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wgp1987

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i have an inexpensive sony laptop im running photoshop with now. im sure that its not the best for photoshop editing. everyone i know says mac is the best for photography. then i have friends that are avid pc users. for the price of a mac mini i could buy a sick pc. if i go pc, should i look into a specific video card ? or should i just no worry about the "value" im getting with a mac and purchase one.
 
I'd say if you're used to a PC then stick with the devil you know, Macs are great for graphics pro's but personally I'd rather use PC, get a good monitor and max out the ram. I built my own 3 - 4 years back mainly for PS use and its still going great guns with minimal expense, no regrets and soon I'll do another for the same purpose. H
 
MAC has lost a lot over the years. Now, the only real difference between the two is the OS, since MAC is now running on Intel hardware. Before they went Intel, they fell way behind in the speed arena, too, as attested to by various testing in magazines and the like.
 
I'm going to have to strongly disagree with the two previous posters. Until last year I was a die hard PC user. At the behest of some other professionals in my area I switched to Mac. I can't stress more strongly that the difference between working on a Mac and working on a PC is massive.

Hardware numbers can be deceiving. A 1.8ghz computer running on one configuration can beat a 3ghz computer running another configuration in a benchmark. The numbers alone aren't enough to tell the whole story. But as the last poster said the only big difference between the two is the OS, but that's a significant difference. MacOS uses its hardware more efficiently than Windows does and that makes a very big difference in the computing experience.

Before I had my Mac, I had a sick computer that, on paper, took my Mac to school. But in practice, the Mac is much, much faster.

Anyway, if money won't allow, then a PC will do you fine. But if you can muster the cash, you'll have a better machine running longer better. You virtually never hear someone buy a mac and regret it. But you often hear people buy PC's and regret it.

Geez. I wonder if I've made my opinion clear! :p
 
all opinions are exactly my thought process. im aware of macs better OS running much smoother than vista. but i have a 2ghz 1gb ram vista running cs3 right now perfectly fine. my main concern i guess is that a few friends say that macs render color more acurately.but i figured id purchase a really good screen and video card and build a pc for less?
 
all opinions are exactly my thought process. im aware of macs better OS running much smoother than vista. but i have a 2ghz 1gb ram vista running cs3 right now perfectly fine. my main concern i guess is that a few friends say that macs render color more acurately.but i figured id purchase a really good screen and video card and build a pc for less?
Color renedition is a matter of the monitor being calibrated correctly. I have used booth and prefer Windows XP, Vista flat out blows to me. Im wait to see what Win 7 is like. You can build your own and, it is easy depending on your current case. I have been using the same case for 12 years now, only the parts change. If you build your own you can get XP to load on it.
 
Sounds to me like you ought to buy a decent monitor, a good calibrator, and about 3 more gigs of RAM. I know from experience that the color difference is not so vast that you'll see that it right out of the box. But a calibrator and good monitor can make a huge difference. And as far as performance goes, almost all consumer video cards are going to produce about the same result visually and in Photoshop almost no difference in speed. But RAM is cheap and it will make a massive difference in your computing experience.

Seems to me that you ought to stick with what you've got, for the most part.
 
Religious war.

Buy and use what you're comfortable with. Both are absolutely viable platforms with pros and cons to each.
 
As far as Mac vs PC....either one. They both have advantages and disadvantages.
The main thing is get a good LCD flat panel, graphics card, and boatloads of RAM. The rest is just icing on the cake.
 
There is zero difference between running photoshop on a mac and photoshop on a windows machine. The software is the same. The only difference is macs are pre-configured whereas windows machines give you excessive choice.

So heres the gist of it:
CPU - for image processing. Quad cores are good Lightroom makes perfect use of threading and photoshop does in many instances.
RAM - the more the better. 2GB absolute minimum. A single 16bit 10mpx image can easily start chewing the RAM as you're going through several layers.

The rest depends on if you want to use it for anything else.
 
Adobe puts the same interface on both so that a quick glance it is tough to tell Photoshop on a Mac vs Photoshop on a PC. I think the camera buying guide should apply here, buy what you can afford and play with it in the store.

On the geek side of things Creative Suite 4 can access more hardware resources like multi-core processors on a Vista 64 bit computer than on a Mac OS computer because of the programing tools used to develop the programs. So until Creative Suite 5 comes out PCs have the the edge (for Adobe products).
 
thanks everyone .. i have a 30d so my pics are only 8mp. my 1gb ram is ok for now i guess. i have only one more question then. can i calibrate the lcd on my laptop? and how would i? :mrgreen:
 
You can calibrate a laptop monitor. They all come with software that will guide you through the process. Some calibrators will do real time adjustments based on the changing light in your room. People say it's no good, but mine does it and I actually find it pretty helpful.

Anyway, here's one I hear good things about:
Datacolor - Global Leader in Color Management Solutions
 
Buy and use what you're comfortable with. Both are absolutely viable platforms with pros and cons to each.
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I agree totally. Go with what you can use.
 

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