New laptop mac or pc?

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devilsgirth

New member
Hey I'm thinking of getting a new laptop and was wondering what would make a good one? I constantly read contradicting opinions about macs and pc's, some say that mac is overpriced and that pc is just as good and some say mac is the way to go. I just want to record bass, guitar, and vocals in Reaper. I also want to use Reason, so I'm wondering what a good laptop would be thats preferably 1000 or under?
 
Oh dear. Here come the highly partisan Mac and PC fans!

Basically, you can have a good DAW using either.

The advantage of a Mac is that they very tightly control the hardware and software used which can make them more reliable. The downside is that you pay through the nose for this control. There's no doubt you get more computer for your money going the Windows/PC route, if only because there's more competition.

In my experience, I can make a PC as reliable as any Mac I've ever used just by being careful about not loading it up with tons of downloaded crap. For my DAW, I've set up a dual boot system so I can do a clean boot with no extraneous stuff running in background while doing sound work...or I can do a "standard" boot and have access to all the usual stuff including internet, wifi, anti virus and the like.

My PERSONAL preference is for PCs, both because of cost issues and because I prefer to organise my file structure in a way that fights with the Apple standard. Others like Macs.

Go with what you like and can afford. Anyone telling you that one system or the other is definitely better is letting their prejudices speak, especially now that Apple uses Intel processors.
 
Bobbsy said:
Oh dear. Here come the highly partisan Mac and PC fans!

Basically, you can have a good DAW using either.

The advantage of a Mac is that they very tightly control the hardware and software used which can make them more reliable. The downside is that you pay through the nose for this control. There's no doubt you get more computer for your money going the Windows/PC route, if only because there's more competition.

In my experience, I can make a PC as reliable as any Mac I've ever used just by being careful about not loading it up with tons of downloaded crap. For my DAW, I've set up a dual boot system so I can do a clean boot with no extraneous stuff running in background while doing sound work...or I can do a "standard" boot and have access to all the usual stuff including internet, wifi, anti virus and the like.

My PERSONAL preference is for PCs, both because of cost issues and because I prefer to organise my file structure in a way that fights with the Apple standard. Others like Macs.

Go with what you like and can afford. Anyone telling you that one system or the other is definitely better is letting their prejudices speak, especially now that Apple uses Intel processors.
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My views are the same but my personal preference is mac, simply because in the "real world" most of the studios I deal with run mac based systems and everything is apple flavoured, pardon the pun. As was said before, if you can go mac, your guaranteed that the hardware will talk away to other parts and you can dual boot windows and mac on a mac but can't legally boot mac on a windows machine (apple have expressed this in the operating systems terms of service)

no matter which road you take your gonna come across people in each camp and trust me, the rivalry can be bitter, but even at that you're still in a subcamp of recording, theres people who are pure analogue, so the main concern I see for you thats gonna "dictate" is who are you going to be working alongside longterm,

If its a case of going to studio A and having to run protools sessions on a mac then going to studio B and getting out an auld razorblade to cut tape then its a case of getting as much use doing everything as possible, if its a case of sitting at home and just sending mixes off to be mastered, don't worry too much, they're all the same at the end of the day

The only other concern is software, like I know that a lot of Free VST's and VSTi's are PC only but I also know that Logic is Mac only, they're just for instances but if you want one or the other that can sway ya
 
Ok thanks for the replies guys, yeah the recording I want to do is basically just home studio recording for myself. This new laptop would just be solely for music recording purposes, I won't be downloading anything that isn't music related on to it. If I spend money I might as well fork out a little extra cash for something that's completely worth it, but I don't know a lot about computers so I have a lot to think about right now. What about RAM and cell processesors and stuff like that? Is there a certain standard that a computer should have in order to avoid latency issues, and get the recording to run smoothly?
 
devilsgirth said:
If I spend money I might as well fork out a little extra cash for something that's completely worth it, but I don't know a lot about computers so I have a lot to think about right now.
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i agree with both bobbsy and gaz, but for the reason i've quoted above i'd personally suggest going down the mac route as straight of the box you'd be set. PC's can do just as much as macs but, as bobbsy said, you have to know a bit more about computing to make the right choices in hardware and software configuration to get the best out of them. this may seem like a lazier route, and you certainly pay for the privilege, but because you don't need to worry about the computer you can focus on making music and getting used to recording/mixing/using your software.

in terms of software, reaper and reason are both mac compatible and work great.
 
it all depends on your audio interface really. if you don't need firewire then and of the MacBooks are fine, although the macbook airs seem a little on the light side processing. i'm assured the new ones are outstanding and seriously considered getting one when i was replacing my old macbook white but the small weight was the only benefit over that and a new macbook pro. if you do need firewire then either look at any of the older series MacBooks (white and pro) or if you're buying new it's now only the macbook pro's with firewire.

in terms of processors and RAM, and of the Core 2 Duo's are fine and i'd say at least 2gb of ram, although more is always better :)

as i said, i had a 2007 macbook white that ran everything great (logic 8 mainly recording and mixing pop and rock stuff) and only had to upgrade because i broke the screen :facepalm: i ended up with a new 13inch macbook pro i5 with 4gb of RAM that flies! it cost me £845 new but that's because i get education staff discount
 
devilsgirth said:
Hey I'm thinking of getting a new laptop and was wondering what would make a good one? I constantly read contradicting opinions about macs and pc's, some say that mac is overpriced and that pc is just as good and some say mac is the way to go. I just want to record bass, guitar, and vocals in Reaper. I also want to use Reason, so I'm wondering what a good laptop would be thats preferably 1000 or under?
Click to expand...

It really doesn't matter.

Just buy what you want/like/prefer, cos they'll both be able to do the job very well.
 
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I'll be honest, I didn't really bother to read through everything everyone has had to say in this thread, and I'm 100% positive I'm rehashing what at least a few other people said. Both are useful, and there are good DAWs for either PC or Mac, and some designed for both. I prefer a Mac, myself. But I prefer a Mac in general, regardless of recording.
 
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