Hi, I'm thinking about switching to Mac. If I get straight A's, I get the Mac Mini. But, if I don't want that, I could go the extra mile, and get any computer $1,500 and below. I was looking at the Macbook. So, mac users, what mac do you use? What do you prefer? Are you happy with your mac?

P.S. I won't be customizing any of the Macs, if I get one. I want something worth the money, I'll answer any questions, by the way. I will be getting Airport Express, if I get a Macbook.

Why do you want to get a Mac? If Windows works, I wouldn't change. Windows in my opinion is superior to Mac, and I wouldn't switch if I was paid to.

If your money conscious, then Mac is not an option. Macs cost a lot more than PCs - which isn't necessarily a bad thing, but something to bear in mind.

Why get an Airport Express? Why not use your current router (guessing you have one).

I like love the new features in Leopard, I can run Vista on Leopard, meaning, I can play any games. Windows crashes on me, a lot. Plus, I don't think Windows is good for most graphic artists.

Oh, and Airport Express. That's for if, I travel with a Macbook.

its has build in wifi so you don't need that.

I have a macbook pro. Not much to complain about.

I did buy extra ram for it.

Ok, what's the RAM on it?

it came with 2x512 DDR 2 667 MHz
I upgraded to 2x 1G DDR 2 667 MHz

It's a first gen intel, new ones go to 4G

Ok, so I would be good with 1GB RAM?

I recommend an iMac, depends qhat you want the mac for as well.
Windows is a good all rounder.
However Mac specializes in media

Just graphics (for me) and some gaming (for my brother).

I wouldn't reccomend a Mac for gaming personally. You could run Windows on it, but then why buy the Mac in the first place if your gonna run Windows?

I'm not, I just can, if I want to play the games only available for windows.

Linux is one of the best OS's for movie makers (pixar use it and many others). Windows is just as capable with media work if not more capable then a mac. Now that that's cleared up . You asked a question and that's which mac should you get?

I would recommend either the iMac or Macbook. Personally i believe a macbook would serve you well, Apple have nice mobile technology and they employ it fairly well (even if it is overpriced) You mentioned using boot camp for gaming. The best kitted Mac pro scores 1/2 the synthetic benchies as my pc and is about $1300 more in terms of gaming that is. And also gaming on a mac isn't very good either, even if you can run windows you wouldn't be able to play any of the latest games. Thats why i'd recommend a macbook - you won't have trouble running lower games and you'd be able to carry it about.

P.S. You could run OSX on a PC but if your not in for DIY don't bother.

What about games like, COD, or Halo 2? Would those work? I saw a video of the Mac Mini running pretty well with COD.

Its common to drop the resolution / eye candy on macs to get them to run. and COD? A mac mini won't be able to run COD4 thats for sure. An iMac doesn't meet the recommended specs of Halo 2 But it should be able to run it at a low resolution. Have a look at this article to get yourself a better idea of mac gaming.

The iMac would be the best solution for gaming over the macbook or mac mini

Ok, thanks for the advice! But what kind of Macbook? (Don't even think about saying "Macbook Air" I know it's bad.) The White Macbook? The Black one?

I don't think you'd come close to playing Halo 2 with a macbook. What other games do you plan on playing? If your willing to sacrifice gaming then any of them would do (the black one just has a bigger hard drive (lol irony)).

I really find it hard to recommend a mac, (especially since there charging $400 for 4GB of ram). So if your not too set on Mac would you consider over viewing your budget and needs? For $1.5k you could probably get a better computer then me

The 13" 2.1ghz Macbook seems the most reasonable, what are your needs for this mac anyway?

Well, I'm not sure if my brother will be on it much. But Macbooks will be good when you make graphics? Fast internet browsing? Good HTML editing? Oh! And what about downloading speeds for music?

Graphics - Not mac dependent
HTML editing - Windows (in my opinion, but i'm a .net noob still dreamweaver is the same on both)
Downloading Music speeds - ISP dependant

So none of them points towards a Mac? Of course there's personally preference if you really want a Mac then either an iMac/Macbook would do fine. The change there would be sacrifice mobility for power and screensize

Actually it might be worth finding Knight Haleth hes usually the resident mac guy.

All of them will be the same or better on Windows.

Acid, your too fast.

But I still love being in touch with my friends, I like Leopard's iChat better than any other messenger. Another thing about Leopard, is all the built in programs, so I could organize.

As I said if you really like/Love a mac then you can go for it. A hackintosh would actually be perfect for you but are you up for DIY . I'm guessing you have a PC right now? If it can play your games and do enough for you then maybe you should consider a macbook at least that way you'll have the bonus of mobility while you can go back to your PC and play games.

However, do you need mobility? Or do you need Power and a larger monitor?

I would explore alternatives first,

P.S. Stobbo i'm blatantly hitting F5 just to beat you

Actually the MacBook Air is pretty good. I personally like the design though hate some of the things Apple doesn't include. The Air is a good choice for a business traveler--it's not a good choice for a student. Quite simply--I personally love the Asus Eee PC, which runs Linux and includes full support for Windows XP and Windows Vista, though 32-bit variations only.

I'm going to recommend a non-Mac for a few reasons, not including personal preference and biased reviews. I would say look at Dell's and Gateway's laptops. Forget any Acer laptops, they're generally too low quality unless the budget demands it.

By the way--a Hackintosh is pretty much illegal--but it does work. I'm not going to give any instructions or similar because we don't talk about illegal software around this forum.

Just more mobility and power.

Windows does all the same. If you like Mac more because of personal preference, then fair enough. But both are operating systems and offer pretty much the same things.



Well please stop.

I run mac it almost never freezes up it comes with a lot of free programs from apple unlike on windows you have to buy software half the time. IT takes less then half the time for a mac to boot up then a windows machine. It's interface is really sleek.

Key = price performance, without getting into a debate i don't see a mac booting faster then 5-8secs (around my PC boot time into linux) if i ran raid0 that would improve which i'll fairly soon. Buy a mac if you want a mac, not for the whole debate issue which drives me insane tbh XD

Anyway there is a good point there, whatever your going to buy you'll need to customize it with the software you need so take that into account when you look at buying (if your into photo editing photoshop is a tad pricey)

P.s. Mobility OR power, Desktops usually come with more power (as is the case of the iMac) for media editing you may appreciate the extra speed and more workspace from the 20" monitor

I highly recommend Mac, rather than Windows. I've got the new (well, new, kinda) iMac, with 2.00GHz Core 2 Duo and 1GB of RAM. It runs smoothly. However, on a Macbook, the graphics don't seem to run as good as on an iMac to me (we just got a new Macbook so I had the chance to try it), so I recommend you take 2GB of RAM instead, to make stuff a little more fluent. It helps a lot when multitasking, too.

The new Macbooks arrived a few weeks ago, they're faster than the previous ones. I recommend the 2.1GHz Macbook with 2GB of RAM (you can choose this option at the Apple Store). As Drolleke said, AirPort Extreme isn't needed because it's already built-in. If you're going to do work for school on it, you could consider buying iWork '08 as well. It's very easy to use and it has some great tools. It costs $79.

This would cost you $1278.00 (including iWork), I think (you live in California right?).

If you like, you could also buy an Apple Remote for stuff like iTunes and Front Row to play movies and DVDs. That'd be an other $19.

If you're on the move a lot, the trackpad can be really useful, but if you'd use it mainly at home you could connect a USB/Bluetooth mouse. Most USB mice are supported on Mac, so if you still have a mouse from the last few years lying around, it'll probably work.

Hope this helps a bit.

~Knight Haleth

I would actually recommend a second hand mac. I'm currently using an aluminium macbook G4, which runs tiger, but still has iChat and all.
I big on the buy-used-macs thing since I favor macs and yet still agree they are overpriced.

I beg to differ.
There are many more.

Final Cut Pro is OWNAGE. I used to be stuck with WMM before my mac days, and when I bought my second hand mac, the person had the latest version of Final Cut Pro. Most movie making people use final cut.

Media work, DreamWorks and Pixar both use Linux setups to create there animations, Why? Because its open source so the community can contribute towards methods. I'm just stating what the professionals use - and trying to dispel the "macs are for media" rumor that corrupts peoples decisions. Anyway i won't get into this debate since its pointless and doesn't aid this topic.

If you want a mac - buy a mac, they have great memory management better default security and user friendliness.

Dev, PM and I'll help you out with any questions. I own around 5 Macs and no windows computer. I run Windows XP on one of them and have many inter-apple-company connections. So anything Mac... I am your guy!

Thank you! That clears up about most of it. I added the Apple Remote to that price. $1,391.03 (Including Tax)

I'll ask for this to be closed now.

Thanks!