Jill,
I know there is always a big debate between MAC and PC users and there are major points in favor of both. I am a pc user but you can get a better machine if you can get someone to make a custom machine. My son put mine together and designed it specifically for my scrapbooking. He gave me two huge hard drives and in two years doing scrapbooking and converting are old videos to digital I haven't come close to using all my memory. He also made sure I had a great video card and monitor. Ask around your work or your husband and friends work to see if there is someone who likes to do this. Ask a lot of questions like how many they have done etc. These machines will be more expensive in the short term but they can be upgraded as you go-part by part (Dell and its competitiors hard wire everything in and so repairs mean sending it in and there is little room to upgrade) and we have found long term it is less expensive. Just a thought for you to explore. The dells etc. are great buys as far as expense goes but you won't find one in our house.
Janie

Right on.. PC's all the way.. and self building is the best way to get exactly what you want.. Mac's are simply one size fits all.. not bad if you don't know anything about computers.. but.. just my 2 cents.. trying to find mac hardware/software is a MAJOR chore and usually costs a lot more than PC software.. but - the choice is yorus.

I wish I would of seen this thread before.. I have nothing against Dells but I would of recommend you get your computer built just the way you like at a local shop. I have been doing for my last two computers and have no complaints at all. I get great service close by and a computer just the way I like it.
Just like Janie said these computers can be upgraded as time goes on very easily. I just went from 120 gb hard drive to a 250 gb. And then up'ed my ram from 1 gb to 2 gb.

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True true.. but there aren't too many honest local shops in many towns any longer.. there just isn't much of a profit in building PC's any longer.. not with the internet stores and how cheap you can get the parts. So.. if you MUST buy one - I still recommend Dell's.. If you can find a honest (hard part... ) local shop, that's great. Just do your homework before you give them the charge card...

Make sure you get references if someone is building your PC and make some phone calls. Ask the person you're thinking about building your PC for names of customers like yourself who use graphics a lot. There's a big difference between a 'puter for normal home use and one built for heavy graphics use.

The phone calls to these customers will be well worth it.

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Susan
Outer Banks Foto Art

We are a PC family because of the software issue. We started out with Apple's in the 80's then switched because of the software. However . . . DH is a computer tech for a school. In his school are over 300 computers that he has to keep running for all of the classes and teachers. PC's crash frequently and Mac's do not. Our school district is one of the largest in the nation and there are only 2 Mac computer repair men in the entire district. DH works on both types in his school, hates PC's and love Mac's. He is always complaining about our PC's at home. Even the Mac laptops are far better, they can be programmed to do all sorts of fun things. PC laptops can not.

Buy a PC for the software or a Mac for the stability (minimal crashes). However, the majority of major computer graphic artists use a Mac. Good luck deciding.

Sallie

the Mac vs PC debate continues.. yes... PC's crash more frequently than Macs.. The primary reasons for this is:

a) Somewhat buggy operating system in XP.. OSX is much more stable
b) Apple basically controls the entire market for Mac hardware..

Hmmm.. a PC based laptop can do almost anything a full desktop can.. and about 10 times as many things as a MAC. PC laptops are the exact same thing as a desktop.. except portable. There are just as many things available for a laptop as a desktop these days... do you have some examples of things you cannot do on a PC laptop but can on a mac? I'm curious...

Now.. personally, I like the freedom a PC offers. I can walk into almost ANY store and pick up a piece of software/hardware for a PC.. try doing that for a MAC and you'll soon get very frustrated. PC prices are wayy less than MAC's.. for both the initial hardware and software. MAC's are great for graphic use.. they excel here and most professional artist types continue to use MAC's.. but... there are plenty of pros that use PC and more expensive PC based workstations.

More power to anyone that wants to use a MAC.. they are great for what they do.. but just be aware of the limited availability of non-internet hardware/software purchases, limited support on most forums pertaining to scrapping and the price gouging of most dealers selling apples products.

Good luck with your decision again...

We've been using AMD chips in our PC's for the past 4 years and nothing beats their performance and stability. AMD (the other chip maker) has a new 64bit chip that is amazing and it will beat a MAC or an Intel in overall performance. I have an Athlon64 4000+ and it's beating all of the P4's in benchmark tests. It's native 32bit and 64bit so it will run all PC software today plus it has enhanced virus protection with WinXP which solves the virus problem. I can have bunches of layouts open at a time and run 5 different programs and never have a problem with memory slowdown.

My husband is an uber-geek and builds my PC's for me. I agree with the previous posts about getting a local shop to do it. I like to be able to upgrade my memory, motherboards and HD's easily. They even have 64bit laptops now.

Check out their website at www.amd.com.