Advise on buying a mac

[lonodnboi2k3]

Im using Mandrake for my desktop pc but i am considering buying a laptop (Mac) altho i have no idea about speed. On my home PC it is 2.4Ghz but the macs i have seen are something like G3 or G4 with 433mhz of speed. Can someone explain this for me like im a 2 year old   :rolleyes:  

Also, I know some people may flame me for the above but i would rather this stuff explained to me by people who use mac.

[Laukev7]

No worries, London, any question is legitimate here, especially if you are considering switching to the Mac. I'm in the same boat, by the way.  

The most important thing you have to know is that PowerPC processors (a.k.a. G3, G4, G5) are much faster than Pentiums for the same clockspeed. I regularly use a 600 MHz G3 iMac at school, and it is at least as fast as my 1 GHz P3 or even my dad's 1.2 Athlon. I haven't made any detailed comparison, though, so I will need to know the approximate equivalences for when I will eventually get a Mac.

The fastest Macintosh right now is the dual 2 GHz G5, which you have probably heard of. It's a new generation processor, and it beats even the fastest Pentium. However, this is probably out of your price range.

When it comes to portables, you have two choices. The Powerbooks use G4 processors, and they go up to 1 GHz (think about the equivalent of a 2 GHz PC notebook. The iBooks go up to 900 MHz, and use the G3 processor, which is slightly faster than a G4, but does not have Altivec.

I think you should wait a bit, though. There are rumours that the Powerbooks are about to be updated.

[psyjax]

Laukev is pretty close, but G3's are nowhere near as fast as G4's. Especially for OSX.

OSX will outperform any G3 when running on a G4.

If you are going to get a Mac, consider either a notebook, or a tower. I have sworn off iMacs because they are slow, unupgradable, and when they break, yer screwd.

The towers will never let you down.

Any low end tower will kick the shit out of any PC. Speed wise, well, a 2.4 PIV will be faster genrealy, like Playing high end 3d games and such, but practically, when do you really need 2.4Ghz? I would say a low end tower, now adays like a dual 800Mhz G4 would be a kin to a 1.5Ghz Pentium.

But you must remember, that what you are paying for is not speed, or power, etc. Your paying for an overal package. The Mac is an amzing computer, fully integrated, and infenetly usable.

It's a well oild fine tuned machine with all parts working in perfect harmony. Remeber, Rolls Royce dosn't make the worlds fastest cars, but they sure as hell make the nicest  

The Mac, with OSX will never let you down. And I guarantee it will quickly replace your Linux and Windoze boxes.

Not to mention integrate seemlessly with them in a LAN    I have 2 Mac's and 2 Pc's at my house, and they all talk to each other perfectly. One runs Windows Me (yech!), another is Dual booting with Win 2k Pro. and RedHat 9. The Mac's both run Panther. It's a great setup, perfect for the cross platform work I do.

[bossesjoe]

Not to fear, here is my webpage

http://opensource_now.tripod.com/cgi-bin/article1.html

[Laukev7]

Now I think of it, the iMac was running on OS 9, so I guess my perceptions were a bit skewed. Thank you for correcting me, Psyjax. I am seriously considering a Mac as well, so your information will be very useful for me, too.

[lonodnboi2k3]

hey guys, Just got home from work and have been poundering about buying it, Now i have read what all say, I will now buy one, and i will buy a tower.  Just one question, do the macs have one button or two? and if they come with one can i get a mouse with 2 buttons?

Was only askin cust when i was at PCworld the ones they had were with one button only. But i had read somewhere in this forum that they had two.

[Laukev7]

Macs come with 1 button mice. But you can easily use a third party mouse with as many buttons as you like, including the wheel, as long as it's USB. And no configuration is required (unless you want to assign functions to mouse buttons).

[psyjax]

May I suggest one of Kengsingtons turbo trackballs, they are fantastic. They come with 4 buttons, and great configuration sofftware    

But any Logitec POS from CompUSA will work fine.

EDIT: BTW, please let us know how you like your Mac! Also, get lots of RAM for the thing, that's the key    ... but get that separettly or canabalize a PC. wahtever.. anything above 128MB is prefect.

[ July 25, 2003: Message edited by: psyjax: plain 'ol psyjax ]

[jasonlane]

quote:Originally posted by Londonboi2k3:
hey guys, Just got home from work and have been poundering about buying it, Now i have read what all say, I will now buy one, and i will buy a tower.  Just one question, do the macs have one button or two? and if they come with one can i get a mouse with 2 buttons?

Was only askin cust when i was at PCworld the ones they had were with one button only. But i had read somewhere in this forum that they had two.

Don't know if you want to buy a new Mac or not but here's a really good link for Refurb deals in London


Canco

If you buy refurb also make sure you get a warranty extension  

[ July 28, 2003: Message edited by: Zardoz ]

[billy_gates]

if for some reason you decide to get a notebook.  www.Amazon.com has $100 off all PowerBooks(not sure if it applies in Longon though).  This means a superdrive loaded 12" G4 for $1700.  Insanely great deal.