Imac and MacPro

[gator]

I am not real familiar with the Mac lines of computers; but I have a friend who is in the business of videos and commercials, and does pretty good work.  He has been told that he NEEDS to throw away the Windows PC and go to a MAC.  The system he is using now is a Sony, about 3 or 4 years old....250GB...not a world beater, but my opinion is that he stick with Windows and go to a quad system, after all he has all of the adobe programs, vegaspro8, etc.

Opinions please, are very welcome, before he shells out 4-5 grand for a new system.

[Zylstra]

Any software available on the Mac is available on the PC, and, you will find, there is more software for the PC than the Mac.

Does a Mac run faster?
No, Macs have limited compatibility, thus, preventing a wider range of software and hardware from being available. Due to this lack of compatibility, you cant load as much "stuff" on it.

Do Macs have better hardware?
No, you can build a PC with the exact same hardware (except the motherboard), and it will be greatly cheaper.

Is a Mac more secure?
No, Macs have a very small market share, therefor, they are less targeted for hacking and virus creation. A PC is more targeted for hacking and viruses, but, protection is easy to find (Avast Antivirus, and built in Firewall, both free), and that issue is quickly resolved.

Why does it seem like PC's are slower?
A lot of people put junk on their PC, as in, they go online, and start uncontrollably installing stuff. (Macs lack free software, so you dont see this as often, but that does not make it a good thing).
Also, since support for older PC operating systems last longer, you will find that there are more people still using older computers, simply since they keep working. (Older Mac systems will quickly become completely incompatible with newer software)

The Mac vs. PC argument will exist until Apple goes out of business, or until we all go over to Linux.

PC's have a wider avaliability of hardware components. Macs are limited to a few selections.
Check out www.newegg.com
Newegg:
Laptops:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=32&name=Laptops-Notebooks
PC's:
http://www.newegg.com/Store/SubCategory.aspx?SubCategory=10&name=Desktop-PCs

If you want a project, you can build your own PC, and get it for even cheaper than buying it from a company like Dell, Compaq, or Acer.

[gator]

I agree; I am in the computer business (builder-reseller), but have never offered apple a second glance.  It is just that my friend "was told" they were the way to go.  In fact my friend was surprised when I told him that my old presario could run VegasPro 8.................again you are right about 99.9% of PC users "junk'em" up and then wonder why they slow down or become outdated.  My personal system is 5 years old and normal response on it is 8ms.  I keep my usage ratio at about 5 to 1; using only about 20% of capacity, for an older system, it flies.

Thanks for the input; IMHO owning a mac is like a Yugo; it's in the market, but has no real market share to justify the larger cash outlay

[michaewlewis]

For professional video broadcasting and editing, the industry standard isn't Final Cut Pro, or anything Mac specific, which Mac fans love to boast. It's actually Avid. It runs on Mac and Windows. They used Avid to create "I Am Legend" and "Bourne Ultimatum" and many others.
There are even a few movies that have been made with Cinelerra, which is a linux video editor.

To get a powerful Mac system for video editing, you'll spend close to $10k because of the extra software and xeon processors and pretty case and monitors (A friend of mine did it a few years back)..... or you can build your own system for half the price.

You can buy a mac with

Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Intel Xeon, 8GB RAM, Mac Pro RAID Card, 4x 500GB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s, 2 x NVIDIA GeForce 7300 GT 256MB, 2x Apple Cinema HD Display (23" flat panel), Two 16x SuperDrives, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and AirPort Extreme, Apple Wireless Keyboard and Apple wireless Mighty Mouse, Mac OS X, iWork '08 preinstalled, Final Cut Express preinstalled, Aperture 1.5 preinstalled, Logic Express preinstalled

All for $9,273.00

or build your own pc with

Intel D975XBX2KR motherboard,  Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz,  8GB RAM, built-in RAID, 4x 500GB SATA 3.0 HDD, 2x 256MB Video Cards, 4x 24" Widescreen LCD Monitors, Blu-ray DVD Burner, Adobe Creative Suite 3 Production Premium, Office 2007 Pro, Vista Ultimate, Logitech surround sound speakers

All for $6,057.78

So really, you can get a much better system by buying a PC instead of a Mac. Take two of the 4 monitors out, and it's even closer to half the price.

[Sid]

The Mac vs. PC argument will exist until Apple goes out of business, or until we all go over to Linux.

I can't see that happening any time soon, which is a shame.

[Zylstra]

The Mac vs. PC argument will exist until Apple goes out of business, or until we all go over to Linux.

I can't see that happening any time soon, which is a shame.

I dont think the world is ready for Linux, it still has a great deal of issues that need to be fixed first. Specifically in the world of compatibility. They need to start making generic drivers that work.. not ones that cause my WiFi card to overheat after 10 minutes of lite use, and crash for 30 minutes. (I have had a lot of luck with Linux, as you can tell... but my website server runs it fine as long as you dont try and add/change/remove any applications. Even then, the package manager usually does everything for you)