Your old Mac has bit the dust and you think you need to get a new
one (color would be nice.....) - what's available, and how does one
decide what one "needs" - is their a user profile questionnaire that
one can fill out and - voila! - it tells you what to get (after it
checks the market....)?

13 responses total.

This is getting serious....the family is chanting "COLOR...COLOR...COLOR".
I look in the catalogs, and their are *dozens* of different Macs (and
monitors and keyboard...). How do I decide? I know it depends on what I
want to do with a new machine, but what I will want to do will depend on
what the machine can do. OK. It should be OK for graphics manipulations,
as its highest, but probably rare, use. What machines should I be
considering (and monitors and keyboards to go with them), and from which
vendors can I get the deal of the century? While I'm asking questions -
what's the difference between a PowerMac and a Performa? Price range? Say,
< $2500 total, give or take some? 

I believe that the Performa line is Motorola 680x0 based, while the PowerMac
is PowerPC based.  So the Performas are the older designs.  Still, depends
on your app.  MacMall always seems to be selling some 680x0 Mac line for under
$1000, with some bundled software, and I've always been tempted (until I
bought a house ;) ).  I'd say that if your apps are ones you are likely to
keep, then a Performa would be pretty good, esp. since the native 680x0 has
to run under a software 680x0 emulator on the PowerMacs and therefore still
isn't incredibly fast.  Graphics *speed* will be heavily dependant on
processor chip architecture, but graphics quality will not be much different
(if different at all).

I'm using a Performa 636CD which is about 2 years old, has a 040 
processor, and 8 meg of installed memory.  It works very well with my 
scanners & photoshop.  It only is noticeably slow when I attempt to open 
graphics larger than, say, 5 megs.  Up to this point ram doubler or 
virtual ram suffices.  For $2500 on this class of machine you could have 
more ram installed, have a very nice monitor and still have money to 
burn, I would suspect, considering that what we have cost well under 
$2,000 new with monitor and 14.4 modem.  I'm also not shy about running 
several apps at once including working online via PPP while editing 
photos and text in separate software.  Fairly bombproof, in my 
experience.  This, of course, in a non-power system.  I see Power Performa 
systems w/works advertised for around $2000 for 75Mhz and $2500 for 
100mhz.  My pokey system has only 66mhz, but still serves my needs.

Mac Mall lists both low end Performas with 68040 processors, and high end
Performas with PowerPc processors.  There must be some other difference, then.
Or, it could just be marketing.

Likely just marketing.  :)

The current "Price War" catalog from MacMall doesn't offer a single 680x0
desktop. The Power Macs all use Power PC 601 or 604 processors, while the
Mac Performa's use Power PC 603 processors. So, what is the difference?
Does an "integrated" monitor mean it and the CPU are one unit? I don't
want that, as I like the monitor set directly on the desk so I look down
toward it. Let's see...a Performa 6290CD, 100 MHz, with 8MB/1.2GB and
an Apple 14" Color monitor (and keyboard) is $2K. Is that a winner? For
only $300 more, there is a loaded Performa 6300CD with 16MB, and for
only.........

Todays flyer from Best Buy offers the identical Performa 6290CD in
the same configuration for the identical price a MacMall. Which
raises the additional issue - what are the benefits of local purchase
from Best Buy vs mail order from MacMall?

If you're going to be running System 7.5, you should get 16 MB of RAM, in my
experience.  8 really isn't enough for that.

I agree. I'm using RamDoubler on a Powerbook with 8MB, because 8 is simply
not sufficient for having (even obsolete) apps such as Word, Excel,
Netscape, and Telnet (not to mention mwarner's scanner) open together. 

(Gee Rane, my wife does all that on a PB 160 with 4M of RAM and no RAM 2X.)

  It's usually cheaper to buy a Mac with as little RAM as possible,
then buy extra RAM, than it is to buy a Mac with all the RAM included.
Figure you can get RAM for around $10/meg, when you do price comparisons.
 
  I'd be inclined to get a monitor separate from the "package."  I had
an Apple monitor once, but it was fixed frequency, could only do a
relatively low resolution, and only had a connector for Macs.  My NEC
MultiSync can hook up to a Mac and PC simultaneously (with a front-panel
selector switch), and works with a wide range of resolutions.  I've
replaced one Mac and three PCs since I got it, and I imagine it will
still be useful for many years.  I shy away from peripherals and add-ons
that are so geared toward a small range of computer models that you
need to replace them when you replace the computer.
 
  I'd also prefer an external CD-ROM drive to an internal, as it's a
lot more flexible, but if the internal is cheaper, that could sway me.
Usually an internal Apple CD-ROM is more than an external 3rd-party
CD-ROM, if you can get enough numbers to figure out what Apple's price
difference is.

What *defines* a "Performa"?

I asked a UM departmental computer guru the following question, and his
answer follows that:

>If you have a moment...do you have any suggestions concerning purchasing a
>new home desktop. Our trusty SE has died. I am considering getting a 100
>MHZ Performa 6290CD (I think it is) with Apple monitor - its a "sale" item
>from Best Buy this week. Might buy it with a RAM upgrade to 16MB. The
>price with 8M is $2,000. Are there any better options around, in your
>opinion?

In general, I don't like the Performas as much as the regular Macs because
they use the 603e chip (which is slightly slower in integer performance
than the 601) and the monitor they bundle with them usually isn't the best.

However, they do provide a very good performance/price ratio (i.e. they're
inexpensive.)  I guess it ultimately come down to how demanding you will be
as far as your computer use goes.

If you will be doing heavy duty math processing or graphics work, I say go
with the regular Macs.  If all you're doing is word processing and
occasional internet browsing, the Performas are adequate.

I think the best thing to do would be to check out the prices at UM's '96
Computer Kickoff Sale.  The URL for this is:

        http://www.itd.umich.edu/Sales/
or
        http://www.itd.umich.edu/Sales/kickoff-apple-computers.html

For instance, the PowerMacintosh 5260/100 is for sale.  It's an all-in-one
machine that's as fast as the model you describe above but cheaper and with
more RAM.

My personal recommendation?

In the $2000-2500 price range, I recommend the Power Macintosh 5400/120
bundle or the Power Macintosh 7200/120 bundle available at the KickOff.
Both are currently faster and more expandable than the model you're
currently considering from Best Buy and the monitors are as nice or nicer.

In the $3000-3500 price range, I recommend the Power Macintosh 7600/132
bundle from the Kickoff.  This machine uses a 604 processor.  This is the
powerMac processor you want to stick with if you can.  It's performance is
much better than the 601 at equivalent clock speeds.  The price for the
bundle is particulary good.

Another option is to check out Power Computing.  For pure speed/price
ratio, they're probably the best around.

        http://www.powercc.com

Another option, in the sub-$2000 range, would be to get a 7200/75
to 7200/100, as Apple is trying to get rid of these older models and sells
them at a pretty good discount.  It's like buying a somewhat obsolete good
computer, while the Performa 6290 is a very current mediocre computer; it's
designed to be mediocre to save money.  In addition to MacMall, I'd check
MacZone and Mac Connection (aka PC Connection) catalogs; they're all 
similar, but have slightly different deals.  Note that 7200s aren't as
often bundled with monitors and keyboards, which allows you to pick a
good monitor that suits your needs and budget (17" or more is really nice!).
The 7200s are more expandable than Performas, in a variety of ways, too.

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