imac or hp?

[m369550]

Hi,

I'm a graphic designer and i need some advice.

I need a machine that can smoothly edit 100mb+ photoshop files and smoothly run the occasional game, in particular call of duty 4, and I'm torn between the 20" IMAC (2.66MHz processor 4GB RAM and 256MB graphics card) and the HP laptop dvx9320 (2.5MHz processor 4GB RAM and 512MB graphics card)

Can anyone tell me if the difference in graphics memory will make a significant difference, I would prefer the mac but im concerned that it might struggle at times with heavy photoshop use and game play.

Im not exactly very knowledgable when it comes to these things and if anyone can give me any idea how these machines will compare that would be great, or if anybody owns either of these machines can tell me how theirs performs it would be greatly appreciated.

Many thanks.

[volunteeer]

I use macs from 15 years now so my recommendation is: get iMac. Performance of Macs and PCs (with same processors, memory, etc.) is very similar so only factor are your preferences. When I was starting there wasn't Photoshop or Illustrator or Quark on PC so my choice was simple. Today Macs are better for me because are more stable and has no viruses.

[nate51]

I will most likely be insulted and argued for this, but I am a PC guy.

I have used MACs on two occations and they are great systems, but I found the one I was on was sticking and running rather slow. I currently use a Dell Inspiron laptop 256 ATI graphics, 1GB RAM Dual Core Intel processor (2.16Ghz) and for me it out performed a brand new 22" iMAC I used for 2 months mainly in Flash and HTML work in a high end web firm.

The issue of viruses is kind of falling short as Macs are getting viruses and trojans now as people are starting to target them (obviously PC's are still the leader in trojan, virus and security issues) but Macs are not bullet proof to those anymore.

I think a lot of PC's issues have to do with specs (processor, RAM, motherboard etc) and your OS. I would avoid Vista like grim death but as long as you have quality components, keep your OS updated and virus software, you should be good with a PC. Remember a MAC now uses Intel processors so the only diff is the OS now......

So keep that in mind.

But do your research on it, don't just take my word for it.

[djr33]

Macs are getting viruses and trojans now as people are starting to target them

Theoretically possible, but I have not seen any problems with viruses on a mac, nor have I gotten any viruses (I use a mac full time at home).
Sure, there may be SOME viruses out there, but if you aren't stupid, you won't get one. Even the best PC users have trouble keeping ALL of the viruses and spyware away.


Aside from that, your post is accurate.


In response to the original question:

iMac: Get this one if you want a nice desktop computer. It's better than the laptop, regardless of OS. It's not going to be traveling anywhere with you, though.

Laptop: Get this one if you want to take it places and get stuff done while you're moving around.