Apple IMac or windows computer? Your thoughts pls!!

Dinozorr

Dinozorr

Suspended / Banned
Messages
77
Name
Jason
Edit My Images
Yes
Hi all. I'm looking to buy a new computer,
Ill mainly be using it for Internet, photo editing, ( especially my astro imaging using things like Regi stacks etc.) macro videos, timelapse photography,music.
I'm slightly heading towards the IMac, but some detailed advice between the two would be appreciated.
Oh and the Mrs will be using it for shopping in line?
Thanks a lot
 
count down to mac vs pc thread, in 10, 9....

try both and see what you prefer, one has no benefit over the other. personally i dont rate mac glossy screens, theres a thread in the processing section where users have had issues getting prints to match screen etc. if you do decide to go mac at least get a laptop or mac mini and get a decent screen.

...7, 6, 5...
 
neil_g said:
count down to mac vs pc thread, in 10, 9....

try both and see what you prefer, one has no benefit over the other. personally i dont rate mac glossy screens, theres a thread in the processing section where users have had issues getting prints to match screen etc. if you do decide to go mac at least get a laptop or mac mini and get a decent screen.

...7, 6, 5...
Click to expand...

The only thing i'd add to Neil's post is that the new iMacs have a "less glossy" screen with a laminated anti-reflective coating now applied to the glass in the factory - better than they were before.

Apple vs Windows - it's a personal preference - botha re equally capable but do you want to pay a premium for a Mac in comparison to a Windows machine and more importantly, do you like the OS.

...4, 3, 2, 1...
 
I recently switched from a windows 7 laptop to a i7 mac mini and I love it. There are some features from windows 7 that I miss but overall I prefer the Mac for editing. But that is also to do with the fixed screen (my laptop screen was always moved so consistent editing was always tricky) and I now have a better mouse and an actual desk.
 
Both are equally capable so go with whichever one you're already familiar with as it'll save having to learn a new OS.
 
Windows for me, as said you pay a premium for the Mac's.
 
Both are equally capable so go with whichever one you're already familiar with as it'll save having to learn a new OS.
 
If you are going to be using Photshop to edit then there is no difference between Windows and Mac; the application is the same on both.

You will get a more powerful Windows based machine than a Mac for the same money.
 
Check the astro software you want to use is available on both platforms. Registax is Windows only IIRC.
 
I had the same decision to make and for months I researched and researched, I even went down to my local PC World and had a play with a Mac. The weekend just gone I took the plunge and bought a 27" iMac. I have not really had a great deal of time to explore what it can do but so far I am made up with it.
At the end of the day it depends on a number of factors that are individual to you and your needs.
 
Usually comes down to money!
 
windows - you can't get such great viruses anywhere else!

On the more serious note, why don't you buy mac mini with decent non-glossy screen and save a shed loads of money?
 
iMac. its built for media purposes we have outfitted all our offices with MAC's and haven't looked back. Mac for the win (plus more photography software is available to use on this OS… that works properly).

Just my two cents.
James
 
Macs are "marketed" towards media purposes but they are no better than PCs for photo or video and in many cases worse.

If you want to buy Mac because they look nice and you prefer the OS then go for it but please can people stop peddling this nonsense that they are somehow better for photos or video.

You only have to look at how long it took for Apple to update its Pro desktop to see that they really don't care too much about business.
 
daugirdas said:
windows - you can't get such great viruses anywhere else!

On the more serious note, why don't you buy mac mini with decent non-glossy screen and save a shed loads of money?
Click to expand...

posts like this are what cause threads like this to either die or get bombed by mods. As for buying a Mac Mini, I don't even think they're worth what they charge any more. I did own a Mac Mini, way back when Leopard came out, and if you wanted to run more than one or two programs it bogged down badly. It hated running VMs too, and this was at a time when running a VM was touted as "the done thing" in Parallels or VMware. I don't know if the specs are improved now in terms of what the OS required but my experience of owning a low end Mac wasn't particularly pleasant... although if I had loadsa cash I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

take it from someone who works in IT and is too jaded to care either way - if you have the extra ca$h lying around and want a relatively easy and carefree experience (provided of course you don't get a faulty machine), then just buy a Mac and be done with it. I keep saying my next computer will be a Mac because I fancy a change and don't really like the direction MS is going, but honestly with prices the way they are I doubt I'll stick to that promise. If you don't have tons of cash then the only other realistic choice is Microsoft.

As a small and off topic side note though, the reason windows seems to come into contact with a lot of internet nasties is because a lot of IT admins are too incompetent to set it up properly. A fair few I know of won't even go near group policy, and think installing some utter crap of an antivirus is all you need to do.
 
Last edited:
trencheel303 said:
posts like this are what cause threads like this to either die or get bombed by mods. As for buying a Mac Mini, I don't even think they're worth what they charge any more. I did own a Mac Mini, way back when Leopard came out, and if you wanted to run more than one or two programs it bogged down badly. It hated running VMs too, and this was at a time when running a VM was touted as "the done thing" in Parallels or VMware. I don't know if the specs are improved now in terms of what the OS required but my experience of owning a low end Mac wasn't particularly pleasant... although if I had loadsa cash I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

take it from someone who works in IT and is too jaded to care either way - if you have the extra ca$h lying around and want a relatively easy and carefree experience (provided of course you don't get a faulty machine), then just buy a Mac and be done with it. I keep saying my next computer will be a Mac because I fancy a change and don't really like the direction MS is going, but honestly with prices the way they are I doubt I'll stick to that promise. If you don't have tons of cash then the only other realistic choice is Microsoft.

As a small and off topic side note though, the reason windows seems to come into contact with a lot of internet nasties is because a lot of IT admins are too incompetent to set it up properly. A fair few I know of won't even go near group policy, and think installing some utter crap of an antivirus is all you need to do.
Click to expand...

minis used to really suck... not any more. Mine is the same is the high end MBP minus SSD (you could have it though) and high end video card. It runs PS, LR, all office apps, 2x HD vimeo videos across 2 monitors and chrome with 32 pages (yes 32) all at the same time. Not bad for £700 unless I miss anything important. That's a £1000+ saved for a monitor and a few other fancy things
 
daugirdas said:
minis used to really suck... not any more. Mine is the same is the high end MBP minus SSD (you could have it though) and high end video card. It runs PS, LR, all office apps, 2x HD vimeo videos across 2 monitors and chrome with 32 pages (yes 32) all at the same time. Not bad for £700 unless I miss anything important. That's a £1000+ saved for a monitor and a few other fancy things
Click to expand...

The issue is for the same price (in fact slightly less) you could get a Dell desktop with a much faster processor, better graphics card, bigger hard drive, DVD drive, keyboard and mouse.

Don't get me wrong, I have a Mac Mini under my desk right now but I didn't buy it for speed or power. They are very capable machines but for the same money a Dell will be significantly more powerful.
 
inkiboo said:
The issue is for the same price (in fact slightly less) you could get a Dell desktop with a much faster processor, better graphics card, bigger hard drive, DVD drive, keyboard and mouse.

Don't get me wrong, I have a Mac Mini under my desk right now but I didn't buy it for speed or power. They are very capable machines but for the same money a Dell will be significantly more powerful.
Click to expand...

where? http://www.dell.com/uk/p/desktops#!...5~0~196647,40189~0~196669,40186~0~3778513&p=1 No they are slower and more expensive here... 8GB bs with windows on it, weigh a tone, take up a cubic metre, and use enough electricity to power a microwave... ok not quite as bad but close.

Match quad core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB, 4x USB3, HDMI, TB all in a small ultra portable case.
 
I love my windows machine, it keeps my life very exciting my serving up a new BSOD whenever I need that bit of spice in my life! You just don't get that on a mac. Now seriously, if you want a PC buy a windows 7 one and invest all the money you save by not getting a mac in a proper screen and calibrator combo. Or just get a mac.
 
daugirdas said:
where? http://www.dell.com/uk/p/desktops#!...5~0~196647,40189~0~196669,40186~0~3778513&p=1 No they are slower and more expensive here... 8GB bs with windows on it, weigh a tone, take up a cubic metre, and use enough electricity to power a microwave... ok not quite as bad but close.

Match quad core i7, 16GB RAM, 1TB, 4x USB3, HDMI, TB all in a small ultra portable case.
Click to expand...

There are numerous Dell machines that offer way beyond the performance of a Mac Mini and for less money; XPS 8700 is one that offers a quad core processor that is a whole generation faster than the Mini and with a significantly better graphics card for less than the cost of Mini.

Granted they are not as small as a Mac Mini but it's a desktop not a portable.

Again, argue that you prefer the Mac operating system or how it looks but trying to claim a Mac Mini offers better performance for the same money as a Dell is just wrong.
 
I love the apple hardware and have had various iPads, iPhones etc for years.

But I just haven't warmed to Mac OSX and believe me I have tried. Oh how I wanted to.

Just recently after a year of OSX I have gone back to a windows 7 build. A year ago I ditched the windows 7 shuttle and monitor and got a 15" MBP - again, I love the hardware but OSX drove me to despair.

So I have ordered a new shuttle and a monitor which arrived last week and will be installing windows 7 :)

Daddy's home !
 
Macs are designed for media these days as much as ford make the only saloon car available. The glossy screens have no place in a professional media studio for a start.

As someone that supports both platforms day to day I can say (and I have done MANY times) that we could switch all of our macs out running adobe apps and there'd be no difference, in fact life would be easier in many respects. But we won't because of office politics.

I'll also echo that Apple seem to be so anti business/professional these days it's getting beyond a joke.

That said I still believe its personal preference, but don't expect your life/work to become utopia like by choosing one platform over the other like some would have you believe. Both systems have pros and cons, only you can decide what works best for you.

trencheel303 said:
posts like this are what cause threads like this to either die or get bombed by mods.
Click to expand...

Don't worry about him, he always pedals some anti-ms nonsense in these threads.

People like him seem to forget about the instances of malware that have hit macs and how many security holes get patched up in updates..
 
After 30 years a PC person I made the switch 3 years ago. I looked at what was on offer from both pc and mac and to get the quality of the mac i had to add to the cost of the pc a screen and that levelled out the playing field in terms of cash.

I got a mac and i will never go back
 
I find Mac's better because the OS works better for me. It suits the way that I do things and the way my brain things. I struggle getting around Windows but Mac OS felt natural to me from the moment I started using it.
 
neil_g said:
Macs are designed for media these days as much as ford make the only saloon car available. The glossy screens have no place in a professional media studio for a start..
Click to expand...

You mean... except in all the professional media studios that use them?

Can't say it was ever a problem when I was using an iMac professionally, and I've always got absolutely superb results in my photography using a Cinema Display for my own work.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ST4
inkiboo said:
There are numerous Dell machines that offer way beyond the performance of a Mac Mini and for less money; XPS 8700 is one that offers a quad core processor that is a whole generation faster than the Mini and with a significantly better graphics card for less than the cost of Mini.

Granted they are not as small as a Mac Mini but it's a desktop not a portable.

Again, argue that you prefer the Mac operating system or how it looks but trying to claim a Mac Mini offers better performance for the same money as a Dell is just wrong.
Click to expand...
This was what drove me off the Mac platform, after a decade. I like OS X, I really do, but the price/performance tradeoff is immense, and the residuals in Mac kit aren't what they were.

I had a choice: spend £2K+ getting an iMac with a meh processor and a meh graphics card (because the top-end options are very meh; the iMac is made of laptop components), or spend £800 at PC Specialist getting a box with room for more RAM, two graphics cards, and 7 internal drive bays. No, it doesn't look as nice and I had to buy a separate screen. But I can live with that.

I also found the two iMacs I had (a white one, and then an aluminium one) to be very unreliable. Both lost their GPUs to thermal failure, both had to have optical drives replaced. The Aluminium one also had its display replaced. AppleCare is an absolute must on these, because unless you're an extremely competent and confident hardware tech, they are simply not user-serviceable. Also, a new display panel for a 27" iMac is £600. Oof.

Not to mention that all of these repairs required a trip to the nearest authorised Apple service centre, which in my case was Jennings (York/Scarborough, very professional, if you are in the NE and need a Mac, these chaps are first-rate). In my PC, I would simply get the part bought on overnight delivery and have it fitted within ten minutes of getting the parcel.

I would have liked a Mac in the old Mac Pro tower format, but without the ruinously expensive Xeon processors, which offer little benefit to desktop users.

OP: I echo the advice given here - base your choice of hardware platform on your software preference. If you like OS X, then buy a Mac, but if you're content with Windows, you will get more value for money with a PC, which will be uglier.
 
Last edited:
CharlotteM said:
You mean... except in all the professional media studios that use them?
Click to expand...
you mean wanna be pro studios? ;) i can say that because ive only just won the battle in convincing the "pros" and purchasers here to get Dell screens over Apple moving forward. That and they're about as reliable as a choccy teapot (specifically the TB models).

So tell me why none of the top end monitor manufactures make a glossy display?
 
neil_g said:
you mean wanna be pro studios? ;) i can say that because ive only just won the battle in convincing the "pros" and purchasers here to get Dell screens over Apple moving forward. That and they're about as reliable as a choccy teapot (specifically the TB models).

So tell me why none of the top end monitor manufactures make a glossy display?
Click to expand...

Yea... all those wannabe pro studios in London employing dozens of photographers and retouchers...
 
CharlotteM said:
Yea... all those wannabe pro studios in London employing dozens of photographers and retouchers...
Click to expand...

And Apple supported these pro studios by not selling the Mac Pro desktops in Europe for over a year. Imagine if those studios wanted to buy new hardware; their options would have been limited to iMacs, buying from the States or eBay. That tells you all you need to know about Apple and business customers.

Also please tell me what features of the Mac make running photoshop any different than on Windows?
 
inkiboo said:
Also please tell me what features of the Mac make running photoshop any different than on Windows?
Click to expand...

Like I said in my post above. I personally get on with Mac OS better than Windows. I find it more intuitive to use.

Sure, Photoshop is virtually the same, other than shortcuts I should imagine, but my workflow and ability to do just about anything on the computer is vastly sped up by using the Mac interface rather than the Windows interface.

I'm happy that the time I've saved over the years by using a Mac and having everything at my virtual fingertips has been invoiced out at more than the difference in original price of the raw machines.

Not everything can be quantified in pure money and statistical terms. ESPECIALLY in a creative world.
 
I'm hopeless with computers, after years of suffering all manner of grief with PC's and still having to do so at work on a daily basis, i bought an iMac in 2011, it just works with no fuss and I wouldn't entertain a PC or windows for that matter ever again.
 
Your argument seems similar to the people who say homeopathy can't be tested by "science"
 
There is lots of Mac snobbery and Window/PC purists about, I wouldn't subscribe to either party or pontificate as to what is best as I really don't have the knowledge but Macs just work for me I like them. It's all down to personal taste. However, I can't see my myself returning to the Windows / PC route any time soon.

The quality of my 21' iMac and speed is fantastic.With forth generation Intel quad-core processors and NVIDIA graphics the screen image is excellent. Works brilliantly with both CS6 and Aperture. My first entry into Mac was five years ago when I got a MacBook Plus. It's still perfect today and I take it out on shoots with me. I back up all my data and operating system every night (done automatically). It may be a cliche but Macs just work for me. When they don't the Apple Care support is first class. Just book a call online when it's convenient for you and they will call you back.






 
inkiboo said:
Your argument seems similar to the people who say homeopathy can't be tested by "science"
Click to expand...

Absolutely.

I guess it's the same as your average holiday snapper who buy's a semi-pro body instead of the consumer version because the ergonomics are better on the thumb wheel.

Or someone who upgrades their bicycle because the handlebars feel nicer to them.

Or someone who buys more expensive speakers for their stereo because they think it sounds better.

All those intangible things that people do because they perceive that it improves the quality of their lives.
 
I have always used MS but two of my (grown up) children keep telling me I should switch to Apple. One is in film and one is in design and I get the impression that Apple,in both those fields, is ubiquitous.

However my computing skills are so dire that it would make no difference to me..
 
Slight tangent but does that mean you believe in homeopathy?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top