Well, my pc is dead and I’m using an old computer from my dad office. This week I’ll sell my old uni and will have some money to buy a new computer.
First: Mac or PC? I want to edit my videos, pics and my band songs… basically that… Obviously I will use to post on the forum and MSN
Macs are really expensive here compare to PC’s. I have three options in this moment, one is really cheap, the other two are expensive, but maybe my mom will pay too.
The Mac options:
Mac Mini: 80gb, 1gb ram, mac os 10.4, core 2 duo 1.6ghz, combo drive (do not record dvd): R$1699,00 (US Dollars: 1048)
Mac Book MB403LL/A: 13’, core 2 duo 2,4ghz, 2gb ram, 160gb hd, super drive: R$3449,00 (US Dollars: 2128,00)
IMac: core 2 duo 2,4ghz, 1gb ram, 250gb hd, 20’ display, Os 10.5, ATI Radeon HD 2400 XT 128 MB: R$:3399,00 (US Dollars: 2096,00)
These are my Mac options. I have one external HD (120gb) and an external DVD Recorder (Iomega Quick Touch), so I can work in a computer without internal drivers.
I’m now searching PC’s too, because the Macs are really expensive. I found some cool quad cores (Q6660, 2gb ram, 320HD…) about R$2000 (US Dollars:1233,00). In PC’s I would spend some money in a Graphic card too (they don’t sell with dedicated boards)…
I have one pc notebook option:
HP DV2872: Core 2 Duo T5550, 250gb Hd, 2gb ram, 14’1 display, superdriver, nVIDIA GeForce 8400M GS: R$3699,00 (US Dollars: 2281,00)
What you guys would do? I want a cool computer to edit my pics and videos. I don’t play games and this stuff… I just use MSN, Vegas 8.0 (but I want to use premiere or final cut), Explorer and torrents…
I would accept any kind of suggestions… I’ll have the money soon and I don’t know what to buy…
I built my last computer, but I researched and it’s more expensive. In this prices I can pay like 1/3 of the price in the store, and pay the rest in like 5 months.
Here I can’t get anything better than that for a lower price. And I can’t buy in USA because with taxes the computer would cost almost the same as buying here, and I wouldn’t have a warranty.
Id go windows so you save money and get the same performance of a mac.
If you are going to build a computer, do this.
Get a Intel Quad-core processor. Intel processors are better for multi-tasking and rendering operations, and with quad core will improve everything to do with editing. They are also very overclockable.
Get 4gigs of ram, and thats a minimum. If you cant afford it, go for 2gigs. Corsair is good trusted brand for memory.
Windows Xp or Vista is great, but if you can only get the 2gigs of ram mentioned above, go with Xp.
Video card doesn’t have to be a high end model for editing, only if your gaming, so the HD3870 from ATI will be a great card. Pretty much any card of 512mb GDDR3-5 memory will work. Though if you want to go all out, get a workstation card, which costs well into the thousands here, but will drastically change your computers performance for editing of any kinds.
And a solid motherboard which isnt hard to find. Just make sure the motherboards specs are going to fit your processor, ram, and video card. Gigabyte and asus make some great price/performance boards.
Then a decent psu and your pretty much set. for a basic computer like that, a 550w psu will be perfect, but cause they are pretty cheap, going for something around 600-800 isnt a bad idea, specially if you like games and plan to crossfire/sli anytime soon.
And then just use your old hardrives or buy a new, and bigger one and switch data over to it.
I could just give you a build with actual parts, but I dont know any site that would ship to you without it being very expensive.
Anyways, if you go with a prebuilt system, go for the quad-core. That Q6600 build is pretty nice, as that processor is already at 2.44ghz which isnt bad. The only thing id upgrade is the ram and bump it up 2 more gigs.
Because you wont be playing games, having onboard video isnt bad, and will handle everything really. Like I said before, a video card doesnt help too much with your programs unless its a workstation card.
Could you give me a link to the two pcs your looking at?
My mom really liked this cube PC. It comes with Vista, 2gb, 500gb hd… I’m trying to discovery what’s the graphic card.
The first one is more expensive and it’s harder to buy on Ebay. I this store where I saw the Cube pc, I’m an old costumer and maybe I can get discounts or free gifts…
If you can get discounts from the store, then that box cased computer will be a good deal. I couldnt see what type of video card was in it, but I think it has a basic 256 sized card. If not, it does have a pcie x16 slot in there, so you could easily get a card to put in there. Some video cards are really long though, just just make sure it will fit if that does end up happening. i dont see why they wouldnt have a video card already in it.
The one from the ebay like site isnt bad either.
Both will be very good purchases and youll be happy with either one of them.
If you’re mostly going to be doing video and image editing, I would go with the Mac mini. You can use your existing monitor and stuff no problem. If you do go for the Vista box, don’t bother going over 3G of RAM unless you get 64-Bit Vista, the 32-bit version which is still pretty standard can’t use more than 3.5G of RAM (Though it will say you have 4G, it can’t use, a limit of 32-bit addressing).
If you’re pretty sure you won’t be gaming, use an integrated video card, or the cheapest one you can get. The workstation card probably won’t help video or image editing, I believe those are generally used for CAD and 3D rendering where 3D accuracy matters (as opposed to gaming where it just needs to look nice and fast).
No matter what, run Folding@Home on it, and if you do get the Nvidia video card (or a recent ATI card), run the GPU Folding@Home client. I run F@H on my gaming PC’s video card and it’s amazingly fast!
Also, look into AMD processors, Intel are faster, but you can still get amazing performance from an AMD chip at much lower cost
Pedro,
I like Macs. But on the surface they appear to cost more. You have to make sure you add up everything. Got software? A mac has decent photo and video software built in. Also it works. And it doesn’t tend to get clogged up with garbage like PCs do (mostly from being connected to the Internet). You don’t hear about Mac users having to reformat their hard drives just to get their performance back. No bloatware either.
So add up the cost of anything you would need to buy in addition to PC hardware and see if the price difference is still worth the hassle of owning a PC.
That said, the Mac Mini is obviously the cheapest, but you still have to use all your existing peripherals. The keyboard won’t be quite a match (though the differences are minor), and your existing monitor might not be that great, etc. Also the Mini isn’t expandable. Well, neither are the laptop or the iMac either, for the most part, so that’s not as big a deal. All can run things plugged in via firewire or USB.
Macs come with firewire, which may be a plus if your video camera needs it. It’s usually an extra on PCs. The iMac may come with firewire 800, which is great for external hard drives.
The Macbook’s only advantage in this lineup is its portability. For that you pay a lot extra. Portabililty is great, but what you lose is screen size, and possibly a bit of speed (same processor but not necessarily the same chipset, plus other factors).
What you do get with both the laptop and iMac are new monitors and Mac keyboards. If portability isn’t so important (to be worth the price) I’d go with the iMac. That’s what I have (mine’s bigger but older) and I love it. It also comes with a mouse, but I’m no fan of the Mighty Mouse and use a Logitech Track Man. So you can sell your MightyMouse on your local eBay and it’ll be brand new! I love the big, bright screen, which is essential for photo editing and probably good for video as well (and most anything else). It looks great on the desk, and cuts way down on cables. And did I mention it works?
Lastly, if you ever get into a place where you need to run some PC software, you can do that too by loading a copy of Windows with (free) BootCamp.
With the Macs, you get what you pay for. Looks like all your computer hardware choices are a little expensive there, compared to here. Funny, since most of it comes from Asia anyway…
Only idiots let their computers get clogged up. Also, he said earlier that he will be torrenting. So software doesnt matter here. And im not sure why you said “That works” cause as long I have been using Windows movie maker, premiere, photoshop, after effects, encore, Vegas and a few others, they have all worked, even though my computer now is an old Pentium 4 1.7ghz.
No formatting? You should get out more, cause I hear it quite a bit. Ive been using macs for 8-10+ years, and ive seen everything go wrong with them and its the same that goes wrong with a PC. The PC and Macs in my house stay connected to the internet 24/7 and have been for the last few 6 years. No problems here.
Here the price of a PC with hardware is still cheaper than a Mac. Building a PC here and then getting software is way cheaper than a Mac. He said he does torrents, so software price isnt an issue for him anyways, so now he saves a lot of money. Installing is hardly ever an hassle anyways.
Wouldnt say cheapest. lol. He may already have a sweet monitor and stuff. So going for a PC he can just get the computer, save more money by just plugging in his old keyboards and monitor. Thats what I do, cause I have no need to keep getting a new keyboard and mouse and blah blah. For me though, being expandable is a big part. I love the fact I can open up my case, pull out one part and update with the next topoftheline part for a cheap price.
Youd be right years ago, but now its pretty standard to have at least one firewire port. Heck, my computer has 8 usb 2.0 and 6 firewire ports, and thats standard.
It depends on peoples needs. For me, portability is bad, because that means, like I mentioned above, I can make the system better really, and its probably not going to be as powerful as a full sized/mid sized desktop build.
And it depends on the person. People like me, do all their work in one spot, and dont want to work on something portable, other people like to edit videos in the car. I just never in that situation.
PCs work too. Pcs come with a big bright screen. My minimum for monitors is 19". Anything smaller isnt worth it. PCS equal everything you just said up there. =p
Lastly, if you ever get into a place where you need to run some PC software, you can do that too by just putting the cd in or just click on it. Haha.
Yeah, that part sucks. With his price, here I could build him something really nice and it would be years before hed even start to think “Hmm, these new programs are starting to slow my computer up, I need some updating…” but even then, he could OC to 5ghz and be set again. lol
That all sounds pretty PC fan-boy, but really I was getting at was MAC and PCs are pretty equal machines.
You just called most of the people on these forums idiots. Want to apologize now, or stick with it? Anyone who doesn’t either do a reformat every couple of years (or sooner), or who doesn’t constantly tweak their system, which is most people, will have their Windows system clogged up over time unless they don’t use it much. Period. Not to say Macs can’t get clogged up as well, but it hasn’t happened to me. Generally they don’t clog up in the same way, due to the kind of stuff that floats around on the Internet (writtenn for PCs), and the crap that comes on most new computers unless you build them yourself.
I used to use PCs, then I got a Mac laptop in 2003. For a while I was using both, but I noticed that nearly every time I used the PC I had to do some sort of maintenance on it. Not so with the Mac. Some maintenance? Yes. Several times a week? No. I just turn it on and use it. My PC always required me to manually update software, click to okay the activation of this, or to let that program contact the Internet, etc.
And, all you torrenters, you’re welcome. I and lots of others here are apparently paying for your software.
My computers cloged up its my fault in a way, but its more my Moms fault for not listening to me and not getting more antiviral software. Now I can’t put anything on my computer because she has either forgot her administrator password or it has been hacked in some way. Does anybody know if it is possible to just shutdown one account on a computer if you hack it?
Ohh… definately get a PC over a MAC. From what I’ve heard their basically the same thing with the MAC being more expensive.
Ill stick to it. Idiot is a stronger term thatn what I could of used, but people will udnerstand.
It really depends. My comp now is built from Compaq, so I have no room to tweak it. Just like a Mac, its built with proprioety parts, and doesnt allow for much tweaking, like going into the Bios and other things. I also havent had to format either of my 3 drives in such a long time, cause I stopped being an idiot.
A lot of sites will have downloads that are horrible. Like if you search for a converter for one file to another, like .MOD to any .avi/mpeg, you get a lot of results, but alot of the programs arent going to work for either mac or pc, and half of thsoe will have some type of spyware, and then from tehre, leaving the internet on could be a risk of letting more data coming in and out from that program.
But, with jsut the smallest amount of common sense you never have that problem. See, Macs have a tiny bit of common sense built into their motherboards. haha =p
I still use both, and have since I was a little kid. Editing, recording, same result, different feel.
It would be fun if you did a test. im sure now you are more computer literate since a few years back. But if you started with a clean PC and a Clean Mac, with equal specs, then did the same things on both, like what to download, what not to download, what programs to use, and after a few months, to see if the PC or Mac has anything on it. Im pretty sure both systems would stay clean.
It all depends on what you use, program wise. A lot of programs have automatic updates, or can be set to ask if you want them installed. My system for example, only updates once a month, if that. The programs on my comp only mention something when I start them and that hardly happens either. Every now and then my firewall does pop up and ask if I want to allow something, which isnt bad. New program that my comp doesnt recognize wants to send info out and get info in, I allow it, and im never asked again.
Im half and half here. I torrent a lot, and I buy a lot. Only a few weeks ago I spent $600 on a VST for Cubase. I like it, but it isnt up to par with what i thought. So now im kinda down $600. Should of torrented it to try it out, then isntead of lossing money, I just delete it.
I just torrent becauseis impossible to buy an editing software here. If you spent like 600 dollars, I would spend about 1200 here, and we don’t win the same as you guys win
I went to a Mac shop, the guy said that the best for me would be the Mac Desktop that I posted. My friend who works on ESPN uses the same mac book that I posted and had some good results.
The Cube PC don’t have firewire ports and wireless, and the case isn’t expandable, so I’m out of this model.
The second PC option is more expensive and have everything that I need, but I don’t know the companie who built the PC and their warranty system.
For my luck I won some extra money and I can buy the Mac Options. Today I will go to a Computer store to research more PC options.
You’re kidding, right? You really uses PCs and Macs? C’mon. For the above test, are you assuming the PC starts with the purchase and installation of various security apps to keep it from collecting all those “Internet barnacles”? Because without them they’ll pile up fast. With them they’ll pile up a lot slower. But then you have to buy the software. Or use free stuff that’s not as good. In either case, the vast majority (99+%) of the “barnacle software” out there is written for PCs. It has no effect on Macs.
Yes I am more computer savvy than I was in 2003-4. I’ve learned to avoid PCs if possible. Unfortunately most of the people I know still have them, and still call me when they need help…
Would it surprise you that im on a mac right now? Is it really a big deal if I use both sytems daily?
Want to know how many security apps I have? 1. I got a Nortons disk from my friends house. Want to know how many I had before that? Zero, not even the windows firewall was on, and its still off now.
Now want to know how many “Internet Barnicals” are on my computer? Zero.
You are very biased towards this subject, you know that? And thats the one thing I dont like about Macs, besides price and lack of self-build, but just like people who get a Prius, the majority develop an elitist attitude. Soon anything that isnt a mac or an apple product is crap, doesnt work, will just die on you and plan out sucks.
Anyone who doesn’t either do a reformat every couple of years (or sooner), or who doesn’t constantly tweak their system, which is most people, will have their Windows system clogged up over time unless they don’t use it much. Period. Not to say Macs can’t get clogged up as well, but it hasn’t happened to me. Generally they don’t clog up in the same way, due to the kind of stuff that floats around on the Internet (writtenn for PCs), and the crap that comes on most new computers unless you build them yourself.
