Help a Mac guy out?

[rjs5689]

I hope I've come to the right place for this. I'm a Mac guy right now, but I'm not sure I want to buy another one. I'm in my last year of college, and think I want to buy a desktop when I'm settled in and no longer need a laptop. I use a unibody MacBook Pro to do my video editing on in Final Cut. I also use Light Room for photo editing and Photoshop for some things. Lately I've been getting more and more frustrated with my Apple products. I've been looking into going with a custom built PC, which will deliver me more performance, for less money. I had one several years ago from iBuypower and it was pretty good.

I've been thinking of going with an AMD Phenom II X6 (non-black edition, I don't think I want to mess with overclocking,) and nVidia graphics (possibly SLI?) I'm still a newbie in the world of PCs. I'm not sure how to pick exactly which comments I want, and properly pair them with a motherboard. I guess I'm looking for some general advice from people who know these components better.

Thanks everyone

 

[Hellboy]

I hope I've come to the right place for this. I'm a Mac guy right now, but I'm not sure I want to buy another one. I'm in my last year of college, and think I want to buy a desktop when I'm settled in and no longer need a laptop. I use a unibody MacBook Pro to do my video editing on in Final Cut. I also use Light Room for photo editing and Photoshop for some things. Lately I've been getting more and more frustrated with my Apple products. I've been looking into going with a custom built PC, which will deliver me more performance, for less money. I had one several years ago from iBuypower and it was pretty good.

I've been thinking of going with an AMD Phenom II X6 (non-black edition, I don't think I want to mess with overclocking,) and nVidia graphics (possibly SLI?) I'm still a newbie in the world of PCs. I'm not sure how to pick exactly which comments I want, and properly pair them with a motherboard. I guess I'm looking for some general advice from people who know these components better.

Thanks everyone

AMD are just about to go Bulldozer in the not to distant future so i personally would wait for that..

its not too far away and Intel have just about to release Sandy Bridge Processors.

ATI has a new 6000 card on its way which will blow away nvidia.

Go for a 64 bit OS with 8gb of ram or more. youll need 12 if you got for a I-7 9 series processor.

DDR 3 16666 ram if not higher.

get atleast a 850watt PSU and a Coolermaster case

you could go SSD Drives and have a 2TB for storage. - speed increase is high...

try and go for Sata 3 devices as they have just started to make a appearence.

Motherboard brand is either Asus or Gigabyte - both make excellent reliable boards but dont scrimp on these, pay the extra money to get a decent one

a 24 inch Samsung is a good screen

 

[rjs5689]

AMD are just about to go Bulldozer in the not to distant future so i personally would wait for that..

its not too far away and Intel have just about to release Sandy Bridge Processors.

ATI has a new 6000 card on its way which will blow away nvidia.

Go for a 64 bit OS with 8gb of ram or more. youll need 12 if you got for a I-7 9 series processor.

DDR 3 16666 ram if not higher.

get atleast a 850watt PSU and a Coolermaster case

you could go SSD Drives and have a 2TB for storage. - speed increase is high...

try and go for Sata 3 devices as they have just started to make a appearence.

Motherboard brand is either Asus or Gigabyte - both make excellent reliable boards but dont scrimp on these, pay the extra money to get a decent one

a 24 inch Samsung is a good screen

Well I'm glad a bunch of the components you named are ones I'm looking at. I'm at the point where I've become so annoyed with Apple that I can't wait to get rid of mine. I already tossed my iPhone 4, haha.

 

[blackhawk1928]

^WHAT!!!??? IPHONE 4 is the best phone. My phone 4 is amazing. Better than all those shitty droids that everyone raves about...The GUI and user experience of an iphone is unmatched by far, android doesn't even come close. Macs, i am not a big fan of, infact I dont like macs that much but apple dominates in the phone/ipod market.

Hellboy:
"ATI has a new 6000 card on its way which will blow away nvidia."

Yes but after the 6xxx cards are released, nvidia will release cards that will blow them away...and then ati will release more cards to blow them away...its a cycle. And in this cycle, nvidia usually dominates the high end market...

 

[Hellboy]

^WHAT!!!??? IPHONE 4 is the best phone. My phone 4 is amazing. Better than all those shitty droids that everyone raves about...The GUI and user experience of an iphone is unmatched by far, android doesn't even come close. Macs, i am not a big fan of, infact I dont like macs that much but apple dominates in the phone/ipod market.

Hellboy:
"ATI has a new 6000 card on its way which will blow away nvidia."

Yes but after the 6xxx cards are released, nvidia will release cards that will blow them away...and then ati will release more cards to blow them away...its a cycle. And in this cycle, nvidia usually dominates the high end market...

first of all the Fermi has not been that good has it which Nvidia promised....

anyway

Iphone is fundamentaly flawed

Battery life still ***

OS is still quirky

Signal issues are still poor

did i mention battery

still no folders in email - i mean ffs why not.

Flash on the iphone - apple needs to do this regardless as it stops some websites on the iphone being showed

the battery life again.

screen easily damaged and also it locks

its getting there and its almost the perfect phone

 

[blackhawk1928]

The battery lasts 12 days on standby. And when heavily used, it lasts a few days. And even if it didn't, you have problem with coming home and charging it?...extremely difficult I know.

OS is quirky?...thats the silliest thing i've heard. Its brick stable. Name me an example of how its quirky.

Signal issues?...you have to "learn" how to hold the iphone for the signal to go out, I would literally have to go out of my way to hold it in a special way for signal to drop. But either way a free case that apple gives resolves the entire issue.

For email, you can get an "app" for another client that has folders i'm sure. "Theres an app for everything"..its true

Flash, I agree, but oh well...youtube works fine and thats all i need.

Screen easily damages? pffff thats silly. any small lcd is easily damaged. Did I mention that there are videos of people purposly dropping them and the screen is undamaged except for a few scratches?

Did I mention that its screen is highest quality of any mobile device? Providing the best contrast and resolution of any phone?...

Did I also mention its on a network that can multi-task...unlike verizon which cannot multi-task.

And if you think iphone is bad, the 600,000 people who pre-ordered it in the first 8 hours (which crashed at&t's servers) of iphone4 release and the other many millions of users who are using iphones right now would have to disagree.

 

[jimmysmitty]

^WHAT!!!??? IPHONE 4 is the best phone. My phone 4 is amazing. Better than all those shitty droids that everyone raves about...The GUI and user experience of an iphone is unmatched by far, android doesn't even come close. Macs, i am not a big fan of, infact I dont like macs that much but apple dominates in the phone/ipod market.

Hellboy:
"ATI has a new 6000 card on its way which will blow away nvidia."

Yes but after the 6xxx cards are released, nvidia will release cards that will blow them away...and then ati will release more cards to blow them away...its a cycle. And in this cycle, nvidia usually dominates the high end market...

I don't want to get too into the Apple debate so I will say only one thing: Proprietary. Apple controls all their products and you can only do what they want you to do.

As for the guy wanting a desktop, I would wait. Both Intel and AMD are putting out new products that will push current pricing down quite a bit so thats when you do build one you will get it at a great price and not be too far behind in performance.

 

[Timop]

The battery lasts 12 days on standby. And when heavily used, it lasts a few days. And even if it didn't, you have problem with coming home and charging it?...extremely difficult I know.

OS is quirky?...thats the silliest thing i've heard. Its brick stable. Name me an example of how its quirky.

Signal issues?...you have to "learn" how to hold the iphone for the signal to go out, I would literally have to go out of my way to hold it in a special way for signal to drop. But either way a free case that apple gives resolves the entire issue.

For email, you can get an "app" for another client that has folders i'm sure. "Theres an app for everything"..its true

Flash, I agree, but oh well...youtube works fine and thats all i need.

Screen easily damages? pffff thats silly. any small lcd is easily damaged. Did I mention that there are videos of people purposly dropping them and the screen is undamaged except for a few scratches?

Did I mention that its screen is highest quality of any mobile device? Providing the best contrast and resolution of any phone?...

Did I also mention its on a network that can multi-task...unlike verizon which cannot multi-task.

And if you think iphone is bad, the 600,000 people who pre-ordered it in the first 8 hours (which crashed at&t's servers) of iphone4 release and the other many millions of users who are using iphones right now would have to disagree.

Pshht the iPhone vs Android debacle, its like apples and oranges (lol), only solved when you opt for a banana instead.

Androids are everywhere though, theres the AT&T Samsung Captivate jfor example.. (also the SAMOLED has better contrast but w/e.)

Back on computers, now isn't the best time to build. By December, the HD600s and SBs will some out, which will shake up the marke.

BD isnt until mid-next year though, and Nvidia doesn't have much up their sleeves in the not-so-distant future besides a relatively mild for GF100 update for highend.

Though SLI on AMD is limited to 4 not-so-amazing Nvidia boards, which might want you to either switch to Intel or ATI/AMD.

WHat is your exact usage and budget though? Withhout that I would recommend a 980X + GTX480 quad SLI setup.

 

[Hellboy]

The battery lasts 12 days on standby. And when heavily used, it lasts a few days. And even if it didn't, you have problem with coming home and charging it?...extremely difficult I know.

OS is quirky?...thats the silliest thing i've heard. Its brick stable. Name me an example of how its quirky.

Signal issues?...you have to "learn" how to hold the iphone for the signal to go out, I would literally have to go out of my way to hold it in a special way for signal to drop. But either way a free case that apple gives resolves the entire issue.

For email, you can get an "app" for another client that has folders i'm sure. "Theres an app for everything"..its true

Flash, I agree, but oh well...youtube works fine and thats all i need.

Screen easily damages? pffff thats silly. any small lcd is easily damaged. Did I mention that there are videos of people purposly dropping them and the screen is undamaged except for a few scratches?

Did I mention that its screen is highest quality of any mobile device? Providing the best contrast and resolution of any phone?...


Trust me when i say this..

I use a iphone all day every day...

I have to charge my phone twice a day atleast

I have had it crash on various occasions where it just plain freezes

Signal compared to my Nokia is generally poorer.

The Email setup on pop 3 accounts needs folders to story emails...

Why is there not a micro SD Slot on it....

Sick of having to type my password twice to accept every apples change of agreement


Did I also mention its on a network that can multi-task...unlike verizon which cannot multi-task.

And if you think iphone is bad, the 600,000 people who pre-ordered it in the first 8 hours (which crashed at&t's servers) of iphone4 release and the other many millions of users who are using iphones right now would have to disagree.

maybe it is the highest resolution of any phone and well done apple but was this in anyway in my origional comment... er ... no.

but the screen needs to be both heat and touch sensitive to be perfect - if this can be done - great

typing an email or text is still more luck than judgement.

the bluetooth menu needs a bit more attention

dont get me wrong i like the phone but its got niggles that need to be ironed out

 

[Mousemonkey]

What was this thread about again? :lol:

 

[blackhawk1928]

Heat and touch sensitive?....You mean capacitative and resistive?...Oh well, apples touchscreen beats anyones. And the phone itself is just smooth to use. Everything is snappy, no stuttering...etc.

 

[Hellboy]

What was this thread about again? :lol:

yeah lock it, im bored with this one too.

 

[Mousemonkey]

Let's see if the OP returns any time soon.

 

[randomizer]

From PCs to iPhones in just 4 posts? Impressive.

 

[Tamz_msc]

From PCs to iPhones in just 4 posts? Impressive.

Yeah, I was thinking the same thing.

 

[Tamz_msc]

I hope I've come to the right place for this. I'm a Mac guy right now, but I'm not sure I want to buy another one. I'm in my last year of college, and think I want to buy a desktop when I'm settled in and no longer need a laptop. I use a unibody MacBook Pro to do my video editing on in Final Cut. I also use Light Room for photo editing and Photoshop for some things. Lately I've been getting more and more frustrated with my Apple products. I've been looking into going with a custom built PC, which will deliver me more performance, for less money. I had one several years ago from iBuypower and it was pretty good.

I've been thinking of going with an AMD Phenom II X6 (non-black edition, I don't think I want to mess with overclocking,) and nVidia graphics (possibly SLI?) I'm still a newbie in the world of PCs. I'm not sure how to pick exactly which comments I want, and properly pair them with a motherboard. I guess I'm looking for some general advice from people who know these components better.

Thanks everyone

Its good to hear that an average person has been able to realize the flaws of Apple.Just wait for a couple of months as people said, get a good PC and finally toss that Macbook

 

[gamerk316]

Wow, this thread got derailed in a hurry.

Also, whats with Randomizers new avatar? What happened to the cat?

 

[rjs5689]

Well I'm glad I got almost no help out of this :lol: . This sparked more of an iPhone vs. Android debate than my post on the Apple forums did before my phone switch. I won't go into my reasons for switching, as this isn't the forum for it.

I think I will have to start a new thread as I collect more information about my PC build. Oh, and I guess I should remember to not mention any Apple products.

To those that offered me some advice, thank you!

 

[gamerk316]

I'm a bit shocked this got derailed that badly...

Right now is NOT a good time to build a new PC. Both Intel and AMD are comming out with new CPU architectures/sockets, new tech such as SATA3 and USB 3.0 are just gaining acceptence, AMD is about to release a die-shrink of their new GPU series (which looks to be VERY powerful), and you figure NVIDIA will do something within the next few months...

Right now, it makes sense to wait and see how the Bulldozer (AMD) and Sandy Bridge (Intel) CPU war shakes out.

 

[popatim]

Just realize there is no Final Cut on the pc.

 

[Timop]

Just realize there is no Final Cut on the pc.

But since hes using adobe anyways, Premiere will do the job fine.

 

[Raidur]

At least my droid can run more than one app at once that isn't music.

Oh wait the iphone 4 multi-"freezes" now.









aaaaand its locked.

 

[blackhawk1928]

^You can't be on the phone while being on the INTERNET with your driod though .

 

[BadTrip]

^You can't be on the phone while being on the INTERNET with your driod though .

I can on my Captivate, which kicks the iPhone's buttocks. LOL

 

[jimmysmitty]

From PCs to iPhones in just 4 posts? Impressive.

Its Apple. Of all the companies, thats like the biggest no mention here.

BTW, nice Tails avitar.

Well I'm glad I got almost no help out of this :lol: . This sparked more of an iPhone vs. Android debate than my post on the Apple forums did before my phone switch. I won't go into my reasons for switching, as this isn't the forum for it.

I think I will have to start a new thread as I collect more information about my PC build. Oh, and I guess I should remember to not mention any Apple products.

To those that offered me some advice, thank you!

As I siad, I would hold out until after the new year. New tech means lower prices on current tech which means a better build for you for less.