PC or Mac to edit photos and video?

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Permalink Reply by Sean on February 6, 2010 at 8:10pm

They will do it the same. Though you can get a pc with the processing power cheaper than a mac. And if you have the software already you wouldn't have to purchase that again. The things you should concentrate on would be processing power, memory (ram) and video card.

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Permalink Reply by Ed on February 6, 2010 at 8:57pm

Forget trying to resolve the religous war of Mac vs. PC. I suggest you figure out what software you want to use to accomplish your image editing, processing, and archiving. Then talk to the software house to see what they have to say about a recommended platform.

Mac came late to the 64-bit party. Mac users got a bit testy when this was brought up. I think that Mac is now fully engaged in 64-bit in it's latest technology. That's good.

Focus on the software.

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Permalink Reply by Peter Salas on February 6, 2010 at 10:09pm

One of the things you can do to speed up your PC is to turn off ALL of the fancy visuals that take up valuable memory. For example, you typically get a computer with 2Gigs of memory, but 1gig may be taken up by just running Vista. That essentially leaves you with only 1gig left....if you run Photoshop, that's probably going to take up another 1Gig.

So the trick I did to speed up my PC (back when I owned a PC) was turn off every fancy visuals so that I can dedicate all my processing power to my applications. Your computer may not look "pretty" anymore; basically, you may have bought (for example) Vista for it's prettiness, but to squeeze out extra speed from your computer, you would have to turn OFF all the pretty print so that it looks more like XP.

Personally, I love Mac and what it offers. The hardware is optimized for speed even though on paper it's not as "fast" as several cheaper PC models. BUT! You should take into consideration that a faster CPU does not equate to a faster computer; It's the number of instructions needed to complete an action. For example, if I compare two similar speed computers (2 GHZ - which measures number of operations/sec) and find that it takes 1 computer 3 steps to open Photoshop, versus another computer 10 steps to complete the same operation, then of course the first computer is faster with the same hardware!

I'm not trying to persuade anyone to choose 1 computer over another. My day job afterall is as a Computer Engineer and not a Photographer, so a Mac is my professional choice as an engineer. You should try both and see which one works for YOU!

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Permalink Reply by Matt Needham on February 9, 2010 at 12:20pm

What software are you using? Photoshop runs the same on either. Speed will be improved by increasing processor power and ram. I have always gone with PC because I can get three times the processing power for the same money, but after some recent nasty viruses I'm starting to think the extra expense of a Mac may be worth it.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Harp on February 9, 2010 at 7:12pm

I owned a desktop PC for my photo business and never connected it to the internet. I just ran it as a photoshop and processing work station. It ran great for about 4 years and then started slowing up. Eventually the hard-drive began crashing. I was able to do a back up before I took it in to be fixed. I had the hard-drive replaced and it runs fine, but now it's my home computer and is online. I replaced it with a MacBook Pro. I have photoshop installed on both PC and Mac and I would have to say the Mac seems to perform smoother. When using a large dodging brush on the PC it would take a little while to catch up; the Mac is almost simultaneous. There is a difference in processing speed though. Mac has a 2.5 mghz Intel core 2 duo and the PC has AMD Anthalon 3800. I love the Mac and don't regret my purchase. You will have to fork out twice as much for the Mac even refurbished through the Apple online store.

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Permalink Reply by Richard Crowe on February 10, 2010 at 10:23am

thanks for the replies. I had a serious think about getting a mac but hav decided to stick with my pc for a bit longer! I upgraded to windows 7 from Vista and it has improved the speed already! I have also upgraded the video card and this seems to make things run better as well. I have not ruled the idea of getting a mac out completely. I think its something for the future. Cheers Richard

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Permalink Reply by Gonçalo Nuno de Ornelas Gomes on February 12, 2010 at 5:46am

Mac is fantastic!!!!!

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Permalink Reply by Richard Crowe on February 15, 2010 at 4:33pm

thanks mark. I am taking it all on board! Decisions decisions! :)

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Permalink Reply by JD on February 16, 2010 at 11:35am

I used to use a PC until it crashed and took 3,000 of my pics with it. The damage was so bad I could not recover anything at all. I bought it because it was cheaper at $400...never again. You get what you pay for. My Macbook was $1400 but worth every penny, so now I will not touch a PC when it comes to my pics. Plus you can install windows on a Mac if you really need it and not have to re-buy your software.

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Permalink Reply by Allison Carenza on February 16, 2010 at 3:52pm

I spent a few years processing photos on a PC. Then I got a Mac Book Pro, wow what a difference. So much faster and smoother. I can now count on my computer to multi-task without breaking a sweat. MACs are made for photo and video editing, I'll never go back.

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Permalink Reply by Deon on February 28, 2010 at 8:00pm

Being a student I have a PC at home and my school only deals with macs. I personally love macs. They don't catch viruses. My pc has crashed numerous of times whenever i've run PS and in the middle of doing really big projects *thank god i saved the projects beforehand and didn't lose much work* but I would really save up money and invest in a Mac. I'm going to get a Mac Pro once i graduate...thats just my thoughts on it.

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