computer buying question

The Register has the scoop, the Apple store hasn't been updated yet. Look at upping the RAM, but buy your RAM from another place as apple charge too much for their RAM at the Apple store.

You'd have to spend a lot more money to get a PC to do the same.

I take it you will be editing DV, if not AJA have the best solution for getting YUV/SDI/Composite/RS422 Machine control into firewire/DV.

You could go for a portable, iBook/Powerbook.

I need advice, and the more specific the better. I'm about to buy a new computer. This week, probably. Here are the things I want:

* Laptop
* Prefer to spend around $1200-1300. But if it was some sort of incredible machine, I'd maybe go up to $1500 (college loans, yay)
* Here's the tricky part. I want to use a Mac OS, but also be able to run PC only programs. Is it easier to get a PC and put Leopard on top of it, or to buy a Mac and have it dual boot? The simpler the solution, the better.
* Must be powerful enough to play Spore. It doesn't have to be able to run the latest spoogefest at pantshitting speeds/resolutions, but being able to at least run a newly released game would be pretty neat.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

I have a 2.4GHz MacBook with 4G RAM, and it's kinda there for ya. I have used the Spore creature creator on it, and that runs fine, but who knows when final is released? The best way to run PC progs is to use VMWare Fusion, so that you don't have to reboot unless you absolutely must. Fusion will run bootcamp virtually, so you can have the best of both worlds.

I suggest not fux0ring with OSX86 (OS X on PC), 'cause it always breaks with some update or another, and it's a real headache.

That's all I needed to hear, thanks Lib!

The standard in crossword-constructing software is PC-only, so I probably need an application like that, too, for the iMac I just bought. Will investigate VMWare Fusion.

another option for windows on mac that doesn't require rebooting
http://www.parallels.com/en/desktop/

See also parallels. 6 of one half a dozen of the other. I use it because when I bought it there was no VMWare Fusion.

xpost

haven't used fusion so i can't compare with parallels but there's a discussion here that might help

Parallels kinda sucks next to Fusion, especially Fusion 2.

I have licenses for both and erased Parallels from all Macs I use.

pretty sure they're both equally gay

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_VMware_Fusion_and_Parallels_Desktop

good computer choice for soon-to-be-11 year old boy who likes games, making games, making music, making videos. 1500 u.s. dollars or less.

thnx, your pal, scott

I just bought a refurb HP Win8 with i5 chip, 2TB hard drive, digital optical out, 12 gb ram for $499 from Microcenter. If your willing to go up to 1500, you can have i7, graphics card, sound card - anything you want.

by the way, HP and Windows8 are kind of annoying, but ClassicShell fixed that for me.

afaics, the biggest expense for gaming is if you want to drop in a super-deluxe graphics card in order to run a big high-def monitor. this requires a bigass power supply and a high end cooling system because of all the heat that sort of power consumption generates.

like ZT said, for $1500 you can buy some very powerful hardware, but for an 11 year old, i'd aim a bit lower, go for an i5 or i7 machine with at least 8GB of DDR3 1600 memory, but not go crazy on the graphics capability and monitor, then use the money saved for some software that will lure him into programming or music composition. You can pick up an amazingly capable BASIC compiler from powerbasic.com for less than $180. Music software might be even more compelling to an 11 year old.

Any way, i'd try to add in something more mind-expanding than twiddling a game controller to blast zombies for 3 hours at a whack.

Think of all the sensible jumpers 1500 would buy.

scott, my son is 12 yrs old and into games as well. just last weekend a computer-y friend of ours helped us put together an outfit for ~700 (not including monitor & keyboard/mouse, which we already had), ordered from micro center in cambridge. he & my son put it together with a screwdriver. i can dig up the details. others can weigh in on what they think.

this is all good info. i'll show this thread to maria. LOWER than $1500 is fine by the way! we are just sharing the expense with family members for his december 2 birthday. so, no one person has to shell out a ton. (pretty smart of us, eh? i ain't made of money.)

rufus of course has been saying he wants an alienware computer because what ten year old wouldn't want a computer named alienware? but i have no idea how good they are. i know they are made for gaming. i kinda want him to get a solid desktop that is good for MAKING things. music, video, cool movies, his own stuff. he's really good on the guitar and piano/keyboard. no reason why he shouldn't be making his own albums by now.

cool, yeah, thanks, collardio.

Ok here goes, in descending order of cost (Note: a bunch of these were "sale" prices). Unfortunately, I don't know to what extent this hardware suits music-making (son plays guitar but hasn't tapped into digital music making yet), but it's supposed to be good for games!

Graphics card: ASUS HD7850-DC2-2GD5 $180
Processor: AMD FX 6350 3.9 GHz Six-Core AM3+ $130
Memory module: Crucial Ballistix Elite 8GB DDR3-1866 $85
Solid state drive: SanDisk SDSSDP-064G-G25 6.0Gb/s 64 GB SATA $60
Hard drive: Toshiba 1TB 7,200 RPM SATA 6.0 Gb/s $58
Power supply: Thermaltake TR2 Series 600 watt ATX $50
Motherboard: MSI 970A-G46 AM3+ ATX AMD $40
Tower: Thermaltake V3 ATX Mid $40
Wireless N PCI Adapter: TL-WN851ND $20
DVDRW DL Drive: LG24x SuperMulti Internal SATA $16

PS: check out the Western Mass. thread when you get a chance. ;-)

For making music you'll want to add in:

• a decent USB audio/MIDI interface, like a Tascam US-144 mk 2 (~$150)
• something like an SM-57 microphone ($100) if you'll be wanting to record a guitar by micing a cabinet, although you could get by with a cheaper karaoke style mic to start
• some DAW (Digital Audio Workstation) software, REAPER is $60