TIMEKILLER
Apr 16, 2003, 03:43 PM
This is a great board, lots of good thought (hell, wasted a morning of my self-employed time reading it all!). Here is long post about the joys of searching for a new Apple or PC computer. Long post, but I've got to vent.
About 20 years ago I became an avid computer user (poor handwriting and a tech interest combined). I ran a TRS something notebook in early college, then a Mac (SE I think?), then a DOS box of some kind I cobbled together when the Mac died). After graduating I went to work in publishing, where I made the office PCs work thanks to an interest in DOS, but I really enjoyed working on the design side's Macs. I then switched to another company that ran all Macs, and it was brilliant. Appletalk, networked printers, it was light years ahead of the PC experience. At this point Apple was so far ahead it wasn't even funny. I bought a powerbook 100 (loved that trackball!), 160C, and XXXX something, etc. As a travelling journalist I found that these machines killed the comparable PCs. They all crashed a lot, but no more so than the PCS and overall the exerperience was way better. Prices between the two platforms were almost the same, at least in my memory.
About five years ago I became a self-employed consultant, and found that my Apple notebooks wouldn't talk to most of my client machines without a real hassle. I couldn't print that last-minute proposal half the time in their offices (had to find a disc, yada yada), couldn't hook up to their presentation systems, etc. I made it work for a while with various video converter dongles and discs and so on, but it was a real pain in the ass. I had to switch, and found that windows ME was actually OK if not as nice as my Mac OS. The hardware was lots cheaper, and as I upgrade machines about every one to two years on either platform this was good.
A little over two years ago the TiPB came out, and I wanted something I could do mobile video editing on. I did a ton of research, decided that Apple could now deal with the PC world, and spent about $4000 US on a state of the art TiPB with maxed memory and Applecare. Initially I loved it, then the experience went to hell. I would pick it up by the corners and it would crash (battery shorting on case). DVDs stuck in the slot. The keyboard ate the display. It crashed often. Presentations were inaudible to clients, and DVDs were jerky (as well as near-silent). I tried to find help on the road (two month trip with two other apple and one PC notebook user), but eventually had to send it back several times to get all of these problems fixed. I have never had so many hardware problems in any new machine, especially one that I paid a large premium for. The OS also wasn't a lot better than ME, but I did like it say 20 percent better. I felt totally burned, no matter how cool the machine looked. Finally, in a fit of frustration, I sold it for $2500 bucks (goodbye $1500 in two months!) and bought a Toshiba with a bigger hard drive, better display, audible speakers and a CD-burner for $2500 (you couldn't even get a CDRW in a TiPB at this point at any price). It has worked perfectly ever since; my clients can hear presentations, it works very well with XP (which is one massive step up from ME--I have yet to crash it despite running all kinds of weird programs at once), it is one great machine. However, it is heavy, ugly and the battery life is weak. I'm also doing more video editing, and I definitely prefer working in FCP (on a friend's desktop) to Premiere (Premiere is catching up, but still not there for me). The short of it is that I need to buy a new desktop or maybe notebook for video and a couple of GPS programs, what to buy?
Last month my girlfriend needed a new computer (she was working on an ancient cast-off PC notebook of mine, it was four years old!). She doesn't travel much, so after research I bought her a 17-inch Imac. Great machine for her, and I love working on it as well. It's not "way" faster than my two-year old notebook for video editing, but works verywell and the overall experience is very good. She has had some battles learning OSX after years in the PC world, but overall it's been a good experience for her (she doesn't edit video but can work with iMovie, pretty cool!). I thought seriously about buying one too, but you can't run an external monitor without a warranty-voiding hack, the DVD burner is slow as molasses compared to a modern PC burner, and the graphics card ain't all that great. These things don't matter to her, but they are relevant for me. OK I thought, I'll buy a G4 tower with one of those super-slick Apple displays, yeah! But I now live in Canada, where the total price is about $5500cdn for a dual 1.25 with a 17-inch display and Apple Care. A 2.6 ghz Dell with the same basic system and a three-year on-site warranty is $3100cdn (the numbers are different, but the ratios are the same in US$). There are slight differences between the system, but the basic hardware is very close (performance too). Do I like Apple/editing in FCP enough to justify spending an additional $2400? Serioiusly, this is what it all boils down too. You can nitpick about various small differences, but my own debate comes down to an additional $2400 ($1800US). There are some pros on the Apple side (I like the 17-inch LCD even compared to the 18-inch Dell that costs less), FCP, better color management, etc), and some pros on the PC side (My GPS programs will run on a PC, not Mac (Windoze emulation is worthless for "real" programs), my USB 2 slide scanner works faster on USB 2 machine, my compact flash card reader is faster, etc.), but honestly it's about price and how much more I'm willing to pay for the little Apple and FCP. I want it, I really do, but for that $2500 I could buy another massive LCD screen (digital too, although I'm still deciding exactly how important that is), or a new SLR digital camera, or another gazillion gigs of hard drive space, or a surfing trip to Mexico for two... I probably wouldn't buy my girlfriend the Imac given the deals on PCS now, but she is happy with it and that's worth a lot of peace to me. I'm willing to pay more for Mac, but aaaargh!
I still haven't made my mind up. I even toy with going back to the TiPB, but I can't run my now more important GPS programs on it so that's out (still think about it, but realistically no). Speed is not everything, programs aren't everything, OS isn't everything... I'm truly at a mind-numbing loss. If you got to here after all this thanks for reading my saga, I feel better now and may even be able to do some work this afternoon instead of looking at the pros and cons of it all on the web for hours...
One last comment: Mac notebooks are oddly closer to PC notebooks in price/performance, but I'd need a USB card to run USB 2 (why the hell can't Apple put USB 2 in its machines??), plus my GPS programs won't run on a Mac (flying stuff). The gap is really massive on the desktop side of things, but less on the notebook side from what I can gather. Finally, I'm a Kazaa lite addict, and can't run anything close to that on a Mac (please don't argue with me about this, I've been through it with my girlfriend's Imac--there are better hack and crack and steal programs on the Mac side I think, but for sheer volume and selection Kazaa lite wins). So I sit here whacking away on a two-year old PC notebook that still works great even if it makes my shoulder sore on the fourth walk of week between the concourses in Chicago...
About 20 years ago I became an avid computer user (poor handwriting and a tech interest combined). I ran a TRS something notebook in early college, then a Mac (SE I think?), then a DOS box of some kind I cobbled together when the Mac died). After graduating I went to work in publishing, where I made the office PCs work thanks to an interest in DOS, but I really enjoyed working on the design side's Macs. I then switched to another company that ran all Macs, and it was brilliant. Appletalk, networked printers, it was light years ahead of the PC experience. At this point Apple was so far ahead it wasn't even funny. I bought a powerbook 100 (loved that trackball!), 160C, and XXXX something, etc. As a travelling journalist I found that these machines killed the comparable PCs. They all crashed a lot, but no more so than the PCS and overall the exerperience was way better. Prices between the two platforms were almost the same, at least in my memory.
About five years ago I became a self-employed consultant, and found that my Apple notebooks wouldn't talk to most of my client machines without a real hassle. I couldn't print that last-minute proposal half the time in their offices (had to find a disc, yada yada), couldn't hook up to their presentation systems, etc. I made it work for a while with various video converter dongles and discs and so on, but it was a real pain in the ass. I had to switch, and found that windows ME was actually OK if not as nice as my Mac OS. The hardware was lots cheaper, and as I upgrade machines about every one to two years on either platform this was good.
A little over two years ago the TiPB came out, and I wanted something I could do mobile video editing on. I did a ton of research, decided that Apple could now deal with the PC world, and spent about $4000 US on a state of the art TiPB with maxed memory and Applecare. Initially I loved it, then the experience went to hell. I would pick it up by the corners and it would crash (battery shorting on case). DVDs stuck in the slot. The keyboard ate the display. It crashed often. Presentations were inaudible to clients, and DVDs were jerky (as well as near-silent). I tried to find help on the road (two month trip with two other apple and one PC notebook user), but eventually had to send it back several times to get all of these problems fixed. I have never had so many hardware problems in any new machine, especially one that I paid a large premium for. The OS also wasn't a lot better than ME, but I did like it say 20 percent better. I felt totally burned, no matter how cool the machine looked. Finally, in a fit of frustration, I sold it for $2500 bucks (goodbye $1500 in two months!) and bought a Toshiba with a bigger hard drive, better display, audible speakers and a CD-burner for $2500 (you couldn't even get a CDRW in a TiPB at this point at any price). It has worked perfectly ever since; my clients can hear presentations, it works very well with XP (which is one massive step up from ME--I have yet to crash it despite running all kinds of weird programs at once), it is one great machine. However, it is heavy, ugly and the battery life is weak. I'm also doing more video editing, and I definitely prefer working in FCP (on a friend's desktop) to Premiere (Premiere is catching up, but still not there for me). The short of it is that I need to buy a new desktop or maybe notebook for video and a couple of GPS programs, what to buy?
Last month my girlfriend needed a new computer (she was working on an ancient cast-off PC notebook of mine, it was four years old!). She doesn't travel much, so after research I bought her a 17-inch Imac. Great machine for her, and I love working on it as well. It's not "way" faster than my two-year old notebook for video editing, but works verywell and the overall experience is very good. She has had some battles learning OSX after years in the PC world, but overall it's been a good experience for her (she doesn't edit video but can work with iMovie, pretty cool!). I thought seriously about buying one too, but you can't run an external monitor without a warranty-voiding hack, the DVD burner is slow as molasses compared to a modern PC burner, and the graphics card ain't all that great. These things don't matter to her, but they are relevant for me. OK I thought, I'll buy a G4 tower with one of those super-slick Apple displays, yeah! But I now live in Canada, where the total price is about $5500cdn for a dual 1.25 with a 17-inch display and Apple Care. A 2.6 ghz Dell with the same basic system and a three-year on-site warranty is $3100cdn (the numbers are different, but the ratios are the same in US$). There are slight differences between the system, but the basic hardware is very close (performance too). Do I like Apple/editing in FCP enough to justify spending an additional $2400? Serioiusly, this is what it all boils down too. You can nitpick about various small differences, but my own debate comes down to an additional $2400 ($1800US). There are some pros on the Apple side (I like the 17-inch LCD even compared to the 18-inch Dell that costs less), FCP, better color management, etc), and some pros on the PC side (My GPS programs will run on a PC, not Mac (Windoze emulation is worthless for "real" programs), my USB 2 slide scanner works faster on USB 2 machine, my compact flash card reader is faster, etc.), but honestly it's about price and how much more I'm willing to pay for the little Apple and FCP. I want it, I really do, but for that $2500 I could buy another massive LCD screen (digital too, although I'm still deciding exactly how important that is), or a new SLR digital camera, or another gazillion gigs of hard drive space, or a surfing trip to Mexico for two... I probably wouldn't buy my girlfriend the Imac given the deals on PCS now, but she is happy with it and that's worth a lot of peace to me. I'm willing to pay more for Mac, but aaaargh!
I still haven't made my mind up. I even toy with going back to the TiPB, but I can't run my now more important GPS programs on it so that's out (still think about it, but realistically no). Speed is not everything, programs aren't everything, OS isn't everything... I'm truly at a mind-numbing loss. If you got to here after all this thanks for reading my saga, I feel better now and may even be able to do some work this afternoon instead of looking at the pros and cons of it all on the web for hours...
One last comment: Mac notebooks are oddly closer to PC notebooks in price/performance, but I'd need a USB card to run USB 2 (why the hell can't Apple put USB 2 in its machines??), plus my GPS programs won't run on a Mac (flying stuff). The gap is really massive on the desktop side of things, but less on the notebook side from what I can gather. Finally, I'm a Kazaa lite addict, and can't run anything close to that on a Mac (please don't argue with me about this, I've been through it with my girlfriend's Imac--there are better hack and crack and steal programs on the Mac side I think, but for sheer volume and selection Kazaa lite wins). So I sit here whacking away on a two-year old PC notebook that still works great even if it makes my shoulder sore on the fourth walk of week between the concourses in Chicago...
