 - Carlton Ward  Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
IMac vs MiniMac I have had it with my PC. I have 2 gigs of ram and a 2 gig processor and it still crashes when I am working with RAW & Tif images in Photoshop. I have decided to get a Mac. I have never used one but its time to move up. Now my question is what to get. I am looking at the IMAC (2 gig ram, 24" widescreen, 250g HD + a couple other options for $2400. I am also looking at the MiniMac with 2 gig ram. 23" Cinema screen, 80G HD + same options as IMAC) for about $2200. I am not worried so much about the $$ as I am about what is the better set up photography/photoshop. I know a lot of you are Mac users and I welcome your thoughts and suggestions. Thank you - Carlton
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John P. Sandstedt |
Buy a Mac if you must, but I think you need to look at what you may be doing with your PC first. For example, what's a 2 GIG processor? These things have speed ratings in megahertz, not GIGs. What's your operating system? If you're using Windows XP [vintage 2003 or older] the system can't use all the RAm you have available; in fact you might max out at 1.4 GIG. [Note, I've heard that there a re lots of problems when using Vista and Photoshop. Is that the issue?] If you're multi-tasking [i.e. - you leave your e-mail open and maybe one or more other programs AND you're playing with several images,] you may well be taxing the memory. Still further you need to check all the settings with respect to virtual memory. If they are too low, it's quite possible that this issue is involved in the overall problem. Have you cleared all you're temporary files and, when was the last time you ran a Defrag? Have you considered getting the CPU tuned up? The argument about which is best [MAC vs PC] will go on and on. The reality is, however, that beyond the higher cost for the MAC, only about five percent of the "computer population" uses them. There's good to be a reason. My son, who's in advertising, won't use anything but a MAC because that's what the graphic artists use. But, he didn't recommend that I get one. And I never did. So, befoe you spend a ton of cash, think about tuning up you system. You might be glad you did.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Hi John, I did tune up my system. It came with 1 gig of ram and a slower hard drive along with the 2.33 Ghz processor. I have the memory/cache set at 75% in PS and have changed this to see if it makes any difference. The PC is a little over a year old and runs on XP Pro (I hear Vista is even more demanding than XP) and I dont have anything but Photoshop running when this happens. I dont even run bridge for fear it will crash. It does not have viruses and has been defragged - its just not performing. I am going to buy something else anyway and since I already have 2 other outdated & slow Microsoft PC's (1 laptop & 1 desktop) I want a machine that doesn't have to be updated every day and so inefficient (it has so many processes running when I dont even have any program running). I have been debating getting a Mac for 2 years and have decided I am going to do it. I would just like some recommendations for something in this pricerange from some BPers that can offer their opinions. Thanks again - Carlton
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Christopher A. Vedros |
I don't think it's a coincidence that most people in graphics design use PhotoShop, and many if not most of them also use Macs. I've heard more people complain about problems running PhotoShop on a PC than anything else on a PC. It just doesn't seem to be a well-behaved program. Carlton - I won't try to talk you out of switching to a Mac, I could go on for hours. I wouldn't recommend the MiniMac, though. I've never really been a fan of anything mini, except skirts ;-) Chris Vedros
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- Gregory LaGrange Contact Gregory LaGrange Gregory LaGrange's Gallery |
Well if you spend 200 more to get a something that has over 3 times the capacity, that's sounds like an obvious decision, unless you were spending all you had at 2,200. And that's not what you should do anyway. I don't think anybody makes a computer that doesn't freeze up. But the general feeling is that graphics people like Macs because: If anything goes wrong they're easier to figure out the problem and cost less to bring in a tech if you need it. 95% of the viruses being created are being aimed at PC's New stuff supposedly fits in better-ala I've heard the Vista problems too. I think Apple is supposed to be a cooler company. If you have a problem they work with you better. And adding on I think you're not directed into getting extra stuff you don't need.
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Colleen Farrell |
Carlton, if I were you, I'd definitely go for the bigger hard drive of the IMAC. I don't know what other options it has over the miniMac but 80 gigs isn't that much these days for hard drives. Since you've been debating The Switch for 2 years, I'm sure you've weighed all the pros and cons of moving to a whole different OS. I just switched, after 25 years of using PCs. My system is a Macbook Pro with 2.43 Ghz dual core processor, 160g hard drive, 2g RAM (I'd get 4gigs if I could afford it). I can take apart a PC and put it back together without batting an eye, but just getting used to the Mac system (keyboard shortcuts, jargon, OS environment) has been "interesting." Part of my problems, though, have to do with installing and using Windows on a virtual machine, since I use PSE5 ... Eventually I hope to upgrade to CS-something for the Mac. One of the many reasons I switched was to avoid Vista, and the feeling that Apple was a more customer-friendly company. The folks at the Apple store were definitely not into the hard sell, which was nice ... and they didn't have any attitude either. ;) Although the salesguy was mistaken when he told me their tech support wasn't in India.
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- Carlton Ward Contact Carlton Ward Carlton Ward's Gallery |
Well, I bought the iMac yesterday and I am still learning my way around (having never used a mac before) but it is very impressive. The 24" screen is huge and I could not tell much difference at all after calibrating with Spyder2 than what it looked like before calibration. At least I feel more confident that my prints will look like what I see on the display using the same color profile. Now I am debating loading bootcamp or parallels so that I can load photoshop since I dont have $600 for CS3 Mac version. I also like using Photodex ProShow which doesn't run on mac either. Does anyone have experience with Bootcamp or parallels ? Thank you, Carlton
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Colleen Farrell |
Carlton, I don't have experience with Bootcamp, but I had a heckuva lousy time with Parallels--and from the forums I visited, I wasn't the only one! Can't even remember what the problem was, exactly (I've been installing and buying new programs like crazy the last 6 weeks). But I think it kept "hanging" when trying to run Windows. Just useless for me--and the Parallels "support" was nonexistent. Anyway, I highly recommend VMWare's Fusion instead of Parallels. It's a piece of cake to install and use, was relatively inexpensive, and I think has some advantages over Bootcamp. Enjoy your iMac--I envy you, with that 24" screen!
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John G. Clifford Jr |
I'm going to make a profoundly obvious observation here... if your PC was continually crashing while trying to run Photoshop, then Photoshop was crashing, NOT Windows! Don't get me wrong; I like the Mac. I've used them for several tasks, including writing a book and using Photoshop and Pagemaker, and I spent much of my career as a professional software developer writing commercial applications for the Macintosh. But, my latest computer (and my last several computers) have all been PCs from Dell and Compaq/HP, running various flavors of Windows. I'm currently using Windows XP Pro SP2 on all of my computers, and I don't have problems with Windows crashing. I can leave computers up and running for months without having to reboot. Sure, Apple has a prettier UI. Those Silicon Valley hippies are smokin' the good stuff. But MacOS X is really just Linux with a pretty face... with all of the good and bad that implies. And, if you think Windows sucks running on a PC, it's going to suck even more running on a Mac. Good luck with your Mac, but remember that, to the user, the software IS the platform.
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Colleen Farrell |
John, I don't know if you're replying to my post specifically but if so, you misunderstood it. I didn't say the *PC* was crashing when running Photoshop. I said the virtual machine on the Mac--which is necessary in order to run Windows, in order to run Photoshop--wasn't working. In other words, Parallels hung up the process of even *getting* Windows installed. So I was not even running Photoshop, OR Windows at that point! You're right, it is the software--and in my case, the most problematic software was Parallels. As for PC vs. Mac, it's a silly argument, imo. I liked PCs for the 1/4 century I used them. When I needed to upgrade, I decided I wanted a change, and I really like the Mac. But I'm not rabid about either camp.
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