Apple Mac questions

[scissors]

Recently my pc has been behaing very badly. Actually, it always has but recently it has been getting really bad. Random power downs, freezing, crashing and sometimes it just refuses to even turn on. I know my motherboard is a cheapo useless one, and I have been told the no booting and power off thing could be caused by a bad cpu. My graphics card is also buggered from overclocking, which causes it to get really hot and shutdown the PC. All good fun....

Here is my current PC spec:

AMD Athlon XP 3200+
2GB RAM
80GB HDD
Nvidia Geforce 6600GT

So I was thinking about buying a new one. But as usual, I'm pretty short on cash so anything I could feasably get is going to be a massive performance decrease. When I bought this computer I wanted to play all the latest games etc but since then i have moved over to linux and couldn't care less about PC games.

This got me thinking about buying a cheapo macintosh from ebay or something. Most of the linux software I use can be used on a mac anyway (i would prefer to use OS X, but just in case) and I am just after a reliable machine to see me through until I am rich enough to buy something a bit more tasty. The thing is I have no clue about Apple Macs, I haven't even had a go on one since I was 12. Which is probably why I feel like I should get one, knowledge is power and all that.

Before I do this though, I want to ask mac users a few questions.

1 - Plugins for browsers are top priority - you should see how chat runs (or crashes) my pc. Anyone aware of any probs with plugin support on a mac?

2 - I have a 80GB sata hard drive that I wouldn't mind being able to use, is that possible in older machines? I'm not that certain how long sata drives have been about.....

3 - Windows Network, I have 3 computers on a network here and it is pretty important that I can share files between them. I imagine this will be fine, as linux supports it without any hassle. Any idea?

4 - What is the lowest spec I should be aiming for here? I'm looking to spend under £200 if possible so I know it won't be amazing, just as long as it runs the newest browsers and can write a DVD etc.

I think that just about covers it. If any of you own a mac, posting what you have and any good/bad experiences you may have had with it would be very much appreciated.

Cheers!

[Hippie3]

good luck finding a mac for cheap,
i love both of mine.

[scissors]

Whatcha got there hippie?

I'm looking at something like:
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Apple-G4-POWER...QQcmdZViewItem

A G4 Powermac, whatever the hell that means.

What do you reckon? Too old? I have no idea.

[golly]

G4's are great....And u know what they say....Once you go Mac u never go back....he...heeee...
I have no complaints with my g5 or the previous g4... They're made for idiots like me...

[prismaticEffects]

Originally Posted by golly

G4's are great....And u know what they say....Once you go Mac u never go back....he...heeee...
I have no complaints with my g5 or the previous g4... They're made for idiots like me...

yup,
i grew up using pc's
(besides the apple 2gs)
but when i started college a few years back i got a g4
(great for graphic design and audio)
the mac is very much user-friendly
and i never worry much about viruses or spyware when searching the net.

the only problem is when something goes wrong...
on a pc i can dig around to the root of the problem,
i haven't quite figured out the mac yet i guess,
but when it comes to software/hardware problems
the user-friendly mac becomes a user-confuser

[srgtm1a]

I personally hate macs with a Passion. As hippie said, GL finding one for cheap. I'm a network admin, and am trying to get rid of all of them in my company....more of a headache than a solution. Only people in my company that use them are the design department. The old saying that "macs are better with graphics and rendering" is no longer true. That was no longer true after Intel released the PII.

For a mac, you will pay 2x's as much for a machine that is 2x's slower than it's IBM compatible counterpart. Besides all of that, the mac version of software is anywhere from 10-30 dollars more expensive for the same software.

You can still network them...macs use a protocol called "appletalk" which is similar to TCP/IP, and yes, they can communicate on the same network. More so now that macs can also use windows.


You have a pretty decent machine there already, minus the AMD chip....sounds like you just need to do a little tweaking.

Anytime you start overclocking anything, either a graphics card or a CPU chip, you are going to run into some major overheating issues....stay away from doing any of that. If you are going to do any type of overclocking, you had better have a pretty major cooling system in place.

A lot of people I know get AMD processors for gaming, but there is nothing better about AMD and gaming. I don't know where ppl get that. All of the benchmark tests that show AMD to be better are all done by AMD, not by an independent company.

Intel is far better than any other chip manufacturer....any other manufacturer is just a poor copy of the Intel chip at best.

IBM had the RISC chip in the early days which were technically better than Intel, but that again is in the past....macs are also switching to Intel.

AMD has always had heat issues from the first chip they ever created. They also own American Global Chips and Citrix chip companies, which are known for overheating and burning out.

Fix up your machine you have now and you should be fine...no need to buy a new one just yet, especially if money is tight.

If you have a friend that is good with computers, have him/her look at the system and fix it up for you. A little tweaking and you will have a nice machine.

[shadyfigure]

3200+ is a fine chip and you have a decent computer that shouldnt be 'behaving badly'. I'm guessing you either fried your mobo OCing your GPU, or your RAM went bad... I'd try formatting and going from there.

[scissors]

Originally Posted by srgtm1a

If you have a friend that is good with computers, have him/her look at the system and fix it up for you. A little tweaking and you will have a nice machine.

That made me laugh. I'm not being cocky or saying I am a computer master or anything but I have been building my own pc's for about 8 years. I am that friend that people go to. I just know nothing of apple computers.

Trust me, my cpu is buggered. It came from a suspiciously cheap ebay combo deal that took months to get here from overseas. After it was built and XP was installed I got the blue screen of death on first boot (ACPI errors) and then it didn't power up for a good 20 mins after that. It likes to do that quite often and it is getting worse.

The usb keyboard and mouse fail to power up during boot, which means i have to borrow a keyboard to get in the bios or install a new OS. I broke the graphics card myself, I knew the risks and I did it anyway. The RAM is ok, I did a memtest the other week. It's not the OS causing the problems, I have tried about 10 linux distros this year as well as win XP.

So if I were to fix this computer I would need a new motherboard, a new graphics card and a new cpu. To get near equal hardware to what I have now would cost well over £200. I would rather wait and get a dual core intel system in a year or so.

So for now it looks like I'm going out on a whim, doing something totally outrageous and buying a G4 instead just for the hell of it. Software isn't a problem as I can dual boot osx and linux. The experience is worthwhile even if I come out of it saying apple macs are a big pile of cack. At least I would know first hand.

Thanks for the advice people!

[Bobcat]

Go for it. You won't regret it. There is a lot of negative mac mythology out there, which I used to believe/spread, but since I got one I have never looked back. When you include the quality and extras of a mac they aren't more expensive. The machine your looking at looks real good- but I would def up the ram. Your right, it won't be blowing any socks off but should be solid. Consider this, however, if you save up some cash you could get a mac mini for a little more than twice as much. Go to the store at apple.com and check one out. I personally know of two Microsoft gurus who will be making the switch after trying out Mac OSX Tiger.

One big bonus of macs: they keep their value. One big negative of macs: they keep their value. So yeah, getting one on the cheap isn't always easy...

So you like the new macbooks hip? any complaints? I now think I will be in the market soon.

[I_am_me]

Well seems we have a pretty healthy pro-mac crowd but personally I'd never own a mac.

Everything you can do with a mac I can do with a pc....but everything I can do with a pc you can't do with a mac. The program selections for various things are much more narrow for mac. I much prefer the interface of a pc and I was able to purchase a brand new kick ass pc for $650 and that includes a 17 inch lcd flat screen monitor. I know a few people who have bought macs and they enjoy them but I have a couple of friends that have had nothing but trouble with theirs, just like any pc. I say determine exactly what you want out of your computer first and then it will be easier to decide. I would only get a mac if I was doing high level graphic design or high level music recording and then it isn't going to be cheap at all. I worked on a mac g4 a lot and it was a lot slower than compared to my standard pc I purchased.

[Hippie3]

no complaints on my macbook yet,
so far, so good.

[scissors]

I just ordered this:

• apple G4 graphite Digital Audio
• running OSX 10.4.6
• 533MHz CPU with 1Mb Cache
• 30Gb Hard drive
• DVD Drive / Zip Drive
• ATI Rage pro AGP Video card (VGA/DVI)
• 512Mb 100MHZ Ram
• 2 x USB , 2 x FW400 Ports
• lifetime technical support
• secure insured packaging
• 7 days hardware warranty

for £162 with delivery. I also found out that it can take these upgrades if I want to beef it up a bit:

http://www.macupgrades.co.uk/store/m...-digital-audio

Sounds good enough to me! Anyone know if my usb keyboard + mouse will work? Both made by saitek if that matters.