Quick Question. PC over Mac for Adobe/Editing.

Adam Senior

Adam Senior

Adam Senior

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Ok guys. Iv moved to the US with my Wife and iv decided to get back into Graphic Design/Photography on the side to earn some extra coin.

I was very impressed with the new 27" mac. I was wondering if any of you guys have any opinions based on performance alone.

I have a 24" dell monitor sat at home which i was thinking of using as a 2nd monitor maybe.

I was also thinking cost would be cheaper on pc, yet i would then need to purchase a monitor.

Any advice, please no trolling. I love PC's and also Mac.

Just open for advice.
 
Hi there,

I believe that the CS5 suite performs very similarly on identical spec PCs and macs - so generally it is down to a choice of GUI preference by the user.

That said, with an imac you are very limited with what hardware upgrades you can do, plus there hasn't been a sandy bridge generation mac pro yet (and there possibly won't be one). As a result you can build a much more powerful PC than any currently available mac (eg. high end graphics card, sandy bridge E platform hex core, loads of RAM, overclocking) - as a result it is possible to get much better performance if you go down the PC route and it generally costs less to get comparable hardware.

However, if you are currently running a Sandy Bridge i7 iMac with 8GB+ of RAM then I wouldn't change what you have (apart from maybe adding some more RAM) as building a new monster PC would give you slightly better performance, but it will cost a whole lot and the improvement won't be huge. Plus you already have an excellent 27in IPS 1440p monitor installed in your iMac - to get a similar standalone monitor you would need to spend £450+.
 
I read his post that he doesn't have the iMac as it stands.

OP- if you don't have the iMAC and with the task you are planning to do then i7 would be the way forward.

With an iMAC with i7 and 8gb RAM the cost is just under £2000.

PC with similar spec (sodd it even with 16GB, which would be £320 from apple! And getting a much better GPU than in the iMAC) over £400 cheaper and better!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2711 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £559.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560Ti 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD5 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White £93.98
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £76.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £66.95
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99 (£95.98)
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,585.48 (includes shipping : £22.20).



As below, I would definitely add an SSD and go PC.

Although you do have to consider if it JUST going to be adobe software you will be using.
 
Last edited:
I've been in the design industry for 4+ years and I've always used PCs. As cmndr_andi says, the Adobe Suite performs very well on both platforms so really it comes down to personal preference and budget.

CS5 flies on my rig though, 4.5ghz 2600K, 8GB RAM, Crucial M4.
 
I have used both a mac and pc for web design/video and photo work for many years now and I currently use my pc to do it all and I use i7 2600k - 2x560ti - 16gb Ram - Corsair 120gb SSD and store all my work on a raid 1 nas.
 
[WU-TANG]GZA;21360880 said:
I read his post that he doesn't have the iMac as it stands.

OP- if you don't have the iMAC and with the task you are planning to do then i7 would be the way forward.

With an iMAC with i7 and 8gb RAM the cost is just under £2000.

PC with similar spec (sodd it even with 16GB, which would be £320 from apple! And getting a much better GPU than in the iMAC) over £400 cheaper and better!

YOUR BASKET
1 x Dell UltraSharp U2711 27" Widescreen LCD Monitor - Midnight Grey £559.99
1 x Intel Core i7-2700K 3.50GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £251.99
1 x ZOTAC GeForce GTX 560Ti 2048MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £199.99
1 x Gigabyte Z68X-UD5 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £129.98
1 x Corsair Carbide 500R Midi Tower Case - Black/White £93.98
1 x Hitachi Deskstar 7K1000.C 1TB SATA-II 32MB Cache - OEM (0F10383) £76.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Genesis 16GB (4x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual/Quad Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3K4/16GX) £66.95
1 x OCZ ZS Series 650W '80 Plus Bronze' Power Supply £64.99
2 x Kingston HyperX Genesis Grey 8GB (2x4GB) DDR3 PC3-12800C9 1600MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1600C9D3X2K2/8GX) £47.99 (£95.98)
1 x OcUK 22x DVD±RW SATA ReWriter (Black) - OEM £17.99
Total : £1,585.48 (includes shipping : £22.20).



As below, I would definitely add an SSD and go PC.

Although you do have to consider if it JUST going to be adobe software you will be using.
Click to expand...

You like using two 8GB kits then? If spending that much the XMS3 has slightly better timings. But then the 16GB kingston kits is very cheap atm...
 
The price difference between the basic 27"imac and the PC equivalent isn't as great as you might expect.

basic 27" imac £1649

PC with equivalent spec £1371.76
(now Ive stuck with the 1333Mhz memory which is dearer than 1600Mhz, included a firewire card, but no thunderbolt ports. used a £100 case to allow plenty of user choice, included wireless keyboard mouse, speakers and full HD webcam. AMD 6850 as the imac uses a 6970M which is a 6850)

YOUR BASKET
1 x Hazro HZ27WD 10-Bit 27" LED Widescreen Professional Monitor - Black £539.99
1 x Intel Core i5-2400 3.10GHz (Sandybridge) Socket LGA1155 Processor - Retail £154.99
1 x Anidees AI-6B Midi-Tower Case - Black £99.98
1 x Gigabyte Z68XP-UD3 Intel Z68 (Socket 1155) DDR3 Motherboard £99.98
1 x Asus HD 6850 DirectCU V2 1024MB GDDR5 PCI-Express Graphics Card £99.95
1 x Seagate Barracuda 7200RPM 1TB SATA 6Gb/s 64MB Cache - OEM (ST1000DM003) £82.99
1 x Microsoft Windows 7 Home Premium SP1 64-Bit - OEM (GFC-02050) £79.98
1 x Microsoft LifeCam Studio Webcam for Business £58.99
1 x Microsoft Wireless Desktop 2000 (M7J-00020) £35.99
1 x Kingston HyperX Blu 4GB (2x2GB) DDR3 PC3-10666C9 1333MHz Dual Channel Kit (KHX1333C9D3B1K2/4G) £23.99
1 x TP-Link 300Mbps Wireless N PCI Adapter (TL-WN851ND) £19.99
1 x Startech 2 Port PCI Express FireWire Card (PEX1394A2) £19.99
1 x Creative A60 2.0 Speaker System (51MF1635AA001) £14.99
1 x Dynamode Compact Bluetooth™ USB adapter £2.99
Total : £1,371.76 (includes shipping : £30.80).



It is only when you start to upgrade the basic imac package that you really will notice the extortionate prices.

go from the i5 2400 up to the i7 2600 and it will Cost you £160 upgrade from here £85

go from 4GB 1333MHz DDR3 to 8GB cost £160, goto 16GB cost £480 upgrade from here 8GB £14, 16GB £52

go from the 1TB drive to a 2 TB drive cost £120 upgrade from here £42.

bottom line is it is your choice but I personally wouldn't have a mac.
 
The whole point of building your own PC is to make it to your requirement, not a fixed generic set. So making a build to match the imac is a worthless task. :)

Decide what you need not what apple have used for it's limited range.

Bru, you forgot to hammer off the USB 3 ports and all the spare internal expansion slots on your PC spec. :)

Thunderbolt is a completely pointless interface which most people that buy a mac equiped with one will probably never use. It would have been fine if it had been in addtion to USB 3, but not instead of. :/
 
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