Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Lets Convince My Dad to get a Mac!! (Need help)

FF_productions

FF_productions

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Apr 16, 2005
2,822
0
Mt. Prospect, Illinois
PLEASE READ ENTIRE POST (I KNOW ITS RIDICULOUSLY LONG)
Hey guys, my sister and hopefully my Mom and I may purchase a Mac for my dad to replace his PC. I'll probably take a pic of the PC, you may feel sick after seeing it.
Here are the specs, if this doesn't convince someone to switch, I don't what the hell is wrong with you.
SPECS
2002 HP Pavilion 762n
2.26 ghz P4 processor
512 mb's ram
80 gig drive, 300 gig for videos music
32 mb's graphics
2 DEAD/UNFIXED CD/DVD drives inside
Has crashed twice (lost all files)...I met the Blue Screen Of Death, (I was running disk clean up and windows starting deleting itself, kept asking me for files, I think it was a virus).
Has a replacement 15 inch white CRT monitor because the nice 17 inch crt one got warped for no apparent reason.

My dad is going to want to do some heavy video encoding but we want an Intel Mac for future purposes and the speed from dual-core processors.

Needs to be like a "Media Center", play music, show photos, videos straight to TV (I'm thinking Eyehome).

My sister is a teacher so we could probably get the EDU discount on it as well.

My dad has a 300 gig drive with all his videos, I could stick it in an extra enclosure that I have.

Thanks a lot guys, we'll be a complete mac home if we can switch my Dad.
Vito
 
101_9830.jpg


The PC.
 
Why not just get an iMac 20"? It has video out so it can connect to the TV. Can get 2GB of RAM and a 500GB internal HDD
 
FF_productions said:
I met the Blue Screen Of Death, (I was running disk clean up and windows starting deleting itself, kept asking me for files
Click to expand...

You gave me a good laugh -- thanks. :D

I unplugged my father's ethernet cord from his PC the other day to hook up my PB. I drained the modem, restarted the modem, hooked the ehternet cord up to my Mac, and bingo, I was on the web.

I drained the modem, restarted the modem, plugged the ethernet cable back into the PC and ... nothing.

After fighting with the PC for 45 minutes (and finally remembering ipconfig!), I got the PC back on the web.

But it provides the most compelling case for your father -- the Mac just works.
 
thedude110 said:
But it provides the most compelling case for your father -- the Mac just works.
Click to expand...

My dad's first computer was a Performa (32 mhz), it never really had problems, it just fell behind in speed. I sure wish he got a iMac G4 in 2002 instead of this box of troubles.
 
Heck, even the higher-end Mini with a large external drive would outperform that--the 1.66GHz Core Duo would run rings around a 2.16GHz P4.

But I agree, an iMac sounds nearly ideal. Eyehome might be nice if you want a DVR, but since you can drive a TV directly from an iMac (or Mini, for that matter) with an inexpensive adapter just FrontRow might be enough to do the trick with the included remote. Has the horsepower for video encoding, internal drive space as necessary, and a decent built-in monitor.

If your dad was SERIOUS about video encoding, it might be worth at least considering the G5 towers, as the G5 does very well in that area (or waiting a few months for the Mac Pro replacement if something that won't also run Windows isn't an option), but I doubt that's necessary. My G5 may out-encode my MBP by a margin (particularly on H.264), but it's not a massive difference.
 
Makosuke said:
But I agree, an iMac sounds nearly ideal. Eyehome might be nice if you want a DVR, but since you can drive a TV directly from an iMac (or Mini, for that matter) with an inexpensive adapter just FrontRow might be enough to do the trick with the included remote. Has the horsepower for video encoding, internal drive space as necessary, and a decent built-in monitor.

If your dad was SERIOUS about video encoding, it might be worth at least considering the G5 towers, as the G5 does very well in that area (or waiting a few months for the Mac Pro replacement if something that won't also run Windows isn't an option), but I doubt that's necessary. My G5 may out-encode my MBP by a margin (particularly on H.264), but it's not a massive difference.
Click to expand...

He wouldn't need a G5 or MacPro, there is enough speed in the iMacs...

Another sweet part of it is that I have an extra enclosure so I can stick his 300 gig drive in it and he can keep all his videos and music from his PC and have it on the Mac.

Hmm, Frontrow looks like it would do the trick, and the adapter would as well. At our house we have a huge stereo set-up, can we simply plug-in one audio cord to the iMac to get a sound-feed?
 
Here's what it looks like so far:
Affordable option
17 inch iMac
1.83 ghz Intel
1 gig of ram
128 mb's graphics
SuperDrive
160 gig drive
$1289 (EDU discount)

or

Doubtful Option
20 inch iMac
2 ghz Intel
1 gig of ram
256 mb's graphics
SuperDrive
250 gig drive
$1757 (EDU discount)

then the adapter for video out, and audio, both routed through the wall going to the stereo and TV, I don't know how much those will cost...
 
FF_productions said:
then the adapter for video out, and audio, both routed through the wall going to the stereo and TV, I don't know how much those will cost...
Click to expand...
"Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter", $19. (Plus a few bucks for an S-video cable if you don't have any extras around.)

"Belkin PureAV Digital Optical Audio Cable with Mini-Toslink Adapter", $30.
"Griffin XpressCable Digital Audio Cable", $20 (this one comes with 2 mini-toslink adapters instead of just one).
You can probably find an off brand for even less than this.

These prices are from the Apple Store, so you may be able to save a couple bucks by buying elsewhere (SmallDog has the Griffin cable for $16, for example) if it's really worth not just ordering the whole thing as a bundle.

That'll set you up with a standard optical audio output and S-video output, presuming your TV and amp have the appropriate inputs.
 
You could get an airport express as well. If needed

It can connect music to your soundsystem wirelessly and then you could use a program such as airfoil for video sound. (however you would have to use VLC with some changes in it to make audio and video match up due to hardware issue)

Probably not the best choice but it is there.


Personally i would go with the 20" just because of the resolution. I can't use a desktop anymore without 1680X1050
 
Makosuke said:
"Apple Mini-DVI to VGA Adapter", $19. (Plus a few bucks for an S-video cable if you don't have any extras around.)

"Belkin PureAV Digital Optical Audio Cable with Mini-Toslink Adapter", $30. You can probably find an off brand for even less than this.

That'll set you up with a standard optical audio output and S-video output, presuming your TV and amp have the appropriate inputs.
Click to expand...

Cool, thanks. I'll probably need super long audio/video cords to extend to the stereo/tv, it will be routed through the wall most likely.

This already looks like a pretty cool set-up and a great way to convince my dad to finally get a Mac.
 
You can get the mini-dvi to video adapter straight from apple.

Check first if your TV has VGA, DVI, or S-Video/Composite as they are 3 different adapters.
 
eva01 said:
You could get an airport express as well. If needed
It can connect music to your soundsystem wirelessly and then you could use a program such as airfoil for video sound. (however you would have to use VLC with some changes in it to make audio and video match up due to hardware issue)
Probably not the best choice but it is there.
Personally i would go with the 20" just because of the resolution. I can't use a desktop anymore without 1680X1050
Click to expand...

When I went to the Apple store with my dad a while ago, he loved the 20 inch iMac's (they were G5's then)..the only problem is the cost. I sure would like to go wireless but it is expensive, if I can just route the wires through the walls with some of my Uncle's help and have a pretty awesome set-up.

eva01 said:
You can get the mini-dvi to video adapter straight from apple.

Check first if your TV has VGA, DVI, or S-Video/Composite as they are 3 different adapters.
Click to expand...

My TV has S-Video/Composite ports in the back. It's a 61 inch rear-projection TV, bought in 2000, it just won't get old.
 
FF_productions said:
SPECS
2002 HP Pavilion 762n
2.26 ghz P4 processor
512 mb's ram
80 gig drive, 300 gig for videos music
32 mb's graphics
2 DEAD/UNFIXED CD/DVD drives inside
Has crashed twice (lost all files)...I met the Blue Screen Of Death, (I was running disk clean up and windows starting deleting itself, kept asking me for files, I think it was a virus).
Has a replacement 15 inch white CRT monitor because the nice 17 inch crt one got warped for no apparent reason.
Click to expand...

It's better than the PC I'm using right now. I desperately need my MacBook (a little more than a week left).

1.7 ghz
512 RAM
70 GB HD (Except I went insane and bought my own 250GB external)
A really crappy video card

Plus it makes this rattling sound.

Oh yeah, and a 15 inch crt monitor. The same one that my family has had since we got our first computer in like '99 or something.

Switching from this to my MacBook will be the best thing ever. It doesn't help that my girlfriend has an iMac already, so whenever I go to her house and I use it, it makes it so much more painful to come home to this :(
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back