*A:M User* Shelton Posted February 10, 2012 *A:M User* Share Posted February 10, 2012 As part of my job, several clients have purchased Macs in their network enviroment. As the IT guy I have to install and support the machines in the network. Here is thing, I have not used a Mac in 8 years. I am going to buy a Mac for myself. The question is which one? I am not a laptop fan so the MacBooks are out, maybe. What about an IMac? Good, bad?.... I am planning on installing AM as well. So I will need help here! Thoughts Steve Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Hash Fellow robcat2075 Posted February 10, 2012 Hash Fellow Share Posted February 10, 2012 I guess the purpose is to have something to explore the Mac OS with? Then I'd say get the cheapest one since the OS ought to be consistent across all the models, no? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 HI Shelton - first let me congratulate you on having such intelligent clients! I have a 27" iMac that will be three years old in June and it's a perfectly trouble free machine. AM runs fine on it but there are one or two workarounds that you need to know about, and some third party filters don't work, but I carry my AM files back and forth from my office PC and work on them on both machines with nary a hiccup. I believe rendering time on the Mac is faster though I may be one version behind on the pc, so I can't be sure. But when I was rendering my "Cicak" files the Mac regularly rendered almost twice as fast. When I bought the iMac I maxed everything including memory, screen size, graphics card etc. I have not regretted it. Depending on your usage you may not need all the bells and whistles. If you'd like more specific info post questions here! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
largento Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 An iMac is your best choice. The MacMini would probably be too underpowered. I use a MacPro, but this is my primary computer. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walter Baker Posted February 10, 2012 Share Posted February 10, 2012 Hi Shelton, I have 3 iMacs, one is old and retired, second oldest sits next to my new one, (9 months old) and they are networked together. New one runs Lion 10.7.3 which I am still not sure if I like yet, the other runs Tiger 10.4.11 (love it) All work great. I also have a laptop PC running Windows XP. When on and connected to my network they all connect good wirelessly. So I can transfer AM files and others back and forth from the laptop to the Macs and work fine. Hope this helps. ( I use the laptop during lunch at work and at the laundry mat ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
markw Posted February 11, 2012 Share Posted February 11, 2012 From what you say Shelton, I would agree with the others too. An iMac would be the one to get and max out the specs as much as you can afford/justify. If you are buying new then the OS will be Lion but the jury still seems to be out on this one. I have Snow Leopard, never a problem and love it! But I think I read somewhere, and I may be wrong on this, that if you get a new Mac, you can't install an older OS's on them, it will only accept Lion. Do you know what version of the OS is used by your clients? As there are some differences from earlier versions of OS X would these be important? I actually have a Macbook Pro and if you really need portability the Macbook Pro's are near as good as a desktop setup but you do have to watch out for the temperatures when rendering, they can hit 100°c! But for anything graphics wise or animation you really need a bigger screen size than a laptop can provide. So I have a second 22" HD monitor plugged into mine when at home. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwinkelman Posted February 12, 2012 Share Posted February 12, 2012 This is what I'm using. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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