Do designers still "need" Macs?

Hey guys,
My wife is heading to grad school in a bit, where she will be working on graphic design, programming, app-making and robot-creating. I started a "what shall I buy" thread in the proper location, but have so far not heard anything from the Mac folks. The thread can be found here: http://forum.notebookreview.com/wha...2-wife-needs-computer-apps-robots-design.html

In the past, I remember lots of audio/video designers telling me how they really needed to work on Macs. Is this still the case? Or, is all of the necessary software now available on PCs as well? If so, are these comparable softwares compatible with one another across Mac and PC platforms? I believe that a lot of her fellow students will be using Macs, although there is a healthy PC contingent there as well. It sure would be nice if we could avoid the heavy Mac pricetag...

I know everything there is to know about gaming PCs, but really nothing about Macs and/or design PCs.

Let me know your thoughts!

Thanks,

T

UPDATE: The decision has been made to purchase a mac. Long story that is detailed throughout this thread, so I will not elaborate here. Please feel free to leave this thread to die, as I do not wish to inflame any more PC vs Mac discussions. Thank you.

 

Unless she NEEDS Final Cut Pro or Aperture, the answer is no. I actually mostly transitioned away from my Mac Pro's/MBP's for broadcast video and prepress design.

now honest opinion if she will be extensively be using Adobe Creative Suite 6, it runs better in Win 7 than Lion or ML, especially Premier and Illustrator.

 

Nope, just get her a Windows machine, it's better.

 

Some programmes do have it as a requirements.

For example, a top music school I want to enrol in uses Logic and Ableton Live. Logic is OSX-only and Ableton Live is OSX-Windows, therefore, OSX is required.

Previously, when I studied Broadcasting, OSX was also a requirement. Our school is partnered with top Canadian broadcasters and most of the work they did took place in FCP (Final Cut Pro). I was at a disadvantage because at the time I had an Windows laptop so I could not work at home (had to use the school's iMac's), which eventually hit my grades. Many other design programmes also work on projects relating to the Mac, since I noticed iMac's in all their class rooms.

Your wife should take a tour of the classes or even speak to an instructor via e-mail to ask if any classes will use Mac-related software. If the answer is yes, then get a Mac. My school did not tell me I needed a Mac, so I bought an Asus laptop. By the time I discovered we had to use Mac's/FCP, I was passed my return date (resale value was poor @ 50%+) and was stuck with my Windows laptop the entire duration of the programme due to financial restrictions.

 

It seems like the requirements for the program would be set in advance. They will likely require either windows or OS X. If windows is required, a macintosh certainly wont be necessary. If OS X is required, I would recommend strongly getting a macintosh.

There is no particular reason to get a macintosh if you will need to use windows to run your software. There are a variety of reasons why a macintosh might not be the best choice for that environment (even if you disregard the high cost).

 

Maybe i am just used to macs but imo working on a mac is like working in a nice office (like googgle office).
Many times i needed an interface or design solution and i thought to myself "but hey, i can do some tweaks to this stuff which mac os have and it will work".
And windows just feels dark and unfriendly rght off the box to me, it kinda depresses me even. I know you can tweak windows to look exactly like mac and even better but a) such tweaks doesnt increase stability b) you need to invest time into doing it and then you upgrade your os and you will need to do it again and in the end, why would i change my mac os for a windows? if i am not in dire need of those $500 / 3 years or whatever apple charges extra for their hard&software.

So ye, i would get a mac for my designers. Especially for new ones. Pretty sure they can take something away from those clean intuitive interfaces and general way of how it "simply work".

 

The best advice in this thread so far is to check with the school and see what they are using. I use both (mainly because I like to game hard), so I would also recommend that if you can afford only one, you should keep in mind that you can run both OS X AND Windows on a Mac via boot camp, which is supplied with OS X...not so much on a Windows PC. I understand there are ways to hack a PC to run OS X, but I haven't seen any many stories about it being an easy process.

 

Many universities also offer various Windows operating systems (XP Pro, Vista Pro, 7 Ultimate, and 32-bit and 64-bit versions of each one) for relatively inexpensive prices. My university gives us copies of XP Pro (32-bit and 64-bit) and Vista (32-bit and 64-bit) for free while charging $10 for 7 Ultimate (32-bit and 64-bit). They are also enrolled in the MSDNAA program so I can download all of those for free.

The program at the university can supply all the information you need so that you can purchase a computer. If they run OS X exclusive software, you will need to buy a Mac. If they use OS neutral software, a Windows PC will do just fine. Although Macs can run both Windows and OS X, Windows is a subpar experience on a Mac. There are various reasons that have been discussed on these forums in the past. Mainly Apple doesn't provide the same level of driver support as they do under OS X so some things (the trackpad, the backlight illumination audio adjustment level, display backlight auto adjustment, not being able to use the IGP, etc.) don't work very well. Either way, if the program will allow your wife to stay in Windows, and you wife is comfortable running that, I see no need to buy a Mac. Never buy a Mac to run Windows as the primary OS.

 

OS X isn't needed for design, no.

Yes, buy the cheapest discount Acer you can find. There isn't any difference between the hardware at all!

 

Might service yourself better if you turn on your sarcasm radar.

 

"better" has nothing to with hardware in this case, windows 7 from a production point of view IS better than OS X. It's faster, more compatible, more responsive and has less strange quirks.

Now some people might have a preference of look, design and "feel" and therefor prefer OS X and that's totally cool, but from a strict production point of view, windows would win every time.

 

Except that what you stated is based on personal preferences. Compatibility aside, OS X is just as fast as Windows, is just as responsive, and those "strange quirks" can also pop in Windows. I have a friend that just purchased a Samsung ultrabook running Windows 7. From a production standpoint (and not looking at OS X program compatibility), it isn't superior to my 2011 MBA. Their Samsung takes longer to start up, it came pre-loaded with all sorts of crapware and "tools" that slowdown performance and don't increase productivity, and Windows has just as many strange quirks as OS X.

There are differences between opinions and facts. Making a "matter of fact" statement using an opinion doesn't make it a fact.

 

You are basing all your "facts" on random hardware and price comparison between computers. This has nothing to do with it. On equal hardware, windows7 is faster, and that is a fact. And for compatibility, we just look past that? that is one of the main reasons that from a production point of view windows wins, every time. Even Adobe and autodesk products which supports both platforms runs better on windows, sometimes due to the way the systems work differently and sometimes because of DirectX, which OS X doesn't have. comparing a MBA to a random samsung netbook doesn't give much "fact".

btw I do have a macbook pro and I love it! but windows runs 10x better than OS X does on it.

 

This is a false claim (or an untested claim / opinion, depending on your interpretation).

You appear to imply that if you take an apple computer (to guarantee equivalent hardware), and test windows vs OS X, that either:

- windows is faster in all situations and by all metrics, or
- windows is faster by some "overall" metric (undefined)
- windows is faster by some personal evaluation you have done

The first claim is false. The second claim is not defined, untested. The third claim might be an opinion, or maybe it's also just undefined and untested.

Perhaps a better claim would be that windows tends to have better performance than OS X in 3D rendering. This disparity exists for a variety of reasons, but a lot of it comes down to:

- relatively low performance graphics drivers in OS X
- relatively low performance OpenGL implementation in OS X

For other tasks (non-3D), OS X and windows are very similar in performance.

 

I worked as a graphic designer for 7 years, and i have used both at work(desktops). And freelancing at home i also have had both windows and macbook pro's. I must say that my opinion has evolved a bit. When i first started the software standard for vector was macromedia freehand. It was way better to run on a mac in 2003 than on windows. But then adobe bought macromedia, and the new software standard is illustrator. today you can find really nice windows laptops that can really help you make better work. For instance, a calibrated rgb monitor or a 95% color gamut panel are really awesome for that. And i dont know why, but all of adobe software seems to run better on windows. Also if your going to be doing 3d work, 3d software also runs faster on windows.

If your not going to be running mac os exclusive software i would 100% grab a windows workstation (lenovo, dell, or hp)

 

Unless you HAVE to use Final Cut Pro, there is no reason you HAVE to have a Mac. Lightroom is far superior to Aperture (if you don't believe me, read a review... like any of them).

The most important thing is CHECK WITH THE PROFESSOR ON SOFTWARE, then CHECK THE MANUFACTURER FOR SPECS. Don't blindly take the professor's opinion on a computer system, just get the facts (software names and versions needed).

As for why the hell people still buy Macs at 3x the price of a PC, sit down on the rug, children... it's story time...

Once upon a time, there were these things called newspapers...

They could be kind of from time to time, but they had a problem. Now you see, they used to take a very loooong time to lay out by hand. Since the 1930s or so, it involved something called "waxing," which is when you take a story you want to run, push it through a little machine that coats the bottom with wax, and you stick it on the page. Using an X-acto knife, you make sure it fills the space you want. Then you photographed it on a HUUUGE camera, and then it gets magically put onto a metal plate and loaded into a press. Then its used to print the page on 900-pound rolls of paper a few hundred times a minute.

Anywho, waxing was annoying the poor s who actually did the layout, so somebody got the bright idea of doing it on one of these new-fangled computer things. Somebody made some software (Quark) and a special printer (The Apple Laserwriter) to do the same thing without worries of wax poisoning or tetanus from rusty razor blades. Since a few intrepid newspapers bought them, every cranky old editor with a phobia of tech jumped on the bandwagon. Later, some video guys and designer guys got the same idea. They also used Macs, because that's what the cool newspaper guys had.

Even later still, some guys at a company called Microsoft threw a hissy fit because even though their systems were fantastic for office jobs (like Word, Excel, Access), nobody used them for graphic design. Eventually, a firm called Adobe came along and saved the day for PC users.

Now, seeing how newspaper editors are ornery critters who were pissed off enough when they first had to use computers at all, they didn't want to change to a different kind of computer (the devil you know and all that). Ever since, newspaper offices nationwide are saddled with $2,000 iMacs and $4,000 Mac Pros that could easily be replaced by $500 Lenovo laptops and $100 Acer monitors (which, coincidentally, are what they have hooked to their Mac Pros instead of $2,000 monitors... go figure).

If they would only switch, they could upgrade 4x as often and/or have money to pay their reporters something over that of a grunt at GameStop.

The end.

So, the long answer is... you used to "need" a mac if you wanted the fanciest software, but there's no reason, since at least the Intel transition, you really need a Mac for anything but FCP. I had the same argument in college with most of my professors. They were teaching Illustrator and Photoshop, and got angry when I said a PC could do the same thing.

 

I doubt that your professors were teaching people that only macs could use photoshop. Perhaps they were getting angry with you because they were trying to teach photoshop and you were trying to argue about Mac vs PC?

I would get mad at you for that if I were a professor teaching photoshop. Food for thought.

 

There is legit truth to the fact that at one time Macs were superior for design, video, and music production. The PowerPC Processors were great at pure processing and much better than X86 at the time. That, and the software was different and many professionals preferred the UIs of the Macintosh software.

Really, PCs can do all design work just as well as a Mac nowdays. Really it comes down to tradition as to why designers purchase Macs, in my opinion. And really, designers appreciate good design, and Apple has some of the best of that.

 

This post is nothing but subjective and furthermore I don't agree with any of your points. You're very biased. Yeah try and get the recording studios, movie studios, DJ's and most people from the arts to agree with you. It won't happen.

 

Unless you need final cut pro, a PC will more for you for less money.

Sent from my SGH-I777 using Tapatalk 2

 

Outside Apple's cherry picked benchmarks and generally misleading graphs, I'm not sure that's ever been the case.

 

Movie studios are a different breed especially in feature films. AVID claims about 90% of their heavy users use PC's and they make up about 85% of feature films including LOTR, Harry Potter, Iron Man, Batman etc. ( in 2011/2012 only 4 movies done in FCP )
Final Cut Pro - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

recording studios are split especially outside of the USA, and again many use Protools ( AVID again ) where PC's are very common.

DJ's I will agree they tend to be polar much like this forum, but mostly dependant on which interfaces they have etc. I have seen numerous use both and even see deadmau5 and LMFAO, use Alienwares of all things

HLdan where you really should have focused is on smaller TV productions and television commercials where in fact FCP is extremely prevalent. TSE does hold a valid point.

 

Hey guys,

I appreciate all of the thoughts and input that everyone has shared with us here.
After a lot of research and discussions with her professors, she has decided to go with a mac for this.
The only single reason: after she graduates and gets a job, her new coworkers may expect that she knows how to operate macs, simply because that is still (for some reason) the industry standard/perception. Since she already knows how to use PCs, she figures she might as well use this time to learn how to use macs as well.

So, for now, we're going to buy a mac (no offense mac users, but as a gamer and long-term price-conscious pc-enthusiast I am a little sad about this).

The next step is to try to find one that can do what she needs and is affordable. Anyone have a spare mac laying around that isn't too old and has good stuff? (SSD, processor, ram, gpu)

Thanks guys!
And I apologize for starting another mac vs pc discussion But you all handled it very well!

T

 

Sorry T, I just finished my annual swap out, but take a peek in the buy/sell area as well as Apple refurbs. but get the SSD/RAM on your own and install it yourself if you get it from Apple.

secondly for her needs you posted over in the WNSIB forum, she pretty much needs a 15" or 17" with the dGPU ( Either AMD or Nvidia )

 

Great! Thanks KCE!

I'm sure I can follow the step by step instructions for how to upgrade the SSD/RAM on an apple. That should save several hundred dollars, at least. Do they even make macs with dGPUs? Perhaps I could find the k2000, which is what I had picked out for her windows machine I was building in my head

 

no, the ONLY Mac than have a Quadro is the Mac Pro desktop. The 15" and discontinued 17" have gf/radeon midrange gaming dGPU's available which is better than nothing.

 

No, I think you need to turn that around and realize that most of your statements were either opinions or untested facts. I can already tell you that, on equal hardware, both OS's are going to perform the same for day-to-day tasks. Windows is better with some things, mainly gaming, due to better outside support. OS X is better at other things. I was ignoring compatibility because that was the only true fact in your statement. Other than that, the rest is either untested, unspecified, or an opinion. My comparison to a Samsung ultrabook with newer hardware is much more of a fact than the claims you made. I was also able to show how, on a hardware for hardware basis, Windows isn't always faster than OS X (as you have stated)

I am calling complete BS on this one especially given the poor Windows driver support from Apple (and also from personal experience using multiple Macs). In all of the Macs I have used (mid-2011 Mac Mini, early 2011 13" MacBook Pro, mid-2011 MacBook Air, and a 2011 27" iMac), OS X almost always performs better than Windows through Bootcamp, that is especially true for the everyday tasks that I complete. The only time I have had Windows pull ahead is when I am running a game or software that works directly with DirectX (and the OS X version is nothing more than a sloppy port like most OS X games). Other than those two specific applications, OS X always pulls ahead on Mac hardware. It should too as Apple provides much better drivers for OS X than it does for Windows.

 

1. Go to school
2. Ask what would be better for the program/industry
3. Buy said computer/laptop/notebook
4. ????????
5. Profit

 

You won't regret it. Here's the thing, you hit the nail on the head. Most people at least know how to use Windows well enough to open emails and surf the web but there are still people that aren't as well-versed with the Mac OS. The fact that Macs are no longer to be ignored and many institutions and corporations use them along with many of our own peers it's important to know how to use the Mac as well as Windows. The price is the only thing that is making you feel sad. Once you get your hands on a Mac (as an owner) you won't feel that way, I can assure you.

Here's my take on the situation. Times have changed, sadly some people's strong opinions haven't. Macs and Windows machines are in many people's hands now. In fact you can go to many cafe's and you'll find more people sitting with a Macbook than a PC laptop. At least that's what I have seen and I live near a college campus and I work in the financial world where cafe's dominate any other entity in the city. I'm disheartened at this forum because people (namely Windows users) work very hard to discourage people from buying Macs.
The OP asks a general question, for example, "Do we need Macs anymore for media production?" The typical answers are "Macs are bought because they are pretty", "Macs are bought to look cool", "Macs used to be worthwhile but they are useless now against Windows".
As a forum we should be encouraging people to buy Macs so people will be more educated on how to use them rather than taking our own personal feelings and telling them to dodge Macs as if Windows is the "End ALL". I visit the Windows 8 forum and although I am no fan of Microsoft's attempt at Windows 8, I certainly don't post comments discouraging people from trying it out, neither do I say, "Windows 8 will confuse you, it's best to try Macs since many people use them". Discouraging forum members to get them to use the OS that YOU USE isn't the right thing to do.

Notice the OP decided on the Mac after all even though he feels slightly uneasy about it? Biased comments are going to turn people against your opinions so please, as a forum, let's all encourage people rather than saying, "Windows does it all so no need to waste money on a Mac". It's not helpful.

 

I don't think this forum should encourage anyone to do anything, as a matter of fact. This forum is extremely informative, and that is its purpose. Please do not try to persuade individuals towards one decision or another. Just inform them and let them decide. All of the information that I have read on this forum has been incredibly informing (I also chatted with several of her professors and some of our other friends in the design industry as well).

I believe that the majority of readers/writers on this forum may be gaming enthusiasts and/or people who know a lot about hardware and the relative prices of said hardware (I, the OP, fall in to this category). With that in mind, it may not be as much of a surprise to discover that people in this forum tend to favor the devices that will provide them more of what they want (power for games) for the lowest price.

Additionally, the single only reason why we have decided to purchase a mac over a pc is because there remains an unfounded perception within the design industry that people should use macs. This is extremely disheartening to me. "Real designers use macs, so, if you don't use a mac than you aren't a real designer"

Anyone who has studied basic economics knows that you must compare items based upon their relative prices. If you can purchase a PC with the exact same components as a mac but the pc costs 50% less money, then that pc IS twice as good as that mac. The opportunity cost of purchasing a mac over a pc is enormous, and that is what makes me sad. Aside from my personal emotions, purchasing a mac is also economically inefficient, and therefore a waste of global resources, at least as far as my values are concerned. However, others may value things like "design" or "coolness" more than economic efficiency.

In short, the sole reason that we are purchasing a mac is because of the possibility that it may be culturally normative to the design industry in which my wife seeks employment. As an analytical individual (physics, math, econ) it pains me to concede to the importance of this norm over other qualities, such as economic and computational efficiency.

I can't even find a mac that offers her a developer's GPU (like a k2000), no Directx11 or Open GL support. Oh well, so it's going to be more expensive AND not as good. Great.

Not happy about this at all, but the decision has been made.

 

Okay dude, okay. You weren't trying to understand my point and I was actually helping you but I don't appreciate the way you came at me. I have helped a lot of people on this forum and I have contributed a lot in a positive way and it's painfully obvious. I don't appreciate your tone. Sorry for wasting my time. Interesting how you'd go against someone trying to keep a level playing field on the forum, especially someone who was trying to help you. Waste of time for me, I'm out.

 

Just as an aside...

In our design department (web development company, but also promo stuff)

It's split about 70/30 in favor of the PC. Frankly, most Mac users are now running our software in Windows as OSX has become less and less potent with Adobe Suites.

Neither side holds a noticeable advantage except where a specific piece of software not available on the other is required.

I severely disagree that real designers must use a Mac. It's more about what the designer is more comfy with, and where the company is invested with software.
(in the case of a student, its about what the program recommends and/or forces you to use)

I know for certain our managers would hire a person not familiar with a mac, but would NEVER hire a person unfamiliar with a PC.
(budgetary reasons - one of those managers uses a mac personally)

I don't believe for a second that any college grad would have trouble with either MacOS or Windows at this point.

If she really wants a mac, that's how its going to be... but I'd feel remiss to let you not have the rest of the story in the real world.

 

This forum is entirely too antagonistic on many occasions and it doesn't need to be that way. The whole Mac versus PC debate ends up in a religious war. It's borderline silly more times than not.

I end up buying machines for a variety of reasons. One thing is for sure, if you want a machine that will do it all, you really do need to seriously consider the Apple hardware. They'll run every OS made and you can do that either on the native hardware, or via virtualization. Just for fun this weekend I backed up my MBA then installed Windows 8 Pro x64 on the Mac. No OS X, no bootcamp, nothing but Windows 8. The MBA ran it very nicely. Warmer, but not too bad for light duty work. I have since reverted back to Mountain Lion and Fusion 5, but it was fun to see how the OS ran on the native hardware.

If you have an Apple store close by, then the decision gets easier. It's definitely a benefit to have local support and advice. We don't have a Lenovo or Microsoft store so until that happens, Apple has a support edge here.

Apple does a terrific job on engineering, building and shipping. Lenovo hasn't learned to spell shipping for their heralded X1 Carbon yet. Total false start. At least Apple published a 30 day lead time for the Retina 15.4" MacBook Pro when logistics required it. At least they communicate.

A Mac for the designer world seems like a no brainer. If you must run Windows and some applications there, you can.

 

This is exactly the type of post I was asking the forum for. This type of post is a fair and impartial post and not being discouraging of either side of the fence but rather giving points to positives on both sides and encouraging people to at least try out a Mac like at the Apple store rather than discouraging people all together with biased opinions of why we should only be using only Windows. Anyways, great post but I'm done with the OP anyway based on his shrewish response towards me.

 

the "News" media cannot even do this anymore.. they report and put their own spin on everything to try to influence opinion... so I doubt random forum posters could do it either.

sounded more like it was learning for a possible job need down the road... in fact she may actually end up liking and working better on the Mac, as it depends a lot on the person. Worst case you can always install Windows.

except your example doesn't exist, as there are no PC that is identical. Now if your only going by the specs that are important to you... say you only care about the CPU, GPU, and Ram and nothing else... then you may find something, but a whole computer package, every detail about it... is more than the main paper specs used to put in a headline to make sales.

the sole reason you see... you dislike Macs enough your more upset that your wife may start to like them more than Windows machines and you won't ever be able to get rid of them.

Macs have been notorious about using "just good enough" GPUs and nothing high end... but DirectX support isn't up to Apple... its Windows/Xbox only because its Microsoft and they refuse to make it for any other platforms... and refuse to even license it out so others could do it themselves. OpenGL support is there, though not pushing the cutting edge... (OpenGL 3.2 right now) and without the pro-type GPUs can suffer a bit in certain situations, but overall isn't a huge deal.

How good it is for the purpose your buying it for has a huge subjective part... so whether its as good or not isn't entirely based on paper specs. There are many things in the world that look better on paper, but in reality are very much different.

 

And yet its more biased "holy war"... it just happens to be the answer that coincides with your personal bias.

Any computer will run most OS's... it's just one that Apple has an advantage in.

Saying any laptop brand is a "no-brainer" for a industry is just plain false. There are lots of considerations there and plenty of fair arguements as to which to pick unless circumstances force you into MacOS. (Price being the most obvious, but the idea that Apple does not offer a professional GPU is another.)

 

Well there is really insufficient data and requirements from the original poster so it's nearly impossible to make an informed recommendation. The landscape of notebook computers is vast and there are many factors that can influence a business, technical or emotional decision.

 

The OP had also cross posted in the WNSIB forum. for the courses listed and links to the school curriculum a PC would have been a better choice but in the end it IS the posters decision.

not to toss too continue this thread much, but 85% of the software for the robotics portion was windows only ( yes bootcamp ), and in design there was a section for FCP, but they stated Premier or Lightworks could be substituted. in my eyes the kicker was an old version of MAYA and a render app similar to MASSIVE in which a quadro GPU would have given a 5-700% boost in rendering etc as both were purely optimized fir pro level GPU's found in workstations and desktops.

 

The vast majority of this thread occurred long before the additional information and detail was supplied. That is what I was commenting on.

 

Its going to be funny when she graduates and notices that her co-workers are working on PCs. I know plenty of graphic designers and animators and they don't use Macs at all. Then I know some others that use Macs to only edit raw video footage as the PC variant is quiet yet there.


The benefit of a PC over a Mac is hardware customization. While there is some with a Mac, you can swap out a motherboard, for the newest CPU, etc. You have to purchase an entire new system to get that benefit. Even 3D model rendering for gaming is done on a PC because the hardware is far superior.

I have a 5 year old MBP (C2D), and its laggy as hell, even though I added more ram to it (it also died on me 4th battery...at $180 a pop). I loved the MBP, BUT its completely overpriced for the hardware that's in it. If a identical spec Win laptop is $800-1000, why the hell did I pay $2100 for the Mac? Could I be because the OS is $1000 plus $24.99 per update (which people are blinded by Apple to believe their OS is cheap when there is a charge for a god damn update. Yes I know there are system updates free of charge, but you pay for feature updates every year for 4 years until the next iteration of the OS is released).

Macs may have come a long way but so have PCs in the space that Macs once solely occupied.

Sent from my BlackBerry 9900 using Tapatalk

 

There is going to be far more hardware customization on the Windows side when there are 9384759834895679843756987 different companies selling 3957984379587398475987324985798327598375 different configurations for their products. Only one company sells Macs: Apple. They have about the same level of customization on their models as many other companies. The only difference is that, with Windows, if Dell isn't offering you the configuration you want at your set price, you can always go to HP, Asus, Acer, Toshiba, Lenovo, Clevo, or the billion other companies out there.

Its the same thing with Android smartphones. There are far more Android options (offering far superior hardware) out there when compared against the iPhone but there are more companies making Android smartphones whereas Apple is the only one making the iPhone.

Apple does offer the same level of hardware customization for their Macs the fulfill the needs of common consumers. They only start to fall back for gamers and people requiring work stations.

Also, Apple has always charged a higher price for their notebooks than the competition. I'm not sure why people keep bringing it up now many, many years down the line. It seems rather pointless and they don't markup all of their notebooks. Look at the MBA, it is priced competitively with other Windows ultrabooks. The RMBP sits in its own category and doesn't currently have a competitor but the 15" MBP has come a long way as well. The iMac is also competitively priced with other premium built all-in-one desktops (i.e. not the general run of the mill plastic models packing 8 year old AMD hardware).

 

Fun facts!

Number of people on earth: 7.03 × 10 ⁹
Age of the observable universe (seconds): 4.34 × 10 ¹⁷
Surface area of the earth (meters²): 5.10 × 10 ¹⁷
Number of companies selling windows hardware: 9.38 × 10 ²⁴
Diameter of the observable universe (meters): 8.80 × 10 ²⁶

Since the beginning of the observable universe, about 20 million companies selling windows hardware have been initiated each second. None of them have gone out of business - they continue to sell hardware.

Or, about 20 million companies selling windows hardware fit onto each square meter of the surface of the earth. About 70% of the earth is covered by water. No big deal.

Order of magnitude estimation is fun!

 

You know none of this as fact in terms of where the OP will be working after college. I know plenty of graphic design artists as well and more of them have Macs in their place of business. A few of them have nothing but Mac. You haven't seen as many people in the arts as you you're making it sound.

A designer is not interested in switching out hardware. That's for geeks and tinkerers. And other than a gamer, (whom falls in the line of geek/tinkerer) switching out hardware is so 1999 as most people are using laptops.

That was your choice to buy a Mac for which you refer to as "Overpriced for the hardware that's in it". You knew what you were buying. Again, that's highly subjective in terms of what you perceive as overpriced. Paying $20 (not $24.99) per year for 4 years for a MacOS upgrade (which will probably be even cheaper next year) is still far cheaper than one full copy of Windows.

"Sent from my 2007 (almost 6 years old) Macbook running Snow Leopard beautifully.

 

HLdan:

I was a graphic designer for 7 Years, and now been a character animator for 2 years. I am REALLY interested in changing hardware. Every day the app gets more demanding because of new tools, and software. So i really want to change or upgrade my current i7 CPU to an extreme core i7. If i had a mac, or any other windows system that has everything soldered i couldn't do that at all. Infact i think every designer wants to have the possibility of hardware upgrade. Thats my perspective.

Thats why I am no longer using a mac. I think a dell precision or an hp elite book offers so much in that area. You get a Business class GPU that is optimised for 3D Package.

 

The Dell M6700 Precision Mobile Workstation (luggable) with the Intel® Core™ i7-3920XM Extreme Proc, 17.3" UltraSharp™ FHD (1920x1080) Premier Color IPS RGB LCD, and the NVIDIA® Quadro® K5000M with 4GB GDDR5 should keep you happy for a few months.