Just to set the cat amongst the pigeons. I have read the posts in this thread and laugh quietly to myself. I am a graphic designer and have worked on both Mac and PC platforms for the last 15 years. In my experience, working on image files in Photoshop below 500mb was the same on Mac and PC (M$-Windoze). Exceed that on a PC and you will notice the difference. PC cannot handle large files. (Even on Windows 7). Unless you have the time to spare waiting for photoshop to render effects. Doing a magazine layout in In-Design on PC (Window$) is just laughable. Window$ just cannot handle large files without crashing or taking a month of Sundays.
Having to bring work home and continue on a Window$ based PC was a nightmare. I was looking at buying an i-mac, but due to financial reasons, I ended up looking into the hackintosh scene - and found that building a hackintosh with exactly the same specs as an i-mac would cost me +- R5000-00 as opposed to R 17000-00 (with very little effort required to install) Here are the benefits: (Based on first hand experience in a macintosh studio environment)
1. My motherboard has a 3 year warranty
2. My processor has a 5 year warranty
3. My RAM has a 5 year warranty
4. My Graphics card has a 2 year warranty
5. My 21" LCD monitor has a 5 year warranty
6. I can physically replace any components, should they fail, within 24 hours if need be and only have to remove two screws on the casing with a normal screwdriver (LOL)
7. All components are hand picked by myself from manufacturers I have been happy with over the last 15 years (i.e. Gigagbyte, LG, Seagate etc…)
8. My hackintosh benchmarks higher than stock core2duo i-macs, which suggests a better hardware configuration
9. Pure value for money. Apple products in SA are a rip-off and expensive to maintain or upgrade (How much does it cost for an extra 2g apple ram?). The extra money saved went on better things. (and more ram)
Why do I list these benefits?
In the last 7 years in a Mac design studio environment, I experienced the following:
We had 3 e-macs and 2 PCs
The first e-mac experienced motherboard failure after the first year. We were told it was due to a power surge and were told to install a UPS (warranty would not cover replacement)
The second e-mac experienced graphic card failure twice in the space of 6 months. The third e-mac could no longer read DVD's. The first e-mac's motherboard went again. All in the space of 3 years. We upgraded to i-macs and hoped to sell off the e-macs but could only get R5000-00 each when they cost us R 21-000 each to begin with. The i-macs have not faired any better. After a year, the LCD displays on all 3 i-macs developed vertical lines. To get apple to replace the LCD displays proved to be a nightmare. After a lot of e-mails to Aple HQ, they eventually gave in. Then the super-drives started failing to read discs. Only one out of the three can actually read dvd's. The first two i-macs that had their LCD displays changed are starting to get the same vertical lines appearing. 2 on mine and one on another machine. Apple have informed us that this is no inherent fault and that the machines are out of warranty.
Not to mention the piece of crap called the mighty mouse…. The gay little scroll wheel on all three lasted +- 6 months. (the shape is totally ridiculous - you need tiny girly hands to hold it properly - changed mine for a more sturdy usb PC mouse with right click button - yay!)
So, to sum up…. OSX in my experience is by far a more superior operating system in a work-horse environment. I can't say the same for their hardware though. I have had more luck with PC hardware than what our studio has had with Mac hardware. For what you pay for that cool looking pice of equipment, mac really suck at choosing the the right hardware . e-macs when they came out looked so cool. Now they look hideous. I have gotten over my i-mac at work too. Seems like cool looking stuff has a short shelf life. I would rather have a tower sitting in the tower bay of my computer desk than have to worry about the high upkeep cost of a real mac. I feel secure in knowing that should any hardware fail, I am more than competent to change the said hardware with minimal effort and financial implications. (and that my hardware has better warranty cover)
PS: Both PC's are still running as they were 7 years ago. (Only re-formatted once because our blonde receptionist believed the .exe she got in a mail would open a nude video of Keanu Reeves…. LOL)
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