I'm thinking of coming over to the dark side.

Deano · Post by **Deano** » September 12th, 2011, 2:56 am

You definitely won't regret getting a mac. I have several including the new 27" iMac you're thinking about. Excellent machine and the newest iMacs are screaming fast, almost as powerful as the Mac Pro I got last year.

I'd say go that extra mile and get the extra real estate. The difference between the 27" and 21.5" is huge. Full on home theater vibe with the 27". You will quickly regret not spending the extra dough and getting the big boy. It's the biggest and most bad ass iMac they've ever made. It's a total Pro machine that can handle any music or video editing task.

Unless you're doing a lot of video editing I'd say skip the Solid State Drive. Way too over priced considering external 1TB drives are under $70 now. Even if you were doing video I'd say skip em. I have 6 Western Digital 1TB drives that work great: http://www.amazon.com/Western-Digital-E ... B002QEBMB4

The one thing I would strongly recommend is getting the extended 3 year Apple Care warranty when you purchase. It's like $169 more but it has saved my ass a couple times. Any problems I've ever had always seem to happen after the first year. The extra 2 years have gotten me a full replacement on an iMac, replacement macbook screens and just recently a full replacement wireless keyboard with no fussing from Apple at all. Totally, totally worth it.

trabka · Post by **trabka** » September 12th, 2011, 9:48 am

I'll second getting the Apple Care if you go that route. I've had two Macs and both had parts fail within the last month of that warranty. It was like getting a new computer for free.

mpbrockman · Post by **mpbrockman** » September 12th, 2011, 9:59 am

I use both, but I'll echo Dave Barry's line to say "PC's are for people who like to mess around with computers, Macs are for those who want to do things with computers".

I've had Macs dating all the way to back the SE up to the G5 rig I've got now which handles all my audio stuff (I've even got an LCII that still works). The nicest bit for me has always been that once I get them set up and stable, which is relatively simple matter (I always stay one or two versions behind the latest updates to OS or any software I use regularly), I never have to worry about it again. You really have to work hard to crash a Mac.

Every bit of Mac hardware I've ever owned has outlived its actual usefulness and been passed up eventually by software updates. Whereas every PC I've owned has generally blown a motherboard, video card... something... and ended up at Goodwill or pirated by me for parts for another PC. Dell, Sony, HP... all have died while my 25 year-old LCII still fires up and wants to work.

So welcome to the dark side. Its a good part of town.

mcnichol · Post by **mcnichol** » September 14th, 2011, 8:32 am

Thanks again for all the info and opinions.

Deano, that 27" one looks amazing! I just can't justify the price or the size for what I'll be using it for 98% of the time. I'll be doing some video/audio editing and all, but definitely not enough (or not professionally enough) to justify that amount of real estate. Even the 21.5" one is a big step up from my old 19" 4:3 Dell though. I was hoping to use bootcamp or something to run XP on there just for old apps and stuff I'd need it for -- sounds like that might not be as easy as I'd thought. I have OSX Leopard 10.5.2 loaded on that Dell now dual booting with XP so I've been getting used to Apple's OSX interface and all. I do have a bunch of audio/video on external drives that are formatted to work with Windows. From what I've read it sounds like I'll need a piece of software to be able to both read and write to these drives from a Mac (seems like I can only read from them with it). And thanks all for the thoughts about SSDs -- I think I'll just stick with a regular drive for now, until the prices come down or the storage size increases.

You guys are awesome!

Chelley · Post by **Chelley** » September 24th, 2011, 10:27 pm

mcnichol wrote:Thanks again for all the info and opinions.

Deano, that 27" one looks amazing! I just can't justify the price or the size for what I'll be using it for 98% of the time. I'll be doing some video/audio editing and all, but definitely not enough (or not professionally enough) to justify that amount of real estate. Even the 21.5" one is a big step up from my old 19" 4:3 Dell though. I was hoping to use bootcamp or something to run XP on there just for old apps and stuff I'd need it for -- sounds like that might not be as easy as I'd thought. I have OSX Leopard 10.5.2 loaded on that Dell now dual booting with XP so I've been getting used to Apple's OSX interface and all. I do have a bunch of audio/video on external drives that are formatted to work with Windows. From what I've read it sounds like I'll need a piece of software to be able to both read and write to these drives from a Mac (seems like I can only read from them with it). And thanks all for the thoughts about SSDs -- I think I'll just stick with a regular drive for now, until the prices come down or the storage size increases.

You guys are awesome!

As someone who actually worked for Apple doing tech support for waaaaay too many years I will always have a Mac. (despite the fact that I hope to never have to answer a tech support call every again) I will tell you that having the extra display space for editing is amazing. I have the 27' iMac and I often don't know what to do with all the space so I think you're dead on with needing the 21.5'. I, however, have gotten rid of my TV in my room and use my iMac instead so that might be a reason to get the larger screen.

Bootcamp is much easier to use these days than with the original intel Mac. However if you want something else than there is other software that will allow you to do the same thing. Bootcamp is just free and what Apple supports.

As for your audio/video external devices, the majority of them are compatible with Macs now. And Macs are able to read most formats that a PC can. (Unfortunately I can say the same for Windows. e.g. what a mac can read a PC probably can't, but what a PC can read a Mac, more than likely, can.)

Hope my input helps.

LisaJackson · Post by **LisaJackson** » September 27th, 2011, 11:21 am

Everyone here has good technical answers for you, but from me you'll just get a generic "I switched to Mac a couple years ago and will not go back to PC."

Ruby W. · Post by **Ruby W.** » September 27th, 2011, 11:32 am

LisaJackson wrote:Everyone here has good technical answers for you, but from me you'll just get a generic "I switched to Mac a couple years ago and will not go back to PC."

yep - that about sums it up for me too. I know it's more expensive, but when I see someone who still has a windows I shudder. All those tiny (and huge) inconveniences of a Windows really add up. In the end, a Mac is worth every penny.

mcnichol · Post by **mcnichol** » October 6th, 2011, 10:34 am

Thanks again everyone! The personal/non-technical reasons are just as compelling as the technical ones.