Macs and Max

Herminator

Herminator

Herminator

Associate
Joined
27 Jan 2005
Posts
790
Location
Newcastle
My pc has finally creaked to a halt today. It seems at least the boot hdd is having major issues, I suspect it's not the only one. This is after I had a newish 2tb drive die a couple of months ago, knocked the power cable whilst it was running :( I had just installed windows 7 on a fresh install to try and fix the stability issues...

The pc was built around 5 years ago by myself, so it's due an upgrade. It looks like £600 will get me a pretty decent CPU, mobo, ram, ssd and gfx card.

But... I have had my iPhone 3GS and iPad for over a year now and really like the simplicity. I am tempted to go for an apple setup, with Time Capsule for storage, possibly apple tv in the future. Of course with a main Mac desktop.

I'm thinking either a mac mini or 27" iMac, with i5 processor, not sure on the graphics cards, and I'll upgrade the ram to a nice high level myself. I have a dell 2407 monitor to use with the mini, although I'm reluctant to trust that having seen so many go faulty at work and mine has an odd dark corner already.

My main question is (along with wanting general advice), how well does a mid range mac perform with dual booting into windows to run 3ds max and photoshop?
I know i can use photoshop in the mac os, but if I'm using Max I'll be using the two programs together.

Other uses are typically just browsing the web, watching tv, I never really game on a pc, I have consoles for that.

A mac will be a bigger financial commitment for a system probably with lower specs. But I'm hoping for less hassle and a nicely integrated setup.

Mac noob question... What's the deal with MS word documents, and other office docs? Is there simple preinstalled compatibility?
 
I can't speak about Photoshop but having moved from a Windows laptop to MBP I've not felt short of power and it runs everything I throw at it without issues. As for Office compatibility I use LibreOffice. It can read/write in Word format.
 
steveo said:
i think with Max you can run it along side mac with a VM app like fusion
Click to expand...

^ this is what i do.

Autodesk are slowly porting all their software to Mac anyway now though, out of all the packages i use such as Mudbox, Softimage etc 99% i can run natively in OSX.
 
VM fusion looks like it could be handy, thanks. Hopefully Autodesk bring Max to OSX, although probably with several new bugs, just like any new version. I've been trying mudbox recently, it's nice to know I'll have no problems with that.

How do th different gfx processors compare in the i5 iMacs? Worth the upgrade from the bottom end 27" model? I would have thought the price difference between the middle spec one and the i7 model is worth the jump, but the two i5s seem to have less performance improvement compared to the cost increase. Unless the gfx performance is considerably better.

Something I have seen mentioned is lack of middle mouse button support. In max this could be an issue. I'll be using my logitech mouse anyway, I assume I can map it's buttons to something that can then be assigned in max for the usual middle mouse button functions?
 
When in Windows on a Mac it functions almost identically, you'll get all the function of your Logitech mouse as you would on your PC.

The differences are more the extras you'll get with it being on a Mac, you get the bootcamp software drivers which will install all the different drivers for the keyboard, mouse, trackpads, bluetooth adapters, webcam etc... which is really handy. Saves you having to hunt around for them all.
 
Well I decided to take the plunge. Refurbed 2tb Time capsule and refurbed 27" i7 iMac just ordered. Should be enough to keep me going for a few years :)
 
The 1 gig version, or at least it should be. The smaller memory on the gfx of the lower models is what put me off slightly, as I know max and photoshop together can really get demanding.

I'm a little dissapointed at the delivery date I have at the moment, Dec 9th :( I could really do with it arriving earlier.
 
Figured out what the delay was. The time capsule seems to have an 8 day dispatch time. Thats now cancelled and expected delivery is in a couple of days :D

I'll order the time capsule seperately. Or maybe pick one up in the US in a couple of weeks.
 
My first post from my new Mac, weeeeee.....

It's big...
I've not bothered getting the magic mouse out of it's pouch, I like my logitech mouse which has more of a profile. I am interested in a trackpad though, I may see if anyone wants to swap one for the other.

I like the keyboard feel, although I would have specced the wired version with the number pad if I had the choice, but the refurb was just whatever it came with.

Need to go get a time capsule from the apple store, I went earlier but the Metro Center was mobbed with all the parents being off work.
 
Just made myself happier by working out how to find the system info.
It turns out I have 8gb (2x4gb) of ram already :)
Even better is that it has the 2gb graphics card :D
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top Bottom