Apple Vs Intel Conroe for graphic design

I have a friend who is doing a course in graphic design and is looking to upgrade from P4 to Mac. I was going to argue with him and suggest a Conroe system (I HATE Mac!) when I realised I have no idea what I'm talking about when it comes to graphic design. I'm a PC gamer/tweaker and never done any graphic design! Conroe beats AMD, but what about Mac?

Do graphic designers use Macs out of habit, because they used to be the best for it, or are they still? Also, if he buys a Conroe PC, will there be software issues in his course?

His money is a little tight. I know I can build him a Conroe PC for a little under $1000, but I shudder to think what a Mac would cost that could compete with an E6400! Any suggestions?

 

Adobe offer Windows versions of all their software, Photoshop, Flash etc.

Although I do know of graphic design software to work only on Mac's, but these are not very popular and there are Windows alternitives.

If he is fine with MacOSX there isnt much reason not too (the price tag is one). Plus they (the uni or where ever) will use Mac's so it will be easier to learn.

 

theres no difference between a conroe system and a brand new mac, they have the same processor, when it comes to the o/s though, windows xp is more reliable than mac osx (there i said it)

 

Workflow wise, go for the mac.

For individual apps, they are about the same.

 

I dunno about that...

As much as I hate macs, mac os is basically unix, which is probably more reliable/stable than windows xp (in my opinion)

 

Dunno, ive heard alot of stories about macs just turning off by themselves ...

as much as we love to bash microsoft, ive never seen a xp machine crash without spyware/viruses or broken hardware (ie failed ram). A normal xp machine can be on for years with absolutely no problems.

 

My windows xp has crashed maybe 2 or 3 times? When i was at course the macs crashed ALL the time, and the PC's crashed ALL the time...

My work pc was setup for me and used to crash ALL the time. I reformatted it and set it up to my liking, it's never crashed since. (1 year) I rebooted today for the first time in 48 days, only to update to IE 7.

I think stability comes down to how its setup.

Back to the original question. If your friend isn't really PC savvy. And is confitable using a Mac because thats what he uses at course. Id suggest he stays with it.

 

Yeah I have had problems, actually while doing graphic design too! Where Adobe photoshop would just close and this nice box came up asking if I would like to report this error. Previous versions of MacOS are far worse tho.
Not to say Windows deosnt has it's problems.

Im just saying dont pick MacOSX over Windows due to its stability.

Now I hope I didnt upset the Mac zealots.

 

I work with both Macs and PCs on a day-to-day basis. I would argue that both operating systems are very stable, but if I was forced to make a call on it, I'd say that the Macs crash less. I'm not a fanboi, this is just what I have noticed.

As Elyzion says, it all comes down to what OS your friend prefers. I prefer PCs because I play games; also, I was brought up using PCs, so there is a bit of inertia there. I would, however, recommend a Mac to any of my family or friends, simply because Macs are more friendly to newbs. Saves me tech support calls that way .

Mal

 

What are the specs for that custom built PC... the iMacs are quite nicely priced these days and have a Merom cpu (the mobile variant of the Conroe).

 

You've heard?? I've "heard" of windows machines doing a LOT of similar strange things, yet I haven't seen more of them.

Likewise, we're not here to Microsoft Bash, but any XP machine I use NEVER goes much more than a day without a reboot.

Back on topic. The best thing you're friend can do is identify why he wants to use a Mac. If its uni and Graphic development, then fair enough, but if he wants to play all the latest games and that he'd still be better with a windows machine. If he doesn't care about games though?? OS makes pretty much no difference at all. I've run (insert Distro Name here) on most of my machines for almost 5 years now, and apart from an occasional jump back into windows for Games on my home laptop, or using MS Visual Studio on my work machine, I can do anything I need to under Linux. Same goes for MacOS

 

The current Mac versions of Adobe software are not universal binary - so they run emulated through Rosetta on the new macs. This is quite slow compared to running under Windows on the same hardware.

The next versions (I'd guess out in 6 months or so) will be universal.

 

CS3 just came out.

 

Actually it hasn't on the mac platform (unless you have a linky). When it does come, it'll be the 'blockbuster' that makes G5 owners think about mac pros.

 

mordy: Where is your source for that info?
I had a look on the apple website etc, none have it listed as released (well, from what I can see)

 

um, actually i saw a headline on digg saying "cs3 driving new mac sales in 2007" ... assuming that the article was based on a just released peice of software, not some crappy rumour article :S

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=2208

looks like its coming out april time.

 

Haha saw that as well and was wondering if that was where you might have seen it.

Cool . Im looking forward to CS3

 

E6400 Core 2 Duo $290
Foxconn P9657AA-8EKRS2H i965 $160
Pixelview 7900GS Graphics Card $250
WD CaviarSE (KS) 320G HDD $135

Already have an old case and PSU he can have. It's pretty scanky, so if he wants a new one I saw a nice (simple) Foxconn for $39 (with a 550W PSU that is worth most as scrap metal). Also, just won a bid on ebay for 2 x 512 kit of GSkill DDR2 533MHz RAM CL4-4-4-12 for $102 (absolute bargain at the moment! May keep it myself!) I'm thinking perhaps of finding another Gig of this RAM somewhere, because he should have 2G if he can afford it? I'm assuming that will help with G Design.

So all up this comes to $937 (unless he wants 2G RAM). But he won't be ready to go ahead for maybe a month or two, by which time DX10 graphics cards should be out so I'd expect the price on the 7900GS to drop significantly by then. Maybe less $100 over the price of the whole computer (if all components go down a little). Might get $500+ for his old P4 on ebay, so this could end up a very cheap upgrade!

Looked around at some Apples online. Is it true the G5 is over $3500?! Only 1G RAM, 250G HDD, 7300(GS probably) ?!!! It better be packing an X6800 for that price, but even then that's way overpriced! Are Apple users just completely ignorant? Do they know how little the hardware is really worth, or have I misunderstood something here? Seems like highway robbery! The case isn't even that pretty! No pretty blue LEDs even?

Thankyou to all who responded. I feel much more confident recommending the PC system. To answer a few questions, my friend is young, so the occassional game is likely, but will have to ask. He is not so "hardware" literate (did not know CPU clockspeed or that it was a P4), but seems to know his way around Windows pretty well. He is young, so he will learn... He's maybe too good looking and outgoing to be a true nerd, but perhaps I can BEND him [sinister cackle].

I have a few other graphic design/Apple questions:

I assume a good graphics card makes a big difference in G Design? Or is it mainly CPU intensive?

Roughly how much would an equivalent (to the above setup) Apple computer be worth to buy?

If he insists on Apple, couldn't we just use this PC setup and load MacOSX for $200, or would the spooky "non-genuine" "Apple" components cause more instability?

Whenever I look for an Apple's specs, they never seem to list anything about the mobo/chipset. Are they Intel, and if so, which?

 

if by on for years you mean uptime then i'd have to disagree, my windows xp pc is often on for a week stright and it gets very slow after a while even to the extent where windows stop rendering properly untill you close another window...

 

There are no G5s anymore so I'm not sure what you are looking at. The regular Mac Pro is $3995, and its a dual xeon 5150. I actually think, for the first time, the price of a macPro is "reasonable". The cheapest Xeon 5150 is $1k each, the cheapest Intel 5000x greencreek chipset mobo is about $700, and then 1gb crucial FB-DIMM is 2x$159 at Nintek (prices from staticice). Thats $3k already, and you still have to buy GF7300 vid card, aluminium tower case, PSU, 250gb hard disk, keyboard/mouse, DVD burner, and software/OS. If you were to build the whole thing yourself you'd only save a few hundred and you wouldn't have a warranty over the whole unit.