e.rose
Been spending a lot of time on here!
- Joined
- Jan 27, 2011
- Messages
- 4,789
- Reaction score
- 1,985
- Location
- Nashville, Tn
- Website
- www.emilymcgonigle.com
- Can others edit my Photos
- Photos NOT OK to edit
I LIKE BACON.
Follow along with the video below to see how to install our site as a web app on your home screen.
Note: This feature currently requires accessing the site using the built-in Safari browser.
But you have to wonder - is this too good toi be true? Perhaps fanboys will say it's the "Apple Tax" but I'm just not convinced by that argument, if it's not going into an Apple Tax, the only conclusion one can make is in it's internal components.
What kind of thermal management does it have? Did they opt for the more expensive heat pipe, or a less efficient but cheaper heat sink? How well will the keyboard survive a spill? Who built the hard drive, the fans, the optical drive? What kind of technical specifications were used in it's manufacturing, did they use high end electronic components, adhesives and connectors, or ones built to lower thermal tolerances? What is it's environmental impact, is it RHoC compliant? How much testing was put into it's development before manufacture?
When I'm buying Chinese studio gear, I don't go for the cheap one with all the bells and whistles, I go for the ones with fewer features but cost more. This is because I suspect that, while the less expensive monolight may have a digital display and greater wattage, they must have chimped out elsewhere, in places where it really matters.
There is a lot to consider - and a lot of it cannot really be answered, but on the flip side there is a price point that you can just justify the lower cost as it being a "disposable" machine.
Get a PC laptop and invest in a really nice monitor. The price of both wouldn't come close to a Mac, plus editing on even the biggest laptop is a pain.
But you have to wonder - is this too good toi be true? Perhaps fanboys will say it's the "Apple Tax" but I'm just not convinced by that argument, if it's not going into an Apple Tax, the only conclusion one can make is in it's internal components.
What kind of thermal management does it have? Did they opt for the more expensive heat pipe, or a less efficient but cheaper heat sink? How well will the keyboard survive a spill? Who built the hard drive, the fans, the optical drive? What kind of technical specifications were used in it's manufacturing, did they use high end electronic components, adhesives and connectors, or ones built to lower thermal tolerances? What is it's environmental impact, is it RHoC compliant? How much testing was put into it's development before manufacture?
When I'm buying Chinese studio gear, I don't go for the cheap one with all the bells and whistles, I go for the ones with fewer features but cost more. This is because I suspect that, while the less expensive monolight may have a digital display and greater wattage, they must have chimped out elsewhere, in places where it really matters.
There is a lot to consider - and a lot of it cannot really be answered, but on the flip side there is a price point that you can just justify the lower cost as it being a "disposable" machine.
I've never been a heavy laptop user however in my job I had to purchase and support classrooms full of Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Let's look at that Apple tax using me as an example. When I retired from full-time teaching 4 years ago the plan was that I would continue to teach part-time for the foreseeable future. I do that now on multiple campuses. Without the access that full-time faculty status provides I learned after the first year that I needed a laptop. So 3 years ago I bought one and I've used it heavily since. My choice at the time given my part-time teacher pay was the $1000.00 13.3 inch Macbook 2.4 GHz core duo with 2 GB ram, 250 GB (5400 rpm) hard drive, built-in wifi and NVIDIA graphics or a non-mac.
I spent $300.00 less than the Macbook and bought a Toshiba A665 satellite. Let's stand that up against the Macbook. But first let me say that the A665 is still working great and has never given me a stitch of trouble. It runs Win7 and runs all my photo software including Capture One 7, DPP, Adobe CS6, Photo Ninja, Raw Therapee, LightZone, Oloneo and some misc. stuff. With it's 8 GB of ram it runs Capture One 7 and CS6 simultaneously. That Macbook with 4 GB ram would have croaked at the attempt.
My A665 has a 2.4 GHz i3 core processor -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came standard with 4GB ram -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 was expandable to 8GB ram -- beat the Macbook which was only expandable to 4.
My A665 came with a 16 inch display -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with a 500 GB hard drive -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 hard drive spins at 7200 rpm -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with Harman Kardon speakers -- swat the Macbook.
My A665 came with a standard external HDMI port (really handy to connect to external display at home and in classroom) -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an Express/card slot so I could for example add USB 3 right now -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an extended-life battery running the computer for over 5 hours -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an eSATA/USB port which is really nice because it will charge my USB devices while the A665 is powered off -- beat the Macbook.
And the list continues.
In every possible way, for $300.00 less, my Toshiba satellite beat that Macbook. Last year while I was upgrading my desktop and dragging my feet I used the A665 as my only computer connecting to my desktop display via that HDMI port. It ran every day, all day for three months and went twice a week to class. I expect I'll get a couple more years out of it.
I paid 1/3 less and got a whole lot more. It's an Apple tax. There's no way you're going to convince me that Toshiba is knocking out cheaper stuff or cutting corners that Apple isn't. There's one thing my A665 lacks -- it's not cool and neither am I. But I can run Capture One 7 and CS6 simultaneously; that's kinda cool.
Joe
But you have to wonder - is this too good toi be true? Perhaps fanboys will say it's the "Apple Tax" but I'm just not convinced by that argument, if it's not going into an Apple Tax, the only conclusion one can make is in it's internal components.
What kind of thermal management does it have? Did they opt for the more expensive heat pipe, or a less efficient but cheaper heat sink? How well will the keyboard survive a spill? Who built the hard drive, the fans, the optical drive? What kind of technical specifications were used in it's manufacturing, did they use high end electronic components, adhesives and connectors, or ones built to lower thermal tolerances? What is it's environmental impact, is it RHoC compliant? How much testing was put into it's development before manufacture?
When I'm buying Chinese studio gear, I don't go for the cheap one with all the bells and whistles, I go for the ones with fewer features but cost more. This is because I suspect that, while the less expensive monolight may have a digital display and greater wattage, they must have chimped out elsewhere, in places where it really matters.
There is a lot to consider - and a lot of it cannot really be answered, but on the flip side there is a price point that you can just justify the lower cost as it being a "disposable" machine.
I've never been a heavy laptop user however in my job I had to purchase and support classrooms full of Macbooks and Macbook Pros. Let's look at that Apple tax using me as an example. When I retired from full-time teaching 4 years ago the plan was that I would continue to teach part-time for the foreseeable future. I do that now on multiple campuses. Without the access that full-time faculty status provides I learned after the first year that I needed a laptop. So 3 years ago I bought one and I've used it heavily since. My choice at the time given my part-time teacher pay was the $1000.00 13.3 inch Macbook 2.4 GHz core duo with 2 GB ram, 250 GB (5400 rpm) hard drive, built-in wifi and NVIDIA graphics or a non-mac.
I spent $300.00 less than the Macbook and bought a Toshiba A665 satellite. Let's stand that up against the Macbook. But first let me say that the A665 is still working great and has never given me a stitch of trouble. It runs Win7 and runs all my photo software including Capture One 7, DPP, Adobe CS6, Photo Ninja, Raw Therapee, LightZone, Oloneo and some misc. stuff. With it's 8 GB of ram it runs Capture One 7 and CS6 simultaneously. That Macbook with 4 GB ram would have croaked at the attempt.
My A665 has a 2.4 GHz i3 core processor -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came standard with 4GB ram -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 was expandable to 8GB ram -- beat the Macbook which was only expandable to 4.
My A665 came with a 16 inch display -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with a 500 GB hard drive -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 hard drive spins at 7200 rpm -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with Harman Kardon speakers -- swat the Macbook.
My A665 came with a standard external HDMI port (really handy to connect to external display at home and in classroom) -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an Express/card slot so I could for example add USB 3 right now -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an extended-life battery running the computer for over 5 hours -- beat the Macbook.
My A665 came with an eSATA/USB port which is really nice because it will charge my USB devices while the A665 is powered off -- beat the Macbook.
And the list continues.
In every possible way, for $300.00 less, my Toshiba satellite beat that Macbook. Last year while I was upgrading my desktop and dragging my feet I used the A665 as my only computer connecting to my desktop display via that HDMI port. It ran every day, all day for three months and went twice a week to class. I expect I'll get a couple more years out of it.
I paid 1/3 less and got a whole lot more. It's an Apple tax. There's no way you're going to convince me that Toshiba is knocking out cheaper stuff or cutting corners that Apple isn't. There's one thing my A665 lacks -- it's not cool and neither am I. But I can run Capture One 7 and CS6 simultaneously; that's kinda cool.
Joe
That's nice, but does it run MacOS? And how much was your last Windows upgrade??
Oh, and BTW - I only have 2gb on my 2009 Macbook 5,1, and am only now starting to feel the crunch.
Then again, I don't use a lot of bloatware from Adobe and PhaseOne either. But I do run Reaper, Numerology and MainStage together routed together using CoreMIDI and Soundflower, I'm getting about 41ms latency but is otherwise not bad unless I use more than one Sculpture synth track.
Wonder why it is that the vast majority of people who use computers every day don't use the MacOS?
What matters for still photos is: CPU (multicores are not such a great help just yet in photo software for most actions), to a lesser extent GPU, and monitor.
Things that DON'T matter are: hard drive, keyboard and mouse, RAM (only if you're lazy and can't bother closing an image before moving onto the next one), audio speakers, battery life, your browser and office software, etc.