I'm thinking of making the switch to Mac. When I installed XP on my 1 gig AMD PC last month, I spent an hour upgrading and then putting on all the stinking patches required - knowing there will be more to come. I'm also tired of "IT" and the MCSE crap, so I'm currently going to school for Electrical or Computer Engineering and I really want to get into Unix, but honestly I am not impressed with Linux. I am impressed with OS x and Garageband! Time to take out that guitar I havn't touched in months. Anyway, money is an issue. I want a G5 dual 2.0 bad, but wow - the price. I'm looking at the 1.6 ( the low end G5). Be honest folks, how many of you actually have a 1.6? How many of you are using Garageband with that 1.6? I have heard that Garageband is a CPU and RAM hog. But again, I have only heard this, so be gentle. I'm also tired of upgrading every several years, and so is my wife. So give me some good advice. Thanks in advance. Hank
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Disgruntled IT guy tired of M$
- Thread starter Snowblind
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
I can't speak to your specific issues, as I don't own a G5 or Garageband....yet. 
But I did switch a year and a half ago because I was finally tired of dealing with the daily frustrations of working within the windows world. I currently own a seventeen inch imac 800 running Panther (OS 10.3), and I can tell you that my daily quality of use experience is much better than before. I actually like my computer now, instead of tolerating it. The difference between the Apple user experience and the MS one is truly exceptional. Despite having paid premium for an arguably outdated chip (the G4, even when I purchased it), I wouldn't switch back. My prediction is, if you get an Apple, you will spend a little while figuring out all of its quirks and differences, and then wonder why you stayed away so long.
As a bonus, Apples come with a boatload of software, and most other things needed or wanted can be downloaded as freeware or shareware off the net. I've purchased one program (besides games) since I bought my imac, MS Office, and even that could have been replaced with a free alternative like OpenOffice (which I didn't know about at the time).
P.S. Exposé alone is worth it. I can't wait to see what Apple comes up with next.
Fair warning: if you do buy an Apple, you may be bitten by the bug, and spend way to many hours on rumor sites like Macrumors, looking for information on Apple's latest and greatest, be continually frustrated by inaccurate reports, and then come back for more.
But I did switch a year and a half ago because I was finally tired of dealing with the daily frustrations of working within the windows world. I currently own a seventeen inch imac 800 running Panther (OS 10.3), and I can tell you that my daily quality of use experience is much better than before. I actually like my computer now, instead of tolerating it. The difference between the Apple user experience and the MS one is truly exceptional. Despite having paid premium for an arguably outdated chip (the G4, even when I purchased it), I wouldn't switch back. My prediction is, if you get an Apple, you will spend a little while figuring out all of its quirks and differences, and then wonder why you stayed away so long.As a bonus, Apples come with a boatload of software, and most other things needed or wanted can be downloaded as freeware or shareware off the net. I've purchased one program (besides games) since I bought my imac, MS Office, and even that could have been replaced with a free alternative like OpenOffice (which I didn't know about at the time).
P.S. Exposé alone is worth it. I can't wait to see what Apple comes up with next.
Fair warning: if you do buy an Apple, you may be bitten by the bug, and spend way to many hours on rumor sites like Macrumors, looking for information on Apple's latest and greatest, be continually frustrated by inaccurate reports, and then come back for more.
Go with a dual if you can. I use a dual 867 G4 @work and have a single 1.8 G5 @home. The G5 is faster, but the G4 dual is smoother under heavy load, like rendering a movie.
How does a dual 1.8GHz fit in your budget, IMO it is far better value that the dual 2.0GHz, and is very near as fast. That's what I'd get if I was in the market...unless of course I had money to burn
You've got the same attitude I did when I switched--and what you're being told about the post-switch feelings is 100% accurate.
My primary computer is a dual 1ghz and the only time it's ever slowed down on me was when I was encoding a DVD, ripping a CD, and compressing a large file at the same time. The slowdown wasn't even that bad--but enough to notice.
I don't know how much of a hog Garage Band is. I've used it on my 700mhz G3 iBook and 450mhz G4 Cube without any problems. That is, as long as the iBook was plugged in and the processor was running full power.
G5 is nice, but might be overkill for what you. What do you do with your computer?
My primary computer is a dual 1ghz and the only time it's ever slowed down on me was when I was encoding a DVD, ripping a CD, and compressing a large file at the same time. The slowdown wasn't even that bad--but enough to notice.
I don't know how much of a hog Garage Band is. I've used it on my 700mhz G3 iBook and 450mhz G4 Cube without any problems. That is, as long as the iBook was plugged in and the processor was running full power.
G5 is nice, but might be overkill for what you. What do you do with your computer?
I've played with Garageband on my 466Mhz G4 with 512MB Ram and it works fine. The video only gets choppy if I'm running other big programs in the background. So I doubt you'd have much of a problem with GB with a 1.6 G5. But if you want to avoid constant upgrades, go at least with the dual 1.8 G5, or the top of the line dual 2.0 G5. I bought my G4 when it was a mid-grade computer, and I have only upgraded the RAM and Video card (ok, I did get a bigger HD too!
) I've been using it for close to 4? years now and will probably feel the need to replace it around 2006. Since I'm out of university and have more $$ on hand I'll buy top of the line then and I'm sure I won't even think about needing a replacement until 2012! I know you'll love the dependability of Macs and won't regret making the switch.BTW I use "replace" a lot here, but I don't get rid of my old computers. Heck I used my dad's Mac Plus (bought in late '86) till 1995!
Snowblind, most Linux users will admit it has its downfalls. It's a good OS, but it's an OS made by many, many different people, and it shows in its general roughness around the edges. Also, installing drivers is a pain.
That said, it is a great OS, and you'll find it driving many mission-critical apps all around the world - for a reason! Only the true zealots will fail to admit to its, eh, idiosyncracies!
Andy
I just got a dual 2.0 2 weeks ago (coming from a 17 inch iMac) and well WOW.
Get either the dual 1.8 or the dual 2.0 but if you don't mind it, get it Refurbed. The dual 2.0 was 2399 refurbed and it is AMAZING. Throw in some crucial ram and well....wow
Get either the dual 1.8 or the dual 2.0 but if you don't mind it, get it Refurbed. The dual 2.0 was 2399 refurbed and it is AMAZING. Throw in some crucial ram and well....wow
_pb_boi said:
I totally agree with this statement. I have been using RedHat on my Thinkpad for 2 years (work laptop), and sometimes I ask myself why (then I remember windows and feel much better)
. While Linux has gotten much better when it comes to drivers, compatability, etc, it is still years behind on some areas (would ATI/NVIDIA please develop great video drivers). Good thing I like to spend hours recompiling my kernel to do things...
I have dual 1.25 G4 and 1 Ghz powerbook--768 RAM in each
garageband works perfectly--whatever you get try to include
at least 512 RAM
Also keep in mind that Powermac revisions are right around
the corner, so you may want to wait it out a month or so...
garageband works perfectly--whatever you get try to include
at least 512 RAM
Also keep in mind that Powermac revisions are right around
the corner, so you may want to wait it out a month or so...
Same here with the dual 867. I got it over 1 1/2 years ago and it still runs as good as the day I got it. Garageband did surprisingly well, I had played with it at an Apple Store on the 20" iMac and it was slow there. Probably because those HD's at the store are nearly full. A 1.6Ghz G5 should be enough. Go for it, you won't regret it for years.
Thanks Folks!
I have got some great advice and ideas as well. Especially the education discount advice. I checked and my Community College is on the list! So I can get one for $200 dollars less - that dual 1.8 is looking better and better!
Thanks to everybody for thier input!
Now my next question, mainly to those of you who have switched already. is their any Mac equivelent to M$ Works? My wife loves that program, and the switch would be less of a pain on her if I could find something like that for a Mac. Any Ideas? Also, any good software used to design houses, like the Punch Software series "Professional Home design" would help me out later.
Again, thanks. You have all been a great help. Now if that money tree in my back yard will just bloom soon.........
I have got some great advice and ideas as well. Especially the education discount advice. I checked and my Community College is on the list! So I can get one for $200 dollars less - that dual 1.8 is looking better and better!
Thanks to everybody for thier input!
Now my next question, mainly to those of you who have switched already. is their any Mac equivelent to M$ Works? My wife loves that program, and the switch would be less of a pain on her if I could find something like that for a Mac. Any Ideas? Also, any good software used to design houses, like the Punch Software series "Professional Home design" would help me out later.
Again, thanks. You have all been a great help. Now if that money tree in my back yard will just bloom soon.........
Snowblind said:
isnt M$ works just a lean version of M$ office? just get M$ office for the mac, and remeber that student discount, it helps!! it will be much easier to use than on windows. (though it is one of few programs that crashes on the mac (its made by m$ what else would it be designed to do?) but mac of course handles it much better and office is the only program effected when it does crash)
as for being an IT guy and switching to mac, go for it!!! i worked in IT for 5 years and grew to hate M$ (more than normal) and was thinkign about switching to lunix. but upon learning that OS X is built on a unix core i tried it out and loved it. through the terminal you can still do all of the unix type things you would want to do and with X11 you can port most any unix ap to use on your mac. so yeah, its awsome and much better than any M$ product ever!
RE: home design sofware 4 mac...
http://www.interstudio.net/frameE.html
http://www.architosh.com/news/2003-05/2003c-0527-powercadd6.phtml
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Mac_OS/CAD/
http://www.architosh.com/news/2001-03/2001-0309-phaosx.phtml
Hopefully these links might help...good luck w/ your purchase(s)
http://www.interstudio.net/frameE.html
http://www.architosh.com/news/2003-05/2003c-0527-powercadd6.phtml
http://dmoz.org/Computers/Software/Operating_Systems/Mac_OS/CAD/
http://www.architosh.com/news/2001-03/2001-0309-phaosx.phtml
Hopefully these links might help...good luck w/ your purchase(s)
AppleWorks is what your wife needs!
AppleWorks comes bundled with new Macs and it does most common tasks well. For me, it actually works better than M$ Office since it doesn't try to tell me what I want to do, it just does what I want to do.
I am a seasoned IT guy who made the switch late last year with the Panther and I have no regrets. I also agree with the sentiments of above posters in that Mac OS X experience is so far above Windoze or Linux.
AppleWorks comes bundled with new Macs and it does most common tasks well. For me, it actually works better than M$ Office since it doesn't try to tell me what I want to do, it just does what I want to do.
I am a seasoned IT guy who made the switch late last year with the Panther and I have no regrets. I also agree with the sentiments of above posters in that Mac OS X experience is so far above Windoze or Linux.
Fair warning, you'll be doing some upgrading and patching with mac os X. When Panther came out it was necessary. Sometimes you'll need to more than others. It's the unfortunate truth about software that you'll be constantly upgrading. With a mac that should be quite a bit less often, and you really probably don't have to since it'll run fine without it. Every so often though, there may be a security patch that you really should install, at least to keep up the image that there's no reason to hack macs.
To bring up that tired and beaten to death car comparison (in this case contrast), when an automaker builds a car they try to work out all the flaws in it. They obviously don't get them all, but they have to wait till the next model year to fix them (unless they're quite serious, in which case they issue a recall). With mac os, it's like having all the flaws worked out during the model, tuning, improving performance, and eliminating flaws. You don't have to follow this process if you really don't want, but it allows you to get rid of issues that were uncaught without having to purchase the next model. In contrast to autos, in which flaws are not addressed unless you buy the newest model. So maybe it's not fun, but it is handy.
To bring up that tired and beaten to death car comparison (in this case contrast), when an automaker builds a car they try to work out all the flaws in it. They obviously don't get them all, but they have to wait till the next model year to fix them (unless they're quite serious, in which case they issue a recall). With mac os, it's like having all the flaws worked out during the model, tuning, improving performance, and eliminating flaws. You don't have to follow this process if you really don't want, but it allows you to get rid of issues that were uncaught without having to purchase the next model. In contrast to autos, in which flaws are not addressed unless you buy the newest model. So maybe it's not fun, but it is handy.
tace said:
OT, but Does AW come with G5s now? I thought they only came with the so-called "consumer" systems. Is that no longer the case?
Anyhow, AW is good function-wise, but it has rough spots. Things like inline spell checking, quartz text rendering, and so on. TextEdit has these things, why doesn't AppleWorks?
I do use AW for most of my work. It doesn't seem to have any problems with the word and excel docs I open with it, and it actutally (for me) runs better and is more stable than office.