Mac Noob Here!!!

[gillilandboy]

Well i am 15 years old and I am a long time windows user. My dad is a photographer and uses Photoshop CS2 (soon to be CS3) to edit all this photos he was on dell that be bought about 5 years ago when he bought it was really tricked out. He just bought an HP desktop with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig hard drive and its a really nice computer but the only thing that sucks is that it came with vista...He has been having all sorts of problems, he has this Epson printer (to print all this photos) and he downloaded all the drivers for it and it still doesn't work. He has been having a horrible time with windows mail he has lost ALL of his e-mails like 3 times in a row. He also is just getting random error messages and he is hating it! I have started to look at macs and I plan on getting a macbook for my birthday. So this leads me to why i am posting here. I finally talked my dad in to looking at mac's so I don't know if he should get a tricked out iMac or regular Macpro I mean he wants to spend a good deal of money on it but he doesn't wanna drop a lot you know what I mean?




Any help would be great thanks guys!


Any thing else you need to ask me please let me know.

 

[mattscott306]

How heavily into video editing is he? I'd say the deeper he is, the higher upgrades he should look into.

 

[epochblue]

I think he'd be perfectly happy with either the 20" or 24" iMac, honestly.

The 24" will get you 3GB of RAM and plenty of screen real estate to play with, plus, I think it comes out to be cheaper than the MacPro once you consider the price of monitors (if you don't already have one or two, that is).

Of course, you'll get more power with the Mac Pro, but if he's not doing some REALLY HARDCORE Photoshopping or video editing, I think the iMac would be more than enough.

 

[gillilandboy]

Well he does do HARD CORE Photoshop editing hes on the thing all day everyday but he does NO video editing what so ever.



BTW I live in st.louis to!

 

[Lovesong]

If your dad is a pro photographer, he should have a look at Aperture. I think he might enjoy the workflow there, and the organizational abilities of the program.
In terms of what hardware he needs, it's really up to him. A MacPro will be a beast in terms of crunching things in CS3 and any photo editing he might need. That, coupled with the fact that he can always upgrade the RAM, video card, strap in more hard drives, and even replace the CPUs, will make that machine a worthwhile investment for the future. That, and he can always use his current monitor setup, and upgrade in the future if he wants to. The 23 inch ACD is one of the better monitors for photography.

 

[epochblue]

Well he does do HARD CORE Photoshop editing hes on the thing all day everyday but he does NO video editing what so ever.



BTW I live in st.louis to!

I'm relatively new to the city (moved here back in August), but I'm a fan so far

If he doesn't really do any video editing, I'd say go with the iMac. But that's just me. If he did buy a Mac Pro, would he be buying new monitor(s) to go with it?

 

[gillilandboy]

Thanks for all the help guys!



I think I am going to make him go with the mac pro. Like lovesong said the thing is totally upgradeable so I will be going with the mac pro




Once again thanks for the help guys

 

[puckhead193]

what does he do in photoshop. He sounds like a professional photographer. I'd say Mac pro, but thats me and not my wallet
He could get an 24" imac and if its not good enough sell it. I'm sure he wouldn't loose too much specially if its custom ordered through apple.
I'm sure by now Apple but photoshop CS3 on their computers. He can go visit an apple store and play around with photoshop and see if he likes the performance or not.

 

[gillilandboy]

I'm relatively new to the city (moved here back in August), but I'm a fan so far

If he doesn't really do any video editing, I'd say go with the iMac. But that's just me. If he did buy a Mac Pro, would he be buying new monitor(s) to go with it?

No he has a monitor already. So do you think Mac Pro is the way to go?

 

[wildthing1994]

If he has monitors already go with the Macpro. Bigger is better right?

 

[chasemac]

No he has a monitor already. So do you think Mac Pro is the way to go?

I'd say that the Mac Pro would be an absolute dream machine. I still own a Dual 2G PM G5 and its great. Take him the your local Apple store and see for yourself. I convinced a friend to purchase the 20" iMac and he couldn't be happier about it. He uses it for amateur photography and music with Garage Band. However, the purchase of PS CS3 would be needed to run natively on the Intel Macs. You could however load windows on it but OSX is sold as a rock. Also, Leopard is right around the corner. Also, RAM is an important factor to your purchase not matter which Mac you purchase. I would recommend at least 2GB.

 

[Mpulsive81]

The Mac Pro is an amazing machine, something far far (FAR) out of my budget, lest I "donate" a kidney or two (or three!). While it's a nice sum to purchase, you're getting miles of performance and quality.