1. Which is easier to use?
2. Which has better support?
3. Where's the best place to purchase?
4. I have an old Gateway PII 400 that's slow as molasis and
seizes regularly. Do I keep all the old components and
just buy a new box, or do I have to start from scratch?(ugly monster monitor, good sounding speakers, working printer
and scanner)
5. I have a 5 yr old Sony video camera that makes digital hi- 8 tapes. Can one of these contemporary machines convert
its dumb little tapes into usable/editable DVD's?
6. I'd like to be able to surf quickly, photo/video edit,
run personal finance software, send receive faxes, video
conference. What specific machines do you recommend to
do this stuff?
7. Same questions as above but for a light weight long
battery lifed laptop?
My negative experience with my gateway makes me want to try
a Mac. Endless wasted hours of crashes, crap support,
long talks with Kevin (yeah right) from India, etc, ...I also must be able to view excel and power point emails I receive. 1. Macs are easier to use.
2. Windows has manifestly more support options
3. Online almost always reduces price.
4. The Gateway seizes because its parts are old. Buy new, especially considering that even the crappiest computer sold commercially for $500 today is a better computer.
5. Yes, you just need to have a way to bring video from the tapes into the computer. There are lots of "breakout boxes" sold to do this, as well as internal cards.
6. Any machine can do what you want, save the video editing, including a $500 cheapie from Wal-Mart. Editing video, if you are going to do a lot of it, means you will need to buy the most powerful CPU you can afford and might want to consider a dual-CPU system. You will also probably want the largest and fastest hard drive you can afford.
I would not buy a Mac. It is harder to get software for a Mac, it is difficult to share files with PC users and the machines they make are no more or less reliable than the average PC. Go with Mac. It is very easy to learn and Apple Care is great support. You can even get 30 hours of free help from guys in the Apple Store. |
