AMD/Win vs Mac Here are the factors i have run through my mind over and over again. This is a dedicated Poser/3D system. I am casing my lot with Poser in a big way. Yet, even though I go with AMD, I will still have my Mac. In fact, I will do post production on the free and fine iMovie. If I find a place in the 3D world, I will of course move up to the higher level of play, where the graphics pacages cost $2000. Later for that. I've got a friend who is a hacker-type. He will stand by me. We've struck a deal on it, and he has a lot of success stablizing Windows rigs. I am willing to fiddle, some, to get this platform stable. It promises to be quite stable after that. Most Poser pros seem to like Win2000 a lot, and testify to its stability. I'm tired of waiting for the G5 or whatever. When it comes, if it comes, the top end will shoot up to $3900 (with additional RAM) as per usual, and I'm sure it will be magnificent, but for THIS TASK I can get the same power for under $2000 with the top of the line Athlon. I never again want to go hunting for tools, only to see the dreaded "For Windows Only" tag on the thing. They don't even say, "Sorry,...." anymore. I have no grudge against Bill Gates. Nothing personal against Microsoft. It's a valid company. And I admire AMD tremendously. As for my responsibility to force the world to write for the Mac by sticking with it, even if reason tells me it is the wrong decision for me, that is a call for me to self-sabotoge. It is rejected. As for being part of the problem, what credit do you give me for 18 years of pioneering in the Mac world? I purchased a Mac 128K with no HD and an imagewriter for $3200.00 on April 2, 1984. I had to drive 250 miles to get it, you couldn't get 'em in LA that month. I was doing business analysis on my Mac 512 with Multiplan in 1984. I was a major "Helix" pioneer, remember Helix? I have placed many friends into Mac systems. I have caused at least 125 Mac systems to be sold into manufacturing companies in Los Angeles. I was a very ardent evangelist for FoxPro on the Mac, now long abandoned because the Mac community displayed no desire for a serious database management system. I do all my web graphics and html imagemapping on Canvas, once a flagship Mac application, now a Windows program with Mac as a tag-along. Hell, I even use Virtual PC, but even THAT program is now being sold hand-over-fist to the Win world, for Win sysops to run multiple instances of different WinOSs, no Mac involved. Dbutenhof, I will discuss this with civility, with you or any other posters, if you wish, but I believe you already owe me an apology. Here is my current shopping list, a work in progress: 228 ...... AMD Athlon XP 2200+ 1.8GHz Processor 152 ...... Asus A7V333 Athlon MBD (Aud/RAID/Firewire/USB) 597 ...... 1.5 Gb (3 x 512MB) DDR PC2700, 333MHz RAM ($199 ea, Crucial) 128 ...... Antec Plus880 Full-Tower Case ATX, 430W 109 ...... Seagate Barracuda IV 80.0GB Hard Drive ..74 ...... Asus 32x12x40 CD Recorder ..59 ...... Asus 16X DVD/48X CD-ROM Drive ..39 ...... KeyTronic Lifetime Designer 104-key PS2 Keyboard (Black) 178 ...... INTUOS2 4X5 USB TABLET & GRIP PEN & 2D MOUSE 106 ...... Asus V8170DDR GeForce4-MX 64MB AGP w DDR Memory 109 ...... Altec Lansing 621 - 3pc Speakers 150 ...... Microsoft Windows2000 or XP, still deciding TOTAL: $1929.00 Apple equiv: 2320 G4 933 Mhz with 80 Gig ATA Drive ...600 1.5 Gig RAM ...149 Speaker system ...178 Intuos Tablet ......69 Keyboard to replace undesirable Mac default Total: $3316 Differential: $1387 I am attempting to be fair, here, and welcome any comments on how either system is not fairly represented. I am not trying to stack the game for either side. As stated above, I think both platforms have their place. I could not quite get the two systems equally equipt. The Apple system has DVD-write support (superdrive) but everything is in that one drive, not as desireable as having two different CD drives. It also has 256MB more RAM (if the G4 has at least 4 slots for memory), which it will need because Macs don't use RAM and Virtual Memory as well as the Win systems. I think the specs on the Baracuda drive are better than the 80-gig from Apple. At the current state of my knowlege, it looks like the audio support on the Asus motherboard is roughly the equiv of that onboard the Mac. I will look into this more deeply later. Now, this Apple system will NOT render Poser animations as fast as the AMD system, I have been advised by two Poser vets who use both. More opinions on that welcome here...... Perhaps a G5 would catch up. But what will the price of THAT be? And when? When this AMD system has come down another $200? ::::: Opera :::::