Camera Labs

Hi There guys,
This christmas i am thinking of getting a Desktop, to do all my editing, and store all my photos, movies, and music, on one nice big hard disk, and a nice big screen . Now i have just been using Mac on my Dell, and i have uninstalled it because i had problems getting the graphics working properly (eyes started hurting, looking at 1024x768 resolution screen, on a 1280x800 destined display). I quite liked Mac, but now i have just reinstalled vista, and i was skocked to find myself actually quite liking it .
The dilemna i am having is what to buy! I had a gander on the dell website, and i can get a dell XPS 420, for £730, with 20" screen 256MB graphics, 2GB's of RAM and a 500GB HDD, all of these are the same as a base of line iMac, if not better, some even twice as good!
So what are your opinions on what i should buy?
Thanks
Ed

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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I never had in my home other than Mac... but in office where I work partly I am tortured to work on PC... so every day I get reasons not to allow PC in my home... but my opinion is too personal as I am hard core Bill Gates and his products, hater.

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Canon 40D, 17-40/4 L, B+W UV normal; canon-50/1.4

It comes down to what you want to run, and how to run it. Fundamentally there's a lot more choice in software and hardware on the PC side. That's not to say smaller choice is bad, as common tasks are covered well on the Mac. And you can also install Windows on the Mac if you want both...

Just to balance pravado, I'm probably on the other side of the fence. I've owned a recent Mac, and sold it again. Never got on with it. It was only usable to me once I installed Windows on it...

However to be fair, you haven't experienced a Mac unless you're running authentic operating system on Apple hardware. To base a decision otherwise will be flawed.

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Canon DSLRs: 7D, 5D2, 1D, 600D, 450D full spectrum, 300D IR mod
Lenses: EF 35/2, 50/1.8, 85/1.8, 135/2+SF, 28-80 V, 70-300L, 100-400L, TS-E 24/3.5L, MP-E 65, EF-S 15-85 IS
3rd party: Zeiss 2/50 makro, Samyang 8mm fisheye, Sigma 150 macro, 120-300 f/2.8 OS, Celestron 1325/13
Tinies: Sony HX9V.

Firstly, unless you run ONLY Windows on a Mac, then you cannot compare the specs of a Mac to a PC because they just don't compare that way. I find that Macs run faster on equivalent hardware but the hardware is almost always inferior(spec-wise) so it kinda balances out.

Macs are more stable, don't get viruses and such but you get a much higher level of compatibility with software and hardware when you own a PC so it's matter of picking which you like best. For gaming, PCs FTW!

Mac OS doesn't work too well on a PC but you can always install Vista or XP on a Mac.

Disclaimer: My primary computer is a Mac but I use PCs every day at home and in school. I don't claim to be correct, that's just how I see the situation, so please don't turn this into an argument.

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Graham
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Hi Grahamnp
Yeh i see what you mean, i use macs all the time at school, two of our it rooms, have the latest iMacs in, the the others have the slightly older plastic ones, which are good for school work, i seem to like both os's equally! And no please as grahamnp said, DON'T turn this into an argument, these two OS's are both better at different things. The most important thing, in finding which one you like the most, will come down to personalitiy and personal experience!
Thanks For your input guys.

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Ed


Canon 40D + Grip | Sigma 10-20 EX | 17-85 | Sigma 70-200 f/2.8 EX II | 50 F/1.8 | 430 EX II + Other Stuff
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Vista was never as bad as it has been made out to be by the press and some crazy people on forums. I've been using a Mac for the last 5 years and I've recently moved back to the Windows platform.

My reasons are:
1) It's cheaper. I got an Acer Aspire for 1/3 the price of what a MBP would have cost. The build quality isn't the same, but the specs are and that's what mattered to me.
2) I'm a Windows developer by day and using Windows at home allows me to keep honing my developer skills.
3) Vista is actually pretty good.

Somethings have slightly disappointed me.
1) Poor monitor color calibration tools compared to the Mac.
2) Not as stable as OS X.
3) No Aperture
4) Have to buy Windows licenses of software that I used on the Mac.

Of course, your mileage will vary so take all this with the standard caveats. But since you're used to running a hackintosh, I guess stability issues and licenses won't be an issue

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PhilipGoh.com

I can only speak from my personal experience. When I first started at my company (5 years ago) I was a PC only guy and absolutely HATED Macs. After 5 years I have been completely converted to a Mac person. Here's why:

1) Macs seem more stable when running several applications at once without slowing down
2) Macs seem to handle multiple image and graphic design files quicker than PCs without locking up or quitting applications (my major beef with PCs)
3) Impervious to spyware, viruses (for now), or other little nuggets deposited on your hard drive by the web
4) I never quite got the knack of the filing system on PC's and how the computer decided on its own where to dump things. I like everything on my desktop in a file system I created.
5) My Mac at work is 3 years old now (Intel Core Duo) and is as fast today as it was out of the box without constant maintenance from me.

Like Graham, I will also include a disclaimer:
I was sold on PC's and resisted Macs heavily until I used them every day for the last 5 years, now I wouldn't be without one. I bought a brand new IMac w/Leopard for home just two months ago and couldn't be happier. Not trying to trash PC's just my opinion as a Mac user.

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http://www.flickr.com/photos/nursediesel
Canon EOS 5D & 5D2 | EF 70-200 f2.8 L IS | EF 100-400 f4.5-5.6 L IS | EF 24-105 f4 L IS | EF 17-40 F4 L | 580 EX II | Fujifilm X10