Mac Pro or PC

nerwin · Mar 4, 2017

A Mac is a PC by the way, PC stands for Personal Computer.

Anyways, it's all preference. They all do the same thing. It's like Nikon vs Canon, they both take the same damn picture!

Since I went to school for computer hardware, I've always used Windows PCs, and some Linux systems as well. So I'm very familiar with the hardware and I'm quite good at repairing them. I know and understand Windows quite well. I never personally bought a computer from a store, I've always built them for me and for customers. Besides photography, repairing computers (whether hardware or software related), building them and solving problems that Geek Squad coulden't fixed is another hobby of mine, well I should say job because I typically get for paid for it lol, but it's still fun to me!

I have personal issues with Apple and so I don't use their products anymore but I have tremendous respect for Apple (when Steve Jobs was alive and kicking anyways, he was a great guy), I think they make great products (albeit a little overpriced for me) but great hardware and customer support.

I'll often get asked for advice by friends, family and customers on what computer they should buy and depending on their budget and or requirements, I'll often recommend Macs over Windows PCs. I might be crazy because I'll lose out on getting a job but I always give my honest opinion. I don't try to steer people one way or another, so If I think this particular person would benefit from a Mac than that's what I tell them to get but I let them know that I won't be able to support them if issues arise.

I think it's absolutely ludicrous saying you can't be a professional photographer and not use Macs. I know PLENTY of professional photographers who use Windows and Linux systems for photography purposes. What operating system you run, does NOT dictate what kind of photographer you are.

It's all preference!!

plugsnpixels · Mar 4, 2017

Can we discuss politics or religion instead? Kidding, I love these computing debates, and I think my perspective on the matter has moderated over the years.

Most angles have already been covered in the comments above, so I'll just tell my personal story.

I've been a photographer since the '70s. In the '80s I was first exposed to DOS PC's while going to college and mainly did word processing (and not much of that). I later used 286's for email but absolutely hated them (so slow; it was quicker to hard-shut them down than wait for them to do so themselves).

Working at a college in the late '80s and very early '90s I was exposed to desktop publishing on the first Macs (probably 128k) but it never dawned on me to learn how to do it myself for some reason (I was mainly a darkroom person at the time). In grad school about 1992 I took a yearbook production class on said Macs and actually did some basic graphics AND WAS HOOKED.

I learned Photoshop 2.5 on my own and never looked back. I must admit digital photography felt like a threat at first, but I have long since come to embrace it and haven't done darkroom work since 1997.

I've been working in higher ed IT since 1998 supporting Macs exclusively, beginning with OS 7.6 and currently using the latest macOS. The hardware has been very reliable, at least since we got rid of the eMacs long ago... I support everything from older iMacs to the Mac Pros (trashcan model).

That all said, I enjoy tinkering with "the other" OSs (Windows 10 and elementary OS Linux) just because I can. I run Windows as a virtual machine for when I need it (I honestly can't imagine using it full-time though, even though there is a feature here and there that I appreciate) and Linux now and then just for fun. Which makes a good point: If you have a Mac, you also have a PC, but not vice-versa (at least not as easily).

I own a triple-boot, 2011-era i7/2600k, 16 gigs RAM Hackintosh (Apple G5 case with PC parts inside) running OS-X El Capitan, Windows 10 and Linux, which is my fastest computer ;-). Ugly but fast. Otherwise I use a 2014(?) fusion iMac for my main desktop at work (not mine), and a 2013 MacBook Air at home that was given to me by a colleague (she said something about a cat and a large drink which rendered the screen useless but it's clean inside and out somehow and works great closed-lid with an external monitor and wireless keyboard).

To sum it all up, my attitude is thus:

OP, wait and see what Apple announces. Do not buy a v1 Mac Pro new, or any other Mac new for that matter. While they are sleek and gorgeous and perform reliably and everybody including myself loves them, they are overpriced for what you get compared to generic PCs. Look for upgradable used Macs or even refurbished from Apple (save 20%, I think).

You want an SSD hard drive for booting and apps, no less. HDD for storage is OK. Adding RAM to older iMacs is easy, upgrading the innards not so much.

Think about building a Hackintosh and get the best of all worlds (fast, cheaper hardware and your choice of operating systems). It's not easy, but it works.

And yes, Adobe CC looks pretty much exactly the same on macOS and Windows, so you will survive either way. Outside of that, consider the other differences between OS's as described in posts above.

table1349 · Mar 4, 2017

plugsnpixels said:
While they are sleek and gorgeous and perform reliably and everybody including myself loves them, they are overpriced for what you get compared to generic PCs.

This is the myth that seem to be perpetually told. When you compare apples to apples the prices are quite comparable. Especially when compare the exact same components.

A dell 15" laptop with machined aluminum case is $1900.00. A Mac Book Pro 15" is $2200 dollars. Not that far apart. The dell does not have a retina display, rather it is a 4k display 1920X1080 native resolution. The Retina 5K display has a native resolution is 2880X1800. Something that Dell does not produce. There are not a whole lot of aluminum cased windows laptops out there. Thing is the aluminum case on a MBP is part of the heat dispersal system of the machine as well as being great for protecting the machine overall.

Granted the one thing you can't do with Apple OS is install it on any old machine built with the cheapest parts you can find. Windows will install on about anything as long as it powers up, be it decent quality parts or the cheapest junk you can find.

birdbonkers84 · Mar 7, 2017

I would find out why it hangs when opening LR etc before splashing out, then problem might be just a minor upgrade. I built my own pc via my tech friends and I have no regrets...I use a Mac at work and I hate it, but works work!

Trever1t · Mar 7, 2017

Coull3d said:
I would find out why it hangs when opening LR etc before splashing out, then problem might be just a minor upgrade. I built my own pc via my tech friends and I have no regrets...I use a Mac at work and I hate it, but works work!

I never said it did that, or at least that wasn't what I was trying to say. It occasionally feels like it's overworking trying to manipulate files from my D810 during edit. Slow to respond when doing taxing work like liquefy. It's a sporadic situation..

BrentC · Mar 7, 2017

Trever1t said:
Coull3d said:

I would find out why it hangs when opening LR etc before splashing out, then problem might be just a minor upgrade. I built my own pc via my tech friends and I have no regrets...I use a Mac at work and I hate it, but works work!

Click to expand...

I never said it did that, or at least that wasn't what I was trying to say. It occasionally feels like it's overworking trying to manipulate files from my D810 during edit. Slow to respond when doing taxing work like liquefy. It's a sporadic situation..

It looks like processing and memory is ok. You will see a huge difference replacing your HD with SSD.

birdbonkers84 · Mar 7, 2017

Trever1t said:
Coull3d said:

I would find out why it hangs when opening LR etc before splashing out, then problem might be just a minor upgrade. I built my own pc via my tech friends and I have no regrets...I use a Mac at work and I hate it, but works work!

Click to expand...

I never said it did that, or at least that wasn't what I was trying to say. It occasionally feels like it's overworking trying to manipulate files from my D810 during edit. Slow to respond when doing taxing work like liquefy. It's a sporadic situation..

I ment to write "why it hangs while working in LR" like you mention in the OP. I have 32gb of ram and a slower processor than you and I have 0 problems working in any of my adobe products or even my 3d software. Only difference is I run all my creative software on a SSD.

Trever1t · Mar 7, 2017

Yeah, maybe all I should do is upgrade my memory, hard drives and video card and get a killer new monitor.

BananaRepublic · Mar 8, 2017

[QUOTE=" trash can that Dyson would make.[/QUOTE]

Dyson would make a digital trash can. #bogus gismo #marketing ploy.

Mysecutage · Mar 12, 2017

I'm for Mac. It's a pleasure to edit photos on its wide screen and correct the drawbacks of an image.

ashleykaryl · Mar 12, 2017

I do all my work on a mid 2010 Mac Pro with 32 gigs of ram. That's the 8 Core 2.4Ghz, which includes multithreading, making it a virtual 16 core machine. Recently I added a PCI based SSD, since the old SATA was clearly the weak link and this has made a huge difference on certain tasks.

It's a fantastic workhorse that is still very comparable with some high spec recent machines in terms of outright speed when using multi-core enabled software, but also brilliant for expansion and troubleshooting, because of the easy access to components that is not possible with computers like the iMac. I am not so convinced by the new cylinder style Mac Pros, so I'll likely be holding on to this machine for as long as possible.

Are there negatives? The built in speakers are worse than useless. It has no built in webcam and you can't easily carry it to another room, but for reliable heavy lifting it's been a great machine. I can work on big files in Photoshop, while rendering in Maya and half a dozen other tasks all day long without the slightest problem.

The only times I struggle a bit are on apps where the developer has not yet made the software multicore-core enabled. There aren't many, but one in particular is really tedious. I can run Windows 10 without problems on one of the four internal SATA drives and I have space to add more SSD drives.

I occasionally have to work with Windows for specific tasks, but for photography I choose Macs without question.