Advice needed on buying a new computer

[Bigbrotherin]

After 5 years of sharing my brother's, I've finally decided to fork out on my own apple macintosh and finally move away from Windows. I was wondering though if anyone could tell me which I would be better off getting an iMac G5 or a macbook pro? I know that a macbook is a laptop and therefore offers mobility and portability but does it mean that some of the quality is sacraficed?

Too me the iMac looks cooler but the macbook pro seems more convenient. Which is best for a 17 year-old college student, programmer and power user? :dazzler:

[Bigbrotherin]

Can no one help?

[Red Moon]

Do you really need to use it all over the house is the question I would ask yourself.

The Desk top will give you more speed because of the faster disk drive and better sized screen but you will fixed to one place.

[Matt]

I would like to say well done sir. I have finally persuaded my folks to buy me a Mac. I've wanted one for years and they've finally caved in!

The MacBook Pro is a brilliant laptop. If you really need portability, go for that.

[Matt]

Oh and by the way, you ain't alone. I was gonna get a MacBook, then with a sudden extra influx of cash a MacBook Pro, but now they've released a new iMac it's back to square one for me! :laugh2:

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Matt
I would like to say well done sir. I have finally persuaded my folks to buy me a Mac. I've wanted one for years and they've finally caved in!

The MacBook Pro is a brilliant laptop. If you really need portability, go for that.
Portability would be nice but speed and the amount of pressure (load) it can take without messing up is important also.

Plus congrats on your first mac lol, this is the first mac I'll have to myself, but it's the 3rd that I've had available to me (my brother is a big mac-fan).

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Matt
Oh and by the way, you ain't alone. I was going to get a MacBook, then with a sudden extra influx of cash a MacBook Pro, but now they've released a new iMac it's back to square one for me! :laugh2:
Lol, same here.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Matt
I would like to say well done sir. I have finally persuaded my folks to buy me a Mac. I've wanted one for years and they've finally caved in!

The MacBook Pro is a brilliant laptop. If you really need portability, go for that.
Portability would be nice but speed and the amount of pressure (load) it can take without messing up is important also.

Plus congrats on your first mac lol, this is the first mac I'll have to myself, but it's the 3rd that I've had available to me (my brother is a big mac-fan).

You're lucky.

I grew up on Macs at primary school and I found them way superior to PCs. My parents, however, cannot stand Macs. It was only when I told them six weeks ago that you can run Windows on a Mac that they caved in...

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Do you really need to use it all over the house is the question I would ask yourself.

The Desk top will give you more speed because of the faster disk drive and better sized screen but you will fixed to one place.
Not 'all over the house' but it would be nice to take it with me to college, around friends, on holidays etc but it's not essential, I'll be moving into a student flat when I start college in September and so it would be nice to have portability. There again, imacs are portable as they don't have base units, they are just screens, keyboards and mouses which are a 2 minute manoover to my friends' student flatts. I'm so confused lol. :puzzled:

[Red Moon]

I have three, I brought a Mac mini ages ago and it's great, and I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines.

Looking to get a couple of mac books for use on the sofa and a iMac as a main machine sometime in the future.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Matt
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Matt
I would like to say well done sir. I have finally persuaded my folks to buy me a Mac. I've wanted one for years and they've finally caved in!

The MacBook Pro is a brilliant laptop. If you really need portability, go for that.
Portability would be nice but speed and the amount of pressure (load) it can take without messing up is important also.

Plus congrats on your first mac lol, this is the first mac I'll have to myself, but it's the 3rd that I've had available to me (my brother is a big mac-fan).

You're lucky.

I grew up on Macs at primary school and I found them way superior to PCs. My parents, however, cannot stand Macs. It was only when I told them six weeks ago that you can run Windows on a Mac that they caved in...
They are superior to windows pcs but linux pcs do give them a run for their money. But I already have a linux.

[Bigbrotherin]

I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines. <--- were these like G1s? because even on ebay imacs cost a bit more than £25 lol. Even the old G4s will set you back like £50 or £60.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
I have three, I brought a Mac mini ages ago and it's great, and I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines.

Looking to get a couple of mac books for use on the sofa and a iMac as a main machine sometime in the future.
I would never by a portable computer just to use on the sofa lol.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Red Moon
Do you really need to use it all over the house is the question I would ask yourself.

The Desk top will give you more speed because of the faster disk drive and better sized screen but you will fixed to one place.
Not 'all over the house' but it would be nice to take it with me to college, around friends, on holidays etc but it's not essential, I'll be moving into a student flat when I start college in September and so it would be nice to have portability. There again, imacs are portable as they don't have base units, they are just screens, keyboards and mouses which are a 2 minute manoover to my friends' student flatts. I'm so confused lol. :puzzled:

Go for the power then.... it will last you longer before you need to upgrade.

[Matt]

The best machine ever, for me, was their G4. It looked way cool. I don't trust eBay enough to buy from it though.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines. <--- were these like G1s? because even on ebay imacs cost a bit more than £25 lol. Even the old G4s will set you back like £50 or £60.

Depends how good you are hitting the buy button at the right time... LOL

They are G3 machines..... I got one and the guy gave me two others. One I scraped to make the other work.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Matt
The best machine ever, for me, was their G4. It looked way cool. I don't trust eBay enough to buy from it though.
I'm getting mine on ebay because I cannot afford to pay apple's official prices at the minute. I'm an unemployed student ffs lol.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Red Moon
I have three, I brought a Mac mini ages ago and it's great, and I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines.

Looking to get a couple of mac books for use on the sofa and a iMac as a main machine sometime in the future.

I would never by a portable computer just to use on the sofa lol.

Probably knowing me use it on the floor too..... lol

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Matt
The best machine ever, for me, was their G4. It looked way cool. I don't trust eBay enough to buy from it though.
I'm getting mine on ebay because I cannot afford to pay apple's official prices at the minute. I'm an unemployed student ffs lol.

You should be able to get an educational discount.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines. <--- were these like G1s? because even on ebay imacs cost a bit more than £25 lol. Even the old G4s will set you back like £50 or £60.

Depends how good you are hitting the buy button at the right time... LOL <- Surely someone would have a reserve price on them or

They are G3 machines..... I got one and the guy gave me two others. One I scraped to make the other work.
^Lol theres an old G3 in the garage, 400mhz, 20gb hdd lol. My iPod has more hdd space lol.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Originally posted by Matt
The best machine ever, for me, was their G4. It looked way cool. I don't trust eBay enough to buy from it though.
I'm getting mine on ebay because I cannot afford to pay apple's official prices at the minute. I'm an unemployed student ffs lol.

You should be able to get an educational discount.
Yeah I tried but the discount is still not enough to put their prices in my range lol. I'm working to a tight budget of £350.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Lol theres an old G3 in the garage, 400mhz, 20gb hdd lol. My iPod has more hdd space lol.

Up the memory with some old PC Stuff and put on OSX 10.3 and you can still get round the web on it.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Yeah I tried but the discount is still not enough to put their prices in my range lol. I'm working to a tight budget of £350.

I can see your problem..... go for the G5 iMac, you will only get a G4 for that sort of money.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Lol theres an old G3 in the garage, 400mhz, 20gb hdd lol. My iPod has more hdd space lol.

Up the memory with some old PC Stuff and put on OSX 10.3 and you can still get round the web on it.
Still wouldn't be enough, on my pc which is a 1ghz pc with a 250gb hdd I find myself freezing the pc alot and using most my HDD space lol.

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Yeah I tried but the discount is still not enough to put their prices in my range lol. I'm working to a tight budget of £350.

I can see your problem..... go for the G5 iMac, you will only get a G4 for that sort of money.
Exactly, thank god for ebay.

[Red Moon]

Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Still wouldn't be enough, on my pc which is a 1ghz pc with a 250gb hdd I find myself freezing the pc alot and using most my HDD space lol.

That is windows for you.... LOL

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
Originally posted by Bigbrotherin
Still wouldn't be enough, on my pc which is a 1ghz pc with a 250gb hdd I find myself freezing the pc alot and using most my HDD space lol.

That is windows for you.... LOL
Dude.. that's on my linux, not my windows :tongue:

[Bigbrotherin]

I want one of the new aluminium imacs they look better than the white ones, but due to their newity, there are hardly any of them on ebay and those that are there are over a grand. :conf2:

[Bigbrotherin]

Originally posted by Red Moon
I have three, I brought a Mac mini ages ago and it's great, and I went on to get early a couple of old imacs for £25 from ebay that the kids use with ease. Great machines.

Looking to get a couple of mac books for use on the sofa and a iMac as a main machine sometime in the future.
I can use an imac on the sofa also, because my sofa has a coffee table and a plug socket right infront of it. So I can use my imac whilst watching TV. Hence why I am stuck between the two because if it's just about portability, both of them are adequate.

[Red Moon]

Go for power. I really think you will find you get more use out of it. The only thing is you won't be able to do is to take it to college.

[Matt]

All said, it's still easier to lug around a laptop than a desktop.

The black glass and aluminum iMacs look lush. I want one bad.

[Red Moon]

But we are talking about a second hand machine here and it will be a while it is replaced. You will get more machine per pound with a desktop just because the mac books hold there value better.

[Matt08]

I'll probably never move away from windows, i'm too used to it now. I used a mac before at my old school but I hated them, they're so difficult to use and the display menu is very cheap and tacky looking.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Mathew
I'll probably never move away from windows, i'm too used to it now. I used a mac before at my old school but I hated them, they're so difficult to use and the display menu is very cheap and tacky looking.

As with everything it takes time to get used to something.

The new Mac OS is very professional looking and it will be worth taking a look at when it comes here in October.

Windows Vista is a cheap rip-off of OS X...

[Matt08]

I'm not too keen on vista anymore, I used to like it. The only reason that i'd buy it is for entertainment purposes only because I like the new Dell vista PC, widescreen and lots of entertainment extras on it.

[Red Moon]

It's not hard to change over to OS X from Windows and once you have you don't want to go back.

[Matt]

Originally posted by Red Moon
It's not hard to change over to OS X from Windows and once you have you don't want to go back.

I look forward to getting my Mac then :wink:

[Bigbrotherin]

Update, my brother gave me his imac and got himself a macbook pro. So I spent my money on a dell gaming computer with vista and xp pro installed with a 3.8ghz pentium 4 HT processor, with 2 gig ram, 250gb hdd and a 20 inch screen.

I still have to buy it a mouse and keyboard before I can properly use it, but I should be able to get them on Saturday, my day off from the night shifts.

So on Saturday night when X-Factor comes on and a partially abandon big brother for it (because BB8 sucks), I'll be posting from my brand new dell game pc. :cheer2: