Looking at buying my first Mac..

[Phirax]

Over the past few months I have plannning to purchace a new computer. I have had limited exposure to Macs in the past, and my current system runs both Windows XP and Linux. I have been very happy with Linux bar the lack of complete stable applications. That is why I have kept Windows XP on my machine.

I decided to have a crack at working with a Mac, however I'm unsure what system I should get. If I do purchase a Mac, I want to do the following using it:

Play Music (Ogg Vorbis Format).
Play Videos/Movies (DVD & DivX etc).
General Internet Use.
Office Productivity.
Watch TV (TV Tuner Card)

I will continue to use my current system for (not on new Mac):

Graphics, Sound & Video Editing.
Games.

As I mentioned before, I don't know what system I should get. I have noticed that Mac prices are far higher (double at least) compared with parts I can buy to build a new x86 based computer, so I am wary about how much I want to spend. Another problem I have is that Macs value systems seeem to come standard with 256MB or RAM, and the upgrade to 512 is just so expensive. I would be happy with 256MB but I have heard that Mac OS X uses alot of memory and I'm the type who doesn't like any lag at all.

What Mac system should I be looking at?

 

[stoid]

I would get an eMac, or maybe if you can find a bargain on a resently out-of-date 1.6 Ghz G5 tower. I would wait though, if you can, until September because Apple is supposed to be debuting a new iMac that may count as 'freaking awesome' as the last two major revisions were.

Bottom line is that I don't think that you need to drop all the money on a new high-end machine.

 

[Phirax]

Yeah, I wasn't planning on buying a Power Mac G5, as I honestly don't need all that power. What about the older Power Mac G4's? or would it not worth going for the G4 cpu.

The reason I want to purchase a Mac is for Mac OS X.

All I really want is the following hardware in a new Mac:

CPU
Mainboard
Sound Card
Network Card
Graphics Card
512MB Ram
40Gb+ HDD

All those other components such as firewire and bluetooth i don't need/want.

 

[stoid]

Yeah, you might even be good with an older G4 Tower. You could probably get one of those for $1300 direct from Apple, and probably cheaper if you shopped around. The G5 is all about a powerful computer. If you aren't the kind of guy that NEEDS to be on the cutting edge of software or hardware, the G4 would make a perfect companion.

 

[Mr Poop E Pantz]

The old G4 Power Mac is still on par with the current line of eMacs, iBooks, Powerbooks, and the iMac. It may not be a G5, but its hardly outdated. You should be able to find one at a good price, if not from apple try something like macofalltrades.com. And as anyone will tell you, don't buy extra ram from apple, way to much mark up on their part. Add your own later. The old Power Mac can do everything you listed fine, you would just need to add a pci card with video in or go with an external solution, which the firewire would come in handy for.

 

[Phirax]

Yeah, I was also wondering about the RAM situation in MACs. I know that the RAM from apple is very expensive and I know that the RAM is DDR, however I was unsure about doing the upgrades myself as I thought that maybe the RAM DIMMS supported for Macs had to be reg'd. I have 2 spare kingston DDR PC3200 512MB (Double Sided) DIMMS, would they be fine to use.

Another question, is it possible to order custom built Macs, or is it possible to buy the parts individually and build a system myself?

 

[jtgotsjets]

I'm just unsure why you want a Mac to do all the general office/internet stuff while you use your PC for sound/graphics/movie editing, whihc is practically why Apple makes computers.

 

[Phirax]

The reason why I want to use a Mac for general useage is beacuse I like way OS X is designed (refering to the GUI). I'm also a sucker for eye-candy, and WindowsXP/Linux GUI's are ugly in comparison.

The reason why I will continue to use WindowsXP for Graphics/Video etc is beacuse of the applications I use, the hardware I already have, and especially because of the systems performance.