Hwangman
I appreciate the advice and info, everyone. Trust me, i'm not chomping at the bit to spend a crapload of cash on a Mac. Like i said, i don't know anyone who's run into serious problems when doing audio recording/mixing on a Mac, while i know several people who have those problem on their PCs (whether they have budget models or $2000+ customized rigs).
I have today off, so i will, at some point, do some pricing via Newegg and PC Connection. If there is a ridiculously fast PC rig that is around $1000, then i may be willing to give it a shot. If it's closer to $1500 or $2000, then it makes more sense to go for a Mac. I agree that you can get "better" components cheaper for a PC, but i've seen people running 30+ tracks on Macbooks (not even Macbook Pro) w/no latency, no crashing, etc. I can't even pull of 20 tracks on my current rig that has nearly double the power.
The thing is this: How much money do you lose having to struggle to get stuff to work right because it doesn't just work turn-key like it would have if you had bought a Mac with OS X in the first place?
For example, say you buy your HP, but when you get it home you realize the video editing software is shit, and nowhere near as functional or intuitive as iMovie or Final Cut or whatever you like to use. (just an example, substitute in your projects as appropriate). And then you realize that the best thing you can get, Adobe Premiere, costs hundreds of dollars more and STILL isn't as good because your hardware isn't designed to do high-end video work. What do you do then?
That was what finally switched me over.
Back in aught-seven, I was working on my wedding DVD project on my old PC, which had some gray hair as it were, and a friend of mine came by and saw me on Adobe Premiere struggling to edit the video, and was like "How long have you been doing this?" I had to admit, I was many hours into the project over several days. Then he said "How many other things have you been trying to do on your PC that would have been easier on OS X?" And I was like "almost everything other than just browsing the net and playing games. Video, music editing, photo editing, mostly video though, but yeah." And he said "And you are on your PC every day, for hours a day, right?" I said yes. He asked, "So what, 25-30 hours per week for the last few months?" I said more than that, since I would be on my PC much longer on weekends. 40+ hours per week, easily. He said "Would 200 hours be a fair estimate for the past 30 days?" I said yes.
Then he said "How much money do you make per hour at your job?" I am salaried but it breaks down to about $33 per hour. He asked, "Do you consider your projects as important as your job?" I said "Well they don't pay the bills, but they mean more to me personally." He then said "So what you are saying is that you've flushed over SIX GRAND down the toilet in lost productivity time over the past month ALONE because you didn't buy the right computer in the first place, a computer that just does this stuff really easily, the correct way, and faster, every time?"
And all of a sudden, looking at it in that light, the Mac didn't seem that expensive anymore.
(Of course I wasn't floating in funds or anything so I had to start with a Mac Mini. But still. I felt like a perfect idiot for not realizing this, and wasting so many hours on that damned PC when I could have been enjoying myself with family and friends and especially my wife before she got pregnant with our first. I'll never get those days back.)
If you have the time and knowledge to tinker and your time isn't worth a lot of money in and of itself, then sure, stay with PC. If time spent on your computer is time away from what you'd rather be doing, and you want that experience on your computer to be as productive, elegant, and enjoyable as possible, get a Mac.
<message edited by Jimz on Saturday, March 13, 2010 12:18 AM>