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mac question (pg. 3)
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| Ryan0751 |
Nope... Actually, it depends on the Mac you are looking at to see whether apple is screwing you or not.
On a Mac Pro (the desktop), yes, buying 8 gigs of RAM from Apple will cost you a fortune.
On my Macbook, it was actually cheaper to let apple upgrade the RAM to 2 gigs, then to go buy it online myself. Basically because the laptop comes with 1 gig anyway, but to upgrade to 2 gigs, you have to take out the 2 512MB SO-DIMMS in the laptop and by 2 1 gigs, and then try to sell the 512's on e-bay.
The macbook pro 2 gig upgrade isn't really a bad deal.
| quote: | Originally posted by DJ Sound
don't the new macs use some special kind of ram you can only get from them? |
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| Ryan0751 |
OS X is exclusively Mac, and that's a good enough reason for me. I use Reason and Ableton, which are both also PC apps, but I'll stick with OS X over windows any day.
And look at the stats... he's looking at buying a Macbook Pro, a laptop. You can't exactly go out and build a laptop. It's been shown time and time again that the Macbook Pro's are a good value.
(And don't bring up the fact you can hack OS X to run on a generic PC, because it's more effort than it's worth and will be more of a PITA then just dealing with Windows)
| quote: | Originally posted by Aquarian
Those are good stats - but if you're going for that mac it should only be because you want to use software that's exclusive to mac systems, because you can get exactly those same parts on a pc for less than half the price mac will charge you for it.
You really don't need more than 2gb of ram. Four at most if you really want to max it out, but even that I think would be overkill. Plus, like others said earlier don't get your ram upgrades from mac, they'll charge you three times the market price. |
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| Fatboy |
| quote: | Originally posted by Aquarian
Those are good stats - but if you're going for that mac it should only be because you want to use software that's exclusive to mac systems, because you can get exactly those same parts on a pc for less than half the price mac will charge you for it.
You really don't need more than 2gb of ram. Four at most if you really want to max it out, but even that I think would be overkill. Plus, like others said earlier don't get your ram upgrades from mac, they'll charge you three times the market price. |
I don't know about the laptops, but I could't find a similarily spec'd PC at the same price. A quad 2.66 GHz at Dell would cost almost �1000 more at the time. This obviously depends on what parts you include. First, 8 gigs of ram is overkill unless money doesn't matter at all, or you use the full Vienna Orchestra in every single tune. Harddrives you should buy from somewhere else than Apple. They're really easy to fit in the machine yourself. Also, the fact that Windows runs perfect on it, makes the os discussion irrelevant. On the laptop side of things, in my opinion the MacBook Pro is a bit overpriced, but I think the MacBook is good value for money. You get a well built machine that's really fast at a pretty good price. |
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| Aquarian |
| Ah sorry there, forgot he was looking for a laptop - I was thinking of the imacs. Yes the macbook pro is an excellent machine and though it's still overpriced, the difference isn't as big as with desktops. But I don't think the regular macbook is worth it (and really not reccommended for production). |
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| Ryan0751 |
I've got a regular macbook as well and an iMac, it's quite fast. I can run Ableton, Reason, etc. all at the same time without much issue. I don't think laptops really make great production machines anyway, you really need a bigger screen.
| quote: | Originally posted by Aquarian
Ah sorry there, forgot he was looking for a laptop - I was thinking of the imacs. Yes the macbook pro is an excellent machine and though it's still overpriced, the difference isn't as big as with desktops. But I don't think the regular macbook is worth it (and really not reccommended for production). |
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| Zild |
| quote: | Originally posted by Ryan0751
OS X is exclusively Mac, and that's a good enough reason for me. I use Reason and Ableton, which are both also PC apps, but I'll stick with OS X over windows any day.
And look at the stats... he's looking at buying a Macbook Pro, a laptop. You can't exactly go out and build a laptop. It's been shown time and time again that the Macbook Pro's are a good value.
(And don't bring up the fact you can hack OS X to run on a generic PC, because it's more effort than it's worth and will be more of a PITA then just dealing with Windows) |
Actually it is as easy as downloading it, burning it to DVD, and then using that DVD to install. Only thing that is a little tough is configuring the bootloader. Extremely simple if you ask me. And you can get something similarly speced (exact same processor, hard drive space, and memory size) to a macbook pro for maybe 75% of the price or less. The only thing I think is really cool about OSX is that you can drop down and start using the unix console if you like which is cool, but other than that meh. |
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| Ryan0751 |
And driver support on said machine? Or updates? Etc? Does everything "just work" as it does on a real Mac? I don't think so. That extra 25% will get you a better looking, better running, quieter, supported machine.
What makes you think the next version will run just fine? I'd sure like to run Leopard in the spring. Who knows until a "hack" comes out for it.
And not to mention what you are doing is ILLEGAL.
If you don't like it, don't use it. But don't offer ill-advice.
| quote: | Originally posted by Zild
Actually it is as easy as downloading it, burning it to DVD, and then using that DVD to install. Only thing that is a little tough is configuring the bootloader. Extremely simple if you ask me. And you can get something similarly speced (exact same processor, hard drive space, and memory size) to a macbook pro for maybe 75% of the price or less. The only thing I think is really cool about OSX is that you can drop down and start using the unix console if you like which is cool, but other than that meh. |
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| Zild |
| LOL you have no idea about how it works then. Yes everything does 'just work' and yes it is easy to get updates. You can download and use drivers from any manufacturers website. They will work fine. Say you have an m-audio firewire card. You go to M audio's website, download their drivers for whatever version you're using. Probably 10.4.X install the driver and it works great. It is your OPINION than i'm offering ill advice. If someone like me read this and realized you don't need Apple hardware to run OSX it would be good advice. |
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| Ryan0751 |
That's not what I meant, I'm talking about integrated hardware... like your video card, your chipset, everything else on your motherboard.
Apple only integrates drivers into OS X for hardware for their machines, which is one of the reasons why things tend to "just work" on Macs. Tight control of hardware and drivers.
Unless you go off and research every little thing you build into the machine to make sure it's supported in OS X, good luck with your experience. And how much time are you really willing to put into this if you just want to buy a damn machine to make music on?
Obviously external peripherals or anything that you can normally get a driver for OS X for will work. Good luck trying to buy a video card that supplies OS X drivers.
So you think it's good advice to tell someone they should just steal Reason, Ableton, Cubase, and everything else they need because it's available online?
That's ill-advice.
Is it my OPINION that you're a Mac hater, and yet you respond to every thread asking about Mac hardware or software with:
- Buy a PC, XP is just a good
- Mac's are too expensive
- Steel OS X
| quote: | Originally posted by Zild
LOL you have no idea about how it works then. Yes everything does 'just work' and yes it is easy to get updates. You can download and use drivers from any manufacturers website. They will work fine. Say you have an m-audio firewire card. You go to M audio's website, download their drivers for whatever version you're using. Probably 10.4.X install the driver and it works great. It is your OPINION than i'm offering ill advice. If someone like me read this and realized you don't need Apple hardware to run OSX it would be good advice. |
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| kitphillips |
Heh, never knew you could hack osx to run on a pc, thats pretty cool... they should just sell it for pc. But to the matter at hand, You've obviously got some serious cash to spend so I recommend either a
Macbook pro with the fastest processor (2.26 last I looked), 2 gig of ram, (basically like you said) best graphics, BUT: YOU NEED THE 7200 RPM disk, that is the 100 GB ONE NOT 160. Don't go for the increased space, believe me you need the speed.
Mac pro, start with 4 gig of ram, get more if you need it. get the fast processor, it'll make life easier, because you can add ram, you can't add processor. Get one 250 gig disk. Thats probably all you'll need, oh and get the best graphics, that way, you take pressure off the CPU and also allow yourself to have two of those big 30 inch screens.:cool: Also, you can't add to the graphics once you buy it, so it make more sense.
I don't own a mac, I can't afford it, but if I had the money I would go for one, I've been drooling over them ever since the intel stuff came out, they're fast and they're sexy. |
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| lowski |
you guys are awsome i think you just answer all my questions. im gonna just wait a bit longer and get the desktop, but i think i will just let apple do all the up grading i dont really have the know how or the time to be running around for diffrent upgrades. so hopefully in the next couple weeks i can make the purches, i cant wait.
thanks again! and i will keep you all posted. |
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| simonbostock |
This is a bit of a story...
I moved across to Mac/Logic 7 not too long ago (from PC/Cubase 4). I wanted to start using Logic 7 because I know quite a few people use Logic so for me would have made it a lot easier to share projects between producers etc - or taking my project to an engineers studio to get it polished off etc. I was a Logic 5.5 user then moved to Cubase SX for a few years.
Initially, I was thinking of going the OSX86 route with my PC but after initial testing etc, I was finding that I'd have to get a better motherboard. Also the PCI cards I have (RME 9632/UAD-1/Powercore Element) would have been redundent on OSX86 because the vendors wont make Mac-Intel PCI drivers (as the new Macs are PCI-E). Therefore selling the cards I spent a lot of money on in the past (and not getting much for it on Ebay) and then having to buy the PCIe versions (costing me a heap of money). Bit really. :(
So I picked up a Mac PowerPC 1.8DP for cheap which works with PCI cards - moved the RME9632/UAD-1 and Element cards across to the MAC and installed Logic 7 Pro. Then I thought, why not use Logic 5.5.1 on the PC so that I can use PC only VSTi's (z3ta+ etc). I'm initially testing Wormhole to route vsti's across from the PC to the Mac via the network - kinda having mixed emotions about that.
After all that, I then relocated the Mac and PC to sit in another room and feed the 18 odd cables through into the bedroom (meaning extension cables etc) and on top of that I picked up a DVI switch box so that I can share both the Mac and PC with the one 24" dell flat screen. It was either that or listen to a couple of jet engines under my desk.. now it silent. :)
All in all, took about 2 weeks to organise.
1. Buy longer cables.
2. Chisel under the carpet to run the cables through (which annoyed the girlfriend).
3. Putting shelves up in another room.
4. Wiring up and making it all neat and tidy.
But now its so much better. Well worth the effort. Now I just gotta write some new tracks.
/endofstory. |
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