MAC Pro or PC for a DAW?

[SubFunk]

mac (core audio) makes the music sound better... with a win machine (asio) it's impossible to obtain professional results.

never thought that stoopid can be funny. well you always learn something new, don't you.

[Tone Deft]

mac (core audio) makes the music sound better... with a win machine (asio) it's impossible to obtain professional results.

never thought that stoopid can be funny. well you always learn something new, don't you.

take it easy on the guy, he's just a mac user.

[SubFunk]

, give and take.

but esky i seriously owe you a beer, for making my day and probably the whole next month, every morning when i get up i will think of this thread (and what you wrote) and have a smile on my face... that will get me with utter joy through the whole day... THANK YOU!!!

[3phase]

PC: Best deal when on a budget, easiest to get and find technical help. King of software,

thats actualy true..all the pc guys i know have the complete waves bundles..everything from native and, and, and, ..
And they havent payed penny for that... sometimes i feel a bit handicaped with a mac and just the few plug ins i can afford..however.. macs run pretty good together with hardware..and hardware is cheaper than plugs theese days.. and you know what..when i sell hardware again i get hard money... ever tried to sell used software?

[SubFunk]

PC: Best deal when on a budget, easiest to get and find technical help. King of software,

thats actualy true..all the pc guys i know have the complete waves bundles..everything from native and, and, and, ..
And they havent payed penny for that...

yup, around here all the (private) PC users are heavy cracked software users, absolute truth.

it says a lot.

and usually people argue with me that they don't buy a mac because it is not as easy to get hold of cracked software, with a PC they have already a friend that has a list of... they can get easy hold of.

[Donnie]

Ill admit, aside from rob papens subboombass I have never purchased a piece of music software I didnt pirate first. I just dont believe in paying buttloads of money for crap Im not positive I need

Ive been this way since the BBS days, im a 'oldschool' pirate...try and learn before you buy. I wont deny that much of the population nowadays doesnt share this mindset, however.

Of course, I have plenty of mac versions for all my mac buddies too. I also offer emotional and technical support when there macs have problems lol.

[SubFunk]

^^^ well, yes... i don't think anyone has never used a crack (i think those who claim are liars, too)

what i mean is that it is an often heard argument (at least here with people i know in flesh and blood) to go PC, the easier ability to get hold of more variation of software, they don't have to pay for...

i am not the police, i personally don't care about cracks, i only wanted to point out what kind of reasons for a purchase having an influence for real. that says a lot, though...

[H20nly]

(and that live8 is a mess is abletons fault not that of OSX)

whose fault is it that OS X is having issues?

I blame Ableton, or Microsoft on Wednesdays.

[ze2be]

Mac: hard to get support

Wouldn't agree with you on this point. I have had the best experiences with Apple support for every Apple product I have ever owned.

3 pages already!

Ive had 3 macs and 5 PCs. Since about 2004 only PCs. But I still support my parents Macs. My comments are based on personal experiences though. But you cant deny that there's a lot more help to find on the web in regard to PCs. That said, the apps we use the most, are identical on both platforms. (Ableton, Adobe, Firefox, etc)

Over time, depending on the type of job I have, I use PCs or Macs for periods. When I worked as a designer, in a big company, I earned good money, and the Mac came naturally in that environment. Now days im rather self employed, and PCs are just a natural selection regarding budget and work flow. With a low budget, I can afford maintaining 2 top notch computers: A laptop and a desktop.

[oblique strategies]

But you cant deny that there's a lot more help to find on the web in regard to PCs.

I'll have to take your word on that, I don't do much searching for PC help

I will say this: that Apple's online help is a bit of a joke, I can find more direct info by doing a general search online.

But whenever I've had a hardware problem, Apple just fixed it or replaced it. Never a hassle. And they are quick!

[Tone Deft]

But you cant deny that there's a lot more help to find on the web in regard to PCs.

there are easily more max/msp creations for mac than PC, this is the one thing that might get me to switch. not that I'm a huge max/msp user but Live and max are the only non-generic apps I really use at home.

mostly I just turn the box on, click on the Live icon and go. I don't really care about the OS as long as it works and both do. I also don't want to learn a new OS, how fcuking boring is that?



safe to say we're being trolled by some idiot.

[3phase]

But you cant deny that there's a lot more help to find on the web in regard to PCs.

and PCs are just a natural selection regarding budget and work flow. With a low budget, I can afford maintaining 2 top notch computers: A laptop and a desktop.

you defently need more help.. my pc cant be switched off by software anymore.. have to pul the plug... happened after 3 month of use.. without connecting to the internet.

on the other side my old titanium laptop.. running on 10.4 for many years now without issues...

Are there pc´s out there that run for years on public internet hotspots and asia travel without issues?

And i really cant follow the price argument... exept for the software side of the game..

a decend pc laptop is even more expensiv than a mac and same apllies to towers..

if you go for the best pc tower you can get its not cheaper than a mac...

you cant compare apples with tomatos...

of cause an top notch most actual apple tower is more expensiv than a budget selfbuild pc..



so that you can do it yourself makes pc cheaper..but thats actually just what makes them less reliable... or you become an expert.. spending a few years learning the secrets of bulding your own pc..grow out of your overclocking and system tuning phase... having trashed a few systems up to that point...


when i see how many cards and pieces flying around in pc households..every bit and piece cheap..but in the sum? and all the time? time is money..

i dont think apples are so expensiv in the end.. just go for the last generation model when the new ones come and never buy a winter apple...

there is absolutly no need for music production to have the fastest actual machines...
my little macbook is fast enough to record 16 tracks on logic while having ableton running as player... and this is a model you get for 300 euros by now...

anyway.. there are drawbacks..the new models dont have a firewire port.. i really hate apple for allways abandon important ports before theire time.. that actually makes apples expesiv.. that you constantly need new interfaces...

[Donnie]

^^^ well, yes... i don't think anyone has never used a crack (i think those who claim are liars, too)

what i mean is that it is an often heard argument (at least here with people i know in flesh and blood) to go PC, the easier ability to get hold of more variation of software, they don't have to pay for...

i am not the police, i personally don't care about cracks, i only wanted to point out what kind of reasons for a purchase having an influence for real. that says a lot, though...

True true. Software availability is a valid factor. I dont think when it comes to software its ALL about cracks necessarily though, you have to consider all the "pc only" stuff too like fruityloops (for example, most notable for me off the top of my head since its something ive been using for years as a creative tool). Sure you can dual boot and all that, but that's a pain in the ass especially if you rewire that kind of stuff. It may not hard to do, but its an interrupt in the workflow. Bottom line is that less software choices are available for the mac overall, but the odds are better that the stuff that is available has been tested well.

[dothedru22]

This is from another thread I posted on. Here's my 2cents on it.

Hey guys. I had a couple people message me on this board and also calling my bluff on the i7 build.

http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MC2 ... TM3NTAxNDA
$799.00

i7 build. Compatible with most hackintosh pre built kernels. http://www.insanelymac.com/forum/index. ... pic=195248 (this is just the easiest one to setup)

http://secure.newegg.com/WishList/Publi ... r=17773807

total $746. Shipping typically going to come out to $756. Snow leopard $30

Total $786

Easily put a better graphics card and hard drive for just a tad more. Also that board I put in the setup is awesome and 100% full supports mac OSX.

edit:

Silly me. I forgot the dang power supply. Personally you could go on newegg and pull the cheapest PSU and still be 50 times better than whatever Apple will put in it. But I'm going to put this one in there. It's a very nice, and highly reliable psu. I have it in one of my builds.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.a ... &Tpk=450vx

It's $69.

So $856. You could pull at $30 - $40 psu and still be ok. So it put me right over the limit. This doesn't take in account that I didn't do any combo deals. This is straight buying which I would never recommend. There's always combo deals. Especially with PSU's which I didn't do. Still a way better system than the mac mini.

I could easily build a Nehalem based PC computer that could run MacOSX flawlessly for less than half of what you payed for a mac pro. I mean $2500 for 3gb of ram and an xeon. That's outrageous. 1 640gb hard drive. I could raid 0 2 750gb with 2 1tb's in raid 1 for that price. Just get a nehalem based i7 920. It's the same freaking thing. It just doesn't have dual qpi capabilities. Overclock it to 4ghz(they do this easy) and call it a day. And you can overclock it because pc's have bios. gt120. Yuck. I could put in a ati 5870 for that price. Anyway build a pc for $2500 and I can tell you the parts to get that is guaranteed to run MacOSX.

[3phase]

I could easily build a Nehalem based PC computer that could run MacOSX flawlessly for less than half of what you payed for a mac pro. I mean $2500 for 3gb of ram and an xeon. That's outrageous. 1 640gb hard drive. I could raid 0 2 750gb with 2 1tb's in raid 1 for that price. Just get a nehalem based i7 920. It's the same freaking thing. It just doesn't have dual qpi capabilities. Overclock it to 4ghz(they do this easy) and call it a day. And you can overclock it because pc's have bios. gt120. Yuck. I could put in a ati 5870 for that price. Anyway build a pc for $2500 and I can tell you the parts to get that is guaranteed to run MacOSX.

As said before, no selfbuilding..
Go in a decend computer shop and buy a professional ready build xenon pc.. how much cheaper as a mac is it than?