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Macbook V PC laptop ?
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I am going to the US in a few weeks and with the exchange rate the way it is I was planning to pick up a low/mid range Laptop.
I was a bit of a Mac fan a long time ago and had half a notion to purchase a Macbook but was wondering about :– Stability – Are they really more stable than PC’s?
– Compatability – Does Nikon s/ware run on Macs ? Guess I could always install Windows on the Mac but that kinda defeats the purpose
– Software availability – general concern ? Is s/w (iLife) that comes with Mac any good ?
– Performance – Do I need 2gb RAm in the Mac ? Graphics card in Macbook uses shared memory ..any issues ?
I intend to use for basic home office stuff so will have MS Office, also intend to use it for hobby photography
These are the competing models I am looking at :
Toshiba Satellite A215-S4767 Notebook
AMD Turion 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-64 Processor, 2GB RAM, 250GB Hard Drive, 15.4-inch WXGA TFT Display, 8X DVD+/-RW Drive, Windows Vista Ultimate
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=cat3&product_code=346206Apple MacBook Notebook
Intel Core 2 Duo Processor, 2.16GHz, 1GB RAM, 120GB Hard Drive, 13.3-inch WXGA TFT Display, 8X DVD+/-RW SuperDrive, Mac OS X Tiger v10.4, White
http://www.compusa.com/products/product_info.asp?pfp=BROWSE&N=200334+400990&Ne=400000&product_code=346238All feedback welcome. Vote alos if you have any strong feelings either way
Well, I’m not against the Mac, but that Toshiba looks way faster than the white stuff…. if you ever want to use PhotoShop, don’t spend too much time on thinking, whether you need 2gigs of RAM; nothing is enough. Also, a larger screen and more space on your hard disk will come handy if you take photography somewhat seriously. This is just my opinion…
all give problems
yes the mac , generally wont let you down and no virus will affect the core, but if it goes , even a we thing
because they are a unit and not a sum of partsmother board will cost you 700-900 euros
i work in the post-production industry and i work on both macs and pc’s. i cannot recommend the mac enough.
pc’s are a pain in the arse, macs just work, i know its a cliche but its true. i still have a g4 i bought 7 years ago and it still boots up faster than your standard home use pc and it can handle web browsing in multiple windows, downloading bittorrents listening to music and editing photos in hotoshop all at the same time, and its never had a virus (they dont really exist on macs).
the software that is bundled with the mac is much better than what you get with windows, ilife is a pretty comprehensive mac version of office, but most people still prefer office if only because of familiarity.
as for hardware while the mac’s specs are generally lower than pc they are usually built with better components and gain performance in other areas (higher front side bus, more reliable and longer-lasting components generally)
i would recommend a minimum of 2gb of RAM on any machine if you are working in photoshop with RAW images but 1GB is probably sufficient for smaller files(-100MB)
thats my opinion anyway :)Is the IMac up to serious image processing or must one go the route of a Mac Pro? (I’m talking about desktop here).
macs are easier to use, but i think pcs give you more bang for your buck and more flexablity
The new intel macbooks are pretty impressive right out of the box, there’s no issue with software, ilife is great, they don’t come with tons of annoying pre-installed trial software like pc’s do and for hobby use 1 GB ram is just fine. The usability is great, you don’t need IT training before you get connected to your internet, no messing about trying to download drivers for printers and all that carry on. Any savings you feel you are making by paying less for a pc can never replace the time you’ll spend trying to remove the spyware that clogs your system and trying to find the installation disk for the scanner that was supposed to in the box but wasn’t.
we have two new imacs in work and they are pretty good, we can edit a few streams of uncompressed SD (about 27Mb/s) in realtime, ive not used them for photoshop work but if they can handle uncompressed video then i think they should be ok, the really important thing is getting shedloads of RAM installed, 4GB will give you a massive performance boost over the standard 1GB, and you dont have to buy it from apple you can get it from memory websites for much cheaper and its all industry approved stuff (kingston etc), and they save you on a monitor however if you are serious about colour calibration or if you are doing colour critical work for press or whatever then forget it you will need a mac pro and a good calibrated monitor, Lacie or Benq or something like that, the apple monitors are too contrasty.
Have to say I am leaning towards the Toshiba at this stage.
Can’t see any major advantage of the Mac and I am very familar with the PC.
Will probably end up using Photoshop Elements and CS so they run on both platforms so no Mac advantage thereThanks for all the input so far!
Noel
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