What to buy?

Well like a week ago a decided to buy a MacBook, i havent do it yet because of the awful amount of quiestion i´ve been asking to my self. First of all a decided to go for the MB pro, bacause of the very modest Grafikcard of the MB. Then a look PC´s... and i found a very good Dell for nearly 500 eur less.

Now i really want to work with mac, i´ve benn using pc all my life and now that I am working with Audio and Video a want to make the step and buy a mac... but... I dont work alone. all my partners have pc and I dont know how big of a problem it is goig to be this in the future.

We work with Cubase (moust of all) we exange constantly video end audio information and i dont know if this is goig to be easy if a buy a mac. Yea, I can run a parallel win. but i heard that with big programs doesnt work well.

I´ve benn thinking in buying the Dell so i dont have to deal with this kinds of problems, and off course for the money. But i dont know if sooner or later i am goig to regrate this desition.

Quieston I´ve been asking to my self:
is the Grafik card of a MB good enough if I´m working with video?
How much of a problem is to work in the same net with other PCs?
How can I work with Cubase or/and Logic tougheter with ohers once again, PC?
Are the advantages of Mac 500 eur worth?
are Bootcamp or parallel good enough for heavy work?

All comments are welcome!
thanks

First, I will say I still love my MBP (MacBook Pro) and would not even think of trading it in on a Dell. But then, mine is not a work machine, it really is only a toy. And, am not going to answer your questions directly, just ask some more questions and a couple comments.

1) Is this machine going to be your primary work computer or a secondary personal computer that just takes work home with you?

2) There is a learning curve to the OS. Not a steep one, but it is there none the less, as it will be with any new OS. Do you have the willingness and the time for this? Or, will this be seen as a "problem"? See # 1.

3) If no one at work has a Mac, who will provide the tech support you will need initially (networking, etc.)? See # 2.

4) Have not seen the laptop that can keep up with a desktop by any stretch of the imagination at the same price point.

5) For encoding and re-encoding, whether Mac or PC, would recommend the fastest processor and the most RAM you can afford to buy.

6) Definitely upgrade to a 7200 RPM hard drive. A 5400 hard drive will be a bottleneck.

7) Video card needs will depend on whether you need the 3D capabilities in your work and/or play. Can't hurt to get the best you can afford here either.

8) Regret - I do not regret buying this MBP whatsoever. If I had bought the Dell I was looking at; would be having fun with it also, though maybe not so much. Am sure I would have some regret in not going with the Mac.

Now, if I had bought this for work, and had to spend an hour to figure out how to access the company network, that would have been real regret for me. Everything I do at work is time sensitive. Stopping to figure out where are my right click menus, even how to right click, and why doesn't the delete key work the way I am use to; these would have been big issues in the time constraints I have there. Here at home, they are non-issues. Just a matter of learning the OS X way.

1) im really a student but I´m also work (at home) both in the Audio Video field, that means it has to be a Laptop, and just a Laptop, i can´t afford two computers.
2)Willigness is all I have, time and money... i can arrange that.
3) as I said I work at home tougether with two other people. At home we build a network. And although we know usauly how the things work, we have never worked with MAC
4)see Nr2

well a finaly a would really liked to know how works the exange of data realeted to music software (cubase, logic, reason, pro tools). we mostly work with cubase

thanks

Exchanging data back and forth once your network is set up will be no different than with a windows machine.

As for your software, both Cubase and Logic have Mac versions. But to get any more in depth, and to find out if there are any differences your best bet is going to be use google - and search for some forums related specifically towards that software.

One product I can speak of is Cubase - I had a module as part of my Comp & IS Degree which involved creating a piece of work in Cubase - the lab for this module was a Mac lab (The only Mac lab on our campus as it goes).

I eventually got Cubase for my PC so that I could do a little extra playing over the weekend etc (plus as you can imagine a university of 25000 students (granted only about 5k in Computing faculty) having just one Mac lab - it was difficult to get computer time). As such I know from personal experience that Cubase files can be transferred between the Windows and Mac versions of that software.

I've never tried Logic - not really sure what it does so no opinion. What type of video work will you be doing? if it's just rearranging or editing a normal Video that you have recorded then I see no reason why a MacBook coudn't do that - I'd guess that is more dependant on CPU/RAM than the GPU. Rendering and doing some impressive texture stuff in Paint Shop Pro - well I think that is more the sort of thing that will benefit from a more powerful graphics option.

Networking a Mac should be easy enough (My uni had their Mac Lab hooked into the Windows/UNIX/Linux network). Check out this Apple Networking Support Page for some help/info.

Comparing a MBP to a Dell laptop - in terms of price there must be a HUGE difference - but that difference is probably equally identifiable in the specs. Don't get me wrong I know there are some good buys to be had in the PC market but a Dell for 500eur is prob not really a challenge for a MBP (I am right in thinking that 500eur is about £350-400 aren't I?) Moving on to a MacBook - well that is probably a little closer to the Dell specs - but I would still guess the MacBook to out-gun the Dell.

I think I should back track a little here - my argument is assuming that you mean the Dell laptop you've seen is for 500 eur - did I misunderstand?

If the Dell is that cheap you want to be looking specifically at the following details when trying to compare machines:

CPU model & speed (e.g. a AMD Sempron or Intel Celeron or Celeron M just don't cut it - full stop! Equally so a Pentium 4 in a laptop needs to be looked at for the bus speed, Centrinos, Pentium Ms', Core Duo & Core 2 Duos are a different story)
RAM How much and what speed does it run at. (Not sure about Cubase but video work will prob demand or at least benefit from as much RAM as you can afford to cram in)
Hard Drive How Big & what speed does it run at (a Hard Drive is one of the areas you can really notice a difference in a slower (cheaper) version)

You need to decide what you need from the machine. Narrow down your choices based on what you need THEN look at that list of laptops (Or desktops) and look for things you'd quite like or don't really care about. The list should decrease - go to somewhere like a PC World or John Lewis or some place that has a good selection of laptops out on the shelves - your choice may simply come down to looks or even feel - as long as the ones your looking at meet the list that has the features you need.

Don't forget the extra costs - Unfortunately a move to Apple will increase the total initial costs as you're going to have to replace that nice big Windows Software collection...

For me Portability is the most important factor when buying a laptop. So I want something that is quite light, not too big (kind of goes hand in hand with weight) AND can give me a lot of battery time! My list might include the MacBook and a couple of the ultra portable Wintel laptops - my next list goes on to what I don't want - that being Windows - I'm just sick of it (it's a personal choice) which kind of limits my choices even more so.

I also think the MacBook looks outstanding!

Did I go off point there....

The decision is ultimately yours however you can be sure that places like this forum and its members will do their best to help you through those early days.

One more thing - I believe the next versions of Parallels & Boot Camp will both support Windows Vista - I think Parallels is planning on being able to run the full 'aero' look which is pretty demanding so I would say that Parallels at least will be able to do some heavy work - maybe check out their site for more info.

"I think I should back track a little here - my argument is assuming that you mean the Dell laptop you've seen is for 500 eur - did I misunderstand?"

yes, I think you may be misunderstand me, I did´t mean a Dell for 500 eur.
I mean 500 eur LESS than a MBP, that means 1500 eur. IT´s a realy good machine. (1 RAM, 160 HD, 256 GC, 2,16GHz Core Duo & Core 2).

Video? well moustly I´m goig to be "soundtracking" or whaterver is call. I would have a pice of video and I´m going to do the music or sounds for it. That´s something that the MB can handel, I´m know that. But I´m not done with my Studie, and the posibilities are huge.. like 3D!!
And also I´m probaby would have to put some music in 3D animation films.


thank you for your comments