[Leica] Mac desktop for Photoshop CS2?

[jsmith342 at cox.net (Jeffery Smith)]

I may go the other direction, i.e., get a relatively cheap PC and get it
upgraded with 2 gb of memory and a second hard drive. I don't give a crap
about music/media, so I can go with a fairly barebones PC but match it up
with a good screen and graphics card.

Jeffery Smith
New Orleans, LA
http://www.400tx.com
http://400tx.blogspot.com/



-----Original Message-----
From: lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org
[mailto:lug-bounces+jsmith342=cox.net@leica-users.org] On Behalf Of Matt
Powell
Sent: Sunday, November 19, 2006 7:42 PM
To: Leica Users Group
Subject: Re: [Leica] Mac desktop for Photoshop CS2?


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

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