Recommend me a home PC

[Bob_the_lost]

Today i saw a G4 in a skip. A very sad sight. Almost grabbed it to make use of the shell then i realised i need to get rid of junk not accumulate it.

 

[gabi]

Today i saw a G4 in a skip. A very sad sight. Almost grabbed it to make use of the shell then i realised i need to get rid of junk not accumulate it.

Bob, a bigger dork I haven't encountered since the time I had to pitch to (yes, you guessed it, Microsoft) - please, please fuck off back to the accountancy forum (apologies if in fact you're in the Compliance business) from whence you came and wank on there about IBM motherboards...

Some people like to enjoy life, ya know? Nah, thought not...

 

[Bob_the_lost]

And onto ignore you go, i'd ask why you post in a techie forum when you don't know shit about it, but i don't care.

 

[Jambooboo]

This Dell is very good spec for the price IMO - if you take the overpriced extended warranty off you get it for £364.32 delivered with a 19" monitor.

VostroTM 200 MT (D08V03)

Intel Core 2 Duo E4400 Processor (2.0GHz,800MHz,2MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista Home Basic - English
2048MB 667MHz Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM [2x1024]
320GB (7200rpm) Serial ATA/100 Hard Drive with 16MB DataBurst cache
256MB ATI Radeon X1300 Pro PCI Express graphics card
Dell Enhanced USB Multimedia Keyboard - UK/Irish (QWERTY)
Integrated 7.1 Channel High Definition Audio
Microsoft Works 8.0 - English
16x DVD +/- RW Drive
13-in-1 Media Card Reader

 

[Crispy]

that's very good value indeed.

 

[Badgers]

that's very good value indeed.

WANT!

 

[Tricky Skills]

Aha! The Mac / PC swingometer tilts yet again! Cheers Jambo!

 

[jæd]

This Dell is very good spec for the price IMO - if you take the overpriced extended warranty off you get it for £364.32 delivered with a 19" monitor.

* Comes with Vista Home Basic -- the stripped down home version
* Dell Build quality isn't amazing, we've had a high attrition rate at work (Dell shop)
* Microsoft Works is shite.

 

[tarannau]

Aha! The Mac / PC swingometer tilts yet again! Cheers Jambo!

Although, if your computer's in the front room...

It's a bit forced perhaps, but don't underestimate the advantages of having a quiet, all in one box that works right out of the box and stays working, looking lovely, for year after year. For me, at least, with the consistent digital hub software and thoughtful design, it's a more pleasant computing experience.

 

[Tricky Skills]

Point taken, but space 'aint an issue.

With an upgrade to Office and the anti-virus package, it still comes in at under £500 all in.

 

[jæd]

Point taken, but space 'aint an issue.

With an upgrade to Office and the anti-virus package, it still comes in at under £500 all in.

To get same the functionality as OS X you'd be have to upgrade from Vista Home Basic. I'd also factor in maintaining costs + time, ie, removing viruses & malware...

 

[Tricky Skills]

OK, it seems that my main Mac concerns are using wonderful little freebie apps such as:

Easy Thumbnails

Image Optimizer

DC Enhancer

and a good 'ol WSFtp package.

(all of which I may add have been tips that I have picked up from around these boards )

It sounds like a minor issue in the big OS schema of things, but um, how would I carry out such tasks on a Mac? I use this software daily, and it's no exaggeration to say that they are the bread and butter of my online activity

*think I've just been shown up as an IT frauad, but these little things matter to me...*

Thanks again for any advice.

 

[Xanadu]

OK, it seems that my main Mac concerns are using wonderful little freebie apps such as:

Easy Thumbnails

Image Optimizer

DC Enhancer

and a good 'ol WSFtp package.

(all of which I may add have been tips that I have picked up from around these boards )

It sounds like a minor issue in the big OS schema of things, but um, how would I carry out such tasks on a Mac? I use this software daily, and it's no exaggeration to say that they are the bread and butter of my online activity

*think I've just been shown up as an IT frauad, but these little things matter to me...*

Thanks again for any advice.

http://cyberduck.ch/ - is the first result on google for "ftp client mac os x open source"

 

[Crispy]

A lot of image manipulation can be done with Automator, but here's some freeware tools that'll do the jobs:

http://www.versiontracker.com/macosx/graphics/image-edit/?by=licenseType&dir=asc&pg=2

You'd have to experiment, but it's not like there's a lack of free graphics apps for the mac!

And there's always photoshop, if you're willing to use 'evaluation' versions.

And very soon, there'll be pixelmator which will do everything an amateur would need pshop to do, at a $59 price.

And yes, cyberduck for FTP is great.

www.versiontracker.com is the best place to go for mac freeware/shareware, I've found.

 

[Tricky Skills]

Bummer for the bank balance, but I reckon the swingometer has just tilted back to the Mac.

Genuinely at how fickle I am...

Thanks again.

 

[ExtraRefined]

Although, if your computer's in the front room...

It's a bit forced perhaps, but don't underestimate the advantages of having a quiet, all in one box that works right out of the box and stays working, looking lovely, for year after year.

Thing is, at £800 you can buy a PC laptop at the same spec, which is also in one box and has the significant advantage of actual portability.

MS Office for mac is still not x86 native, and is a full version out of date. Word might have good competitors, but there's no real alternatives Powerpoint and Excel, nor to Outlook if you need to connect to an exchange server.

To get same the functionality as OS X you'd be have to upgrade from Vista Home Basic. I'd also factor in maintaining costs + time, ie, removing viruses & malware...

Most of the extra features in the other editions of vista - built in games, tablet PC support, Meeting Space, backup, remote desktop, AD support etc - aren't part of OS X either.

 

[Iam]

nor to Outlook if you need to connect to an exchange server.

Apart from Entourage, of course.

OSX is compatible with AD too, and RDP works fine as well.

 

[Crispy]

Depends what you want office to do - if you're a home user, iWork is just as good. Same goes for Mail and iCal - it's not outlook, but out of the office, who needs outlook?

 

[Tricky Skills]

Who even needs Mail to be honest - Hotmail has seen me through twelve years at home.

 

[Crispy]

wow, that must be one of the oldest hotmail accounts in existence

 

[ExtraRefined]

Apart from Entourage, of course.

Which is another microsoft product, and dosen't support notes or tasks which are pretty much the point of exchange over POP3/SMTP.

OSX is compatible with AD too,

Assuming you can live without group policy, any of the management tools, or decent SMB share support. Apple can't even implement NFS in a way that dosen't crash when a share goes offline after all

and RDP works fine as well.

There's an RDP client (but not server) for OS X, but again it's made by microsoft, and not part of OS X by default.

 

[Crispy]

These are all workplace concerns - I don't think they apply to the OP

 

[ExtraRefined]

These are all workplace concerns - I don't think they apply to the OP

I thought everyone had a server 2k3 domain at home these days

Anyway, I'm sure there's more Vista features missing from Mac OS X, but I can't be bothered to google for them and present them as my own thoughts - I need to bake some cakes.

 

[jæd]

Which is another microsoft product, and dosen't support notes or tasks which are pretty much the point of exchange over POP3/SMTP.

Um... Apart from it does...

Assuming you can live without group policy, any of the management tools, or decent SMB share support. Apple can't even implement NFS in a way that dosen't crash when a share goes offline after all

Depends what you mean by "Management tools" but OS X Server has a whole raft of them. Group Policy, again there is an Apple equivilant...

And, Um... SMB (aka Samba Shares) is built into OS X, and is under Sharing... NFS is easy to setup if you are used to the command-line. And it seems quite reliable to me.

There's an RDP client (but not server) for OS X, but again it's made by microsoft, and not part of OS X by default.

If you want to control multiple OS X clients then use Remote Desktop from Apple. If you don't need the management features use VNC (for free). (You can actually use VNC as a client for a Remote Desktop server)

 

[jæd]

Anyway, I'm sure there's more Vista features missing from Mac OS X, but I can't be bothered to google for them and present them as my own thoughts - I need to bake some cakes.

Stick to baking cakes. Of a total of seven assertions about OS X, you got a grand total of 0 correct.

 

[Iam]

Which is another microsoft product, and dosen't support notes or tasks which are pretty much the point of exchange over POP3/SMTP.

Yes, it does.

Assuming you can live without group policy, any of the management tools, or decent SMB share support. Apple can't even implement NFS in a way that dosen't crash when a share goes offline after all

I'm trying to think of an enforced policy that I'd have a problem with not being run on a Mac... but I can't. On a properly administered domain, I can't see how that's really an issue. You're just hunting now.

There's an RDP client (but not server) for OS X, but again it's made by microsoft, and not part of OS X by default.

And I've got another - not made by MS - which was free, and as hard to install as going start > run > mstsc

Not doing very well. I have a sneaking suspicion you'll go on, though. And on, and on, and on, and on, and on...

Cya.

 

[jæd]

Most of the extra features in the other editions of vista - built in games, tablet PC support, Meeting Space, backup, remote desktop, AD support etc - aren't part of OS X either.

Half of those are either Microsoft specific, (but have Apple alternatives like Active Desktop) or just plain silly. eg. there's no Tablet Macs... And can't see how Solitaire is now an essential app...

OS X doesn't have viruses either. You forgot to add that to your list...

 

[Divisive Cotton]

This Dell

*dribble* *dribble*

I just picked the choices and clicked through all those pages to pick my ideal pc

 

[Tricky Skills]

Almost a week on, and I'm pretty much there.

The scales have tilted pretty much in favour of a Mac.

Thoughts on this machine please?

As mentioned before, I'm not at all fussed about screen size. I'd need iWorks as well.

Any advice most welcome.

Cheers

 

[fractionMan]

I'd like one if that's any help