Oh yeah-- one other question for Mac users that is very specific to SM-- is uploading an issue? I use star*explorer and can't imagine life without it-- but I regularly upload 200-300 photos from events. I'm honestly curious because life before S*E was pretty bleak when it came to uploads.
Uploading isn't an issue for me. There's a Smugmug uploader that you can just drop all your photos on, as a default.
But I'm using Aperture, and there are a couple "Aperture to Smugmug" plug-ins that work great (There is one annoyance with Aperture2Smugmug that I'm using where setting filenames is a bit of a pain). But anyway, I just select a group of photos, and select "upload to Smugmug," they're then converted to JPEG with my settings, and uploaded, either to a pre-existing gallery or a new one (I can create it with all the settings from within Aperture). A couple weeks back I took about 1000 shots of a couple bike races -- got home and sorted through them, edited them, keyworded them, and uploaded about 400 to Smugmug... whole thing took about 1.5 hours from the time I put the first CF card in the computer until they were all up on the 'mug.
Really-- I work on both in very technical situations (professional audio editing on the Mac, professional photo editing on the PC) and I prefer a PC. But I see guys on Macs who whip right through all kinds of amazing stuff at blazing speeds. I can do that on a PC, but it's never as easy on a Mac-- for me. It really comes down to how comfortable you are with one system or another-- but that's just my two-cents. I work with IT guys who swear by Macs, but set me up side by side with a similar speced PC, and I guarantee I can do everything just as fast as them. Not saying one is better-- it all depends on the user.
Then again, did I mention that's just my opinion?
Heh, yeah, you mentioned that
I agree it's possible to be equally productive on both, for the right class of person. However, there is more IT overhead on the PC side of things, for the average user. Specifically, the whole "how do I keep this system running smoothly" and "how do I easily migrate systems" are things where you really DO need to do more work on the PC side of things, if you don't want to have DOOM set in at some point
Disclaimer: Unless you have good friends in the hardware biz, your not going to find a setup like this for under 3k. The only thing I'm paying retail for is the processor (OUCH:cry).
It's a quid pro quo thing...
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (overclocked to 3.73GHz)
4GB Dual-Channel DDR2 Using 2 (2)GB chips (can upgrade to 8GB when needed since I have 4 DIMMS)
1 (1)TB Single Serial ATA Hard Drive w/ 10 partitions & Data Burst (which is irrelevant due to the RAm I have)
1 (100)GB Single Serial ATA Hard Drive for the OS (making it in essence multiple serials)
Dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Fiber Bus Architecture
PCI: 3 Slots
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 2 Slots
PCIe x8: 1 Slot
750 Watt PS (There was a 1KW PS off a nuclear sub or something, but I would have to have paid retail)
Some sound blaster card. Not sure which one since I don't really listen to that much music off my computers.
Back to the much more intelligent discussion of why macs are so cool and PC's don't hold a candle to themrofl
No reason for the Mac guys n gals to take offense though. I'm a definite apple fan.
Disclaimer: Unless you have good friends in the hardware biz, your not going to find a setup like this for under 3k. The only thing I'm paying retail for is the processor (OUCH:cry).
It's a quid pro quo thing...
Ah, that makes more sense, I recently looked into building a PC rig to match the power of my Mac Pro and couldn't get anywhere near the value of the Mac, even an equally specified ready built Dell was more expensive.
Mind you hardware is more expensive in the UK as well.
Ah, that makes more sense, I recently looked into building a PC rig to match the power of my Mac Pro and couldn't get anywhere near the value of the Mac, even an equally specified ready built Dell was more expensive.
Mind you hardware is more expensive in the UK as well.
Charlie
Charlie,
You can definitely find a PC for 1.5 - 2k that will pick a fight w/ a Mac Pro and walk away w/ only minor scuffs.
Not sure about the UK side of things though.
Dell has an incredibly low profit margin. Something like 2.2% or something ridiculous like that. You are still paying for the markup though and the cost of having technicians build your 'custom' PC. (Or paying for the maintence of Super robot arms to build it)
If you buy all the parts separate and assemble them. You can save more than half. Tiger Direct is a great place to start when looking for component level electronics.
I hold to my word that you can build A PC that can win against a STOCK Mac Pro for much less than a Mac Pro.
My machine would look at a stock machine and stick some peanut butter in it's optical bay and walk away.
FYI: It's the fiver bus architecture that really make this a no fair fight. There's nothing special about the rest of this setup.
If you buy all the parts separate and assemble them. You can save more than half. Tiger Direct is a great place to start when looking for component level electronics.
You might look at newegg , great prices and service.
To get back to the OP:
If you have access to an Apple Store, CompUsa, or similar place where you can get your hands on one, try out a Mac. For the use you describe, I would recommend the iMac. If you are looking for value, check the online Apple Store in the "Special Deals" section for refurbished machines:
20" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, Radeon X1600 128 MB $1299
24" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300GT 128 MB $1699
Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz Xeon 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB $2199
Never buy your extra RAM from Apple (overpriced), I use OWC - great service.
You might look at newegg , great prices and service.
To get back to the OP:
If you have access to an Apple Store, CompUsa, or similar place where you can get your hands on one, try out a Mac. For the use you describe, I would recommend the iMac. If you are looking for value, check the online Apple Store in the "Special Deals" section for refurbished machines:
20" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, Radeon X1600 128 MB $1299
24" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300GT 128 MB $1699
Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz Xeon 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB $2199
Never buy your extra RAM from Apple (overpriced), I use OWC - great service.
1) Up until about 6 months ago the only place I could get a certified Apple technician to service my Macs was almost 2 hours away. And in another state. It's only 30 minutes away now.
2) None of that matters because you never need them anyway.
It all works because Apple builds the computers and makes the operating system.
If you want to stop working on your computer and start using it, Mac is the only way to go.
Mac - :beatwax- Windows.
If they hate you they have a subscription. -- Bratch
The DH just called to ask
"How many of the photos on the new computer are important? It won't boot up". This is the PC that we bought 4 weeks ago, when the old one died a miserable death by viral infection. The portable hard drive that is home to the last two years of RAW files is infected and sitting idle, so my current backup for all the team photography of the last month is what I've managed to upload to smugmug. About $1K in deliverables not delivered yet......on the new machine, waiting customer approval:splat:splat:splat:splat
I am pretty sure that the originals are also still on the P2000, since I am cautious enough to not delete until delivered.
But I gotta tell you, he heard from the computer sales guy
"ditch Norton, it has holes"
He heard from me
"Please put AVG on the new machine, please"
Me thinks my tax return will go into apple's pocket book and the dh can figure out how to pay our property taxes.
Oh, let me tell ya, my avatar today is not nearly prickly enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The DH just called to ask
"How many of the photos on the new computer are important? It won't boot up". This is the PC that we bought 4 weeks ago, when the old one died a miserable death by viral infection. The portable hard drive that is home to the last two years of RAW files is infected and sitting idle, so my current backup for all the team photography of the last month is what I've managed to upload to smugmug. About $1K in deliverables not delivered yet......on the new machine, waiting customer approval:splat:splat:splat:splat
I am pretty sure that the originals are also still on the P2000, since I am cautious enough to not delete until delivered.
But I gotta tell you, he heard from the computer sales guy
"ditch Norton, it has holes"
He heard from me
"Please put AVG on the new machine, please"
Me thinks my tax return will go into apple's pocket book and the dh can figure out how to pay our property taxes.
Oh, let me tell ya, my avatar today is not nearly prickly enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I'm so sorry to hear this. Maybe the PC will boot up after all? Back in the days when we had Mac viruses (thanks to a temp who "had" to share a program she had to make this little add on so the Mac would be more like a PC program she just had to share with our employee who prefered PCs) we had one nasty virus. The darn thing installed itself on every zip disk that the designers used, and I had to hire someone to sit and put every zip through the computer and remove the virus from them. Then we accidentally (I didn't know about the virus, the designers didn't want to tell me!!!!) sent a zip to the service bureau, who caught it. I had a heck of a time getting rid of it on all the computers and floppies and zips!
If that weren't bad enough, one of our clients had the Word Macro Viruses... and even though we informed her, we kept getting infected files from her. I finally demanded that the boss give me any media she gave him so I could run it through or anti virus software before handing it to the designers. They just couldn't be bothered running the media thru the anti virus before using the data!
Fortunately these days things are better... but I feel your pain! I hope you can get your photos back.
Do you make a habit of backing them up to CD as soon as you download your client-type photos?
Of course, back in the old days, a CD got infected too... but that's another story. I finally got everything cleaned up, and the designers got a lecture about checking for viruses FIRST...
I disagree with this, though. The maintenance scripts work differently in 10.4. Maintenance scripts will be run by the system at the next opportunity if the overnight schedule is missed (in most cases).
I took a look at how many watts my Mac Pro system uses when operating, and decided if I'm not using it for a time period equal to overnight or more, I sleep it or shut it down. Especially now, during the summer, when I really don't need to be paying to run a space heater* when I'm trying to cool down my house at night.
*not to mention the energy waste and carbon/climate implications of that
Comments
Uploading isn't an issue for me. There's a Smugmug uploader that you can just drop all your photos on, as a default.
But I'm using Aperture, and there are a couple "Aperture to Smugmug" plug-ins that work great (There is one annoyance with Aperture2Smugmug that I'm using where setting filenames is a bit of a pain). But anyway, I just select a group of photos, and select "upload to Smugmug," they're then converted to JPEG with my settings, and uploaded, either to a pre-existing gallery or a new one (I can create it with all the settings from within Aperture). A couple weeks back I took about 1000 shots of a couple bike races -- got home and sorted through them, edited them, keyworded them, and uploaded about 400 to Smugmug... whole thing took about 1.5 hours from the time I put the first CF card in the computer until they were all up on the 'mug.
http://blloyd.smugmug.com/gallery/3056571
http://blloyd.smugmug.com/gallery/3055548
Heh, yeah, you mentioned that
I agree it's possible to be equally productive on both, for the right class of person. However, there is more IT overhead on the PC side of things, for the average user. Specifically, the whole "how do I keep this system running smoothly" and "how do I easily migrate systems" are things where you really DO need to do more work on the PC side of things, if you don't want to have DOOM set in at some point
Disclaimer: Unless you have good friends in the hardware biz, your not going to find a setup like this for under 3k. The only thing I'm paying retail for is the processor (OUCH:cry).
It's a quid pro quo thing...
Intel Core 2 Extreme X6800 (overclocked to 3.73GHz)
4GB Dual-Channel DDR2 Using 2 (2)GB chips (can upgrade to 8GB when needed since I have 4 DIMMS)
1 (1)TB Single Serial ATA Hard Drive w/ 10 partitions & Data Burst (which is irrelevant due to the RAm I have)
1 (100)GB Single Serial ATA Hard Drive for the OS (making it in essence multiple serials)
Dual 768MB NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GTX
Fiber Bus Architecture
PCI: 3 Slots
PCIe x16 (Graphics): 2 Slots
PCIe x8: 1 Slot
750 Watt PS (There was a 1KW PS off a nuclear sub or something, but I would have to have paid retail)
Some sound blaster card. Not sure which one since I don't really listen to that much music off my computers.
Back to the much more intelligent discussion of why macs are so cool and PC's don't hold a candle to them
No reason for the Mac guys n gals to take offense though. I'm a definite apple fan.
Ah, that makes more sense, I recently looked into building a PC rig to match the power of my Mac Pro and couldn't get anywhere near the value of the Mac, even an equally specified ready built Dell was more expensive.
Mind you hardware is more expensive in the UK as well.
Charlie
You can definitely find a PC for 1.5 - 2k that will pick a fight w/ a Mac Pro and walk away w/ only minor scuffs.
Not sure about the UK side of things though.
Dell has an incredibly low profit margin. Something like 2.2% or something ridiculous like that. You are still paying for the markup though and the cost of having technicians build your 'custom' PC. (Or paying for the maintence of Super robot arms to build it)
If you buy all the parts separate and assemble them. You can save more than half. Tiger Direct is a great place to start when looking for component level electronics.
I hold to my word that you can build A PC that can win against a STOCK Mac Pro for much less than a Mac Pro.
My machine would look at a stock machine and stick some peanut butter in it's optical bay and walk away.
FYI: It's the fiver bus architecture that really make this a no fair fight. There's nothing special about the rest of this setup.
Include your time doing research and building it, and the gap narrows considerably. Not to mention that you're stuck with a PC!
But seriously, I don't think Apple can/should compete with the do-it-yourselfer. That'd be silly.
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
You are correct sir. Businesses are in business to make money!
You might look at newegg , great prices and service.
To get back to the OP:
If you have access to an Apple Store, CompUsa, or similar place where you can get your hands on one, try out a Mac. For the use you describe, I would recommend the iMac. If you are looking for value, check the online Apple Store in the "Special Deals" section for refurbished machines:
20" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, Radeon X1600 128 MB $1299
24" iMac 2.16 GHz Core 2 Duo 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300GT 128 MB $1699
Mac Pro Quad 2.66 GHz Xeon 1 GB RAM, 250 GB HD, GeForce 7300 GT 256 MB $2199
Never buy your extra RAM from Apple (overpriced), I use OWC - great service.
Good luck on your choice.
thanks much mr bill-
1) Up until about 6 months ago the only place I could get a certified Apple technician to service my Macs was almost 2 hours away. And in another state. It's only 30 minutes away now.
2) None of that matters because you never need them anyway.
It all works because Apple builds the computers and makes the operating system.
If you want to stop working on your computer and start using it, Mac is the only way to go.
Mac - :beatwax- Windows.
:bash:bash:bash
The DH just called to ask
"How many of the photos on the new computer are important? It won't boot up". This is the PC that we bought 4 weeks ago, when the old one died a miserable death by viral infection. The portable hard drive that is home to the last two years of RAW files is infected and sitting idle, so my current backup for all the team photography of the last month is what I've managed to upload to smugmug. About $1K in deliverables not delivered yet......on the new machine, waiting customer approval:splat:splat:splat:splat
I am pretty sure that the originals are also still on the P2000, since I am cautious enough to not delete until delivered.
But I gotta tell you, he heard from the computer sales guy
"ditch Norton, it has holes"
He heard from me
"Please put AVG on the new machine, please"
Me thinks my tax return will go into apple's pocket book and the dh can figure out how to pay our property taxes.
Oh, let me tell ya, my avatar today is not nearly prickly enough!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My Galleries My Photography BLOG
Ramblings About Me
Sorry to hear of your troubles. That truly sucks. Hope it works out for you!
Dgrin FAQ | Me | Workshops
I'm so sorry to hear this. Maybe the PC will boot up after all? Back in the days when we had Mac viruses (thanks to a temp who "had" to share a program she had to make this little add on so the Mac would be more like a PC program she just had to share with our employee who prefered PCs) we had one nasty virus. The darn thing installed itself on every zip disk that the designers used, and I had to hire someone to sit and put every zip through the computer and remove the virus from them. Then we accidentally (I didn't know about the virus, the designers didn't want to tell me!!!!) sent a zip to the service bureau, who caught it. I had a heck of a time getting rid of it on all the computers and floppies and zips!
If that weren't bad enough, one of our clients had the Word Macro Viruses... and even though we informed her, we kept getting infected files from her. I finally demanded that the boss give me any media she gave him so I could run it through or anti virus software before handing it to the designers. They just couldn't be bothered running the media thru the anti virus before using the data!
Fortunately these days things are better... but I feel your pain! I hope you can get your photos back.
Do you make a habit of backing them up to CD as soon as you download your client-type photos?
Of course, back in the old days, a CD got infected too... but that's another story. I finally got everything cleaned up, and the designers got a lecture about checking for viruses FIRST...
I hope everything works out for you.
http://www.twitter.com/deegolden
Good thing too, cuz it's his birthday and I really wouldn't want to wish him angry thoughts for his birthday................
My Galleries My Photography BLOG
Ramblings About Me
I disagree with this, though. The maintenance scripts work differently in 10.4. Maintenance scripts will be run by the system at the next opportunity if the overnight schedule is missed (in most cases).
I took a look at how many watts my Mac Pro system uses when operating, and decided if I'm not using it for a time period equal to overnight or more, I sleep it or shut it down. Especially now, during the summer, when I really don't need to be paying to run a space heater* when I'm trying to cool down my house at night.
*not to mention the energy waste and carbon/climate implications of that