PC vs the bite of the Apple

[Jeff16years]

yes, apple runs my studio and everything else i do. I started out using windows, then about 6 years ago i decided to stop the madness.

now my compouter is a useful tool, instead of something to fight with.

[Sid Viscous]

Several years ago I bought a Titanium Powerbook with an 800 mhz G4. It was my first "real" laptop to be used for music production and set me back about $2500. 4 months later I sold it for $1800 and bought a Toshiba for $1200. I have never looked back. 1 1/2 years ago I retired that machine (which still works great) and bought a CoreDuo based Toshiba that I am recording several full band records with 12-16 tracks live at any given time with hours upon hours of tracking and mixing several nights a week. Then when I'm done, I can play WoW or Halflife2 on it.

I prefer my Blackberry 7100 for a phone. It takes/makes calls and will do email in a pinch. Hell, if someone really needs me, they can call.

[The MPCist]

Yep, Apple here as well. I use it for all my studio work and office as well. Some of the people I know who run PCs are doing OK but they sure spend alot of time making their machines work whereas I guess I'd rather spend that time doing something else...

[amishsixstringe]

I only run PC. I build them...for very cheap. I have no problems with them at all. I actually run into way more problems running macs. I get that spinning wheel thing about 4 seconds after I touch the mouse usually. My 800 dollar computer can compete with a 2,500 dollar mac any day of the week.


Neil

[AllAboutTone]

Looks like this may be a half and half party, keep them coming....

[abell1234]

hate to be dull, but i use both. PC is faster for cheaper (i also build them and have no major issues) Apples are pricey and solid. I find that I spend more time on a PC than an Apple. I have no real problems with either. Windows runs fine on a stable machine, plus you can tweak the hell out it. I don't really get the whole 99% of computer problem are from PC, but thats just me

[drBill]

All mac's all the time.


Except for my Gigastudios though....

[TheRealRoach]

I'm a PC user for my studio although any freelance work as well is generally half and half PC and Mac split.

PC's generally running Cubase or Nuendo and Macs running Logic or PTHD

[AllAboutTone]

Originally Posted by abell1234

I don't really get the whole 99% of computer problem are from PC, but thats just me

Im sorry , i had to put some kind of percentage, to be honest its more like 100 percent, they are just to many PC users, i can only guess because they are cheap in price. My wife works at Boy Scouts of America and that is all i hear from there everyday, they had to replace every mother board in the company, like 40 total, thats bad....Im not basicing this off of their bad luck with PCs i seem to hear it everywhere, my brother has constant issues with PCs, and wait here is the biggest, everyone i know that has a PC gets viruses are bugs constant, i have never got a APPLE bug, not once.
Anyone ever got a virus on a Apple computer ?

[T_R_S]

Started using a Mac in 1986 in the studio (Digidesign Q Sheet).
Just installed 10.4.10 on a G3 B & W (c. 1999) ...
I wonder if Vista will work on my P133 in the closet?

[firby]

I used to use a PC but now I just wont do it. I learned on Logic and Bias Peak and Recycle on a mac. Now I am a brainwashed apple zombie. Once they got OSX more or less sorted I was pretty hooked.

[AllAboutTone]

Originally Posted by T_R_S

SI wonder if Vista will work on my P133 in the closet?

Im glad you brought that up TRS. vista is the worse thing i have been around in a long time, hated it in everyway. I think it was a bad idea just like the Macs when they released those damn queer looking color monitors in different shades of color (that was Apples low point), i could not retain myself sorry, please forgive me..

[samwinston123]

I have a self-built PC that's about 4 years old and doing great. The problem with PC's is that most people are buying them from the popular companies (Dell and HP) who use sub-par components. Also, they aren't checking the compatibility of their motherboard chipsets and firewire/usb chips with the audio hardware/software they are using. When I built my computer, I made sure to get a good Intel Chipset that is compatible with PT. I haven't had a single problem. Of course the rest of the issues are due to people not having their antivirus and/or firewall software working properly.

I also have a G4 iBook that I do all of my remote recording on. I think Apples are in general good computers and I have no problem working with them, but they are ridiculously expensive and up until the switch to Intel they were agonizingly slow. I have also had first hand experience with their complete inability to launch a product without major design flaws (aluminum Powerbook). There may in general be fewer problems compared to the average PC, but when there is a problem, it's a doozy, and there is generally no way to fix it yourself. I had a friend who bought one of the single processor G5 towers a little while after they came out. He couldn't get Protools to work for more than about 1 minute at a time without having a serious error. He was on the phone with both Apple and Digidesign for several months before he finally got it to work. In the meantime he was back to using his old POS Dell.

If you can afford an Apple, that's great, but a well built and competently operated PC will be just as reliable and cost half as much.

[AllAboutTone]

Sam, i have noticed that most ever reply on here that are having great reports about PCs, you guys are building them and know your stuff, thats good because it seems like most of the stock PCs makers DO NOT, I think Dell is the worse.

I do not want to hi-jack my own thread but you get what you pay for, thats why i buy Honda and Toyota in cars, they cost more but they are like the battery bunny, they keep on clicking and clicking.
Apple............
I think the PC should have had a another "C" in it. Personal Computer Crash. PCC

[abell1234]

SAM is right you can build a solid fast as snot PC for a fraction of a MAC pro, buying a computer these days from a company like dell makes no sense unless its in bulk and for an office. When you build a PC you also get the added bonus of being able to upgrade at any time for even less money (e.g. you can swap a motherboard, ram and processor, while keeping your case, power supply HD etc) MACs are even more expensive to upgrade than they are to buy (not quite). Its like $500 for a dual 1.xx G4 processor. In the PC world $500 will get you the fastest intel quad blah blah blah, i just bored myself to sleep

[abell1234]

[rectifier]

Apple for music making and useful stuff

pc for games..

[lowfreq33]

Originally Posted by samwinston123

The problem with PC's is that most people are buying them from the popular companies (Dell and HP) who use sub-par components.

No, the problem with PC's is that they run Windows.

[AllAboutTone]

Have you ever noticed if you drop by a Goodwill are Salvation Army store that they have shelfs full of PC computers and monitors but i don't see a stack of Apples, not even one.......what is the reason ? i wonder, no one trashes their Mac.
Im off to bed guys east coast here, long day on Friday....
Keep up the post !!!!

[T_R_S]

Originally Posted by abell1234

SAM is right you can build a solid fast as snot PC for a fraction of a MAC pro,

2 X 3 Ghz Xeon Quads are going to cost $2500.00 alone.

http://www.upgradebay.com/c1_itemdet...emid=168724011

[abell1234]

Originally Posted by lowfreq33

No, the problem with PC's is that they run Windows.

I am not sure if you are joking or not but I don't agree. Windows XP is a fine piece'o'shite os, but dells are boxes of junk. XP is blue collar computing, OSX is not. OSX hides a lot of stuff from you.

[abell1234]

Originally Posted by T_R_S

2 X 3 Ghz Xeon Quads are going to cost $2500.00 alone.

345323-B21 INTEL XEON-MP 3.0GHZ 4MB CACHE PROCESSOR KIT P/n: 345323-B21 -HP/COMPAQ ORIGINALS

Yeah but the MAC pro is like 4 grand with that processor

[LewisWu]

eh... i worked at goodwill once... the reason you don't see many macs on the shelves, is because they have a special box where they put electronics that they don't think will sell in store. I remember seeing macs... most of them looked just as pathetic as the pc's that came in... especially the ones where the cup holder was coated in coffee

[aussie_techie]

as usual a lot of crap coming from the pc haters camp, i guess its same people who hate windows for years but when when they can suddenly run it on a mac love the idea then go back to back to bashing it just because its not iWindows. although its all the same hardware now so whats the difference between a mac and pc besides the color of the case. its a windows/OSX debate these days and they both have issues. in the past i always ran 'PC' windows for audio, unix systems for other apps. now im running a mac book because OSX is based on BSD s i can run most of what i need on a single system and needed a new notebook. when the new model mac books come out they were cheaper than buying an equivalent windows system and then the troubles of making a duel bot for bsd wasnt worth it, now the cost difference is harder to justify. the cost of a mac pro jsut isn justifiable for most people and the limitations of an imac or mac mini just take them out of the professional audio market so unless apple bring out a single socket tower my next desktop will be a pc. sure its nice to have the hardware config worked out for you with a mac but whats a bit of research to make sure you are getting the right hardware in the system, whats a little bit of knowledge about windows when thats what your using everyday, do most mac users know much about OSX? you wouldnt use a tape machine without knowing how to use it or how to align it etc, every professional must know their tools.

saying that you dont see many used macs for sale is nly logical because they dont sell the volume for them to be many around. the used computer market easily has 5% of macs.

[lowfreq33]

Originally Posted by abell1234

I am not sure if you are joking or not but I don't agree. Windows XP is a fine piece'o'shite os, but dells are boxes of junk. XP is blue collar computing, OSX is not. OSX hides a lot of stuff from you.

Not joking, I just really don't like windows.

[Mihaly]

PC here, and yes I built my own. Run SOnar with lots of soft synths (which often have problems, especially the French ones). This PC has not crashed ever since I built it 15 months ago. In fact neither did the previous one or the one I use at work - a mass produced HP Compaq.

I originally bought a PC because a. it was better value, and b. Apples seemed to be bought because they were fashionable and I hate following fashion (perhaps thats why I love SONAR). Have never regretted it.

also fuels my GAS - can buy faster CPUs or RAM, bigger hard disks etc...

I have found XP to be solid on all the PCs I have run it on. Of course if I had gone the Apple route I wouldn't have so many microphones to play with....

[Farshad]

PCs all the time. To me apple is more of a "hip" consumer product (toy?) which is meant to be "cool". Sorry but whenever I see a lineup of kids for a new Apple product (= i-something) I feel good I am a PC user!

I have seen both PC and Mac crash, being slow, and etc. To me these are not the key or selling points. Especially when I observed Apple began using Intel chips that Apple used to call them bad! LOL

Again, all IMHO!!!

[AudioFocus]

I was a PC user all my life until about 3 years ago. Started with a Commodore 64 all the way up. I like PCs. The only problem is the upkeep. I can run a Mac with 1/4 of the upkeep work of a PC, that's all. But my objective opinion is that it doesn't matter what you run. Just run it well.

[Daniel Antix]

I use pc, I gre up with pcs. used to take my pc to friends houses on weekends and play games networked etc. so i stuck with pcs cause i know them so well, i can build them, upgrade etc.

at uni i used macs, i know macs are great but i had nothing but bad experiences on them.

these days i dont think there is much difference between pc and mac, both can do the same thing (unless you wanna run logic) it's not like in the 90's where all the audio based apps were mainly on mac.

i can't stand however, people who use macs, who have never used a pc and all they do is rag on pcs when they don't know what they are talking about. that really annoys me.

one observation of mine, i'm not saying this is the way it is but most people i know who own a mac know how to do what they need to do, mix a song, graphic design what ever... but as soon as there is a problem they're lost. if they need an upgrade it goes back to the shop, they can't install new apps, can't get a network happening etc. i guess a lot of people are like that with computers, just there are more users (around me) so of course some can troubleshoot themselves.


aurgh sorry for the scattered thoughts, it's been a long week. mixed too many commercials and jingles, 5pm on a friday and all i want... no need is a beer and i still have a 90min drive through the traffic ahead of me.