The Switch: Making the hardware leap, safely, from Mac to Windows

Motion Graphics & Visual Effects on PVC by Stephen VanVuuren

INT: CREATIVE STUDIO – NIGHT

Sweat beads off the forehead of the steely CREATIVE PROFESSIONAL and splashes on the keys of his 4 year old Mac Pro tower setup. He white-knuckles his Apple Mouse as he stares down dozens of browser tabs open to sites “Apple’s announces new MacPro update”, “Should you switch platforms”, “Has Apple abandoned the Creative Professional?” etc…

He leans back, longingly looks at his beloved Mac Pro, then leans forward to type “How to buy a PC workstation”.

If you’ve found yourself in this scene, tired of waiting, needing powerful new hardware to run apps like Adobe Creative Suite 6, but confused about the stunning number of choices, you’re not alone. On the Apple Mac Pro site, it’s very simple, two choices. You can purchase a single CPU, quad or six core system, around $5k fully loaded, or a 12-core dual CPU system $10 to $12k fully loaded. That’s it – but with the punch to be the stomach that’s it 2 year old CPU tech – even after Apple’s “upgrade” – and no Thunderbolt, no SATA 6GB, no USB3, no graphics i.e. “old is new”.

On the PC side, it’s a dizzying array of choices - “Hackintoshes”, DIY boxes and dozens of hardware manufacturers. But the vast majority of Mac owners will be happiest with a certified workstation with next-day, US warranty, 24/7 support like Hewlett Packard’s well reviewed new Z620. Unlike Apple, HP offers a full line of current processor choices for workstations from Core i3 all the way to the new Sandy-Bridge Xeon’s – none of them available in any Mac Pro. read more...