MAC vs PC

chrissie

chrissie

Bluelight Crew
Joined
Mar 5, 2000
Messages
18,476
how can we be a proper visual arts forum without having a mac vs pc debate :) i sensed one developing in the video editing post.
so duke it out, these questions are TECHNICAL NOT OPINIONATED, if you are going to say something, please state why and back it up with quotes
(mind you, do not include personal aesthetics, because we all know that macs are quite fuckable)
i would prefer a discussion on performance over price, not bragging rights, since most of us do not have money for the best machine
so here goes...
  • which is better for photoshop, illustrator, 3d rendering programs, or video editing programs
  • If one was to get a Mac, would it be worth it (cost as it relates to increase in performance in design programs) to get a dual 1 ghz over the 933
  • If one was to get a PC, would it be worth it (cost as it relates to increase in performance in design programs) to get a dual chip over a single
  • which processor is more advanced, which is better for the cost
  • which memory architecture is more advanced, which is better for the cost
  • which interface is nicer, more user friendly
  • which interface is more stable
  • what do you think is the best overall deal for what you are getting (performance/price)
  • ok and lastly (just for kicks), if money was not an issue, what are the specs on your dream computer
please add any questions that you would like answered
and please have a nice healthy discussion, all flames and rude comments will be deleted
so... lets hear it :)
 
ive been reading up on this alot and i think it comes down to weather we can justity spending 3000 on a g4, when we can get a pc for 1200 that is certainly faster, and spend the other 1800 on a sony dv camcorder, 27'' sony wega tv and a xbox.
saying that, os x is simply amazing. the boxes are extreamly well engineered and sexy. I would kill for a g4, but i can't justify spending 3 grand when i want a dv camcorder, tv and xbox. plus i'll get the satisfaction of building my own computer.
-buzzy
 
i love both operating systems, but i like windows more because of its compatibility.
from what i know, more PC's are used for 3d animation, but im not sure.. i use 3ds max on my PC
mac's and PC's are both pretty good for art programs, mac probably taking the cake for vector and photoshop stuff..
but from eveything ive read, dual processors are only helpful if your doing 3d animation, or LOTS of video editing.
PS** Mac's kick ass because if you REALLY fuck your computer up, it plays a beethoven song
(2nd sympnony if im correct, im not sure)
Dream computer
(cost isnt a problem, because im gonna buy it this year anyway)
KT333 soyo dragon motherboard
RAID
3GIGS of DDR PC2100 or 2700
5.1 surround sound
http://www.soyousa.com/products/proddesc.php?id=46
(that motherboard is fucking sexy)
AMD Athlon XP 1.6 or 1.8
40 gig main HD
120 gig slave
SEXY tower
http://www.coolermaster.com/products/atc/atc710.html
and some mad sexy neons
http://www.coolcasegallery.net/ccg/images/00475/2
http://www.coolcasegallery.net/ccg/images/00475/1
*heres the end result of how having a pc is like driving a monster truck, and how having a MAC, is like driving a benz..
heres my best of both worlds beauty
http://www.unimogs-acprice.co.uk/Dsc02492a.jpg
[ 13 May 2002: Message edited by: floormat ]
 
oops sorry babe, i didn't answwer your questions.
which is better for photoshop, illustrator, 3d rendering programs, or video editing programs
Without taking performace in to account the Apple wins hands down - they are designed for this kinda stuff, all the apps you would use on a pc are avalible on a mac, plus on a mac you get finalcut for video editing.
If one was to get a Mac, would it be worth it (cost as it relates to increase in performance in design programs) to get a dual 1 ghz over the 933
If one was to get a PC, would it be worth it (cost as it relates to increase in performance in design programs) to get a dual chip over a single
which processor is more advanced, which is better for the cost
Programs have to be specifically written for multiprocessors to see an advantage.
which memory architecture is more advanced, which is better for the cost
G4's are still using obsolete pc133mhz memory with a limited throughoutput and have to use a large 2Mb L2 cache to improve performace. PC's now have up to ddr333mhz ram and rdram at 1066Mhz.
Reading up on the specs its very clear that the ram speed and latency heavly affects the performance of the computer.
which interface is nicer, more user friendly
which interface is more stable
OS X wins hands down. It's a little slow at the moment, but i'm in love with it.
what do you think is the best overall deal for what you are getting (performance/price)
I think that you can get much better value when buying a pc. A Pc with equal performace for a mac would cos a lot less.
ok and lastly (just for kicks), if money was not an issue, what are the specs on your dream computer
hehe here goes:
Quad Intel Xeon 2.4Ghz
4Gb of RDRAM
Ultra SCSI 160 RAID 0 (striped disks)
4x Ultra SCSI 15k rpm LVD drives
Nivida GeForce 4600Ti
DVD+CD-RW Drive
2x 22'' LCD Flatscreens
-buzzy
 
i realized something about OS X today that made me rather sad.
there's no puzzle anymore.
one of the things that was always great about the mac interface was that it was a little more zany then anything else, and it's losing it's zaniness.
it's not as much fun to use a mac now as it was before.
i didn't answer any questions but i felt like i had to say that.
 
floormat: the mb is nice, but it doesn't have firewire (for videoediting) If you can live without legacy ports, (parallel, serial, mouse and keyboard) and the sexy silver board. go for the Abit AT7 MAX.
Also if you want to double the speed of data transfer on your main drive. get 2x 20gig ATA133 drives and hook them up in a RAID 0 (striped) config. that way you get theoretically 266Mb/s oposed to the 133Mb/s you would of had before. Not that the drives can get more that about 50Mb/s out of them anyway but if u get a drive with a 8Mb cache, then they can certainly hit 133Mb/s
Damm we need a bloody geek forum. ;)
Also the cost of a 1Gb mem stick over 2x 512Mb is about $65 so id go for 3x 512 and spent the $90 you saved on something else.
That coolermaster case is sexy. I'm gonna get it when it comes out.
-buzzy
 
Buy whatever u use at work or what the company u want to work 4 uses. Doesn't matter which, just make sure u have the same box ur boss does.
As far as anything else goes and if money is no object...
Macs were used in almost every aspect of production for Star Wars
so
pbpbpbppblbllbpbpt all you pc freaks,
on the other hand, if u wanna be a H4X07 u should definately get a pc.
 
hey buzzy, im gonna get that soyo board, the kt333 platinum...
could you give me some suggestions on a processor for it?
 
Buy whatever u use at work or what the company u want to work 4 uses. Doesn't matter which, just make sure u have the same box ur boss does.
and what purpose would this serve?
i know that you could transfer files with a disk, but you could always upload the files onto a server. i wouldnt let work limit your desire, or what you can afford for that matter.
Click to expand...
 
Sun Sucks. We've got $20k sun 420R's that can only handle around http 500 sessions/sec vs 3k linux boxes handling $1000 http sessions/sec.
Sun's are cool, but they are Overpriced and Slow. But then again they *ARE* industry standard.
-buzzy
 
the only person i know who actually makes any money in 3-d design/animation uses an sgi irix.
 
Ok, Faeries been bugging me for days to do this so I will. First off, I like how Floormat put it:
heres the end result of how having a pc is like driving a monster truck, and how having a MAC, is like driving a benz..
Very well said.
At this point in time, it's not the best to argue Mac Vs. PC. Mac's are in limbo right now. The G5 processor has been in dev for almost 9 months. Seems Motorolla has been having problems producing a reliable amount of them (They keep getting defects in the sillicone). Or so I'm told. They will be unvieled at Macworld NY in July. I will guarentee it.
Ok, first to address the speed issue. RIGHT this second, a top of the line PC may be faster for most things, but in January a Dual 1 Ghz Mac was faster than a P4 2.2ghz in Photoshop (the only real speed comparisons I look at are for Photoshop cause I don't care about anything else). Yes, mac's are still using the older PC133 but that has already changed the XServe is using DDR.
I'm sure you have all heard of hte MHZ myth. that is that a mac 1 ghz is not the same as the PC 1ghz. This is because mac processors are 64bit while PC are 32 bit, meaning, Mac's process twice the information in a single clock cycle as PCs. Not his isn't perfect 2x, you can't say that a Mac 1ghz is = to 2Ghz PC. Second of all, Macs do have much larger on chip Caches. This is because of that 64 bit thing. This Greatly increases speed as well.
Ok, blah blah blah, geeky crap. Ya ya ya.
Now for the reasons that's macs are BETTER than PCs. (Because the above was just showing that they are not some sub-standard computer).
And I go back to the Monster Truck vs. Mercedez analogy. Monster trucks are all about bolting things on to make it faster and having to tweak everything and not always having things work perfectly, etc. Mercedez are all about reliabliliy, luxury, dependablitiy, nice looks, and still having beef under the hood.
Macs fit this very nicely. Anyone that buys a mac because they think it's the fastest comp is a fool. I have never said that my computer was the fastest PC ever made (I have a dual 800 mhz G4). But, I have one of the fastest mac's ever. I have bought macs because everything is easy. So I want to get a new HD, do i need to worry about bios, or if it's compatible or anything like that? No, I have a mac, I can buy a WD or IBM or Maxtor or Seagate IDE/100 and pop it in and go. Do I need to worry about updating my nVida Drivers? Nope, my OS does it for me. What if I need to connect over our network to my iBook. I bring it down to my office, plug it in to the hub, make one switch in the system prefs and connect. No questions asked. Do I have to ever wait for software or not having something that I'd like? Nope. Mac's have it all (minus the spyware and virii). Mac's even have their own stuff in the P2P file sharing (carracho).
I challenge anyone out there to find someone that owns a mac and is willing to talk real shit about them. You can't. Macs do exactly what they say they will. You never have problems with them. I'm telling you. If you know how to use a mac properly, Programs never crash. I'm in OS X right now. My current uptime is 17 days. the only reason it's not like 30 is because I had to install new nVida divers and an OS update. I don't know how you can aruge with that. Send me a PS doc your comp can't handle, mine will I'm sure. About two weeks ago I had a 800 mb 8 1/2 x 11 600 dpi doc open in PS and never had a single problem with it. Not one.
I had 2 friends in High School, in my newspaper class, that hated Macs at the begining of the year. After using them day in and day out in a lab of 35 comps (mostly G3 iMacs and a couple G4 desktops) they both bought TiBooks. For 3 months I heard all about PCs and how they were better and how they were faster (both of these students where Graphic Designers). But Once they actually used them, learned them, they soon loved them. I'll give you guys one of their email addy's if you really wanna talk to him. I'll give you a hint, it's [email protected] ;)
And to finish this off I'd like to make a list of people who I know use Macs:
BT (was in "Macaddict" magazine)
Moby
George Lucas
Pixar
Everyone in the Design/Print/Video/Movie/DTP industry
Cheap Trick
etc (could name more but I need to get back to work)
So to sum it up, Mac's are not the fastest, so if all you care about is having the fastest computer, www.dell.com www.newegg.com www.microsoft.com <--- Have at it.
Apple likes smart people to buy their computers.
;)
Macs are the Mercedez of computers though, and for that reason, is why my family owns 5 that run.
Click to expand...
 
As far as the XServe goes, you need to understand one thing, and that is it's market.
For webserver use:
Media industry (serving up Quicktime is a sinch on these things)
Software dev: I know alot of people that right php/perl/etc that are using macs because they have built in webservers and the like. These are perfect for large teams that want to test large scripts.
IT IS NOT TRYING TO TAKE OVER THE AVERAGE WEBSERVER MARKET!!!!!!!!!!!
Now, what they will really sell alot for:
3d/CG Can you say render farm?
Musicians Can you say Rack mount?
Science Labs Can you say research servers?
Education: Considdering that in maine every school age child will have an iBook on their desk in two years, it might a slighty good idea to have a mac only system. Save's $$$
Ok then, just to clear that up.
Also, it's not like they are jumping in to this full force, They are only producing like 10k at first to see how they sell. Only time will tell if they can break in to this niche.
Finally, I forgot to say this above, if you want specific proof from other websites, I can post them for whatever questions I have. I'm not making any of this up, I have this arugement like once a month.
There's alot of stuff I have left out, but I gotta get to work. Sorry.
 
In windows, you have to click the "start" button to turn off[ your computer..
Apple was advertising iTunes with the lines "see the music"..
You figure out which is better..
PC might be cheapher to buy, but you pay for the fuckin maintaince.. They get brokeen, their hard disks die, your old stuff don't work with the windows upgrades, you end up sending em to service etc.. M$ loves your money..
Mac just work!!! You buy one, you use it for at least 3 years, dont spent a penny on it in the meanwhile, than you are forced to buy a new one because they are so sexy.. If you're not into sex, you can use your mac forever...
 
fuck it. im buying a small sleek sexy mercedes SLK (ibook) now and chrissie a CLK AMG430 (powerbook) at macworld.
microsoft can suck the shit outta my ass. the only thing i'll use a pc for now is my linux webserver.
there i did it.
-buzzy
 
Originally posted by Here&There:
In windows, you have to click the "start" button to turn off[ your computer..
Apple was advertising iTunes with the lines "see the music"..
You figure out which is better..
apple has always had better advertising. i don't think you'll find anyone who will argue differently.
i remember watching the super bowl 1984 commercial and thinking 'holy shit!' i doubt i was the only one, as people still talk about the damn commercial 18 years later.
Click to expand...
 
Originally posted by buzzy:
fuck it. im buying a small sleek sexy mercedes SLK (ibook) now and chrissie a CLK AMG430 (powerbook) at macworld.
microsoft can suck the shit outta my ass. the only thing i'll use a pc for now is my linux webserver.
there i did it.
-buzzy
I win! ;)
Click to expand...
 
/me now becomes invisible
now that theres an ibook at home
guess ill start filing the divorce papers now ;)
 
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