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I would go for an Intel based clone machine with wester Digital HDD.
Regarding calibrating hardeare/software you can get very good gear for the PC based machines.
Regadless which system you like, if calibration is required visit THIS page
I use an Intel based machine for my photography and I am very happy with the result.
Cheers
iMac - Apple Store (Australia)
The second one is the one he is looking at.
Any advances?
Er.... nope. I think I had a message "Your mac needs to be restarted" only twice which makes it once a year and the thing is on 24/7.Quote:
Does your Mac 'crash' very often?
I stand corrected but colour calibration of screen-printer-proofer-press is an art and although PC do handle graphics very well indeed I am not convinced an off-the-shelf Windows machine will handle screen-printer-proofer-press calibration as well as a basic Mac does. The fact is that Macs are favoured by most design and advertising agencies simply 'coz they work and in high turnaround quick-paced environments they can be relied on.Quote:
Not anymore. Most of the problems that used to affect Windows graphics quality are thing of the past and largely thanks to gaming. As a result most of the major software development houses are giving far greater support to Windows than the Mac, e.g. Adobe have recently released suites only for Windows, and they have withdrawn for example, FrameMaker development on the Mac completely (even though it was first developed on the Mac in 1984!). Adobe AIR is another that has support features for Windows and not Mac.
In my last job in an international company the IT director managed windows network on his Mac and most executives switched to Mac for reasons of security and lack of viruses and reliability... and the extra cost was offset by greatly reduced need for support and maintenance.
The iMac is a great machine. He ought to be well pleased with it. Only I would increase the RAM to 4Gb (not a lot more in cost) and invest in an external USB2 SATA drive (either 500Gb or 1Tb) for backups. He can do these things later if necessary, when money allows.Quote:
Originally Posted by discomuzz
The Nvidia video card has a faster chipset and large bus than the ATI but for mainly domestic stuff as he will be doing, the configuration you pointed out should be fine.
Alan
PS About the external drive. Just buy a SATA drive and stick it into a cheap external USB2.0 case. Shouldn't more than a couple of hundred bucks for the lot. I have about five on the desk in front of me now, each for different things. Don't go and buy some expensive branded thing, they cost too much. Also, you don't need to get Firewire (a lot of Mac people to use nothing else) because they are no faster than USB2.0+SATA but more expensive.
I made the jump from pc to mac because of the viruse and the meltdowns(me and the pc's) and have not been happier. I have patiitioned the drive with bootcamp and have windows vista running on the windows, and linux running as well as osX on the mac side. I have had this new imac 20 aluminum now for about 6 months and have had nothing but great times. As for gaming, last night I went to the windows side and played crysis and Farcry then went on to play some world of warcraft al online with friends and not one single glitch. The video card plays them all and the processor is easily handling the fast fame rate and today i went back to the mac side to complete some videos for work (in Hi-Def) and was finished in time to watch part of a movie before 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon. This imac 20 has brought enjoyment into the miserable computer life that I was bogged down in for years. I only wish that everyone would make life as easier for all computer users as Apple has for me. By the way if you decide to go with imac and partioning you can use the VM fusion or Parallels to divide your hard-drive but you wont be able to play the games as these products only create virtual computers while bootcamp creates actual separate drives working independently. As for programs....WOW ...you now have all windows software, linux software and mac software to choose from. Plus Mac freeware is more abundant and virtually virus free. Imagine ...NO MORE CRASHES !!! To me for the $ 999.99 spent on my imac 20 and got two computers (windows and MAC) where I I would have spent over $600.00 for something with only one option and be stuck in the same click and cross your fingers mode I was in to begin with. Bottom line ...spend the extra $300.00 dollars and get the imac 20 all-in-one and you will never regret it.
I made the jump from pc to mac because of the viruse and the meltdowns(me and the pc's) and have not been happier. I have patiitioned the drive with bootcamp and have windows vista running on the windows, and linux running as well as osX on the mac side. I have had this new imac 20 aluminum now for about 6 months and have had nothing but great times. As for gaming, last night I went to the windows side and played crysis and Farcry then went on to play some world of warcraft al online with friends and not one single glitch. The video card plays them all and the processor is easily handling the fast fame rate and today i went back to the mac side to complete some videos for work (in Hi-Def) and was finished in time to watch part of a movie before 1:00 o'clock in the afternoon. This imac 20 has brought enjoyment into the miserable computer life that I was bogged down in for years. I only wish that everyone would make life as easier for all computer users as Apple has for me. By the way if you decide to go with imac and partioning you can use the VM fusion or Parallels to divide your hard-drive but you wont be able to play the games as these products only create virtual computers while bootcamp creates actual separate drives working independently. As for programs....WOW ...you now have all windows software, linux software and mac software to choose from. Plus Mac freeware is more abundant and virtually virus free. Imagine ...NO MORE CRASHES !!! To me for the $ 999.99 spent on my imac 20 and got two computers (windows and MAC) where I I would have spent over $600.00 for something with only one option and be stuck in the same click and cross your fingers mode I was in to begin with. Bottom line ...spend the extra $300.00 dollars and get the imac 20 all-in-one and you will never regret it.Quote:
Originally Posted by discomuzz
Not quite true...Quote:
Originally Posted by disco2hse
USB2.0+ is a theoretical maximum and is noticeably slower than a firewire 800 drive...
Well said!!Quote:
Originally Posted by audiodell
And exactly right...
The reason Apple keep their systems proprietary is QC... They know their products will work because the hardware is matched all the way...
I have never regretted going to Mac... I'm on my 3rd as I've upgraded along the way...
My 2.0Gb MBP (1st generation) is still quicker than most PCs at almost everything...
Yes, that is true, except that Firewire doesn't support SATA, only ATA. Any advantage you have in network speed is lost in the slower hardware R/W.Quote:
Originally Posted by Tombie2
Alan
My (quick) 2 cents -
I converted (thoroughly) to Macs about 4 years ago - great decision...
For the last 2 years or so I've had the cheapest iMac (20", currently $1599), and it's a dream. Like most people growing up (I'm 21) I had a lot of contact with Windows, the first laptop I bought was a Windows based Toshiba, and it drove me bloody insane...
One of the major factors for me is so-called 'Windows-rot', which I definitely experienced with my laptop, whereby the OS (slowly, over time) simply slows down with the crap that goes on in the background - well, that's the technical description :p Others in this forum may have a better idea about that though...
I would go with the cheapest iMac - $1600 will not get you anything better with Windows...
Disclaimer! - I should again say that I am a dedicated Mac user, so really I know nothing (anymore) about Windows :p
Good luck!