(I just posted this on
http://whyzzat.com, but since most of you -- for unknown reasons -- won't join us, I thought I'd ask here too)
Any Mac users here?
Recently, with -- I believe -- the addition of the 9th USB device connected to my machine, all of which are generally needed (printers, keyboard/mouse, Bluetooth dongle, etc) for one purpose or another, my Athlon XP 2800 box is finally starting to act a bit hinkey.
By hinkey, I mean the keyboard refusing to work on a random basis, the mouse going haywire and "moving itself", the printer refusing to boot, the hard drives refusing to optimize, etcetera..
This leaves me, at age 40, in the middle of an intense struggle between my adult and inner-child. Nameably these are my options;
A) I spend 3 days backing up, troubleshooting, reformatting, then restoring everything? Cost : My sanity, and my time -- which I never have enough of either.
B) Do I just go down to Circuit City and buy a new relatively cheap Gateway Athlon X2 4200 machine ($699) and migrate? The specs are, 2Gb RAM, x2/4200+, 6100 graphics, 250gb hard drive, Windows Media Center edition.
C) Or, do I follow my spit fit and make what I consider the inevitable leap to the Macintosh with Boot Camp loaded so I can dual boot into Windows for work, and roll over to the Mac for real life? The cost for this leap is roughly $1500. The specs for this machine is 20" monitor, Core 2 Duo chip at 2.16ghz, 2gb RAM, 250gb hard drive, superdrive, OSX (latest) with Boot Camp and XP Home pre-installed (source : macmall.com)
Some things I've found along the way in this debate;
First : unlike 5 years ago, you can no longer build a comparable PC for $699. Even paring it down to the minimum, when you consider the purchase of Windows and Office, about the best price I've been able to find is at newegg.com (this doesn't surprise me) for about $1328, shipped, just for a box of parts. Oh, toss in a 20" monitor and we're at $1700+. Building, installing, testing, etcetera is all on me.
Secondly : It seems that everyone is going to the exact same Core 2 Duo chip that the Apple chose for their MacIntels. Even checking the big boys (Dell, Gateway, etc), they're pushing the C2D chip as their high end gaming cpu, so I don't really feel like I'd be in bad company buying the Mac.
Third : I spent several hours at CompUSA playing with the iMac and I must say that it's sweet! The mouse clicks are different, but no moreso than getting used to Windows over an Amiga. The one thing I notice is that unlike the Gateway box, there aren't thousands of crap programs like AOL, PC-Cillin, "Gateway Games", Encarta, and all that {bleep} loaded so that you have to spend hours wiping it all out just to have a usable machine.
That, plus I find that I really like the user-friendly software the Mac comes with, and that's before I ever really even get to load anything on it. Even though it's based on Linux, it's like Linux's more grown up, friendly brother that always steals your girlfriend...
My concern -- and one that's quickly being addressed -- is the software base available on the Mac. As stated, I can flip over and work on the PC when I need to, but the software for the mac seems rather oriented towards encouraging creativity rather than getting work done. There aren't as many games available, that's for sure, but I'd still have my PC so I think I'd survive.
The only other concern I have is the "all-in-one" design of the iMac. What if the monitor / superdrive / whatever dies?
Also, Apple has a hole in their marketing scheme where it's pretty much forcing all the kids to buy Mac minis (which I found to be too slow), the adults to buy iMacs, and the power users to buy Mac Pros (dual CPU tower case Macs) which are really outside the realm of mere mortals because they start at like $2000 and go up rapidly from there.
What do you guys think, and which would you buy in my shoes? The Gateway, build my own, or the iMac?
Wayne
