Should I buy a Mac? Which One?

I've been an avid pc user for years, I'm 21 now, in college. I have a pretty powerful PC. Here's the rig:

Antec SLK3000B
Seasonic S12-430 PSU
Chaintech VFN4 Ultra w/NB47J
AMD Athlon 64 3000+
evga GeForce 6600 GT w/VF700CU
2gb Corsiar Value Select DDR 400 RAM
Hauppage WinTV PVR 250
Dell 2005 FPW

Now I almost made the switch this summer, but didn't and ended up building this pc. Now I was thinking of either selling this pc and buying some sort of PowerMac on ebay or just buying a Mac Mini brand new with edu discount at Apple. I am a Communication student who is getting a Digital Media Certificate. This means I am doing classes in video editing, sound, photo all the time. With an emphasis on audio mixing and recording. Is a Mac for me? I'd say I'd rather probably buy a more powerful mac, but don't know if it's in my budget unless I can sell this rig, which prolly won't happen. Off to class for the day, I'll check back here around 12 central time. Thanks for your advice

I would have to say get your self a mac, the software you can get for what you are doing is really good, there is final cut pro, and logic... photoshop you can put on any computer but i personally like the feel of it on the mac. I would say get a more powerful mac then the mini with the work you will be doing.. the iMac if you can not sell your current computer and the powermac if you can. You should read this thread.. http://www.mac-forums.com/forums/showthread.php?t=21613

Since you already have a poweful enough system, that seems to be working just fine for you, I see no reason for you to replace it. A "switch" would be a poor choice for you at this time IMO. Especially since you just spent the time and money on the new system you have now.

If you are interested in getting a Mac, I would suggest getting a used or refurbished older model to get used to the Mac OS first.
If you find that you like the Mac enough, then you can think about a better grade system.

get a mac

hi

if i was doing what your doing as a course of study then a
mac would be my only choice - no contest with any power pc.

any mac with enough ram to run tiger is the business.

kind regards

Depends on what software you school uses, if the labs their are PC, then consider the switch to the PowerMac. I wouldn't go from that system to a mini, you would be disappointed with the speed difference.

Refurb PowerMac from Apple are about the best deal you'll find on PowerMacs, last I checked you could get a dual 1.8Ghz for $1,500US

For what you are doing...a mac has much better software. But there is nothing wrong with your pc. I would get a basic mac. If u need a laptop get a basic iBook. Otherwise get an eMac or Mac Mini.

wow....for awhile there i thought i had written that post...

i'm a 21 year old college student. majoring in communications {mass media, emphasis in journalism} who just switched to mac in april. bought ipod mini in december and bought a powerbook for birthday in april. i had to read your entire post before i was like....wow thats not me...i didn't start this post... :yinyang:

latisha1903 said:

wow....for awhile there i thought i had written that post...

i'm a 21 year old college student. majoring in communications {mass media, emphasis in journalism} who just switched to mac in april. bought ipod mini in december and bought a powerbook for birthday in april. i had to read your entire post before i was like....wow thats not me...i didn't start this post... :yinyang:

Click to expand...

lol, that is kind of funny you didn't realize that you didn't start the post.

so i have gone back and forth, between getting the iMac, Single G5 or Dual G5. I'd rather not get the iMac since I have the Dell 2005FPW and it's sweet! But I don't really want to get rid of it nor do I want to screen span, nor do i have the desk space to do all of that! The thing is, I'd rather not spend upwards of $2000 on this computer, when I already have a good PC. I was however thinking about a little under $1500, maybe more like $1299. Now, for what I'm doing, do I really NEED the Dual G5? Or will the single work fine? Also, I'm debating that I could just stick with the PC and get the AMD X2 for around $400 and have a machine better than any of those. But I'd be running Windows, which I have became so bored on. I'm just looking for something different, like OS X. Now with Vista coming in the next year however, maybe I should stick? As you can tell, I'm really confused!! Help me out! Please. I'd also like to get this done within the next two weeks or so, I know the Paris thing is end of Sept, but I don't know if I want to wait until then. But if I can wait for the Vista, I can wait for this. I don't really know. UGH!

Go for it.. get the dual G5 and you will be happy with it.. even though its a tad out of your price range you will have it for a much longer time then the AMD even though AMD is a good company the mac will outlast it.

First find out what your school is using. Both hardware and software. You may have to contact the actual instructors. Good luck on that one.

Being a student usually gets you great discounts on software and hardware. So, look into those shopping options.

As far as horse power, even a Mac mini and an eMac can handle video editing, but you want to keep your Dell monitor so that only leaves you two choices. A Mac mini or a G5 tower. Compared to your current system the mini may feel underpowered.

Consider a G5 tower refurb. The single 1.8GHz is now available for $1299. For an additional $200 you can get a dual 1.8GHz. The video cards support Core Image graphics. See this page; http://docs.info.apple.com/article.html?artnum=301347

That page isn't perfect for accurracy, as it is missing the ATI 9800 Pro card for some reason.

If the software the school uses is cross platform, then great. But then why change platforms now. You also have much more flexibility to upgrade the AMD box. You can't simply go out and buy a new G5 CPU for a Mac or order the latest motherboard. On the other hand Macs rule the audio recording industry and have made major inroads in video editing.

One final bonus. There are currently NO viruses for the Mac OS and as far as I know, NO other malware in the wild either. I'd be afraid to plug a Windows box into a school network.

As for Windows Vista. I'd hold off on that until it is known how well it works with your software at the time. Odds are there will be major pains as Microsoft is trying to tighten things up, which usually means the software vendors have to fix problems. So don't expect to actually upgrade until sometine in 2007! Well if MS actually releases it in 2006.

Remember. Any extra cash you spend on computers is money that can't be spent on beer! :biohazard

Good luck.