Mac VS. PC

[zacmat]

you can still own a mac. Get a Mac MINI. $988! Actually if you are doing simple recording, the Mac mini is plenty sufficient. I am surprise nobody points out to you about FSB - front side bus. The mini has 1066Mhz and can take up to 4gb ram. If you research to get a 1066Mhz PC mother board it can be expensive. The true-put of a higher FSB computer is s important as a higher processor. The mini has USB2 and Firewire connections.

You can get a USB 2.0 interface such as the Native Instruments guitar rig session which comes with Cubase LE4 and other guitar tools as well (beats garage band). What's amazing is it has native sample rate of up to 192kHz.

Free up the firewire pod where you can connect an additional external hdd or when you are transferring video you can still use it.

Also get a FOSTEX PM0.4 monitor its $300+ a pair for a simple setup. I see a white piano finish to go with the mini.

 

[gutturalpiss]

That may be true. But (again theoretically), the internal HD will be utitlising Windows, page file etc, and may tax the read/write time if recording is added into the equation.

No, you're right - not just theoretically. External HDD is a worthwhile purchase for those who have DAW + lots of other crap running. In normal situations, the spindle is freed for the current active task; everything else in the background is cached. In heavy load, say you are rendering as well as copying some files, there will be major slowdown as the spindle goes back and forth.

I was just saying an external HD is not a must or that mobile 2.5" speed isn't really that bad

I'd use FW (400) for audio interface rather than external disks. Those I leave to USB unless it's FW800. PCMCIA not a lot of choice, but I hope manufacturers realise this to be the true portable market.

 

[Cheez]

Oh. just remembered RME has an expresscard for their external HDSP system. But as with all RME products, they are not cheap. Perhaps more will offer expresscard in the future. Or else, notebooks will need to have more than 2 firewire ports.

 

[kongwee]

Mini should be still capable. If you are able to get hold on Logic Studio Demo disk. You should able to run the whole demo disk with just a 4 gig memory upgrade. I would say 24 track with a few demanding plug will go very well.

Many of my PC geek turn to Mac. Mostly they are doing media content as hobby. They always find Mac to be most well though of computer. When you want to do media content you need to be focus on creativity. In Wintel computer, you will be quite disturb by the message that pop up unnecessary and small glitch here and there. You will lost what you should do in this way. In Mac it is much less happen. They complete much faster and allow time for finer products. No to say a bit of pocket money like me!

 

[Ex14]

windows 32bit only can use up to 3GB of ram, mac which is a 64bit OS can have up to 8GB.

this might have been said before but windows does have 64 bit OSes.

Also another thing to take into consideration when buying a mac, u're practically paying for the brand. nuff said. but the garage band app is cool. if u ask me mbuild ur own com and den get the os of ur choice.

 

[teleholic]

you're really paying for a whole lot more than the apple logo when you buy a mac..too many advantages over windows based computers..

 

[Ex14]

i speaking spec wise. seriously. i know the mac OS is "better" (i don't really agree with it 100%) but srsly i think the macbooks are quite overhyped and sold at a ridiculous amount of money if i were to get a PC running on a mac i would get a self built PC running on the mac os.

 

[teleholic]

but it wouldn't look half as pretty as the macbooks, no?

 

[kongwee]

Why compare Desktop to laptop?

For laptop you got a advantage on on site recording which desktop is too bulk.
Macbook is alway the choice. I know you guys can build very powerful PC with the same money spend on laptop. This is totally wrong.

 

[Ex14]

When looking at a com i dun think looks matter ..... even so i think i can get a better looking com for less.

 

[Ex14]

Even when comparing mac laptop specs to normal laptops by ASUS i just don't think a macbook specs is worth the price u're paying i can get a better higher speced laptop and den install the newest mac os which retails for around 40 or 20 dollars.

 

[kongwee]

I think you guy should take note of the noise coming out of the computer. Mac is extremely quiet at high loads.

Many people hate Mac because of the price. You have to fork out extra $500 to buy a PC equivalent spec. But there is a trend that many audio/video/graphic heavy user moving toward Mac. The whole Mac is a good solution for them.

For those living with Mac for five year or more, you know how cheap is Mac now. No way you see under $2000 Mac at time.

Lastly, I hate to listen Mac is so stupid doing this and having that. That coming from PC geek that don't touch Mac at all.

 

[Ex14]

first of all i'm running a quad core com and no i dun hear a single noise at all. except for this high pitch noise when i put my ear to the heat vents at the side. most coms are not that noisy and are as quiet as a mac. Furthurmore a mac uses the same components as a pc, so i dun see why a PC can't be as quiet or is more noisy than a mac.

Secondly i know alot of media intensive ppl has been switching to the mac. the main reason i can think of is because the mac has certain software that either is not available on the PC or works better on it's OS. As a windows user i'm really into the mac OS cause garageband is there and i feel in terms of user friendlynes it's one up over audacity.

The pricing thing is also no biggie. i rmb last time dual core computers cost a bomb. i recently obtained a quad core computer and it cost as much as my P4 com a few years back. computers get cheaper all the time.

I have handled a mac before though i don't own one and i have to say theres always two sides ppl gotta see. is that no matter what , a product has it's good points or bad points. nowadays ppl just believe what their friends say and all that vista sucks, but they don't even maintain their computers. btw vista is one of the most stable Windows OS so far.(or so i've read on a article)

Also my main suggestion is not OMG DON'T BUY A MAC IT'S EXPENSIVE OMGOSH

rather it's build a com or buy a laptop, and get the leopard or whatever apple OS u want. that is if the TS wants to get a mac PC.

if TS wants a windows wait till 7 is released. it runs much smoother faster and has less "bugs" (though to be honest i haven't encountered a single problem with vista to date.)

 

[theliverevolution]

One reason I'm not keen on using Windows is because Vista is VERY resource hungry on the RAM. Of course, remove all the eye candy and it'll be fine I guess. 7, according to some of my geek fans, still leaves a lot more to be desired.

Still, XP is still the most stable. VCista is... buggy

 

[Ex14]

yea vista is a resource hogger ._. it never fails to chew up to 40-50% when i start it up...

may i ask of the 7's shortcoming? cause i'm currently using RC ver. and i would liek to play around with it XDD

XP? lol i thought MS is/or has dropped support alrdy, and persdonally the vista with all the SP installed and proper maintenance is about the same as an XP EXCEPT the hogging resource part.... ._. but den again i might be lucky XDD

 

[Cheez]

Kongwee, I don't think one needs to fork out extra $500 to get a PC the same specs as the Mac. In fact, I think it goes the other way round. My quad core with 8GB RAM is a fraction of Mac the same specs. And as for noise, I use Scythe S-Flex fans which are ultra-silent even at pretty high rpm. Mac is still quiter, but doesn't mean a PC needs to be noisy.

Don't get me wrong. I think a Mac is great. I used to be a Mac user since eons past. In fact if not for Gigastudio, I would have remained a Mac user today. Right now, since Gigastudio is officially dead, I may eventually slowly migrate back to Mac if $$$ allows - esp since I've built quite a bit of software on the Windows-only platform. In the end, the choice is based on both $$ and software choice.

 

[kongwee]

I write the wrong way

 

[gutturalpiss]

Hahah no. It can be interpreted wrongly:

PC-equivalent spec vs PC equivalent spec

I'm slightly more impressed with Windows 7 (against Vista). The Betas and RCs ran great, performance-wise. Virtualised with just 512MB RAM. But of course, that's with nothing installed or running in the background. Then again, the same environment in Vista gets me worse system response.

Anyway, $1.5K MSI/ASUS Laptop against Macbook, I'll get the Macbook. For desktop, definitely DIY.

And OSx86 or derivatives are illegal.

 

[Cheez]

Never had the guts to try Windows 7 RC. Didn't want to keep reinstalling. But from what you said, I really can't wait it to be released! Hopefully the upgrade path is more reasonable this time round.

 

[Ex14]

Been using RC and it's great albiet a few problems =/