Home Workstation: Apple's iMac or a PC?

[thantot09]

Hi everyone, I'm planning to buy/build a home workstation that I will be using for some multimedia works, and I'm just confused on whether to just buy an iMac or build a PC.

a little background about me and my typical use of computers: I'm from Architecture/Engineering Industry where technical drawings and presentation are done almost 99.9% of the time. Also, the workstation I would like to build/buy is for my personal use in order for me to do some personal projects while at home.

The primary programs I will be using are:
Autodesk AutoCAD (technical drawing)
Autodesk Revit (BIM)
Autodesk 3ds Max (3D Modeling and Rendering: via V-Ray)
Adobe Photoshop (Image Editing/Post Processing)
Adobe Illustrator (Presentation Illustrations)
Adobe InDesign (Board Presentation Layouting)
Microsoft Office Suites (for typical clerical use)

as I browse through those preferred PC build for these types of usage, I saw that the costs are comparable to such of an iMac (est. of $1500 - $3000). Now, I am wondering if am I am better off buying an iMac than building a PC? since if I were to buy an iMac, I already have an IPS monitor that will present colors accurately, (Wherein, those $1500 builds I saw which still doesn't have an IPS monitor, and I just don't know if iMac's IPS technology is decent enough or if it is on par with those worth $800 IPS monitors that I am seeing). Additionally, iMac is more aesthetically pleasing and more space friendly unit than a PC.

However, since I still do not have any experience using an iMac, and didn't have much information about those, Hence, I posted on this forum to understand more about it from the insights of the tomshardware's tech gurus.

Here's also some of my concerns:

• 
  1.) on what price range of monitor does an Apple's iMac's IPS monitor can be compared to? (I just want to know if an IPS monitor worth lets say 200$ can provide the same quality as iMacs IPS monitor)
  
  2.) if I have a budget of 3000$ would it better for me to buy an iMac rather than build a PC?
  
  3.) or I am better off buying a PC for Autodesk programs (AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max) and buying an iMac for Adobe Products and multimedia editing?

thanks in advance!

P.S. I also put on a poll to provide a general summary of the thread.

 

[Z-Licious]

Hi everyone, I'm planning to buy/build a home workstation that I will be using for some multimedia works, and I'm just confused on whether to just buy an iMac or build a PC.

a little background about me and my typical use of computers: I'm from Architecture/Engineering Industry where technical drawings and presentation are done almost 99.9% of the time. Also, the workstation I would like to build/buy is for my personal use in order for me to do some personal projects while at home.

The primary programs I will be using are:
Autodesk AutoCAD (technical drawing)
Autodesk Revit (BIM)
Autodesk 3ds Max (3D Modeling and Rendering: via V-Ray)
Adobe Photoshop (Image Editing/Post Processing)
Adobe Illustrator (Presentation Illustrations)
Adobe InDesign (Board Presentation Layouting)
Microsoft Office Suites (for typical clerical use)

as I browse through those preferred PC build for these types of usage, I saw that the costs are comparable to such of an iMac (est. of $1500 - $3000). Now, I am wondering if am I am better off buying an iMac than building a PC? since if I were to buy an iMac, I already have an IPS monitor that will present colors accurately, (Wherein, those $1500 builds I saw which still doesn't have an IPS monitor, and I just don't know if iMac's IPS technology is decent enough or if it is on par with those worth $800 IPS monitors that I am seeing). Additionally, iMac is more aesthetically pleasing and more space friendly unit than a PC.

However, since I still do not have any experience using an iMac, and didn't have much information about those, Hence, I posted on this forum to understand more about it from the insights of the tomshardware's tech gurus.

Here's also some of my concerns:

• 
  1.) on what price range of monitor does an Apple's iMac's IPS monitor can be compared to? (I just want to know if an IPS monitor worth lets say 200$ can provide the same quality as iMacs IPS monitor)
  
  2.) if I have a budget of 3000$ would it better for me to buy an iMac rather than build a PC?
  
  3.) or I am better off buying a PC for Autodesk programs (AutoCAD, Revit, 3ds Max) and buying an iMac for Adobe Products and multimedia editing?

thanks in advance!

P.S. I also put on a poll to provide a general summary of the thread.

Well first off if you get an iMac you can kiss 3dsMax goodbye, it's wndows only. Of course you could run bootcamp on your Mac and buy a copy of windows, but in my opinion you should buy a mac for the OS, which is amazing compared to Windows, everything just works. Meaning if you are going to be on a mac running windows you just wasted a lot of money. So you may want to check your other apps to see if they run on the Mac OS.

Second how big of a monitor are you wanting to get? I run 2 Dell u2413s (http://www.dell.com/bg/business/p/dell-u2413/pd) and I love them, great color accuracy and a lot of bang for your buck in your monitor. I would avoid Asus monitors, even the high end ones.

But to your main question Mac or PC. Personally I have been a Mac user my entire life and I still am, but I just recently, build/bought my first PC as a workstation computer and I am very happy with it. You will have a lot more options for CPUs, and Graphics cards, which could be huge for you. The graphics of iMac won't even come close to some of the cards you can get for a PC. Plus the upgradability of the iMac is seriously lacking, while building your own PC you are going to be able to upgrade parts along the way and keep your rig relevant a lot longer. And honestly after I did a decent amount of research you are going to pay roughly 25%-40% more for a Mac of comparable performance. However, like I said buying a Mac is not a bad thing, their OS in my opinion is miles ahead of Windows, forget about having weird quirks and things crashing or not working well, Mac OS is super stable. And they is why they cost more, Their OS and hardware are built to work perfectly together, Windows, not the case and it's kind of impossible for that to happen since there are so many options.

One thing I would ask you too is are you doing a lot of rendering , meaning long sequences or movies or are you mainly rendering one frame say for print purposes. If you are rendering videos, or image sequences, I would go for a PC and get an AMD opteron or Intel Xeon setup. Personally I have two AMD opterons. But you are mainly doing still graphics where you aren't doing a lot of multithreaded tasks, I would get a Mac.

 

[thantot09]

thanks for that insight Z-Licious. Regarding about your inquiry about the type of rendering I do, 90% of the time I'm doing still images and do a little of animation only if the client ask for it. Also, Im planning to have the 27" iMac. so if a 24" Dell IPS monitor will cost me about $600 maybe the 27"-30" ones may cost me about 1000$ each?

I currently have a rendering rig, with a setup
Intel Core i7 950
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
6GB (3x2GB) GSKILL F3-12800CL9-2GBNQ
Saphire ATI Radeon 6850
Thermaltake Though PowerXT 775W
1 TB Samsung HD103SJ
256GB Seagate ST325031AS

which I use currently for those stuffs, but as I render, I couldn't use the computer to edit the stuffs I previously render and to also continue doing some drafting works which will save me a lot of time; so I'm planning to buy a second one. Maybe I will just run 3Dsmax at my current PC If i coudn't run it at Mac OS.

 

[Z-Licious]

thanks for that insight Z-Licious. Regarding about your inquiry about the type of rendering I do, 90% of the time I'm doing still images and do a little of animation only if the client ask for it. Also, Im planning to have the 27" iMac. so if a 24" Dell IPS monitor will cost me about $600 maybe the 27"-30" ones may cost me about 1000$ each?

I currently have a rendering rig, with a setup
Intel Core i7 950
Gigabyte X58A-UD3R Rev 2.0
6GB (3x2GB) GSKILL F3-12800CL9-2GBNQ
Saphire ATI Radeon 6850
Thermaltake Though PowerXT 775W
1 TB Samsung HD103SJ
256GB Seagate ST325031AS

which I use currently for those stuffs, but as I render, I couldn't use the computer to edit the stuffs I previously render and to also continue doing some drafting works which will save me a lot of time; so I'm planning to buy a second one. Maybe I will just run 3Dsmax at my current PC If i coudn't run it at Mac OS.

ya for a 27" good monitor you will probably be around $1,000. Those apple monitors are great I used to have 2 27" with a MacPro at work and I loved it. I am a little confused on your last part but I think you are saying that with what you have you are unable to render and work in other applications. So you would get a Mac and do all your finishing and render on your current machine. And your right having one machine dedicated to rendering and working on another is ideal, just will suck that they are two different OSs'. I would then look in to and external solution that both computers can link to easily to share files. That way you wont be annoyed every time you want to bring a Max file over. and something else you might consider is add some RAM to your PC, could speed up your renders a decent amount, but, you may not care if it is a separate machine and you can still work on another.

And you know just a thought sorry to give so many option but you might consider spending your 3,000 toward a rendering powerhouse and use your current machine for your finishing, Rendering is usually the biggest hold up and I know for me anything I can do to speed up my rendering I try to do it. although it sounds like you are wanting a new monitor and that would be 1,000 so really only 2,000 for a rendering beast, but just a thought.

 

[MidnightDistort]

For just about any high performance PC needed i recommend a custom built PC. If your not too familiar with Macs it might be best to go PC.