Mac or PC?...
In general which is best?
...or does it depend on what you are using a computer for?...for instance my friend is thinking of getting a Mac as he has heard they are better for audio production...is this true?
Are Macs quicker and more stable than a PC?...Would like some feedback from Mac users on this if possible.
Many thanks from Colin.
...or does it depend on what you are using a computer for?...for instance my friend is thinking of getting a Mac as he has heard they are better for audio production...is this true?
Are Macs quicker and more stable than a PC?...Would like some feedback from Mac users on this if possible.
Many thanks from Colin.
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Comments
At one point, Apple was superior. That was last true in the mid '90s, at the LATEST. A dual Athlon, Opteron, or Xeon system will wipe the floor with a dual 2GHz G5. There is no advantage to Apple anymore, besides the looks and the fact that there are less viruses (virii?) for MacOS than there are for Windows*.
*Note that less viruses != more secure. It just means that no one writes viruses for it because no one uses it.
Do musicians not favour the Mac though?
It comes down to preference. A mac G5 will outbench a high end P4 or athlon in certain benchmarks, a p4 or athlon will (as geeky said) wipe the floor with a high end G5 in certain benchmarks.
I have used both PCs and macs extensively for over ten years, and my general recommendation is to go towards the PC platform.. One MAJOR consideration is cost. If you have a $2000 budget, you can get a "medium" G5, or you can get a completely amazing, top end, kickass PC. Macs are just about twice as expensive for "what you get" when compared to PCs. There's no reason to pay that much anymore.
Despite the fact that I love macs, and I love OS:X, my vote goes to PCs.
Audio: I build audio computers for recording studios, and they are all PC-based. Protools works well on a Mac, but it works just as well on a PC for half the cost.
You are going to find that this is primarily a PC community, so most people here are going to come out in favour of PC's. And within the last few years, PC's have caught up to Macs in terms of any advantages for audio and video editing, image manipulation, etc. The difference is that a low end PC is still going to be less powerful than a Mac. Mac's simply do not have a low end, mid-range or high end, the same wa PC's do. If you compare a $500 PC to a $1500 Mac, the Mac will be better. If you compare a $1500 PC to a $1500 Mac, the PC will be better.
Mac OS's, especially, OS X, is very stable, and tends to do very little crashing, but a lot of that has to do with the fact that the hardware and software has been thoroughly tested to be very compatible. On the PC side, there are so mnay hardware choices in the range of motherbaords, processors, RAM, VGA cards, etc, and drivers for those, that ultimately there will be conflicts and problems. Many of those cause systems to crash. However, a well-built and well maintained PC will crash very little, especially if running Windows XP. Around here, most of us rarely have system crashes under normal operating conditions. But we are knowledgeable users, and know how to tweak things and prevent problem. Inexperienced users may have system crashes, and not know why, and blame it on the OS (XP.) It's not the OS's fault most of the time, it is the user's fault or the system builder's fault, but people do not always understand that. Mac removes that guesswork for the average user, they build the hardware and approve the software.
Geeky1 and I disagree on one point however: Macs ARE more secure. The Mac OS is derived from Unix, and has an inherently better core of security features, many of which Microsoft are starting to emulate on newer OS releases. People will say "No one writes viruses for Macs because no none uses them", but that is incorrect. There are some viruses and worms that have affected Mac OS's but these are few and far between. This is because it is HARD to write viruses that work well on Mac's. It's a question of whether the cart leads the horse or vice versa. Are there so few Mac viruses because there are fewer Macs, or because Mac's are harder to write virues for? Either way, you are much safer from viruses on a Mac....many Mac users do not bother with anti-virus software at all, and have no problems.
If you want to read a great article on just how many Mac viruses there are, read this article:
http://www.macobserver.com/editorial/2003/08/29.1.shtml
That shows that most Mac viruses are actually WM or XM macros (Microsoft Word or Microsoft Excel.) If you remove those from the list, there are very few viruses left.
There was a new Mac virus announced last week, which exploited the Itunes player: http://www.short-media.com/forum/showthread.php?t=12089&highlight=apple
But even that is limited in scope, and will be fixed quickly.
Mac or PC? It has to come down to personal preference / cost / user ability. Mac's run great, and have a lot of software available to them. They are easy to plug in and use. But they cost more than the average PC. If you are not interested in twekaing your system a lot, swapping hardware, overclocking the CPU, etc, many of the "tech / geek" things many here like to do, then a Mac would work great. If you like to get into the "nuts and bolts" of the hardware, teh sofwtare, and even the OS, then a PC is a better option, because it is easy to upgrade your video card, swap in a faster processor, hack the registry, etc.
Dexter...
/me waits for the inevitable flames......
I'll second that. I have used both audio and video editing software on both platforms, and a PC that will "do the job" will be cheaper than a Mac. I am currently building a PC-based video editing system for our office. For what we spent on the hardware, we could have bought a Mac. But the specs on the PC hardware we bought will outperform any Mac off the shelf.
Dexter...
All throughout school (from grade school through college), i was trained on a mac. The 1st computer i ever used was an apple IIe. Most graphic artists will say that macs are better, but i just don't believe it. I think they have been conditioned to stick with macs because they have taken over the educational and art worlds. They talk about allocation of RAM, and mac specific apps (itunes, ifoto, etc...) that aren't available for pc as reason to mac's superiority. It just isn't true. I have run the same apps like photoshop and dreamweaver on both platforms, and there are only minor differences.
I think it comes down to personal preference. Some people like macs and others like pcs. Pretty much everything that can be done on a pc can be done on a mac, and vice versa.
I will say that i have had macs crap out on me for seemingly no reason at all, and therefore i have developed this habit of constantly saving my ongoing design work no matter what platform i am using. Don't get me wrong, my pc craps out too, but usually when i am pushing it too far by messing with fsb or oc'ing my video card. Not when i am using a design app or something normal.
Also, a huge factor for me is cost. As others have mentioned, pc's cost less and have more upgrade options. Another thing to consider is gaming. There are way more titles for pc than mac, although recently more companies have been releasing mac versions of newer games. The more i think about it, I guess i just tolerate macs because i have to. Pc all the way!
Basically, the ONLY reasons for someone to CONTINUE with a Mac is if he\she already has Mac software. Just expect to pay more for the hardware to go with it.
Depedning on how much software already at hand we are talking about, the total cost might equal out between the two choices and that person would then have software they have used and not have as much of a learnign curve.
In this case, would evaluate this system decision the old-fashioned way, there are three basic broad factors in any project-based decision:
Hardware.
Software.
USER skills and other user factors such as costs of learning or not having to in terms of training, books, possibly new software, etc.
Lots of people go to Mac partly because of software and skill learning costs and relearning different details costs.
John D.
It's not the question of which is better. That is a hardware question and can be debated ad nauseum. MAC has been the traditional platform for graphics, video and audio professionals. It may not be the BETTER hardware platform but it has been the area where PRO software in graphics, video and audio has been focussed.
ADOBE has expanded ensuring their software covers both PC and MAC based hardware. The graphic apps are pretty well the same but where the two start to diverge is in VIDEO and AUDIO.
Pro and Prosumer apps for video and audio still excel in the MAC world. This isn't because the hardware is better...it's because that's where the market has been for software.
Adobe Premiere represents the first mainstream Prosumer NLE (Non Linear Editor) choice for PC but Final Cut Pro for MAC still surpasses it. They are cousins of each other from ADOBE.
The ranking choice for audio is Pro Tools. http://www.digidesign.com/ and it is still mainly MAC driven. It is a most expensive choice but what the pros use. There is now WINDOWS based PROTOOLS.
It's the hardware accelerator cards and I/O cards that make the difference for PRO audio.
Cheaper software? Start hunting as there are many good and not so good choices. Depends on what you want it for...music production or post audio work.
I use Mac's on a daily basis now, and they are pretty cool, but I like my Athlon64 better.
Colin.
Pro Tools is either PC or Mac:
http://www.digidesign.com/products/le/
Dexter...
All the better I suppose, but I could SWEAR something important was Mac only, and I know it was something with Pro Tools, perhaps it's major Hardware version. I am not a Pro Tools guy myself, so it ain't a big deal for me
There are decent alternatives for Final Cut though... at least for the Prosumer.