[Sith Witch]

Hello,
I currently have an HP a810n machine with an AMD 64 processor with a 1600MHz bus. (Upgraded to 1.37GB of DDR SDRAM). Machine is about 3+ years old.

I am looking to purchase the HP m7490n with AMD 3.2GHz dual core processor & only an 800MHz bus. Comes with 2GB DDR2 SDRAM.

Although the m7490n has a smaller system bus, do you think it would be a significantly faster machine? I'm a graphic designer who refuses to buy a Mac & use memory intensive programs such as Photoshop etc.

Thank you for your time.

[Jamey]

Firstly, if you are a graphics designer, why do you refuse to buy a Mac? They are brilliant for the task and are well worth the investment if you are a professional. Compared to any other platform or operating system, the combination simply cannot be beaten. This is why you should get one. A major plus is that you would be able to run both Windows and Mac OS X, giving you the best of both worlds.

I don't think the machine you are considering purchasing will be significantly faster. Windows is a resource-hog in its own right, you will never see the true performance of a machine while running Windows on it. With another operating system, like Ubuntu or Mac OS X, you can.

There are free alternatives to the large and bloated commercial software applications. Firstly, there is The GIMP. It is a raster graphics editor similar to Adobe Photoshop. Next, there is Inkscape, a vector graphics editor similar to Adobe Illustrator. And finally, there is Scribus, a desktop publishing package similar to Adobe PageMaker or InDesign. There's no doubt that Adobe have years of experience in the visual arts software market. However, their software is expensive and can be difficult to use.

If it was me, I would probably keep the existing machine, install Ubuntu and the three applications I mentioned above: The GIMP, Inkscape and Scribus. I'd learn their ins-and-outs and then apply my (absent) graphics design knowledge to create unique projects. :)

[Sith Witch]

Hello, Thanks for the reply to my post.

Through the years, the only thing that I've found a Mac to be reliable for is crashing when you're in the middle of working. While Mac has taken steps to improve this with OSX, the only difference I've experienced is that instead of the entire system crashing, now it's only the program you're working with.

Macs are too unstable for my liking and yet Mac users continue to defend Macintosh even though the majority of them acknowledge experiencing these problems on a regular basis.

My PC has never crashed. EVER. I just love it I tell ya :) Besides, there's nothing that a Mac can do that my PC can't with the exception that I love Suitcase.

After e-searching various HP desktop PC's, I love the idea of upgrading to 4GB of RAM and having up to 500GB of hard drive space.

[Jamey]

I'm sorry to hear that. I've never heard of a Mac crashing, ever. I have heard and have experienced Windows-based PCs crashing frequently, without warning and usually when you least want/expect it. I have used various Linux-based operating systems and some Macs, neither of which ever crashed on me like Windows tends to.