Should mac user crossover to HP Envy desktop for After Effects and Production premium?

[Brandon Davidson]

“I haven’t worked with Envy desktops but they look like a good buy, especially that they come with a 2-year warranty. Not sure if that 3-drive RAID5 is a good idea – but then again, I haven’t worked with it.

How’s HP’s return policy on these systems? Perhaps you could get one, test the heck out of it and see if you’re happy?

If you end up getting one, please share your findings – I am very curious how it holds up.

Alex Gerulaitis”
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Thanks for the comment. If I get the computer I will let you know how my experience goes with it. On the 3 drive raid 5, I’m not very familiar with hard drives and how they work except that a raid is supposed to be redundant to help not lose data. Is there a different setup you might recommend? No worries if you’re not sure, but I just thought I might ask…

They offer the following choices for the ENVY desktop:
2TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive
2TB 7200rpm SATA RAID 0 (2 x 1TB HDD) +$50.00
2TB 7200RPM SATA RAID 5 (3 x 1TB HDD) +$50.00
2TB 7200 rpm SATA 1st hard drive plus ExpressCache HP 16GB Disk Cache SSD +$100.00
3TB 7200 rpm SATA hard drive +$100.00
2TB 7200rpm SATA RAID 1 (2 x 2TB HDD) +$100.00
3TB 7200 rpm SATA 1st hard drive plus ExpressCache HP 16GB Disk Cache SSD +$200.00
256GB Solid state drive +$200.00
4TB 7200RPM SATA RAID 5 (3 x 2TB HDD) +$300

Are they all kind of sixes in terms of speed? and just different sizes. Will the solid state drive work the fastest (but only 256GB be a little hindering)? Sorry I don’t mean to ask a million questions and expect all the answers, but if you have any thoughts I would appreciate it. Thanks.

[Brandon Davidson]

“When you upgrade, you don’t need to buy a perpetual license for the same OS that you were using before; you can buy one for another OS.”
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Thanks for the quick response. Just to clarify, if I purchase the PC perpetual license CS6 UPGRADE, I would just need to punch in the product code for my mac CS5.5 version, and it would update (or would the pc software look for the CS5.5 and say I can’t install it because it’s not on the pc computer)?

[Brandon Davidson]

Mathew Woods: “On my recommendation, our studio invested in a fancy Pro-Max One about a year ago because of no new mac pros and we have had no end of trouble with it. Its nice and fast when it works, but it has had a number of problems, has been much harder to maintain”
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That is my biggest concern by far on switching to a PC. I’ve had problems with my macs before and I expect to have problems with a PC as well, but if it’s going to be a constant hassle of problems I definitely do not want to switch. I was hoping someone might have had a chance to work with ENVY desktops in the past to see if this would be the case or not. Thanks for the input.

[Todd Kopriva]

Upgrade installations don’t look for other software on your computer to determine if the upgrade is valid. Upgrades are all about a pricing discount at the time of purchase.

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Todd Kopriva, Adobe Systems Incorporated
After Effects quality engineering
After Effects team blog
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[Brandon Davidson]

Walter Soyka: “To provide a little counterpoint, I started adding PCs to my little Mac-based studio for full-time creative work a year and a half ago when I got a Z800 from HP to evaluate in cross-platform workflows.”
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Thanks Walter. It is good to hear that you have experience with both macs and pcs and that the pc’s have been a good experience for you as well. What makes me a little nervous is I’m not terribly knowledgeable on computers and so if I run into problems I need to turn to forums and such and they turn into big headaches (which isn’t a big deal once in a while). I was wondering if the ENVY would give me lots of problems or if it would be reliable. It’s good to know at least the HP workstations work well and hopefully that would translate into their ENVY desktop as well.

[Tylor Larson]

one more thing to think about… if you are looking at HP,… look at BOXX, i have one at home and i love it… I have windows 7 64 bit installed on it… staying away from 8 until Microsoft gets there act together. it works great.. i work on Macs all day long and then come home to a PC which does get confusing. personally if i had to pick between Boxx and HP… BOXX all the way… look up some drag races between boxx and HD…. you might be shocked.

basically, i would choose the path of these resistance. if you are faster on mac, stay there… putting a different OS in the mix can gets confusing… i have learned to deal with it… again just my two cents..

Ty

[Tom Daigon]

I have a similar experience to Walter. After many years with a 2008 Mac Pro, when Apple dropped the bomb on FCP 7 I decided I had had enough of their BS.

I bought an HP Z820.When Im in the apps I cant really tell the difference between platforms. Except the PC has lots more power then the older Mac. 😀

I still use the Mac Pro for email and Internet activities. PCs are still more vulnerable to malware and viruses. So I keep the PC off the web except for updates.

I am very happy in how this setup performs for me.

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid

[Walter Soyka]

[Tom Daigon] “I still use the Mac Pro for email and Internet activities. PCs are still more vulnerable to malware and viruses. So I keep the PC off the web except for updates.”

Tom’s level of paranoia here far exceeds my own — and I normally consider myself pretty paranoid!

Unpatched Windows XP was terribly insecure, but Windows 7 has loads of security features that XP didn’t have.

My Z800 has been running connected to the Internet 24/7 since October 2011. I use it for email and web access while I’m working all the time. I haven’t had any malware or virus problems.

I left the default firewall on, and I installed Microsoft Security Essentials. That’s all I’ve needed to connect with confidence.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Walter Soyka]

[Matthew Woods] “I will admit, my response was a little knee-jerk.”

On the contrary, I think your response was totally fair — a straight account of your experience, without any of the ignorance or inflammatory emotion that usually accompanies such discussions. Would that all platform wars were so civil! 🙂

[Matthew Woods] “We have had a lot of problems with the OS though, and strange sporadic problems with it refusing to connect to file share with the macs. (It works some days but not others. The support folks at pro-max never were able to figure that out).”

I ran into some file-sharing problems, too, but I blame Apple. On 10.6.8, file sharing worked perfectly all the time. I skipped 10.7 and went straight to 10.8 — and file-sharing broke. Turns out that Apple dumped Samba [link] in favor of their own new SMB server with Lion, and it kind of doesn’t work.

Now I use and recommend SMBUp [link] to get Samba running on 10.7/10.8 Macs. File-sharing works again.

[Matthew Woods] “My thinking would be if you are in the market for an iMac, and not a mac pro, the extra money is worth it. The new iMacs are supposed to be great machines. Maybe I would think different if I used a PC every day.”

The iMac does look like a great machine. I like my machines with a bit more horsepower, so I’m holding out to see what the new Mac Pro looks like before I buy my next Mac. If it disappoints, I’ll get an iMac.

It’s not for everyone, but I’m really liking being cross-platform. Best of both worlds.

Walter Soyka
Principal & Designer at Keen Live
Motion Graphics, Widescreen Events, Presentation Design, and Consulting
RenderBreak Blog – What I’m thinking when my workstation’s thinking
Creative Cow Forum Host: Live & Stage Events

[Tom Daigon]

Walter, I think “careful” is a more appropriate word 😀

There is the need to constantly update the virus definitions on the PC.
That is not necessary on the Mac as of now.

Keeping the firewall up can interfere with the operation of some apps.
This is not an issue on the Mac.

On the PC you must be careful about opening email lest you release a worm.
You can open any email on the Mac .

I choose not to expose my PC to any more risk then necessary. 😛

Tom Daigon
PrP / After Effects Editor
http://www.hdshotsandcuts.com
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DxPrG3WUyz8
(Best viewed at 1080P and full screen)
HP Z820 Dual 2687
64GB ram
Dulce DQg2 16TB raid