PC or MAC?

M

MidCoast881

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I am thinking about getting a computer with the Digidesign MBox so I can run ProTools. It will be my first experience with ProTools, but I will be learning it in school this year. I'm pretty sure I will be learning on MAC, which I've never used before either. So my question is, since I'll be learning on a MAC, would I be better off going with MAC, or is the ProTools interface identical on PC? Right now, I'm leaning towards gettin' a PC, but I just need some advice.

One more question, would you recommend having the computer dedicated to audio(no games,etc..) , or won't that make any difference?

thanks in advance
ONE
 
The way I look at it, the PC is more for games, that's just my opinion. I have both but I have a dedicated Mac G4 for all of my music production. It's fairly easy to use and I love it to death. I think you will just have to experience the differance.
 
Cool, as long as there are no glaring differences between the 2, I'll probably stick with PC for now until I get accustomed to MAC.

Thanks for your replies!
1
 
I am a mac user, aswell as a pc user.
My 2 Cents is:

Get used to Macintosh, because for music they run very beautifully. PC's are good, but I find Mac's are so simple and easy to use once you catch on. I know at first they seem weird, but I recommend you buying a Macintosh greatly.. I know after you get used to it, you wont regret it!

Not my choice, its yours (Although, I'd choose a Mac :P)

haha, good luck with the decision!

P.S. i have G4 17" Titianium laptop suped up nice
as well as the very new eMac (with 1.25ghz)
and my p.c. is some trash 800mhz noname(haha)
 
i think macs and pc's are pretty much equal but for the money you get alot more for your money but macs keep a high resale vaule over pc's.
 
young_keyz said:
i think macs and pc's are pretty much equal but for the money you get alot more for your money but macs keep a high resale vaule over pc's.
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True.
 
im currently running on a pc but i wish i had a mac. i used to only have a mac but im a gamer too and there just arent very many good games for macs and pc's definately have more bang for the buck. but if i had the money i'd no doubt go with a mac.
 
Good thread and sincere and well-observed advice all around. Nice to see in a thread with this title! :D

If you can, take some time with machines like you're considering buying.

Jay preferred his 17" G4 Titanium Mac notebook to his PC, "some trash 800mhz noname." You'd have to be dead, seems to me, to do otherwise, and I'm a PC guy from way back.

Compare machines at the level you'll be buying.


I think hollip3020 and a few others hit on an important thing: get what you feel you want, if you have a preference. If it's a Mac you want, you might be satisfied with a PC, even pleasantly surprised -- but some part of you will never really be happy.

And, conversely, there are some of us who probably fear that no matter how much we might admire aspects of the Mac, we would always be chafing at the "company town" aspects.

Not to mention the false-karass of fellow Mac users... "Ooh, you got the blue one..." :D When I was young and foolish I had a Saab 96 [the 'cool' one from the 60s-early 70s] and I got to really hate my fellow SAAB owners, God love 'em. The'd flash their lights at you. Because you were driving the same brand of car. Real get-a-life stuff. Well, it was the 70s. At least some of them were good for leads on mechanics, which was extremely important -- even though the hopeless p.o.s. only had about 50,000 miles and was a couple years old. It was a nightmare; the last "cool" car I ever bought. My mechanic Swen [no, really] said, "If I was back in Sweden, I'd drive a Volvo, maybe. But this is America. Get a Japanese car. Or even an American car. Look at me -- I will only work on 4 brands of car: Saab, Volvo, Merccedes, and Rolls/Bentley. Why? Because it's making me rich. I drive a Ford pickup. The money I save will put my kinds through college. Buy yourself a nice Toyota."

Er... Where was I?
 
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young_keyz said:
i think macs and pc's are pretty much equal but for the money you get alot more for your money but macs keep a high resale vaule over pc's.
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Not true now a days. I was pricing building a dual Xeon system that would come close to competing with the new G5. It would've cost me about $3400 to build that system myself, and that's not even as fast as the 2.5gHz G5. Maybe when they come out with the new 800 FSB Xeons they'll do better, but right now they can't touch mac performance. The 2.5gHz G5 is only $3000 which is $500 cheaper. The truth is you don't get a lot more computer for the money with PCs anymore. You just have the option of buying less. Macs are high end systems just like the alienware stuff. The truth is that if you were to build an equivalent PC yourself, it would still be more expensive than a mac.
 
Theblue1, you make very good points, I enjoy reading your replies.. haha
And..
Fumbling on Ecstasy, you are very right. (Don't the new G5's Rock??? haha)

Peace!
 
joshm said:

Fumbling on Ecstasy, you are very right. (Don't the new G5's Rock??? haha)

Peace!
Click to expand...

I will know come early July when the new G5 2.5gHz come out. I'm going to pick up one of them and the 23" cinema display. I almost gave up on macs until I saw the new G5s. I'm still happy with my G4 and G3 though. Well maybe not the G3. It's pretty useless right now.
 
Those 23" screens are insane. I envy you, haha... but aren't the new G5 2.5gHz out already? or am I mistaken?

Peace
 
the more bang for the buck is directed more towards consumer pc's like your p4 or athlon. xeon to me is more of a "prosumer" cpu made especially for multi-cpu tasks. but if you wanted to go that way, forget the xeon, go for an opteron or an athlon 64. amd cpu's seem to be constructed better with more emphasis on power rather than clock speed. for instance, it's been proven that the athlon xp 3200+ (2.2 ghz) runs at just about the same speed if not faster than the p4 3.2ghz for most common tasks. but enough about pc's, as far as a/v is concerned macs handle it better, however pc's aren't that far behind anymore. but like others have said, the mac interface is different, but once you get to know it, its as smooth as a baby's butt.
 
but once you get to know it, its as smooth as a baby's butt.
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Yeah, the OS X Panther is quite an OS...haha

Peace
 
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i will never buy a pc again. g5's are gods of computers. they are the ultimate audio geek's dream. by far the most superior systems built on the planet. you simply cannot build a pc to compete with the fsb speed/dual processor speed/ram space/os/integration/ease of use/beauty/everything else not mentioned.

ok, i'm done bragging. i love my mac. pc's suck.

period.

your disagreements are petty, useless wastes of time. don't even bother to try and prove me wrong. the only reason i would ever get a pc again is if i wanted to feel retro :)
 
well , things like video game soundtracks would be a disadvantage to do on a mac . ps2 , xbox , and gamecube (not to mention ... pc games) all have pc based drivers .

you could do it all on a pc or you could do some on mac and then have to finish it on pc if you have interests in the gaming aspect of audio .
 
im sure most major video game companies realize that macs are better for the audio part and encoding algorithms work the same regardless of what computer on which theyre being used.
 
hollip3020 said:
forget the xeon, go for an opteron or an athlon 64. amd cpu's seem to be constructed better with more emphasis on power rather than clock speed. for instance, it's been proven that the athlon xp 3200+ (2.2 ghz) runs at just about the same speed if not faster than the p4 3.2ghz for most common tasks.
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I'm just not convinced with the reliability/compatability of AMD which is why I didn't opt for the opteron. (Forgive the pun). However, I don't think the difference between them is in the actual power per se, but more the actual architecture. The Xeons have that lame 533mHz FSB which is where their bottle neck is. This is why a single P4 3.4mHz with an 800mHz FSB is almost as fast as a dual Xeon system. Intel is suppose to release the new Xeons this month. I still haven't seen them yet though.
 
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