Mac Buyer's Guide: Which Apple Should You Pick?

informationWeek ^ | 03/22/2008 | By Richard Hoffman

[Swordmaker]

1) Up the maximum memory limit on RAM to 8 GB.

I agree.

2) Make sure new iMacs are preloaded with MacOS X 10.5.2.

They will as soon as the OSX.5.1 versions already in the pipeline are sold out the spigot. If you buy your iMac at a Apple Store, they will upgrade it for you for free.

3) Provide a better keyboard (the current iMac keyboard doesn't look like it's comfortable for long-term typing).

I disagree. I bought one of the new keyboards for my G5 Tower and it is wonderful to type on. It is very comfortable and easy to use.

[Gomez]

You don't need as much RAM

Not that the original poster may have a problem with this, but you can use up memory pretty fast when you start running virtual machines.

[aristotleman]

This is good to hear. I don’t know where I heard this, but I’ve had the impression that hackers don’t bother with macs because they can’t influence enough computers. 30M?! Fantastic.

[RayChuang88]

As one used to the Microsoft Natural Elite keyboard, going to the new Mac keyboard was an uncomfortable experience—it felt “unnatural” (literally!) and the typing feel wasn’t that great, either. You can use the Microsoft Natural Ergonomic Keyboard 4000 on a Mac, but I’m hoping Microsoft offers a version with extra function keys designed for MacOS X 10.4.x and 10.5.x versions.

[Ted]

I just got a refurb current version aluminum iMac for $999. What a steal - it’s awesome. It has the full 1 year warranty and looks perfect. I had read about some color display concerns with the new iMac displays but mine looks perfect to my eyes.

Leopard is noticeably faster than Tiger on my other 18 month old iMac. Leopard does a shutdown in ~4 seconds and startup is fast as well. Amazing how different that one task is from a PC, but of course I rarely have to reboot a Mac anyway... I love the 20 inch glass screen and new keyboard. I’m going to load XP Home under Parallels for my wife to use (don’t ask), but with the 250GB drive that’s no sweat.

Just saw an ad yesterday for a 750GB external USB 2.0 drive at Fry’s for $169. I already have a 250GB external drive for Time Machine backups, but it’s crazy how cheap storage has become (just cleaned out some old 100MB ZIP disks out of my office...)

[ccmay]

Save 65% of the money and buy a PC.

My time is valuable enough that the very first time I had to waste a couple of hours re-installing Windows, I would be better off buying Mac. If you live in Mom's basement and make $5.65 an hour, by all means go with Windows. Knock yourself out. Build your own box, and you can save a ton of money.

But if you actually do work with your computer, and don't want to waste hours each month dealing with spyware, flaky virus-protection programs, DLL hell, and Windows wipes and re-installs, then stick with Mac.

-ccm