[Leica] Mac desktop for Photoshop CS2?

[wooderson at gmail.com (Matt Powell)]

On 11/19/06, Jeffery Smith <jsmith342@cox.net> wrote:
> (1) Buy 4 gb of memory and see if that speeds things up
> (2) Buy a low end Mac and use it for PS CS2 only
>
> For those of you out there who are Mac aficionados, what would be a
> reasonable lower end Mac for use with PS CS2 keeping in mind that I will be
> using it for that ONLY. Maybe an iMac in the $1,500 to $2,000 area? Doesn't
> the Mac handle memory and resources better than Windows XP. Your thoughts
> and suggested are heartily welcomed.

A month or two ago, I would have recommended a refurbed G5 from Apple
- one-year warranty and generally good as new. But they appear to have
sold through every last G5 tower. (You could still go through a
re-seller or buy online, of course).

An iMac offers its own set of dilemmas - CS2 is non-native, of course,
and that alone requires a great deal of memory, and an iMac can only
handle 2GB (at reasonable cost - you can buy up to 3GB aftermarket,
but it's a $700 purchase). I've never really thought they were a good
value in any case - you're paying a high price for laptop parts in a
desktop body.

And the Mac Pro, of course, is ungodly expensive, but will run CS2 as
well as any G5 tower, and will fly when CS3 debuts. But you're looking
at $3000+ for one with 2GB or more of memory.

Apple has, it seems, set out to shaft the pro-sumer/hobbyist/etc., I
don't even understand why.

I'm typing this on a 2.66 Mac Pro purchased through the Student
Developer program ($1999 instead of $2499 retail - any student
qualifies, even us non-traditional part-time liberal arts schmoes),
and unless Apple's product matrix has opened up a great deal in 4-5
years (or the towers have gotten cheaper), it will be the last desktop
I buy from them. I'm praying for a Linux revolution (meaning: Adobe
apps) in the meantime.

-- 
MP
wooderson@gmail.com