Re: Computer Feature Creep Driving Me Nuts
Posted: Sun Apr 22, 2012 6:53 am
My first DAW was a Pentium III based machine with 1GB of RAM (whoo hoo!). This was in 2002 or so. Every few years I upgrade this and that, never spending more than a few hundred bucks. Every four years or so I do a full motherboard / CPU / RAM upgrade, purposefully staying one or two generations behind the curve (cheaper that way). There's nothing left of that original 2002 machine now.
The last time I upgraded was February 2011. New motherboard / CPU / RAM / PSU. I kept my harddrives, monitors, case, etc. It cost me under $400. I went from a dual-core Athlon to a quad-core Phenom machine. I bought the dual-core in 2006, so I got good mileage out of it. The next upgrade will be a six-core processor, which as of right now costs only $150. I've got 16GB of RAM and it runs like a champ.
The reason I like PC vs Mac is because it's much easier to stay a few generations behind and yet upgrade now and then as the needs arise. You can't really upgrade a Mac beyond RAM and harddrives. And indeed they intentionally release OS updates that force you to buy a new computer.
As a self-described "hobbyist" and "penny pincher" it would seem to make more sense for the OP to go PC. You could literally get a computer for less than half what the Mac will cost you which will be every bit as powerful, maybe even slightly more so if you can build it yourself. A guitarist friend, who doesn't know a thing about how computers work, just built a system like mine (I sent him links to the parts) for even less than I paid (no surprise there since, like I said, I built my machine a year ago). He's never put a computer together before but just watched YouTube tutorials. It's quite easy these days. And Windows 7, as much as I like to bash Microsoft, is a nice OS. CS_TBL is right, once you get past the OS and name on the front, all software is the same on each platform. Unless of course you're a Logic user.
The last time I upgraded was February 2011. New motherboard / CPU / RAM / PSU. I kept my harddrives, monitors, case, etc. It cost me under $400. I went from a dual-core Athlon to a quad-core Phenom machine. I bought the dual-core in 2006, so I got good mileage out of it. The next upgrade will be a six-core processor, which as of right now costs only $150. I've got 16GB of RAM and it runs like a champ.
The reason I like PC vs Mac is because it's much easier to stay a few generations behind and yet upgrade now and then as the needs arise. You can't really upgrade a Mac beyond RAM and harddrives. And indeed they intentionally release OS updates that force you to buy a new computer.
As a self-described "hobbyist" and "penny pincher" it would seem to make more sense for the OP to go PC. You could literally get a computer for less than half what the Mac will cost you which will be every bit as powerful, maybe even slightly more so if you can build it yourself. A guitarist friend, who doesn't know a thing about how computers work, just built a system like mine (I sent him links to the parts) for even less than I paid (no surprise there since, like I said, I built my machine a year ago). He's never put a computer together before but just watched YouTube tutorials. It's quite easy these days. And Windows 7, as much as I like to bash Microsoft, is a nice OS. CS_TBL is right, once you get past the OS and name on the front, all software is the same on each platform. Unless of course you're a Logic user.
