Jump Ship to a Windows System?

[Al Bergstein]

I’ve done the jump, and have a few thoughts based on my experience:

[Mike Squires]

Yes, that system will be able to run two monitors.

I made the jump from Mac to PC last year, haven’t regretted it at all.

Since CS6 on Windows can import ProRes, it isn’t an issue for me in the least. DXnHD is more than enough.

If you really don’t need to export to ProRes, I say sell the Mac, and use that money for the PC or any extra gear you may need.

Also, stick to Windows 7, don’t go to Windows 8. Win7 is very stable.

[Richard Floyd-walker]

[Alex Udell] “Having the Mac around may be useful just from the access to Write ProRes as necessary…”

True. But at 27 inches its a hell of a big dongle for a single codec.

Though truthfully I don’t have any Apple Pro Apps Installed so I don’t even have access to Prores now. If I keep the Mac it will be because I like the OSX environment and also to be able to keep the Windows machine as an editing only machine.

[Richard Floyd-walker]

[Al Bergstein] “I’ve done the jump, and have a few thoughts based on my experience:
Be cautious about low priced Windows towers. Some don’t have the workstation level expansion slots or power supplies needed for the full length twin slot graphics cards we often need. You may find that you actually need a tower that, while less expensive than the Mac Pros, is still not cheap. I doubt that you can really get a comparable machine in a Windows tower for less than $1400, and depending on RAM, maybe not less than $2k

Look at your workflow with partners. If you consistently work with folks on Macs, handing off for color, etc. This may end up being penny wise and pound foolish. I work solo, after shooting. If I ever need pro color work, I still have a Mac around and could, if need be, export the whole thing to the Mac.

My experience, trying to convert on the Mac, a simple 16 minute project, with only titles, and dissolves, was that the XML FCP > Pr did not work. I would have still have had to do a ton of work on it. I decided to keep my Macpro in case I ever have to actually re-edit this (unlikely), but my assumption is that when the time comes, I’ll simply re-edit the whole thing in Pr. Not an optimal solution, but the project probably could be made better by doing it. Not many out there would agree to do that.
There are still issues you will need to resolve with Mac formatted disks. I’m now using MacDrive to use the Apple formatted disks without reformatting them.

Look at all your utilities. There may be some that are show stopper for you. I had a hard time finding a decent DVD label printer (I print low volume runs on my Epson Artisan), but eventually did find one I liked as much as my Mac version. The company that made the Mac version did not make a Windows 7 64 version.”

Thanks for your thoughts Al

They are all very valid and have been things that I have been considering for a while now.

The machine I’m looking is, what I feel, is a good compromise between budget and expandability. I spent more time checking motherboard specs than anything else for this system and though the hardware is based on the consumer level 1155 socket. It does pack a wallop.

If my budget was up there with Mac Pros and Z820’s then I feel that I would be asking a very different set of questions.

However, if you consider that I am actually upgrading from a 3 year old iMac even a low budget gaming PC would an increase in expandability over a newer iMac.

I shoot and edit and finish my own work but, even though I get paid for some of it, I would not consider myself a professional. My market is small, niche, local and web based. My workload is increasing steadily, but I don’t want to simply throw money into equipment and put undue pressure onto my bottom line. “Slowly, Slowly, catchy Monkey” as the saying goes.

What this is really about is that I don’t want to have to make this jump further down the road when I’m even further entrenched in the Mac workflow and find the change even more disruptive. I don’t know where Apple is going and even though I love their products, their consumer level machines can’t match what I need at what I can afford to pay and I can’t justify the expense of a pro level workstation on either side of the fence.

Again I’d like to thank everyone for their input. I’m glad this hasn’t turned into an Apple vs. PC war which has happened on a couple of other forums. I am definitely moving over to a PC. Though I’ve also decided to keep my old iMac for now. No point in burning bridges is there.

[Walter Biscardi]

[Richard Floyd-Walker] “But my original question was will there be a substantial difference in my experience with After Effects and Premiere CS6 an i7 Ivybridge machine with an Nvidia GTX 560 Ti over a 2009 iMac i5 nehalem with a ATI Radeon HD 4850. “

Well, any jump in horsepower from what you’re using today to a newer machine will result in a substantial difference. I’ve been replacing our older 8 core Mac Pros with new 27″ iMacs and they are running rings around the older machines. We went with the 32GB RAM kit from OWC and I put the fastest processor they have. The new quad processors are going to be even better.

So just upgrade to any new machine and you’ll see a jump in your performance.

We recently installed and have been running a Dell PC alongside all of our Macs. While it’s a good, solid machine, we find it more clunky than the Mac quite honestly. We’re have a lot of codec issues when moving projects between Mac and Windows. As someone else noted, ProRes export is gone unless we purchase the Calibrated Software plug-in. I already had to purchase the Calibrated Software XDCAM QT plug-in because PC can’t read those files. XDCAM native, sure, but not when we receive QTs.

You can visit my blog and look up Dell and iMac to see all the articles I’ve been posting on there regarding our installations, trials and tribulations, etc…. https://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“This American Land” – our new PBS Series.

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Posts by walterbiscardi

[Richard Floyd-walker]

[walter biscardi] “Well, any jump in horsepower from what you’re using today to a newer machine will result in a substantial difference. I’ve been replacing our older 8 core Mac Pros with new 27” iMacs and they are running rings around the older machines. We went with the 32GB RAM kit from OWC and I put the fastest processor they have. The new quad processors are going to be even better.

So just upgrade to any new machine and you’ll see a jump in your performance.

We recently installed and have been running a Dell PC alongside all of our Macs. While it’s a good, solid machine, we find it more clunky than the Mac quite honestly. We’re have a lot of codec issues when moving projects between Mac and Windows. As someone else noted, ProRes export is gone unless we purchase the Calibrated Software plug-in. I already had to purchase the Calibrated Software XDCAM QT plug-in because PC can’t read those files. XDCAM native, sure, but not when we receive QTs.

You can visit my blog and look up Dell and iMac to see all the articles I’ve been posting on there regarding our installations, trials and tribulations, etc…. https://www.biscardicreative.com/blog/

Walter Biscardi, Jr.
Editor, Colorist, Director, Writer, Consultant, Author, Chef.
HD Post and Production
Biscardi Creative Media

“This American Land” – our new PBS Series. “

Thanks for that Walter. What a great and informative blog. A real joy to read.
A friend of mine has now sold me her 2011 27 inch, 3.4GHz, i7 iMac because she just has to have the newer model. So my original question is now redundant.
However, I now have 2 iMacs.
Can ask you how you would go about harnessing a second iMac in a CS6 workflow.
My first thought would be to set up a network and use watch folders to have one Mac rendering while I continue working on the other. Is this a realistic approach or are there other ways to take advantage of another imac.
Or I could just sell it.

Best Regards

Rick

[Walter Soyka]

[Richard Floyd-Walker] “Can ask you how you would go about harnessing a second iMac in a CS6 workflow. My first thought would be to set up a network and use watch folders to have one Mac rendering while I continue working on the other. Is this a realistic approach or are there other ways to take advantage of another imac. Or I could just sell it.”

Watch-folder rendering is an After Effects feature, but it’s extremely disk- and network-intensive. You could certainly try it, but I think it may be more trouble than it’s worth.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
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