Yes or No?

[stereotactic]

Little help with a predicament please...

I am currently running a nice zippy laptop with Cubase 5. It isn't the most stable set up in the world (turns out Dell hates audio/DJ-ing/production/me) but I had it custom built and for the most part it works, despite it taking around 6 months to iron out all the kinks initially.

Anyway, it pulled a mini-fail on me the other day, and naturally I got in a fucking great sulk about it. My long suffering missus has watched that laptop beat the crap out of me on several occasions, and in the knowledge that we are due to come into a little money shortly, says 'you know, we really should get you a Mac'.

After I picked myself up off the floor, I got to thinking... is it worth it? Incidentally, I fixed the Cubase problem and now it's running sweet as a nut again.

So, the question is, if you had a bit of spare cash, would you shell out for a Mac and Logic? At first I thought 'schweeeeeet', but now I'm thinking 'damn that's a wedge'. then I'm thinking 'schweeeet', and it kind of goes back and forth like that ad infinitum.

Opinions please DSF crew.

[hasezwei]

from what i've seen at steinberg's, cubase isn't *that* different from logic, at least when compared to other DAWs. so the change won't be too radical, and if you're already an experienced producer i think 2 weeks of reading this will do the deal.
of course the change from a pc to a mac will be strange at first but apart from the typical_mac_user.jpg's you'll have to endure from now on it's gonna be fun trust me! i've got both a mac and a pc, so i think i'm not biased...

[deadly_habit]

hackintosh
have the best of both worlds
macs crash too
dell can suck my dick though. have a couple of their laptops in pieces sitting in a box in my closet

[charliefoy]

I have a macbook. 2.4ghz 2gb RAM 160GB hard drive running Logic and Reason, 0 problems. Never crashes. I think the only thing that matters when it comes to Cubase and Logic is the plug ins you have...I don't know, I only know Logic and Reason.

[WeedKeepa]

hackintosh
have the best of both worlds
macs crash too
dell can suck my dick though. have a couple of their laptops in pieces sitting in a box in my closet

My dell is currently being held together by blu' tack at the hinge!
It also isn't charging, only runs when permanantly plugged into a power source :') I have to raise it at the back so it doesn't block the fan hense overheating and cutting off.
So yeah, would highly recommend

[hasezwei]

hackintosh
have the best of both worlds
macs crash too
dell can suck my dick though. have a couple of their laptops in pieces sitting in a box in my closet

i'm skeptical... one of the reasons macs almost never crash (though yes, of course they crash too) is that the OS has to run on only a pretty limited number of hardware configurations. now if you run OSX on random pc-hardware, where's the stability and reliability? most of the hardware shouldnt be supported anyway.
never tried it though, does anyone have experience with hackintoshs?

[staticcast]

i'm skeptical... one of the reasons macs almost never crash (though yes, of course they crash too) is that the OS has to run on only a pretty limited number of hardware configurations. now if you run OSX on random pc-hardware, where's the stability and reliability? most of the hardware shouldnt be supported anyway.

^^ this

And isn't the hardware one of the main draws of Macs in the first place?

[deadly_habit]

hackintosh
have the best of both worlds
macs crash too
dell can suck my dick though. have a couple of their laptops in pieces sitting in a box in my closet

i'm skeptical... one of the reasons macs almost never crash (though yes, of course they crash too) is that the OS has to run on only a pretty limited number of hardware configurations. now if you run OSX on random pc-hardware, where's the stability and reliability? most of the hardware shouldnt be supported anyway.
never tried it though, does anyone have experience with hackintoshs?

hackintoshs are speced to run osx hence just as stable
the problem with prebuilt pcs are they are mass produced using cheap parts in order to turn a profit most of the time
if you build your own you can use all reliable and top notch components

[nowaysj]

Okay, here it goes. I have a dell laptop and it is rock solid stable, very infrequent crashes. Like very infrequent. The other day, I dropped the thing into an empty bath tub, in the most horrible way it could be dropped, and it works totally fine!

W/ that said, I get little pips in my audio. It's not strictly from system latency, I've run the checker and it is quite low. I've been told that the cd/dvd is the culprit, but it's never been a serious issue, so I've never gone after it.

Apple makes pretty good laptops. Probably their best product. But, not only is it the cost of the laptop, AND logic, don't forget about all of your other plugins, do they have mac versions in the license you bought?

Confucius said: If you are the kind of person who has problems with your pc, you might equally be the kind of person who has problems with your mac.

[FSTZ]

Okay, here it goes. I have a dell laptop and it is rock solid stable, very infrequent crashes. Like very infrequent. The other day, I dropped the thing into an empty bath tub, in the most horrible way it could be dropped, and it works totally fine!

haha!!

makin beats on the toilet again?

Confucius said: If you are the kind of person who has problems with your pc, you might equally be the kind of person who has problems with your mac.

great point

[nowaysj]

DIRTY BEATS

[cloak and dagger]

I would say: you don't need to buy a Mac, but don't buy another Dell.


I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad last year, and it's pretty fantastic overall...no complaints really. I have a lower-end Lenovo that I use for internet/movies/etc as well as my live sets, and apart from the TERRIBLE touchpad, it's pretty excellent as well.

[hasezwei]

I would say: you don't need to buy a Mac, but don't buy another Dell.


I bought a Lenovo Thinkpad last year, and it's pretty fantastic overall...no complaints really. I have a lower-end Lenovo that I use for internet/movies/etc as well as my live sets, and apart from the TERRIBLE touchpad, it's pretty excellent as well.

hm... my thinkpad sucks balls, but it's pretty old (i guess? it's an r60)
sometimes the screen just turns off, sometimes it freezes for no reason, the battery is already close to dead...
i still prefer it to my powerbook though, because everytime i turn that one on i get asked to install updates for programs just to find out that the newer versions only run on intel

[cloak and dagger]

that's too bad man, i actually bought it because i was using a 10-year-old thinkpad that was still running strong...it actually only stopped working a couple of months ago, and it wasn't the hardware but rather Windows 2000 that fucked up (and there was no cd drive to reinstall windows on)

[JBE]

hackintosh
have the best of both worlds
macs crash too
dell can suck my dick though. have a couple of their laptops in pieces sitting in a box in my closet

My one and only experience with Dell has been quite unsatisfying. The laptop I purchased from them trned to shit almost exactly the same time my Warranty ran out....go figure. When I contacted them about the numerous issues I was having they basically told me they didn't have the time to deal with my issues if I wasn't still under warranty, and that was basically all the help their customer service provided. They offered to fix my problems if I paid full price for all parts, labor and shipping, and low and behold the parts they gave me an option of choosing from were pretty much the most expensive parts they could find, and refused to offer any other options. roughly about a month after I went through hell and back with their customer service about the laptop, they sent me a letter in the mail giving me the option to extend my already expired warranty, but they gave me only 2 warranty options and the lowest of the 2 was going to run me like 200 dollars.

On top of all that, I've literally not even put a dent in my bill. It's worse than an actual credit card. They charge fees for damn near everything and the interest rates fluxuate randomly without warning, literally almost bi-weekly. They charge like 7 dollars to make payments online, and 10 to make them over the phone. Even doing it online or over the phone there's a rather annoying processing stage that tends to change between 3-5 days and even if the payment is in the processing phase they will charge late fees for every day you are late. The best part though, is that instead of adding it as an overdue payment, they simply tack it onto the full account balance so you end up having to pay the interest on the late fees rather than just paying them off as a straight one time payment. It's been a truly frustrating experience that I will never put myself through ever again.

[dubmatters]

All mass produced products will have problems.

The new mbp look very nice.

2.66GHz Intel Core i7
4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD±R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 15-inch Hi-Res Antiglare Widescreen Display

£1,666.15 incl. VAT

Thats with the HE discount.

Logic Studio is only £140 with the HE discount though.

I had a 5 year old mac laptop up until the end of last year and still ran logic reasonably well considering the spec.

And mac's do retain their value very well.

example

http://www.google.co.uk/products?client ... CDsQrQQwAg

Powerbooks were discontinued in 06.

Heck even my year old imac has only lost about £150 in value. Can't say any PC machine would hold its value like that.

[collige]

Like deadly said go hackintosh if you want a desktop.

For laptops, it's really a question of whether you're willing to shell out the cash. Macbooks are some of the best laptops out there and hold their value really well, but are overpriced considering their specs (not so much for the new macbook pros though).

[nowaysj]

I wonder what they did to bring the cost down on the new mcp's? You know they didn't cut their margin any. I know they've been trying to work cheaper components into their desktops/laptops for a while now.

==

Re the thinkpads, my first non mac laptop was a thinkpad (still ibm), and I still use the fucker. r40 I think it, and bought it in 03. Still kicking. 2 things went bad, the battery, but that happens on all laptops, especially if you're a bum like me and constantly drain the battery, an the fucking titanium hinge actually snapped recently (like 2 weeks after I gave it to my wife, so go figure). For 3 solid years that laptop was jammed into a backpack containing literally between 20-50 pounds of books. Dropped that fucker (in a bathroom can you believe it?) like a month after I bought it from shoulder height onto a tile floor. It was in the backpack, but still made a HORRIBLE cracking sound when it hit. No problems.

Re the track pad, I like the track pad on there, better than the dell, that is for sure. And I like the little pointer thing in the middle of the keyboard on the thinkpad. I am ninja with that thing. I can barely use the dell one it sucks so bad. Re my dell, I didn't buy it, I'd never buy a dell, but it is a high end one, so probably why it functions so well.

[press]

if i could afford it yes i would get a mac to run logic.

[the lone raver]

i had a thinkpad before i bought my macbook. the macbook is definitely more stable than any windows based system i've had but if you want to save some money i'd definitely recommend a secondhand thinkpad. they have a much better build quality (at least they did then) than any laptop i've ever owned - including the macbook.