PC to Mac & Lightroom

jlipkin · #15 12-24-2007, 02:02 AM

With applecare, you can bring to a store or mail in - they'll send you a pre-paid fedex box for your machine. One time I sent a laptop in for repair and had it back in my hands the next day. Pretty amazing considering it went to Taiwan and back. Seriously.

I agree with previous posts on other issues. I'm running LR on a 2g G5 with about 5g ram (can't remember off the top of my head). Seems most speed issues I have now are with drive access not memory or cpu.

Noel_Carboni · #16 12-24-2007, 09:09 AM

On small thing: I bought the MacBook with 2GB of RAM, and intend to upgrade to 4GB myself. As of the price structure 2 weeks ago it's $600 cheaper to do it that way!!!

-Noel

Ken Little · #17 12-24-2007, 11:18 AM

Thanks Jonathon and Noel for the feedback. Where is the best place to find RAM (the right kind) for the Apple. As I mentioned, I would like to upgrade the 2GB to 4GB, so, I would need two 2GB sticks. It's ashamed to have two 1 GB sticks that will just be set aside. I wish I could sell them somewhere to offset my cost for the 4GB. Wishful thinking I guess, unless I go the Ebay option.

While I'm asking, does anybody know the best place to buy Windows XP Pro? My son is in school and I can probably get an education discount. XP Pro was installed on my existing computer, so I don't have a disk.

Another question is: Does one have to reboot to run Windows in Boot Camp? I can't imagine doing this just to run Windows. If this is the case, I may want to run Fusion or Parallels. Plus, I want to make sure all my USB connections work right, as I have a lot of daisy-chaining going on here, with several 4 port USB hubs hanging off my existing computer, three of which are external hard drives. I'm opening a can of worms here. VMware's Fusion or Parallels? I've heard Fusion has been around longer probably runs faster and both are priced about the same.

As always, thanks for all the GREAT advice! I hope this thread becomes helpful to anyone making the jump from PC to Mac. Hopefully, I'm keeping this thread on course.

- Ken

Ken Little · #18 12-24-2007, 11:24 AM

For those considering a move such as mine, I wanted to throw out a cost estimate to show what I am considering to make the move. Also, consider that I would be buying another computer anyway, so one has to consider not just the price, but the cost difference between the Mac notebook option to a 4GB RAM Windows machine option with a large display. Here goes:

MacBook Pro (2.2Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm, 15" Gloss WS

Ken Little · #19 12-24-2007, 11:38 AM

Sorry about not continuing the last post. I hit spacebar a number of times to input the price and it prematurely posted my post. Once again:

For those considering a move such as mine, I wanted to throw out a cost estimate to show what I am considering to make the move. Also, consider that I would be buying another computer anyway, so one has to consider not just the price, but the cost difference between the Mac notebook option to a 4GB RAM Windows machine option with a large display. Here goes:

MacBook Pro (2.2Ghz, 2 GB RAM, 120GB 5400rpm, 15" Gloss WS $2,000
23" Apple Cinema Display $ 900
4GB RAM $260
3-Year Applecare for MacBook Pro $340
VMware Fusion $ 80
Windows XP Pro $250
Total: $3,830

Of course, those with Windows XP disks already can shave that expense off. Additionally, if I can somehow swing an education discount (my daughter and son are in high school), then more money can be deducted on hardware and software purchases. Any ideas on where to purchase these items would be most helpful! I typically have purchased most my camera equipment at B&H, which is where some of these quotes came from. I do have an Apple Retail store here in Birmingham (finally!). Anyway, maybe this thread can serve as a template for others hoping to make the leap from Windows to Mac!

Well, there goes the purchase of any camera equipment for 2008! But, hopefully, I will finally have a computer that I can use to vastly improve my workflow over my Pentium 4, 512K RAM HP Pavillion Notebook!

Thanks again to all responders! - Ken

Noel_Carboni · #20 12-24-2007, 09:51 PM

See if Mac Connection will be willing to pre-configure a VMWare/Windows system for you (or is offering one as such) as they did for me. The pair of packages (Fusion/Vista) added less than $200 to the price of the Macbook I bought from them. I'm guessing the OEM versions of the software don't cost the system builders anywhere NEAR what the retail versions cost us. And I got CDs for both packages in the box.

-Noel

jlipkin · #21 12-24-2007, 10:23 PM

1. I've always bought my memory from transintl.com. Very good tech support, prices and quick shipping.
2. Try buying your software from journeyed.com. They give education discounts.

One last thing. Be sure to check out:

Mac Buyer's Guide: Know When to Buy Your Mac, iPod or iPhone

They post how far along a product is in the product cycle, compared to the average number of days before an update/new product is released. The MacBook Pro, for instance, is rated Don't Buy. It typically is updated every 183 days, and there have been 203 days since the last update. Then again, if you need a new Mac now, you should probably buy based on your current needs, rather than a slight speed bump in the near future.

BTW: my post above should have read a 2GHZ G5. When I went from 3.5 to 5.5 g of ram, I could see some slight improvement in LR. Not a whopping one, but noticeable. I'm using an external RAID via FW for images, which may be a bit of a speed bottleneck. The library is stored on the internal drive, and the speed issues I'm having are related to building thumbnails scrolling in grid view, which I believe is a drive read issue, not so much a processor issue.

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