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riveracarlos · Aug 28, 2002, 01:27 PM

I am about to order a Power Mac DP 867. I will order it with the super drive option to burn DVD's. I am still debating which video card to order, should I get the radeon or would it do fine with the GE Force MX? One more, should I buy one of those Apple care plans?

Thank You

Lateralus · Aug 28, 2002, 02:25 PM

Ah! Welcome to the community, you wont be sorry! :-D

As for the video card, the Radeon 9000 will be more than enough unless you are an avid gamer, and even then, it is still a great card.

AppleCare can be worth it, but I usually only recommend it with laptops. But, it is up to you.

I for one had AppleCare with my iBook, and when I called to inform Apple on a Monday night that my built-in ethernet had died, they had a custom fitted Airborne Express box left at my door at 6:30am the following morning. I woke up around 11:00am, brought in the box, put the iBook in the foam compartment, filled out a form, and closed up the box. I called for pickup, and 30 minutes later Airborne Express had the package picked up.

I received the iBook back on Friday morning... :-D

Again; Welcome to the community!

Superchicken · Aug 28, 2002, 04:10 PM

Apple care is good, I wish I had gotten it on my iMac, because NOW it's useful, my logic board won't recognize more ram, although I'm pretty sure I did something to screw it up... don't try firm ware updates in OS X

hahaha

But yeah, apple care CAN be worth it, it's much more worth it on Laptops, but it gives you peace of mind, some people get their money's worth out of it, some don't.
Deppends on how long you intend to keep your computer.

businezguy · Aug 28, 2002, 04:31 PM

Welcome, River!

I just made the switch myself and I must say I have not regretted my decision whatsoever. In fact, I am pleasantly surpised at how much my Mac has EXCEEDED my expectations by far!

It took my 2 or 3 hours to figure out how to network my PC with my Mac, but that really wasn't because it was hard as much as it was just learning the interface. Once I found where I was supposed to be, it was so easy it was absurd. It will only take a few minutes to set up networking between a Mac and a PC from now on. Very impressive!

I was planning on setting up my Rio Riot with my Mac. I plugged it in and realized that I was unable to pursue my plans to set up my Rio Riot as it was automatically recognized by iTunes. I merely dragged the files in to add to my Riot and I was on my way. Furthermore, iTunes made it stupidly easy to organize which songs I already had in my Riot and which ones I had to copy over. With my PC, i always had to cross reference the list and if I made a mistake I had 2 of the same song on my Riot. (I'm definately thinking about getting the Ipod, those things look quite awesome).

Multitasking is incredible. I was copying MP3 files, moving some files on my mac hard drive from one place to another, watching Lord of the Rings, and chatting with somebody on the Internet all at the same time. It never even hestitated. Not one hiccup from my machine!

All in all, I am completely impressed with my choice. Now if Yahoo would just make a chat version that will allow voice chat and the ability to go into chat rooms, that would be great!

godzappa · Aug 28, 2002, 08:10 PM

Welcome to the club River!

I am actually upgrading from my trusty G4 400 with the purchase of the same system you are looking at.

The Dual 867 is a great value, Im going to get a BTO with the Superdrive and a Radeon 9000 card. I've always gone with ATI cards, and the 9000 Pro seems like a really nice card. If you really wanted the most powerful card you could get, then the GeForce 4 Ti would be the one to go with (or the high end radeon when it starts shipping) but the price is in my opinion, just to high. I'd much rather use the difference in cost between the two cards on a nice graphics tablet or lots of ram (just dont buy it from Apple)

I switched from using PCs at home and work 3 years ago and have never looked back. Now, with OSX, the switch must be even more pleasent than when I bought my G4 and started using my pentium 366 as a door stop.

scottiB · Aug 28, 2002, 09:33 PM

Welcome!

(one of you artist-types should create a "Welcome to the Mac" JPEG to be posted in threads like these. I''ve been seeing them more often lately. :-) )

villalobos · Aug 28, 2002, 09:48 PM

Originally posted by scottiB:
Welcome!

(one of you artist-types should create a "Welcome to the Mac" JPEG to be posted in threads like these. I''ve been seeing them more often lately. :-) )

Very true ScottiB. Hey tell me what's the building you have in your sig? It looks famliar to me but I am not sure...

villa

OreoCookie · Aug 29, 2002, 02:39 AM

Either get the ATI or the *big* brother, don't get the GeForce 4MX (no MX!).

Some more advanced functions that will likely appear in newer games and thus probably in QE will not be supported.

Either take the ATI or the GeForce 4Ti (that one is a bit more expensive though

).

scottiB · Aug 29, 2002, 08:18 AM

Very true ScottiB. Hey tell me what's the building you have in your sig? It looks famliar to me but I am not sure...

It's the TWA terminal at Kennedy Airport, designed by Eero Saarinen. He's also done the St. Louis Gateway Arch and, my favorite, the General Motors Tech Center--which is a collection of buildings.