> I agree. The premium payed for Macs is not reflected in the actual > hardware used. I just priced out a loaded Dell Latitude E6400, which > fully loaded is the same price as the starter Macbook. The Dell is > using a better CPU, double the RAM, a fast hard drive (7200 RPM laptop > drive) etc. It just doesn't make sense unless you actually care about > the solid aluminum body :)
I have 7200 rpm laptop drive on my older Macbook and I upgraded the RAM to 4GB using cheap Mac compatible RAMs (other than sold by Apple) and the setup works fine. And I do care about the solid aluminium body. The older model did not have that, but even with that I have been pretty happy. The build quality is excellent. I have used Dells for couple of years and I can not say the same for their build quality, they are cheap crap where the Mac is a solid product. If you want cheap, then go for Dell, if you want good quality, awesome design / styling etc. get a Mac. If you don't care about style and having the nice beautiful product doesn't make you feel like Christmas each time you look and touch it, then just forget about it, get something cheap that will do the task and buy a new when it breaks. In my case, it is not that simple as that. After tens of years of plastic boxes, I got really bored to the cheap plastics that break because their build quality is so awful (one old Dell we have is no longer usable because the plastic chassis is not rigid enough to not cause disconnects etc. inside if moved at all) and I buy now only good quality hardware which looks & feels really nice and Macs meet that criteria, I am no longer just looking at the price-raw-performance ratio. It is a personal choice. I don't personally need the firewire (and I kind of feel it is a bit overrated), because I am using the internal sound card and for all MIDI etc. connectivity USB is just fine. At home I am using the iMac for music. I don't have audio interface on it either, I figured that after all, I may not need one, the internal sound is good enough. I have a mixer connected to the line input. Works for me since I am doing electronic music and only recording one synthesizer (when using the external hardware synths) at a time (because I don't have anybody else but me playing). I have a 8 in / 8 out audio interface on the custom desktop PC (which is running Ubuntu Studio), its internal audio hardware is unusable for music (unlike on Mac). Best Regards, Karoliina ( http://karoliinamusic.blogspot.com ) (Typing this from non-studio-Ubuntu Intrepid running on Thinkpad T61p (which is okay for a PC, but not as nice as my Macs are, and came with unnecessary Windows-license (never booted it to Windows before installing the Ubuntu))) -- Ubuntu-Studio-users mailing list [email protected] Modify settings or unsubscribe at: https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-studio-users
