Talk me out of a Mac

zedDoubleNaught · Feb 29, 2012

I wouldn't get a Mac. I used several at work (different machines and OS versions), and the mouse acceleration was not good for me. If you move the mouse fast, the cursor travels very far across the screen. If you move the mouse slowly, the cursor moves a very small amount, disproportionately. This made it impossible for me to ever get the cursor over a button. It was more like overshoot, inch towards it, overshoot, inch to adjust, about 4 or 5 times.
They say Windows does this too, but not to such an extreme. I tried changing the setting for the mouse speed, but it's the acceleration that is the problem. I even found a utility that would supposedly reduce the fast-slow : far-short difference, but nothing helped. Very painful and frustrating experience.

Xena · Feb 29, 2012

Quote from tenthousandmen:

Ferrari will run all day long without moving the temp gauges a hair. Dumb yuppie BMW 3 series is a different case......

fwiw I'm no Ferrari fan

Try moving the trailer of the truck behind it and see how long it lasts. Its OK without any additional load on it (same as my mini).

By the way I like my Mac mini, especially after putting a SSD in it. But as usual: horses for causes.

Peace.

tortoise · Feb 29, 2012

I use an 27" iMac (i7). Run 64-bit Windows 7 via bootcamp (e.g., native via drive partition).

The performance is scorching, the form-factor is lovely. Very happy with it.

atticus · Feb 29, 2012

I use prorealtime.com (java) for charting in OS X. I have a 2010 vintage power mac and a new(ish) imac. Go with the imac unless you're running hundreds of tickers in multicharts or LMT Expo.

atticus · Feb 29, 2012

Quote from zedDoubleNaught:

I wouldn't get a Mac. I used several at work (different machines and OS versions), and the mouse acceleration was not good for me. If you move the mouse fast, the cursor travels very far across the screen. If you move the mouse slowly, the cursor moves a very small amount, disproportionately. This made it impossible for me to ever get the cursor over a button. It was more like overshoot, inch towards it, overshoot, inch to adjust, about 4 or 5 times.
They say Windows does this too, but not to such an extreme. I tried changing the setting for the mouse speed, but it's the acceleration that is the problem. I even found a utility that would supposedly reduce the fast-slow : far-short difference, but nothing helped. Very painful and frustrating experience.

lol I think the mac hates you. The only time I can "beat" my 8yo at Minecraft PvP is when I am on an OS X machine. I suggest a razer mouse and magicprefs.

dolemitettu · Feb 29, 2012

Great info guys, thanks. It's def disappointing to hear that about the Power Mac, although I agree the writing is on the wall. That's prob why it's so damn expensive - If they're going to mess with it they want to make a fat profit on it.

I have an iMac 24" right now as a home machine, and I have a few monitors hooked up to it via a Matrox unit. It gets the job done when necessary, but I was leaning towards the PM for the multi-graphics card capability. The Matrox seems to put additional strain on the iMac processor, although it's okay most of the time.

The new 27" appears to have 2 thunderbolt/mini DVI ports, which could theoretically accommodate 4-6 more monitors with external help (matrox, etc...)

tenthousandmen · Feb 29, 2012

Quote from atticus:

I use prorealtime.com (java) for charting in OS X. I have a 2010 vintage power mac and a new(ish) imac. Go with the imac unless you're running hundreds of tickers in multicharts or LMT Expo.

..multicharts?:eek:

Laissez Faire · Mar 1, 2012

Quote from tenthousandmen:

Win7 works like a charm on mac ..... vm ware and bot camp

I'm not one to defend Apple BTW

Actually, I`ve heard both accounts and there seems to be people who love using their Mac for trading in this very thread.

I do not have any first hand experience with Mac myself and I was really eager to buy one, but considering price and what I discovered with my research it did not seem worth it for me, especially since I use only Windows software today.

I also saw a side-by-side test of a Macbook Pro and a HP laptop at half the price and it did very well compared to the Mac.

Quote from Boomer:

I will tell you I was in your same spot not too long ago...I have been a Mac guy for about 6 years, so I wanted to stick with my MBP now that I am getting back into trading after taking a few years off. I bought the Parallels software and loaded up my trading packages and such...and I have NOT had a good experience with it. Computer is bogged down, responds much slower...

I am sure some will tell you it can be done seamlessly, and I am sure it can, but I am now in the market for both a PC laptop and desktop, because I just don't want to fight that battle.

My MBP has 4GB of ram, so I am sure it would run smoother if I had more ram and possibly installed a SSD...but I am just going to get a PC based laptop and desktop for my trading, and just use my Mac for leisure pursuits...

Hope that helps...

atticus · Mar 1, 2012

Quote from tenthousandmen:

..multicharts?:eek:

Yeah running win7

Scataphagos · Mar 1, 2012

Quote from Xena:

With my eyesight I cannot work very long on a glossy screen.

Are you NUTS? Glossy screens give the best display. If you "think" the glossy is causing you a problem, you've been duped by conventional wisdom. The only possible issue with glossy screen is reflected light (glare)... orient either yourself or the computer to eliminate the glare.

In fact, the tradtional "matte" screen is intentionally fuzzy and to some degree causes eye strain as the eye tries to sharply focus images.

Plasma and nearly all LED TVs run "glossy" screens... why do you think that is?