# Apple Mac or PC for Graphic Design



## rammyboy (Sep 26, 2005)

I own a printing business in Derbyshire, England. Currently we have a 4 PC Network with a mac connected by a switch which then is connected to a server which is connected to a router. Tricky set up i know but it works and i dont know enough about servers and the likes to change it.

Firstly, the four pcs let me file share and everything but the mac seems to be connected to the router by an external box next to the mac i think which then has a wire to the switch.

After looking into file sharing between the mac i dont think i can as its onli 9.1 or something like that.

The mac is used for quark express version 4 i think, so for proofing and things like that it would be nice to share the colour laser which is shared by the four pc's.

Now what i want to know is should i upgrade the mac G3 or should i build my own new mac as i dont really want to pay the price of the new macs?

Also if i did build a mac myself, dosent have to be amazingly fast or high graphics, just something i can use quark on, how much do you reckon i could build a g4 or g5 for?

and one other thing? What do you thinks better adobe indesign or quark express as we are looking to upgrade this aswell?

Thanks Ian

www.iansprint.co.uk 
Printing in Derbyshire


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## tedwinder (Sep 7, 2005)

Build a Mac!!! I've never heard of that before - the trouble is, there is no simple 'box' to house the componenst, it would be a llot easier to get a new (or second-hand) Mac running a higher OS (e.g 10.3 or 1.4)


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## VegasACF (May 27, 2005)

Yeah, I don't know of a way to "build a Mac", either, unless you were to try to cobble something together from the pieces of older Macs. 

You're far better off just buying one. 

I don't think (but I cannot profess to know with certainty) that Quark would have any trouble running on a Mac Mini, if price is an obstacle to getting something bigger. But someone with more expertise in that particular field may have better information on the subject.


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## amohn (Jul 6, 2006)

if you realy want to build a mac clone this article will help alot
http://www.macopz.com/buildamac/ 
the only thing is it will look like a pc on the outside


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## AlexTs (Mar 2, 2006)

The problem with the Mac Mini is the slow 5400 rpm internal hard drive. I don't know about graphic design, but the drive is too slow for audio/music production. You may have to upgrade it, or buy a faster external drive.


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## emoxley (Jan 6, 2004)

Also, not sure you can put OS 9 on a Mac mini, and if you go with OSX, you may need to upgrade Quark........


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

Rammyboy,

My wife works in a medical legal illustration company (I work there too part time) which uses only Macs. They use Macs because it's the best for graphical work. I guess it will depend on if you (your company) are actually designing from scratch or people give you artwork to print.

As for a new mac, I would go for a G5. We have had issues, primarily slow downs, but crashes are a close 2nd, with our G4s. Now our G4s are acting as *servers* and some are used for non-important work.

My 2c

In case you are interested, my work website is www.medivisuals.com. They are pretty good at what they do  It's a shame there is no demand for that in England though... would be nice to come back.


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## rammyboy (Sep 26, 2005)

I checked too late!!!

Ive gone ahead and paid 450 for an apple mac g4 quicksilver!!! 

Seriously is this a disastrous move or something?

Its running tiger 10. whatever and its got 1gb ram and an 80 gb hd and a 733 processer?

Is there anything i should know?

The mac will mostly be used for quark setting things like business cards in black and white and things like that so nothing to risky?

Would it be worth looking into backing up the g4 regulary if they are crashers?

Many Thanks Ian


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

as long as you maintain it I don't see much of a problem. It's just we here are very graphic instenstive.


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## AlexTs (Mar 2, 2006)

You don't have to back up because of crashes, you have to back up due to hardware failure. Just save often.


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## rammyboy (Sep 26, 2005)

What do you mean like maintain it?

Im not very mac savvy? im more experienced in PC but isnt mac tiger meant to be more pc like than mac 9.2??? Or should i say easier to use for pc users?


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

What I meant was like if you have an issue, to use DiskWarrior (or similar) instead of not doing anything.

As for ease of use, I believe it is easier. I prefer a Mac over PC anyday. Don't get me wrong on the Mac though. Macs are resilent to viruses and stuff. If you are not doing anything intensive, then you should be OK. Anything else, you may want to upgrade to 2GB RAM.


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## rammyboy (Sep 26, 2005)

So do you think for our basic needs the G4 Quicksilver i have bought is ideal? (hope and pray!!!)

Many Thanks


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

yeah you should be OK. But remember, you may need more memory, depending on the tasks you are doing.


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## rammyboy (Sep 26, 2005)

well if we can get by with an apple mac g3 with 128 or 64 mb of ram and do the same load of work we will probably do on the new one?

LOL


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

rammyboy said:


> well if we can get by with an apple mac g3 with 128 or 64 mb of ram and do the same load of work we will probably do on the new one?
> 
> LOL


You acually got a computer to do what you wanted it to with 64MB!?!?!?!?!?

wow thats 'mazing


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## Couriant (Mar 26, 2002)

it's a mac ferrija... they are more compliant than PCs...


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## tedwinder (Sep 7, 2005)

Hey, Tidus, can you vote in my Mac or PC poll? The link is in my signature.


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## AlexTs (Mar 2, 2006)

tedwinder said:


> Hey, Tidus, can you vote in my Mac or PC poll? The link is in my signature.


Because we all know that poll results precede truth.


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## ferrija1 (Apr 11, 2006)

Tidus4Yuna said:


> it's a mac ferrija... they are more compliant than PCs...


True, but still....


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