Building Your Own PC

I’m currently considering building my own PC to go alongside my macbook as I feel i would probably get more value for money. I have seen so many sites where upgrading the processor in an OEM PC would cost twice as much as the processor itself is on the market for. RAM upgrades are also a very similar story with some Manufactures, specifically Apple wanting 4x the market value of the Ram they are putting in your machine and why you may ask? Well not even for a brand name, just for the piece of mind that apple has put your whole computer together.

So building your own PC seems to be a no brainer then, well there are a few things you have to consider first. Firstly, your operating system. If you thinking Windows or Linux your ok however you can’t put OS X on a machine built from scratch, at least not legally. The second is time. Building your own PC is fine as long as you have the time to do it. If you don’t have quite a bit spare time however the parts you’ve chosen may well be outdated by the time you actually get you PC done! Last is price range. You may not be aware that building your own PC can actually be up to 50% cheaper than buying a pre built one. It really does show how much companies charge for their time!

So my question the the community is this. Based on the above when buying your next PC, will you buy a pre built model from an OEM or will you be buying all of the parts and building your machine yourself from scratch. Not forgetting, of course, what OS will you be using?

Be sure to leave a comment!

Have A Great Day!
Macwise Admin

Top 10 Mac Apps I Can’t Live Without

We have all been there. You need to use your colleagues computer for some reason and after a few seconds realise they haven’t got “that” app that you always use installed. You sit, shaking your head in disbelief, and wonder how they manage to get through the day without it.

OK maybe that’s a bit strong but it made me think that there are a number of Mac apps that I really wouldn’t want to be without. Whether it be my simple program launcher, my preferred version of Terminal or my Finder replacement.These things are personal so I thought I would share my top ten Mac apps I can’t live without. I am not talking the big apps, rather the little apps or utlities that just make my daily work life a little bit easier.

Google Quick Search Bar – I was never a QuickSilver power user but loved the ability to quickly launch apps from a keystroke. Given it’s lack of development (although recent activity looks promising) I moved to the recent offering from Google. This reduces the need to have all my common apps in the dock and also has nice integration with Spotlight search. A similar solution is offered by the recently launched AlfredApp.

Visor – Indispensable for Terminal users. Allows your session window to drop down (just like a visor) with a user specified keystroke. Requires SIMBL.

Dropbox – Admittedly cross platform but a great way of sharing files and doing quick and dirty version control.

Witch – A command-tab replacement. Witch allows you to switch to not just the app but one of it’s potentially many open windows.

PathFinder – Billed as “The Finder reinvented”. Check out the dual pane file browser (hard to live without once you have used it) and the drop stack, two of the many great features.

Caffeine – When activated stops your Mac going to sleep! Great for presentations or watching your “on demand” TV shows.

Adium – Multiple IM accounts in one app. Support for AIM, GTalk, Facebook, Yahoo, Jabber and many more.

iPhoney – Not an iPhone simulator, rather a pixel-accurate web browsing environment—powered by Safari—that you can use when developing web sites for iPhone.

TextMate – My preferred text editor for everyday use. Code, articles, HTML etc. The shipped and downloadable bundles speed things up no end. Worth the time getting to grips with.

Tweetie – My Twitter client of choice for personal use. Really looking forward to see how the development team integrate the innovative Tweetie2 for iPhone features.

Undoubtedly there’s plenty more, what have I missed? What should I be using? What can’t you live without?

Have A Great Day!
MacwiseTech