Why I decided after thirty years to move from Mac to PC.
To give context I started using Apple computers back in 1987 and bought my first Mac in 1989. Back then a 40MB hard drive was the cutting edge and monitors were cathode ray and weighed a ton. Floppy disks were 700k and the Worldwide Web was a twinkle in Tim Berners-Lee’s eye. I took out a business loan and bought my first Mac, a laser printer and some creative software to go with them. So started my long relationship with Apple and their products. I have stuck with them through the good and the bad and they have held my loyalty through to the present day. In my day I have been responsible for companies purchasing hundreds if not thousands of Macs and have been at the cutting edge of creative software throughout. So why jump ship now.
My job has always been to find the best fit of technology for the creative teams I work with. Making sure software and hardware match culture and business. I am used to evaluating what is the most cost-effective way of producing creative work. It’s important to emphasise creative work because this relates directly to the interface, ease of use and stability of the system, how productive and efficient a team can be. How time in particular can be saved through the use of the right technology?
About two years ago my aging Mac pro died. It had served me well for nearly ten years with upgrades and additions along the way. Luckily I had my Apple laptop to fall back on and that has served as backup while I decided what was the next step. The rumour of a Mac pro line kept me waiting but the iMac pro was not what I was looking for neither was the Mac book pro, each of these were very admirable in performance but they were not modular and the graphics performance was underwhelming. So I waited a year. In that time Microsoft produced some innovative products aimed squarely at the creative market. The Surface pro and Surface studio caught my eye, but it was the modular nature of PCs that really appealed.
So started my journey to the dark side.
The Hackintosh community looked to have the answers. You carefully choose your PC components that remain compatible with the Apple operating system, build the PC and layer the legitimate Mac operating system on top. Endless searching on YouTube and Google confirmed this was not only possible but plausible. So next was what were the component parts, which quickly led to which processor AMD or Intel? Then which graphics card AMD or Nvidia, which motherboard, memory, power supply etc. Suddenly I was wishing for the simplicity of Apple again, where choice was limited and “it just works” could be believed. There was and still is a battle going on between AMD and Intel to take control of the mid-range to high end consumer computer market. This has led to monthly updates and “leaked” information about the latest and the greatest innovations in computers, particularly graphics cards and processors. It was looking like a good time to buy.
I decided to build a list of what my ideal computer would look like for my creative needs with the notion I could go the Hackintosh route if I chose wisely. There was however a potential problem with this approach. Apple would only natively support certain components and not all of these were the fastest or the best. For example with graphics cards you really have to stay with AMD as these are natively supported by Apple, Nvidia do offer some Apple drivers but they often lag behind Apples O.S. updates which can cripple your system. Nvidia lead on the high end consumer cards and even the latest AMD releases don’t quite match. Also, the CPU in a Hackintosh really needs to be Intel which means the more affordable AMD chips are out of the equation.
So it came to this, build a “safe” Hackintosh with components that are Apple friendly but not exactly cutting edge, or go completely PC with Windows 10 and any combination of components I wanted.
In the end I questioned why I was trying so hard to stay with Apple. Their computers had slipped behind the competition, their cost was getting ridiculously over priced and worse their innovation had started to wane. As an example, I found a brilliant Hackintosh guru on YouTube, Morgonaut. Her builds and comprehensive guides showed me that to self-build a Hackintosh that beat the best iMac pro would cost just a third of the price. Now I have paid a premium for Apple products for the last thirty years but a 60%+ premium is a hard pill to swallow. So the hardware argument was indisputable PCs would give me a greater power for a third the price.
The next question was Mac OS or Windows 10? I have used both operating systems for more or less the same amount of time but honestly the PC was more for games and fun and the Mac was for creativity and earning money. So the question was, did Windows 10 give me an operating system fit for creative work? It could be argued that once inside the creative software there is hardly any difference, Adobe’s Creative Suite is the same on both platforms, same goes for other creative software, right? Well actually no, not right. They are very close these days but there are still differences in many subtle ways. But do those small differences impact productivity and/or efficiency and if so do they cost justify the additional cost of a Mac over a PC? I’m still working this out more fully but the early indicators are that Windows 10 does not impact the creative workflow. Sure, I have had to add some apps to enhance Windows 10 to bring it close to the native Mac OS, but that’s maybe the beauty of the PC in the end, you can tailor it to your specific needs.
I am now a month into using my PC as my go-to creative computer. It has been a rollercoaster ride, and I have learned a lot about what that transition involves. Everything from finding the right keyboard through to what additional utilities are needed, fixes in the bios through to alternative backup software. There have been times when I just wanted to go back to my comforting Apple environment but I’m getting there with Windows 10.
The big wins so far are the new found speed but more than that it is being able to take advantage of the new hardware innovations, in particular the graphics card. Both my 2d and 3D software are back at the cutting edge where my Mac once was. I still have a couple of hurdles to clear before I will be completely at home but many of my previous reservations around moving to a PC have been removed. Better still there are new PC only creative applications waiting to be explored and I can’t wait to see what they will open up.
I have been keeping a video diary of my experience and will be publishing that on YouTube soon.
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