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Posted:
in Current Mac Hardware edited January 2014
Okay, okay, okay. Was all that my wife said.



What happen was my Dell with Vista on it crashed again. Only having the Dell a little over a year and I could not take it any longer.



Little about me: I'm that IT guy, the one who has been working in the "Microsoft" arena for almost 16 years. I still remember till this day my first Windows NT network install. I have the Computer Science degree, the MCSE starting with NT and all the way up to VISTA, my CCNA and CCNE and so on. I have always been a 'Microsoft' guy. Went to Microsoft events, wore Microsoft clothing and more important, always had a computer running a Microsoft OS.



Then a little over a year ago, word of the iPhone came out. My wife and I needed new phones, so we decided to jump in. Yes, I was one of those fools who sat in line at the local ATT store on the first day and payed $599 for the iPhone. However both my wife and I have been beyond happy with the iPhone. If this is a first generation item from Apple, something pretty close to perfect. What else are they doing right?



After buying the iPhone, this caused me to be a repeat customer to the Apple retail stores. Every one you go into is packed with customers. Yet you usually find the best customer service. They are so helpful and nice. The ability to make a reservation to ask questions or when you have an issue with their product is amazing.



A few months after getting her iPhone, my wifes very old laptop dies. We have been meaning to replace it for some time. I get onto Dells website and I have a brand new Dell all configured, ready to be ordered. I call her into the office to discuss if I have everything she needs and she drops a bomb on me. "I want an apple" she says. Having an iPhone is one thing, but to actually get a apple computer.



We go to the Apple store @ SOHO in NYC. We walk in on a very rainy day, the store is packed. We walk over to where the laptops are. I show her the Macbook pros, but she prefers the Macbook. We looking it over, a incredibly helpful and probably overworked Apple person came over and helped us. Gave us one of our best shopping experiences ever and we walked out with a white Macbook for my wife and she could not be happier.



I have used her laptop a lot and have come to really like it. Often not even bothering to boot my Dell laptop. However I still needed to use my Dell desktop for a lot of my work. I do CGI work and Video Editing. I was having problems with my Dell Vista XPS right from the start. Dell would tell me it was VISTA and Microsoft all ways said it was working on it. Then updates would not install, computer would freeze up and I just could not take it any longer.



Last night was the last straw. I was cursing up a storm at my computer and I told my wife, "F-it I'm buying a Mac." she said "Okay, okay, okay." So last night I ordered my Mac Pro and when It arrives, I will not look back and never, NEVER return to windows in my personal life.

Comments

  • Reply 1 of 15
    lorrelorre Posts: 396member
    Haha this is a really nice personal story!



    But beware, Macs are far from perfect... they sure are a hell of a lot better than Windows PC's though
  • Reply 2 of 15
    zinfellazinfella Posts: 877member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Lorre View Post


    Haha this is a really nice personal story!



    But beware, Macs are far from perfect... they sure are a hell of a lot better than Windows PC's though



    I think he will be thrilled when "it just works!"
  • Reply 3 of 15
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by waxxel View Post


    Okay, okay, okay. Was all that my wife said.



    What happen was my Dell with Vista on it crashed again. Only having the Dell a little over a year and I could not take it any longer.



    Little about me: I'm that IT guy, the one who has been working in the "Microsoft" arena for almost 16 years. I still remember till this day my first Windows NT network install. I have the Computer Science degree, the MCSE starting with NT and all the way up to VISTA, my CCNA and CCNE and so on. I have always been a 'Microsoft' guy. Went to Microsoft events, wore Microsoft clothing and more important, always had a computer running a Microsoft OS.



    Then a little over a year ago, word of the iPhone came out. My wife and I needed new phones, so we decided to jump in. Yes, I was one of those fools who sat in line at the local ATT store on the first day and payed $599 for the iPhone. However both my wife and I have been beyond happy with the iPhone. If this is a first generation item from Apple, something pretty close to perfect. What else are they doing right?



    After buying the iPhone, this caused me to be a repeat customer to the Apple retail stores. Every one you go into is packed with customers. Yet you usually find the best customer service. They are so helpful and nice. The ability to make a reservation to ask questions or when you have an issue with their product is amazing.



    A few months after getting her iPhone, my wifes very old laptop dies. We have been meaning to replace it for some time. I get onto Dells website and I have a brand new Dell all configured, ready to be ordered. I call her into the office to discuss if I have everything she needs and she drops a bomb on me. "I want an apple" she says. Having an iPhone is one thing, but to actually get a apple computer.



    We go to the Apple store @ SOHO in NYC. We walk in on a very rainy day, the store is packed. We walk over to where the laptops are. I show her the Macbook pros, but she prefers the Macbook. We looking it over, a incredibly helpful and probably overworked Apple person came over and helped us. Gave us one of our best shopping experiences ever and we walked out with a white Macbook for my wife and she could not be happier.



    I have used her laptop a lot and have come to really like it. Often not even bothering to boot my Dell laptop. However I still needed to use my Dell desktop for a lot of my work. I do CGI work and Video Editing. I was having problems with my Dell Vista XPS right from the start. Dell would tell me it was VISTA and Microsoft all ways said it was working on it. Then updates would not install, computer would freeze up and I just could not take it any longer.



    Last night was the last straw. I was cursing up a storm at my computer and I told my wife, "F-it I'm buying a Mac." she said "Okay, okay, okay." So last night I ordered my Mac Pro and when It arrives, I will not look back and never, NEVER return to windows in my personal life.



    Generally Mac OS X are considered superior to Windows when it comes to CGI, graphics, and video editing. If you're in the market, I'd recommend Final Cut Studio for your Mac Pro. Final Cut Studio is an industry leading software suite. I don't know much about CGI programs, but consider that Pixar does all of their animations on Macs. The software they use (as well as produce and sell) is called RenderMan (for Maya).
  • Reply 4 of 15
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball View Post


    Generally Mac OS X are considered superior to Windows when it comes to CGI, graphics, and video editing.



    Some of the industry standard apps like 3DS Max, Nvidia Gelato and AutoCAD aren't even available for the Mac. For motion graphics, After Effects is the best and it runs better on Windows as you'd expect from an Adobe app.



    Graphics card choice is fairly poor and even when we get them, things like anti-aliasing and shader support is lower than on Windows.



    For raw rendering, the price/performance ratio is better for PCs. Pixar don't use Macs for their Renderfarm.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball View Post


    If you're in the market, I'd recommend Final Cut Studio for your Mac Pro. Final Cut Studio is an industry leading software suite. I don't know much about CGI programs, but consider that Pixar does all of their animations on Macs. The software they use (as well as produce and sell) is called RenderMan (for Maya).



    Pixar don't do all of their animation on Macs. Renderman wasn't even available for Macs until 2003 (after Finding Nemo):



    https://renderman.pixar.com/products...5_release.html



    Not that the rendering affects the desktop use as Maya was available for a while but again Maya ran and still runs much worse on the Mac than other platforms - only the most recent Maya 8 is a universal binary (it was an affair similar to the CS3 suite). Pixar mainly use Linux and Windows NT. As Apple eventually realized that they have to adapt to how people work and not the other way round and subsequently adopted unix and x86, things have changed a bit.



    Pixar do use Apple technology though and even developed the Pixlet compression format, which is actually a really good format but like I say, they are only starting to be accepted into professional lines of work now that Apple decided to start playing by the rules instead of their own. They've still got a way to work that out completely though.



    At the present time with Leopard, universal binary Maya (including unlimited), Renderman, fast multi-core x86 processors and close to the latest GPUs at an affordable price, the Mac is an excellent choice for this line of work but it certainly hasn't always been the case. It will be even better when they bring advances like CUDA and Snow Leopard with serious optimization. SSD and new filesystems to improve data throughput on large files will be the icing on the cake.



    Waxxel, what spec of Mac Pro did you buy?
  • Reply 5 of 15
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Some of the industry standard apps like 3DS Max, Nvidia Gelato and AutoCAD aren't even available for the Mac.



    Most architecture and programs at Universities require or suggest Macs. There is a variety of powerful design and CAD software for Mac.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    [After Effects] runs better on Windows as you'd expect from an Adobe app.



    Most Adobe apps (as of CS3) actually have better performance on Macs than PCs with the exception of Adobe's video editing suite.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    For motion graphics, After Effects is the best



    Not true. Motion 3 as part of Final Cut Studio 2 added support for 3D motion, which was the primary complaint about Motion versus After Effects. Motion 3 is much more powerful and has a better interface than After Effects, and Motion (and especially Apple's separate product Shake) is the preference of the film industry.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Graphics card choice is fairly poor and even when we get them, things like anti-aliasing and shader support is lower than on Windows.



    When Apple upgrades the graphics cards available (I'm thinking Mac Pro here), they graphics cards they offer are pretty good at the time. The two things that are limiting factors is that Apple doesn't update the graphics card selection as often as they should, and they offer a limited graphics card selection.



    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    For raw rendering, the price/performance ratio is better for PCs. Pixar don't use Macs for their Renderfarm.



    Pixar don't do all of their animation on Macs. Renderman wasn't even available for Macs until 2003 (after Finding Nemo):



    https://renderman.pixar.com/products...5_release.html



    Not that the rendering affects the desktop use as Maya was available for a while but again Maya ran and still runs much worse on the Mac than other platforms - only the most recent Maya 8 is a universal binary (it was an affair similar to the CS3 suite). Pixar mainly use Linux and Windows NT. As Apple eventually realized that they have to adapt to how people work and not the other way round and subsequently adopted unix and x86, things have changed a bit.



    Pixar do use Apple technology though and even developed the Pixlet compression format, which is actually a really good format but like I say, they are only starting to be accepted into professional lines of work now that Apple decided to start playing by the rules instead of their own. They've still got a way to work that out completely though.



    At the present time with Leopard, universal binary Maya (including unlimited), Renderman, fast multi-core x86 processors and close to the latest GPUs at an affordable price, the Mac is an excellent choice for this line of work but it certainly hasn't always been the case. It will be even better when they bring advances like CUDA and Snow Leopard with serious optimization. SSD and new filesystems to improve data throughput on large files will be the icing on the cake.



    Waxxel, what spec of Mac Pro did you buy?



    Pixar uses Macs for CGI creation, which was what I was getting at. It's believable (and likely) that they don't use macs for most of their renderfarm. But at any rate, you seem to know a lot about CGI, which I, admittedly, know only a little about.
  • Reply 6 of 15
    jensonbjensonb Posts: 532member
    Great story. I know your frustrations. Here's the thing with Windows. Genrally, it works okay and you can get stuff done, but it's full of little things. Odd errors, weird bugs, strange behaviour. It nags and nags and nags until you crave Justin Long in computer form.
  • Reply 7 of 15
    jennyyujennyyu Posts: 7member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Jensonb View Post


    Great story. I know your frustrations. Here's the thing with Windows. Genrally, it works okay and you can get stuff done, but it's full of little things. Odd errors, weird bugs, strange behaviour. It nags and nags and nags until you crave Justin Long in computer form.



    u are taking his wife or laptop
  • Reply 8 of 15
    MarvinMarvin Posts: 15,310moderator
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by icfireball View Post


    Not true. Motion 3 as part of Final Cut Studio 2 added support for 3D motion, which was the primary complaint about Motion versus After Effects. Motion 3 is much more powerful and has a better interface than After Effects, and Motion (and especially Apple's separate product Shake) is the preference of the film industry.



    Shake is preferred and I use it but Motion is not. AE has a 3D compositing environment and 3D movement within it but it's used with Cinema 4D to do complex 3D animation, which Motion isn't capable of. Considering Motion 3 only came out in the last year, it simply can't be the preference of the movie industry. No software has that level of uptake.



    AE has a huge amount of plugins and software support and is tried and tested. By contrast, Motion is taking its baby steps and has limitations due to its architecture.



    Motion is to AE what imovie is to Final Cut Pro. It doesn't even have programmable expressions.



    The Macworld review has more details:



    "Motion also won?t replace some of the more sophisticated scripting and fine-tuned editing found in After Effects, or high-end compositing workflows in tools such as Combustion and Shake."



    http://www.macworld.com/article/5857...6/motion3.html



    After Effects is still available for the Mac though so Motion vs AE doesn't matter but AE only became usable on Intel with the Universal binary, again with CS3 so the Mac is a far from established leader at running these packages well.
  • Reply 9 of 15
    waxxelwaxxel Posts: 24member
    Hi all,



    While I know Mac's are not 'perfect' they have to be better then what I have had.



    My new Mac Pro is:



    3.2 GHZ Quad Core

    16 GB Memory

    2 TB Storage

    NVIDIA GeForce 8800 512 mb



    When I was editing on Windows, I used Premier & Vegas. However I lost a lot of potential gigs because a lot of people wanted Final Cut Pro. So yes, I got FCP and Adobe Premiere and After Effects. While I have never used motion, I love After Effects.



    I do CGI in Lightwaves, so I ordered that for Mac as well.



    I'm really looking forward to getting my new computer.



















    Quote:
    Originally Posted by Marvin View Post


    Shake is preferred and I use it but Motion is not. AE has a 3D compositing environment and 3D movement within it but it's used with Cinema 4D to do complex 3D animation, which Motion isn't capable of. Considering Motion 3 only came out in the last year, it simply can't be the preference of the movie industry. No software has that level of uptake.



    AE has a huge amount of plugins and software support and is tried and tested. By contrast, Motion is taking its baby steps and has limitations due to its architecture.



    Motion is to AE what imovie is to Final Cut Pro. It doesn't even have programmable expressions.



    The Macworld review has more details:



    "Motion also won?t replace some of the more sophisticated scripting and fine-tuned editing found in After Effects, or high-end compositing workflows in tools such as Combustion and Shake."



    http://www.macworld.com/article/5857...6/motion3.html



    After Effects is still available for the Mac though so Motion vs AE doesn't matter but AE only became usable on Intel with the Universal binary, again with CS3 so the Mac is a far from established leader at running these packages well.



  • Reply 10 of 15
    zinfellazinfella Posts: 877member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by waxxel View Post


    Hi all,



    While I know Mac's are not 'perfect' they have to be better then what I have had.



    My new Mac Pro is:



    3.2 GHZ Quad Core

    16 GB Memory

    2 TB Storage

    NVIDIA GeForce 8800 512 mb



    When I was editing on Windows, I used Premier & Vegas. However I lost a lot of potential gigs because a lot of people wanted Final Cut Pro. So yes, I got FCP and Adobe Premiere and After Effects. While I have never used motion, I love After Effects.



    I do CGI in Lightwaves, so I ordered that for Mac as well.



    I'm really looking forward to getting my new computer.



    I hope that you didn't buy your ram from Apple. Trans International has 16 gig of ram for that Mac Pro, for, are you ready, $768. I don't buy hard drives from Apple either the same drives are available elsewhere for much less. You have to get at least one HD with a new Mac, but, you don't have to pay their prices for others. I'd get the smallest drive that they have for that Mac Pro, then shop elsewhere for drives to give you 2 TB storage. HTH
  • Reply 11 of 15
    waxxelwaxxel Posts: 24member
    Hey,



    No, I didn't get the memory or HD from Apple. I went with the minimum on both when I ordered from Apple and got the rest from 'other' places.



    Tom





    Quote:
    Originally Posted by zinfella View Post


    I hope that you didn't buy your ram from Apple. Trans International has 16 gig of ram for that Mac Pro, for, are you ready, $768. I don't buy hard drives from Apple either the same drives are available elsewhere for much less. You have to get at least one HD with a new Mac, but, you don't have to pay their prices for others. I'd get the smallest drive that they have for that Mac Pro, then shop elsewhere for drives to give you 2 TB storage. HTH



  • Reply 12 of 15
    zinfellazinfella Posts: 877member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by waxxel View Post


    Hey,



    No, I didn't get the memory or HD from Apple. I went with the minimum on both when I ordered from Apple and got the rest from 'other' places.



    Tom





    Take a bow!
  • Reply 13 of 15
    joedrcjoedrc Posts: 86member
    Apple charges silly amounts for memory, Crucial ftw!
  • Reply 14 of 15
    waxxelwaxxel Posts: 24member
    Well I got my new Mac. Here are the pictures...















  • Reply 15 of 15
    icfireballicfireball Posts: 2,594member
    Quote:
    Originally Posted by waxxel View Post


    Well I got my new Mac. Here are the pictures...



    ***images***



    sexy
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