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Mac Vs. PC

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Binkspot:
We have been a Mac shop since day one running i-mac's and a older G5. I also use the Mobile Me for back up and I-web for our site. The G5 is on its last legs and will be cost prohibitive to upgrade again. I have been looking to replace the G5 and add two more additional computers for some basic stuff around the shop. Before I jump into some more mac's I wanted to know who' using PC's, how they compare to the mac's for doing art work and why they went with a PC. Also how well does Windows 7 work or do you run an older operating system, how much memory should be considered, graphics card memory etc. If I go to PC's will they work together with my existing mac's or do I have to do a cumbersome save to a different format to open jobs from one to another. Any information would be helpful, thanks.

blue moon:
PC's have come a long way and are much more stable and reliable then they used to be. So as far as the ability to get work without crashing, they are about as reliable as the Macs are.
It might be tempting to build one yourself, but stick with something put together by a large manufacturer. They spend the time testing and insuring compatibility. To make things even better, look into a workstation rather than a regular PC. They cost more, but run ECC memory (error correction and checking) and the packages put together are tested extensively. The components are similar, and in many cases identical to regular boxes, but the testing usually lasts 10-20 times longer just to eliminate any possibility of problems. Most consumers do not know what workstations are and shy away from them. This makes them pretty cheap when purchased second hand. A computer that was $4k two years ago is now down to $700. These are boxes pretty similar to your top of the line Mac workstations. On my computer I regularly run 20-30 windows open and it has been months since I had to restart it. Just like on a Mac, I have to close a program here and there, but that might be once a week on a computer that is used 10 hours per day. I will admit that the Macs will be a little smoother and a little less prone to issues, but after running a Mac at home for 5+ years, the difference is so minute that it is not even worth debating. When it was time to update, I bought a PC.
It is possible that I do not have as many problems as I tend to know what I am doing with the PC's (have computer engineering background and have owned several computer companies one of which was an IBM business partner). Dan seems to struggle with his PC after switching from a Mac, but I think Dan has two left thumbs when it comes to computers!!! :)

Your bigger issue will be the software. If you own programs for a Mac, you might have to buy them again. This can be a lot of money if you need new versions of Adobe products. In the end, if the cost of switching to PC is 90% of buying a Mac, I would stay with a Mac. If you are replacing the hardware only,with a PC you'll get 95% of the performance for 25% of the price.

If you do decide to buy a PC, send me a PM and I'll tell you what to get and where. These are off lease or open box systems with a 90 day warranty, ECC memory, wider bus for faster data transfers on the motherboard, higher cache on the processors and video cards optimized for Photoshop (they have features in photoshop that are not available on regular cards like faster and smoother zooming, ability to rotate the canvas, pixel grid and so on). They start at $200 for older XP versions to about $1k for a fully loaded box like this one "ThinkStation S20, 1 x Quad-Core Xeon 2.93 GHz/8 MB, RAM 4 GB, HD 1x147 GB, Floppy - None, DVD-Writer, LAN Gig EN, Tower, DVI-I Out, Vista Business, OS License Only, Black, NVIDIA Quadro FX 1800" for $673. Spend another $250 for the win7 and another high speed hard drive and you are running the same hardware that would cots you $4k with a Mac.

pierre

Denis Kolar:
Hi there.
Pierre know more about computers than me, but here is my view of the issue.

First off all, I hate every minute spend on a PC when I work on the artwork or anything business related.
With that said, let me explain. Like I said, I do not know much about how to work on improving my computers, I have just a regular PC desktop and a PC laptop bought in a store. Nothing custom.
I can clearly see that the stuff you can buy in BestBuy and stores like that are not made to be used for business (stuff up to a $1000).

Also, If you are to spend a few grand for a PC Workstation or to build something custom, I would go and buy a MAC.
I have my iMac for 7 years now and I had to reboot it one in those years and that was due to my mistake. It is getting a bit slow after 7 years, but it is still running faster than my PC.
Ease of use, one of the advantages of the Mac, no annoying upgrades (at least not as much), no need for Virus Crap (at least for now) and convenience of all-in-one if you are to go with iMac (that 27" looks really NICE), build with our industry in mind (artwork software) and they were standard in most of the design houses and studios.

When I had it with PC's is when I purchased my desktop for my embroidery software, I got it with Vista just before they came out with W7. I could not wait any more due to the machine arriving, so I hat to upgrade from Vista to W7 after I receive the Upgrade DVD with W7 on it. After I started upgrading, I was prompt to install the "Upgrade Assistant" before installing W7. It was needles to say that "Assistant" would not work, and it would not run on Vista. After 3 days, I was done upgrading :(

I have 2 PC's (one for Embroidery software and a laptop to carry around) and one Mac, and I will always call myself a Mac person.

mk162:
And that is why you go with the Thinkstations.  They are freaking incredible.  I would put a brand new one up against a brand new MAC any day of the week.  They cost about the same as well....so you get what you pay for.  It's not necessarily the PC vs MAC argument, it's the cheap components vs good components.

squeezee:
Macs use standard Intel chips and standard components put together on a motherboard made in Taiwan (or China?), it has a Unix OS with their own interface.  They have control over QC.
PCs are built around standard components/Intel chips etc. Windows 7 is pretty good, they've moved towards Mac as Macs move towards PCs.  The QC is controlled by whoever puts the package together.
PCs cost about half what a Mac costs, though the Mac might have a slower CPU.  If you spend the same cash on a PC as a Mac, the PC will be miles faster.
Frankly software is the biggest cost and the most likely source of crashes. 
Mac-heads will love Macs in a way that PC users will never love PCs and I confidently predict that this thread will get very boring very quickly.  If it works for you, use it.

No need for upgrades - of course Macs upgrade.
Don't think that a Mac will protect you from viruses, you can only damage your own files, not the OS but you are still vulnerable.
Macs look nicer than PCs - well that's true :)

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