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Author Topic: PC recommend compare to imac  (Read 18361 times)

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« Reply #50 on: May 27, 2014, 15:43 »
0
$1000 for all that? Specs report please.

I'm primarily a Mac user but less than a year ago I built a PC with specs significantly inferior to yours, and was at $1200 (not counting the monitor).

Windows 7 Professional
4-core i7 3.4 Ghz (4770K)
16GB RAM @ 1833 Mhz
120 GB SSD (only 1 of them)
3 TB HDD (only one of them)
2 GB video card (GTX 660 w/ 960 cuda cores)

Granted, I paid for a new case, power supply and motherboard as well ($350 additional), but still, that would have been $850. . . your specs sound a too high-end for a $1k build, even with only the 6 comparable items listed. If I matched your specs, even with the case, PS, MOB, etc., I'd have been looking at around $1700+ instead of $1200 because 4GB is a serious video card. Oh, and 8 core processing isn't cheap either. Your claim of these specs for $1k sounds like an exaggeration. I don't believe it's possible to buy these parts new from retail or online sources for $1k. Did you buy used?

How is it possible you got all you mention for a grand?

And this is one of my points. What's on the monitor, by way of the Windows working environment, are some of the "uglies" I refer to.

I'm concerned with getting the job done and getting the most bang for my buck. I have 8-core 3.6GHz, 32GB RAM, 2 240GB SSD, 2 2TB HDD, 4GB video card for around $1,000 Windows 7 Ultimate. No way that I could afford a Mac with those specs.

Having worked on Macs in the past, I don't find the GUI to be any more attractive, but that's just me. To each his own.

That i7 was half of the cost of your computer ;) I'm assuming he went with an AMD chip.


« Reply #51 on: May 28, 2014, 00:48 »
0
Absolutely AMD (FX-8150). Also, I purchased all parts over a period of several months, doing careful research to be sure that I got the best deal possible. I'm sure that there's no way that I could buy everything in a day and get anywhere near that price.

« Reply #52 on: May 28, 2014, 07:46 »
+1
AMD is quite bad for PS/LR, when compared to Intel (http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-AMD-FX-8150)

« Reply #53 on: May 28, 2014, 10:09 »
0
AMD is quite bad for PS/LR, when compared to Intel (http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-AMD-FX-8150)


I stood by AMD for quite a long time until they merged with ATI. I'm not sure how their processors have been lately. The prices on those 8 core processors certainly look more appealing than the Intel prices.

« Reply #54 on: May 28, 2014, 13:20 »
0
AMD is quite bad for PS/LR, when compared to Intel (http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-4770K-vs-AMD-FX-8150)


I don't use Lightroom, but have no problems with Photoshop, Illustrator, Dreamweaver, Premiere Pro, SpeedGrade, Audition, Encore, Media Encoder or After Effects.

« Reply #55 on: May 28, 2014, 13:52 »
0
Yeah, I didn't have problems with those on my old rig (Core2Duo), I'm saying performance wise it's probably smarter to buy an Intel if you're a heavy user of PS/LR.

And still nobody ran the benchmark, funny. :D

« Reply #56 on: May 28, 2014, 14:44 »
0
Yeah, I didn't have problems with those on my old rig (Core2Duo), I'm saying performance wise it's probably smarter to buy an Intel if you're a heavy user of PS/LR.

And still nobody ran the benchmark, funny. :D

how about a simple test instead of a 3 pages one?

« Reply #57 on: June 04, 2014, 09:58 »
0
$1000 for all that? Specs report please.

I'm primarily a Mac user but less than a year ago I built a PC with specs significantly inferior to yours, and was at $1200 (not counting the monitor).

Windows 7 Professional
4-core i7 3.4 Ghz (4770K)
16GB RAM @ 1833 Mhz
120 GB SSD (only 1 of them)
3 TB HDD (only one of them)
2 GB video card (GTX 660 w/ 960 cuda cores)

Granted, I paid for a new case, power supply and motherboard as well ($350 additional), but still, that would have been $850. . . your specs sound a too high-end for a $1k build, even with only the 6 comparable items listed. If I matched your specs, even with the case, PS, MOB, etc., I'd have been looking at around $1700+ instead of $1200 because 4GB is a serious video card. Oh, and 8 core processing isn't cheap either. Your claim of these specs for $1k sounds like an exaggeration. I don't believe it's possible to buy these parts new from retail or online sources for $1k. Did you buy used?

How is it possible you got all you mention for a grand?

And this is one of my points. What's on the monitor, by way of the Windows working environment, are some of the "uglies" I refer to.

I'm concerned with getting the job done and getting the most bang for my buck. I have 8-core 3.6GHz, 32GB RAM, 2 240GB SSD, 2 2TB HDD, 4GB video card for around $1,000 Windows 7 Ultimate. No way that I could afford a Mac with those specs.

Having worked on Macs in the past, I don't find the GUI to be any more attractive, but that's just me. To each his own.

That i7 was half of the cost of your computer ;) I'm assuming he went with an AMD chip.

Ha! Well, it was only 22% to be precise ($300 out of $1350 total w/o monitor), but your point is well taken. I knew AMD was cheaper than Intel but I didn't know it was that much, for so much more in terms of cores (and perhaps click speed?) Still wouldn't buy one though.

Still curious what elvinstar got with a 4GB video card and for how much, though he makes a good point that he shopped carefully over a period of months. Elvinstar?

« Reply #58 on: June 04, 2014, 15:13 »
0
Yeah, I didn't have problems with those on my old rig (Core2Duo), I'm saying performance wise it's probably smarter to buy an Intel if you're a heavy user of PS/LR.

And still nobody ran the benchmark, funny. :D

how about a simple test instead of a 3 pages one?
It's a simple test.

Much simpler than uploading to istock, alamy, dreamstime & co.

And if you have time for that, you certainly have time for this.

Anyway, this just shows that people aren't really interested in specs. They want the workflow to be pleasant, but don't care about numbers. And I understand that. How it feels is important. But if you want to make a quantitative measure, you need benchmarks.

« Reply #59 on: June 05, 2014, 18:32 »
0
Still curious what elvinstar got with a 4GB video card and for how much, though he makes a good point that he shopped carefully over a period of months. Elvinstar?


Not saying that this is the best (or even really good) video card. Only saying that it gets the job done for me on the cheap.
4GB GeForce GT630 on eBay

And yeah, I already had monitors, keyboard, and mouse.

« Reply #60 on: June 06, 2014, 05:30 »
+1
My overall result is 128.1 sec.
My configuration (without the monitor) was 955 euro, which means I paid 7.45 euro for a second.

That's some misleading math you have there... So you are saying that if your time was for example 955 seconds, you would have paid only 1 euro per second and that would be better? :o

« Reply #61 on: June 06, 2014, 05:32 »
+1
you'll get much better value if you build your custom machine:
http://www.tonymacx86.com/home.php


If you are doing photography as a business, you also need to count the hours used in comparing/buying components and time used for building and installing the machine. And that should be multiplied by your hourly rate.

You can buy the latest Mac in almost no time.

« Reply #62 on: June 06, 2014, 07:17 »
-1
If you are doing photography as a business, you also need to count the hours used in comparing/buying components and time used for building and installing the machine. And that should be multiplied by your hourly rate.

You must be incredibly busy if you don't have any spare time at all in which to do research on parts.  ;)

« Reply #63 on: June 06, 2014, 07:54 »
0
If you are doing photography as a business, you also need to count the hours used in comparing/buying components and time used for building and installing the machine. And that should be multiplied by your hourly rate.

You must be incredibly busy if you don't have any spare time at all in which to do research on parts.  ;)
I actually get that you like to research part after part and assemble the whole thing into a working computer. There is a lot of satisfaction in that. I haven't done it for a computer but I've built many things and it's an enjoyable process. You learn a lot too. Without going off on a PC/Mac war, I'm going to assume the same is true for PCs: My latest Mac, which is a month old, took me a few minutes to setup and start working. It cost me about $2500 CND for the upper crust iMac. Say it was a PC, how much would I really save by building my own. Honestly, how much time did you spend researching and assembling, debugging etc. Unless it has some hobby value, I'm guessing it isn't worth it for most people. Some people like to build their own furniture but most of us just head off to Ikea and get a sofa and sit on it.

« Reply #64 on: June 06, 2014, 12:26 »
+1
If you are doing photography as a business, you also need to count the hours used in comparing/buying components and time used for building and installing the machine. And that should be multiplied by your hourly rate.

You must be incredibly busy if you don't have any spare time at all in which to do research on parts.  ;)

If I had spare time, I'd rather shoot and upload some new images :)

« Reply #65 on: June 06, 2014, 13:19 »
0
Honestly, how much time did you spend researching and assembling, debugging etc.

An hour here and an hour there researching, about an hour assembling, and no time debugging. Then of course software installation (Adobe, etc.) which you'd have to do no matter what you bought.

If I had spare time, I'd rather shoot and upload some new images :)

I don't play that game any more. Whatever my old portfolio brings in is what I earn. I'm not saying that building your own computer is for everyone, merely that you can definitely get the most bang for the buck that way.


 

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