Mac or PC?

[Blown 89]

Now, for a top of the line PC, how much would it cost for a Mac to have equal performance and similar "mods" if you will.

I've seen Macbooks with less RAM/Memory than my "built" PC for the amount I have in my PC in total, including Mouse, 27" Monitor, Keyboard, etc. and I am confident my computer will outperform that specific Mac.

Just curious as there may be a day we save up to buy a Mac Laptop or something like that.

You're going to be hard pressed to beat a built PC for most personal desktop applications. Macbooks are tough to beat if you compare laptops though.

 

[BlueSnake01]

You're going to be hard pressed to beat a built PC for most personal desktop applications. Macbooks are tough to beat if you compare laptops though.

Aren't the alienware laptops similared priced as the Macbooks with slightly beefier internals?

 

[Blown 89]

Aren't the alienware laptops similared priced as the Macbooks with slightly beefier internals?

The 13" Alienware I was looking at last year was $400 cheaper and had had more power but it was thicker, heavier, the screen wasn't as accurate, and the battery life wasn't as good. That could have changed in the last year but it all depends on what you want out of a laptop I suppose.

 

[lobra97]

You buy a mac like you buy a car, get it used and let someone else take the deprecation on it

yes........someone else paid full price for it lol.

i was looking at the TB and the SSD for it. seems the SSD is significantly more expensive. booooo

 

[O'Neill]

Ive been working in the 3D/Animation/Visual FX field since 05. I can tell you that once you get up into the high end stuff, any machine will work as long as the hardware is not ancient. Its all based on Intel CPU's, and either Nvidia or AMD GPU's. The only difference is the OS, and that simply comes down to the user and what they are more comfortable with using.

I run a 6 year old dual socket BOXX workstation (8-cores) running Windows 7 and Window 8.1. (To assist with rendering, I use a 20-core (40-thread) render node.) For work I use Cinema 4D, RealFlow, and the Adobe suite. Without a doubt, the Adobe stuff (especially Premiere and AE) is optimized more on the PC side, as Premiere runs very fast with a CUDA GPU (nvidia only). It does use OpenCL, but its still nowhere near as fast as CUDA.

With Apple not long ago releasing the new Mac Pro, they put themselves in a box, and theres not a lot of room to wiggle. They dont offer nvidia GPU's, so that means anyone running the Adobe suite will have to rely on slower OpenCL, plus there is no way to use GPU acceleration for the 3D ray trace engine in After Effects, as its only CUDA.

99% of all the graphics software will run on either OS. Most of them will even run on Linux, which is what a lot of FX houses use right now, especially on their render farms.

In the end, it comes down to what the user is comfortable with using.

 

[svtsmo]

So in other words you:

a) still can't explain how going between programs is better for the graphics industry


b) still can't back up your statement, "it's still true. for designers, MAC>windows." 'Everyone uses them' is a pathetic argument that doesn't say anything about why Macs would be better for designers. It's clear you know absolutely nothing about graphic design.

already explained it. but you're too upset to understand. enjoy being the lone sheep in the design world. and stop being so butthurt. you're an angry pc nerd who's reverted to insulting me and my profession because i and 95% of the design world don't agree with you.

why are you so upset? actually, i don't care. enjoy arguing with yourself, crying, and quoting pc performance speeds.

FYI, pretty much everything you said you like about OSX works the same in Windows right out of the box. For instance, command space is the same as windows Q in 8.1. Like you said though, you're too daft and lazy to figure that out.

oh so windows finally caught up to mac and started copying them with their interface and such? that's cute and about time.

see i don't even care enough to keep up with it. and that literally makes you cry.

 

[Grabber]

Well, this thread went to shit.

Good job guys. Penis measuring contest over? I'm sure svtsmo took the win as everyone on the east coast is built like a baby (7LBS, 21 Inches)



Hug it out guys, jesus.

 

[svtsmo]

Well, this thread went to shit.

Good job guys. Penis measuring contest over? I'm sure svtsmo took the win as everyone on the east coast is built like a baby (7LBS, 21 Inches)



Hug it out guys, jesus.

not sure there was a win to be had. i never argued with him and just stated my preferences and my preferences are in line with 95% of our industry. and for some reason that really upset him to the point that he felt the need to questioned my ability. quite frankly for someone to make that kind of asinine assumption, it makes me question whether it's believable that such a person could ever be in position to make decisions that affect other people's lives and employment. i mean, who would want to work for a person who gets so upset and defensive because someone doesn't agree with them? who would trust such a person to make those decisions?


but what ever. he's upset so i'll leave it alone.

 

[Grabber]

not sure there was a win to be had. i never argued with him and just stated my preferences and my preferences are in line with 95% of our industry. and for some reason that really upset him to the point that he felt the need to questioned my ability. quite frankly for someone to make that kind of asinine assumption, it makes me question whether it's believable that such a person could ever be in position to make decisions that affect other people's lives and employment. i mean, who would want to work for a person who gets so upset and defensive because someone doesn't agree with them? who would trust such a person to make those decisions?


but what ever. he's upset so i'll leave it alone.

Opinions are like assholes, everyone's got one.

Be the bigger guy and walk away.

:beer:

 

[VenomousSVT]

A long time PC user, about six months ago I got an iMac. It just works. Everything is simpler than with a PC, but there is an initial learning curve. The only reason I keep my PC is that there is a drafting program I use that only runs on PC. But even that reason may be gone, as Autodesk recently released Fusion 360, which is finally reasonably priced version of Autocad.

im an IT administrator... of course I use windows and windows servers... but I run a MAC at home for e reason. I like that it works every time, all the time. I click my name on my mac, do what I have to do and log back off. My daughter does some youtubing, and plays all the little nick games she wants on it with zero issues. I like both operating systems, nd as an admin im far more experienced with windows, but id run a mac all day every day over a windows machine.

all in all its an android or ios argument, a chevy or ford argument. It all comes down to preference, but I would be willing to bet money, if you bought a mac, you would love it after that initial few weeks of learning where everything is.

 

[VenomousSVT]

yes........someone else paid full price for it lol.

i was looking at the TB and the SSD for it. seems the SSD is significantly more expensive. booooo

SSD is also significantly faster and worth the money! also with used macs dont get anything too old... you want to make sure you dot shoot yourself in the foot with technology. Make sure it has usb 3.0!! this was on macs from 2012 and newer if im not mistaken. I have a 2011 imac and its only usb 2.0, but i do have thunderbolt unlike the 2010 model, so im running a thunderbolt dock that gives me my usb 3 and esata.

 

[Blown 89]

already explained it. but you're too upset to understand.

Then it should be easy to copy and paste that reply. Go for it, I'm waiting.

FYI, someone else in the field just posted about how they're equal too. I'm not as alone as you think.

you're an angry pc nerd

Yup, you got me, an angry PC nerd that in this very thread said that the Macbook Pro is tough to beat

oh so windows finally caught up to mac and started copying them with their interface and such? that's cute and about time.

No, Windows has had shortcuts just as long. It's not a new thing

see i don't even care enough to keep up with it. and that literally makes you cry.

You can't answer simple questions and cite examples so you resort to trying to convince everyone I'm raging out. Pathetic. I'm calm and have given proof for everything I've responded to. You however haven't. It's amazing that you take so much pride in being ignorant.

 

[lobra97]

Its a 2011 model and has the thunderbolt so I'm sure it had 2.0 like you said. I'll look I to an SSD maybe I can find a deal lol

Venemous- I agree 100%. I'm able to get on do what I need quickly and shut it off. Son had fun playing his nick games yesterday as it was hit first day with me not around since I was working. I got HM and asked him if he had any problems.....like "nope was easy to use dad, the swiping and scrolling with 2 fingers is easy" lol this kid.

 

[Blown 89]

I'll look I to an SSD maybe I can find a deal lol

www.techbargains.com. There are a ton of great SSD deals right now with the holidays.

 

[VenomousSVT]

Agreed. I annoys me hearing people spout marketing slogans like "it just works". If you asked someone why they bought a Ford and they replied that they are built tougher than other brands you'd look at them like they are morons. My other favorite is the "I replaced my 10 year old PC with a Mac and the Mac is sooooo much faster. Therefore Macs are faster than PC's". Ugh.

A high end PC and a similarly priced Mac will last the same amount of time. Open up that Mac and you'll find that it's built with the same hardware low end PC's are built with.

Get whichever one you want, they will both do the same thing and last the same amount of time.

Sometimes "it just works" is the hard truth... I do agree comparing a new Mac /MAC/mAc/mac/maC, for those annoyed with how it's written, is a ridiculous comparison. However I genuinely feel macs are better machines out of the box, than an ordinary out of the box pc. My logic is this. anyone can piece together a pc and put an os on it. Apple builds Mac computers to their specifications.. They have a retain set or graphics cards they use, a set hdd they use, a set ram manufacturer they use, ect. They control what goes into the machine. Anything built with such tight regulation is 9 times out of 10 going to be a better machine. That's why people blueprint an engine. They don't throw hodgepodge BS I to a motor they want to last for 200k miles.. Your tolerances will be tighter and your qc will prevail in the end. That was the same argument over android for years, Android devices seemed so thrown together that iPhones were so much more reliable.. Now that Google cracked down on them, we have far superior devices to suit the Android market. An imac is an imac, one may have a beefier processor and more ram, but all in all its the same setup. An emachine is not the same as an hp z620... Not only by specs but by quality of build

 

[Blown 89]

Sometimes "it just works" is the hard truth... I do agree comparing a new Mac /MAC/mAc/mac/maC, for those annoyed with how it's written, is a ridiculous comparison. However I genuinely feel macs are better machines out of the box, than an ordinary out of the box pc. My logic is this. anyone can piece together a pc and put an os on it. Apple builds Mac computers to their specifications.. They have a retain set or graphics cards they use, a set hdd they use, a set ram manufacturer they use, ect. They control what goes into the machine. Anything built with such tight regulation is 9 times out of 10 going to be a better machine. That's why people blueprint an engine. They don't throw hodgepodge BS I to a motor they want to last for 200k miles.. Your tolerances will be tighter and your qc will prevail in the end. That was the same argument over android for years, Android devices seemed so thrown together that iPhones were so much more reliable.. Now that Google cracked down on them, we have far superior devices to suit the Android market. An imac is an imac, one may have a beefier processor and more ram, but all in all its the same setup. An emachine is not the same as an hp z620... Not only by specs but by quality of build

I agree with the blueprint analogy for many computers and a lot of the pieced together crap people throw into some of these home builds that resemble the hobbled together cars I see at shows. The question is how much of that is due to Microsoft's failures of current systems and how much of it is due to Toshiba (for instance) offsetting the cost with various ad-bars, anti-virus, etc that self destruct the system or cheap components such as power supplies? I agree though, controlling the hardware has its advantages and it's harder to screw that up as an end user. It's why I tell most friends who ask just to get a Mac.

That "just works" gap is narrow with current operating systems IMO and I think a lot of the "just works" crowd tend to look at their problems through rose colored glasses many times. Consumer reports ranks Macs as the best laptops but other firms such as Rescuecom have had them squarely in the middle of the pack in recent years. The design firm I assisted in researching their desktop usage is one of the big prepress hitters and they found their PC's and Macs had similar failure rates but their users were less likely to report problems over the PC operators. I shared my desktop at that firm with three other shifts and the spinning ball of death was a daily occurrence. I asked the shift before me why they hadn't reported it and they were content simply restarting the machine. IT gave me the "just work" speech. Had that happened daily on a PC everyone would be up in arms about how Microsoft sucks.

Since we're on auto analogies it's similar to Ford shaking the plastic budget car image from the 80's. I'll quote Regular Car review's FJ episode, "Plastic everywheeeeeerrrreee" but import lovers are the first to bash domestics over the use of the same plastics their beloved cars use

 

[VenomousSVT]

I agree with the blueprint analogy for many computers and a lot of the pieced together crap people throw into some of these home builds that resemble the hobbled together cars I see at shows. The question is how much of that is due to Microsoft's failures of current systems and how much of it is due to Toshiba (for instance) offsetting the cost with various ad-bars, anti-virus, etc that self destruct the system or cheap components such as power supplies? I agree though, controlling the hardware has its advantages and it's harder to screw that up as an end user. It's why I tell most friends who ask just to get a Mac.

That "just works" gap is narrow with current operating systems IMO and I think a lot of the "just works" crowd tend to look at their problems through rose colored glasses many times. Consumer reports ranks Macs as the best laptops but other firms such as Rescuecom have had them squarely in the middle of the pack in recent years. The design firm I assisted in researching their desktop usage is one of the big prepress hitters and they found their PC's and Macs had similar failure rates but their users were less likely to report problems over the PC operators. I shared my desktop at that firm with three other shifts and the spinning ball of death was a daily occurrence. I asked the shift before me why they hadn't reported it and they were content simply restarting the machine. IT gave me the "just work" speech. Had that happened daily on a PC everyone would be up in arms about how Microsoft sucks.

Since we're on auto analogies it's similar to Ford shaking the plastic budget car image from the 80's. I'll quote Regular Car review's FJ episode, "Plastic everywheeeeeerrrreee" but import lovers are the first to bash domestics over the use of the same plastics their beloved cars use

I do personally have an issue with Microsoft updates... I have all 300of my machines disabled for a reason. Just this year they've recalled 30, if I read currently, updates due to issues they caused on pc's. And by issues I mean critical.

I do agree that there are some thrown together bull crap that will rock and roll, I've done some of those Frankenstein builds myself that were impressive. But given the odds, that's not usually the case. And hardware wise, some companies just flat out cheap out on parts because they got them at a better deal and make and extra $3 per pc sold. I just haven't personally seen that with an apple machine. Does apple have crap roll out sometimes, without question, anything on an assembly line will have flaws. But that percentage I would bet money is less than almost any other manufacturer

 

[RDJ]

I do personally have an issue with Microsoft updates... I have all 300of my machines disabled for a reason. Just this year they've recalled 30, if I read currently, updates due to issues they caused on pc's. And by issues I mean critical.

I do agree that there are some thrown together bull crap that will rock and roll, I've done some of those Frankenstein builds myself that were impressive. But given the odds, that's not usually the case. And hardware wise, some companies just flat out cheap out on parts because they got them at a better deal and make and extra $3 per pc sold. I just haven't personally seen that with an apple machine. Does apple have crap roll out sometimes, without question, anything on an assembly line will have flaws. But that percentage I would bet money is less than almost any other manufacturer

It's actually worse than that. When I worked at Dell the engineers wanted to take the reset switch off the motherboards that allowed techs to restart the machine without having to button it up first. We fought hard on it and at least temporarily won. Cost of said change? .03 cents per MB. inconvenience to customers and techs Their salary x 1 hour x number of times required to button up, test and open back up the case

 

[VenomousSVT]

It's actually worse than that. When I worked at Dell the engineers wanted to take the reset switch off the motherboards that allowed techs to restart the machine without having to button it up first. We fought hard on it and at least temporarily won. Cost of said change? .03 cents per MB. inconvenience to customers and techs Their salary x 1 hour x number of times required to button up, test and open back up the case

I definitely wasn't being literal, I KNOW they pinch less than pennies on crap these days. It baffles my mind. Bad thing is people don't understand what being in corporate IT means these days. I don't troubleshoot half of what I know I can fix. If I've got a drive giving me problems I don't run diagnostics on it, I just replace it... Done.. Its about that dollar 100%, if it's cheaper to replace something than pay me to fix it, it gets trashed. I feel so wasteful because of that mental.

 

[black92]

I do Software QA for a large company and from my personal experience, the majority of developers here use a Mac. There are 4 developers in my cube right now that all use a Mac... I have a Dell PC that just took a dump for the second time in 6 months, so I've currently been using one of my test machines, a Mac. There are a few things I'm liking about it, but also a few things that I find frustrating and that's mostly due to being unfamiliar with how Macs work.

OP - I'd say get a Mac if that's what you want. I will be buying the wife a 13" Macbook Air for Christmas because it'll tie in with our iPad and her (and possibly me) soon to get iPhone 6.