Need advice from previous converts

[macmastersam]

Hi all
I've been an avid reader of this site for a while (well since just before iPhone 4 came out, which I got on launch day) and thought I would finally get round to signing up. Anyway back to the matter at hand. I've recently decided to take the plunge and ditch PC's in favour of something much more stable. I'm trying to decide between a mac mini or an iMac. I'm not a programmer or anything but would like to get into digital photography and run photoshop etc. Also how different will the interface be with Lion compared to Vista I currently use. My daughter is 10 and not great with changes as she has special needs. Any advice is much appreciated.

if you already have a monitor (a decent size [i.e 20-?"]) then get a high end mac mini, if you don't like the glossiness of the iMac screen. But otherwise go with the iMac, you get a lot of bang for your buck with these iMachines in apple's case. £1000 for the lowest-end model, and the specs are:

Quad-core intel core i5-2400s @ 2.5ghz
4GB of ram (upgradeable to 32GB of ram max)
512mb AMD radeon 6750
500GB hard drive
1080 x 1920p 21.5" screen

plus a mouse and keyboard
and if that isnt powerful enough for you, i would go with this:

quad-core intel core i5@ 2.7ghz upgradable to a 2.8 ghz quad corei7
4GB of ram (upgradable to 32GB of RAM max)
512mb AMD radeon 6770
1TB hard drive
1080 x 1920p 21.5" screen

or you could go with the 27" variant of the top model if you like the screen real estate

there is a website with some geekbench scores of all the imacs since 2009:
http://www.primatelabs.ca/blog/2011/05/imac-benchmarks-mid-2011/

there is also a picture of the mac mini benchmarks attached as well

but i dont know what you should go with. why dont you try and go to the nearest apples store and see what will benefit you and your wallet better.

 

[Unkei]

Go big!

Hi all
I've been an avid reader of this site for a while (well since just before iPhone 4 came out, which I got on launch day) and thought I would finally get round to signing up. Anyway back to the matter at hand. I've recently decided to take the plunge and ditch PC's in favour of something much more stable. I'm trying to decide between a mac mini or an iMac. I'm not a programmer or anything but would like to get into digital photography and run photoshop etc. Also how different will the interface be with Lion compared to Vista I currently use. My daughter is 10 and not great with changes as she has special needs. Any advice is much appreciated.

if you use Photoshop for editing and designing, you need a big screen. So, I personally would go with the iMac. IMHO!
Unkei

 

[Apple fanboy]

if you use Photoshop for editing and designing, you need a big screen. So, I personally would go with the iMac. IMHO!
Unkei

I decided the iMac was the one for me, but with all the rumours about a refresh decided to wait for this years model. Hopefully not long to go now!

 

[djjje]

I decided the iMac was the one for me, but with all the rumours about a refresh decided to wait for this years model. Hopefully not long to go now!

Seems like you have made your decision in favour of Apple....you won't be disappointed. I bought my first MBP 2 years ago and I love it. Others have said about the OSX experience so I won't repeat that. The reason that I bought my MBP was similar to your requirements. I wanted to do a lot more photo and video editing. After trialling various programs on my Windows7 machine at the time all of which crashed or felt somehow a poor cousin to the iMovie/Final Cut experience I decided to take the plunge. To take care of any remaining need for a PC I installed the FREE virtual machine VirtualBox https://www.virtualbox.org/ and installed Windows7 on there. It is quite telling that I never needed it and I have now uninstalled the VM.

I have since purchased Aperture/Photoshop Elements9/Final Cut Express for my various photo editing/albums and video needs.

I am now waiting for the 2012 iMAC and I will be buying the 27" model and doing my own memory upgrade to 16GB and I will also be purchasing Final Cut Pro X which I trialled on the MBP....love it.

My own daughter happily switches between PC and MBP as required and would love to have her own MBP if I was feeling that generous.

The Apple experience is a one way street for me.....any new tech in my house will be Apple.



 15" MBP 2.53GHz i5 4GB  iPad2  iPod Touch 2nd Gen 32GB

 

[Wrathwitch]

I converted 5 years ago and LOVE OSX. I now loathe windows, just with all of the maintenance, update drivers, BIOS, antivirus etc etc etc. I have said I will NEVER buy another Windoes machine.

HOWEVER, beware the never comments... I am a gamer.

My iMac 2009, 27" i7 quad core has been delightful for the past 3 years but I am noticing that for graphics on gaming, it is now starting to get tired. So much to my shock, I have ordered a beast Windows machine for gaming. I have no intent of letting go of my iMac though.

Back to your post.

Regarding your daughter, I understand (limitedly) that autistic children are generally very bright but require repetetion and routine. One way to ease her in is to make learning a game. ie: teaching what the icon for Safari looks like compared to IE or Mozilla or whatever your poison is. Take it slow as sometimes change sucks, and even for people who aren't learning impaired OSX is still a learning curve.

I would recommend the iMac over mac mini but for me it is just because the whole iMac user experience with the gorgeous screen is JUST WORTH IT!

If your daughter proves to have difficulty with Lion or OSX in general, there ARE options like VM or Bootcamp (which I have on my MBA). There is no need to have to force her into an experience she doesnt enjoy, and maybe if time she may want to be like daddy and mommy and use the OS that you guys are using.

Good luck!!

 

[forty2j]

HOWEVER, beware the never comments... I am a gamer.

My iMac 2009, 27" i7 quad core has been delightful for the past 3 years but I am noticing that for graphics on gaming, it is now starting to get tired.

3 years is the expected lifetime of a gaming computer anyway. The difference with the PC you ordered is that you could theoretically swap out the video card.. but most times you'll also want to be swapping the motherboard by 3 years, and at that point you're just buying a new PC anyway. Where the iMacs lose in their upgradability, they gain in resale value, so while I hope you enjoy your new "beast", I wouldn't always agree that it's the right move.

 

[Wrathwitch]

3 years is the expected lifetime of a gaming computer anyway. The difference with the PC you ordered is that you could theoretically swap out the video card.. but most times you'll also want to be swapping the motherboard by 3 years, and at that point you're just buying a new PC anyway. Where the iMacs lose in their upgradability, they gain in resale value, so while I hope you enjoy your new "beast", I wouldn't always agree that it's the right move.

I might have to swap parts in 3 years, that is the norm for top of the line gaming PCs, resale value is garbage, but I would rather spend 800.00 on an upgrade in 3 years than have to spend >3000.00 to replace my iMac every 3 years.

This way I get the best of both worlds. My iMac for every day computing, and PC for gaming.

I am truly hoping I will enjoy my new beast, I haven't gotten it yet, it is still being put together. Wish I had the skill to do that myself, but right now on the advent of D3, my time grows short. I can replace parts, just don't know how to put all that junk in an empty box

 

[forty2j]

but I would rather spend 800.00 on an upgrade in 3 years than have to spend >3000.00 to replace my iMac every 3 years.

$3000? Is that max BTO?

This iMac is a 2007 model. I bought it in early 2008 for $1800. I expect to be able to sell it for about $600. Would have been $800-900 last year I think. So your $3000 model can probably be resold at around $1200-$1500, recouping as much as half the cost of replacing it. You probably still make out a little better upgrading a PC, but it's not that wide of a difference.

 

[whooshbong]

3 years is the expected lifetime of a gaming computer anyway. The difference with the PC you ordered is that you could theoretically swap out the video card.. but most times you'll also want to be swapping the motherboard by 3 years, and at that point you're just buying a new PC anyway. Where the iMacs lose in their upgradability, they gain in resale value, so while I hope you enjoy your new "beast", I wouldn't always agree that it's the right move.

Long time forum watcher, first time poster!

I too have been pondering for a while about making the switch to Mac but decided to wait for the refresh as my pc has quite died but might not be too much longer.

My big stumbling block was the issue about gaming and upgrading until my wife pointed out that I never actually upgraded my 5 year old pc apart from add ram and and 2nd hard drive. So it did kinda throw that argument out of the window.

Quick question though. I will be getting Win7 for dual booting so I can still play Win based games, am I right in thinking that some VM software can piggyback that copy of Win. i.e. not install 2 versions. What I'm wondering is if I want to 'nip over' to Windows for a sneaky 10 minute play can I do it without rebooting or playing with different save files?

Hope that ramble makes sense

 

[forty2j]

Quick question though. I will be getting Win7 for dual booting so I can still play Win based games, am I right in thinking that some VM software can piggyback that copy of Win. i.e. not install 2 versions. What I'm wondering is if I want to 'nip over' to Windows for a sneaky 10 minute play can I do it without rebooting or playing with different save files?

Hope that ramble makes sense

It'll take a little doing (setting up shortcuts & such), but yes it's possible to arrange to have a bootcamp Windows install and a Parallels/VMWare Windows install to look for game save files in the same place -- they would be separate windows installs but can share some data files. There's also an application called Crossover that lets you run some Windows programs without an actual Windows installation. However, most people find the gaming experience in a VM or in Crossover to be less than satisfying.

 

[Azzin]

Hi all
I've been an avid reader of this site for a while (well since just before iPhone 4 came out, which I got on launch day) and thought I would finally get round to signing up. Anyway back to the matter at hand. I've recently decided to take the plunge and ditch PC's in favour of something much more stable. I'm trying to decide between a mac mini or an iMac. I'm not a programmer or anything but would like to get into digital photography and run photoshop etc. Also how different will the interface be with Lion compared to Vista I currently use. My daughter is 10 and not great with changes as she has special needs. Any advice is much appreciated.

I've recently moved to Mac after a lifetime of Windows.

I bought myself a 27" i5 iMac from the Apple refurb store and I couldn't be happier with it.

I run W7 (for my accounting software) in a VM, but apart from that I don't touch Windows.

It was/is a learning curve, but well worth it and you soon begin to realise that paying the money for a computer where the manufacturer makes the hardware and the software, was worth every penny.

HTH.