Until moving over to be a full time photographer I spent 12 years in IT doing several things but much of it testing.
One thing I would urge high end PC users to do is either build their own rig (and put in a expensive power supply) or go with HP. Dell is, sorry to say not very good. That is not fanboy\'ism but based in the fact that HP will guarantee workstations to have certain components. Dell is a part of the day vendor. If we order 30 machines at a time we have always found one or two differences between identically spec\'d machines. It could be a modified chipset ... all the way to a different motherboard! It doesn\'t bite you then ... but after a while when you upgrade drivers etc ... it can drive you insane.
My only objection is that people keep saying that the Mac costs more. It does not. The only issue with Mac is when you try to go cheap. They simply don\'t build anything particularly inexpensive in their desktops. Order an identical machine from Dell (and I mean identical) and sometimes it is 5% cheaper ... sometimes 15% more expensive.
Of course building your own is the best approach - until you have to isolate intermittently flaky hardware and try to get things fixed. My time is money and as far as photography ... I no longer want to do my old job.
Lastly ... when you want power - and you put on anti-virus software, office and a couple of other common sofware packages - there goes 15% of that power. If I had to use a PC again, I would of course use ONLY a dedicated repository/editing box. Then I would buy a second cheaper PC for the rest of it ... or that $500 Mac Mini ... so I don\'t have to worry about all those headaches.
We use industrial grade anti-virus software with definitions pushed down by a Server. Still ... about four times a year we get what I consider an epidemic when some virus or malware writer gets the advantage on the anti-virus software guys for a moment. Then we typically get 20-50 workstations - which we often have to re-format. I\'ve seen people crying over the loss of 5 years worth of work. It leaves an impression on ya. We make it easy to back up ... but you know how good intentions go.
I\'m certified in both systems. As much as I love the registry .... I won\'t consider any flavor of windows anything but a poorly designed with bandaids system. (btw I started pre-dos)
But perhaps it is the fact that I am an old Unix head that draws me to Mac OSx? Or perhaps it is choice. A Mac can run windows, Mac OSX or Linux. Basically all of it - and ALL the apps. There are some Mac only editing apps that are to die for. Or perhaps it is that I have never had to re-format a Mac when I have not wanted to. It just works. And what price that?
I buy pretty good bodies and lenses. My 24 pc-e is that last one (the 14-24 f 2.8 should be here this week) and I don\'t mind spending good money on good glass even if a lens like the 24 is not exactly \"economical\" or bang for my meager bucks. I see the stuff that you gent\'s post pictures with. Not many vivitar lenses, I\'ve noticed. So leave that \"bang for the buck\" in the same perspective, I say. It strikes my ear as funny, and fanboy rhetoric when someone here posts pictures with their 300 f 2.8 and then in a debate such as this is quick to state that the Mac is expensive. It is not ... and PC bargains in the long run, usually aren\'t.
In either platform it is wise to buy at the higher end. It saves on grey hair ... no matter how you slice it.
Oh never mind. I just got the latest Best buy flyer. Hey ... did you see that deal on that 399.95 Acer at best buy? I guess Mac\'s do suck after all.
Nov 02, 2009 at 05:43 PM
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