Why I went Mac...after 20+ years

[Mr Friendly]

Hi,

First time post.

My Mac experience, grew up with a father that was a PC teacher and had the apple lisa, IIC, original Mac and so on in my home in addition to many PCs. Yeah, I am old..I manually added a math coprocessor to a 286. So there you have it.

Now, I have been building high end PCs for years. I bought a new home and decided I was tired of all the mess and Windows 8. I am parting out a 3770k, water cooled, 3Xgtx680s, and all top of the line gear.

I bought a mini-mac because I wanted a music server for my very high end audiophile 2 channel stereo setup. I had this after Windows 8 and noticed that it was closer to the windows 7 ecosystem than windows 8. Fastforward, months later, and now I am looking at this uber expensive PC wondering what the hell I am doing.

I did it...I sold the PC. I bought the Mac Pro...base model. Silence...and I love it. My little trashcan is dead silent, fast and works ALL THE TIME. I do have 4k video and very high end photos that will also benefit but it is a hobby and not a career.

I will keep a couple PCs in my ecosystem but my main is now Mac Pro.

I Just thought I would share.

 

[mmomega]

A Big F- ing Bravo to you sir.

Simply because you did something different and embraced it full on.

I still haven't taken the plunge for the Mac Pro so I kneel down to you sir, no excuses, shoulda woulda coulda.

Thanks for the share.

 

[GGJstudios]

Hi,

First time post.

Hi, and welcome!

My Mac experience, grew up with a father that was a PC teacher and had the apple lisa, IIC, original Mac and so on in my home in addition to many PCs. Yeah, I am old..I manually added a math coprocessor to a 286.

That's not old at all! You're a young'un!

I did it...I sold the PC. I bought the Mac Pro...base model. Silence...and I love it. My little trashcan is dead silent, fast and works ALL THE TIME. I do have 4k video and very high end photos that will also benefit but it is a hobby and not a career.

I will keep a couple PCs in my ecosystem but my main is now Mac Pro.

I Just thought I would share.

As some would say, welcome to the "dark side"! I think a lot of us just got fed up with Windows, and everything that goes along with it. I switched to Mac over 6 years ago, after being with Windows since its beginning, and haven't looked back.

Again, welcome to the forum! You'll find a wealth of information here. If you need help and don't find it by searching the forum, don't hesitate to ask!

 

[OS6-OSX]

It is customary on MacRumors to give 1st time Mac users a "Happy Mac Birthday" cake. Don't forget you can run Windows in boot camp and all apps are native.

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

Got that nasty Mac Pro itch

OK, this shouldn’t be happening.

I have been back and forth between Mac and PCs ever since 1992. Bought some expensive LC and Quadra back in the day, changed to built-it-myself pc (the manly option, you know!) for years. I did get a MacBook Pro 17 in 2008, but I was still happy with Windows on my main workstation, and all was good.

Then we switched to use mainly Mac at work, and slowly, but surely, the Mac OS grew on me. A surprisingly lot. Darn it! Not again!

I'm working with photo and raw-files so Lightroom and Photoshop CC are the main apps. Needless to say, I lusting for 1 TB of ultra fast SSD PCI-E storage. Drool!

I know that I can built a faster machine with less expense, but I must be getting old. I just want a fast, enjoyable machine, and the more I try to reason myself away from a Mac Pro, the stronger the lust gets. Darn it!

What should I do with this unreasonable Mac Pro itch?

 

[reco2011]

OK, this shouldn’t be happening.

I have been back and forth between Mac and PCs ever since 1992. Bought some expensive LC and Quadra back in the day, changed to built-it-myself pc (the manly option, you know!) for years. I did get a MacBook Pro 17 in 2008, but I was still happy with Windows on my main workstation, and all was good.

Then we switched to use mainly Mac at work, and slowly, but surely, the Mac OS grew on me. A surprisingly lot. Darn it! Not again!

I'm working with photo and raw-files so Lightroom and Photoshop CC are the main apps. Needless to say, I lusting for 1 TB of ultra fast SSD PCI-E storage. Drool!

I know that I can built a faster machine with less expense, but I must be getting old. I just want a fast, enjoyable machine, and the more I try to reason myself away from a Mac Pro, the stronger the lust gets. Darn it!

What should I do with this unreasonable Mac Pro itch?

Satisfy it by buy one! See how easy that was

 

[blueshogun96]

I'm glad this forum exists, because if you told that story elsewhere (a non Mac specific forum), you'd be trolled into oblivion. This is pretty much the only forum where I can talk about Mac in peace, without the hordes of Windows fan slaves telling me to get a "real" computer and that I'm retarded for owning a Mac because it's more expensive and has less games. Nevermind the fact that the latest Mac Pro trumps the average PC in terms of hardware alone.

Enjoy your new Mac Pro.

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

Satisfy it by buy one! See how easy that was

Thanks! Yes, it probably really is that easy!

Nah, to be honest, I will wait to Fall and see whether there will be an iMac with 4K-screen first. I would also really like if the base Mac Pro is upgraded to 6 cores with Haswell-EP, but who knows whether that will be late 2014 or early 2015.

But it will be tough to wait. Tough, I tell you!

 

[tuxon86]

Thanks! Yes, it probably really is that easy!

Nah, to be honest, I will wait to Fall and see whether there will be an iMac with 4K-screen first. I would also really like if the base Mac Pro is upgraded to 6 cores with Haswell-EP, but who knows whether that will be late 2014 or early 2015.

But it will be tough to wait. Tough, I tell you!

If I may, I would like to suggest a few things concerning the 4 vs 6 core...

1st, look at the apps that you're using or plan to use and see if they'll really benefit from having 2 more cores. Believe it or not, the vast majority of applications rarely even tax a dual core processor these days, even less so a quad core, beside video encoders and 3D cpu renderers. Beside the speed of the cores is many time more important than the number of said core. A 4 cores @ 3.5Ghz will do its work faster than a 6 cores @ 3.0Ghz if the application you are using doesn't use more than 4 cores (those speed are fictional and use only as an exemple).

As for 4K, just about any decent and recent GPU, even the intel integrated one, can do 4K. If you can live with a screen that doesn't have a fruit logo printed on its back you can enjoy 4k today.

 

[Macintosh IIcx]

If I may, I would like to suggest a few things concerning the 4 vs 6 core...

1st, look at the apps that you're using or plan to use and see if they'll really benefit from having 2 more cores. Believe it or not, the vast majority of applications rarely even tax a dual core processor these days, even less so a quad core, beside video encoders and 3D cpu renderers. Beside the speed of the cores is many time more important than the number of said core. A 4 cores @ 3.5Ghz will do its work faster than a 6 cores @ 3.0Ghz if the application you are using doesn't use more than 4 cores (those speed are fictional and use only as an exemple).

As for 4K, just about any decent and recent GPU, even the intel integrated one, can do 4K. If you can live with a screen that doesn't have a fruit logo printed on its back you can enjoy 4k today.

Good points all around, it just feels so old school with 4 cores these days, when you go out and buy something as expensive as a Mac Pro.

I'm actually more torn on the D300 vs D500 GPUs. I'm more inclined to save on those.

 

[tuxon86]

Good points all around, it just feels so old school with 4 cores these days, when you go out and buy something as expensive as a Mac Pro.

I'm actually more torn on the D300 vs D500 GPUs. I'm more inclined to save on those.

If you have a family of four, would you buy a two seater because the engine has more cylinders than your four door sedan?

Buy what you need.

 

[spatlese44]

My favorite convert was my father who use to buy 5yr old Windows boxes used and tell me what a bargain he got while I was trying to fix his driver problems. Four years ago he bought an iMac and has never looked back. He converted all of his business documents and spreadsheets to Pages and Numbers and got a cable modem. The thing was, though he had Windows, really all he use to use was a very old DOS app called Framework (an early productivity suite). I'm sure he was one of the last 10 users. Given the enthusiasm he put into the conversion, I asked him why he didn't every try switching to Office during his PC years, to which he responded, "I just wanted to skip that Windows thing". Oh, and now that they have internet, my Mom keeps telling me how easy it is to look things up online. Welcome to the 21 century M&D.

 

[tuxon86]

My first Mac was the G5 1.6Ghz Powermac that I bought when it became available. I bought a CoreDuo MacBook after that, but I didn't like it. Went back to the desktop model with a 2010 i3 iMac that I still use for Logic Pro X.

I'm planning to replace the iMac with a new 27" model maybe next year. I'm thinking of going back to university so I'll get it with the student discount then

 

[Riwam]

OK, this shouldn’t be happening.


What should I do with this unreasonable Mac Pro itch?

IMHO buy one. You will learn to love it as I (69 y.o.) and many many others did.
No human device is perfect and that will remain so... but I believe that the Pluses of this computer are overwhelmingly more relevant that the Minuses.

Just my honest personal opinion for what it might be worth or not...

 

[macs4nw]

Hi, First time post.
My Mac experience, grew up with a father that was a PC teacher and had the apple lisa, IIC, original Mac and so on in my home in addition to many PCs. Yeah, I am old..I manually added a math coprocessor to a 286. So there you have it.
Now, I have been building high end PCs for years. I bought a new home and decided I was tired of all the mess and Windows 8. I am parting out a 3770k, water cooled, 3Xgtx680s, and all top of the line gear.
I bought a mini-mac because I wanted a music server for my very high end audiophile 2 channel stereo setup. I had this after Windows 8 and noticed that it was closer to the windows 7 ecosystem than windows 8. Fastforward, months later, and now I am looking at this uber expensive PC wondering what the hell I am doing.
I did it...I sold the PC. I bought the Mac Pro...base model. Silence...and I love it. My little trashcan is dead silent, fast and works ALL THE TIME. I do have 4k video and very high end photos that will also benefit but it is a hobby and not a career.
I will keep a couple PCs in my ecosystem but my main is now Mac Pro.
I Just thought I would share.

Welcome to the 'other' side, and to MacRumors. Many 'switchers' have come to the same conclusion. While PCs do allow for a lot more customization, that edge also comes with a lot of possible headaches such as configuration, compatibility issues, and conflicts, both in hardware as well as in software. As far as user experience is concerned, by creating both hardware and software, and fine-tuning each to work optimally together, Apple has a huge advantage.

My usual advice is, buy what works best for your personal use. However many people are discovering that the ease of use, and relative simplicity of Macs is like a breath of fresh air and all they need, and then some, for 99% of their computing needs.

For now, I'm envious of your base MacPro, but I'm in no rush and waiting to see what Apple is going to do with their TB display. Enjoy your shiny new Pro!

 

[reco2011]

I'm glad this forum exists, because if you told that story elsewhere (a non Mac specific forum), you'd be trolled into oblivion. This is pretty much the only forum where I can talk about Mac in peace, without the hordes of Windows fan slaves telling me to get a "real" computer and that I'm retarded for owning a Mac because it's more expensive and has less games. Nevermind the fact that the latest Mac Pro trumps the average PC in terms of hardware alone.

Enjoy your new Mac Pro.

Most likely because the Mac Pro is not your average computer nor is it your average Mac.

----------

My favorite convert was my father who use to buy 5yr old Windows boxes used and tell me what a bargain he got while I was trying to fix his driver problems. Four years ago he bought an iMac and has never looked back. He converted all of his business documents and spreadsheets to Pages and Numbers and got a cable modem. The thing was, though he had Windows, really all he use to use was a very old DOS app called Framework (an early productivity suite). I'm sure he was one of the last 10 users. Given the enthusiasm he put into the conversion, I asked him why he didn't every try switching to Office during his PC years, to which he responded, "I just wanted to skip that Windows thing". Oh, and now that they have internet, my Mom keeps telling me how easy it is to look things up online. Welcome to the 21 century M&D.

Then why were you constantly fixing driver problems? Seems to me once the system was set up and running there's no reason to do anything else.

 

[tuxon86]

Most likely because the Mac Pro is not your average computer nor is it your average Mac.

----------


Then why were you constantly fixing driver problems? Seems to me once the system was set up and running there's no reason to do anything else.

Beside, driver problem on windows haven't really be a problem for years now and the mac isn't immune against them... (OSX 10.9.2 cough, cough....)

Sometime I think people around here haven't kept abreast of what is happening in the windows world since windows 98...