New toy – first thoughts

Off Topic
#1

My new toy arrived this week and I have now set it up as I want.

I finally upgraded my 10+ year old iMac. I bit the bullet and bought Mac Studio and Studio Display.

Dear lord; it’s good. Expensive? Definitely. However, in terms of both productivity and quality, I have Never seen anything like it. The clarity of the 5k screen is amazing. I thought it wouldn’t make that much difference to type. I was so wrong.

My two extra screens I used with the old iMac for palettes and just pushing stuff out the way, had terrible colour accuracy. Now, even they are pretty even. The 5k Studio Display, though is out of this world.

After a lot of research, I went for the base level M2 Max, in terms of cores, etc, but put 64Gb RAM and a 1TB disk in it. Higher spec than that would have been overkill for my needs. I don’t do broadcast-quality video – even then, this would handle it fine. My mate who does do it, says it is higher spec than his few year old iMac Pro, which he paid silly money for.

It really is blistering. I thought I’d see where it balked, so I took an image in photoshop that was around 4000px across and sized it to almost a quarter of a million pixels across. Took it about 30-40 seconds and once done, there was no lag whatsoever using it scrolling and magnifying.

For day to day stuff, it is completely transparent. It just doesn’t get in the way. Photoshop opens in under 2 seconds. As fast as I can think, it is there.

A sick-making amount of pennies, sure but in sheer productivity gain, it will pay for itself.

Sorry Smurf and I am not doing this to start yet another Mac vs PC debate. I am sure there are PCs that can do it, but as I need Mac for a few different bits of software, it is Hobson’s choice, but if I do have to spend double the money comparatively, this the best bit of kit I’ve ever owned.

Best thing is; a new bass guitar arrives in the morning too. Some weeks are just good ones.

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#2

I don’t care what you spend your money on. Makes no odds to me. You didn’t ask for advice. You knew what you wanted and you got it.

Best of luck with it.
It should last, like ANY computer worth its salt, 10 years+

I could go through all the rigmarole of picking the same parts and screen.

These days the prices are comparitive, I’ve noticed a sharp incline in PC part prices to match Apples pricing.

:man_shrugging:

That said - my Mac was flying when I got it - but it’s slowing down now and only have a few months.
Apps crash randomly, InDesign, Photoshop, Illustrator, Acrobat, without warning.
Typical what I’ve always seen on Mac OS over the years.

Be interesting to know how you’re getting on in 1 year, 2 years, 3years etc.

Anyway - good luck with it.

#3

I’m Northern. Spending that kind of money still hurts. Still, when you factor it out over ten years and how much revenue it’ll generate, it is not a lot really. Still smarts!

My old iMac, I have just wiped and reinstalled everything to replace my wife’s even older Mac. It is now flying again.

#4

Yeh, business sense makes sense.
But what hurts when I see people spend £800 on a PC laptop and say it’s crap.
Then spend £3000 on a Mac and say how amazing it is.

Looked up a Mac Book Pro 16 inch with 64gb RAM and 1TB drive - it was €4500!

Over 10 years, €450 a year.

Anyway - my main gripe PC vs Mac is people not willing to spend on PCs but will spend whatever it takes for a Mac.

I’ve no problem when people who know what they are doing and what they want buy what they want and what they need.

It’s the ones that don’t that cause my eye to twitch.

Anyway - once again - nice purchase.
Can’t really justify spending that much on a computer.

I don’t do anything more than print - so the computer doesn’t have to be highest highest spec.

But glad you got 64gb RAM - that will certainly be the norm in 10 years time.

#5

I got one of those a couple months ago. Sorta sounds like the same thing but I got 2TB hard drive.
It’s FAST!
But Adobe can be glitchy on it. Right now I’m battling monitor flicker in Illustrator. Works fine for a few hours then every mouse drag starts just that window flickering.

The fix for just about every glitch is either turning on or of the application frame in any of the adobewares.

If your palettes vanish try that first thing and they usually come back. if you contact support they will have you reload the software which doesn’t do a darn thing.

#6

Crazy you link this to Adobe issues rather than to M2 issues.

I’ve heard others say that the M2 causes these things in other apps.

It is still true though that M2 native support is not ready by Adobe.
So buying M2 Apple for production work seems unwise.

I do think Apple computers are good - but they often put their own agenda above third party apps (non-apple) that people rely on.

I find Apple insidious for not allowing non-native apps to work as expected.

#7

Funny you should say that cuz quite often Adobe tells me to check that I have the latest version of Apple OS cuz “that causes known issues.” I haven’t done the latest ventura update cuz my coworker did and it messed up their Outlook settings for a bit. Resynching that takes time.

Between the two of them I’ve spent more time on customer support in the last year, than the 20+ years previous combined.

I sometimes long for the days of OS8 and pre-Adobe-Transparency effects. But time marches on. 3 more years to go.

An M2 for production work is fine, about 90% of the time. It, so far, hasn’t slowed me down at all and quite honestly I love how photoslop now opens extraordinarily stupid-5gig-big .psbloated files in mere seconds and whips through Illustrator applied glow effects on redraw. Saves me a bunch of time.

#8

Yeh Apple and Adobe wars.

Never an issue on Windows OS.

I don’t get the significance of owning the latest shiny apple product.

By the way I still see people wanting CS5 to work on Windows 11 or older Mac OS.

It’s just not going to work.

“Cuz” Apple don’t make their product work well with others.

#9

Windows has other downtime issues. I have 3 production PCs that take a good deal of baby sitting too. It’s all a wash. I hate them all!

#10

Pobody’s Nerfect!

#11

Those complaining about the price and crappiness of lower-end machines aren’t the same people who buy higher-end machines, whether PC or Macintosh.

I spend upwards of ten hours each day sitting in front of a computer. It’s how I make a living, Four thousand dollars for the computer and OS I prefer and that my workflow depends upon is just a cost of doing business. The same applies to the software, chair, scanners, tablets, and other equipment I use. The cost gets passed along to clients.

If I was starting out as a struggling college student or messing around in my spare time as a hobbyist, yeah, I might be complaining about the expense of an underpowered $800 computer and a $300 display too.

#12

Yes, they are.

#13

As usual…this has devolved…
Anyway, I’m glad Sprout has the tools to do work and I’m sure the upgrade from a 10 year old machine is a happiness.

#14

It really does! Well; apart from the 2-3 days’ disruption to reinstall everything and then do the same on my old Mac and the one that is replacing to be able to hand it on. I am never a fan of migrating straight from Time Machine, just incase you just migrate ten-year old problems with it. Nice to know everything is brand-spanking new and clean.

Do I get to play with it now? Not a chance. I have five songs to learn before next week’s band rehearsal. Best I get on…

#15

I gently disagree. A fair warning. Not devolved at all.

I was actually called out on the first post.

My initial reaction was to say nothing.
Then I decided on a tiny reply, considering I was called on.

My actual feelings, and I would never say it originally,
Macs are a waste of money. Simple as that.
They do the same as any other computer.
Absolute waste of resources.

There you go - devolved, as you wanted.

#16

Not if you need to run glyphs!

#17

What glyphs?

#18

Its type design software that’s Mac only.

#19

Glyphs, BBEdit, and AppleScript are all critical apps in my work. None are available for Windows. There are similar applications for Windows, but none that I consider to be as ideally suited to my work — especially Glyphs. The MacOS’s Unix/Linux-based underpinning is valuable when working with two of my clients that work exclusively in Linux development environments.

Saving a few hundred dollars on a Windows machine every few years wouldn’t be a good investment for me. Besides, a few hundred extra dollars every few years for the OS I prefer is pocket change — not a big deal.

I can’t remember the last time my Macs crashed. It was at least several years ago. I’ve had apps freeze up every few months, but I doubt that has to do with the OS or the hardware. It’s more likely the apps themselves or their interaction with some other process taking place on the machine. Why you’re having Adobe apps crash more often than that on Macs, I don’t know.

We agree on this. For example, Mrs. Just-B bought one of those high-priced, high-end Mac laptops. She does nothing but browse the web and watch videos on it. I tried to talk her into getting a much less expensive Windows machine or a cheaper Mac that would work just as well, but she wouldn’t budge. She wanted that high-end MacBook Pro for some reason that only she understood.

I have no comeback for that other than to say, “No, they aren’t.”

For you, I’m sure you’re right. You know what works best for you. However, your conclusions don’t fit comfortably within my needs and preferences.

A new computer slowing down after a few months? I can think of nothing that would cause that on either a PC or Mac other than insufficient memory or a nearly full drive. It’s not as though processors and other circuitry get tired and cranky. I know you know what you’re doing, so I’m stumped about what you’re running into.

Again, I have no comeback, but at first glance, you seem to be contradicting yourself.

Bottom line(s). The MacOS and today’s Windows are both excellent operating systems. One’s preferences, needs, and comfort with one or the other are the main differentiators.

As for the hardware, Apple doesn’t sell cheaply made machines. There are plenty of PC manufacturers who do, so if one’s budget is small, a less-expensive PC is the best option. If one’s budget and needs are large enough to buy a more capable, higher-end machine, the price difference between similarly configured Macs and PCs isn’t a significant obstacle.

There are more choices, of course, for PCs, so looking around for bargains is more doable. Again, all things being equal except for one’s budget, a PC would likely be the way to go.

If one’s work or school environment primarily supports one platform over the other, sticking with that platform when buying a personal machine might be a good idea.

I completely reject the notion that Macs are a waste of money if that’s what one prefers and feels most comfortable and efficient using. I can say precisely the same about Windows machines.

#20

As it happens, I agree with Just-B. Horses for courses, and all that. I don’t feel like I have wasted money. An investment that stings a bit? Yes, but definitely not a waste of money.

Anyway, not the point of this [hopefully] final post. This thread has become everything I hoped it wouldn’t, but feared it might. It was only ever a momentary share of genuine surprise and joy at how good the new toy was. End of. So, please can one of the moderators shut this off, before this turns to fisticuffs and we all end up throwing our toys out of the pram. Well, apart from the one!

…or maybe two. The new bass is fun too. If anyone even hints at Fender vs Gibson, I’ll raise you a Status bass and a mid 80s Japanese Matsumoku!

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