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DPChallenge Forums >> Hardware and Software >> Mac, PC, and disc formating/storage
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01/03/2006 02:15:19 PM · #1
Okay, I'm not trying to start a mac vs pc war. I'm currently in the market for a high performance computer that only edits photos, nothing else will be done with the system. I've grown up on PCs so excuse my lack of mac know how. I've spent a lot of time looking at the new Dell monster pc XPS 600 fully loaded with the best stuff (talk about expensive!). However, I'm now looking at macs and I have a curious question. Most of the people I deal with own PCs and like me to give them finished photos on disc (CD and DVD). If I can be convinced to buy a mac, will I have a huge !@#$ headache? I know that macs will read any PC formated discs (been reading their website lately). But does it work going from Mac to PC???? This is very critical for me, one of those make or break the deal items you know. I also have a question about storage. How easy is to get more hard drive storage with a mac? I know that PCs have a zillion options, but I have no clue with mac. Can I set them up externally in a raid? Thanks for any help!
01/03/2006 02:22:36 PM · #2
Formatting is easy. CDs burned on a Mac are readable on a PC by default. Adding hard drives is simple- either an external Firewire (preferably) or USB 2.0 drive will work, and you can add a second drive internally to a PowerMac in about two minutes- without a screwdriver. Apple's included disk formatting utility can easily create internal or external RAID arrays.
01/03/2006 02:28:29 PM · #3
I have both a Mac and a PC on my desktop. Transferring media between one and the other is easy and I have yet to have any issues.

Just from a usability standpoint, I would go with the Mac. I find that installation (both hardware and software) is so much easier with the Mac.
01/03/2006 02:33:02 PM · #4
Thanks for the help so far, mind if I pick your brain some more? What is it like to work with a mac in a PC dominated world? I'm a huge stickler for good monitors, can I use any one that I want, like a Mitsubishi Diamondtron CRT (THE best crt technology to date, on loan or something from the wizards at Sony). Also, I hear that macs are about to get really powerful soon with the switch to Pentium Processors, how long will I need to wait if I decide on buying a mac?
01/03/2006 02:39:41 PM · #5
Sure, any monitor will work fine. NEC/Mitsu Diamondtrons and Dell LCDs are good choices. Macs are already really powerful. The quad PowerMac blows away anything in the PC world (with the possible exception of gaming performance). The decision to switch to Intel is more for future chip technologies and low-power processors than any current deficiency. They WON'T be Pentium chips.
01/03/2006 02:49:22 PM · #6
actually macs have been more powerful than PCs for the last 3 years, ever since they announced the G5 processor, then at the same time they announced a 64 bit operating system and most software developers like Adobe made their software 64bit compliant, so now to use the new quad G5 running photoshop, you'd have to spent $10.000+ to get a PC with that much power.

if you are in the media buisness(photography, video, audio, animation, publishing) then it's a MAC world, the PC world is limited to gaming ;)

to run photoshop CS2 on a G5 is awsome, the hourglass you see everytime you click the mousebutton on a PC doesn't exsist in the mac, as soon as you release the mousebutton, the mac has already compleated the task and is waiting for your next order :)

it's lovely to find the computer to work faster than oneself, to never have to wait, and to be able to do more than one thing at a time :)

and to know that the computer wont freeze while you are working on your masterpiece and havn't saved yet.. I find that to be the most valuable thing, and ofcource I never get viruses on my mac....

I have 3 macs and one PC, I move files between them all mac-pc-mac and never any problems..

and the thing most PC'ers say.. you can't get any software for the mac... not true.. 90% of the software available for PC is available for mac, those 10% is software designed to fight viruses, spyware and such, and a few games, most game producers make their games cross platform.

and the Apple HD Cinema Display is one of the best LCD screen available for photoediting, I used to have the 21" Sony Trinitron, but replaced it with the 23" Apple HD Cinema Display with no regrets, it's amazing.. and takes about 15% of the tablespace the Trinitron took :)

edit: added info about LCD

Message edited by author 2006-01-03 14:55:04.
01/03/2006 02:56:16 PM · #7
Just a note. I noticed that on a Mac...say you plug in a usb flash drive with pictures on it, and you delete some pictures from the flash drive. Unless you empty your trash can while the flash drive is still mounted, you will get duplicate files in your flash drive that begin with "_". I think those are the "trashed" files. On a PC you can see those files, however on a Mac, those files are hidden. Just something I noticed when transfering pictures from a Mac to PC.

If you do decide on a Mac, be cautious of its default photo app iPhoto. It has a very different system of photo organization that took me a while to get used to when I converted to a Mac. Transfering pictures from iPhotoo to a PC could be someone tedius. I actually just recently gave up on iPhoto and made my own photo organization system.
01/03/2006 03:02:25 PM · #8
Originally posted by eswik:

be cautious of its default photo app iPhoto. It has a very different system of photo organization.... Transfering pictures from iPhoto to a PC could be someone tedius.


iPhoto organizes images by date and "film roll." What's so difficult about that? Transferring images is just a matter of selecting the ones you want and hitting "Export." Not exactly rocket science.
01/03/2006 03:04:32 PM · #9
Originally posted by DanSig:

and to know that the computer wont freeze while you are working on your masterpiece and havn't saved yet.. I find that to be the most valuable thing, and ofcource I never get viruses on my mac....

Actually Mac apps can and do freeze (at least for me). But its not catastrophic, like it is on my PC. I just have to force quit the program instead of hard resetting on my PC.

Originally posted by DanSig:

and the thing most PC'ers say.. you can't get any software for the mac... not true.. 90% of the software available for PC is available for mac, those 10% is software designed to fight viruses, spyware and such, and a few games, most game producers make their games cross platform.

I was expecting a lack of software when I converted to a Mac. However I was surprised to find the amount of really good and innovative software for Macs that I'd never find for a PC. //www.versiontracker.com has a lot of great software (for both platforms)
01/03/2006 03:04:33 PM · #10
Originally posted by eswik:

Just a note. I noticed that on a Mac...say you plug in a usb flash drive with pictures on it, and you delete some pictures from the flash drive. Unless you empty your trash can while the flash drive is still mounted, you will get duplicate files in your flash drive that begin with "_". I think those are the "trashed" files. On a PC you can see those files, however on a Mac, those files are hidden. Just something I noticed when transfering pictures from a Mac to PC.

If you do decide on a Mac, be cautious of its default photo app iPhoto. It has a very different system of photo organization that took me a while to get used to when I converted to a Mac. Transfering pictures from iPhotoo to a PC could be someone tedius. I actually just recently gave up on iPhoto and made my own photo organization system.


iPhoto is for the family portraits, not for someone that takes alot of pictures, I use Fotostation it's the same program most newsroom have, like Reuters, it's considered THE software to use as an album. and Photoshop CS2 is becoming THE standard in photoediting.

the limit in iPhoto is said 20.000 images, but I found it to stop working normally when I was up to 10.000 images.
01/03/2006 03:05:23 PM · #11
Thanks! This is all very helpful, I think I'm leaning towards macs right now, I've got the funds to do it too. I'm curious about what you get hardware wise. If I bought a Powermac G5 today, does it come with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor? I looked at this online, and I didn't specify (maybe I'm just getting lost in all the links). Also, when it comes to extra hard drives, cards, ect... Does it need to be made by Apple? Can I just go out and buy any old thing I need and be safe?
01/03/2006 03:17:58 PM · #12
the G5 comes with a mouse and keyboard, but not a monitor, you have the freedom to chose the monitor you want, I can't reccomend enough the Apple HD Cinema Display.

the G5 comes with one SATA drive, you can add another in less than 2 minutes, buy any SATA drive you like, the memory is standard DDR
PC3200 but if you want to add 1GB you must buy 2 identical 512MB chips as the G5 uses them in pairs, you can add 6 chips as you get the mac with 2 chips.. 8GB memory max.. I think 16GB on the quad...

videocards must be MAC edition, but many stores sell them.

just buy extras where you find it cheap, applestore is very expencive on the extras, get your G5 stripped, minimum ram, hdd, video, and buy what you want from a cheap retailer, could save up to $5000 :)
01/03/2006 03:20:26 PM · #13
just tried to see how much the quad G5 was on the apple store and i couldn't because it failed to render correctly in FF and popped up 135 W3C warnings (prolly the cause of the broken site)

how much is the new Quad?
01/03/2006 03:23:51 PM · #14
Originally posted by Bobster:

how much is the new Quad?


It's $3099 at Amazon after a $200 rebate.
01/03/2006 03:24:05 PM · #15


$3,299.00

or as low as $77 a month

Estimated Ship: Within 24 hours

Free Shipping

Two dual-core 2.5GHz PowerPC G5 processors

1.25GHz frontside bus per processor

1MB L2 cache per core

512MB of 533MHz DDR2 SDRAM (PC2-4200)

250GB Serial ATA hard drive

16x SuperDrive (double-layer)

Three open PCI-Express expansion slots

NVIDIA GeForce 6600 with 256MB GDDR SDRAM

01/03/2006 03:26:58 PM · #16
How would you buy a stripped G5? I know that if I go with a Dell, I can just make it whatever the heck I want it to be and thats the end of it, I can't seem to find any type of luxury on the mac site. Would I need to go to an apple store and talk to someone about doing this? And is thrid party hardware as reliable as what Apple might sell you? Thanks again, this is great feedback!
01/03/2006 03:31:01 PM · #17
Originally posted by DanSig:

Originally posted by eswik:

Just a note. I noticed that on a Mac...say you plug in a usb flash drive with pictures on it, and you delete some pictures from the flash drive. Unless you empty your trash can while the flash drive is still mounted, you will get duplicate files in your flash drive that begin with "_". I think those are the "trashed" files. On a PC you can see those files, however on a Mac, those files are hidden. Just something I noticed when transfering pictures from a Mac to PC.

If you do decide on a Mac, be cautious of its default photo app iPhoto. It has a very different system of photo organization that took me a while to get used to when I converted to a Mac. Transfering pictures from iPhotoo to a PC could be someone tedius. I actually just recently gave up on iPhoto and made my own photo organization system.


iPhoto is for the family portraits, not for someone that takes alot of pictures, I use Fotostation it's the same program most newsroom have, like Reuters, it's considered THE software to use as an album. and Photoshop CS2 is becoming THE standard in photoediting.

the limit in iPhoto is said 20.000 images, but I found it to stop working normally when I was up to 10.000 images.


25.000 images according to Apple, with Raw file support. While I still use iPhoto for my personal photos, Dan is right when he points toward pro apps for pros. I use iView Pro. Extensis Portfolio is another alternative.

With the G5, I'd also recommend looking at Apple's Aperture.
01/03/2006 03:37:28 PM · #18
Originally posted by zeuszen:


With the G5, I'd also recommend looking at Apple's Aperture.


I've tried Aperture, it's the worst program available today, it really sucks... until they fix the 1000+ problems in apertuer it's not even worth downloading for free and trying....
01/03/2006 03:43:08 PM · #19
Originally posted by cardmaverick:

How would you buy a stripped G5? I know that if I go with a Dell, I can just make it whatever the heck I want it to be and thats the end of it, I can't seem to find any type of luxury on the mac site. Would I need to go to an apple store and talk to someone about doing this? And is thrid party hardware as reliable as what Apple might sell you? Thanks again, this is great feedback!


apple uses 3d party hardware, harddisks, memory and videocards are all 3d party, you can add all kinds of extras but it will just overprice the mac..

if you max the quad mac on applestore, you get the price up to $17.932

and the only thing added was more memory, bigger disks, and better videocard..
01/03/2006 03:54:18 PM · #20
So the best bet for me is to just buy the standard Power Mac G5 Quad (Thats what I'm now seriously considering)?
01/03/2006 04:10:05 PM · #21
Originally posted by DanSig:

Originally posted by zeuszen:


With the G5, I'd also recommend looking at Apple's Aperture.


I've tried Aperture, it's the worst program available today, it really sucks... until they fix the 1000+ problems in apertuer it's not even worth downloading for free and trying....


I've been following coverage of these issues on the MacFixIt site. On the other hand, I've read raving reviews by some photographers (I forget where), who probably used a beta version. As with any new program, it may be a good idea to wait for a matured version...


01/03/2006 04:22:42 PM · #22
Originally posted by cardmaverick:

So the best bet for me is to just buy the standard Power Mac G5 Quad?


If money is no object, then yes, that's the best available. Intel-based PowerMacs probably won't debut until July. Personally, I've always found the next model down to be a better value, but that's just me. I would order from Amazon to get the discount (or a bundle from another vendor like Macconnection), then add another hard drive and at least another GB of RAM (owcomputing.com and ramjet.com are good sources).
01/03/2006 04:41:46 PM · #23
Originally posted by scalvert:

Originally posted by cardmaverick:

So the best bet for me is to just buy the standard Power Mac G5 Quad?


If money is no object, then yes, that's the best available. Intel-based PowerMacs probably won't debut until July. Personally, I've always found the next model down to be a better value, but that's just me. I would order from Amazon to get the discount (or a bundle from another vendor like Macconnection), then add another hard drive and at least another GB of RAM (owcomputing.com and ramjet.com are good sources).


Too bad the next model down is missing 2 processors. Get the quad if you can afford it.

I've used aperture in the store and am impressed with a few features. I'm currently using C1 Pro and like it a lot.
01/03/2006 05:59:09 PM · #24
One MAJOR reason to switch to Macs: NO Viruses or Trojans or Spyware on Macs!
01/12/2006 03:28:34 PM · #25
Originally posted by doctornick:

One MAJOR reason to switch to Macs: NO Viruses or Trojans or Spyware on Macs!


Completely a false statement, although it is less prone to such attacks. There are still vulnerabilities. Though there is less dedication toward writing virus' on Mac. If Mac controlled 95% of the market share it'd be a much different picture.

But Mac is not immune to viruses, trojans or spyware. Many of these flaws come from various applications. You might have Firefox installed. A flaw or hack is found regarding JPEGs. And all instances of Firefox might pose risk of vulnerability. Just facts of life.

"Security researchers have warned of a flaw in communications software that could allow attackers to take over computers running Windows, Mac OS X and Unix-based operating systems..."
//news.com.com/2100-1001-948777.html

Though it is reduced with MacOS (mainly due to it's lesser popularity).
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