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Mac or PC

werk [Edit] [Delete] 61 replies 21:13, 11 October '11

OK, so I've had mac's for about 2 or 3 years now I guess but before that always PC... I'm coming to the point where I need to replace my rather dead macbook pro and guess what? I don't have £1k.

So, I'm a graphic designer (using Photoshop and Illustrator mostly) and everyone tells me OHMYGOD you have to use a mac, a PC couldnt handle it. Which I think is a pile of bollocks. Is it purely just Apple's marketing that makes you think you need one as a creative arts worker or are they actually any better?

What's your preference? and why?

ps. In the offchance that this turns into a cage-match between Theo and Crablin I'm taking bets via pm.

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  • Mac

    Because I love using OSX and hate using Windows.

    It's also my job to use one.

    Antpocalypsenow | 11 Oct '11, 21:18 | X
  • the truth is both are good

    the idea that windows is somehow inferior for intensive applications is obviously bollocks, as is the idea that mac's are very restrictive and not for serious-types.

    it really just depends on what you need out of a computer. i could list the pros of both but that would drain me of my life force.

    CrispinAlexander | 11 Oct '11, 21:19 | X
    • but i do use mac

      because i like them better

      CrispinAlexander @CrispinAlexander | 11 Oct '11, 21:20 | X
  • I've had my laptop for six years and, while decrepit, it's still functioning.

    Can anyone else match that? (Assume from this I have no idea what you should buy, but good luck anyway).

    hip_young_gunslinger | 11 Oct '11, 21:21 | X
    • My old laptop (that I used up until just under a year ago)

      is the mini Vaio that Zuckerberg uses on the Social Network and Amazon has it as first sold in 2004 or something like that. I got it third hand so don't know how much use it got before me or when it was bought, but, charger plug permitting, it still goes.

      svenrokk @hip_young_gunslinger | 11 Oct '11, 21:48 | X
  • A £1,000 laptop has only lasted 2 or 3 years?

    Tillance | 11 Oct '11, 21:21 | X
    p_a_u_l and Yesiamaduck this'd this
    • A 1k Macbook didn't last more then a couple years?

      Yesiamaduck @Tillance | 12 Oct '11, 01:12 | X
      • 1k is the starting price for macbooks, i think this one might have even been more

        but i got it secondhand off someone who has obviously rinsed it far more than necessary and its on its last legs. and i think its about3 years old yeah.

        werk @Yesiamaduck | 12 Oct '11, 02:23 | X
  • My preference is Mac.

    The notion that you can't use Photoshop etc. on Windows is stupid, of course you can. Windows 7 isn't all that bad really, it's decent. Still hugely prefer the Mac OS and the hardware though.

    I bought Pixelmator recently too as I didn't quite fancy paying £56,934,009 for anything Adobe makes. It's pretty cool, if limited. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pixelmator/id407963104?mt=12&ls=1

    84joe | 11 Oct '11, 21:24 | X
  • If you feel up to a bit of fiddling

    you could always set up a hackintosh (normal PC hardware running OSX). The benefits of the nicer OS, without getting wallet-smashed. There are loads of guides around the place, this is a good place to get started:

    http://www.hackintosh.com/

    lyserge | 11 Oct '11, 21:39 | X
  • You are asking DiS

    So the answer will be: Mac.

    /thread

    causticwindow | 11 Oct '11, 21:55 | X
    JaguarPirate this'd this
  • I say 'Pee-See'.

    Icarus-Smicarus | 11 Oct '11, 22:39 | X
  • I prefer using Windows 7

    due to the fact that

    A) I think it's a better performing and functioning OS but more importantly

    B) The is a lot more stuff (free stuff) available for it and

    C) Laptop tend to be a lot cheaper to fix and upgrade and even more importantly

    D) You get higher spec for your money

    People who usually say Macs are much better then Windows based laptops usually base their comparisons on budget laptop... of course a £350 laptop isn't going to perform as well as your £800 macbook... but a £600 laptop may very well perform better... that and I LOVE windows 7, I think its great.

    Yesiamaduck | 11 Oct '11, 22:59 | X
    • ^this last point always annoys/amuses me

      You'll always hear someone saying "yeah, I know it sounds expensive, but I tried having a £200 piece-of-crap Acer and it was always falling apart and couldn't run anything without freezing, so I decided to spend five times that on a Mac and it's soooo much better I don't know why anyone would buy anything else". And they never seem to realise.

      -dan- @Yesiamaduck | 12 Oct '11, 01:12 | X
      • I bought a refurbished

        Toshiba Sattelite laptop, and whilst the processor is no beast... it's quite tame in fact... it only cost me £300 (RRP £450) and runs like a dream!

        To be honest with you I wouldn't say it runs noticeably slower then any bottom - midrange macbook I've ever used.

        Certainly not £500 less computer if you ask me

        Yesiamaduck @-dan- | 12 Oct '11, 01:23 | X
        • Clarification:

          I was agreeing with you.

          -dan- @Yesiamaduck | 12 Oct '11, 01:40 | X
          • Oh yeah

            I was adding to the argument, I know you were :)

            Yesiamaduck @-dan- | 12 Oct '11, 01:49 | X
  • Your second point is correct and has been for some time now.

    You probably get some bonus points with whoever you're showing off your work to if you're using a mac though. Sad as that is.

    Personally I stick with Windows as I'm more familiar with it. I've used macs for work and there's nothing (or rather there are enough annoyances) to make me want to change permanently. Same with linux, but that's not really an option.

    Septih | 11 Oct '11, 23:31 | X
  • Mac,

    only cos I dont know any different, and they look nicer, and I care about how things look and feel cos well, I just do.

    theShipment | 11 Oct '11, 23:34 | X
    badmanreturns this'd this
  • always used a PC myself

    never been able to afford a macbook or the like. my 3 year old laptop can run all those programs smoothly, so getting an up to date one you'll have no problems. have nothing against macs just the price tag was always far too hefty for me for not much of difference (in terms of performance)

    diabetic_lucifer | 11 Oct '11, 23:39 | X
  • i use a pc at work running massively heavier software than photoshop/illustrator

    and it does the job fine, i have 2 imacs, and a pc and mac laptop at home, i prefer osx and the mac routes and shortcuts and need macs for certain apple software but essentially just go with what you prefer, neither is necessarily inferior.

    amps | 11 Oct '11, 23:46 | X
    andyvine this'd this
    • ^ this was to the second half

      Not the bit about having a million computers or whatever

      andyvine @amps | 12 Oct '11, 13:50 | X
  • slightly off topic

    a cheap laptop with a solid state drive > an expensive one with a normal hard drive

    performance wise.

    the_dazzled | 11 Oct '11, 23:56 | X
  • you need a student friend to take advantage of Apple's very generous educational discount

    guntrip | 12 Oct '11, 00:21 | X
  • Many professional animation companies, including Aardman, use PCs

    running Adobe suite and other processor-intensive programmes and they seem to manage fine. Macs are still better though.

    eltham | 12 Oct '11, 00:22 | X
    Randy_Orton this'd this
    • Macs are still better though

      show your working, I bet the highest end Windows based laptop is superior to the highest end Macbook

      Yesiamaduck @eltham | 12 Oct '11, 00:46 | X
      • Just prefer them.

        Less fiddly widdly and seem to retain their original state for much longer than a PC.

        eltham @Yesiamaduck | 12 Oct '11, 10:28 | X
    • "This" to the first bit, btw.

      I use Macs at work but don't necessarilty prefer them. Also, I know of production houses using Linux PCs for higher end compositing/visual effects stuff (wouldn't like to myself, but there you go).

      Randy_Orton @eltham | 12 Oct '11, 13:57 | X
  • neither

    ithica | 12 Oct '11, 00:31 | X
  • http://i54.tinypic.com/2m5necn.jpg

    -dan- | 12 Oct '11, 01:03 | X
    • Um, I would have thought the LHC is running Linux or a variant, surely?

      TheoGB @-dan- | 12 Oct '11, 10:13 | X
  • what's wrong with your current MBP?

    They aren't quite the closed-box systems you might think; upgrading the HDD and the RAM should keep it in business for 5 years I'd have said, especially if you can hack not moving on from Snow Leopard.

    And to participate in the lovely discussion that we have going here, of course Macs represent the mid-high end; but while you're up in that range you trade a bit of performance/spec off for having a lovely sturdy design and the bestest touchpad ever. Last time I checked the price didn't stack up too bad against a Vaio. I do think you drop a little cash toward the brand, but not too much (especially on an education discount)

    I just typed all that out! this is my life now!

    jonny_rat | 12 Oct '11, 01:49 | X
    • it was my exes

      and knowing how badly she treated it i'm suprised it works at all.
      -the speakers dont work
      -the battery lasts approx 6 minutes before dying
      -spinny wheel of death is COMMON
      -photoshop frequently crashes (although in fairness most of my design files ca be 600mb-1gb so there's that
      -startup works 1 out of every 3 and takes 15 minutes anyway

      it works (kind of) for what i need it for but it's a pain in the ringpiece.

      werk @jonny_rat | 12 Oct '11, 02:27 | X
      • Most of that sounds fixable!

        Not the speakers, that'd have to be done professionally. The rest of it could well be sorted; certainly worth having a go before you think about dropping cash on a new setup though.

        Sounds like it needs:
        A clean reinstall of OSX (backup documents, reinstall software from discs, etc). You could do the less extreme option (backup to time machine; clean reinstall; restore from backup) which might have similar effects, and is pretty easy a long as you have a spare HDD.
        Upgrade to snow leopard (not Lion, though) if you haven't already, which actually sped things up for me.
        Upgrade the RAM to the maximum possible, as you're working with huuuuge files there. OSX also loves to have lots of HDD space free, so if you can stand the process of upgrading this, go for it.
        (All the above you can do in one fell swoop, probably in an afternoon, by following youtube guides)
        New battery would be about £30? This could also be impacting performance. Mine is so bad that the charger started cutting out on it the other day, and now only works when I take the battery out altogether. It might actually be preventing the CPU running at full speed.

        jonny_rat @werk | 12 Oct '11, 10:08 | X
        • What if werk doesn't have a time machine?

          Raanraals @jonny_rat | 12 Oct '11, 10:11 | X
          • You're not thinking fourth dimensionally!

            TheoGB @Raanraals | 12 Oct '11, 10:12 | X
        • ^^^ I love this weird contradiction of the Mac fan.

          It's like on the one hand the world of Mac is "Another year, another new piece of shiny with some marginal upgrades. LET'S ALL BUY IT NOW NOW NOW!" and then on the other hand no one fucking ever has to throw that shit out: there's always another year you can out of it by applying a bit of Mr Sheen and some lovingly purchased components.

          :)

          TheoGB @jonny_rat | 12 Oct '11, 10:11 | X
          • haha :D

            we've talked about this haven't we? I'm totally of the opinion that the view that macs need no TLC is wrong, if you want it to last for ages anyway. But they need less TLC than a windows machine does.

            I dunno, in my experience a cheap laptop will be inevitably fucked after a few years use. A good one, if looked after, can go for aaaages.

            jonny_rat @TheoGB | 12 Oct '11, 10:25 | X
  • Pen and paper

    and if you wanna get really speccy, maybe some watercolours too.

    robluvsnic | 12 Oct '11, 02:05 | X
  • Show your werk.

    theShipment | 12 Oct '11, 09:03 | X
  • These days you can run OS X on a PC albeit in a somewhat

    semi-legal and potentially complicated to install way - http://www.hackintosh.com/

    Cementimental | 12 Oct '11, 09:21 | X
    • Because that's really going to provide the performance gap he's worrying about.

      :D

      TheoGB @Cementimental | 12 Oct '11, 10:05 | X
  • I keep reading that Photoshop is actually better on PC now and has been for a while.

    Whether that was just in the period when OSX wasn't 64-bit (I believe it is now) or a general thing but, yeah, it would seem Adobe are possibly writing better code for their PC apps than their Mac ones.

    Otherwise I think you'd be hard pressed to get a PC that is as well made for the same price as a Mac in any case, but if you're already okay with PCs too from your old days then a less 'tight' machine won't be likely to give you too much of a problem.

    I would say it seems like you pay over the odds for Apple monitors, though most are integrated into the machine so it's hard to be sure but I think the best rated monitors for design work seem to be non-Mac branded ones.

    If you need a laptop then 'hmm'. If you're going desktop then I'd think building a desktop unit that can be better than a MacBook for the same price is probably going to be easily do-able. The margins of cost are probably only in the £100-200 saving, though.

    For laptops you may as well pay for the MacBook because laptops are hardcore shit.

    It really comes down to you not having £1000 but what *do* you have?

    TheoGB | 12 Oct '11, 10:02 | X
    • As an aside to that whole Photoshop running better on a PC/Mac

      I'm guessing the chances of the enduser really being able to tell the difference on similar specs is low.

      TheoGB @TheoGB | 12 Oct '11, 10:03 | X
    • hmm

      yeah you're probably right that there's no point as need to get a highend PC laptop anyway (it has to be a laptop as needs to be transportable between UK and Argentina - I already have a lovely 21" Mac sitting in the UK waiting for me which I'm not going to be able to bring back...weep).

      Going to have to ponder this I think...

      werk @TheoGB | 12 Oct '11, 18:21 | X
  • Oh, I think I just smashed the thread.

    TheoGB | 12 Oct '11, 10:03 | X
  • We had Macs in school, and they were so shit, they have imbued me with an irrational hatred of them

    And to be honest, the amount a mac costs it's pretty excessive for what I use a computer for

    LordLuciusBanter | 12 Oct '11, 10:28 | X
  • I would got for a PC..

    .. and put a dual boot system on it, have windows 7 for generaly day to day use and Windows XP for your work. Sounds in concvenianet but is quite common. Saying that I work in 3D graphics where Macs are never used so i'm biased I guess.

    Bookshelf | 12 Oct '11, 10:36 | X
  • PC because I like right-clicking on stuff.

    I know there is apple-button/click but that seems an unneccesary faff. Macs need to get right click before I'll even consider them as a viable option.

    licky_kicky | 12 Oct '11, 10:49 | X
    • They've had right-click for ages now

      Antpocalypsenow @licky_kicky | 12 Oct '11, 11:54 | X
      • Oh. Shows how much I use Macs.

        licky_kicky @Antpocalypsenow | 12 Oct '11, 12:09 | X
    • i don't really know why this is a problem anymore

      when they've had right click for fucking years. probably a decade or something.

      justanothersheeldz @licky_kicky | 12 Oct '11, 12:06 | X
  • Your mum told me she prefers to do it with Gimp on a Linux.

    (Hmmm. There's gotta be a better Gimp joke than that.)

    TheWza | 12 Oct '11, 10:56 | X
  • i have both

    bought a 1k macbook last year and love it. it's snappy, fast, and is really good to use day in and day out. BUT it runs fuck all of my old legacy games i had on my windows pc, so i picked up an old vista machine and gutted it out and have started to use it for playing games.

    i think i might need to up the memory to 4Gb (it's only 1Gb at the moment) and crucial have memory super fucking cheap these days, even for macs.

    i hate windows xp though. die die die.

    justanothersheeldz | 12 Oct '11, 11:47 | X
    • xp, classic 95 stylee = so much win

      TheWza @justanothersheeldz | 12 Oct '11, 11:58 | X
  • http://xkcd.com/934/

    chanticleer | 12 Oct '11, 12:07 | X
    • This is also appropriate

      http://xkcd.com/961/

      (Obviously hover over for the alt-text.)

      TheoGB @chanticleer | 12 Oct '11, 13:09 | X
  • How about

    I install OSX86 on a cheaper PC laptop for you? So you can use Mac OS X, but you don't have to whack a grand down?

    I'll feel dirty doing it, but for you Tim, ANYTHING.

    crablin | 12 Oct '11, 13:04 | X
    • You naughty boy

      That could be amazing but I get the feeling I might kill it in too brief a time. Know anything about buying macs from the US and getting them imported? Will they rinse me on taxes even if I somehow try to disguise/DHL/whatever it?

      werk @crablin | 12 Oct '11, 18:22 | X
  • I'm a graphic designer, believe the hype, choose mac.

    Biglegohead | 12 Oct '11, 15:11 | X
  • the flipside to installing osx on a pc is

    get parallels for the mac, like what i do. i run XP off of it quite smoothly, it's really a fantastic thing.

    but be warned: you will need a good amount of memory because running two operating systems at once is, as you might expect, intensive.

    CrispinAlexander | 12 Oct '11, 15:18 | X
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