Who uses a Mac? Looking to buy, need opinions

keith204

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Here is the iMac I have my eyes on. It's $1799.

2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
640GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256MB

How does this handle the Adobe suite? I'm worried that if I get this, I'll want to soon upgrade to a Mac Pro, and so on.

Does anybody have experience with Macs and 5DII video files?
 
mine is close to that 512mb vid card though (i don't remember it being that much more) 2.8ghz runs cs4 great for photo editing. sorry no experience with vid.
 
Should work just fine, one big thing with Mac's ( over PC's ) is the OS is a lot leaner.

I can run Leopard and CS3 happily enough on my 800mhz Power PC mac, (with 512mb ram atm - so needs expanding in that dept though - but CS3 works ) no chance of running the same on a 800Mhz PC running Vista..... despite Vista's minimum specs stating 800mhz and Leopards stating 867mhz minimum.

I also use a Mac Book with CS3 (2.1 core duo) and it runs fine, as do the iMac's at University ( not sure their spec but they're at least 18 months old ) also running CS3.
 
I think your iMac setup will work pretty well. The keys for photo editing are lots of RAM, a decent processor, and a good screen -- which you'll have. You might want to upgrade the graphics card with more memory -- more and more things are using the graphics card for unusual purposes (the OS X interface uses it for all kinds of things), so having a beefy graphics card really helps.
 
Here is the iMac I have my eyes on. It's $1799.

2.93GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
640GB Serial ATA Drive
NVIDIA GeForce GT 120 256MB

?

Well I have a Macbook Pro and I can tell you that yours will kick the sh!t out of mine in performance. Mine is a 2.4 GHz intel core 2 duo. I only have 2 gb of ram and 160 gb serial ata drive. it comes with the nvidia card too.

My comp is super fast and I use a lot of graphic intensive programs (architecture) including CS3. I'm always in photoshop sketchup indesign illustrator - sometimes all at the same time. My computer takes it all and barely flinches. I run windows off bootcamp too and it runs like a charm. Autocad and ArcMap have never caused me any problems (and ArcMap loves crashing computers).

I think you will be very content for quite some time with that set up. Mine is 2 years young right now and other than battery life declining, i've not had any issues.
 
Macs are overpriced pieces of junk. The OS is nice, but to buy it is way overpriced. You can get WAY more bang for buck on a PC with that budget... Actually come to think of it, my current PC has more hardware bang that that, and it cost $1,000 ish
Intel Quad Core Q9300, 4GB memory, NVidia 9800 GTX+

To get best bang from buck, build a custom computer (windows)
 
For photo editing the imac you're looking at will be fine. Most of the artists at my work use them on a daily basis just fine. (t-shirt graphics) I'm still using a dual 1.25GHz G4 at home. It's still going fine with up-to-date software and doesn't have any issues processing my d200 raw files. That's a 6 year old computer.. Granted, if I were processing 5dMkII files, I might consider an upgrade..

Macs are overpriced pieces of junk. The OS is nice, but to buy it is way overpriced. You can get WAY more bang for buck on a PC with that budget... Actually come to think of it, my current PC has more hardware bang that that, and it cost $1,000 ish
Intel Quad Core Q9300, 4GB memory, NVidia 9800 GTX+

To get best bang from buck, build a custom computer (windows)

But then you'd have to use windows? who'd wanna do that..
 
I have the 2.4GHz, 2gigs DDR3, GeForce 9400M+9600MGT 256MB MacBook Pro and it runs 5D and 5DMKII files on CS4 very well with little to no performance issue and I edit full res images. I am new to OS X Leopard but proficient with XP and Vista and I must say, Leopard is such a pleasure to use. Windows just didn't suit me at all and Vista sucked, imo. Start up time in over 26 seconds and internet/program ready blew my mind. My 2yr old Vaio took around 2-3 minutes just on startup and an extra 2 to finally use it.

Macs are pricey though and you can definitely build an equal or better system for the same price but you're still dealing with Windows. Unless you know a lil bit of coding and install Leopard ;)
 
Macs are overpriced pieces of junk. The OS is nice, but to buy it is way overpriced. You can get WAY more bang for buck on a PC with that budget... Actually come to think of it, my current PC has more hardware bang that that, and it cost $1,000 ish
Intel Quad Core Q9300, 4GB memory, NVidia 9800 GTX+

To get best bang from buck, build a custom computer (windows)

you're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, you could get better specs, but that won't neccesarily translate into better performance than a lower spec mac because Windows is a system hog and osx is a really lean OS with respect to system usage.
 
You should be fine with that setup. I am using OSX leapard on my 2.16 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo, but I did upgrade to 3 GB RAM, I just noticed I have a 128mb Video Card and it still works like a champ. I run CS3 all day while I work on some other stuff in LOGIC and there is definitely no lag.
 
Macs are overpriced pieces of junk. The OS is nice, but to buy it is way overpriced. You can get WAY more bang for buck on a PC with that budget... Actually come to think of it, my current PC has more hardware bang that that, and it cost $1,000 ish
Intel Quad Core Q9300, 4GB memory, NVidia 9800 GTX+

To get best bang from buck, build a custom computer (windows)

I have built myself plenty of custom computers, in fact it's a hobby. But I am ready for a new phase in my life. One in which I won't have to mess with all the crap that goes along with Windows. I've argued the same thing you are for quite some time - but it's time to move on.

how many times have we heard that argument on each and every mac thread?

Sorry, you get what you pay for.

Yeah ditto - we don't need another mac vs PC thread here.

After reading on some of the forums at MacRumors, the guys have signatures that list Mac Pros with 32gb RAM, etc etc etc. It's unbelievable. I'd simply like a computer that doesn't get into my way when doing photo management/editing. The last thing I want is to spend $1800 on a iMac that doesn't do that, and forces me into the Mac Pro series.

Thanks guys.
 
Macs are overpriced pieces of junk. The OS is nice, but to buy it is way overpriced. You can get WAY more bang for buck on a PC with that budget... Actually come to think of it, my current PC has more hardware bang that that, and it cost $1,000 ish
Intel Quad Core Q9300, 4GB memory, NVidia 9800 GTX+

To get best bang from buck, build a custom computer (windows)

Hater.

(Typed on a Mac Pro)

That is a good setup, but like others said, checkinto a better GFX card.
 
For photo editing the imac you're looking at will be fine. Most of the artists at my work use them on a daily basis just fine. (t-shirt graphics) I'm still using a dual 1.25GHz G4 at home. It's still going fine with up-to-date software and doesn't have any issues processing my d200 raw files. That's a 6 year old computer.. Granted, if I were processing 5dMkII files, I might consider an upgrade..
Ditto for me, well almost, I have a 800Mhz G4 Power Mac. I need to bump up the Ram as it's currently only got 512mb but otherwise it's fine for doing PS work using the latest Mac OS (leopard) and CS3 ( don't have 4 ).


But then you'd have to use windows? who'd wanna do that..

HAHA true enough, ironically I'd heard W7 will have some Macesque features. Don't get me wrong though, XP isn't a terrible OS and some parts of Apples lineup I don't like ( the crappy iPhone and the single button mice for instance ) but some things are mighty impressive such as the OS.
 
you're comparing apples to oranges. Yes, you could get better specs, but that won't neccesarily translate into better performance than a lower spec mac because Windows is a system hog and osx is a really lean OS with respect to system usage.

Exactly :) - Mac's may cost more.. but they also last a lot longer before needing to be replaced.
 

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