haven't bought a computer in 7 years...
 

so i'm a college graduate who is in the market for a new computer soon. the one i have i got in '00, so needless to say it's pretty far gone and doesn't meet my needs anymore. i'm familiar with PC's as well as Macs, but i have more experience on a PC (just saying i'm not against either).

i want to be able to do the common things; surf the web, use AIM, play mp3s, videos, etc, and i want to be able to run adobe photoshop and illustrator. that's the important thing, and i want to be able to run photoshop WHILE playing mp3s, chatting, etc... i don't want my computer to get bogged down. there's also a possibility of using music editing software in the future. i also have a minor pet peeve of switching out USBs all the time, the more ports the better (i could use at least 5 if i can find them)

i don't game, i don't plan on starting, but i do care about graphics from the standpoint of doing photo work and also the possiblity of doing some video editing (dreaming big though).

i have a scanner, printer, and photo printer all of which i am happy with, and speakers, so those are not a priority or even a concern. since i have all these things, should i be looking into buying a PC and monitor separately? (on the pc route) instead of a "package" which seems to want to give me a bunch of stuff i don't need?

if i can get this in a laptop that would be awesome but i know that gets pricey.

as for price, i'm willing to spend what i need to. obviously my needs don't require the top of the top, so just let me know what i'm getting into.

suggestions? thanks!

p.s. i'm surfing for possiblities as we speak, so i might be back with options i'm looking at, i just wanted to start here.

Let us know your budget and we can make some suggestions!

You may want to check out the new MacBook. Dual-boot MacOS or Windows. The base system is fairly competitive for $1099.

if you really need a budget... maybe $2000 or less

i've been looking around, and i like the 20" iMac. i've also been looking at the MacBook, and i might be able to swing the 15.4" 2.0GB version... which would be $300 more, and i would have a much smaller screen, and a lot less storage space (rest of the stuff looks pretty similar) i'm not sure if it's worth the trade off for portability... i dunno.

Unless you're comfortable putting a computer together from scratch, go to HP or Dell and buy a desktop PC for cheap. Make sure it has 1 GB of RAM. It doesn't matter what CPU or videocard you get for what you want to do -- you wouldn't be able to tell the difference. You can probably add USB ports to the PC from the website. If you can't, go to newegg.com and order a PCI USB card that gives you 4 or 5 more slots. You could also go to Bestbuy or something and buy a USB hub which turns 1 USB slot into 5+.

I would havce said the same thing. If you don't need games and you like iLife (music, videos, chat, surfing, etc.), then a Mac might be what you want. If you're worried about storage space, I just bought a 250 GB external firewire HD for like $150 for my Mac (firewire > USB 2.0).

Before buying the macbook and dual booting, figure out which version of photoshop you want to use. Last I heard, and things may have changed, is that Adobe was not playing nice with the intel Macs. They're not going to redo the code to work with the Intel chips until the normally scheduled new version for Mac OS.

I could be wrong on this front, someone chime in please if I am.

i think i'm looking to get the 20" imac... i looked at the imacs and the macbooks, and while portability is always good, i really like the larger screen, and i don't have the $$$ to get a macbook as big as i would want...

I bought a Mac G4/400 "Sawtooth" for $250 clams on eBay. Added an ATI Radeon 9000 Pro for $75. Paid another $50 to bring the total RAM to 640mb. Runs everything perfectly fine, OSX 10.4.5, Microsoft Word, PhotoShopCS2, InDesignCS2, IllustratorCS2. Great for surfing the web, too. It has built-in Ethernet so networking is simple. I have a 20" Apple monitor I've been using for about 8 years. Dell has monitors for supercheap...look at refurbs. I put the big bucks into a gaming PC. Good luck.

OtherWorld Computing for Mac HD/RAM/Monitors/Video/Audio upgrades.

If I may, powerclown, the CPU upgrades that OWC brought out for the G4/400s are extremely cool ;) Mine bumped up to 800mhz and it was oh so nice.

Nice to hear. Some of those upgrades are very reasonably priced as well. You can basically make an old Mac about as fast as a $2000 new Mac for peanuts. I haven't installed any cpu upgrades on my G4 because for what I do, it's plenty fast enough. Marketing is a wonderful thing for Apple.