PC vs. MAC
- This topic has 34 replies, 14 voices, and was last updated Feb 8, 2010 at 10:50 pm by
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I have always felt improving air circulation helps reduce heat related failures for both home and work computers and extends the life of the machine. I am just amazed the manufacturers don’t do a better job addressing air circulation in some of their designs. That was the main failure MS had with xbox too.
Brett –
Out of curiosity, what’s your rough expense (both budget-wise and in down-time) on PCs based on spyware/virus infection versus on Mac?
Office stats: 8 Mac, 2 PC. One PC is used by our reservoir engineer, I use the other PC in our land department.
The Macs are always causing problems.
Hey guys –
I have another computer related question that has bothered me for a long time, which I think there’s enough expertise here to answer.
I started out using a 486 DX2 66Mhz in about 1992; that was the family’s first personal computer and I became the de facto expert.
Is there way to measure things like how fast menus open, reaction time to clicks, load times and pauses in the OS as it crunches? Has anyone ever reduced that to a figure in PC expert circles? And if so, is it actually any faster today?
A couple of things Zach:
There are quite a few PC performance benchmark tests, some free on the Internet, which are available. These throw a range of tests at your machine, checking CPU, GPU, BUS, NIC, memory/storage performance, and so forth. Afterwards they will issue a score, which can be used to compare machines.
Passmark Performance Test is one I’ve used for Windows, and I think it costs about $25 for a license. Software like this should give you a good idea of how a machine will run local software, like games or Photoshop. It will also show you the bottlenecks, like insufficient memory or CPU capacity. You can see a mock up here:
http://www.passmark.com/products/pt.htm
Geekbench is another that is cross platform for Mac/Windows/Linux.
There is another paradigm called “end user experience testing.” This is a bit more complicated. Let’s look at an example of clicking on a web application:
Your computer runs a browser locally, but once you perform a click a whole variety of things could take place. You click, the local machine then sends a data packet across your LAN via ethernet/switch/router to the Internet circuit. The packet then traverses your ISP, routes to the destination, and enters a firewall via the host’s Internet circuit where it lands on a web server. That machine queries a database and serves the content. The path is then reversed, arriving back at your computer.
At work, if you pull resources like files or data from shared storage, databases, or servers then you would need an end user experience toolset to understand each hop and the networks in between.
With our equipment, we see relatively minor differences in local computer performance between the brands. With end user experience testing, desktops are rarely the bottleneck. If they are, performance tests usually show why.
I’ve never compared end user experience data between old and new platforms. I suspect that as images, sound, video, and graphics have increasingly become a part of the user interface, that perceived response times probably haven’t improved too much.
I know next to nothing about computers but have been following this thread just to see what was said and what could be learned.
I have to agree – this is a very interesting thread. I’m not much of a computer guy, but I feel like I have learned a lot and it has been interesting. And who would have ever guessed you would find all this info on a fly fishing site 😀
Tim: Epic comparison!
I think the law of diminishing returns applies to most things. IT companies always talk about the 80/20 Rule. Usually you can get 80% of the value for around 20% of the cost that a “perfect” solution would require.
In almost any industry there’s a “sweet spot” where 80% of the value can be purchased for a reasonable price. In fly rods that seems to be the $200-$300 range. In computers, the $500-$700 range.
Look at the performance stats on a Mitsubishi Evo X or a Subaru WRX STi, both around $30,000. You don’t get significant performance superiority in other sports cars until about the $100,000 mark.
$70 Slik tripod or $600 Gitzo?
$500 300mm f/5.6, or $5000 300mm f/2.8?
In the hands of the maestro, the Stratovarius sings. Excellent capper to the conversation.
I agree entirely with Brett, and I found your post very interesting (and amusing) Tim. The law of diminishing returns is one of the most powerful forces in fly fishing and has been the driving factor shaping the market ever since the post-graphite explosion plateaued. I also greatly appreciate it when experts like Brett or John S. contribute their knowledge to the board; I think it really enriches the experience for all of us, particularly as this community applies so many different disciplines (photography, computers, writing) to fishing.
Zach
Hey, one of these days when I have time I am going to post questions on photography and writing. I have a Canon Rebel XTi and I am lost without a mouse.
I got to say I am amazed to hear about all the MAC issues. All the graphic designers I know use MACS and love them. They never mention anything about having any issues.
Zach, in regards to what you were saying about a diminished level of “responsiveness” in your desktop….
I got to say I am amazed to hear about all the MAC issues. All the graphic designers I know use MACS and love them. They never mention anything about having any issues.
Graphics may put less load on them than photography, video or other applications ?
I think one of the motherboard problems came about from doing huge transfers (50+ Gigs) via firewire – the heat was incredible in the previous Powerbooks.
The new 17′ I have seems to run a lot cooler while doing big processing jobs so maybe the problems have been addressed by Apple.Time will tell.
www.dsaphoto.com
A picture is thousand words that takes less than a second while a thousand words is a picture that takes a month.
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