After Effects CS3 on Leopard or Vista

[Daniel Capener]

Well, OSX doesn’t take as much computing power to run as Vista does. I am not a Mac person, but i have to give it to Apple this time, their operating system is a lot better than Microsoft’s.

The problems with Vista is that Microsoft has tried to copy ideas from Apple and incorporate them into Vista, and yes they have done it, but now very well. Vista needs a massive super computer run well on and then if you add CS3 on top, and running multiple CS3 applications at once is going to slow down your computer and work rate unless your running something like Quad Core Extreme with like 4GB of RAM or something stupid like that and were not made of money!

I Run Windows XP and would suggest sticking with that, if you’re wanting a Windows based system.

The reasons I give it to Apple this time is because well, due to their operating systems being based on Unix, which doesn’t need as much computing power to do things, that is why OS X Tiger and Leopard run so smoothly and basically never freeze up. Their operating system incorporates ease of use and professionalism together, which makes up a superb operating system.

What i would suggest doing is running something like a 20″ iMac with a decent spec on it and then having an fast external hard drive plugged in, which will take the strain off your internal hard drive and speed things up because the internal hard drive will only have to cope with the operating system and the programs your running, whilst you can run your footage and project files off your external hard drive.

The one major thing you have to consider is what sort of stuff you are going to be doing with CS3, i suggest you are going to be using After Effects because you posted in this forum!

And if you are handling video, is it Standard Definition or High Definition? because High Definition will need a faster computer to handle the large files smoothly.

At the moment i am running XP with CS3 and i am handling 1080i footage which is rather large! which my computer struggles with in After Effects. I don’t really like Macs that much but i am seriously considering getting a mac for my next computer upgrade, because of the fact that Microsoft have really done a CR*P job with Vista and that OS X runs so smoothly and doesn’t even need that much computing power to run it.

I would suggest doing a lot of research before making your final decision on what you think would best suit you.

Just remember its not what CS3 will work best on, its what will suit you and your needs best.

Regards,
Daniel Capener, Manchester, United Kingdom

[Sam Rose]

Hi
Thanks for all that information.

That’s very helpful. I currently use an external hard drive for footage etc. and it works well. I think I will choose mac.

Thanks for your help