Mac, back to (budget) PC.

[n11/n12]

Since my five year old Mac seems to be on its last legs, I'm now in the market for a new computer, except I'm getting a PC this time. I love Mac and everything, but they're far too expensive. My G4 may be old, but still...the Acer Aspire One actually has twice the spec at about a third of the cost.

So can anyone here recommend a good inexpensive brand for me to look into. Haven't decided yet if I'll go desktop/laptop. I'm not getting into gaming or anything really intensive, just looking to do some typing for school work, store a lot of music/photos/video, surf the interwebs, and do some light video editing.

[GreNME]

Honestly, whether you're going to a desktop or a notebook makes a huge difference as to whom you should be looking at for prices. Also, another thing you should consider is software licenses for things other than the operating system-- like the office suite you'll be typing papers with-- before making a transition to a new platform. I'll try to cover stuff in the best way I know and link you to some sites to check out.

If you're looking at a desktop, then hands-down you're going to get more bang for your buck with a PC system, though if you're looking for something specific like an all-in-one package I'd suggest sticking with the Apple selection. Provided an all-in-one isn't where you want to go but a desktop is still on your list, then the thing you should consider most is what kind of support you're thinking you want with it. If you go with one of the name-brand manufacturers you'll have the option to add on more than one year of basic warranties, as well as increasing your warranty type to cover more than the basics. Given that most people deal with only the limited one-year warranty, however, the bigger names may not necessarily be the direction you'll want to go. For those who aren't concerned about the warranty and are really looking for greatest bang-per-buck, I recommend places like CyberPower PC (http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/). For a built-to-order computer retailer, they really do have great prices. Using their custom-build configurator, you simply have to add an operating system and possibly any memory (RAM) you want and you're ready to go. If you're keen on adding more stuff they can accommodate and they supposedly test to make sure everything's working before shipping to you. The down side to them is that you'll also have to add a monitor if you don't have one already. If you want a complete system including monitor, then you can check out some of the brand-name offerings, like the Dell Deals (http://www.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/dell-deals-desktops?c=us&cs=04&l=en&s=bsd), which are basically the models (of their business machines) that are not of the cutting edge or flagship lines that the company is selling at a discount, often with a monitor. As long as you keep in mind that you're not getting the latest-and-greatest-cutting-edge technology in these offerings, you'll find some pretty reasonable prices for your needs. Just be sure that you're comparing the Dell Deal prices to their regular desktop offerings (http://www.dell.com/home/desktops) to make sure you're actually getting a deal instead of just older hardware-- Dell typically tries to make up the difference by bundling larger monitors or offering longer base warranties in its Deals section, while the current desktop offerings have the latest hardware.

For the notebook offerings, I actually tend to have two positions. The first position is that you're going to get the best rock-bottom prices from one of the big name PC manufacturers (Dell (http://www.dell.com/content/products/category.aspx/notebooks?c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19), HP (http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping/store_access.do?template_type=landing&landing=notebooks)). If you're looking for higher quality than just low prices, however, the best middle-tier manufacturer is one you're already familiar with: Apple. Their Macbook line of notebooks, while not the top of the line nor the cheapest out there, are good, solid machines that are pretty much worth their cost (especially the black models). While the Sony models out there come between the Dell/HP offerings and the Apple offerings, I don't particularly find Sony to be as much of a value in terms of pricing as Dell or HP, nor in terms of quality like Apple, so they usually stay off my radar.

Another thing to consider is whether to get Windows XP or Vista if you get a PC. I suggest checking out Vista, because it'll be more welcoming from a user interface perspective than XP, particularly coming from the Mac OS. Trumping both of these would be Windows 7 when it comes out, but it's not due out for nearly a year, possibly more, so it's not an option I'd consider valid at this point. What you'll need to keep in mind, though, is that your software from the Mac will not transfer over to the PC, neither in licenses nor in the actual program install files. For your office suite needs, though, you might be eligible for some discounts on the Microsoft Office suite, or you can look at the free (as in open-source) OpenOffice (http://www.openoffice.org/) to fill that void for the documents you'll use. For practically any other program out there, I can say with a fair amount of certainty that there are equivalents to suit your needs, though not all of them are free.

Another option you might want to consider, providing you're running a G4 chip in your Mac, is trying to add some RAM chips to improve performance. Up until recently I was still running an iBook G4 with a little over a gigabyte of RAM and it still ran pretty well, even compared to my dual-core Windows desktop with four gigs of RAM in it. I don't, however, recommend running a G3 chip Mac nowadays, as those are pretty much outmoded in terms of speed and responsiveness no matter how much RAM you stick in them.

I hope that info helps. Good luck whatever you choose. :)