Macs

[seandudding]

I could of posted this on the computer section, but I would think there is more mac experince here.

I want to buy a Mac, not only for photo work, but also designing brochures and docs for various things.

I'd love teh 30" screen, but can I use this as a VGA screen with my PC also?

Is the 24" imac a better buy than buying a mini mac with seperate 24" screen??

Where is the best place to buy from?

[GetCarter]

The latest Mac screens (I have a 23" - oh er missus) have funny connections, so I would seriously check out with an apple centre if they would work on a PC.

Macs are tons better than PC's (I use both every day) - but swapping between the two OS is a bit of a nightmare (one keeps looking for the right mouse button!).

Steve

[seandudding]

Steve

Thanks. I use Unix all day at one office, then when I go to the other office to use Windows it causes issues also. So I guess the Mac is just another thing to get use to. I also understand that the Mac OS is very Unix like...

[EmmaP]

I have a Mac Mini which I think is fantastic. I've got a G4 powerbook too. I use the Mini with a separate LG Flatron L1920P 19 inch monitor. I would have loved the Mac monitor, but it was out of my budget. I'm very happy with this screen and it had a 5 star rating in Mac World when I bought it two or three years ago. Cost about £450-495 I think. Lacie do some great monitors too, some with hoods to prevent glare. I bought mine over the internet. Can't remember where from now. KRCS are pretty good for Mac products www.krcs.co.uk/

[markda]

Apple do use some strange connectors, but as far as I am aware you just need to buy the conversion cable (from them of course!) and your away. I will ask them next time I am in the office, some of the developers at work have dual 20" wide mac screens attached to Sun workstations.

Regarding the iMac, not 100% sure. But I don't think you can use it as *just* a screen, the connector on the back is for an output only. Again some of the developers at work have 20" iMac's + 20" wide dell monitors for dual screens.

[seandudding]

Mark

Thanks, if I buy an Imac I wouldn;t be to bothered about using the screen with my PC. I love the design of the Imac....

Cheers Sean

[Bacardi]

seandudding said:

I also understand that the Mac OS is very Unix like...

It is Unix... under the skin, so you can type command line if you want.

The connection of the cinema displays are standard DVI but you would still need to double check to see if they would work with PC (I'm sure there are some mac service guys on the computer forum who answer that definitively).

The iMac has more go in it than the mini plus you can put another gig of memory in. The 17" iMac is comparable with the mini but the 24" iMac has better graphics performance so if it's in the budget, I'd go that route.

If you need a mouse with more buttons and wheels, just buy one, they work fine with macs.

There is no 'cheap' place to buy macs. Any price variations are very small and any differences are usually made up in shipping costs.

I usually get everything from Apple store these days but if you buy from John Lewis you get another years free warranty.

Prices and specs at the apple store:

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjec

HTH

[robbieduncan]

Current Apple Screens are all DVI. They have a proprietary cable connection at the monitor end which splits into DVI, Power, Firewire (and USB?) at the PC/Mac end. They only have 1 input and do not accept VGA. If you want more that one input or VGA support buy the Dell 30" screen instead.

[seandudding]

Which MACs support the dell 30"??

[ehasler]

AFAIK, the dell 20", 24" and 30" widescreen monitors are the same internals as the Mac screens, just not as cool looking and cheaper.

[ehasler]

25% off on the Dell 30" screen at the moment!

[robbieduncan]

seandudding said:

Which MACs support the dell 30"??

Any Mac that supports the Apple 30" will work with the Dell. Both screens require a dual-link DVI port (note this is very different to having dual DVI ports). In practice at the moment this means the Mac Pro or the MacBook Pro. The Mac Mini, iMac and Macbook have single-link DVI only.

[pacey205]

For people who want the right click on a mac.

http://store.apple.com/Apple/WebObjec

I run one on my iMac G4 (the one with a dome base and swivelling screen). Oh and for those on a mac with a one button mouse if you press ctrl and click you get the right click menu.

[page3]

I have a new 24" iMac, which was a replacement for an ageing (but still very workable) G4 PowerMac. It really is an excellent all-round package and the screen is excellent - if a little BRIGHT

The 24" also has a mini-DVI out so you can span another monitor if 24" isn't enough for you.

If you haven't had a Mac before, then the iMac is a really good introduction and excellent value for a powerful machine with typical Apple design flair.

Absolutely love it

Edited to add: it you aren't a pro I'd suggest giving Pages a try. Its part of Apple's iWork package and produces really impressive documents with minimal effort.

Edited by page3 on Thursday 16th November 22:30

[whittaker52]

Another mac user here. I run a G3 iBook, a G4 iBook, and an intel mac mini as a media centre connected to a 20 inch VGA display using the dvi to vga adapter supplied. One of my friends has been looking into getting a mac recently, and it seems like the iMacs are pretty unbeatabe when it comes to bang for your buck. The processors on the current iMacs are core duo 2's, which haven't hit the mac minis yet either. The 17 inch 2.0ghz system is a very good starting point with super drive, 1gb of ram, and an dedicated graphics card unlike the mac mini that has onboard graphics.

I tend to do a lot of graphics based work on my systems including photoshop, illustrator, and quarkxpress and it seems to handle it extremely well.

So I'd highly recommend macs, and personally I think i'll be sticking with them for a long time! Also, as Emma has said, KRCS are very good, cancom are also very good, as are buying direct from apple through the apple store.

Edited by whittaker52 on Friday 17th November 11:31