Apple Killed the CD+R

[jpowers]

I guess that is just one more reason not to buy Apple products. I build my own computers and have no problem getting internal DVD burners for them.

You'd be hard-pressed to actually build any of the Apple machines that don't have DVD drives. About the only Apple machine you can reasonably build yourself is the Mac Pro... which has a DVD drive.

did we ever think the vinyl record would go away? ...or the tape?...or the VCR?

Or, more apropos, the floppy disk. Apple stopped putting floppy drives in machines in 1998 and were widely ridiculed for it.

[dakwegmo]

I don't image you can save any money by doing that when you consider what the cost of the separate components are that has to go into the build of a PC

You'd be surprised at how much money you can save. Even if you consider economies of scale, a PC manufacturer still has to charge you for all of the overhead that goes into assembling and marketing the systems, plus enough money on each unit to make a profit. Plus, you have the added benefit of having a system that is pretty much upgradeable indefinitely. It's rare that you have to upgrade an entire system at once. Do it incrementally, so you upgrade one or two pieces at a time and you can have a new computer every couple of years, but never have to fork over the entire cost of a new computer at once. Plus, you only have to replace stuff you already have (like optical drives and hard drives) when you need to. You're not buying new stuff you don't need just because you want to upgrade.

[jonnyquest45]

there were similar discussions maybe not by photogs but others when apple had the crazy idea to rid its self of the 3.5 floppy drive. Things evolve and change and are doing so at a much faster pace than ever before. Apple never adopted the Blue ray or HD DVD. and now people are moving to streaming video in HD. so no more need for the disk.

can you still get a 3.5 floppy drive yes. there were people i work with that needed them for the camera they were taking photos of build sites with.

do you miss floppy's?

I don't

[kirbinster]

I don't image you can save any money by doing that when you consider what the cost of the separate components are that has to go into the build of a PC, as in:
a chassis/enclosure, a mother board with processor(s) fans, I/O boards, graphics board, drives and drive controller board, memory, operating system, power supply, keyboard, etc. Is this more of a hobby for you, or do you really want a custom system that might be hard to duplicate from an off the shelf supplier?
And I know that you get a highly integrated mother board that has much of those control functions bundled in, but if any of those functions fail you're most probably faced with chucking the mother board for a replacement.

Actually that is far from the truth. It might apply to very bottom of the line boxes, but not to a "real" computer. You see those big companies (Dell, HP, etc...) have huge markups due to bloated corporate structure, advertising, legal costs, etc.... You can buy components for not much more than what they buy them - its a very competitive marketplace for electronic components. You can build a high end computer to your exact specs that first you would not be able to get from one of those suppliers, and second will actually cost you less.

For example my main computer is in a huge tower case with six open drive bays and another six internal drive bays. I have four two tera byte hard drives, a SSD drive, a DVD drive ; not to mention a high end graphics board and 24 gigs of memory. You don't find machines like that from the mass crap sellers. Not to mention I have no pre-loaded bloatware on my machine.

[Brian Headlee]

R.Spears I couldn't help myself. As far as logos done by amateurs . . . yours is really pretty well done. The only thing that doesn't work is the arrow. Aesthetically it looks OK, but there is not enough contrast between the blue arrow and the thin black signature. At a distance, reduced in size or if you need a one color version of this at some point, those two elements run together and make the logo look like a blob. You will run into issues at some point.

I really dig signature logos . . . especially for artists, so i wanted to see what yours would look like with out the arrow. I did this very fast, so some of the curves are a bit lumpy, but it will give you an idea. I think this looks a little more sophisticated, plus you wouldn't run into the issues I was referring to above.

[veritasimagery]

You'd be surprised at how much money you can save. Even if you consider economies of scale, a PC manufacturer still has to charge you for all of the overhead that goes into assembling and marketing the systems, plus enough money on each unit to make a profit. Plus, you have the added benefit of having a system that is pretty much upgradeable indefinitely. It's rare that you have to upgrade an entire system at once. Do it incrementally, so you upgrade one or two pieces at a time and you can have a new computer every couple of years, but never have to fork over the entire cost of a new computer at once. Plus, you only have to replace stuff you already have (like optical drives and hard drives) when you need to. You're not buying new stuff you don't need just because you want to upgrade.

I have to agree. I had my son sit down with me and we pieced out and assembled my computer just the way I wanted it for photography. I didn't have to spend money on all the extra junk that the big companies bundle into their packages. I have dual CDR/DVDR drives, three usb ports, SD and CF card readers. If/when I need to upgrade hard drives, no problem. Same with anything else. I saved hundreds by going this way.

[Biomech]

Copy Pasta...;

I've just looked up the MPro Quad Core. Starting at $2,500 and it has
3.2Ghz Quad Core CPU
6GB RAM @ 1066mhz
1TB Harddrive SATA drive 7200rpm
1GB Ati Graphics Card
1x DVD/CD only drive

I built my own..

4.2Ghz Quad Core (faster)
16GB RAM @ 1866mhz (faster)
256GB Solid State HardDrive (512 from apple is an extra $850)
1TB SATA Drive 7200rpm
2GB 660 NVidia graphics card
1x BLURAY, DVD and CD. Writes and Reads all formats.
H80 CPU liquid cooling system

Plus, board, PSU, case etc, some lights, 120mm fans, fan filters AND a 4TB Western Digital Network Drive (NAS).

All of that has cost me $2,400 (PC). Take off the NAS and it cost $1,900 (PC)

[autofocus]

Hey guys, I'm not saying you could not build up a super/high end performer CPU with all the bells and whistles exactly the way you want and still manage to save some money doing it. All this with the added benefit of not being able to find an off the shelf unit that'll come close to your custom built unit. I understand that. But if you look at an average roll your own mid tier performer, with a legit copy of Windows O/S, I would suspect your build cost would probably come in at $500 - $900 dollars depending on what motherboard, with what processor, how much DRAM, what graphics card, how much hard drive you want, etc. I would suspect you could pretty much duplicate that with some manufacturer's off the shelf unit. How do they do that??...simple economies of scale. That same Intel powered motherboard that you have to pay $225 dollars, but with their volume purchasing power it probably costs Dell or HP $75 bucks.

[veritasimagery]

How do they do that??...simple economies of scale. That same Intel powered motherboard that you have to pay $225 dollars, but with their volume purchasing power it probably costs Dell or HP $75 bucks.

And then they jack you up on all the stuff you don't need. That's the difference. I was able to build a better, faster computer because I wasn't buying all the extra stuff that Dell or HP bundles in and charges you for.

[autofocus]

And then they jack you up on all the stuff you don't need. That's the difference. I was able to build a better, faster computer because I wasn't buying all the extra stuff that Dell or HP bundles in and charges you for.

Kevin, exactly what is the extra stuff that they make you buy? Is the extra stuff you are talking about optional..like an extended warranty, or a faster processor, or a better monitor? The last time I bought a system from HP or Dell any of the offered extras were optional, and you still could get the basic system that you wanted. The only companies that I know that bundle in more of the junk you don't want, but make you pay for it are the cable companies...oh, you want the History Channel?..you have to take the damn cartoon and Disney channels with it