?'s about a new Mac

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?'s about a new Mac

StowePhoto
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p.2 #1 · ?'s about a new Mac

Form,

Great response above. Having only used the Mac platform (iMac, MBAir, iPhone, etc.) for the last 10 years, I am hesitant to rejoin the PC sector. Am I wrong thinking that way? A poster above highlighted many of my thoughts concerning the inconvenience of keeping a PC 'safe' and out of the repair shop. Regardless of all the Mac specific tricks and tools I have devoted a lot of time to learning.

Should I consider casting all of that aside, abandoning10 years of familiarity to get more performance for less money? I see your side of the argument for sure.

Feb 25, 2013 at 09:26 PM

mgauthierphoto
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p.2 #2 · ?'s about a new Mac

I have absolutely no issues with 8GB RAM.

Feb 26, 2013 at 02:29 AM

canon pants
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p.2 #3 · ?'s about a new Mac

mgauthierphoto wrote:
I have absolutely no issues with 8GB RAM.

Depending on your cpu. A faster cpu will go through more ram since it goes through more information. My i7 3770 will eat up all 16gb or ram using only lightroom.
Nothing wrong with 8gb but depending on your set up you might be able to use more.

Feb 26, 2013 at 03:25 AM

jcolman
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p.2 #4 · ?'s about a new Mac

Mac vs PC? Sometimes its not about the specs or speed of one system over another, rather its about what OS you know and prefer.

I've owned 5 or 6 macs and 2 PC's. I simply prefer the apple OS. I also love my tricked out Mac Pro.

Feb 26, 2013 at 03:44 AM

That Photog
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p.2 #5 · ?'s about a new Mac

form wrote:
On that note...any system with less than 16gb ram is going to be ram-choked when doing photo editing, especially with 20+mp files. Especially with RAW.

I edit 5D II files and 7D files (although usually on MRaw)
My desktop is an AMD Phenom 3.4 quad core with 16gb of ram.
It is custom built. I spent $300 last year on the processor, mobo, ram and DVD burner to upgrade my old machine. May not be the latest i7 with the fastest RAM and solid state hard drives but I am happy with the performance. I do a lot of my editing on an external USB 2.0 hard drive that I am sure is my bottleneck. Got to get some eSata or something.

All that was said just to point out that I don't think you need the absolute best for Lightroom and the occasional PS. Get what you can afford/want. Be happy with it and don't look back. I'm sure tomorrow will have a faster processor or a cheaper whatsit, but that is the technology world we live in.

Feb 26, 2013 at 04:52 AM

morganb4
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p.2 #6 · ?'s about a new Mac

mgauthierphoto wrote:
I have absolutely no issues with 8GB RAM.

YEP :-) I ran mine with 8 for ages and forgot

Feb 26, 2013 at 05:26 AM

form
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p.2 #7 · ?'s about a new Mac

Mac os is fine and probably a little more user friendly than windows 7 (which is actually very fast and the most maclike windows I have used), and it's agreed there are more exploits and malware risks with pcs, but ive never had any critical problem with malware or viruses. the few I have gotten were because I opened a link through email etc that I should have known to avoid from common sense. Even then, i was always able to remove the offending agent myself.

Mac vs pc actual performance...you just get more for your dollar with pc, prebuilt or custom built. I must be lucky because the only hardware issues I ever had with prebuilts like dell were with old laptops developing flaky wifi. I've gotten 3 Dell laptops and 1 Dell tower. Then I built my last 2 pc towers both for about $1200 each. So far so good with them, again guess I must be lucky. My last Mac died from a failed mobo, but I bought it dirt cheap (never bought new macs again after first two) so not a big surprise. That was back in the g4 days.

The consideration of editing software cost is the one thing that can narrow the price gap for switching from Mac to pc.

But you still didn't say why you are going for a laptop instead of desktop.

Feb 26, 2013 at 06:25 AM

form
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p.2 #8 · ?'s about a new Mac

Incidentally, my pc isn't the fastest, there are plenty of faster processors out there. The 3930k processor shows up to about 33% improvement in editing software performance over my 3770k and only costs about 200 more. higher up the ladder the prices start jumping radically for more marginal gains. But my system is still very fast for editing, gaming and general use. Boot time is about 20 seconds from power on to welcome screen. And I'm still old school because my main hd is a basic 7200rpm platter drive instead of ssd.

Feb 26, 2013 at 06:37 AM

brett maxwell
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p.2 #9 · ?'s about a new Mac

mjoshi wrote:
I'll throw this in as a third option, look at top-of-line Macmini, upgrade to 500GB Samsung 840 SSD + 16GB RAM and it will handle everything that you throw at it in terms of LR4+CS6. Add in DELL 27" ips LCD and you've got solid performing machine. I've used MBP in past for my editing before switching to Macmini but Quad Core processor in MAC mini makes it perform same as 15" MBPr.

WORD. I'm still a PC user, but the new Mini that has the same processors as the rMBP has me tempted. you could max one out (DIY ram and ssd upgrade) for like $1300. The only thing you're really lacking is a dedicated video card, which doesn't matter at all for the average photographer.

Feb 28, 2013 at 01:38 AM

mjoshi
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p.2 #10 · ?'s about a new Mac

brett maxwell wrote:
mjoshi wrote:
I'll throw this in as a third option, look at top-of-line Macmini, upgrade to 500GB Samsung 840 SSD + 16GB RAM and it will handle everything that you throw at it in terms of LR4+CS6. Add in DELL 27" ips LCD and you've got solid performing machine. I've used MBP in past for my editing before switching to Macmini but Quad Core processor in MAC mini makes it perform same as 15" MBPr.

WORD. I'm still a PC user, but the new Mini that has the same processors as the rMBP has me tempted. you could max one out (DIY ram and ssd upgrade) for like $1300. The only thing you're really lacking is a dedicated video card, which doesn't matter at all for the average photographer.

Brett I was looking to get iMac as moving from 2010 MBP Core2Duo machine and after seeing what Apple did with iMac in terms of making it harder to upgrade I decided to take plunge with Macmini and I'm not at all disappointed with performance. If you need rMBP for portability there is no other option, but Macmini serves its purpose very well and at the end lot more cheaper than rMBP with same performance for CS6+LR4 application. Will I buy iMac - most probably not specifically due to end-user upgrade limitations put by Apple with "new obsession" of everything needs to be slim irrespective of its practical use.

Feb 28, 2013 at 03:16 PM

mjoshi
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p.2 #11 · ?'s about a new Mac

jmraso wrote:
Bernie wrote:
And please don't get me started on the alpha version of Win 8.

Alpha Windows what

Seriously

? By exact same standard you should call Mountain Lion as Service Pack as there is nothing new in terms of UI since 2009 in OSX world. I'm mac user but calling Win8 as Alpha version would be bit of stretch.

Feb 28, 2013 at 03:22 PM

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