MAC APPLE USERS - advice please

[SunflowerRae]

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I am currently a PC user and I am considering switching to MAC (120+GB). My husband and his dad are very against me doing this mostly because he won't be able to help me with any problems I might have and a general fear of the unknown. I don't have a lot of time to be figuring out "MAC stuff" since I need to be studying... I know I can take my mac to the local apple store and they can help me... but again that's my time.

Our school gave us the 3D interactive Tooth Atlas and I have researched enought to know that I would need to get the windows bootcamp or parallel thingy on a mac for me to be able to use it.

So what I want to know from all of you is when you run the 3d tooth atlas on your mac does it take up lots of memory and slow the computer down, does the windows thing take up lots of your GB? The tooth atlas is 37GB!! so I am concerned about running out of space as well.

IS IT EASY TO USE THE TOOTH ATLAS ON A MAC?

THOUGHTS AND ADVICE on this windows on a mac issue, COMPELLING REASONS TO GET A MAC, COMPELLING REASON NOT TO GET A MAC... are appreciated thanks

 

[tinker bell]

I love MAC, it's the best thing. I switched to Mac after first year of dental school. Never had any melt down at ll. I remember my pc break down so much, antivirus crap, does not work in library, etc...imac is better in every other way. Plus it is so easy to use. I never needed a tech support, and I have never used Mac before then, I just bought an imac when I was so pissed off at windows and microsoft. My PC machine, I uploaded Linux and has been using linux & mac since. Never have any problem with any of them.
Don't let anyone interfere with your decision. You are the one who suffers in dental school, not them. And don't suffer like I did in my first year.
Good luck

 

[toothfairy85]

Interesting you should mention the 3D tooth atlas. Our dental anatomy professor just had everyone in the class install the trial CD to get our opinion on it, and everyone in the class who has a Mac is having trouble running it... and we have parallels. I am not quite sure what the reason is for this. It ran the first couple of times I opened it in parallels, and now it doesn't run... it keeps giving some error message. Aside from that though, I love my Mac. I had been a PC user all my life until I started dental school in July, where we had a choice between a Dell or Mac laptop. It is not that hard to learn how to use at all... and there are virtually no problems, even with the new Leopard operating system I just installed. I know that if something were to happen I could take it to the Apple store, but I have yet to run into any problems other than the 3D tooth atlas not running on parallels, and that has nothing to do with the Mac operating system.

 

[Turnerjo13]

Most of my professor use a mac. It is interesting that the ones that are always having tech problems are the ones who are not using a mac. Mac FTW.

 

[SunflowerRae]

Toothfairy -

What are your MAC system specifications? GB, RAM etc....

Do you use Leopard?

I read something about needing 2 ram memory?

I could be way off, I don't know much about computer hardware.

 

[toothfairy85]

Yes... I just upgraded to Leopard 2 weeks ago. As far as GB and RAM, I am not sure. The school ordered our laptops for us. All I know is it's a MacBook Pro. Sorry I couldn't be of more help.

 

[Mackchops]

The tooth atlas is a little annoying to use -- especially if you run windows with boot camp. I don't know tons about computers and I'm relatively new to macs, but there seems to be a partitioning problem with boot camp where you can't isolate enough space to install the atlas onto the computer -- I had to use my old external HD. Apparently, this problem is solved with the bootcamp that comes with leopard. Otherwise, some of my classmates use parallels without a problem.

The great thing about macs is there is almost no learning curve -- they're very intuitive. They're also extremely stable and you don't have to worry about viruses. The biggest problem used to be that nothing was compatable with macs -- but now you can get almost everything for mac -- from office to windows to games. It's a great little machine and you won't be dissapointed. I'm never going back to a PC.

As for specs, I would recommend getting the most RAM (2GB+) and the largest (fastest) HD you can afford, in that order. RAM (memory) makes the machine run smoother while your HD allows you to store more stuff. The faster HD (eg: 7200 rpm vs 5400 rpm... if those are still the speeds these days??) also improves performance noticably. Also, consider whether you want to get a macbook or the pro (I don't think most people need more than the regular macbook -- the pro just seems to add more graphic performance options and a pretty silver shell for a lot more money). My opinion and I hope it makes sense.

 

[SunflowerRae]

Thanks -

If anyone else has insight I'm open to hearing more.

I think I will be switching to MAC!!

 

[jackbauer!]

the whole MACs are hard to use and nothing is compatible doesn't fly anymore... they are far superior to PCs in reliability and design. when given a choice, go MAC!!

jb!🙂

 

[DrJeff]

the whole MACs are hard to use and nothing is compatible doesn't fly anymore... they are far superior to PCs in reliability and design. when given a choice, go MAC!!

jb!🙂

For Home/school PC use they are great. If you have intentions of using a Mac down the road for office use, you currently have very limited software choices for practice management. The vast majority of dental practices run windows based systems, if for no other reason than you have WAY more software options to choose from both currently and historically.

 

[SuperC]

I think that going mac is a no-brainer. Everyone above has covered the bases, there is no reason not to go a mac, and with bootcamp pre-installed in leopard there will be less of a reason to use MAC in dental offices. Mac Practice looks like a pretty cool program!

As for that dental anatomy program, TRASH IT! The only thing you REALLY need to do well is get a good study set from nissin. They make a great set with roots, they also make a peds set.

-C

 

[Wayne Coronado]

For Home/school PC use they are great. If you have intentions of using a Mac down the road for office use, you currently have very limited software choices for practice management. The vast majority of dental practices run windows based systems, if for no other reason than you have WAY more software options to choose from both currently and historically.

The big hangup with Parallels (which runs Windows within the Mac OS) used to be that there was no support for 3D hardware and this was required to run many dental management software like Dentrix and such. However, Parallels has a new upgrade (well, it is a few months old) that fixes this problem and lets you flex your graphics card. Get your Mac on! 👍

 

[tinker bell]

That dental anatomy CD, it is almost trash materials. I know 90% of people in my class was not able to install/ use it. I was able to use it on my old PC, but I'm very, very good at PC stuff. Everyone passed DA with a bang. It's not that hard to learn from model and text books. You need to do wax up really well, and know where are pits, grooves for each tooth. Be able to recognize #24 from #25, then u pass the class. It's not the class that many people fail. No body in my class did. So, don't worry to the extreme about that CD

 

[bigstix808]

i was A+ certified in HS and i had to learn both PC an Macs. i think PC are more user friendly as that is what i'm most familiar with. but as i have read up on the newest research on computers over the past few years, MAC's are the way to go. my next comptuer WILL be a MAC power book. not only for the OS benefits, but because i dabble in photography and i have learned how to use photoshop for MAC, not PC.

but honestly, being one that is enlightened about the different OS's out there, i would have to say the newest version of MAC OS X is the best thing out there. and if you have at least 2 gig of ram then you can't go wrong. i do know that the new graphics are WAYYY better than on a PC. you don't even need a tv with some of the new MACs out there, and can the ability to run 2 monitors at once is always a plus 🙂

 

[Regmata]

Nothing slows down a mac

 

[PD3]

the whole MACs are hard to use and nothing is compatible doesn't fly anymore... they are far superior to PCs in reliability and design. when given a choice, go MAC!!

jb!🙂

I know Maryland makes you buy a computer. Do they give the option of a mac?

 

[Lurchdubious]

i'm not quite in D-school yet, but i bought a blackbook last year & have been running parallels since then as well and i gotta tell you, I LOVE MACINTOSH!!!!!
if i can have my way, i will NEVER go back to pc. i was very skeptical of macs for a long time but i was eventually 'pulled into the light' by several friends who have macs and i'm so glad i switched. incredibly easy to use and quite reliable. definitely do the upgrade to at least 2 gigs of RAM if you plan on running parallels. makes life much easier. i did this and i frequently run several programs at once w/no problems.

in my opinion, macpro is not worth the extra money, but if the school is providing one as an option then by all means jump on that!