Upgrade or Mac

[mac4me123]

Hey

After some advice, been getting into photoshop alot lately just got cs5 my current spec seems to have trouble keeping up with photoshop seems a bit laggy, i know my graphic card really needs replacing im just not sure it worth it, was looking at getting the imac instead or upgrading my pc.

I will be using photoshop alot, as im also in to web design and development, word processing and just general usage with a little bit of light gaming.

My Current PC Spec:

Sony NEC Optiarc AD-7201S 20x DVD±RW SATA Dual Layer Lightscribe
ReWriter (Black) - OEM

Corsair 650W TX Series PSU - 120mm Fan, 80+% Efficiency, Single +12V Rail

Intel Core 2 Quad Pro Q6600 "Energy Efficient SLACR 95W Edition"
2.40GHz (1066FSB) - Retail

Samsung SpinPoint F1 750GB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (HD753LJ)

Asus P5K-E WiFi Intel P35 (Socket 775) PCI-Express DDR2 Motherboard

OCZ 4GB (2x2GB) PC2-6400C5 Dual Channel Vista Gold Series DDR2 (OCZ2G8004GK)

Antec Nine Hundred Ultimate Gaming Case

OcUK GeForce 8800 GTS Extreme 512MB GDDR3 HDTV/Dual DVI
(PCI-Express) - Retail

Arctic Cooling Freezer 7 Pro CPU Cooler (Socket LGA775)

Would it be worth selling this current pc and getting a imac?

cheers

 

[hunter315]

How much is the imac you are considering? You can build a top of the line rig for about a grand, especially since many parts from your current build can be saved. For under a grand you can get a very nice system if you hang onto your case and PSU.

 

[banthracis]

Which imac?

And in general no. Mac's are overpriced pieces of junk with old hardware at insane markups.

The idea that Macs are good for graphic design is pure marketing BS.

For the price of a mac $2500 ish, you can build yourself a i7-980x hexacore PC w/ a quadro GPU.

 

[Somebody_007]

mac = the perfect solution for work for those who know little ore nothing of computers

mac also uses bad ram and hard drives and horrible or no cooling. also you can save 40percent by buying a nrml pc and buying mac software for a few hundred dollars.

 

[mac4me123]

Ok thanks guys, looks like il stick with windows, im not sure what to do to be honest i could my system now and then i could put about £1000 into a new pc, so we will say i have £1000 to spend.

I would be after a new monitor, mouse speaks and keyboard.

Cheers

 

[banthracis]

I'm not sure on UK prices, but here's a US build I made yesterday for a bit under $1,000. I assume you know what CUDA is?

wait is that 1,000 including or not including monitor/speakers/etc?

Optical
LG $20
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16827106289

CPU/MOBO
i7-930 and GIGABYTE GA-X58A-UD3R $474
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.381166

RAM/GPU
G SKill PI DDR3 1600 7-8-7-24 6 gb and 9800gtx $410 w/ $30 MIR
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.399978

PSU/Case
Antec 300 Illusion and Antec 650 W
http://www.newegg.com/Product/ComboDealDetails.aspx?ItemList=Combo.387141

HD
Spinpoint F3 $55
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16822152181


Total: $982 before shipping and $30 MIR

 

[mac4me123]

£1000= $1440 so there is a bit more in the budget

 

[Somebody_007]

ok here are the mouse, kb, moni, speaks, I'd reccomend

kb: http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAZER-LYCOSA-GAMING-KEYBOARD-UK/dp/B0016Q6IMG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904748&sr=8-1

mouse: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-RZ01-00151400-R3G1-Deathadder-Re-Spawn/dp/B002RL9A2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904790&sr=1-1

moni: http://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-G2420HD-Widescreen-Monitor-1080p/dp/B002M1FH2Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904822&sr=1-2

and the speakers: Logitech Z-2300

around 600 left for the system. I'd leave the gpu as you don't really need a better one. And I'd go for i5 750, a good mobo, 4gb g.skill

which would leave you with around 150-250punds left. With that you can get a new gpu and use the 8800 as physx or you could get an ssd. Or just keep it

 

[Somebody_007]

yes but stuff is much cheaper in USA and what do you think of my suggestion? also with the extra monet you could go i7 as banthracis said

 

[mac4me123]

Ive come up with this

Mouse: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Razer-RZ01-00151400-R3G1-Deathadder-Re-Spawn/dp/B002RL9A2O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904790&sr=1-1

Keyboard: http://www.amazon.co.uk/RAZER-LYCOSA-GAMING-KEYBOARD-UK/dp/B0016Q6IMG/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904748&sr=8-1

Monitor: http://www.amazon.co.uk/BenQ-G2420HD-Widescreen-Monitor-1080p/dp/B002M1FH2Q/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274904822&sr=1-2

Which brings total to £289

So £711 for parts from ebuyer.com
Any recommendations?

 

[Somebody_007]

oops sorry I didn't link the speakers wanted to link this http://www.amazon.co.uk/Logitech-Z-2300-Multimedia-Speaker-System/dp/B0006FFO9G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274939814&sr=1-1

here is the system

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/193596

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/195331

http://www.ebuyer.com/product/152641

the rest of the system you is good enough

 

[mac4me123]

I cant afford to keep the rest of my system is either I have a whole new build for £1000 or i have 500 to upgrade parts, i prefer a new build.

And £130 quid for speaks is just silly

 

[cobot]

mac = the perfect solution for work for those who know little ore nothing of computers

mac also uses bad ram and hard drives and horrible or no cooling. also you can save 40percent by buying a nrml pc and buying mac software for a few hundred dollars.

Sigh... ingorance has spoken.

You do know that for example the cooling in macs is extremely effective and most of all very silent, right?
For example, try to hear a mac mini without putting your ear within ten inches of it. You wont.

It is one thing to "prefer" a certain brand, but to hate a company so much that you start devoting your time to posting nonsense and try to scare other people away from them is nothing short of pathetic. Especially since most of those people have never used an apple product for more than 5 minutes. The same is true not only for apple, but for Microsoft, Sony etc. as well.

With that said, let's get back on topic.

The iMac is a home/family pc and is not really intended for professional work. The only destop mac that is really intended for photoshop/cad/3d etc is the mac pro.
However, the mac pro is so insanely expensive that noone in their right mind would recommend one unless you are bathing in cash.

What about an AMD 1090t setup?

 

[Somebody_007]

I'm not breaking down apple by any means. Its a good brand but its got very specific usage which is every day non intensive use or the macpro(which I love and admire) which is intensive work. Its also amazingly user-friendly but as you already built a pc that shouldn't be very important. But all macs are horrible at gaming.

They are expensive and that is a fact. And the cooling isn't bad but it just doesn't cool very well. You simply cannot OC macs(exluding the macpro).

And they do use slow ram without heatsinks.

The macpro is perfection itself and I'd love to have one but were talking Imac here.

 

[cobot]

I'm not breaking down apple by any means. Its a good brand but its got very specific usage which is every day non intensive use or the macpro(which I love and admire) which is intensive work. Its also amazingly user-friendly but as you already built a pc that shouldn't be very important. But all macs are horrible at gaming.

They are expensive and that is a fact. And the cooling isn't bad but it just doesn't cool very well. You simply cannot OC macs(exluding the macpro).

And they do use slow ram without heatsinks.

The macpro is perfection itself and I'd love to have one but were talking Imac here.

Fair enough, some of your points are valid.

The problem here is that you are comparing the iMac with a normal desktop computer. Remember that the iMac is built much like a laptop - very thin and it even uses laptop components. That will result in performance and overclockability similar to that of a lappy.

If this is not what you want from a computer, then buy another one - just like we both have suggested. But don't state that the cooling, the ram etc is bad and slow, because if you compare it to similar products, it's not.

Ok, that's it. Strayed far enough from the topic as it is...

 

[Somebody_007]

Yes I know it isn't bad at all for being as thin as it is, but frankly I find the idea of a latoplike desktop absurd. just MO

now back to the topic.

I don't think 130quid for speakers is absurd though actually I regard 100 as a minimum although I know I will have a lot of opposition with that statement.

As we can't fit in a decent speaker system in the budget I'd stick with built in speakers of an asus 22inch orso.

for the system itself I'd go i5 750 with 4gb dominators(since thats the only decent ram you could find in the UK) http://www.amazon.co.uk/Corsair-CMD4GX3M2B1600C8-SDRAM-Dominator-Memory/dp/B002LKI860/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1274989096&sr=8-7


a good mobo 1166 mobo(know hardly anything abou those mobos so don't ask me which)

this as case http://www.ebuyer.com/product/143854

this as psu http://www.ebuyer.com/product/141006

and this as gpu http://www.ebuyer.com/product/199404 (if it works with photoshop)

hope I didn't forget anything that should be around 900-1000