Mac or PC?? Pls help...

[sj2six]

Greetings everyone. I'm planning to set up a home studio where i'll be doing Audio Post-Production for film/video, and sound design, as well as some musical work and basic video editing. I'm planning either Protools or Nuendo as my main DAWs, as i'm more comfortable and used to these two. Other than that, I'll also considering other applications like Propellerhead Reason, Cubase SX, WaveLab, and Soundforge. Other than that, I'll be using M-Audio ProjectMix I/O as my mixer as well as interface, this thing connects to computer via firewire.

The main problem here i'm facing is whether to choose MAC or PC?
I don't have the budget to get that powerful G5, though I really love it coz I've used it before. So i'm considering getting a "Dual 1.25GHz G4 desktop (equal to around a Single Pentium 2.5GHz)" which I have a friend who is selling me at $1k. But my friend also told me that I can actually DIY a PC which have similar power as the G5 at Sim Lim for like $1k or a little bit more. Which one is more worth?

Then I heard issues of PC not as stable as Mac. Then there are also issues of, as long as you maintain your PC, dun install junks in it, dun connect online, your PC will be as stable as a Mac. I myself used windows too. And it really clashes alot. But is it because I'm connecting to the internet and I've not maintain it, that's why it's behaving like this? I've heard many people say this "maintaining your PC" thingy, but i've no idea what does it mean and what to do?

Then again I saw in one of the topic in this forum where a user is saying: "nothing beat UNIX memory management. Try running multi apps on a PC and Mac, see which one die first."

I'm really having a headache about this man. Can anyone give me some opinions pls? I'm a Mac & PC user. I don't have favourism over whether which GUI i'm more comfortable with. I'm more concern about which platform can perform better when it comes to Audio/Music-Productions. Thank you.

 

[teraslasch]

nowadays DIY computers have darn good specs for darn good prices, but if you don't know anything bout computers, u might someone to help u fix up everything. And don't do any sh*t with your computer, no internet no sh*t, no games - just purely your audio stuff. internet attracts viruses and spywares, adwares :lol: i've done that so for my studio com and so far its darn stable. go for a DIY PC if ure on budget, i would say its good too. I don use macs so i don't know much on them.

 

[Cheez]

If cost is a concern, go for the PC. If money is not a problem, go for a Mac. Don't forget that you have not budgeted in your software and your audio soundcard.

If you're going to use a Mac, then Logic is the way to go.

For DIY PCs, it's not that difficult. Certain things to take note - you'll need at least 2 HD and fast ones (min 7200rpm with low seek and write time) and lots of RAM. One HD runs applications and windows, the other HD for recording only.

For maintenance, 2 softwares are indispensable. I've been using them since my very first DAW setup. 1. XPlite - it will remove everything uncessary from your Windows including internet explorer; it will speed things up and keep things stable without all the nonsense from Windows. 2. A good registry cleaner (RegSupreme is one of them). If you don't install any other programs frequently (which you shouldn't), you really only have to run it once when all your softwares are installed. RegSupreme has a trial version - which you can use to run it once. It will keep your registry clean and therefore stable. Other maintenance include occasional defragmentation of drives. Of course, make sure you partitiion your drives properly, keeping one partition just for Windows (ie C: ). There are other important and not so important tweaks. Things like turning off system restore etc is useful. Registry tweaks can be helpful - particularly removing programs that load at startup - programs that is not necessary. I'll not post it openly here because it deals with registry change and I don't want to be held responsible for somebody's PC dying. But if you're interested, you can pm me and I can guide you step by step. By the way, Regsupreme also lets you change registry without having to run regedit to dig into the many folders and directories.

 

[teraslasch]

I knew cheez would come to the rescue! :lol:

 

[Indigo_blues]

buy a pc and use the money u saved to buy a set of nice monitor speakers. my 2 cents worth.

 

[CrispyEgg]

the issue of running multi apps on a PC and MAC and seeing which one dies first is... well, somewhat irrelevant, IMO. unless you wanna play warcraft, surf the net, watch a movie, download anime and do your recording at the same time O.O haha

first, ask yourself which you are more familiar with. if you're well versed with windows and everything like the wires inside, how to put in upgrades yourself, etcetc, a windows might be useful cuz the mac isn't readily self-upgradable.

however, if you're looking for a WORK friendly platform to do your recording on, go for the Mac. you don't have to get something fancy like a G5 dual core, unless you're doing HUGE recording projects. and you don't need one of those macs with giant screens either, budget in those areas.

all the software you've mentioned above run better on Macs IMO, stability is a big must in studio work. Macs also have firewire, so you don't need to spend on a firewire card for your windows. spend a lil more on a Mac with everything in it, rather than on a windows that you'll have to stuff cards, memory and other upgrades in.

 

[sj2six]

Ok. Thanx alot for all your replies. Appreciated.

The situation now is where I don't have the budget to get a G5. However, I do have the budget to get old G4 desktop with "Dual 1.25GHz processor" which my friend is selling me for $1k.
But I'm oso considering that with that $1k, I can just go to Sim Lim and DIY a even better PC. Just that now i'm stuck with this two choices, 1) to get the G4, or 2)to DIY a even faster PC with that $1k. I duno which platform is more worth to get, more reliable or stable, and performs better, in this case if i'm doing audio stuffs?

And I've also noticed that even before this G5 came out, almost all the pro studios had already been using Mac than PC, why?? Is it really true that Mac are better for audio work than PC? In what way?

 

[Cheez]

sj2six, there's no need to post the same question in different sections of this forum. Many of us do go through the sections. You'll just give James extra work by deleting all those extra posts!

Back to your question - if you do a search through the forums, you'll realise that we've discussed this before. Mac is more stable than PC. However if your PC is dedicated to DAW applications (ie no internet explorer, no microsoft office, no games, don't connect to the web, no antivirus, absolutely nothing except audio applications), you'll find it to be as stable as a Mac and probably even faster. And by the way, Macs do crash as well.

Also note that there are certain audio applications that work only on the PC and not on the Mac and vice versa. So it also depends what you are going to run on the computer. Mac is nicer to work with. But if you can accept not-so-good GUI (yes, you'll also need to optimize your PC and shut down all the eye-candy), then you can accept the PC. For me, I have no choice since Gigastudio which only runs on the PC is my main workhorse.

 

[overcast]

The new MacIntels are booting XP. If this is the direction it is going then a Mac investment could be worth it. Apple is clearly moving from a "pro" platform for designers/AV professionals to a consumer "lifestyle" platform. The dropping of the IBM G5 chip was not purely due to it falling short of the projected "muscle". Adopting Intel is also a business move to eat into the vast PC market by making it Windows (Vista?) compatible.

In any case I heard you could pay by installments for Mac purchase, no? Or flash some plastic lah. Singapore is prosperous nation built on debts. But if your setup will be generating income why constrain yourself to buying obsolete technology with upfront payment?

 

[blueprintstudios]

i think it's this simple in my opinion : with your budget, either you get a 2nd hand substandard mac. or you work with a PC, (and yes with $1K- $1.5K you can get a powerful enough pc.) and do not install any extra stuff in it. till you can save up a big chunk of cash for some powermac pc which goes up to $5K or somethin. but then again... when the time comes you got $5K .. you could look at the fact you could buy 2 or 3 of the toplevel range PCs hahaha.. then you'll be at another crossroad or something.

to maintain a pc :

clear temp files.
- C:\windows\temp
- C:\windows\prefetch
- go search for freeware softwares that does maintenance. the one I use is : http://www.ccleaner.com/

then after clearing out temp files. DEFRAG. hehe.

incase you're a newbie to that term , it means, your data is a1b2c3d4.
if you wanna open a file that reads "abcd" or "1234" it'll have to search around to pick out the alphabets/numbers. so what defrag does is sort them out from "a1b2c3d4" to "abcd1234" . get it? sorry if it sounds nonsense to most of the guys here who knows what defrag means, but whenever I describe that to my mom or any newbie they understand perfectly.


90¢ worth.

 

[Cheez]

The new MacIntels are booting XP. If this is the direction it is going then a Mac investment could be worth it.

But since his purpose is DAW, he will only need limited applications. Many audio applications that only run on PC will not run on the Mac even if it boots XP. So the Mac booting XP functionality will not be a plus or benefit for audio-only applications.

In the end, it is all about cost vs benefit. Benefit-wise, both are pretty similar in terms of DAW-only applications. Cost-wise, it is very different. So it comes to whether you have the money to spend.

 

[killinghall]

"nothing beats UNIX memory management. Try running multi apps on a PC and Mac, see which one die first."

I said that!

And I swear by it...I've been working off all my stuff at home and in the studio through a 17" G4 Powerbook loaded with 2Ghz of RAM.

Can't go wrong with Macs. And the bonus - you don't need no RAM-chomping antivirus programs!

 

[killinghall]

"nothing beats UNIX memory management. Try running multi apps on a PC and Mac, see which one die first."

I said that!

And I swear by it...I've been working off all my stuff at home and in the studio through a 17" G4 Powerbook loaded with 2Ghz of RAM. For home use, it's pretty much garage band. For the studio, it's Logic.

And to add - there's tons of DAW programs and AU/VST filters for the Mac - tweak to your heart's content!

Can't go wrong with Macs. And the bonus - you don't need no RAM-chomping antivirus programs!

 

[stalefish]

Objectively speaking, you could use either to come up with good music. Just pick the one you're more comfortable working with.


Non-objectively speaking,


Macs all the way!

PCs to run keygens for friendly mac software hahaha..

 

[Guest]

for the type purpose u have i'd say u shud go for the mac..

1.25Ghz..is juz erm..the speed i guess..but the processing power is kinda diff..

i use an AMD 64 athlon 2.0Ghz (if im nt wrong) which processing power is comparable to that of a 3.0Ghz

basically 1.25Ghz will emit less heat.lesser risk of the processor burning out.

 

[j_m_s]

get a mac

 

[blueprintstudios]

get both :lol:

 

[gutturalpiss]

yeah. both. can use as a/v processing clusters :lol: impossible

DIY get the following:

Processor + Motherboard bundle ~ Intel Core 2 Duo E6300 + original Intel 965G $510+-
HDD ~ Seagate 7200.10 250GB SATA-II $130+-
RAM ~ Kingston 1GB 533MHz $190+-
Graphics ~ XpertVision 7300GT DDR3 128MB $160+- or ASUS 6600GT DDR3 128MB $110+-
Disc drives ~ LG H10-N DVD-RW 16x $60+- (the H12-N 18x may cost just slightly higher, but can flash H10-N BIOS to H12-N but void warranty)
PSU ~ CoolerMaster Extreme 380W $60+-
Casing ~ generic (lots available ard $40)
----------------------------------------------------------------------
<$1,150+- since prices i stated are the higher estimates
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Then u get ur audio hardware & software, & OS (if u really wan MAC OS, get FreeBSD. MAC was built on BSD. Its free Bt few have tried to make DAWs out of it aka not much hope as yet). Apps u mentioned are multi-threaded so they should auto recognise n take advantage of both cores of processor. If they dont there r easy tweaks n ample info online.

 

[sj2six]

Hi. Thanks for the list of reccomendations man. Btw, is the graphics card that you recomended have two outputs?? Coz I would wanna setup a dual LCD monitors.

Is Maxtor HD better or Seagate eh??

And you mentioned PSU~CoolerMaster 380W, is that a cooler fan or the power supply unit??

Can give me a rough price how much would that all cost if I DIY in Sim Lim? Coz my budget is ard $1000 plus plus abit. Only solution I can cut down price is the 2x HDD. I dun think I nid two 250GB HDD. I'll get one 250GB, and one 40GB. Other than that, I might not nid very good graphics card as i'm not doing video editing. Just sound for picture. Budget is only for CPU alone, exclude LCD monitors, keyboards and mouse. Any suggestions to make it into my budget?? Thanks man.

 

[shioks76]

problem witth diy if not assembled by the shop well or components are not compatible, will have an endless no. of probs. Not recommended unless u know what u are doing.

Preferably, both if not just settle on the mac. Much less problems long term wise.

If wanna get a pc i suggest wait until wins vista is out. Should be very soon