help needed! iMAC G5 vs. ....

[kroko]

the question touches the endless dispute:: mac/pc.
however, i'll try to be short
situaiton:
i'm a working stud. of architecture. thus computer needed for 3D progs archicad, cinema4d, 3dmax), renders (the most slowest/irritating ones). i do also graphic design and digaital photography-> summing up=a pretty good load for every parameter of a comp.
my choice is:: apple iMac 2.0GHz 64-bit G5 20" LCD
(512k L2 cache/ 667MHz bus/ 1.5GB DDR 400 SDRAM/ ATI Radeon 9600 128Mb DDR video/ 250 or 500Gb Serial ATA/ 8x SuperDrive (DVD+R DL/DVD+RW/CD-RW)
[specs for the newest (2.1GHz) here. all parts are the same as 2.0GHz except for graphic card and some s** multimedia accessories)
finally my purse allows it and i think of it as a great choice!
but some friends (even comp. specs) try to bring it over (none of them owns mac). (i din't think of me as of a dummy in comp. stuff, but right now i feel a bit puzzled. i always thought of mac as the best sollution for graphic stuff. or maybe i am a dummy after all? )
here i'm asking for help. i won't mention their arguments, but want to hear them from you pros and contras for iMAC (considering the purpose of comp- 3D/graphic design) towards... dunno... some 3.2GHz intel.
you could just 'chech-in' the poll, but any comments are wellcome!!
thanks!
Reinis
Riga,Latvia

 

[kroko]

+

and it's not for gaming! if i'd want to make an ultrakill in cs, i still have my pentium4

 

[Blue]

and it's not for gaming! if i'd want to make an ultrakill in cs, i still have my pentium4

Then you better get an AMD!! Nah just kidding.

Anyhow I can lend little to nothing to what you have already heard as I don't do much in the way of video editing nor have I ever used any of those apps you mention . I do feel however that a Mac is more ready for such things out of the box. However a PC with a bit of work and configuration I feel should be able to do everything a MAC is capable of doing but at a much lower cost. With the lower cost you can afford even better equipment like larger monitors and better accessories. This is only my opinion and I know I offered no real argument but perhaps something to think about.

 

[Charles_Lee]

isn't it "easier" to use PC than Mac?

 

[Travo925]

isn't it "easier" to use PC than Mac?

negative.

 

[liquidshadow]

isn't it "easier" to use PC than Mac?

Matter of opinion and personal preference for which operating system. IMO it's not "which is better: Mac or PC?", it is whether people like the Mac OS or Windows better.
Hardware-wise, both are pretty good, although PC's usually have better graphic cards although you can upgrade a Mac

 

[jesbax]

macs are good for people that do a lot of grafic usage. all macs are true plug and play. becuase all you do is plug it in and turn it on and that is it. this the new mac os it is even easer to use than windows. i have an imac that was droped in my lap for cristmas gift. all i hd to do was plug it in to the wall and plug the key board and mouse in and it was going didn't have to any thing else to it. granted there is not a lot of software out there for the mac but the mac os is a lot more stable than windows. also understand the clock speed that apple set for the cpu is diffrent that intel. double apples clock speed to find the intel equel.

 

[spacedude89]

all macs are true plug and play. becuase all you do is plug it in and turn it on and that is it. this the new mac os it is even easer to use than windows.

heh, my ass. i have a G4 and you gotta work hard to get anything to work with it. anyways, another thing to think about is upgradeability, on the macs you gotta get special "Macintosh" parts, but with a windows computer you can easily upgrade the processor if a newer one comes out, but with a mac you have to go and buy a g6 or something. one more thing, compatability. pc seem to be more compatable with stuff in general and have a wider choice of programs, often there is an open source and free program for some $800, for example The gimp is free and photoshop is not, and i realize that the gimp is for mac too but im talking about in general.


....i hope you can read that, i think i pretty much massacared the dictionary, grammar, and my english teacher.....

 

[Thechefxxxv]

This is only gonna be based on your opinion. I say, go for Macintosh. imo, windows sucks. I just happen to be in abuilding where there are only windows PCs. Some of you Mac-lovers know how I feel. Mac has everything windows does. You can get a cheap Mac Mini for 500 bucks, same with PCs. You can get an Nvidia 7800GTX ( or 6800GT, 6600 LE, or pretty much any other graphics card) for Macs, same with Windows. You can get a 1500$ custom made computer that equals a 5000$ Alienware. Now that you can't do for Macs. If you... Imo just get a Mac.

 

[Thechefxxxv]

I use Macs and Windows everyday. Anyone who doesen't shouldn't be qualified to answer. My Windows Machine will be 100X faster than my Mac Laptop, but I still love my laptop. F.Y.I. I have A Mac G3 Powerbook Pismo vs. a dual core machine with 2.5 gigs of RAM and a 4400+, still love the laptop.

 

[The_Other_One]

I have a mini mac...cute little thing It's fun, but there's an obvious speed difference. It feels slower than my old 1.4GHz athlon, and even slower than my Laptop underclocked to 800MHz. Big difference is when you play videos. The fan really kicks in on the Mac and seems to really kill it for some reason...

If I were you, I'd still go with a PC. Though I have a rather cheap/low end mac, I think the best bet will be a PC due to compatability. Plus, as you might of read, macs are going to make the big switch to intel. Sooo...I beleive software will be changing soon. And, I don't beleive it'll be windows compatable still...