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Mac or PC, laptop or desktop?

R

RDF

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Lappy = portable and compact. They are pretty good now and if you plan to carry it around, or don't want something that takes a lot of space and you aren't interested in parts, go ahead. If you want a bigger screen, keyboard, or mouse you can just USB them.

That's basically what I do.

I have a mid-level MacBook Pro (laptop). I wanted to do some gaming on it so I had some extra RAM installed when I bought it just to play it safe; and it handles that load with no problem.

I put the laptop on a cooling pad (a laptop pad equipped with fans, easily purchased from Staples, nothing special) over by the TV. I hooked it up to the big-screen TV so that I don’t have to get up close to the small laptop screen; using the big TV screen is easier on my eyes. And I also use a wireless mouse and a full keyboard on a USB extension cord. The laptop is plugged into the wall socket, of course.

So basically I sit in the middle of the room at a table with the mouse on the table and the keyboard in my lap and use the TV as my screen. The laptop sits over by the TV, untouched. I use the TV remote to play with volume or switch the TV between use for the computer and normal use.

The toughest part of this set-up was setting up the TV hook-up for the first time. That took a little research for how to arrange the settings on the computer and TV.

Then when I want to travel, I just unhook all the cords and walk off with the laptop. I can just use the laptop itself for quick jobs, or I can take along some of the accessories (like the cooling pad) if I’m going to be putting in a lot of time on the laptop while traveling.
 

Randomnity

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If you want the portability of a laptop for internet, typing etc and don't mind doing your music processing/etc at home, I'd really strongly recommend my current setup - a good PC desktop with a nice monitor and a netbook for portability.

My netbook gets 8-10h battery life (pretty comparable to macbooks, I think?) and fits in my small purse without being too heavy for one shoulder, so I can take it places I never would take a laptop. It was around 250$, making the desktop+netbook together far cheaper than a mac, and the desktop is so so much nicer to use than a laptop (larger monitor, increased processing power, more ergonomic setup) while having the possibility of upgrading parts later as they get obsolete. My desktop will die soon (bought a friend's old one last year) and I'll definitely be replacing it with another PC desktop. I loved my laptops for years but the netbook is SO much better for low-level computer use.

(I actually bought the netbook as an alternative to a smart phone - it's nearly as portable if you don't mind carrying a purse, and it has a keyboard and some limited ability to run programs, and I'm almost always within reach of a wifi network, so for my purposes it beats a 600$ iphone anyday)

edit: or of course just desktop if you don't care about portability. :)
 

highlander

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Everyone - so I've looked at the Apple website and I realized that I honestly don't know anymore what kind of memory, processing speed etc is needed/important. Also, any opinions about screen size?

I always get the highest processing speed and especially memory that I can. The reason is that the computer lasts longer. Disk space doesn't seem so important.
 
W

WALMART

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I would wait for the Microsoft Surface...

but that's just me.



Having said that, I just built an awesome computer that I can honestly say is the first one in my life where it does everything I need how I want to do it with literally no slowdown. The other day I was downloading a game, installing a game, playing a game, listening to music, surfing the web, and chatting online with someone, and the computer was running as well as it does when I first boot it up.

I'd say desktop > laptop, but it really depends on what you're doing with it.
 

The Ü™

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Don't you mean MAC or WIN? They are both operating systems that run on PCs.

Personally, I have a desktop PC with WIN with:

  • MSI 890FXA-GD70 AM3 AMD 898FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX AMD Motherboard
  • AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3 GHz CPU
  • G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 8GB (2 x 4 GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1333 (PC3 10666) RAM
  • HIS Radeon HD 6970 2GB 256-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.1 x16 GPU
  • Cooler Master Silent Pro Gold 1200W Power Supply
  • Windows 7 Home Premium (64 bit)
Built it last year, I believe. Spared no expense.

I'll probably get a laptop soon, too.
 

Fidelia

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Can you translate those stats into layman terms for me, U? Thanks a million!
 

Rail Tracer

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Video and gaming computers often take up very similar preferences (the best ones usually have great processors and video cards.) If you tend to do intense video editing, while being a bit more frugal with the $, a Desktop (doesn't matter if PC or Mac) will do. You may also like to look at the video editing programs that come with the OS. Lots of people tend to like Macs when it comes to design work :shrug:. Again, based on your preferences.

If you know that you'll be working a lot outside your home, a laptop (again... any will do.)

Personally, a Desktop would be my preference because you can get a pretty big monitor that allows for a lot of work. You can customize it after a few years (especially if you get a tower,) and the same parts usually cost less than laptop counterparts.

If your work isn't as intensive, a laptop may do.

Basic understanding to keep in mind:
Motherboard
Good Processing speed
Good Video card
Minimum 2gb RAM(enough to run programs, more wouldn't be bad)
Lots of Hard Disk drive space (or a big external hard drive for your videos)
 

ygolo

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I am not a Mac person, but from what I have read/heard, they are still, in general, better for your uses (though apparently becoming less so for video editing).
There is MS Office for Mac (http://www.microsoft.com/mac/products). You don't have to run a virtual machine (but that is an option).

You can poke around yourself, but this is pretty typical of what I found:
http://www.ehow.com/video_4951080_buying-laptop-music-production.html
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8PAeXBkqR0
http://advancedphototech.wordpress.com/hardware/mac-or-pc-for-photo-editing/

You can get pretty powerful laptops. They will cost you more than a comparable desktop, and you cannot really do much after market hardware customization (but these days, there isn't much reason to).

I have heard/read that Macbook Pro's are really good for the things you want to do, but I generally found the price of Macs prohibitive. (Still, keep in mind the things you mentioned are not the typical applications I use).
http://www.anandtech.com/show/6037/the-2012-macbook-pro-review
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RyHPbUi05rA
[YOUTUBE="RyHPbUi05rA"]Mac Book Unboxing[/YOUTUBE]

It is always easier to just think about what is best, when price is not a big consideration.

What is your price range?
 
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