Which Mac Is Right For You
Posted by: Dave M. in Series, Switcher, tags: Mac, Macintosh, switch, SwitcherSo, you have decided on getting a Mac, but you have no idea which one of the several Macintosh computer systems is right for you.
Apple offers 6 base Macintosh computers, 3 are desktop computers and 3 are notebook computers.
Desktop computers:
Notebook computers:
- MacBook starts at $1,099
- MacBook Air starts at $1,799
- MacBook Pro starts at $1,999
Each computer can be customized to your needs, some have more options than others.
The Macintosh that best fits your needs is one that will do what you need it to do for as little as possible.
Lets look at each model and see what they are best suited for. Starting with desktop models we have…
Mac Mini: This computer is about as bare-bones as a computer can be from Apple. It doesn’t come with a mouse or keyboard or any other peripheral for that matter. What is pictured above is pretty much it along with a power cord and a few cables and cable converters.
This computer is for the computer owner who already has a system and is going to replace that system with the Mac Mini. If you already have a monitor, a USB based keyboard, computer speakers, etc… Then this computer can be a great replacement.
One of the most amazing features of this computer is it’s size. It’s 6.5″ wide by 6.5″ deep, by 2″ tall. That’s it. It pretty much dwarfs any other desktop computer out there. Yet it packs some pretty decent power.
This computer is best suited for the user who uses the world wide web and email and maybe writes a few letters. The base $599 unit is more than capable of performing those tasks with ease. The base Mac Mini comes with 1.83GHz Intel Core 2 Duo processor, 1GB of RAM, 80GB Hard drive and a 24x Combo drive DVD player/CD-RW burner.
There are some that consider using the Mac Mini as a Multimedia hub for their home entertainment system. With a wireless Bluetooth keyboard and mouse, the Mac Mini can be placed next to any home entertainment system and not really look like a computer. It can be setup to display full 1080p resolution to an HD television.
There are a few drawbacks using a Mac Mini vrs. an AppleTV. The biggest being that the Mac Mini is not allowed to play HD quality movies rented from the iTunes Store.
On the other hand, you can install some video playback codec’s (little programs that allow you to play video files like DivX or XviD encoded movie files), you will be able to play movies you have ripped from DVD’s in your DVD collection without having to actually use the DVD’s. You can store those movies as well as other media like pictures and songs on a more powerful desktop computer somewhere in the house. Using the Mac Mini’s built-in WiFi capabilities, you can connect to your repository of media and play them on your home entertainment system with very little effort. (I do this myself with my MacBook notebook computer right now.)
iMac: The next step up in the line of desktop computers is the iMac. It comes in two base varieties, the 20″ and 24″ models. The iMac has gone through quite a few variations of designs, some were OK designs and some were more like “What in the world were they thinking?” At least in my opinion.
The current design of the iMac has to be one of the most beautiful computers I have seen. Clean lines, brushed aluminum and black-bordered glass make this iMac stand out heads and shoulders above the rest.
The iMac line of computers have 4 base priced choices starting at $1,199. Each can be configured in several ways except for the graphics they use. The lowest end model comes with a lower end graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT with 128MB of GDDR3 memory), where the other three base price units have a higher end graphics card (ATI Radeon HD 2600 PRO with 256MB of GDDR3 memory).
This system is best suited for someone who is going to be using their computer in a home office or for playing games. iMac’s can have it’s memory expanded by the user, but that’s about it. The Hard Drive and graphics card are built into the unit and pretty much require a experienced technician to upgrade them. In fact, both the Mac Mini and iMac’s are build around notebook technology hardware with the exception of the iMac’s Hard Drives. What I mean by this is that there is a lot of hardware crammed into as small a space as physically possible. This allows the units to have some pretty extensive power without taking up too much physical desktop real estate.
The downside to this kind of design is that once the user configures their system when purchasing it, they can’t “upgrade” the system themselves to keep up with the ever improving technology.
For that reason, Apple created the Mac Pro…
Mac Pro: The big daddy of Apple’s line of desktop computers. This computer has it all and room for much more. It starts at $2,299 and can be configured to nearly $20,000. It has room for 2 3.2GHz Quad-core Intel XEON processors (8 cores), 4 1TB Hard Drives, 32GB’s of RAM, and several choices of graphics cards.
This computer is best suited for the serious gamer and up to professional media producers like Television stations, movie production companies, etc… It’s a serious computer with some serious speed.
This computer is probably not for most home users. Unless you want the ability to upgrade video cards, Hard Drives and RAM when needed. Since I bought one of the first Mac Pro’s to come off the assembly line, I only have 2 2.66GHz Core 2 Duo XEON processors (4 cores), but I am able to add RAM as needed, currently at 6GB’s and Hard Drive space which is currently at 1.125TB’s taking up 2 of the 4 Hard Drive bays. My Mac Pro cost me right around $3,600. This is close to twice what I normally paid for upgrading Windows systems, but I don’t expect to need to get a new system any time soon.
Before ending this installment, I want to mention that when you do purchase an Apple computer, stay as far away from buying Apple RAM as you possibly can. Apple charges quite a premium for it’s RAM. Something that us Mac users can’t quite figure out. For any system other than the Mac Pro, buying RAM is just a simple matter of going to just about any online store and buying standard RAM DIMM’s. The Mac Pro requires a special kind of RAM in order for the RAM to run as fast as possible. The RAM comes with heat sink’s on them and are called “Fully Buffered”. Something that the other Apple computers and other computers in general don’t use. Because of this, Mac Pro RAM will cost more than just about any other computer’s RAM. However, that RAM allows the Mac Pro to run faster than just about any other computer being produced.
You can also purchase Hard Drives from third parties to save some money too. I upgraded my MacBook’s Hard Drive recently from 60GB’s to 160GB’s for about $150 and can now use the old 60GB drive in the enclosure that the 160GB drive came in.
This requires you to install the RAM or Hard Drives. The Mac Mini is very difficult to upgrade, but not impossible. There are videos on the internet that walk you through the process. If you don’t feel comfortable doing it, either find someone you trust to do it or go ahead and purchase the better RAM/Hard Drives from Apple. Smaller improvement steps don’t cost as much as large improvements.
The Mac Pro is a cinch to upgrade and usually only takes a couple of minutes to install both RAM and Hard Drives. Just about anyone can do it, even someone that doesn’t have much technical savvy.
The next installment will conclude the Apple product line of computers with their notebook line.
- So You Are Thinking About Switching To A Mac
- Deciding On A New OS
- Which Mac Is Right For You
- Which Mac Is Right For You; Part 2: The Notebooks
- Setting Up Your New Macintosh
- Turning On Your New Macintosh For The First Time
- The OS X Leopard Desktop
- Applications That Come With Your New Macintosh
- Differences between Windows and OS X
- Must Have Apps For OS X
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Macs are a little overrated to me. You can’t upgrade them like you can with regular comps. Most people use to get macs because of video editing, but regular comps have caught up in that field.
I approved the comment only after editing out the website link you left which appeared to be spam. If you actually do run the site, I would suggest not using it as your home page. I suggest something a little more personal.
As to the comment. It is your opinion. It’s true that most Mac’s are not very upgradable. However, the Mac Pro is quite upgradable. Plus, the other lines are upgradable in ways that suit their lines. Otherwise, they have powerful enough hardware in them to stand up to quite a bit of time, so upgrading the parts that are not upgradable seem less needed.
Plus, most consumers don’t upgrade the systems they own. They simply buy the next more powerful line of computers. There is only a small percentage that know enough about computers to upgrade more than hard drives, RAM and video cards.
So the lack of upgradability is not much of an argument.