Switching from a PC to Mac!

Hello all!

This my first post on this forum, since I thought this would be a great place to start asking a few quetion regarding the Macintosh hardware line, as well as making the switch from a Windows-based background.

First of all, a little background information.
I have just finished my 4th year at University, studying Architecture, and our next semester does not start until end of February/early March.
Since my desktop is in fine order, and will merely serve as back-up device (which I'll give to my sister later in 2007), I'm thinking of purchasing one of the notebooks.

Now, I have barely used a Mac before, only just recently at my collegues' place. And even then, I must have only been using it for 30 minutes.
Anyway, I've been visiting the stores more often in recent times, had a look at the laptops, while also browsing this forum for any info I could get.

Since I'm studying Architecture, I will most certainly be using CAD software, while also performing 3D renders, as well as the usual documentation.
I'm also hoping to play a few games. The title I'm anticipating most is UT 2007!
So again, since my desktop is still doing its job, I'm considering to buy a laptop!

I'm willing to wait until Leopard comes out, but I hope to purchase one prior to the semester, just to get used to it, as well as move all the fils across, etc. I doubt the Santa Rosa chips will be available that soon....

On with the questions:

Question 1:
Am I making a smart move, in completely switching to a MAC?

Question 2:
If you install XP and hook it to the Internet, wouldn't you be just as vulnurable to hacks, viruses, etc, as you would normally be on a regular PC?

Question 3:
Is it difficult to adapt to OS X?

Question 4:
Do you think any of the current notebooks will be handle things like ArchiCAD, Lightworks, Photoshop, and UT 2007 (which hasn't been released yet)?

Question 5:
How good is Front Row?

Question 6:
Purchasing the Apple Care Package is a good thing, correct?

Thank you all in advance for any comments, tips, advice, etc!


P.S My current computer is a 2GHz Athlon XP, 768MB DDR RAM, GeForce4Ti 128MB, 1x 20GB HD, 1x40GB HD!

 

1.) many people love the mac interface, and now with the intel-architecture, there is no reason not to give apple a try.
2.)Absolutely.
3.) It's pretty intuitive, I use a PC at home, but at school many of our computers are iMacs.
4.) The x1600 is a pretty powerful card, but not optimized for CAD.
5 & 6-Dunno! If you have the extra money, why not?

 

if you need graphics power macbook pros are not the place to look. although the x1600 looks good, the one in the mbp is underclocked so extremely do to heat issues, that it is barely faster then last generations x700.

both cad software and ut2007 would definitely want more power then an underclocked x1600. im a little worired about running it on my full clocked 256mb x1600 in my asus.

osx is definitely nice and apple can make some powerful pcs but they really seem to only hit one sweet spot value wise for notebooks, and that is the base macbook\

edit: yeah sorry about the underclocking statement, surprisingly that news really hasnt spread very well, I just found that out upon looking at the mac forum. Its nice to hear their finally putting real 1600s in them, although i wonder how their dealing with the heat, almost makes me wonderf if their x1700s runnin at x1600 clocks, and thus being called x1600s as energy/heat and clock speed is the only diff between the two. oh well my confusion can be figured out some other time, its good to hear though, as thats quite a performance boost.

 

1) Apple makes fine quality hardware easily matching PC stuff of similar price ranges. You can pretty much find software on Macs that provides similar functionality to any PC software although your choices may be more limited. The only thing to beware of is if your environment/use requires specific hardware or software only available on a PC.

2) Your XP partition would indeed be vulnerable. If you use BootCamp or similar technology that completely separates the OS's, your OSX stuff should remin safe, but beware of accesing contaminated items on the XP partition. If you are keeping XP on your Mac, you are hardly "completely switching" though ;-)

3) You have to think a little more visually in OSX, but the concepts are the same and it only took me about a week to become very comfortable with OSX. There are lots of good "switching from XP" articles and the Apple Support site is actually very good for learning to do some of the more esoteric things you did in XP.

4)While I prefer the MacBook (size), if you are looking at more powerful graphics needs you likely want to consider a MacBook Pro.

5)If you use your Mac as a Media Center (to view movies, pictures, and listen to music) it works very well, but if you are serious you need to add quality headphones or speakers - this is just a notebook after all.

6)Technical support without Apple Care is limited to 30 days from first call (not very nice) and as a new Mac user you'll find a lot of confort in 3 years of tech support. Of course extending the hardware support from 1 year to three is an excellent reason as well and prety much worth the price.

If you are a "power user" I would recomend a large (120-160gb hard drive) as the Mac uses up space fast. I would also suggest 2gb RAM.

Hope this helps

 

As a recent pc to mac switcher, I can answer a couple of things for you:

Apple hardwares are very well built and they have a reputation to maintain, therefore you will not be disappointed with their products. I recently bought a MBP and so far I've been very happy with it. Because you're going to be using Autocad, you will need to get a MBP as it comes with a dedicated graphic chip and you will have to install windows so that you can use it. Therefore the notebook will work just like any other pc, susceptible to any virus or trojan available for windows xp. Just make sure you protect and maintain it well and you shouldn't have any problems with it.

As for Mac Os X, it's a blast to use. the interface is clean and appealing. it is also simple to use but it takes a little bit of getting used to especially when you can't get the windows to use the whole screen. But that can be remedied with a third party software. You may also be lost when you want to install some software. You will eventually get the hang of it and you will notice that it is much easier to install a program in Os X than in Windows.

Front row is a very nice software but I hardly use it so I can't tell you much about it. as for the apple care... I didn't get it because I didn't have the money and I thought it wasn't necessary. As long as the computer is working fine for the first year, it wont die on you for the next two year, unless something really bad happens to it such as : falling, electric surge, etc... This is my opinion and it should not influence your decision on getting the apple care. I would also like to add that you can purchase the apple care within the first year of purchase so you don't have to get it when you buy the laptop.

 

im pretty sure the 17 in mbp gpu isn't underclocked, and the 15 in mbp gpu is clocked higher then it was before.

 

According to recent readings of the clock/mem speed of the x1600 in the C2D MBPs, they are not underclocked. If they are still, it's only a small amount.
BTW, even the underclocked x1600 beats my x800xt.

Regardless, I would try to find a laptop that has a fireGL card in it. That is, if you do heavy cad work.

ALWAYS get extended warranty with a laptop. If something breaks just after your first year, your SOL. Parts for laptops are hard to DIY repair and COSTLY.

Front row is freaking amazing. I love it! I don't use it much though, but when I do, I enjoy it a lot.

 

As other replies have said, the C2D MBP's x1600 is only moderately underclocked. About the same amount as every other x1600 notebook. As for performance for video games, there is no laptop equivalent for a high end desktop until you get into the very heavy, not really portable notebooks. If you are willing to live with good but not great performance for games, the MBP will definitely suffice. When it comes to CAD, a workstation card (FireGL, Quadro) are the way to go, but a Radeon or GeForce will perform pretty well. They actually all use the same chipsets I believe, just optimized for different tasks.

 

About installing XP on a MBP. Could I install it on a external harddrive and only plug it in when i need to use XP?

 

It is definitely possible on Parallels, because Parallels uses image files as your Windows partitions. Not very sure about Boot Camp. Boot Camp does give you the option of selecting any drive to install Windows, but Windows resets the USB system during boot up, so that would not work (same principle why it doesn't work on a PC).

 

Parallels sounds really nice but most virtualization doesn't have good 3D support. I would not look at getting a Mac if you are going to use CAD. I use Autodesk map at work and I have a Geforce Quadro 3450 and 2gigs of ram and it's still really slow during certain tasks. I would just upgrade the desktop if you are going to use something for CAD. Macs don't have very good benchmarks with windows installed. The Mac is pretty and has a great OS but I don't think it's worth the money if you want good graphics for games and CAD. If you like the new Macbook then maybe you should consider getting an Asus because they designed and built it.

 

didnt read the whole thread so sorry if it has been said before but I don't know how good a mac would be for your architecture course.
two things, my girlfriends does architecture in uni and she bought a mac last year. Now she loves her mac but a few weeks ago also bought a windows laptop as she couldn't use the mac for al her work. She did say to me that she should have bought a windows laptop instead of her mac in the first place but now she has both. Overall she still prefers the mac though.
The second thing is that apparently a lot of firms use macs to do their work BUT many of them are starting to use windows software now as well. I was told that the windows stuff is about as good as the mac stuff now for architecture.

Now, I don't do architecture myself so I can't say with all certainty how true this all is but it is what I have heard from my girlfriend and other friends who do architecture

 

The new intel based macs run windows at speeds that are excellent from the reviews I read. Parallels and Boot are not emulations like the old virtual PC I used to have on my G4 mac - which was a dog.

If you can afford it - I think a Macbook Pro is the only way to go and you will get the best of all worlds (choices!). Acad will have to run under windows for now until they come out with mac version (rumored) again.

I have been a mac user for over 18 years at home - and PC's at work. I just recently bought a second computer for home and decided on a PC notebook. Some learning curve (msconfig? malware? Virus? ) but I am getting the hang of it - and it is nice to have all options at home and on road. My next desktop with be a new Core 2 Duo iMac with parallels and XP on it.

Have fun.

 

forgot to mention, i don't think autocad runs on macs. Neither does 3d studio max. Not sure if you would use that program but my architecture buddies do so who knows.

 

The only way to run AutoCAD on Mac would be using Parallels or Boot Camp. Seeing that Parallels currently has no 3D Hardware acceleration, and it does take up quite an amount of resources, Boot Camp would be your only option. But, if you are going to be running Windows on your Mac most of the time, then it would probably be a better idea just to get a PC.

 

Yup, the Autodesk AutoCAD is not available on mac (yet) but there are other auto cad and 3d programs out there. I don't know much about them, but google brought up a few results.

 

Incorrect. It's 90 days from date of purchase.

@ original poster:
Applecare protection plan is definitely worth it.