Mac Pro or Fast PC with Ubuntu?

[DrewWalden]

Well I am in the process of converting all my old av 8mm tapes, I spent 130 bucks on a firewire converter, and my macbook is ******* me off. It is running slow, and the video is jumpy etc... I was about to buy a Mac Pro, but because Apple has been pissin me off, I'm thinking of just building a very fast pc with ubuntu. I have Ubuntu 10.10 on a decent computer right now (Amd Dual Core, 3 gig ram), and I love it. What do you guys think, ps I also want to be able to sync my ipad, is that even possible?

Thanks

[handy]

Well I am in the process of converting all my old av 8mm tapes, I spent 130 bucks on a firewire converter, and my macbook is ******* me off. It is running slow, and the video is jumpy etc... I was about to buy a Mac Pro, but because Apple has been pissin me off, I'm thinking of just building a very fast pc with ubuntu. I have Ubuntu 10.10 on a decent computer right now (Amd Dual Core, 3 gig ram), and I love it. What do you guys think, ps I also want to be able to sync my ipad, is that even possible?

Thanks

Use whichever will give you the best software for the things that you want to do.

You can dual boot the Mac, or if you really needed you could do OS X, & Linux on a box you build yourself but you will have to be sure to use the right hardware for OS X, compatibility.

We aren't allowed to talk about that stuff here. A search will answer any questions you have in that regard pretty quickly.

[del_diablo]

Slow? Either you must defrag, or the problem is the user which has done something....

[Sand & Mercury]

After having used both Macs and PCs (for lack of a better term) I can say Macs have advantages in the following areas:

Style
Trendiness

Other makes have advantages in the following areas:

Everything else

So make your decision based on that. Macs generally can dual-boot, but they don't like it.

[handy]

After having used both Macs and PCs (for lack of a better term) I can say Macs have advantages in the following areas:

Style
Trendiness

Other makes have advantages in the following areas:

Everything else

So make your decision based on that. Macs generally can dual-boot, but they don't like it.

:lolflag:

Macs don't have any trouble booting multiple systems, provided you understand the way Apple use the GPT partitioning scheme.

Here is a how-to I wrote, the first parts up to the section titled "Install Arch" is valuable for anyone wanting to dual or multi-boot systems with OS X, (other than or as well as Windows):

https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/IMac_Aluminium

[JonM33]

Well I am in the process of converting all my old av 8mm tapes, I spent 130 bucks on a firewire converter, and my macbook is ******* me off. It is running slow, and the video is jumpy etc... I was about to buy a Mac Pro, but because Apple has been pissin me off, I'm thinking of just building a very fast pc with ubuntu. I have Ubuntu 10.10 on a decent computer right now (Amd Dual Core, 3 gig ram), and I love it. What do you guys think, ps I also want to be able to sync my ipad, is that even possible?

Thanks

Don't give Apple anymore money than they already have. Get the fast PC with Ubuntu.

[3Miro]

My view is that Mac is a good system, however, Apple is a bad company. If you put together all the good things in a Mac, you will see that Apple doesn't make most if any of them. Mac hardware is nice, but it is not manufactured by Apple and Apple sells it way overpriced (there was a thread on the subject recently, look for Mac vs PC). The Mac kernel is very stable and secure, but Apple advertises it as "very Linux like kernel", Linux, BSD and Apple share essentially the same kernel technology. Mac's graphical environment is "simple", but that cuts both ways, it may be nice for someone who sits in front of a computer for the first time, but I think it is too restrictive for a poweruser. My view is that, if Apple had invented the keyboard, then the keys on it would have been arranged in an alphabetical order.

Having said that, I know many people with Macs and they are usually very happy. If you don't mind someone telling you how to use your own computer, it should be OK.

Linux has its own set of problems/issues, finding compatible hardware and getting the initial setup are the most common ones. However, you can circumvent pretty much all of those by going with System76, which is my recommendation.

[Spr0k3t]

Don't give Apple anymore money than they already have. Get the fast PC with Ubuntu.

+eleventybillion

However, video editing on a mac is very slick with the right software. Most television stations do all of their video cutting room floor work with final cut pro on macs.

If you need some serious power... go with a dual quad xeon processor board. It's going to be faster than any i7 you can currently find at the same processor speed.

Oh yeah, I hate apple/mac, so I say go with the fast system with Ubuntu.

[cptrohn]

+1 for building your own PC with Ubuntu...

You can configure it the way YOU want it.

[Philsoki]

Slow? Either you must defrag, or the problem is the user which has done something....
Are you joking?

Video conversion is very resource intensive.


I'm thinking of just building a very fast pc with ubuntu. I have Ubuntu 10.10 on a decent computer right now (Amd Dual Core, 3 gig ram), and I love it. What do you guys think
You will probably get better performance (In terms of specs) if you build the computer yourself. So I vote the custom built Ubuntu PC.


I also want to be able to sync my ipad, is that even possible?
iPad...

I'm not sure since I don't have an iPad and I've never tried. But since you have a computer running Ubuntu already you could probably just plug it in and see if it syncs. If you can/do try it, it would be nice to here the outcome.:p

[3Miro]

I build my own desktops and if you know how to do it I definitely recommend it. I buy pre-build laptops, because those can be tricky. Some people build their own laptops, but I think you really have to know what you are doing.

[3rdalbum]

Laptops are simply not appropriate for video editing or video capturing, full-stop. Get a fast desktop and run Ubuntu. If you really need to be able to connect your iPad, then you'd need to dual-boot, run Windows in Virtualbox with USB passthrough, or get the Mac Pro. The Mac Pro is very expensive and no longer has the price-performance advantage over standard PCs.

[Evil-Ernie]

If anyone on here has seen some of my previous posts you will see that there is no love lost between me and Apple.

But I am also pragmatic and I will admit that Macs are good if you just use them for one role and are willing to spend the cash and accept the shafting from Mr Jobs, among them specific roles are video editing.

I would build my own custom PC if the choice was mine because I would know exactly what I would want and have the skills to make something fit that spec. However I understand that not everybody is able to do that.

[handy]

Strangely enough, I continue to be surprised by the anti-Apple sentiment in this forum. :confused:

Those who have such sentiments should delve into the history of the chip makers that don't have to use in your face marketing to ensure their survival as Apple & the others who sell end user products do.

I don't like marketing either, I block all the ads I can on the net, don't watch TV, or listen to radio for that matter, only read the local paper, no magazines...

But I still buy & use products made by these evil corporations & I run a car. (On LPG, but after watching the Gasland documentary (made in the U.S.) I'm not as happy as I was about that either.)

Sometimes I think people only start topics which include Apple products to amuse themselves here...

[stmiller]

I think Mac Pros are way overpriced for the hardware. iMacs are better machines for the money. Or just make an i3/i5/i7 intel based rig and do a hackintosh.

[del_diablo]

I think Mac Pros are way overpriced for the hardware. iMacs are better machines for the money. Or just make an i3/i5/i7 intel based rig and do a hackintosh.
iMacs are desktops, desktops are always cheaper.
Besides that, why are Macbook pros expensive compared to their competitors? And who are selling laptops in the same marked(high build quality, decent hardware, good batterylife)? You won't be able to find cheaper computers with more or less equal specs, they will cost roughly the same.

Philsoki: You are running resource hungry application type X, what are you expecting?

[Spr0k3t]

And who are selling laptops in the same marked(high build quality, decent hardware, good batterylife)? You won't be able to find cheaper computers with more or less equal specs, they will cost roughly the same.

Compare a Macbook Air with the Lenovo X series. The cheapest models on both systems are $999 and $399 respectively. High battery life, high quality build, and decent hardware on both. The only element you would need to add to the Lenovo is just an extra stick of memory (to give it 2GB) and that's roughly $30-40 by today's industry standards. If you need to change out the hard drive for an SSD on the Lenovo, you can get a good 128GB for less than $200... still making the Lenovo cheaper by hundreds.

Lenovo is only one manufacturer of many high quality builders, and quite possibly one of the more expensive to compare against. So claiming "They will cost roughly the same." is quite moot. It doesn't matter how you look at it, unless you are going with a custom systems integrator like Falcon-NW.com on their I/O laptop, you aren't going to find much that is more expensive than mac on the same hardware playing field.

[alaukikyo]

Get a zareason or system76 computer

[3Miro]

You won't be able to find cheaper computers with more or less equal specs, they will cost roughly the same.


http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

http://www.system76.com/index.php?cPath=28

System76 has very high quality hardware. Compared to Mac, it falls short on battery life and weight, but this is because of the more powerful graphics.

[del_diablo]

3Miro: Sure, but it falls short on the battery. But I guess my statement was at the least partially incorrect(read that how you want). The weight difference is 2,5 to 2,6 is it? Well, I assume that is not really a difference.

Spr0k3t: Sure, but generally? Generally for the same juice and power and the build, it will generally cost equally, or more.
Going from their website the cheapest is intigrated with AMD cpu and chipset at ~500$, and the next you I assume you mention is at ~1400$, which also has intigrated(I assume so since it does not mention what GPU's are inside). Also: Inferior display, with inferior resolution :(
So, its inferior, and you are comparing bread with butter, unless I looked at the wrong models.

[kaldor]

Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?

If OS X were under GPL, everyone here would love it, I bet.


On topic, it depends on what you want to do. Ubuntu has some very good editing software and multimedia stuff as well as OS X. Though, knowing Linux, you might need to fight with it a bit more sometimes.

[Spr0k3t]

Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?

If OS X were under GPL, everyone here would love it, I bet.

I'm required to use one daily. I will openly bash macs (opinion entitlement) with a bit of reserve. I don't like the operating system, I don't like the feel of the hardware, I don't like the company or their consumer bullying tactics. At the same time, I will encourage people to use what they know and to use the right tools for the job. Should that require a mac to do just that, then it should be a mac. I personally will find any and all opportunity to use anything but a mac to achieve whatever task I have. Video editing... Music composition... Desktop Publishing... I've found best done on a mac, outside of that... almost anything else works just fine and costs less.


Inferior display, with inferior resolution

Not sure what you are looking at, but the screens are the exact same right down to the Glossy/Matte, resolution, LED/CCL type displays. You may want to look again. Not sure what you meant by the whole "General Lee" thing... last I remember it was something about Bo and Luke Duke :P .

[dpny]

Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?

No idea. I have no idea why people do this in general: I've seen grown ups get into fights over which baseball team is better.

My advice to people who ask me 'which machine should I get?' questions is: look at the software you want to run and see if it's better supported on a particular platform. Look at the hardware you want and see if one manufacturer combines more of it in one machine. Assess the level of involvement you want to have with the maintenance of your machine, as building one is not for everyone. Then look at the amount of money you want to spend and make your decision. And don't anyone tell you that buying a particular machine makes you wrong.

I use Macs because, in 25+ years of using computers I have used a bewildering number of operating systems and hardware, and OS X is the one I find to be the best combination of power and ease of use, and because I have had very good luck with Apple software: for me it lasts and lasts and lasts. I'm also curious enough to install and run Linux on more than one machine.


If OS X were under GPL, everyone here would love it, I bet.

Absolutely.

[kingbilly]

I have one and I don't like it at all. Sometimes it just takes 5 minutes to make your decision. I have had mine for way longer than that, but I still don't like it. Feels like a regression, and I am betting other forum members feel it too hence their bashing.



With that said, there is the right tool for the job. I would have no problem recommending Mac for my father or two sisters - If I wasn't their IT guy. All they do is surf the web, check email, and swallow flash advertisements shoveled into their throats at the speed of a cable modem.

Too bad you can't test drive the Mac Pro and a custom built PC Ubuntu. Got any friends with these systems?


Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?

If OS X were under GPL, everyone here would love it, I bet.


On topic, it depends on what you want to do. Ubuntu has some very good editing software and multimedia stuff as well as OS X. Though, knowing Linux, you might need to fight with it a bit more sometimes.

[daverich]

I'd say get the mac.

But then I dont like hassle.

I *love* ubuntu for net stuff, open office and general day-to-day computing but when it comes to media work i find the mac works a heck of a lot better and i swear at the computer a lot less than when i try to use linux to achieve media stuff.

one day i'm sure linux will have the apps to do great media work but right now they're not there. (I even would happily buy a paid-for video editor for linux to avoid the hassle)

The one thing i really can't stand about osx is the filesystem however. Why they dont go over to ext4 is beyond me.


Kind regards

Dave Rich

[del_diablo]

Not sure what you are looking at, but the screens are the exact same right down to the Glossy/Matte, resolution, LED/CCL type displays. You may want to look again. Not sure what you meant by the whole "General Lee" thing... last I remember it was something about Bo and Luke Duke :P .

Might be that the Norwegian page of it is serving me different options.
For me, having less resolution is enough to call it "inferior" when it is something that requires good amounts of resolution.

[MooPi]

I don't know what to say about the Apple hatin' going on but I do love my custom builds. I had a friend over just last week and he wanted a dvd converted to avi so his kids could watch it while they traveled to relatives over Thanksgiving. I had my weakest computer up and he watched as the computer ripped and converted the dvd amazed at the speed. He asked if this was one of those super fast quad core gazillion gigs of ram machines and did I pay lots for it ? I hated to tell him that I paid less than 300$ for it and it was just a single core wimp AMD Sempron running Ubuntu. I told him I couldn't show him my really fast computers because it would blow his mind what a Linux computer can do by comparison to the alternatives.

[Evil-Ernie]

Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?


Bit of a sweeping generalisation there kaldor!

I have had to use Macs professionally in 2 different roles in my career, the one we had a design dept which I had to use to sometimes had to sit on a Mac and they had different models of them where they were buying new ones to keep up, if you had to take one file to another Mac it would cause problems so sometimes we had to use a PC as a go-between! LOL in the end they got rid of them when they saw how much it would cost to replace them and bought a same spec set of PCs on a Dell contract and save the company £1000s also it meant our standard in-house IT guy could service the PCs rather than get an expensive Mac engineer in.

Second time I was working in a drawing office for a marketing company dealing in extremely large format printing (wrapping whole buildings etc), again lots of very expensive Macs. For work like DTP and putting together catalogues etc Macs were great but pretty much all of the large format work was done on a PC using Coral draw, the Macs were just a pain in the @r$e when it came to using vectors or getting something right for a rip (when a file is sent to large format printer).

I hate that people automatically assume that for professional design work you need a Mac, this I find is a myth.

[3Miro]

Why do people on this forum bash Macs without having used one/only having used one for 5 minutes?

If OS X were under GPL, everyone here would love it, I bet.


OSX is too similar to Linux for people here to bash it, OSX is a good operating system. My problem is with Apple and their policies, high prices and restrictions. If OSX would go GPL that would be a huge plus.