7w17ch

uh, when did pc's, specifically low-level economy pc's, become fashon statements? and dont trendy hipsters and whoever else cares what their computer looks like. modders im not talking you guys, thats quite different: you guys create art. how can something produced by the thousands, made for the masses compair? now i think what apple is doing with its g5 is hot. and i dont mean the case, aside from nice airflow. 64bit is looking mighty good these days, im tempted to make the jump. but thats nether here nor there.

minimac is a workstation at a decent price, not worth wetting ourselves.

Willravel

I'd say around '99 when the original iMac came around. The idea of a computer that doesn't lead to depression from looking at it changed the market. Look at most modern computers. All of them have at least some stylistic design. Mac is simply at the forefront of the design market. Even Mac OS 10 is stylized. Would you buy a Porsche that lookes like a Kia? I see second guessing the purchase of a Mac that looked like a Dell as being the same thing. Mac has a reputation to uphold.

kutulu

lol, when you can't beat them on performance or price, bring style into the picture.

martinguerre

why not? why do people buy acuras? you could get the same frame and nearly the same engine on a honda? fashion is a major selling point...people want to feel good about their purchases, and like the technology they use.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

evilbeefchan

Would the Mac Mini be a good choice for a graphic design student? Monitor, keyboard and mouse are no big deal. I'm getting those from a relative. Or is the tiny hard drive going to pose a problem?

irseg

For those of us who do more with our computers than admire their shiny cases and multicolored LEDs, style is pretty meaningless. The only time I look at mine is to put a CD in it. Otherwise I'm busy *using* the thing.

My desktop tower is ugly as hell, and my brand new Thinkpad is a plain black slab. But the money spent on them actually goes into meaningful things like good hardware rather than being whatever color is in fashion at the moment.

If you want to pay a premium for a computer that looks cute, more power to you. But it's silly to claim that it's objectively superior for that reason.

martinguerre

Nobody is, to my knowledge. some consumers are highly responsive to style and form, some only care about function. but it's preference, and Mac makes the choice to make an appeal to the form/style folks. I don't think they slack on function at all, but that's my Mac loving opinion.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

kutulu

No, that probably wouldn't be a good choice for a design student. If you're dead-set on getting a mac, you'll have to get one of the higher end macs. Or you could get a PC and add a great graphics card for less than $1000.

evilbeefchan

Any specific reason as to why the mini mac isn't a good idea? Is it the notebook hard drive? Processor speed? Does the graphic card suck?

martinguerre

the vid card may choke on rendering stuff. ask the people in your design program what kind of system requirements you'll need. they should be able to steer you towards machines that can run the required software.

__________________
For God so loved creation, that God sent God's only Son that whosoever believed should not perish, but have everlasting life.

-John 3:16

irseg

When it comes to graphic design, all of the above. I got an office computer that had a Radeon 9200 2 years ago, and it sucked back then. I can't believe they're still selling computers with them. Plus, there's not enough memory in the base model, and it's expensive to add more. And graphics apps are notorious memory hogs, which means a lot of virtual memory swapping has to be done. This is where hard drive performance comes in. Apple doesn't publish specs on this, but based on the other hardware it's probably slow as hell.

You're paying a premium on the downsized components and cute case rather than the hardware that actually gets the job done. If you really want a Mac, get a higher end model. If your budget is under $1000, you'll be a lot better off with a PC.