Posted: 7/19/2012 5:33:36 PM EDT
| After 14 years the Ole Micron PC is on its last legs. I really cant complain its been a good box. So I'm leaning toward a Mac Pro desktop but damn, the 12 core i'm looking at plus a monitor is close to $4,700. I have heard great things about Macs but are they really that good to justify that price? |
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in before the MAC users!!!
oh wait, thats me 
ETA: not just because i like macs, but it sounds like a mac is perfect for you considering if you used a pc for 14 years chances are all you did was email and surf. A mac would provide you with years of trouble free use if all you do is surf the net |
I'd suggest you just get a $400 laptop and a monitor if you want to make a desk workstation and replace it every few years. I hope there's some exaggeration on the 14 year thing, if you're still using a 14 year old computer you could probably get by with an etch-a-sketch 
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I just went thru the same Computer soul searching and came up with my answer: Build the PC myself.
For about $1000 I will have a top of the line system with Windows 7. I talked to a few close friends and went to Newegg.com. Watch their videos on building a PC. You will thank me. |
| My ole Micron has have many many upgrades memory increases video card replacement and i have replaced the hard drives ect ect. The box never really crapped out and I can download and stream video pretty good. Gaming is another story but that's what the PS3 is for. The reason for the mac is the twins. I figure a Mac pro will handle whatever they are going to use it for. I may be getting a little ahead of myself,They are going into kindergarten, but the frigging kindergarten class has 6 macs for them to use. |
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I'd suggest you just get a $400 laptop and a monitor if you want to make a desk workstation and replace it every few years. I hope there's some exaggeration on the 14 year thing, if you're still using a 14 year old computer you could probably get by with an etch-a-sketch The Box took every upgrade I threw at it. It still works great but its time. |
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Get a $500 Dell Optiplex
THREE YEAR ONSITE warranty. If it breaks, they come to your home and fix it. They're solidly built, so they won't break. These are Dell's workhorse business line. Made for folks to sit at their desk, look busy, and browse the internet all day, with no interruptions or failures. |
| If you want a mac (and it's a good choice, I have one), I'd suggest an imac link |
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Thinkpad W510 laptop. I got mine for $900 on ebay - i7 quad core intel processor, 16Gb memory, 1920x1080 resolution, nvidia graphics card, 9 cell battery with 135w quick charger, dvd etc..., windows 7 pro 64. You can get them with an SSD but I got the standard 2.5" hd to start with. It runs Solidworks 2011 smoothly. Unless you have some remarkable graphics requirements, I see no reason to get a dedicated desktop. |
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I'd suggest you just get a $400 laptop and a monitor if you want to make a desk workstation and replace it every few years. I hope there's some exaggeration on the 14 year thing, if you're still using a 14 year old computer you could probably get by with an etch-a-sketch The Box took every upgrade I threw at it. It still works great but its time. Thats sort of my point, if it still "works great" from upgrades you're not a terribly demanding user (upgrades are really irrelevant at this point) and would be better served by getting an entry level box and replacing it more frequently. If you're serious about it being 14 years old we're likely talking about a p2 candybar cpu. My 3 year old cell phone would likely give it a good run for its money. I feel like I'm being trolled when I say this but you'd be far better to put $4k in the bank for your 5 year olds than buy them a $5k computer. I'm a pretty serious user and could built a beast of a server for well under $5k. If you have to ask, you probably don't need it. |
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Thinkpad W510 laptop. I got mine for $900 on ebay - i7 quad core intel processor, 16Gb memory, 1920x1080 resolution, nvidia graphics card, 9 cell battery with 135w quick charger, dvd etc..., windows 7 pro 64. You can get them with an SSD but I got the standard 2.5" hd to start with. It runs Solidworks 2011 smoothly. Unless you have some remarkable graphics requirements, I see no reason to get a dedicated desktop. The problem with the 510 is its 4 cores at 1.6ghz which is good if you're doing a lot of multi/hyperthreading but single core speed (what matters for most programs now) is low. I love lenovo and have a W520 which is the same laptop with a 2.2ghz quadcore i7. It's a monster and does everything but the users at work I got the 510 for complained that it was slow. Op should buy a refurb mac mini i5 when apple gets them back in stock and put 16 gigs of mem in it and decide whether he wants windows or OSX. All said and done he's looking at $600 to be in the ballpark of modern PCs. I priced out my desktop as a mac pro the other day. I have a 6 core with hyperthreading and 24 gigs of mem. Before I got into the video cards it was almost $8k which is ridiculous since I put mine together for less than $1k. |
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Quoted: Quoted: Thinkpad W510 laptop. I got mine for $900 on ebay - i7 quad core intel processor, 16Gb memory, 1920x1080 resolution, nvidia graphics card, 9 cell battery with 135w quick charger, dvd etc..., windows 7 pro 64. You can get them with an SSD but I got the standard 2.5" hd to start with. It runs Solidworks 2011 smoothly. Unless you have some remarkable graphics requirements, I see no reason to get a dedicated desktop. The problem with the 510 is its 4 cores at 1.6ghz which is good if you're doing a lot of multi/hyperthreading but single core speed (what matters for most programs now) is low. I love lenovo and have a W520 which is the same laptop with a 2.2ghz quadcore i7. It's a monster and does everything but the users at work I got the 510 for complained that it was slow. Op should buy a refurb mac mini i5 when apple gets them back in stock and put 16 gigs of mem in it and decide whether he wants windows or OSX. All said and done he's looking at $600 to be in the ballpark of modern PCs. I priced out my desktop as a mac pro the other day. I have a 6 core with hyperthreading and 24 gigs of mem. Before I got into the video cards it was almost $8k which is ridiculous since I put mine together for less than $1k. I wanted the 520 but heard about the hardware issues. I didn't have enough money for the 530 so the 510 it was. Which programs do you think would not run well on the 1.6 quad? |
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I shit you not man, get the mini. If you're coming off a shit-ass old micron, the odds are seriously against you needing four and a half grand worth of fire breathing death monster. The mini is a lot more machine than you may be thinking it is.  I will look into that
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If you have been using a 14 year old PC, you really don't need a 12 core machine to replace it unless you plan on getting into 3D rendering at the same time.
I do a lot of insane stuff on computers, but not on my personal desktop machine  . I use a Mac Mini at home with a 27" Retina. That or an iMac would do fine for your needs for under $2000.
Mac pr0n. 
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If you have been using a 14 year old PC, you really don't need a 12 core machine to replace it unless you plan on getting into 3D rendering at the same time. I do a lot of insane stuff on computers, but not on my personal desktop machine . I use a Mac Mini at home with a 27" Retina. That or an iMac would do fine for your needs for under $2000.
Mac pr0n. http://i.imgur.com/FmCr9.jpg Whats the wine?? |
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If you have been using a 14 year old PC, you really don't need a 12 core machine to replace it unless you plan on getting into 3D rendering at the same time. I do a lot of insane stuff on computers, but not on my personal desktop machine . I use a Mac Mini at home with a 27" Retina. That or an iMac would do fine for your needs for under $2000.
Mac pr0n. http://i.imgur.com/FmCr9.jpg Whats the wine?? I don't remember I was going to say William Hill since I get regular shipments from them but the label is wrong. Probably something I picked up from wine.woot.
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Quoted: Get a $500 Dell Optiplex THREE YEAR ONSITE warranty. If it breaks, they come to your home and fix it. They're solidly built, so they won't break. These are Dell's workhorse business line. Made for folks to sit at their desk, look busy, and browse the internet all day, with no interruptions or failures. I just got rid of the last 500 Dell Optiplex systems we had at my company. They are absolutely horrible systems. |
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in before the MAC users!!! oh wait, thats me
ETA: not just because i like macs, but it sounds like a mac is perfect for you considering if you used a pc for 14 years chances are all you did was email and surf. A mac would provide you with years of trouble free use if all you do is surf the net Spend 4700 to surf the web and email. Brilliant!
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I manage both Mac's (300 or so) and Windows Systems (800 or so) within my environment and here has been my experience: Apple: Expensive. For the user that is less technical an Apple is great. It is pretty simple and easy to use. Also, I have found that the Mac OS is far more stable then Windows. The best part is that you can get the best of both worlds by loading both Windows and the Mac OS on one system. Then you can boot to ether OS or, with the right software, run them at the same time. However, I have also found that Apple hardware is very fragile. I have had far more issues with hardware getting broke or going bad with Apple systems then any PC system. Not to mention the extended warranty, which you will want on the Apple, is outrageously expensive. PC Systems: Can run from cheap to very expensive. Great for more advanced users due to the ability to tweak almost every part of the OS. You can load any number of OSs. There are many parts manufacturers out there allowing you to customize every part of the PC to work exactly how you want\need it to. Hardware seems to be more robust, but that can very based on parts. However, parts on average are much cheaper. Software available is also far more abundant for Windows then Apple on average. My general recommendation is if you have the disposable income, buy the Mac. If you are on a budget, I would stick with a PC system. |
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Thinkpad W510 laptop. I got mine for $900 on ebay - i7 quad core intel processor, 16Gb memory, 1920x1080 resolution, nvidia graphics card, 9 cell battery with 135w quick charger, dvd etc..., windows 7 pro 64. You can get them with an SSD but I got the standard 2.5" hd to start with. It runs Solidworks 2011 smoothly. Unless you have some remarkable graphics requirements, I see no reason to get a dedicated desktop. The problem with the 510 is its 4 cores at 1.6ghz which is good if you're doing a lot of multi/hyperthreading but single core speed (what matters for most programs now) is low. I love lenovo and have a W520 which is the same laptop with a 2.2ghz quadcore i7. It's a monster and does everything but the users at work I got the 510 for complained that it was slow. Op should buy a refurb mac mini i5 when apple gets them back in stock and put 16 gigs of mem in it and decide whether he wants windows or OSX. All said and done he's looking at $600 to be in the ballpark of modern PCs. I priced out my desktop as a mac pro the other day. I have a 6 core with hyperthreading and 24 gigs of mem. Before I got into the video cards it was almost $8k which is ridiculous since I put mine together for less than $1k. I wanted the 520 but heard about the hardware issues. I didn't have enough money for the 530 so the 510 it was. Which programs do you think would not run well on the 1.6 quad? I have beat the piss out of mine and not had a single issue. I see the W530s are right around $1000 with the current sale. That's really appealing if I weren't already knee deep in machines. The 1.6ghz has issues when you run anything that doesnt support multicore or hyperthreading. Bring up your task manager and take a look at which cores are working and which are idle next time you do something intesive. I use a program called lightworks that has hyperthreading support so while I'm using it to edit video it spreads the workload out. I generally don't notice any slowdown even while editing 1080p video with ridiculous bit rates. Also I use this machine to create VM's that I later spin out into ESXi hosts. When running multiple VMs you need lots of memory and the more cores the better, in most cases. I saw a java developer bring a 510 to a halt running some simple environment sampling code and fraps at the same time. Quoted:
If you have been using a 14 year old PC, you really don't need a 12 core machine to replace it unless you plan on getting into 3D rendering at the same time. I do a lot of insane stuff on computers, but not on my personal desktop machine . I use a Mac Mini at home with a 27" Retina. That or an iMac would do fine for your needs for under $2000.
Mac pr0n. http://i.imgur.com/FmCr9.jpg I used to do 3D rendering back in the Pentium 66 days with Bryce 3D, 3D Studio Max and some others. More and more things are going multi thread capable and the fact that you can assign certain tasks to certain cores makes some tasks easier. If the guy's browsing the web he doesn't need a $5000 facebook machine and a mini will definately work with 4 thread support. If he's ready to step out of the 80s with a modern machine and do some new and interesting shit hey may want more power. We really don't know what he wants other than a machine that his daughters can use. I think everyone agrees that the Mac Pro is a poor choice. I think the mini is worth it even if you just want to run windows. It's such a small, cheap machine. It doesn't run Final Cut Pro like a Mac pro but it will browse the shit out of facebook/arfcom/gay-midget-goat-porn all day and that's probably the use the OP end up doing the most. |