Apple IMac or windows computer? Your thoughts pls!!

Good points, neil. Note that for a photographer, a Xeon and a Workstation GPU (Quadro, FireGL, etc) brings nothing but worse gaming performance to the table; the graphics drivers are optimised for workstation applications, and the Xeon does nothing for a desktop user, unless you're rendering things. Both will, however, prove to be reassuringly expensive, leaving your wallet with that "freshly hoovered" feeling.

Basically if you don't already know you need those things, you almost certainly don't need them.
 
pwhysall said:
Good points, neil. Note that for a photographer, a Xeon and a Workstation GPU (Quadro, FireGL, etc) brings nothing but worse gaming performance to the table; the graphics drivers are optimised for workstation applications, and the Xeon does nothing for a desktop user, unless you're rendering things. Both will, however, prove to be reassuringly expensive, leaving your wallet with that "freshly hoovered" feeling.

Basically if you don't already know you need those things, you almost certainly don't need them.
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My comment was based more towards the people that were referencing mac's as media machines, not just photographers, I guess I kind of blurred the edges a bit there! There are however Xeon's burning i7's in Photoshop operation benchmarks, and to be fair, if you can afford a mac, you can afford a dual-cpu Xeon machine! Quadro performance (CUDA) is also much better in Photoshop than the standard OpenGL cards, dependin on what you get of course.

Gaming is another matter entirely, but then if Gaming was relevant we wouldn't really be talking about Mac's now would we! ;)
 
macs for me ,i can't really be arsed with all the stuff you have to play around with on windows ,with a mac it just WORKS .got a windows phone as it was a cheap option on contract ,oh how i wish i had stuck out for a i-phone instead ..
 
the black fox said:
macs for me ,i can't really be arsed with all the stuff you have to play around with on windows ,with a mac it just WORKS .got a windows phone as it was a cheap option on contract ,oh how i wish i had stuck out for a i-phone instead ..
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Out of curiousity.... What stuff do you have HAVE to play about with? And what is so bad about Windows Phone? I've used a Lumia and thought that it is a VERY well thought out OS?

Like I said, just interested in your opinion, not looking for a flame-war here ;)
 
Imac for me, works flawlessly and once I calibrated the screen I haven't had any issues with prints or editing. I can also switch between ps, aperture and have borderlands 2 running all flawlessly :p
 
If you;re interedted in computers, and are confident in using them... installing, uninstalling software, and have no fear of upgrading modifying yourself... get a PC. If you're just after a reliable computer that works out of the box with no arsing about... get a Mac.

/thread.
 
Let's get something straight: when the hardware's in good order, both Windows and OS X are incredibly reliable operating systems.

Bluescreens on Windows and kernel panics on OS X are almost invariably due to hardware problems on the one hand and crappy third-party device drivers on the other.
 
Is now not a good time to mention common blue screens on iOS devices recently? ;)
 
My 2p. I bought a MacBook back in 2008 and it's still going strong [although I can't update it beyond Lion, it still runs CS6 reasonably well], in the meantime I've been through 2 Windows laptops [Dell and Toshiba] at work. Macs may be expensive but in my experience they do last, giving reasonable value for money.

Could I also ask about Windows' back up features? Mac's Time Machine automated back up is a fantastic idea in case of hard drive failure, I've not really used Windows beyond XP and don't know if 7 or 8 include a better back up feature?
 
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Windows 8 has a number of backup options, from volume shadow copies (which allow you to recover previous versions of files and recently deleted files) to a more traditional backup utility.
 
pwhysall said:
Windows 8 has a number of backup options, from volume shadow copies (which allow you to recover previous versions of files and recently deleted files) to a more traditional backup utility.
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That's good to hear, backing up on XP was not a very pleasurable experience.
 
Funny thread. I just bought a PC with a wide gammut screen for editing etc..

I bought it because I know Windows, I know how to do things with it, how to manage it, what applications I want to use etc...

I don't want to have to figure out a MAC and how to manage it, run it, troubleshoot it to do what I can already do on a PC.

MAC's look stylish, have a huge amount of snobbery attached to them and run pretty much the same software you can now get on a PC.

you also pay a premium for the hardware compared to a PC

Pick the one you like and enjoy it.

Martin
 
It's amazing how good Apple's marketing is. Most computers in the world run Windows but from the looks of all the "it just works" posts we are heading for an apocalypse and most of the world's computers are going to explode.
 
Deckard said:
That's good to hear, backing up on XP was not a very pleasurable experience.
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Windows XP came out in 2001. Time Machine was released in 2007. Slightly unfair comparison.
 
What I want to know is if the ZERO fella and the rest of the lockdown gamblers, have stopped counting yet? :p
 
I moved from Windows to Mac, and am pretty comfortable with Mac OS, but it wasn't an easy process, the problem was I had both OS as dual boot on the same machine, because I was so much in my comfort zone with Windows, I kept defaulting into Windows, it was only when I took the Windows partition off, and forced myself into using Mac OS, that I started to enjoy the OS, but it wasn't without it's frustrations, and at times uncomfortable learning curve, but I persevered, and probably won't go back to Windows anytime soon. As far as both OS performance & speed, I reckon they are on par, some things Mac OS has the edge, on others Windows, but any differences are negligible.
 
Posted Wednesday on another forum I'm involved with:

I have just gone Apple free;

My iPhone and my macbook have gone and I now have a Nokia Lumia 1020 and a 'normal' laptop.

I am celebrating my freedom from a suite of devices that, really, are sub standard and lock you into a whole marketing process.

What have I gained?
  • Freedom from bloody iTunes and the limited license of music
  • Freedom from the non upgradeable macbook (that also broke down at horrific cost!)
  • Freedom from iCloud and the lack of backup space unless I buy more space
  • Freedom from only apple having all my contact and calendar data

Nokia Lumia, gmail account, laptop, dropbox - sorted. Very simple to set up, huge flexibilty, low cost.

Actually going to start buying music on CD again or Mp3!

I do not have Facebook, no twitter account, in fact no social media accounts, virtually no internet footprint and now I am free from a very specific vendor.

I feel liberated!!!!
While I'd not necessarily endorse everything in there, it's an interesting set of comments to be used to start a thread over there and possibly food for thought. This by a musician too: the other area of creativity that Apple are considered to serve.
 
ancient_mariner said:
  • Freedom from bloody iTunes and the limited license of music
  • Freedom from the non upgradeable macbook (that also broke down at horrific cost!)
  • Freedom from iCloud and the lack of backup space unless I buy more space
  • Freedom from only apple having all my contact and calendar data

Nokia Lumia, gmail account, laptop, dropbox - sorted. Very simple to set up, huge flexibilty, low cost.

Actually going to start buying music on CD again or Mp3!
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i'll actually defend apple here i think, most of those arguments are full of holes.

itunes - really, theres nothing much wrong with it. so dont buy your music through it, i dont.
broken macbook - as someone else said ALWAYS buy applecare.
icloud - subjective, 5gb free limit is fine unless you start dumping tonnes of video on it.
apple having data - and then goes on to say they switched to google.... AHAHAHAHA, google are worse than apple at personal data collection.
buying cd or mp3 - nothing to stop you doing that then importing to itunes.
 
neil_g said:
i'll actually defend apple here i think, most of those arguments are full of holes.
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And indeed they are - I did say I didn't endorse everything in there. :LOL:

But it was also interesting to see that for some people, moving away from Apple brings a similar sense of freedom as those that move away from Windows. Most of the time one sees posts in the opposite direction, probably because windows is the majority product and just a few people can afford to 'escape'.
 
neil_g said:
thats not to say that a decent windows based box is unreliable.
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I know... My machine is 2 years old now... hasn't even crashed once. I have had applications crash, but the underlying OS has never crashed, and it's over clocked to 4.7GHz. My server has been up for 48 days straight. The only reason it was rebooted 48 days ago was an update that required a reboot. I'm quite confident that if I didn't require security updates, I could have had it powered up since it was built 3 years ago.


No... that's not what I was suggesting... but the big plus of PCs is their ability to be upgraded cheaply, which means getting in there and getting your hands dirty.

Then there's the whole issue of PCs being more susceptible to virus and malicious software (not that Macs are invulnerable). Careless use of a PC by a novice will result in a bloated, slow infected machine eventually. PCs are fragile in this respect.

I prefer PCs. My current machine shames Mac Pros, and cost less than half the price... but if I knew absolutely nothing about computers, and had no interest in them, I could see the attraction in paying more for a Mac pro.

I have to say though.... as a user of both systems (Mac at work... PC at home) that Mac OS is not as good as Windows 7 or Windows 8. Using Mac OS is an exercise in frustration sometimes.


My advice... use them both.. make up your own mind... buy whichever suits you best.
 
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ST4 said:
Who here uses Aperature 3? Its Mac only. For PS or LR doesn't matter what you use?
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I really like Aperture 3.0 and at £45 it's a bargain. The RAW file slider and filter controls work well. It's a brilliant package.

I do switch between CS6 and Aperture quite a bit. The only down side to Aperture is that it won't do layers. In my opinion it's better than Lightroom 5 which I have tried. I'm looking forward to the next release of Aperture


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums
 
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koolerbuy said:
You will get a more powerful Windows based machine than a Mac for the same money. Such as LENOVO.
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LOL


Just got brand new iMacs at work.... they're as shiny as ever.
 
Not sure why the laughing at Lenovo. Their computers are bloody good and their support is light years ahead of Apple.
 
I was laughing at more powerful. They do some pretty high end dual CPU workstations.. sure, even with Quadra cards, but they're Mac Pro money in most cases. Their normal desktop range is a bit weak in the graphics dept., and their all in ones are actually more expensive than an iMac. Good laptops though.

There are quite a few specialist PC companies out there who can build a more powerful PC for less, using better components too, and offer after sales support.

The beauty of a PC is you don't really need all that much support. Graphics card fails.... rip it out, fit a new one etc. If the card is under warranty, RMA it, get a new one... fit it yourself.

I've never considered Apple's support to be that great anyway, so no idea why that's anyone;s benchmark.
 
inkiboo said:
Not sure why the laughing at Lenovo. Their computers are bloody good and their support is light years ahead of Apple.
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Aye and rather expensive too!
 
I wouldn't hesitate in buying another Lenovo thinkpad, amazingly well-built zero problems in countless years for both of my T-Series, combine that with the dock and its a real business machine, even gaming with the hybrid graphics solutions
 
Blank_Canvas said:
I really like Aperture 3.0 and at £45 it's a bargain. The RAW file slider and filter controls work well. It's a brilliant package.

I do switch between CS6 and Aperture quite a bit. The only down side to Aperture is that it won't do layers. In my opinion it's. In my opinion it's better than Lightroom 5 which I have tried. I'm looking forward to the next release of Aperture


Sent from my iPhone using Talk Photography Forums
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I've never worked with PS. With App 3 you get brushes for dodge/burn/selective sharpen/structure and you can use silver efx or colour efx for further edits if not happy. When you do this you keep the original RAW, a JPEG of the edit and a TIFF once you edit in colour/silver fx.

I've created all mine using this tool. Like you, cannot wait for Aperature 4.
 
I've used PCs since the 80's and have built several either for myself, family members or friends. Have had a number of laptops, some company machines and some of my own. Spent many hours writing software, authoring documents, playing games, editing photographs, creating presentations, recording and editing music. Have used MS-DOS and all versions of windows up to Win 7.

Last summer I decide it was time for a change and bought an iMac 27. I'm enjoying it very much. The screen is brilliant and it has been completely flawless so far. The Magic Trackpad option is a great addition..

Updated to Mavericks yesterday. Tried Aperture and didn't like it as much as LR. So I have Office for Mac, Lr5, PSE11, Luminance HDR plus a few other miscellaneous programmes..

Both platforms can be great. I've never really understood why there is so much angst. Then again, Canon vs Nikon seems to generate similar 'discussion'. I guess we just can't help ourselves sometimes.
 
ST4 said:
I've never worked with PS. With App 3 you get brushes for dodge/burn/selective sharpen/structure and you can use silver efx or colour efx for further edits if not happy. When you do this you keep the original RAW, a JPEG of the edit and a TIFF once you edit in colour/silver fx.

I've created all mine using this tool. Like you, cannot wait for Aperature 4.
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Why are people comparing a RAW worflow tool with a high end retouching tool?

Photoshop can not be compared to Lightroom or Aperture. Different software for different uses.

Lightroom/Aperture are for RAW adjustment and very basic retouching.

Photoshop is for complex retouching/manipulation and layered composite work.
 
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