Looking for my 1st Mac

[smitch6]

if funds afford Justin always go for the higher spec
that way you can add more ram and a bigger HD

with the low spec ones ram is very limited etc
my macbook i tried to put 4Gb of ram in and it wudn't work so i had to settle on 3Gb

so it defo pays to go for higher spec esp with using software and all the images we have with websites etc on our pc's

[swimwivsquid]

That G5 looks a good price but see how much extra ram would cost.The person selling looks like a dealer so they may put some more in for you at a small price. Certainly worth asking. The great thing about these towers as opposed to a laptop is that they are expandable.

[photoscape]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/M9590-APPLE-G5-PO ... 252wt_1178


i always watch this guy on ebay scrumpy macs, has has had them as low as 225 for a dual core, you can pick single core up for around £170 for a 1.8 dual core you can get for 195 - 220 if you shop around on ebay and dont rush

[Paul Richards]

Before you spend your hard earned money Justin, I was PC then Mac and now run both due to certain software packages only working on PCs. Will not use emulators on Macs (so PC software can work on Macs}.When I started with sublimation printing was advised Ricoh, fine, but was told to use PCs rather than Macs. So I use a PC laptop just for the running of templates and Photoshop CS4.Running CS4 due to using less memory than CS5.
My workflow is done on a Imac using CS5 so images and artwork can fit the templates, then transfered via a memory stick to the PC.
Have you thought about getting Educational discount on Macs? If you have access to a student card you can make a substancial saving on a new macs, and all macs sold this way come with a free 3 year warranty

[Justin]

I repaired my old PC (see other thread!) and was careful over which mobo I installed. All components are now compatible as per Hackintosh set-up so at some stage I'm going to have a go installing Mac OS.

I'm not a Mac man, PC's running through my veins. I just wanted to give it a go as I'd hoped to get some work locally and it would have been useful to get the experience, this is unlikely now but I'll still have a go out of interest

[Draner]

Second hand is definitely a good way to get into Macs but I would recommend spending a bit more and getting one with an Intel processor. The G4 and G5s work perfectly but more and more software is now requiring the Intel chipset, having said that Photoshop CS4 with run on G5s and Intel.

Im currently running an iMac 2.8 GHz Core 2 Duo with 4GB RAM OS X 10.6.7 and its more then powerful enough to run photoshop CS4 Extended and some more.

The one down side is that there is less support for Macs with it comes to sublimation, For example Powerdriver is Windows only so you have to download ICC profiles for printing but I feel the pros far outweigh the cons.

[bms]

The one down side is that there is less support for Macs with it comes to sublimation

Maybe not - you may find you become the fountain of all knowledge!

[Justin]

Resurrecting an old'ish thread here.....

Getting a bit fed up of WinXP not being stable, slowing down and so on. Wondering if running a Mac by the side may convert me. i don't want to spend a fortune but have been looking at the G5's on eBay, £250-£300 seems ok. Would need monitor (guess I can use existing) kboard and mouse. Reading back through the posts regardind comments to go for a newer one but I don't think funds would allow.

Probably only run CS3 and a couple of other things to see how I get on so don't need really high spec, just something decent with a good chunk of RAM maybe? Looked at Scrumpjack on eBay as suggested, less than £250 for a dual 2 but not sure about 64Mb graphics, how would this compare to a decent spec PC?

Part of me still wonders if throwing the money at improving my PC may help but it'll still be running Windows.

Anyhow, appreciate any further advice at this stage. Difficult to make the move completely as I want to keep using PC for sublimation, CoralDraw etc.

[Ian M]

Justin, I seem to be having the same kind of problems running Windows Vista. I keep getting told by various 'experts' to move onto Windows 7 as it is much more stable.

[John G]

Hate win 7 - just cannot get used to not having outlook express too!