Thank you for your valuable contribution to this thread! It's this kind of useful information that keeps me coming back. Great forum!
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
Anybody use Mac?
- Thread starter ADVANCED DISPLAY
- Start date
I thought the topic was "Anybody use Mac?"
Johnny Best
Active Member
Yea and I am Anybody.
Mac, Illustrator, Graphtec, Cut master 4 has made me a shit ton of money. When Macs can run a HP latex I will have a ceremony to throw my PC out the window.So, I've been really drooling over the Mac studio, I don't know how many nerds we have and how many of those are in the Mac camp, I LOATH windows. Seeing as how coreldraw and I believe the adobe suite runs on the new M1 chips (ultra, ughhh makes me tingle) Im seriously flirting with the idea of getting one.
The two main workstations I have here now are windows machinesmad
Just looking to get some opinions if anybody's tried one.
A Mac WILL run HP Latex if you have the Caldera RIP installed. You will need your "shit ton of money" to pay for it, though. I used that setup for a while but Flexi on a PC works much better.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Caldera GrandRIP is what close to $5K. I would long for close to $5k. I have dealt with software that ranges from $15k to $20k depending on what brand one got the full version in. These programs start at $3k (for "pro" usage, but even the high end "consumer" would run you around $1250, the lowly entry level versions would run you around the price of Ai CS6 and nowhere near feature rich, certainly not at the scale that Ai would be for that price point). So I would say "shit ton of money" is relative.
But have to factor in that is the price of doing business. Have to pay the piper and that is what one of two RIPs for unix-like systems (although the other one that I am thinking of is also on Windows).
CanuckSigns
Active Member
I've owned 2 Mac laptops in my life about 15 years ago, back when ipods were the new thing, both crashed more than any computer I've ever used. I've also had some crappy windows computers in my day.
I bought a lenovo ThinkPad for my day to day computer, at the time it was around $2000, but its been awesome, it's still super quick and works very well 5 years later.
Most of my production computers are refurbished machines, they seem to work well at the single task they are given (running a laser, running an engraver) but are not quick by any stretch, I have a few in storage as well and when they die I'm back up and running in 30 mins.
I bought a lenovo ThinkPad for my day to day computer, at the time it was around $2000, but its been awesome, it's still super quick and works very well 5 years later.
Most of my production computers are refurbished machines, they seem to work well at the single task they are given (running a laser, running an engraver) but are not quick by any stretch, I have a few in storage as well and when they die I'm back up and running in 30 mins.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
Depending on how things go forward, this may not be that viable of a path as it once was for Windows. It just all depends on how they do things forward, still quite a bit of scuttlebutt as to what the next OS is going to be like.
Graphic Extremes
Knows To Little
Windows 12 is a mess, more of a cloud based operating system from what I am being told and I will only get worse. That is why Windows is trying to make everyone sign up for Microsoft accounts when installing the operating system.
gnubler
Active Member
Likewise, and agreed 100%. There was even a stage where I was one of those dooshes with an Apple sticker on my car and a subscription to Mac Addict magazine. Horrifying now.
What finally repelled me the most, aside from the inflated cost and ridiculous packaging, was the proprietary ports/connectors and challenge of a simple task like replacing an HDD (having to lift the glass face off the iMacs with magnets).
I did that as well, great machine! Lenovo P-51, I think it is, not the best one they offer but much faster than any Mac I have ever had. Even the old cheese grater with 128 GB of RAM and a solid-state internal drive couldn't keep up. I can't say that I recall any crashes from the Lenovo in the two-plus years of ownership or any issues at all for that matter. I have since purchased Lenovo laptops for both of my designers and have Lenovo minis for my RIP Station, Engraver/ Laser station as well as for the security system. Just need one more for the CNC and it's one happy family. I have an old Dell Optipex that really does all I need there for the moment but, the first sign of trouble...
Meanwhile, I have the old Mac Pro tower, an iMac 24" and an iMac 21.5" as well as three MacBook Pros collecting dust. All in working condition when parked. Any diehard retro Mac freaks out there wanna make me an offer on the whole lot? Most have newer SSDs and upgraded Ram with an NVidia graphics upgrade in the MacPro. I'll throw in a LaCie 1TB external drive, a LaCie NAS, and a storage tub full of mice, keyboards, cables, adapters, and other Apple crapple. Doesn't include my old iPod classic though. I saw one still in the original packaging on eBay for $28,000.
WildWestDesigns
Active Member
I know a couple of people that have liked that particular one. One of my workstations is a Thinkstation and it does wonderful job and has been very stable with Arch on it. It is the older one though, I went back to custom builds after that one (all put together with Arch in mind), but that is still a good rig.
I know, I need to use Onyx though.