Hi guys,
        I am in the market for a new pc for home. I want a high end
machine. I have had a few Dells and thought they were great but have
gone off them with a few dud machines. We bought new Compaqs at work
and we're at a 66.6% break down rate with poor after sales service [
go HP]. I have checked out IBM and they don't seem to offer anything
in the top end. I don't have a lot of experience and don't fancy
building my own PC, i'd rather buy a brand i know.
This leads me onto the new, great looking and reportedly very fast and powerful G5.
However i have only ever used windows software and i have no
inclination to learn new stuff. I'm told i can buy some conversion
software which will make all my windows stuff work on the G5.
Now i'm going to ask some silly questions - can i take the hardware
capabilities of the G5 with the known windows format/os ? If i don't
have a cd burner, how can i get all the programs and files off my old
pc and onto the next one?
I essentially want my windows software with the hardware performance
of the G5 - can i have it?

No. Get another PC and suffer like the rest of us.

IBM does make high-end machines.  Check out the Intellistation line. 
They come with SCSI HDDs, and GeForce video.  I use them at work and
they have impressive performance.

I agree with bschonec-ga, IBM has some very high end pc's (with very
high end prices)  I should know... they have obtained a majority of my
bank account now. :)

Since you have already looked into IBM, your choices are getting a
very fast IBM compatible machine, or the Apple G5.  Buy a book first
("Switching to the Mac" by David Pogue is one of the good ones) and
spend a few hours reading it. There is an entire chapter (chap. 5) on
how to transfer yoru data from the PC to a Mac and explains five ways
of doing it.  Mac OS X is very easy to use and the interface is
intuitive.  I would recommend a multi-button mouse like the one you
are used to on the Windows PCs.  If you have an Apple store in your
neighborhood, make a trip and try out the machine (the 2.5GHz dual G5s
are just beginning to he shipped, so they may not have one, but you
can try the 2.0 GHz machines).

Note also that VirtualPC is available for the Macs (the OS X version
will be out in the next 2-3 months).  This lets you install a virtual
PC (IBM compatible) machine on the Mac and run it simultaneously with
OS X - and drag and drop files from the Mac folders into the PC
folders, so for some programs, you might prefer to have the virtual
machine.

I have a few PCs at home and use them at work also, and recently
bought a Mac PowerBook (G4) for business travel and am very happy with
it.  Ultimately, it is a personal choice, but I'd strongly recommend
reading a book or two before making your decision.

Thank you all for your comments. I really appreciate it. Sorry just
one clarification - IBM Australia don't seem to offer anything other
than low end machines, but i'll check out the US website and then ask
the local guys. That was handy, and the last comment was very much so.
Thank you all. Cheers, Simon.

Hey ... You never said you were in Australia.

Whatever you buy could be a problem.

I believe that neither machine performs at its best when it's upside down.

Virtual PC is a pain, I never liked using it on a Mac and wouldn't
want to use it as the main interface to how I use my computer. It is
mostly useful for occasional use and doesn't really work great for all
software/games.

Switching to a Mac isn't necessarily a bad thing as they have their
good points as well, but it quite a big change from working in
Windows. You will have to learn new ways of doing things and learn how
to work with the quicks that a Mac has (just as you're used to the
quirks that Windows has now). If you aren't keen on learning a new OS
then stick with Windows/PC. IBM make great machines and the Dell stuff
is really great as well. I know you might have gotten a couple of
duds, but Dells customer service is much better than HP or IBM and I'd
rather deal with them in the event something went wrong.

forge

A G5 will cost a lot but it is a good computer, and HPs are very
reliable  I owned one for 3 years and it only broke once when the
harddrive died. Unless you want to use virtual pc, however, you must
use something other than windows.  In my farily limited experience
with macs i have found them pretty similar to pcs.  As far as
transferring data you could hook up your old computer and new computer
up to a network using a router.  Depending on how old your computer is
you should consider getting a non wireless router.  If both computers
have a parallel port you could hook them up directly.

PS if you want a PC I will build you one for a good price, not like those macs ;)