MAC VS PC : 10 YEAR APPLE USER’S PERSPECTIVE

Growing up as a kid to me, computers were nothing more than a means for playing games, web surfing and online dating. I saw nothing exciting in them, and that didn’t change for 9 years. For that period I gave up Broodwar and Half-Life and developed the (experience based) opinion that computers are buggy, get viruses and are ugly as h*ll. Not seeing myself using them, if it wasn’t for the mentioned things, I preferred spending my time outdoors. Doing graffiti and some other stuff.

With the improvements in technology and me becoming obsessed with turntablism, I heard of Serato’s first SL Box. While buying it was a no-brainer, with that came the question for the laptop I needed to run it. Formerly thinking PCs were the only computers, I really didn’t want another one. Plus that, I only needed it for scratching and simple daily tasks.

Back then, my best friend had a (2g) iPhone and not once ended up explained how different Apple was. Although impressed by the design of his phone, I really wasn’t into tech. So I never paid attention to his words. Nor fully comprehended their meaning. One thing was sure, however. At that time, those products were scarce in the local area. That was something I found was exceptionally appealing.

Time went by. When entering my first battle, I saw both judges using Macs to run their vinyl control systems. Fascinated by the 13 and 17 inches MacBook and MacBook Pro, I no longer had doubts about the laptop I wanted.

Luckily my friend knew a person capable of bringing me one from the states, and soon I had my first, MacBook.
Using it for a single week entirely changed the way I view computers and everything related to them. Now knowing what the homie meant, in the next months got the perfect (for training) iPod shuffle and an airport express. I guess I became an “Apple Fan Boy.” And do you know what? I really did.

Because of that and of (nowadays) popularity gaining trend to criticize Apple, I decided to give you my two cents on the subject Mac vs. PC. How I’m going to do it is by addressing the several following things. (1) My short story as a 10 year Apple user. Slash fanboy, sheep or whatever you prefer to call it. Which BTW I already began. (2) What made me seriously rethink my loyalty to Apple. At the very end of 2018. (3) The ultimate reasons why people like me will always buy Macs. (4) End by commenting on a few myths regarding the topic. Having that said, please forgive me if I say something stupid, because I’m not a techie. Don’t bring Linux and Hackintosh suggestions into the comments. Let’s run some intro and dive into the first.

My Story As An Apple User
Although I don’t upgrade as regularly as others and never bought a top-spec model, I did change a few Apple products. Those being the white 2008 MacBook. The 13-inch 2010 MacBook Pro with Unibody. And the Mid 2012, 15-inch MacBook Pro which (until this day) I use for everything. Besides that, and the mentioned iPod shuffle, I have daily access to a 12-inch MacBook and for the same period changed a 3G, 3GS, 4GS, and 6+ iPhones.

Despite, Apple no longer supports two of them, each laptop still works perfectly fine and has been flawless from the moment of buying. To that of switching to the next one. But if that’s true then what the reason for doing the latter was? Well, the truth is it was I who changed all of those times. So please let me explain.

As said earlier I wanted a laptop for scratching, and the white 13-inch was brilliant. Later I got into music production with Maschine, and the 13 inched, unibody delivered the needed performance. Then I fell in love with FL. Thus needed a MAC powerful enough to handle projects with a countless number of VSTs. And my current 15-inch model was and still is excellent. Actually, it was nothing less even when running BootCamp for Windows. Because Image Line didn’t have a Native version of FL Studio. Thankfully they made one because I was very close to getting into Logic.

Despite the fact it doesn’t have a dedicated graphics chip, the same computer allowed me to get into software I didn’t mind when buying it. Its 2.6 GHz Core i7 didn’t hold my creativity even when juggling FL with Photoshop, Illustrator, a word processor, and Safari. It didn’t do it even when I got in video editing (with the not optimized for Apple, Premiere Pro). Neither when switching from T3I to 80D Canon. And though the Exports aren’t fast, it crushes Full HD timeline with multiple layers and effects applied. While I realize that’s not 4K and yadda yadda. You have to understand this is the 2012 model of which although possible I didn’t update the RAM nor the hard drive to an SSD.

So, after all, is there anything (from my creative work) which this MAC has difficulties handling? Yes. Actually, there is. That’s almost any kind of After Effects work. Especially masking and tracking on multiple layers and what’s called Adobe Dynamic Link. Depends on the project, that not just kicks up the fans (and gives me the beach ball), but also can make the computer completely useless.

I mean let’s face it. By (almost) literally dedicating two months I’ll hopefully be able to finish 5-minute clip. Meaning I’m not going to be able to do anything else for that time. Now, is there something to demands that kind of sacrifice on my behalf? No, for the most part thankfully there isn’t. But do I want to be able to do stuff like that more often? Yes, I do. That not just made me start planning an upgrade, but also learning some basic things about computers. So I can become aware of the kind of system that work requires.

The more I researched, the more intrigued I became. Soon I was watching youtube videos and reading articles about comparisons and benchmarking. Little that I knew my opinion about PCs changed and I came to a few conclusions.

The Advantages Of The PCs
(1) All Adobe Products, especially AE and PP are optimized (or in other words specially designed) to work better with Nvidia graphics cards. Having that kind of a GPU allows you to enable what’s called CUDA acceleration, and with that make the software take full advantage of the hardware (inside). Apparently, that can create a huge difference not only in render and export times but also in timeline performance. Which to me at least is the most important.

(2) While (for the most part) Nvidia makes the best GPUs and some of them can be found in the latest high-end PCs because Apple and Nvidia don’t seem to like each other nowadays there’s no RTXs or Quadros in MACs.

(3) You don’t have to be limited by Apple nor any other company in that manner. Building your own computer allows you to put the exact hardware, preferred by the applications you’re using. Meaning you get to select all components. Thus configure a machine perfectly suiting yours and not someone else’s needs. By going that route, you get to decide which parts of investing more, while also having the option to replace them with better (whenever you want). In a way similar to that of swapping in and out gear from your studio. Therefore you can keep your machine’s high levels of performance for much longer. All of which can’t be done on MAC.

(4) There’s absolutely no reason to limit yourself. If you’re a multi-talented person or merely have ADD. You can build a multi-purpose system. And in fact, buy a specially made for multitasking CPU. Examples of that are Intel’s Core I9 and AMD’s Threadripper series. Yet, to run optimally, CPUs like those or any other need to be properly cool down. That brings us to something.

(5) Water cooling is a fantastic way to prevent overheating and make your CPU and GPU run at higher clock speeds. Although Apple doesn’t utilize this technology, the same can be found in some high-end pre-built PCs. That and the previous one remind something which appears as a huge enigma to me and many others. Namely, why Apple never put AMD silicons inside the MACs since they already use AMD video cards?

(6) You can buy a pre-built, water cooled desktop or very powerful laptop to have both core I9 and Nvidia Graphics chips. Capable of satisfying the needs of many multitalented content creators, examples of that are the “Corsair One Pro” and the “Razer Blade 15”. Both incredibly powerful, partly updatable and (exceptionally) aesthetically pleasing, the laptop also comes with a free copy of FL studio. The software which I and many of others prefer and see as the most intuitive of all DAWs. Macs, on the other hand, come garage band and not Logic.

(8) Buying a pre-build is not necessary. Because nowadays you can pay a company to build a perfectly fitting your needs machine. Test it and then give you a warranty on the whole system. Meaning you get the best of both worlds. The company’s support and the option of choosing all the components. Based on my research most respected brands in that field are Puget, Scan, AVA Direct, and Oracle.

Mentioning them reminds me not just of raw power, but also of gorgeous aesthetics. (9)Yes, In our day and age, you can make people speechless with the look of your PC. And no that’s not just because of some RGB lighting and etc. In fact, I think those are too much in most cases. The real reason is in the stunningly looking enclosures like Corsair 570x and the Phanteks Enthoo Evolv. Letting you show off all of your already great looking components and cable management a case like that allows you to turn your build into a piece of art. — Exactly how I feel about the work of some of the PC Enthusiasts, I saw on YouTube. In terms of both builds and content.

To be more precise I’ll say that those PCs give me the same feeling I had when as a teenager I looked a the iconic Lowrider Magazine. Needless to say, it was one of pure admiration.

(10) Last, but not least. Although, I don’t Game, and they’re getting better. When it comes to gaming MACs still aren’t the best.

Okay! Hopefully, by far, anyone can tell, that I completely understand those things and do you know what? I actually agree with all of them. But does this mean I’ll start using a PC anytime soon? Well, actually it does, in two cases. (A) If I get sponsored. (B) If I have that much money so I can afford building one purely for fun, and experimental purposes. Do you know why is that? Well, because Macs and PCs are not the same and with the first, I get something which the second still can’t provide.

Not realizing it and saying that besides those in specs and performance they don’t have any differences, thus paying the Apple tax really isn’t worthy is the Biggest mistake people make when comparing both platforms. So now after pointing PCs’ biggest benefits, (which btw were that close from quitting my Apple fanboying), let’s explain the reasons why those people couldn’t be further from the truth.

Why I Choose Apple

Windows
While I agree that there are Great PCs and that the concept of building your own can give you insane performance, all of that comes with a huge problem. Windows. — An issue (which if ask me is) way worse than having your CPU throttling. If I had to pick a single thing to (entirely) justify the price of the Apple products, then Windows and staying away from it would undoubtedly be the one. No, I’m not referring to how beautiful, intuitive and easy to use OS is. Neither to how that is integrated with the hardware. Here I’m talking about the free of suffering and nerve-wracking anxiety experience Mac computers provide. So let me expand on that.

More or less powerful. Desktops or laptops. Mine or someone else’s computer. Even when running Bootcamp on a MAC. I had a literally terrible experience, every single time when using Windows. Although the reasons for that are quite a few, several of them pop into my head, at the moment I start thinking of building or buying a PC.

Issues With Windows
(1) Dealing with viruses and anti-virus software. Being such a pain in the ass that not only wastes plenty of time, and corrupts files. But it also costs money and happens over and again. I know, I know! Macs too can get viruses. Yeah, I bet they do. Do you know how many all the MACs I had and heard of got for the past decade? Well, zero. If we exclude those on mine after running BootCamp and Windows.

(2) Drivers and Codecs. Finding and installing drivers was something I had to do for all my software and hardware when using windows. Being a perfect example of that, making the so-called Asio Driver work took me several weeks. However, I had to repeat the process when switching from Audio Kontrol to a Scarlett 2i2 interface. And although I did, the same continued occasionally giving me buffer underruns. Thus making the sounds completely unrecognizable.

Now let see what happened with the very same soundcards and DAWs on Mac? Nothing I just plugged in them and everything was ready for music making and audio recording. Ever since then I didn’t have any issues with them.

Different than OS, Windows also doesn’t come with some of the essential for video editing codecs like the ProRes. To learn more about that issue, I greatly encourage you to check Phillip Bloom’s blog post about his switch from MAC to PC. There he explains that for a ProRes transcode he still takes the PC exports to his old trashcan MacPro.

(3) Crashes And Blue Screens
Wheater is “Your PC ran into a problem and needs to restart.”; “A problem has been detected, and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage.” “Configuring Windows updates and yadda, yadda.” Or merely “Please do not power off or unplug your machine, installing updates, etc.” I felt jeopardized at any given time that some of them will happen. I’ll lose information. Won’t be able to save my project and possibly have my computer useless for hours. Or maybe even a whole day.

I mean this is how long it might take for Windows to install updates. Different than OS however it doesn’t ask if I’m ready for them. Instead, it begins installing them the next time I switch off the computer. I know that Macs crash too. Do you know how many crashes I had? Less than 10 for a decade and all of them were nothing more than mere restart and reopening of the used apps. The cool thing, however, is that because of Windows I developed some OCD about hitting CMD/S buttons. That way I always have my files (freshly) saved, in spite of what I’m working on.

(4) Privacy
Though I don’t have any proof of that. Here I’ll mention something interesting, people started talking about, recently. Namely that during those hours of update installation, Windows collects my private data. So it can send it to other companies, and organizations. Not for anything else but to merely help them improve their services. 😉 So they could serve me and others better. Now ain’t that smart and noble?

Apple, on the other hand, is well known to value its customer’s privacy more than anyone else. In fact not a while ago they were even accused by FBI for not providing information on the phone or computer of a customer who happened to be criminal. That I believe must be considered by anyone who’s in the market for the same devices. As they say: What happens on the iPhone stays on the iPhone.”

(5) Lack Of User-Friendliness
Even that this may vary from person to person, I find Windows to be very inconvenient and uneasy to use. So let me give you some examples of what I mean. (A) Different than the flawless “force quit” option on MAC, Windows’ End Task Manager works only sporadically. (B) When compared to Finder, Windows’ search is pretty useless. (C) There’s no preview option. Which pisses me off. Yet I think nowadays you can install some third party app for the latter.

In 99% of the time deleting apps on a MAC boils down to doing just that — Deleting them! On Windows, however, that’s not enough. There you have to go, uninstall the app and probably do a bunch of other stuff. Just to get those results. Here I’ll end by saying that Cortana useless, and Windows seems to have some very annoying and uninspiring look. Entirely different than that of the high-end PCs and their components.

When The Facts Speak
Now let me tell you that, those facts alone entirely justify the quote-unquote Apple tax. When they speak, even GODs remain silent. When they come into place things like RTX2080 TIs,16 core Threadrippers, better-cooled i9s, and pretty cases start looking far less impressive. But that doesn’t mean I don’t realize how powerful as parts those are. And this leads us to some critical points I want to make in this video.

(1) What’s holding PCs back really isn’t the lack of raw power and neither that of part options, (when building your own). What mainly causes that are Windows and the total lack of reliability. So I think some people should really stop speculating with the former two.

(2) People don’t buy Macs purely because of their parts and neither because of the benchmarks. Although I always considered the specs (first because of music production and now because of video editing), the same will never (solely) determine whether or not I want to buy the computer. What ultimately does that is how I’m going to interact with the machine daily.

The Utmost Important Criteria For My Working Computer
Am I going have a flawless and smooth experience such as with my previous Apple devices? To be able to really feel the computer as an extension of me? Or its OS will stay on the way and throttle my own creativity? Is it going to be there for me and work just fine whenever I need it to? Or It will always require some further assistance on my behalf? Since I won’t be able to afford another anytime soon, then am I going to be able to trust this computer with all my work? Is it going to inspire and quote-unquote invite me to create with it? Or it will make me curse myself because of wasting my savings on some theoretically great hardware which however comes software that’s nothing but a drag?

When buying an Apple computer, I know that there’s no need to worry about any of them. No blue screens or drivers and neither antivirus programs. I’ll feel safe and secure. Because I know that my work and everything I do on the computer won’t be jeopardized. Plus that, the truth to the matter is that Macs are so well put together that even some lower spec models can handle audio and video better than many higher-end PCs. And No. That isn’t solely because of the components inside. But because of how flawlessly hardware and software are integrated. Especially if you decide to use Apple’s own Logic and Final Cut.

In fact (though not optimized) for mac I had fewer issues using beta versions of FL studio on Mac then I had with the native one on windows.

Here I’d like to clarify that I’m by no means a Microsoft hater. And think that (in terms of hardware) they actually have some great products. Examples of that are X-box One and the Surface Pro series.

Based on that I dare to say that when forced to compete with others they really deliver. Why they don’t do it with Windows is because they merely don’t have to. As long as Apple doesn’t provide Mac OS to other companies, Windows will dominate the PC market regardless of how bad it is. Hackintosh and Linux really aren’t options for 95% of the people — No, it’s not bad, but an open system. Yet, two me those two don’t exclude each other.

In my eyes. That’s precisely what cripples the whole concept of (custom build) PCs and products like the Razer Blade and The Corsair One Pro. Although I can’t deny their appeal, the same literally disappears when I think of dealing with windows.

Conclusion
You may build a similar configuration. Maybe even a much better spec machine. But you’ll never be able to get the same computer. Not just because of T2 chip and some other parts. But most importantly because of the experience, build quality, the whole ecosystem, reliability and the piece of mind that you have the Mercedes Benz of all computers.

You are Mac user. You don’t need anyone to help you. And neither to rely on some other companies or Joe Shmo to fix your computer. Now you’re independent of all of them, and that independence is something I pay for when buying a Mac.

Having a friend whos into PCs and knows the ins and outs of Windows is not required because you have not who but Apple to guarantee that everything will always work. Just like it did when you bought the machine and based on my experience it really does. With all of their devices. If it didn’t, then it would probably take twice as much time to acquire all of the skills and proficiency I have now and to me, that’s priceless.

Although I’m not into cars, mentioning them reminds of little comparison. One that came into my head after finding that the PC and Car enthusiasts often share the same build not buy motto.

Cars
Let’s say you have 40 000$ budget to buy a single vehicle. You saved the money for quite a while and want an excellent and reliable vehicle to also enjoy driving. The same you’ll use for work, family, grocery shopping, gym and even traveling. My question is would you invest your money in a brand new Audi or a BMW, or you’re going build a lowrider, donk or supercharged Honda, or some slammed old school? Well, I believe that we can all agree 99.9% of the people will go with option A. Not because they don’t appreciate the speed, the art, and uniqueness that comes with the latter. But because its the suitable for the real-life option.

Ideal Computer
And while I believe neither platform’s perfect to me buying the Mac is like going with option A. No, it’s not a Perfect computer, but just the ideal for our imperfect world! Hey, but I had multiple nice cars, then I would probably build a lowrider or slammed beamer as another one?

Now let me give you my take on the few a biggest myths regarding Mac VS PC topic.

“Building a PC is cheaper than buying a Mac.”
Well, this actually isn’t true. You can most definitely buy the cheapest parts available. But what you’d be left with is just that. — A bunch of cheap parts and probably no monitor, nor Windows. And neither any of the third party antivirus software it requires. While some of the parts like the T2 chip aren’t available, the others you buy for cheap won’t have the same quality as the ones inside the Mac. You wont to have the Apple care, but instead, have to deal with all of those things I previously mentioned.

If you decide to build a high-end rig with premium parts and stunning design. Like those, I’ve told you about earlier. Then the price won’t be that different than those of the MACs. Yet you’ll be on your own and have to deal with Windows.

Macs Are Prefered By Creative Professionals
This is one I (partly) disagree with, and there are several reasons for that. (1) Being a quote-unquote creative professional really isn’t required to not like Windows and appreciate all that comes with Apple computers. I personally fell in love with Macs years before I got into music production and video editing.

(2) There have been and (always) will be creative professionals using PCs. And while that starts with a vast number of music producers. Like 808 Mafia, Cardo on the beat and all of the FL powered users including Jon Gooch aka Spor aka FeedME. It continues with many who are into heavy 3D rendering and motion graphics. Examples of the latter being Andrew Kramer and Greyscale gorilla. Those people’s work not just benefits from multiple GPUs, but often requires Quadro cards. So is it true that creative people prefer Macs?
Well, I guess that entirely depends on the kind of creatives we’re talking about. Thus I think the answer is both Yes and No.

What you’ll find when you see some switching to PC is that they’re usually sponsored. Eventually, switch back to mac. And always have someone to help them with Windows, the build and the maintenance of the system. Meaning they more or less become dependent on him or her.

In general, creatives want to be able to create (interruptedly and not deal with the stuff I’ve mentioned when speaking of Windows. They need their computers to just work! And as we all know Macs are second to none when it comes to providing that.

Thank You For Your Time