The Logic Off Topic list

TazmnianDv@...  wrote:
>>Apple's takeover and decision to make Logic Mac-only forces every PC owner
>>to consider their future and the price/performance of Macs versus PCs is
>>germane to any decision to switch platforms should they wish to stay with
>>Logic.
>
>Is there really such a big price difference? I don't see how since you can 
>get non-Apple monitors, and externals. And if you compare similarly 
>configures machines of similar quality, is there really a big difference? 
>There are always "cheapo" PC's made with crap parts and/or barebones. But 
>thats why PC's don't last as long as Macs - this is fairly well documented. 

Rubbish. Look where Apple sources most of its parts: Taiwan. Their
Powerbooks, flat screens etc are made in the same factories as components
for PC . Apple is a small company which specs the same graphics cards,
memory components, hard drives etc as PCs. It just charges a lot more for
them and in some cases like memory the type specced is out of date. 

It is not like their little boxes are full of some "top quality" stuff made
by uber-factory workers in the USA each with a PhD from Caltech. Do you
seriously believe that there are special factories which make better
quality components specially for Macs so they will last longer? Gee they
must be getting rich off that market sector. 

As far as the price difference -- haven't you read all the discussion here
and elsewhere on this of late? I can build a new PC with a 2.26 GHZ P4 and
512 MB of PC1066 RDRAM or 333MHz DDR for under 2k$ Australian. A slower G4
without monitor would be well over 5k$ and sporting slow SDRAM and poor
expansion facilities.  Which do you think I want to buy?

People who build their own PC DAWs typically buy good quality boards from
top tier makers like Asus, Abit, MSI, Gigabyte. They often junk these parts
after a few years when they upgrade to new motherboard/memory/processor --
which is cheap and easy to do -- not because they are "broken" but because
with a modest injection of cash you can double your performance every
couple of years without buying new everything.

>And you have add various boards and things to the PCs to bring them up to 
>par. 

What -- like a 30$ NIC, a $100 CDR burner? I already have those -- I don't
need to buy them again. I don't need Apple to decide for me whether I get a
Pioneer DVD burner. If I need one of those I could buy and install it and
still have 2500$ change from the price of the Mac that would underperform
the PC above by 50% or so.

>There are also studies that show (in schools for example) that PC's are 
>more expensive in the long run because of repairs and increased user-support 
>needed - which in the case of an individual like you - means more frustration 
>and more time on the line to tech support.

Absolutely irrelevant to me or anyone else who builds and maintains their
own machines.  Again you are assuming inferior components that need
repairing. So  again -- do you think the NVidia graphics cards put in Macs
are the ones that won't break down and the other 97% that are put in PCs
are the duds? 

The research you have cited may be relevant to some school where kids are
monkeying with  elcheapo Compaq machines or to organisations running
hundreds or thousands or seats for office workers where no add-in hardware
is installed. As soon as you add Audio cards/dongles etc and ASIO drivers
etc you are complicating things and if I had a dollar for every post I have
ever read from a Mac user having some technical problem with the
dongle/Audio hardware I wouldn't have to be typing this myself -- believe me.

You must imagine that these PC things just don't work. The only problem I
have had in the last 3 years that I couldn't sort quickly myself was on a
Laptop (which I didn't build obviously) and that was with some stupid
utility that Toshiba installs which screwed with my ASIO driver. I was able
to solve the problem myself as advice from Tosh support on Compuserve was
in error. 

>Before making this kind of statement, please do some research as to the c
>urrent situation.

After spouting the usual Mac propaganda/bubble-boy belief system I hardly
think_you_are in a position to patronise me. You must just screen out
everything that doesn't gel with your "Mac is best" belief system.
Please go down to the store (no  --  not the Mac store this time) and do a
bit of research before you make a fool of yourself on an online forum by
suggesting there isn't a price difference. 

Regards,
M