It's funny. My own experience with this mac vs pc thing may be good fuel for thought to some of you. My understanding of things is: both Berni and MBTC are right, for different reasons.
I've been on the mac side for years to, I believe it was when most music people were hanging on to win XP, 'cause Vista was... well, it was Vista; so I got an Imac back then, it was the last running their IBM powerpc g5 cpus. And it was ok, I had it running up until Logic 8 and the performance was similar to what you'd see your PC Cubase friends doing on their pcs, although, to be honest, back then they had a much healthier choice of plug-ins.
Anyway, this imac got broken due to overheating. Then got another one, much more recent and this time everything was much smoother, but got some problems with the screen - this time not due to overheating, but the fans actually blow some dust on the back of the LCD, whose price is kind of ridiculous, if you compare it to an IPS proper screen on its own. This screen problem is barely noticeable anyways, you can spot that there's something there with a full black wallpaper, for example, so I just ignored it.
But the overall impression I get from Apple is that while they're picky with their components, 'cause they always use IPS screens, for example, their keyboards and mice are great, the overall design of the machines is fantastic.( But they then cut corners in the assembly of the components themselves, and their strive for the smallest and coolest can actually get in the way of proper design. )And it's not just the looks, it's the thought that went into all of it, it's the experience itself. Even using the remote on the imac can impress people, even to this day.
The other factor, of course, is the software. I have no doubt in my mind that OS X is far superior to windows, when it comes to the ingenuity that went into it. Some very good ideas! No doubt. But if we're talking about bang for buck, getting a good computer for a home studio, then the math leans very much towards what MBTC said: you can get a far better CPU, with proper cooling and air circulation, even an hackintosh if you so desire, for much less; and presumably even get much better performance then you would on the mac.
Now, the laptops... Jeez, MBP all the way. Just the touch thing on them... Not having the anti-virus, all those naughty things next to the clock, it just feels more reliable, and most of us use Ableton to play - which runs very good on both platforms, so... I just feel like Apple has a very wide hole between the imac and the mac pro and they've consistently failed to realize that, being the clever company that they are.
Cheers
|