angry12345 said:
I have read for photo editing though the SSD is better.. particulary for Lightroom. The storage space is abysmal though 128 gb. I mean could get external drive to store stuff but then your back to mechanical. Now she is not using lightroom so not as important. I was leaning towards what you said too.
Personally, I have been thinking exactly what you are, but everyone at her company is using Macs and every graphic design marketing department seems to be using Macs so I figure there must be something I am missing. Is there some problem with sharing data possibly? I cannot imagine programs optimized for Macs and NOT Windows.. I can the other way around. I always assume it is just a hipster bias
I mean I use an i5 4670k with a gtx 780i so I am not an Apple guy at all.
If you're using the same programs and exporting the same filetypes it shouldn't matter what you have. There are a few Mac exclusives, but Adobe's software is not one of them as far as I'm aware (CC is available for both Mac and PC)
As for the SSD, yes you'll get better performance, but what good is it if you are constantly running out of space while working? You can certainly get an external drive, but that's just more bulk that you have to carry around. If I were going SSD today, I would do 512GB, 256GB at the absolute minimum. Remember an OS installation and over-provisioning to extend SSD life and performance will take away a good third of that 128GB SSD space, if not a little more. Granted, you'll get a nice speedup on the OS-side of things. If you don't mind carrying around a portable hard drive everywhere, then by all means go for the SSD, it's a much faster option. Keep in mind a fast thunderbolt drive will be more expensive than the slower USB ones, and you'd have to add that to your cost (which is already high with a Mac). I'd just hesitate to buy it if you don't want to, or if you plan on upgrading down the line (remember macbooks have almost nothing that's user-serviceable anymore, even storage and RAM are soldered on).
Macs tend to be more popular in graphics design industries because 20-30 years ago they WERE the better option, and companies and universities began using Macs to teach/work. Nowadays it's sort of just a continuing tradition, everyone has been using Apple products, why change now when they still work? It's also a safer, more secure OS (supposedly, I'm not sure how well they would fare if a large-scale virus actually was developed and released against OSX since almost no one uses antivirus with their Macs). There may be one or two applications your wife's department uses that isn't on Windows though, so it is a good idea to check that out. Additionally if the company uses something from Apple like iCloud for sharing, obviously the Apple applications will run better on Macs than PCs because they're fully optimized for OSX.
I'm a PC guy as well, but I've used Macs in school and I've owned a Power Mac G4 MDD (Actually still have it around, but it's probably far too slow to be useful anymore), and an Intel Mac Mini. I can see how the OS appeals to people, but I don't think it's a "better" option by default. That still comes down to specs, applications, and value, which often leads me to PCs.