Looking for a new desktop

I currently post from a year old Dell laptop, its not the easiest thing to do, get feedback that pic's are too dark.

So, my desktop is a 8year Dell with windows 98se, can not run CS2 on it way to slow to do any editing!

I am in the market for a new one, I do have a nice 19" flatscreen from Dell for a monitor, so I may not need one.

I did a Mike & Mike Cayman Aggressor photo week and they are Mac cult followers and have been preaching GO MAC!

So my question is what are most of you using and why?

I have gotten back say stay away from Dell ( I have personally never had a problem), or get a HP, which I know absolutely nothing about!

Or do I make the switch now and go MAC! I could still use the Dell laptop for travel and replace it with a Mac down the road.

My budget would like to be under 2grand, but I speced out a Mac and it was around 3 grand. I would go this high if MAC stands head and shoulders above everyone else.

I do not want to go too cheap and get something that is useless in 2 years.

Thanks for any advice

Macs are used by most photographers and graphic designers. And you can now run Windows on Macs, too.

If you want an inexpensive desktop a good choice might be a higher-end Mac Mini, which should well under $1,000 and allow you to use your peripherals (monitor, keyboard, mouse) that you already have. They're a really good deal if you don't need the power of Power Mac or MacBook Pro and you don't need new peripherals. The Mini is also tiny, so you can get rid of that clunky tower. The iMacs are great, too, though: slim, big screens, fast and plenty of memory. I think they even have a 24-inch iMac now...

As for laptops, you could get a G4 Powerbook for a pretty good price, or you could opt for the upper-end MacBook at $1400 or the MacBook Pro (which replaced the Powerbook) at $1700. Might be worth letting Apple work out the kinks in the new laptops before shelling out that much for one. I've heard that they get really hot.

I've been using Macs since my family bought the very first black&white when I was 8 years old, so I'm biased.

A 20" iMac through the Apple website with 2GB of memory is under $1700 and is a great machine. More than fast enough for still photo stuff, Photoshop etc. I have a MacPro Desktop which is very fast and of course expandable if that's important to you, but they start at $2400 without a monitor.

So my question is what are most of you using and why?

I have gotten back say stay away from Dell ( I have personally never had a problem), or get a HP, which I know absolutely nothing about!

Or do I make the switch now and go MAC! I could still use the Dell laptop for travel and replace it with a Mac down the road.

My budget would like to be under 2grand, but I speced out a Mac and it was around 3 grand. I would go this high if MAC stands head and shoulders above everyone else.

I do not want to go too cheap and get something that is useless in 2 years.

If you've personally never had a problem with a Dell, why would you take someone elses personal experience and put it above your own? You are the one working with the thing, not them. For the last several years ive bought Dell machines as my workhorse Windows/photoedit/gaming machine and ive been more than happy. I recently bought a Dell XPS710, and am very pleased. Im buying a second one so my wife wont bug me when she wants to edit her photos!

I have an HP (and a mac) at work, but it's running Linux so I cant tell how well it performs under Windows. It's a very nice machine too, and i trust the person making our buying decisions at work so they're probably pretty decent.

I think that bang for buck, mac's wont cut it against non-macs (cant say 'intel' machines anymore I have owned 2 macs, so Im not against them at all. They're very nice machines (just bought a used one for mom, cause they're so darn easy to use), but still a bit expensive. Are you willing to spend that much money to perhaps find out its not what you want, or are used to? You're used to your dell, you had no problems with it, why not stay with what you know and use the money saved to rav it up some more?

Cor

I would advise you to get the best spec machine that your budget will allow.

The increased demands that HDV & large Raw files place on a system will make you really appreciate the deciscion to option up your machine.

We use Mac's through out our firm - it allows the staff to spend their time being creative.

Mac Ads

I have a Dell XPS laptop and it's a tank compared to my MacBook Pro. When comparing price, when one compares similarly performing and spec machines, most reviews now show Macs as pretty comparable to PC's. I think it really comes down to which operating system you want to use. If you want to stay with Windows, buy a PC, if you want to change to the Mac operating system and apps buy a Mac. It makes little sense in my opinion to buy a Mac if you think you are going to stick with Windows apps.

There can still be issues with peripherals etc when trying to run Windows apps on a Mac using Parallels. If it all possible, spend some time playing with a Mac, download demos of Aperture and other Mac specific software, and then decide.

Also check out Vista before deciding,

I have a Dell XPS laptop and it's a tank compared to my MacBook Pro.

I assumed the poster wanted a desktop, not a laptop. I would not recommend an XPS laptop One of my collegues has an XPS 'lugtop', geez thats a monster. The XPS710 is also a monster, desktop wise. I wouldnt really recommend it either for photoedit uses, you can use plenty of other Dell machines (or mac desktops, if you so choose.. it really all doesnt matter, there's pros and cons to everything).

Cor

Of the three brands you mention, the only one I've heard the most often spoken with swear words is HP.

I've had good luck with Dell; when something has broken it has been handled quickly and to my satisfaction. With my Dell laptops, one experience that stuck out was when I destroyed the screen. I had a new laptop in my hands the next day.

I will say that I've heard feedback from 2 friends that said they had painful purchasing experiences with Dell (they spoke with a person on the phone to order); folks that stick to the web for ordering seem to have had a great experience purchasing.

Apple vs Windows is worthy of evangelical flame wars. In my very humble opinion, it comes down to what OS you are comfortable with. Here's why I think so:

At the newspaper we went from Mac, to being the only Macs in the newsroom, to PC's. When I visit other newspapers all I see are PC's. When I go to graphics houses or places that work with graphics (t-shirts, billboards, signage, magazines) all I see are PC's now where there used to be Macs. I use Adobe and Photo Mechanic on Macs and PC's and the workflow is almost exactly the same. Hmmph. I also don't see much difference (in all honesty) between XP and OS X in stability or crash-happyness. Apple has dropped prices from the stratosphere, so performance is actually on a price parity now. So, get what you are most productive with.

I swore my next home PC was going to be from End PC Noise, since I was tired of not being able to hear myself think. I could have ended up with a Mac - I went to the Apple store and had one all picked out - but somehow I ended up with a Dell XPS 710, with a 4 year warranty that covers everything including spilled coffee, and more performance than I can use, for less. How'd that happen? I guess the Borg really do exist!

All the best, James