# Mac vs PC for school



## Schniapereli (Feb 5, 2008)

I don't want to start another battle of the never-ending war, but my school is hoping to be buying a computer for our booth, but we are not sure what kind to get.

The type of computer we will get will be based largely on what software we can get on it. We will be using some form of show-control (Sound Cue System, or Multiplay if PC, Qlab if Mac) some Lighting CAD (Vectorworks or from Martin) and some light Video Editing. We will also be doing a lot of audio editing. (Audacity or Adobe Audition.)

(any other good programs I should know about...?)

Every lighting person I have ever personaly met has carried a Mac, and every sound man a PC. But I don't know which way to lean when the computer will be doing a lot of both.

So, if there are any high school personel out there, or people who can remember that far back; what works/ed for you?


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## avkid (Feb 5, 2008)

*Re: Mac vs PC 4 Skewl...*

If they'll let you, get Mac hardware and both operating systems.


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## Footer (Feb 5, 2008)

*Re: Mac vs PC 4 Skewl...*

Usually sound people are hard core mac, lighting usually go PC simply due to autoCAD/WYG, but then again many do mac because of vectorworks. 

If you do get a mac, you will need to dual boot to be able to do everything.


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## soundlight (Feb 5, 2008)

*Re: Mac vs PC 4 Skewl...*

Get a Mac, get Q-Lab, and get an AudioFire interface in the budget. (I'm a crazy PC person for everything except booth computers. For booth computers, especially mainly sound computers, Macs make sense.)


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## icewolf08 (Feb 6, 2008)

Schniapereli said:


> I don't want to start another battle of the never-ending war, but my school is hoping to be buying a computer for our booth, but we are not sure what kind to get.
> The type of computer we will get will be based largely on what software we can get on it. We will be using some form of show-control (Sound Cue System, or Multiplay if PC, Qlab if Mac) some Lighting CAD (Vectorworks or from Martin) and some light Video Editing. We will also be doing a lot of audio editing. (Audacity or Adobe Audition.)
> (any other good programs I should know about...?)
> Every lighting person I have ever personaly met has carried a Mac, and every sound man a PC. But I don't know which way to lean when the computer will be doing a lot of both.
> So, if there are any high school personel out there, or people who can remember that far back; what works/ed for you?



Lets go down your list.

•Sowcontrol/Sound Playback - Could go either way
•CAD Software - VW is becoming a real standard, I would venture to guess that more people use it over WYG. Plus, it is fully compatible with ACAD files. So, Mac
•Video Editing - Final Cut is the standard so Mac
•Audio Editing - There are lots of options for both Mac and PC but as was said, many prefer Mac. So, Mac

Then there is the fact that your Mac can run windows, and you don't actually have to dual boot. VMWare will allow you to run windows on your Mac, and probably faster than on a Windows box. Makes it real easy to go back and forth from Mac to Windows will drag-and-drop support between them.

If you can get the school to spring for it, get a Mac Pro with a big LCD and you will be quite happy.


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## Schniapereli (Feb 6, 2008)

Mac it is!


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## avkid (Feb 7, 2008)

Schniapereli said:


> Mac it is!


Good choice, the Mac Pro is a beast.
4TB fully decked out.


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## Grog12 (Feb 7, 2008)

icewolf08 said:


> •CAD Software - VW is becoming a real standard, I would venture to guess that more people use it over WYG. Plus, it is fully compatible with ACAD files. So, Mac


Not really a point for Mac as VW runs on both platforms.


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## SteveB (Feb 7, 2008)

icewolf08 said:


> If you can get the school to spring for it, get a Mac Pro with a big LCD and you will be quite happy.



Not sure about whether this is an issue with Mac's, but usually a laptop with a larger screen eats up battery time. Big screen units are heavier as well.

I have an early HP laptop with the 17" screen and if I had to do it again, I'd go to a 14" or 15" and with the money saved, buy a separate 19" LCD. Dual screens are terrific for looking at 2 VW plots at the same time, or ground plan and plot, or plot and Lightwright, etc...

Steve B.


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## Footer (Feb 7, 2008)

SteveB said:


> Not sure about whether this is an issue with Mac's, but usually a laptop with a larger screen eats up battery time. Big screen units are heavier as well.
> I have an early HP laptop with the 17" screen and if I had to do it again, I'd go to a 14" or 15" and with the money saved, buy a separate 19" LCD. Dual screens are terrific for looking at 2 VW plots at the same time, or ground plan and plot, or plot and Lightwright, etc...
> Steve B.



Mac Pro's are Apples desktop line. They are extremely well build computers. They are made only for high end processor intensive work.


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## Hughesie (Feb 8, 2008)

they are the intel version of the G5

*drools*


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## propmonkey (Feb 8, 2008)

so wyg doesnt run on mac? im currently saving money for a macbook pro 15". they require mac for the theatre program at uwm and i just like how macs run.


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## airkarol (May 13, 2008)

There was just a post on this on the LAB, I'm for Mac. You can always run Windows on it if you need to, but you can't run OS X well on a PC.


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## Grog12 (May 13, 2008)

airkarol said:


> but you can't run OS X well on a PC.



You say that like its a bad thing.


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## themuzicman (May 14, 2008)

I'd say mac, not just because I've been using it all my life but because:
1. You can Run Windows on Mac hardware (either with bootcamp, parallels, or other virtual machine's)
2. You Can Run Linux on Mac hardware

so with mac hardware, all your bases are covered, it looks nice, among other reasons.


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## porkchop (May 14, 2008)

airkarol said:


> There was just a post on this on the LAB, I'm for Mac. You can always run Windows on it if you need to, but you can't run OS X well on a PC.



I'm just gonna say your wrong and move on. If you want to know why I can send you off to many articles about hackintosh computers once I get back from this out of state call (give it a ten days so PM me).

As to the topic I would say as much as it pains me go Mac. Personally I have always fought with the Mac OS and have an amazing ability to make OS X crash, but in the world of art (defined as widely as you can imagine) Mac seems to be becoming the standard. As most you could collect from previous posts everything your really looking to do can be done equally well on both systems with the possible exception of video editing. I say possible because a full copy of Adobe Premiere is IMHO more than most students will ever need to edit video, BUT a highly talented student looking to go into video editing would highly benefit from a copy of Final Cut Pro which is Mac only.

As it looks like this was necro posted I'm sure the decision has already been made and that decision is for a Mac. If so I hope its a Mac Pro with lots of goodies as that will fulfill students needs for years to come. If not, as much as it pains me to say this, get a Mac Pro with all the goodies you can get.

(For anyone thats interested I'm a faithful Linux user that was Windows free for 15 months before I needed to run Visual Studio 05 for homework so I consider myself decently unbiased as I actually hate both Windows and Macintosh OS's)


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## Hughesie (May 14, 2008)

Ok right now im at a cross road with mac vs pc

for the industry im entering i belive that a mac computer would be a better choice. But i have always wanted to build a computer so in short here are my options

Windows
Motherboard	ASUS P5K-1394 
CPU	Intel E6750
HD	Seagate SATA 500G
Graphics	512MB 8600GT Gigabyte
Optical	ASUS Lightscribe 18x SATA 
Memory	4G Kit-800 (2x2G) A-DATA
Display	22” 5ms DVI WS Chimei 221D(B)
Case	Coolermaster iTower RC930
Power Coolermaster Extreme 500W
TOTAL 1229$aud
or Macbook Pro
* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 2GB memory
* 200GB hard drive1
* Double-layer SuperDrive
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 256MB

2.6grand

hummm


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## gafftaper (May 15, 2008)

Hughesie did you get kicked off of Big Brother? 

Ok first off there are VERY few things that you can do on a PC that you can't do on a Mac (or the other way around). There is also very little software that isn't available in both formats. It used to be people always said things like "if you are going into journalism you need a Mac" but that is no longer really valid. While Mac's and PC's dominate some industries it is very rare to find a field that only uses one brand because the other doesn't run the software or meet the needs. 

Secondly, Mac would like to to believe that PC's are complicated and always crashing. The truth is my PC is easy to use and hasn't crashed in a couple years. Microsoft would like you to believe that Macs are for hippies, not for people who are serious about business and work. That also just isn't true. You can always run Microsoft Office on the Mac!

In the end I believe it mostly comes down to personal preference with the exception of one issue... upgradability. I have only purchased a completely new computer once in my life... 1989. Since then I have upgraded and upgraded and upgraded. I figure I have to spend about $250 a year to keep my system current. Last year I got a 19" monitor. The year before that it was hard drives, the year before that video card... With a Mac you use it for a few years then reach a point you have to throw it away and drop another $1800+ on a new system. I would much rather pay a little at a time and just keep improving the existing system than pay the big bucks all at once. But even there it's a personal preference issue as some people would rather just buy a new system than be always tweaking... to me the tweaking the system is fun. This is starting to sound like an application of the Gafftaper Method isn't it? 

So what am I saying? Don't listen to anyone else, go buy the computer you want. The most important thing is what feels good to you.


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## Hughesie (May 15, 2008)

gafftaper said:


> Hughesie did you get kicked off of Big Brother?



yeah....of course that would explain my absence from both classes and controlbooth.

My first question is...is this controlbooth v3?


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## porkchop (May 15, 2008)

Hughesie89 said:


> Ok right now im at a cross road with mac vs pc
> 
> for the industry im entering i belive that a mac computer would be a better choice. But i have always wanted to build a computer so in short here are my options
> 
> ...



You have 500 GB leave 100 and bulld a hackintosh if your that worried about it


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