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LadyStardust · 07-03-2008, 11:55

There have been a few threads recently in this Forum about Macs so I'm hoping there are some knowledgeable souls out there!

Okay, here's my dilemma.

I have a three year old Dell desktop with a lovely 19" monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse and to date have been very happy with it. The hard disk is 160GB and is only just over half full and I've got 3GB of RAM. I use the computer mainly for email (Office 2003), Photoshop CS3, internet browsing, MS Office documents and I also back up my Sony Clie PDA to it regularly using Palm Desktop. However, despite the amount of memory, it's pretty slow and takes ages to boot up and get going now.

The hard disk is on its way out and nearly every day the PC eventually blue screens, accompanied by a horrible "my ball bearings are wearing out" clicking sound from the innards of the machine. So I've recently invested in a 1TB Western Digital external hard disk and have installed a free copy of Allway Sync on there to back up stuff I'm working on at the moment (I have a Pixalo Photo World photo book in progress, for example) and essential broadband modem drivers etc. In December I did full backups to DVD of everything so am pretty happy that I'm covered on the data front if the hard disk suddenly goes.

So... as my husband is just about to pay his golf fees for the year, he's given me the go ahead to get whatever I need to replace my workstation (wey hey!) - within reason. In addition, he could make use of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers as he's recently landed a home based job and should be getting a docking station for his laptop.

I have seen a Dell Inspiron base unit on Tesco.com for £399 - Dell Inspiron 530 PC Base Unit - Tesco.Direct. I don't think it has a soundcard but I should be able to scavenge my current one and port it across. It has a 500GB hard disk and 3GB of RAM. Pretty good value, although I don't think the graphics card is up to much.

BUT... I am thinking about going down the Mac route. I use my computer nearly every day and enjoy it, so perhaps I should opt for change and plunge into becoming a Mac user. I can get a basic iMac (through work) for £750 but would probably need to upgrade the 1GB memory to at least 2GB, but would do that separately as it's cheaper to do. It has a 250GB hard disk, which, to be honest, is till plenty really. The next version up has a better graphics card, 320GB HDD and a faster processor but that would cost about £900. Getting quite expensive here...

I'm a bit concerned about compatability issues, and may have to use Bootcamp to dual boot to Windows XP in order to sync the PDA to Palm Desktop, but I haven't investigated whether a Mac version is available yet. However, I looked at the promotional video for Leopard OS last night and it blew my mind. Time Machine looks awesome and would be ideal for use with the external HDD.

Any comments on what you think I should do would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you.

07-03-2008, 11:55	#1 (permalink)
LadyStardust Getting Comfy Join Date: Aug 2005 Location: West Sussex, UK Posts: 176	Help! iMac or new Dell base unit? There have been a few threads recently in this Forum about Macs so I'm hoping there are some knowledgeable souls out there! Okay, here's my dilemma. I have a three year old Dell desktop with a lovely 19" monitor, wireless keyboard and mouse and to date have been very happy with it. The hard disk is 160GB and is only just over half full and I've got 3GB of RAM. I use the computer mainly for email (Office 2003), Photoshop CS3, internet browsing, MS Office documents and I also back up my Sony Clie PDA to it regularly using Palm Desktop. However, despite the amount of memory, it's pretty slow and takes ages to boot up and get going now. The hard disk is on its way out and nearly every day the PC eventually blue screens, accompanied by a horrible "my ball bearings are wearing out" clicking sound from the innards of the machine. So I've recently invested in a 1TB Western Digital external hard disk and have installed a free copy of Allway Sync on there to back up stuff I'm working on at the moment (I have a Pixalo Photo World photo book in progress, for example) and essential broadband modem drivers etc. In December I did full backups to DVD of everything so am pretty happy that I'm covered on the data front if the hard disk suddenly goes. So... as my husband is just about to pay his golf fees for the year, he's given me the go ahead to get whatever I need to replace my workstation (wey hey!) - within reason. In addition, he could make use of the monitor, keyboard, mouse and speakers as he's recently landed a home based job and should be getting a docking station for his laptop. I have seen a Dell Inspiron base unit on Tesco.com for £399 - Dell Inspiron 530 PC Base Unit - Tesco.Direct. I don't think it has a soundcard but I should be able to scavenge my current one and port it across. It has a 500GB hard disk and 3GB of RAM. Pretty good value, although I don't think the graphics card is up to much. BUT... I am thinking about going down the Mac route. I use my computer nearly every day and enjoy it, so perhaps I should opt for change and plunge into becoming a Mac user. I can get a basic iMac (through work) for £750 but would probably need to upgrade the 1GB memory to at least 2GB, but would do that separately as it's cheaper to do. It has a 250GB hard disk, which, to be honest, is till plenty really. The next version up has a better graphics card, 320GB HDD and a faster processor but that would cost about £900. Getting quite expensive here... I'm a bit concerned about compatability issues, and may have to use Bootcamp to dual boot to Windows XP in order to sync the PDA to Palm Desktop, but I haven't investigated whether a Mac version is available yet. However, I looked at the promotional video for Leopard OS last night and it blew my mind. Time Machine looks awesome and would be ideal for use with the external HDD. Any comments on what you think I should do would be hugely appreciated. Thank you. __________________ ~~ LadyStardust ~~ "...really quite paradise..."