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View Full Version : Pulling my hair out!!! Mac Pro or PC?

cibmation
10-17-2006, 03:32 PM
Hey guys...ive been reading all the threads on here and on the net, and im still not sure which way to go...I just started my own animation company where it will be 3d and some 2d design (flash, motion graphics) as well.

I have my old computer which i built like 2 years ago, but its def. time to upgrade..so my question is...which one?! the MAc Pro or PC? I would like something that can handle maya without any slowdown as i work (I do shading and lighting scenes primarily) and renders at a good rate...can the MAC Pro do this with maya? (I have maya 7)...or am i better to go with a pc?

and what kinda specs do you guys recommend?

thank you guys so much in advance!! there are a lot of good opinions on here :)
bitBrain
10-17-2006, 07:30 PM
A Mac Pro with two quadcore CPUs (is that possible now or is it in the future?) would be a dream for rendering.

Otherwise get a dualcore + 2G ram+ a good Quadro card.

I've no experience of how fast or stable Maya is on a Mac Pro, so I can't judge there. Maya 7 works fine on my dualcore with the occasional hang (Very rare though, maybe twice since I bought the thing.)
samel
10-18-2006, 03:34 PM
recently started my own company..

as above, dualcore machine,2Gb (or more) RAM, a good quadro card (i'd recommend the FX1400) for your heavier 2D/3D ..however, eventually youre gonna need that mac
for simpler on-the-go stuff.. just everyday things like file conversion with ffmepgx
..as soon as i have worked up some buffer-money, i'm getting a macBookPro ..i hate running
maya on mac but once in a while i do some shake stuff..the macBookPro gives you
that ability plus it's small,extremely quiet and just kicks ass in general..

//s
maX_Andrews
10-19-2006, 04:12 AM
A decent PC coupled with a mac laptop might be a good combo, but the macpro is on the other hand a hell of a deal. It's one of the fastest computers you can get, and it's the cheapest model with four xeon cores.

BUT, maya probably runs better in windows, so you'd have to be OK with dual-booting windows on the mac. ALSO, under windows you may have issues with maya and the x1900xt graphics option. This is due to drivers differences between OSX and windows for ati cards. ATI works great under OSX, but sometimes windows users with the same cards can have issues related to opengl. But I have heard of people running maya under windows with the x1900xt with no issues, but that's something to look into... Unless, of course, you can afford to upgrade to the quadro 4500 option on the mac pro (an extra $1600 or so)

Upside is that you can use shake, final cut pro, motion, soundtrack, and all those other great apple applications and productivity enhancers. And of course, you can have one machine for everything.

But honestly, in your position, I would get: a dualcore PC (core2duo) with 3Gb of RAM running XP pro, with a mid-level quadro card. AND a macbook pro 15.4" w/256MB graphics (OSX only), AND a couple small form factor computers to use as a render network, either mac minis or shuttle pcs:
http://www.apple.com/macmini/
http://us.shuttle.com/
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