New computer... advice?

[Ardescoere]

Edit is up here because I am dumb and I meant laptop not desktop, just to clarify.

Hi everyone,

So I work in the IT industry, but honestly I'm drawing a blank when choosing a computer. However I definately need a new one.

My current one, a dell, which cost me like 3000 dollars a little over a year ago, well it decided it didn't want to work anymore. It's very frustrating and now I am looking for something which will meet my needs a little better. I am moving more into digital art and want something which will work with that.

So... I know about speeds and all of that jazz, it's not a question about that. Btu I was wondering on people's opinions of brands, either pc or mac, and how they fare in the art world. Dell is unreliable from what I've witnessed. So that's out of the question for me. And a lot of people are telling me go mac if you want to do art. Price isn't really a question here. And I'm not of the mindset that you need a mac to succeed... But they are a very pretty computer.

But can anyone tell me what would be the pros and cons of each platform as it relates to the industry (so not a mac vs pc war, just how it relates to the industry)? Any brands for the PC side which people have used and found to be reliable would be huge help too!

Thanks in advance.

PS: I know there are other threads about this type of thing but if you read my question it's slightly different as I'm just asking what are some good options... Not an all out war.

[darkwolf29a]

I have made the switch to Mac, myself. Not becuase I had to, but because I do not like Microsoft. That stated, before I made the switch, I could do anything I wanted or needed to. I do not believe in the whole Macs are better for graphics, etc.

But, I will state that I prefer Macs over PCs, at this point. And that is strictly from an ease of maintainance standpoint. I have found that, in the past 2 years, my Mac is much easier to maintain than my PC was.

My recommendation....get what ever is going to work for you, period. You will hear a lot of people saying get Macs, PCs, HP, Gateway, etc, etc, ad nauseum. Ultimately, at the end of the day...the software is key, and there is a lot available for both systems.

You should know that the new Apples do come with 4gb RAM, which is very cool IMO. I'm not sure how much PCs come with any more, but more RAM is always better than less. LOL ;)

Oh, and don't let anyone tell that Macs blow because of software restrictions. There is a lot of software available for both systems... You just may not be using the exact same title. ;)

[Parka81]

The only difference between a Mac and PC is just the OS. Both get the job done. There are plenty of equivalent Windows software.

With the Mac, you'll spend less time troubleshooting software problems. I've spent 0 minutes troubleshooting my two Macs for the last 4 years. If there's anything wrong, it's always the hardware, simple as that.

And comparing hardware, again, both platforms are the same. But Mac is more expensive, simply because of the OS. Without the Mac OS, the Mac is just as cheap as the cheapest Dell.

Also, buying hardware is all about luck, again, no difference between brands.

Do a search on this question on the forum.
It's been asked quite a lot of times.

[Ardescoere]

I have made the switch to Mac, myself. Not becuase I had to, but because I do not like Microsoft. That stated, before I made the switch, I could do anything I wanted or needed to. I do not believe in the whole Macs are better for graphics, etc.

But, I will state that I prefer Macs over PCs, at this point. And that is strictly from an ease of maintainance standpoint. I have found that, in the past 2 years, my Mac is much easier to maintain than my PC was.

That's interesting and I hear it a lot, but what exactlly is different about the maintenance? Like what doesn't need to be worked on? you're likely going to say everything because you hardly have to do any lol. But is it simply that you find there are less crashes and that sort of thing?

[NanoBlack]

Well, I'm not here to start a war, but I'd have to say I'd go with a PC. Don't go for a Dell, I've had one before- they're generally overpriced and not worth the trouble.

Unless you're a complete techie, go prebuilt- after all, if anything breaks you just send it back with a list of your complaints and they'll fix it then send it back to you, all shiny again. No comment on how long this takes though...

If you're planning to use said PC for other things apart from art such as... I dunno.. gaming, for example (though I most obviously condone such a waste of time....*shifty eyes*...) you're going to want something with a bit of grunt. 4GB ram, anything BUT VISTA, and I'm not really going to comment any more as you're already in the IT industry and might be able to work out specs for yourself.

If I had the dough to throw around, I would go Alienware. Or, if your dough's restricted, the Altech NRG Typhoon has just been released- looks ok in the specs department. My friend recently acquired one and they're having no issues with it. Plays the latest games, too, just as an afterthought. Plenty of grunt for whatever 3D modelling or drawing you may be doing at the time. Good price too- just under 2K.

Anyway, I'm off to find a cyber-cafe and play a little L4D to the sweet symphony of Insane energy. NanoBlack out!

[Eugie]

If you're buying a PC you are better off making your own computer. Just order all the parts from newegg or tigerdirect you will save hundreds by doing that. Not to mention you will also have a much stronger computer while you're at it. And if you are getting a mac you really can't go wrong since they have intel macs now unfortunately, macs are really really expensive. However, the imacs seem very affordable and get the job done very well plus, the new monitor sizes are super sweet. So in choosing a computer I think it really all comes down to how much you are willing to spend. Oh yea, another good thing about apple is they give student discounts, so if you're a college student definitely get that discount.

[Parka81]

The reflections on the glossy screens are very bad.

[darkwolf29a]

That's interesting and I hear it a lot, but what exactlly is different about the maintenance? Like what doesn't need to be worked on? you're likely going to say everything because you hardly have to do any lol. But is it simply that you find there are less crashes and that sort of thing?

Just like Windows, there is an automatic update function for downloading OS patches, etc. The main difference is, that since everything is builtin, you don't have to hunt down all the updates. For example, my Mac uses an ATI video adapter. With my old Windows machine, which had an Nvidia card, I have to go download Nvidia drivers every few months. With my Mac, I just let update do it's thing and it updates the video driver when a new one comes out. It's like that with most all the basic drivers. The only one I have to go check for is my Wacom tablet, which is not standard on any OS.

The other nice feature that I like, and some will disagree with this, is security. In order to install anything, you have to enter a password. This will help to eliminate spyware, in particular. But, it also helps with virus as well. Can you get a virus on a Mac? Oh yeah. They are out there, I'm sure. But, if you have to enter a password to install the virus...will you? I won't, that's for sure.

As has been stated, the major difference is in the OS. Personally, I use both. My work is a PC, home is a Mac. Do I see differences? Certainly. But, you get used to using both and it's not a big deal, really.

The one thing I don't like about OS/X, is that I cannot change sounds and I only have a few choices for changing colors. On my Windows machine, I had several different sounds, about 500mb, and I was forever changing them to suit my whims of the day. Colors were the same way. But, since OS/X won't allow sounds changes, they don't get changed and there's like 3 or 4 different desktop colors, that's it. Kind of boring, honestly.

As for crashes...My Windows machine would crash a few times a week, and I would have to do a reinstall once a year. I have yet to have a Mac crash, and I have had the machine for two years now, and have yet to have to reinstall the OS from scratch.

One other nice feature is Time Machine. It takes system backups once an hour, taking anything that changed. So, if you lose something there is a good chance that you can get it back without much hassle. THat's kind of nice, but it does suck up hard drive space. In fact, I have mine setup so that it uses an external drive that I have hooked up, and that's all I do with the drive. Once the drive runs out of space, it will start purging the oldest stuff it has in order to keep things up to date.

[Ardescoere]

The only difference between a Mac and PC is just the OS. Both get the job done. There are plenty of equivalent Windows software.

With the Mac, you'll spend less time troubleshooting software problems. I've spent 0 minutes troubleshooting my two Macs for the last 4 years. If there's anything wrong, it's always the hardware, simple as that.

And comparing hardware, again, both platforms are the same. But Mac is more expensive, simply because of the OS. Without the Mac OS, the Mac is just as cheap as the cheapest Dell.

Also, buying hardware is all about luck, again, no difference between brands.

Do a search on this question on the forum.
It's been asked quite a lot of times.

Hi :)

I would never buy dell again... it was such a souring experience. I know a lot of it is luck (I just wrote lunch there, I think I'm hungry lol). But I find that Dell is really lacking and I know why now. They have no standarization. They buy in bulk and when that batch runs out of say... ram or whatever, they buy again in bulk with whoever gives the lowest price that time. So one time you might get kingston ram, another time it could be corsair. I am not sure either of those brands SELL to dell I'm just using the first names that came to mind. And so there is no standard image which is fine. But when you buy a like 3k laptop you expect it to last a little bit right?

After 5 and a half months the video card fried the mother board. And it took me 3 weeks to get my laptop back (even with the upgraded 3 yr warranty). And then after that... well... I get it back and the video card does this weird flicker thing. I know any day it's going to do the same thing it did before. So I'm more than mildly irritated.

That being said... I'm on a bit of a tangent lol.

I've seen the other questions about this and read the threads and it usually turns into a mac vs pc war. I just wanted actual advice in terms of how the different brands stack up whether pc or mac... Because I'm not sure what is better in the industry.

Like many people say it's a standard in the industry to have a mac... But I'm not sure why other than the historical aspect of it back in the 80s. Is there anything that truley stands out now that isn't able to be done on the PC in terms of art related stuff?

[Ardescoere]

If you're planning to use said PC for other things apart from art such as... I dunno.. gaming, for example (though I most obviously condone such a waste of time....*shifty eyes*...)



Hahahaha.... well... *cough* I play some games but I know that either can perform the way I want with my video game habits and if not, I have a gaming pc I can use.

OH! I guess I should clarify this is for a laptop. Which I know you need a desktop of some sort as well, but I have one already. This is for my laptop.


Any interesting games you play?

[Ardescoere]

The reflections on the glossy screens are very bad.

If you're buying a PC you are better off making your own computer. Just order all the parts from newegg or tigerdirect you will save hundreds by doing that. Not to mention you will also have a much stronger computer while you're at it. And if you are getting a mac you really can't go wrong since they have intel macs now unfortunately, macs are really really expensive. However, the imacs seem very affordable and get the job done very well plus, the new monitor sizes are super sweet. So in choosing a computer I think it really all comes down to how much you are willing to spend. Oh yea, another good thing about apple is they give student discounts, so if you're a college student definitely get that discount.

Yeah it would be good to get that discount. Approximately how much does it save?

[Ardescoere]

The reflections on the glossy screens are very bad.

How bad? I haven't seen any of the new ones personally. Maybe I should make a trip to the apple store and check it out.

[Parka81]

Yeah it would be good to get that discount. Approximately how much does it save?

If you're getting a Mac and want to save some money, check out the refurbished Macs on their website.

Both of mine are refurbished. I will NEVER buy a non-refurbished Mac. Too expensive.

So the refurbished ones are less expensive.
Savings got towards paying for additional 2 years of warranty

[Parka81]

How bad? I haven't seen any of the new ones personally. Maybe I should make a trip to the apple store and check it out.

It depends on individual.

For me, let's just say that I won't spend my money on them. If there are no non-glossy version, then too bad for me, I won't buy a Mac.

[Parka81]

Hi :)

I would never buy dell again... it was such a souring experience. I know a lot of it is luck (I just wrote lunch there, I think I'm hungry lol). But I find that Dell is really lacking and I know why now. They have no standarization. They buy in bulk and when that batch runs out of say... ram or whatever, they buy again in bulk with whoever gives the lowest price that time. So one time you might get kingston ram, another time it could be corsair. I am not sure either of those brands SELL to dell I'm just using the first names that came to mind. And so there is no standard image which is fine. But when you buy a like 3k laptop you expect it to last a little bit right?

After 5 and a half months the video card fried the mother board. And it took me 3 weeks to get my laptop back (even with the upgraded 3 yr warranty). And then after that... well... I get it back and the video card does this weird flicker thing. I know any day it's going to do the same thing it did before. So I'm more than mildly irritated.

That being said... I'm on a bit of a tangent lol.

I've seen the other questions about this and read the threads and it usually turns into a mac vs pc war. I just wanted actual advice in terms of how the different brands stack up whether pc or mac... Because I'm not sure what is better in the industry.

Like many people say it's a standard in the industry to have a mac... But I'm not sure why other than the historical aspect of it back in the 80s. Is there anything that truley stands out now that isn't able to be done on the PC in terms of art related stuff?

Mac as a standard is the art industry is a fallacy, a myth. Apple used to market their computer to creative professionals in the past, the marketing apparently works too well up to the present day.

It's not the standard as the PC can do everything the Mac can.

[Ardescoere]

Just like Windows, there is an automatic update function for downloading OS patches, etc. The main difference is, that since everything is builtin, you don't have to hunt down all the updates. For example, my Mac uses an ATI video adapter. With my old Windows machine, which had an Nvidia card, I have to go download Nvidia drivers every few months. With my Mac, I just let update do it's thing and it updates the video driver when a new one comes out. It's like that with most all the basic drivers. The only one I have to go check for is my Wacom tablet, which is not standard on any OS.

The other nice feature that I like, and some will disagree with this, is security. In order to install anything, you have to enter a password. This will help to eliminate spyware, in particular. But, it also helps with virus as well. Can you get a virus on a Mac? Oh yeah. They are out there, I'm sure. But, if you have to enter a password to install the virus...will you? I won't, that's for sure.

As has been stated, the major difference is in the OS. Personally, I use both. My work is a PC, home is a Mac. Do I see differences? Certainly. But, you get used to using both and it's not a big deal, really.

The one thing I don't like about OS/X, is that I cannot change sounds and I only have a few choices for changing colors. On my Windows machine, I had several different sounds, about 500mb, and I was forever changing them to suit my whims of the day. Colors were the same way. But, since OS/X won't allow sounds changes, they don't get changed and there's like 3 or 4 different desktop colors, that's it. Kind of boring, honestly.

As for crashes...My Windows machine would crash a few times a week, and I would have to do a reinstall once a year. I have yet to have a Mac crash, and I have had the machine for two years now, and have yet to have to reinstall the OS from scratch.

One other nice feature is Time Machine. It takes system backups once an hour, taking anything that changed. So, if you lose something there is a good chance that you can get it back without much hassle. THat's kind of nice, but it does suck up hard drive space. In fact, I have mine setup so that it uses an external drive that I have hooked up, and that's all I do with the drive. Once the drive runs out of space, it will start purging the oldest stuff it has in order to keep things up to date.


This post was -so- helpful. This is exactlly what I wanted to know. My boyfriend has like a shrine to apple in our house and he's a bit of a fanboy to it I'll be honest. So trying to get info like this out of him is like pulling teeth. And personally I've always used PCs and have been messing around with his macbook for a bit but unless you use it intensively it's not going to give me the answers I want and I can't steal his laptop lol.

I was a bit concerned that the graphics cards are integrated in the macbook but someone said it's not the same as integrated with a windows machine. If anyone here happens to know,w ould you enlighten me a little on that? It's the one thing that is really catching me up.

What is the parallels or bootcamp like in the mac if anyone knows? is it fairly simple to use, is it super slow, etc? Would you recommend it?

Time machine sounds great... I'll have to take a look at it tonight.

It honestly feels like I'm leaning more towards an apple, but I'm still cautious... I don't know it intuitively like I do with the PC. It's why I posted this!

[Ardescoere]

Mac as a standard is the art industry is a fallacy, a myth. Apple used to market their computer to creative professionals in the past, the marketing apparently works too well up to the present day.

It's not the standard as the PC can do everything the Mac can.


Thanks Teohyc, you've been a great help. It's just one of those things I was going "Ok, but HOW is it so good in the art world? What does it do the other doesn't?" but I couldn't ever find the answer. It's good to know they both are comparable.

[Ardescoere]

If you're getting a Mac and want to save some money, check out the refurbished Macs on their website.

Both of mine are refurbished. I will NEVER buy a non-refurbished Mac. Too expensive.

So the refurbished ones are less expensive.
Savings got towards paying for additional 2 years of warranty

That's really cool... Hmm.

I'm just going to have to weigh the prices because at my work we get them for way lower than list price. And I also get a 200$ discount off of OUR list price... So it might equal out to the same. But this is definately something I am going to look into.

Thanks again :)

[phoric]

What is the parallels or bootcamp like in the mac if anyone knows? is it fairly simple to use, is it super slow, etc? Would you recommend it?

It's fairly simple, however IME it is quite slow and is only good for using the most basic of applications. Parallels does not access video hardware directly, so if you want to play games, use it for graphics intensive applications, etc, it is largely unusable.

[darkwolf29a]

This post was -so- helpful. This is exactlly what I wanted to know. My boyfriend has like a shrine to apple in our house and he's a bit of a fanboy to it I'll be honest. So trying to get info like this out of him is like pulling teeth. And personally I've always used PCs and have been messing around with his macbook for a bit but unless you use it intensively it's not going to give me the answers I want and I can't steal his laptop lol.

I was a bit concerned that the graphics cards are integrated in the macbook but someone said it's not the same as integrated with a windows machine. If anyone here happens to know,w ould you enlighten me a little on that? It's the one thing that is really catching me up.

What is the parallels or bootcamp like in the mac if anyone knows? is it fairly simple to use, is it super slow, etc? Would you recommend it?

Time machine sounds great... I'll have to take a look at it tonight.

It honestly feels like I'm leaning more towards an apple, but I'm still cautious... I don't know it intuitively like I do with the PC. It's why I posted this!

LOL. Yeah, my fiancee was the same way. I couldn't use hers without prying it out of cold fingers. LOL Then, I said I might want one, but wanted to play around with it. After she got through screeching like an excited child

http://www.apple.com/mac/whichmacbook/compare.html

That compares all the Macbooks, currently, under production. They are using Nvidia chips now. So, you would be fine with updates and such things.

I use a program called crossover, for anything that won't run on Mac, which is very little. I have a friend who swears by Boot Camp, but I haven't used it...because I really don't need it. LOL Honestly, the only program I'm running that isn't a Mac program is Apophysis, the fractal generator.

As far as changing over goes, it took me about an hour of poking around, playing with stuff. There is a learning curve, but it's that large. We did buy a book, for those things that we don't normally do. I think I have opened it once or twice in two years. Most things are fairly intuitive. I don't like the mighty mouse myself, which is an optional thing with a laptop. I use a Logitech Marble mouse, just because I'm very used trackballs (with my desktop Mini). But, I have used the trackpad with my laptop (My fiancee gave me her old Macbook Pro 15), and I have found it to perform like any other laptop mouse.

[Eugie]

On intel macs there is no speed loss in switching from Mac Os to Windows Os, you just have to reboot everytime you want to switch Os's. As for how much you save on the student discount, I believe it was around $100-200 and you also get a free ipod touch, pretty good deal if you ask me.