, I'm a newbie too and I've been drooling over the new iMac with the high resolution 27" screen. I currently have a PC laptop and am looking for a desktop computer with a large screen to use at home, mainly for multimedia task like editing photos, video etc. I have never bought a Mac before. My only Apple product is my iPod. I will like to know :

1) Can I use the 27" iMac as an external monitor for my PC laptop?

Click to expand...

No, it cannot be used as an external monitor.

2) Can I port over files by using a USB key? Will the Mac read files like photos, movies, MP3s directly copied out from my PC automatically or I need to do some conversion or reformat? Vice versa, can files copied out from a Mac be able to be read in a PC?

Click to expand...

Yes, the file format doesn't change between the Mac and PC, so all of your pictures (JPG, PNG) and videos (AVI, WMV, MOV, MKV) are supported.

3) Can I port over my existing iTunes library from my laptop to the Mac?

Click to expand...

Absolutely, there are numerous posts on the Internet that deal with migrating iTunes libraries across Macs and from PC to Mac.

4) Can I open microsoft office files in a Mac for viewing if not editing?

Click to expand...

I believe you're going to need Office for OSX to do the Office files justice, but you can always use OpenOffice on Mac for free.

5) Does the Mac comes with wired and wireless internet support build in? Any special setup to connect the Mac to the internet?

Click to expand...

Yes and yes. Nothing special, for the wired connection connect a RJ45 cable and off you go. For the Wireless, enable it and enter your WEP/WPA key..

6) Does the Mac also support other view file format like WMV, Divx, Real or it only can support quicktime?

Click to expand...

Yes, you can use VLC to play more of those formats..not sure about Real though..

7) Is it possible to run Windows programs ( simple ones ) directly from the Mac?

Click to expand...

Not natively no. You can use Crossover for some applications, or you can run Windows within a virtual environment through VMWare, VirtualBox and run your applications..

8) Is it true that unlike Windows PC, a Mac never hangs?

Click to expand...

Most definitely yes..

Regards

Hi Raz0rEdge, thanks for the reply. Just one more question, can I right click on Mac? I noticed the mouse has no buttons.