MAC advice please for PC user

[The Real Slim Shady]

I have very limited experience of the Mac, as a Windows PC user, having used one about 15 years ago.

My son now needs a Mac for college in September and I haven't got a clue what would be appropriate: he is doing a Photography course.

If I could get a reasonable machine second hand that would be OK as he already has a VAIO and the Mac would just be for compatibility with the machines at college.

It doesn't have to be a laptop either.

May I have your advice and opinions on an a solution?

[Background Noise]

If you get an intel-based mac, either desktop (imac) or laptop (macbook or macbook pro) he can run windows as well and be doubly compatible.

Large photo files take up a lot of space so a big hard disk will be useful - and an external drive or 2 for overflow and back ups. A big screen I suppose for photo work - so a 20" or bigger imac, or an ext screen for a laptop.

[aidanf]

agree with points above ... just to add that a Mac Mini might also be an option. This would utilise existing screen and keyboard ... it's just a tiny (but powerful) Mac in a 6.5" square by 2" tall box!

[Land After]

If buying new, he will be eligible for Higher Education discount. If buying on the phone you need to ask for the discount, there are links on the website that will give you an idea of the prices.

[The Real Slim Shady]

Thanks folks, I'll start looking around.

[Mac the Knife]

I got a Mac Mini as my first Mac when I decided to check out this Mac thing.

Excellent little beast that has been subjected to various upgrades. Best value Mac there is.

A new Mac Mini (get the 2Mhz one with 2GB memory and a 160GB HDD) is a remarkably compact and powerful little machine. It is so small you can use it almost as a portable if you have a keyboard/screen in both locations. The built-in video card isn't the hottest but it's fine for less demanding Windows games.

Go for it. :ok:

PS: If you get Parallels Desktop and have a copy of XP it'll run Windows quite happily inside a Mac virtual machine. Same goes for most modern Linuxes, BSD and Solaris, so you can have the best of all worlds.

[Takeoff WAT]

You can't go wrong with an iMac, beautiful, compact design, big clear screens and plenty of software out their for creative pursuits.

For photography purposes I would suggest at least a 20 inch Intel based iMac, with 2Gb RAM. PC World have them for around £800 with 1Gb RAM and you can simply upgrade to 2Gb with a kit from Crucial for about £30. (Very simple pop in memory slots at base of screen, no need to take the box apart.)

I think current iMacs come with iLife included which has a basic iPhoto package but Adobe Photoshop is a must have purchase for serious digital photography. Apple also do a software package called Aperture, what seems to be a more beefed up version of iPhoto, useful for cataloging your digital images.

Also, all Intel-Macs come with Boot Camp installed which means you can install a copy of Windows XP and/or Vista as a second operating system on your Mac and simply switch between the two depending on what software you want to run. I've got a second generation Intel-Mac and I run Windows XP on it without any problems.

If you want to be portable then a Macbook is great but you're going to have to go for a larger screen Macbook Pro, which will be costly, as the entry level versions may be limited for processing speed and storage.

Current iMacs come with about 250Gb of hard drive storage but external hard-drives are cheap these days so if you're going to store huge numbers of images I'd suggest getting one, they simply plug into a USB or Firewire port on the Mac.

The current operating system on the Macs is Leopard but there are rumours that the next uprgrade will allow Windows compatible software to run on the Mac without Windows XP or Vista being installed at all, simply using the native OS X. Not sure how far away this is going to be though.

T/O WAT

[FlyingNikonian]

If you can afford it, get the lad a MacBook Pro. I love mine!:ok:

Also, make sure it's one with a matte screen and not one of those glossy thingys.
They're (the glossy ones) absolutely useless for editing, unless you plan on calibrating it in a pitch dark room and then have your boy working in there, in order to not get the screen flooded with reflexes.:ugh:

Also, you should try to get one with an Intel Core2Duo. Why?
With a C2D, you can expand the memory to 4Gb, which is really nice to have when you're working with multiple layers in (for example) Photoshop.
I do it all the time, and wish that I'd bought a C2D for that very reason!!:hmm:
It tends to get a bit slow after a while!:sad:

[innuendo]

I'll second Nikonian's suggestions especially if the photo work involves Apple's Aperture program, Adobe's Light Room and of course Adobe's CS3, (Photoshop). Those programs will benefit significantly from more powerful CPUs and graphics cards, especially Aperture which uses the graphics card extensively. The Mac Book Pro has a separate graphics card where the Mini and MacBook do not. In fact from what I read the Mini is probably a bit marginal for Aperture and the MacBook, while better may be a bit slow. If the budget allows, go for all the RAM you can get in any of the MACs, (other than the Pro of course, but I don't imagine you are going there).

One more thing the Mac Book screen is only available in glossy as are the new iMacs. One suggestion is to have a look at the Mac store for refurbished models. They get a full going over before sale and are probably given a better inspection than the new models. The "White iMacs", (previous models) can be had with matte screens, are pretty powerful and the panel quality in the 20" and 24" is top notch.

Edited to add: If you want to increase the RAM do not get it from Apple, they charge a lot. Look at someone like Other World Computing or Crucial, they have good stuff at a much more reasonable price.