Considering a Mac: question (1 Viewer)

After being really close to buying a new Gateway PC, I'm thinking of getting a 20" iMac (Mac Pro is a bit out of my price range) and from what I've read the time may be right to switch from the PC.

I use Adobe Photoshop CS and the rest of the Adobe Creative Suite daily on my XP based PC, and my one concern is that I've read there are speed issues running Photoshop on an intel based Mac? The article I read, which is on CNet, talks about non native applications that haven't been ported to intel based Macs and that using these programs, such as Photoshop, is much slower.

Any thoughs on this, and additional thoughts on the iMac to throw in?

Carl, it is true that the Creative Suite hasn't been ported yet. However, the Universal (Intel-native) version is due out this spring. Adobe for the first time released a free Photoshop beta (a caveat...you have to have a serial number for the previous version of Photoshop in order to download it) for the Mac so users could see the performance gains they can expect when the full release is ready. Until then, you have a couple of options...you could run the Mac CS2 version now through the Rosetta emulation. It's definitely a slowpoke, but some of that slowness can be minimized by increasing RAM. You could also run your Windows version of the Creative Suite by running either Apple's Boot Camp or Parallels Desktop for Mac. Check Ron's post for his experience with Parallels.

I'm a big fan of the iMacs...I think they are great value and unless you need the highest end graphics card for gaming, it should be plenty powerful enough for you.

Agreed. Get the iMac and run your current copy of photoshop until the intel version is released.

Here's a link to Macworld's benchmarks on Photoshop CS2 and the CS3 beta.

Thanks guys. I'm going to check out the boot camp and parallels info. The benchmark test article was a good read. I'm really indecisive about making the move to the Mac. I could probably live with running CS on it...I mean, it's not exactly running speedy on my current computer. I hate to shell out for the upgrade to CS3 though.

On the other hand, I'm not a gamer and I honestly don't feel like I want any part of Vista. Is 2 Gig RAM and a 250 Gig HD enough for the foreseeable future?

I know how you feel. I'm a LONG time windows user that just made the switch and I'm glad I did. I've been sitting on the fence for over a year now and finally got the courage up and sold off my laptop and bought the MacBook Pro. I won't lie and say it hasn't been without its ups and downs as I've adjusted to OSX but over all its been a lot easier then I thought and now that I'm fairly comfortable there's no going back.

Carl, I think 2GB and a 250GB hard drive is fine. I have 2GB of RAM on my MacBook Pro and it runs both Tiger and XP through Parallels great. One thing to keep in mind with the iMac...it only has two RAM slots. If you do decide in the future that you want 3GB, you'll have to remove one of the 1GB SO-DIMMS and replace it with a 2GB module.

For normal applications, 2 GB is a lot more than enough. Given that you will be running PhotoShop (possibly under Rosetta, at that), I'd say that 2 GB is not overdoing it.

You might want to consider a larger hard drive. Digital music, digital photos, and digital video (MiniDV == 15 GB per hour) eat HD space as if it was going out of style.

If you install Windows XP (or 2000) on your Mac and run it via Parallels, that would also be another big disk space user.

Plus, most applications won't use more than 2GB of memory.

Thanks again. I'm going to check out what cost it would be to go for the larger hard drive to the iMac. 2 gigs of RAM sounds like it would be enough for now. At least it can be expanded a bit if needed though I didn't know about having to replace a 1 gig module with a 2 gig...Not ideal, but I can live with it. I have a feeling all this is going to take me close to the 2k mark in cost....I really wish the Mac Pro came with a monitor.

Andrew, if you don't mind another question or two...Did you run into any unexpected situations where you wanted to do something with the Mac that you used to do with Windows, but couldn't? What do you use for Word Processing/Spreadsheet/general office type software, if anything?

I use Office for Mac for my office duties, Mac Mail for email, Firefox for web browsing, Roxio for CD,DVD burning and iTunes for my CD playback, Dreamweaver for web development etc. Really other then the email program most of what I need is the same as the windows programs I used before. I used to use PaintShop Pro a lot for image editing but its not available for Mac so I've switched to Photoshop which is taking some time to adjust to but that's not really a Mac/PC issue just a different application. I have a long post that shouldn't be too far down the list in the Mac/Apple forum with some more thoughts on what it was like to switch over.

Carl,

I was in the same boat as you. Long-time windows user who
was petrified of the "unknown" when deciding to purchase a Mac Pro.

This post should help you somewhat in your decision

I *love* my Mac! Running it with Parallels is amazing!

Thanks again guys. You both seem to be having a lot of fun with the Macs and I got a lot of good info from your posts. I'm leaning toward going for a Mac now but still need to research a little more. The temptation is strong but I'm truly amazed at the hesitation I'm feeling.

I almost feel like I'm having trouble kicking a bad habit.

I was in your exact same shoes last August...and went for the PC instead. 7 months later I sold the PC at a loss and did what I should have done before My guess is that if you're on the fence now you'll be on the Apple side sooner or later. Besides worst case is you end up hating OSX and opt to install XP on it...you've still got a very nice computer and can easily dual boot XP and OSX at any time you want.

Well, I think I've finally decided to take the plunge and get a 20" iMac...I'm a few weeks away as there's some planning I want to do.

My current PC came with XP installed, but far as I can see, no actual disc of the OS. I'm pretty organized, but I could be wrong about this. I just don't see the software anywhere.

Will I be able to create a back up of my current XP from my PC, and then install it on a Mac? Or will I have licensing issues?

I think what I'm going to do with the Mac is to run boot camp initially and hold off on Parallels for the time being. If all goes well and I'm happy with the Mac, my eventual goal will be to eliminate Windows entirely.

They should be an image of windows on your hard drive somewhere for reinstalling purposes...check the manuals on how to locate it. Sometimes there's a method of creating a full boot disc from it via the software that shipped with the PC.

I don't know how Microsoft treats transferring XP from one machine to another.

However, with Boot Camp, there is a technical consideration: You need to have a full-install version of Windows XP with Service Pack 2, on one disc. I believe this has to do with the absence of ready access to the drive "eject" buttons.

Carl, if XP came with your machine then it is an OEM license. OEM licenses cannot be transferred to any other machine - they have to stay with the original machine.

If you want to stay legal, you will need to purchase a new license of XP for your iMac.

Carl, I know the exact feeling. Mine, - a couple of weeks ago.
First week I cussed the Mac, since the simplest things were tripping me up and I was rushing to deal with a project on a new computer with no 'right' click. Basically, I only used the Mac for mining the web for research and the textedit, then spent a week at my Moms building the project (she had the programs.)

The raw material I gathered in the Mac transferred just fine to her PC (as expected, since it was not program built) via flash drives.

By the second week I was settling in and enjoying.
Even becoming comfortable with the mighty mice. But old habits [do] die hard so I just added a 2-clicker wireless Logitech.

Really I have not had time to explore the Mac due to the project but am already starting to feel the Mac 'love' and even becoming proprietorial about the brand hoping for 'just enough' people to switch and maintain customer base so that it continues strongly supported....but not so many, the platform becomes a more attractive target.

It was very bizarre the other day while wondering about VProtection, - to get to a MAC aisle in the store and find only - one choice!

I intended to load XP pro, but am beginning to wonder....will I need it at all? Think at the moment I'd rather shop for software and storage capacity, external speakers, etc for the MAC.

So far so great for the 'new dawn' of my first experiences with a Mac. Jupiter seems to be aligning with Mars.

The mighty mouse IS a two-button mouse. It just needs to be configured that way in system preferences.

-Christian