Anyone else got a Mac?

[Geoff Dean]

Does anyone else use Macs.

At home I have G4 400Mhz /1.25Gb Ram / 19" flatscreen

At work I have 5 G5 Quad 2.5 Ghz / 8 Gb Ram / 30" Flatscreens

[Studley 2436]

I have a mac

It's a Mac Pro 2.6gig quad core. Not bad but now I have to update all my software so really see how fast it goes

Studley

[mic-d]

I have a 15" 1GHz G4 PowerPC.

Cheers
Michael

[bitingmidge]

Hmmm for twenty years I've had a computer not a hobby. All the current ones are a bit old now, soon to be upgraded when the new iMac arrives.

P
:D

[Doughboy]

My desktop is a Peterbuilt.

[watson]

We run an Emac 700MHz processor with 1GB SDRAM
Fun

[Ian Wells]

Emac 1.25ghz , getting a bit old now , thinking of redoing the case in black crinkle finish to go with late 1930' deco House/Shop we've just bought , cloth cover the speakers and mold a nice chrome emac logo for it , will send pictures once its done ( bugger, I keep forgetting I have a whole house to reno now)... and a bub due in Dec...Pics might take a while fella's.

[Fox3]

Got rid of all my Macs a good while back. Loved them but got tired of paying premium prices for stuff and doing without things I needed (my needs are rather complex) :-(.

Now all PCs here, they have their own set of problems, not the least of which is m$ "operating systems" unless one goes with Linux, which is what I have done.

OSX might have been interesting, but would not have run on any of the stuff that went into the dumpster :-(.

[woodbe]

Got a houseful of them. Slowest is one of the original iBooks (the style is affectionately referred to as the 'Toilet Seat iBook') fastest is a Mac Pro like Studlee's. I have a few other machines around running linux, and even one that runs Windows. Best toy on the Mac Pro is Parallels - it's a virtual environment and I have even more virtual computers in there !

[MurrayD99]

:D You guys! What you going to do when Bill takes over the World?

[Bob38S]

eMac

1.25GHz G4

Love it.

Had Mac's since early 80's

[woodbe]

:D You guys! What you going to do when Bill takes over the World?

Bill has already taken over the world. There is always room for a dissenting opinion in a democracy. :2tsup:

woodbe.

[Studley 2436]

I have a PC as well that runs the one before Vista. I am just horrified everytime how bad the thing is! So I never got into PC's it was just too hard and they seemed to do everything so badly

Studley

[bansheez71]

Almost completely off of Windows. I am loving the mac. Everything just works.

Mac Book Pro 15"
HP 22" Widescreen Monitor
Western Digital 1 TB My Book Pro (External Hard Drive)

http://www.ballewsawandtool.com (http://www.ballewsawandtool.com/)

[Ramps]

Answer to the original question No! not good value for money:o
there I've done it!!:D

[Greg Q]

I have an original, first generation 128k Mac in the attic, which I really liked. Circa 1983 or so, back when WYSIWYG was revolutionary. Now we have a 20" G5 iMac piece of ???? which has never been right, and is now starting its third week in the Apple Centre waiting for parts. Never again.

[Eli]

We have two G5's, two powerbook G4's. Always gotta account for applecare support in the price I say. Stay on them to fix their crap. That's what makes the new stuff better. Having said that, I love them when they work.

[Studley 2436]

Value for money is a hard one to argue. When I got my first eMac I looked at the price to get a Windows Box to the same level and went eek the eMac is lot less. It didn't need any other stuff at all.

The macs have never been pitched at the low end of the market so the dollar price is not always a useful indicator.

Studley

[Charles S.]

I am currently running on a Microsoft OS but I have previously used Apple Mac. I must say that there are a lot of differences between the two, the main one is compatibility. This is the reason why I am getting sucked into all of Microsoft's new inventions, they are compatible with all of the latest programs. :)

[zenwood]

Had macs at home for about the last 15 years, without a hitch . . . until now.

Current eMac died and has been with NextByte being fixed for the past 8 (EIGHT!!) weeks. Now awaiting a replacement iMac from Apple in Sydney. This experience has almost been enough to put me off macs.:(( The technology is great, but . . .

[Studley 2436]

Ouch that is one that hurts Zen

I had a mac repaired after a power surge that blew the power supply to bits. Said I have to have this fast. They said sure costs double and had it ready the next day.

I think computer repairs are a bit like that. TV repairs for that matter too, my TV had to be fixed recently and was weeks in the shop. They promised but never got to it. In fact they promised to call me back with updates and never did that either. Then some kid served me and gave me lip copped it back worse and went sooking to his corner because I wasn't giving him any respect! They seemed to have it back to front, you would have thought a customer deserves common courtesy but that wasn't how they did things there.

The New iMac is a blinder of a machine from what I can see.

Studley

[Ian Wells]

I've used Apples for close to 20 years, and had so few problems as compared to the few PC/windows machines I've had. When the Macs have broken I've found that Apple Australia is usually great, but a few dealers I've had business with have let the side down.

As I used to run call centers I know that the squeaky (but accurate and polite) wheel gets fixed first. Be very persistent, polite and state clearly what you want to happen ie. fix. If they say they are going to call back ask when? Then write it down and read it back to them to confirm.They hate it when people take notes and names.

In my experience most tech/customer service people are under resourced and not allowed make the sort of snap decision that we'd all like them to, they are always under pressure to turnover calls so use this to get them to say yes to you.
If they are giving you the runaround,wasting your time, waste theirs, talk slowly, ask long questions but relevant questions, summarize what has been said so far, ask them to summarize and ask what solution they would like to supply, go on and on, most call centers have hanging up on a customer as a formal warning type offense so it rare that they will,
As most tech/customer service people are timed as part of their performance appraisal often they will move more quickly to go the "extra mile" if they know you are going to blow out their stats.
Oh did I mention that you should be polite, extra polite , syrupy nice in fact. If you yell or swear you'll lose, as they can put you down in their file as abusive or vexatious, which often lets them off the hook and will influence their response to you next time you ring with a problem as they all use CRM (Customer Relationship Management) software to manage your file. Stating that your problem is not with the person taking the call all helps to win them to your case, you want them as your advocate your case.

sorry about the long post, quite cathartic writing it though , hope it helps you all to get the response you want.

Ian

[Stuart]

I've had a MacBook Pro 17" (intel) since just before Christmas. So refreshing since using WinDoze for years. Got my wife a Powerbook (PPC) a couple of years ago, and have a MacMini (PPC) for a year and a half.

At work, I plug in a 23" widescreen Apple screen, and use a bluetooth keyboard and mouse. At home, I work directly on the laptop with the BT mouse.

Parallels 3.0 has just been released which makes running Windows in a virtual environment very easy - I have Windows programs in the dock (at the bottom of the screen), so while in OSX, I use Windows and Mac programs interchangably.

Of course, there is also Bootcamp, which means you can fire up Windows natively, and that is how I've set up the inlaws' computer - they turn it on, and it fires up Windows by default- so they have Apple hardware and Windows software. I know some people have experienced service delays, but as a general rule, I have found Apple hardware to be very good quality - having experienced a number of laptops over the last few years, the hardware of this current is the best by far, (however the IBM laptop I had a few computers ago came a close second- again exceptional quality and design).

I'd love a G5 - especially the latest quad core 2 (equivalent to 8 CPUs!!!!), but the cost, plus the extra RAM (I'd want to jamb the extra 15GBs or so into it, but that adds $7k to the price!!!) means I can't justify it :(

Anyway, so far - very impressed.

[kiwigeo]

How frequently you have to upgrade your machine needs to be factored into the "cost" of a Mac. Time spent dealing with software/hardware problems also has a cost.

Mac (800Mhz G4 Tibook) - 6 years old now, runs latest OS no problems and no reason to upgrade it. Cost me $6000 including software.

Windows Laptop - I was upgrading every 2 years on average. Cost over six years = $2000 x 3 = $6000

The Mac aint more expensive than the Windows machines I was using. Add in the time spent dicking with the windows machines (time is money) then long term the Mac turns out cheaper than a Windows machine.

[woodbe]

That reminds me.

If you have a bunch of Macs at home and you want to upgrade them all to the latest version of OSX (every 2 years or so, there is a major upgrade), you can buy a 'family pack' for $100 more than the single license.

And, it doesn't have some pathetic and annoying anti-piracy rubbish about registering or-else it will stop working. Buy it and use it. I resent being treated as a pirate when I actually paid for software. With Windows, we are all Pirates until we prove otherwise.

Aaaar, me mateys! :D

woodbe.

[zenwood]

Current eMac died and has been with NextByte being fixed for the past 8 (EIGHT!!) weeks. Now awaiting a replacement iMac from Apple in Sydney.

Week 10 and counting . . .

[andymcw110]

20" iMac G5 PPC-2.1ghz HD-500Ghz 1.5Ghz ram (Noice)
15" TiG4 500mhz 20Ghz (just to surf the web and control itunes via wifi)
30Gig iPod Gen3

[javali]

Powerbook G4 15" and 9 iMacs something or other.


Week 10 and counting . . .

They are just waiting for you to run out of warranty.

[zenwood]

They are just waiting for you to run out of warranty.
I'm very unhappy with NextByte and Apple. No-one has taken responsibility for handling my case. I Have never received a single phone call from them, but had to chase them up continually to get status reports. I've been given conflicting stories of what the problem is, and how they are addressing it. No single action has taken them less than a week to perform (e.g. pack up computer and to send to Sydney: 1 1/2 weeks). I've felt like I was always their very lower priority. No-one on their side has seemingly noticed that it's taken 10 weeks so far to get this resolved. At one stage they thought they had repaired it, and I had to take a day off to take it home to discover it still didn't work, and then had to spend three hours hanging around NextByte for them to try to fix it (and failing to do so). Simply outrageous. I think I'm officially off macs as a result of this experience.

My daughter who has been hampered with myspace, chat, year 12 assignments, etc., is off macs too. My son who has been excluded for his WoW life probably feels the same.

[kiwigeo]

Zen,

Ive noticed the service has gone downhill at Glen Osmond Rd Nextbyte where I got my Powerbook. This is not good.

[Greg Q]

We got our G5 iMac back after three weeks and loss of all data. The repair centre guys were nice and friendly every time that I rang (because they NEVER rang back with info when they said they would), but it really left me cranky that they had no (common) parts, and were soooo slow.

The repair (new hard drive) lasted 12 hours. The next time only took three days, and they threw in a new mighty mouse, but still...

One final bitch about the dealer (NextByte) is that they gave me a 1300 number to call during my travels. "The cost of a local call" it says on their brochure. That's because it only connects you to the nearest store, with no ability to speak to the store you want. So I ask you: What's the point of that if its only good for calling the local store "for the price of a local call"?

I really like Apple products when new, but I'll be making sure that they give me extended warranty for free if I ever buy another one.

[zenwood]

After 11 weeks they finally replaced the dead eMac with a new iMac. A very nice machine. The data seems to have been transferred ok, but a mysterious microsoft thing has crept in so that word alway goes of to a website to tell you about the latest version, and fails to open the doc! I hate microsoft. A call to Apple tech support failed to resolve the issue. *sigh*

The Next Byte service was very bad indeed: not a single phone call from them the whole time. Perhaps they give business customers priority?

Are there any other Mac dealers in Adelaide besides Next Byte?

The new iMac is a very nice machine. The core 2GHz core 2 duo and 2GB RAM make for serious frames per second on World of Warcraft.

[Peter57]

Just purchased a MacBook Pro. 15", 2.4 GHz, etc. great machine so far.:D

[zenwood]

Just bought a new computer. Soprano case, Gigabyte motherboard, AMD athlon 64 4800 AM2 Dual Core 65W CPU, 2GB DDR2 RAM, XFX Geforce 8600GT 256MB 620MHz 1.6GHz PCIE Video Card, Vista Home Premium ....

Very nice unit.

[woodbe]

You Turncoat! :D

[zenwood]

Well, woodbe, I hope you don't blame me.:D

Weird experience joining the mainstream....next thing you know, I'll be voting for Johnny!

[woodbe]

Not at all, I can't really talk - I have a Mac, a Linux box, and a Windows box within arms reach...

Voting for Johnny? I thought he wasn't mainstream anymore?

woodbe.

[Bob38S]

The eMac I mentioned above - well, last Monday, I went out a made a coffee, came back to the machine and it was OFF, black screen and dead. Panic stations as I'm in the middle of booking accommodation etc for a trip and I wouldn't be able to get my forum fix.

Rang, the techs and told the sad story, symptoms and all agreed - me too - it appears the power supply would probably be gone - quote $500 +. Not happy Jan :no:[or any other name which you choose to fit]. As the eMac was an early one I decided to put the $500+ repairs to a new iMac, 2GHz Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 1 gig of RAM and a Super Drive, mighty mouse and a remote control. An absolute ripper!

Now here is the kicker - right in the wallet, :doh::o

Had the tech look at the old eMac to check out if I could get the HD removed and if Ok then rigged as a remote storage HD for the new iMac.

:2tsup: How is this for honesty :2tsup:
- tech rang and said he couldn't find any scorching, bridging leaking caps etc inside the eMac but he did find a blown fuse - which he replaced and the machine booted fine. Couldn't really suggest a reason for the blown fuse as the surge protected power strip was fine as was the printer and Palm pilot which were all through the same strip. Total cost for the repair $20

So to answer the question again "Anyone else got a Mac?"

Well, I had one but now have 2.

[zenwood]

Well done Bob. Turned out alright in the end, but again seems to highlight the woeful state of Apple support. $500 quote when a fuse fixed the problem is not good engineering practice.

But agree that the new iMac is a fine machine. I quite like the little track ball on the mighty mouse for 2-D scrolling. Now I feel cheated when I go back to a wheel mouse on PCs.

I'm still having strange system crashes with the new iMac. Fiddling with GarageBand results in numerous crashes. And other family members have reported problems with iTunes requiring system restarts for no apparent reason.

I think I made the right decision: it's great having a Mac and and PC within arms reach in the same room. Must say that Vista seems to be a very nice system, and quite similar in some aspects to OSX. The Vista search facility has finally brought windows searching up to a similar level as OSX.

[Jet.Flight]

My first computer was a TRS-80 back in 1979 when the dinasours roamed the world. Since the arrival of the Mac I have used the Apple brand exclusively ( at home, not at work). My other hobby is video editing and I currently have a MacBook Pro, a 20" Intel iMac and a 20" Cinema Display. All works beautifully.

[ubeaut]

One of my sons did a Masters degree in Graphic Arts and Design at Uni many years ago and was told he had to have the latest Mac to do the work (at the time over $12,000)

I built him the latest IBM clone fitted out with the latest windows (98 2nd edition) and loaded with adobe and all the other programs he needed . Total cost was just over $1,200, around 10% of the Mac. It worked just as fast and in some instances better than the Macs and he passed all subjects with honors right throughout the entire 4 years of the course. His last puter cost him nothing as I built 2 newies with all new parts purchased at a computer Swap Meet and gave him one, total for the 2 was only around $1,200.
5 years on and both are still going strong. Had to replace a power supply and cpu fan on one and a hard drive on the other. Other than that there's never a problem and when they do go bung they don't cost an arm and a leg to fix.

Let's see a complete novice do that with a Mac.

Heres a couple of his latest works still being done on cheap IBM clones.
http://superclan.com.au/
http://cubedconcepts.com.au/
http://mylearningtrain.com/

It is often not the computer but the programs that are run on the computers that are the problem. If it wasn't for IBM clones and Bill Gates, computers would still only be in the hands of the rich. My son wouldn't have his masters and most kids wouldn't have access to computers outside school hours. For that matter most schools wouldn't have computers.

I know Macs are supposed to be almost infallible and that the windows based IBM's are thought of a crap by Mac users but hey if it works for you why knock it. Reading some of the above I'd be a bit upset if my $7,000 mac carked it. Doesn't hurt as much when your $700 ibm does.

[bitingmidge]

You see Neil, there are times when even you don't quite get it right! :p If you care to check out current Mac prices you'll be surprised at how competitive they are with equivalent component standards.

The carked "$7,000" eMac above? Probably worth about $200 (or less now), but lets' see you get even $200 for a Windows machine. OK the iMac is a bit more, but not $7k!! From memory, my eMac cost about $2,400 six years ago (on release), and that was about the same as a similarly configured PC with quality components. OF course the PC didn't have wireless networking capability, and you'd have to buy your photo management, music and "productivity" software as well, which came standard and loaded ready to go. That's just as well, because some of us don't know how to stick computers together.

The people who tell you that you "need" expensive computer ware are not confined to the Mac world. Similarly the people who "build" computers never cost their own time in. I have a computer, not a hobby! :p All components in the Mac are outsourced anyway, you'll find Hitachi, Motorola, etc etc in there.

One of my sons-in-law is currently saving to kit out his (amateur) recording studio, with PC gear. He is pretty discouraged because the best he can do currently is over $20k (including Win Vista of course). He listens to the "people who know".

My other one is a pro musician, and uses a discarded 10 year old iMacDV on which he spent the princely sum of $130 increasing the RAM, and added a rather large external hard drive. It's completely slow and frustrating to use, and one day he'll replace it with an iMac (about $3k), but in the meantime it's earning a living. I'm not sure that PC's could do that ten years ago! :wink: The first S-I-L knows it's not possible to do that, so doesn't try!

My point is not to enter a weeing competition, but if you are going to start one, you'd better be able to pee higher than that! :D

For crying out loud, they are simply tools. I've been told I need a $12,000 table saw too, yet heaps of people get by with a Triton.

For what it's worth, there's a bit more to running a computer than it's purchase price, so don't speak too loudly till you've costed in the software and maintenance costs. Our office has three Macs, and five PC's. Over the past two years, cost of maintenance, de-bugging, re-thinging, and whatever else those service blokes do has run to over $5k for the P.C's. That's right, $1,000 each. For the Macs 0, zero, zip!

Gee I hate being all brand thingy, but tomorrow I expect the new iMac to be released, and I'm going to get one later in the year!

cheers,

P (email me at my .mac account! :D )

[munruben]

Back to the original question. No I don't have a mac and never have so guess I can't comment on them being good or bad. I have no problem with my computers. When I retired I did a two year course and qualified as a computer repairer ( repairer opposed to technician. Technicians have electricians qualifications which I don't have) so I build my own computers and maintain them myself so cost is not a problem for me.
I am not knocking the Mac. I have had no experience with them.

[zenwood]

Having used both PCs and Macs for many years, and not being a computer geek (I don't know how to build a computer, for example), I thought the articles in the recent PC Authority magazine (issue 117, 2007) gave a pretty good summary of the pros and cons of each platform. I think the zealotry attributed to straw men is a bit of a furphy. I doubt there's a single Mac user who doesn't also use PCs.

[bitingmidge]

I think the zealotry attributed to straw men is a bit of a furphy. I doubt there's a single Mac user who doesn't also use PCs.
It's interesting, because most of the shouting seems to come from PC users who've never used a Mac!

It's even more interesting because "they" get uptight about which computer can do what better, arguing down to time splits that I will never have a hope of comprehending, while the actual bit that makes the thing work is the software.

So Photoshop is Photoshop no matter what platform. RAM is RAM, etc.

What it gets down to is reliability and maintenance costs. Reliability is a function of quality of hardware, and operating system.

I think I'll stop there! :D :D :D

P

[woodbe]

It's only one data point, but in the company we had a bit over 100 desktop systems. 90 of them were Macs, the rest were PC's running windows.

The statistics spoke for themselves. Regardless of user preference and bias, the worst thing that happened to the Macs was the odd hard disk, keyboard or mouse failure. We had many Macs still working fine 3-4 years after installation that had NEVER had maintenance at all.

On the other hand, the 10 or so PC's killed themselves on a regular basis. The hardware problems were probably only slightly worse than the Macs, but the operating software forced regular maintenance on all of the machines. None of them got to end-of-life with the original installations.

The Macs cost maybe 50% more than the PC's back then, but when you take into account the maintenance costs and the technician time over the life of the computer, $7000 would probably have been cheap.

People don't look at it like that though. There is a personal elevation of our choice as superior to those options we did not choose that has fuelled some of the greatest internet flame wars ever known.

woodbe.

[Studley 2436]

The first emac I got cost $2200. At the time there were cheaper PC's but to get them to the point the mac was would cost about the same or even a few hundred more.

Personally I have both but find the mac a much nicer system to use. Easier to keep going too.

Studley

[bitingmidge]

The new iMac was released today.

http://www.apple.com/au/imac/specs.html

I'd be interested to see if anyone can configure an identical set up for less money! (Don't forget the software! :wink: )

cheers,

P (saving up $2,700 for an upspec'd 20 incher)

:D :D :D

[Grunt]

I can get a Dell with
Intel® Core™2 Quad Core Processor Q6600(2.4GHz, 1066FSB, 8MB)
3gb RAM
500GB hard drive
22" Wide Screen
256MB NVIDIA® Geforce® 8600GT

That comes with Video Editing, Photo Editing and Music/CD/DVD Ripping software,

for $2100

What other software do you get with the Mac?

[zenwood]

Grunt: does that include a warranty? anti virus software? Windows? DVD burner? speakers? webcam? keyboard and mouse? I ask because I'm interested in comparing your price with the PC I recently bought.

The iMac software package (at Midge's link) is:
Mac OS X v10.4.10 Tiger (includes Spotlight, Dashboard, Mail, iChat AV, Safari, Address Book, QuickTime, iCal, DVD Player, Xcode Developer Tools)
iLife ’08 (includes iTunes, iPhoto, iMovie, iDVD, iWeb, GarageBand)
iWork ’08 (30-day trial)
Front Row
Photo BoothI recommend PhotoBooth to anyone with teenagers: they spend hours taking pics of themselves using the built-in cam, and adding weird effects. Great fun. In fact SWMBO and little SWMBO were in stitches for hours using this thing.

[Grunt]

Includes Keyboard, Mouse, DVD+RW dual layer writer, 2 years next day on-site warranty, it does have speaker but probably not great. $119 for some whiz bang speakers.

No web cam but you can get them for bugger all.

It comes with email, address book, calendar, chat et el.

Oops, forgot it comes with 36 months of McAfee Anti-Virus but I would use the free AGV anti-virus system.

[Studley 2436]

I suspect the monitor is the big difference there Grunt.

I have an Eizo that is 20 inches and cost $2000 and that is a cheap one. They make others same size but better that cost $7000! Macs have always had good monitors on them.

It is all to do with the bit depth inbuilt look up table and so on.

I am pretty sure that the imac belts any PC in it's price range.

Studley

[Grunt]

I suspect the monitor is the big difference there Grunt.

I suspect not. They both come with LCD monitors.

If you want the whiz bang 24" ultra-sharp 1920-1200 wide screen monitor for the Dell it'll set you back an extra $540. Or you can get the 27" monitor for $900.

I've got an ultra-sharp 17" monitor in my new Dell laptop at the same resolution and it is spectacular.



I am pretty sure that the imac belts any PC in it's price range.

The components for the Mac are made by the same people who make the components for PCs. They are simply cheaper for the PC.

[Studley 2436]

Trust me Grunt there are monitors and monitors. The Eizo monitor for instance has a 12 bit look up table. This means it displays 12 bit colour compared to the 8 bits the PC puts out. 256 colours v 4096. This makes a massive difference when you are printing photos.

$2100 for a PC with a 22 inch LCD well there isn't any doubt that is a real cheap and nasty monitor. Trust me I make my living from working with a monitor. The better the monitor the better the output.

Studley

[bitingmidge]

They both come with LCD monitors.

No they don't! :wink: Apple go to the top shelf: (Low power use too!)

24-inch (viewable) glossy widescreen TFT active-matrix liquid crystal display

Add also the cost of high speed wireless networking.

I didn't intend this to continue that weeing contest, what it's done is shown that they are within cooee. Again, if you actually compare the componentry, I'll wager there's a small difference in "brand" as well.

Of course to some of us the design quality is worth a premium, and we've just shown that it's a small one indeed.

I can sleep happy, knowing I'm not going to fork out $2k and a bit for something Neil could do for $700! :D

Cheers,

P

[bitingmidge]

TI Radeon HD 2600 PRO graphics processor
256MB of GDDR3 memory

Oh, and bluetooth.

Cheers,

P
:D

[Grunt]

Add also the cost of high speed wireless networking.

That's included as well. As well as bluetooth.

I think you will find the screens on both will be very similar in quality.

The Dell is higher spec'ed then the Mac.

I use a PC because I need to for work. I build software for businesses and they run Microsoft.

When I retire, I think I'll get a Mac because the only thing I want to do with computers is surf the internet, look at some now and again and use Photoshop.

After 25+ years in the computer industry, I really don't want to see another computer. I figure a Mac is close.

Chris

[bitingmidge]

After 25+ years in the computer industry, I really don't want to see another computer. I figure a Mac is close.

Exactly my reason for using them! :wink:

Cheers,

P
:D

[Grunt]

This means it displays 12 bit colour compared to the 8 bits the PC puts out. 256 colours v 4096. This makes a massive difference when you are printing photos.


Try 32 bit colour on my screen. I know quality monitors and I've got one.

[Wood Butcher]

It really comes down to what you need the computer for. At the moment I am still play a foew games with mates at LAN parties and those games will not run on a MAC platform like as good as a PC. But I also do lots of desktop publishing for Uni and School so for that I would rather have a Mac.

Once this computer I have now dies I will probably replace it with an iMac mainly because I won't be playing games forever and the Apple is better for desktop publishing and audio-visual work, but I will always have a PC kicking around somewhere because that is what almost every school has their CAD systems running on for doind Graphics.

[Studley 2436]

Try 32 bit colour on my screen. I know quality monitors and I've got one.

Boy I'd like to know what monitor that is Grunt

Studley

[Grunt]

I don't know that you can buy an LCD monitor now that isn't 32bit colour anymore.

I've also just purchased another monitor that is 19" ViewSonic at 1440 x 900 pixels for $320 that is quite good but not as good as my laptop. It has 32 bit colour.

As a software developer, it's handy having lots of screen real estate. The two monitors help.

I pretend to be a photographer and quality colour monitor is important to me.

[Studley 2436]

I think the crucial point here Grunt is that a computer (most likely mac as well don't know) has 8 bit look up table meaning 8 bit colour output. To get around this the high end manufacturers decided to put their own look up table in the monitor. My old monitor was 10 bit but got stolen and so I got a replacement with 12 bit LUT.

They might be saying their monitor is capable of displaying 32 bit colour but of course it counts for nothing if the monitor only gets 8 bit information.

Studley

[bitingmidge]

They might be saying their monitor is capable of displaying 32 bit colour but of course it counts for nothing if the monitor only gets 8 bit information.

Which I think is why Apple is being sued for saying their monitors display millions of colours!

P