Which one's for me

I have found this site a great resource.. I have searched and found answers to many questions and would just like to say that you here are all very helpfull


I do have one question... I will be buying a Mac at the end of January and will have around £3000 to spend... I will also be getting XP so that I can use some windows only apps (using Bootcamp), I would get Vista but im not sure it would work...

Anyway im wondering what I should get, im looking for a desktop. At the moment im looking at a top configured iMac which will be about £2000 (not going to get 500gb harddrive as it seems a waste, I can just get external if I ever need it).

Though the Mac Pro I could also get nicely configured. Im buying in the UK so if you want to see the price ranges go here

• Games in Windows XP* (nothing top of the range just some 2+ year old ones)
• Photoshop
• Audio Editing (Cubase or equivalent)
• Web Editing
• Multiple entertainment applications (iTunes, iPhoto, Safari and other apps at once)

*The most demanding game I would want to use would be Counter Strike Source, however I will keep my windows desktop so its not a key feature.

Obviously some applications would run under Rosseta but I would like reasonable performance. Preferably faster than the 43+ second load time I get opening iTunes on Windows....(IE is quite fast loading at only 26 seconds ).

If you have any recommended specs I should config too and which Mac you think is best for me please do tell


And sorry for my rambling post.

well it seems that you are basicaly floating on the line of me recommending a top end imac or any macpro that you'd want to purchase

i suggst you really find out how 'intense' of audio editing and gaming you expect to do and then go from there. if y ou are going to spend 90 percent of your time doing audio editing then i would suggest you go for a mac pro but if it is going to be occasional editing i would go with the imac and deal with a slightly slower processing of files. remember, sleep time equals render time

re: HD space, you can never have too much hd space, i had 750 gigs at one point and had it all filled, im down to 500 and am scraping for free space on occasion

hope i have helped a bit
-chris

I looked at prices and I would say get the mac pro bottom configuration with 500gb hard drive (will explain why soon) and the 23 inch cinema display and then put all your exra money into 3rd party ram.

I say this because it will last you the longest and you will be happy with it for a long time to come, its also the most upgradable.
Ok, reason why i said 500gb. I have 1tb and I find myself like coach_z said, scrapping for space, and I trying to get all my projects done so I can get the off, but I know once I do that, and put another project on I am going to be down to no space again, which is why I am getting more hard drives, but thats besides the point.

Thankyou for the suggestions, I would agree about the Hard Drive actually. I currently store all my audio, video and CGI projects on DVDs which is not very convienient, especially when I lose the disk, which has happened a few times.

I currently find that my PC lags when I do intense design on programs especially ones where im working with 3D in one view pane and editing functions etc in another. I often need audio and 3D editing software both up which I can do with a struggle at the moment.

So the Mac Pro looks ideal. Thankyou for the advice.

Would you suggest that Dells displays are as good as Apple's?

PowerBookG4 said:

I looked at prices and I would say get the mac pro bottom configuration with 500gb hard drive (will explain why soon) and the 23 inch cinema display and then put all your exra money into 3rd party ram.

I say this because it will last you the longest and you will be happy with it for a long time to come, its also the most upgradable.
Ok, reason why i said 500gb. I have 1tb and I find myself like coach_z said, scrapping for space, and I trying to get all my projects done so I can get the off, but I know once I do that, and put another project on I am going to be down to no space again, which is why I am getting more hard drives, but thats besides the point.

Click to expand...

Wow What are you putting on your HDDs that take up so much space? HD video? I have 160GB and that is plenty for me at the moment. lol.