DarkSpartan Posted October 7, 2006 Share Posted October 7, 2006 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I really am in over my head as far as Macs go and I'm tired of getting advice from PC guys about this. Here's my situation and dilemma. I've decided to take my hobby of design and turn it into my career. I'm enrolled in a Web Design course with a concentration in Graphic Design. Being dead serious about all this I decided to buy a computer that will not only get me through school but still be a powerhouse for my business after I graduate. I've always been a PC user but I know the "trend" in design is to use Macs for whatever reason. Not feeling the need to buck the system I decided to go with a Mac. Also I felt that it could only make me a better designer knowing both Macs and PCs. I ordered a Mac Pro with the following specs; Two 2.66GHz Dual-Core Xeons 2GB Ram 500GB HD ATI X1900 XT 512MB Airport/Bluetooth combo Here's the pickle...My Mac showed up yesterday. Coming from a PC I had a hard time trying to figure things out but no big deal, I just have to get use to it. Everything was fine till I stumbled on this thing called "Rosetta". Ugh....95% of what I will be working in is Adobe software and all the reviews about Rosetta and Photoshop CS / Illustrator are pretty scary. I talked to Apple and they are willing to give me a 100% refund on the system. So here's my question. Is my Mac Pro using Rosetta still a better / faster option than a Dell XPS 700 with like specs? I read a statement by Adobe saying Intel Mac owners will have to wait till the new release of universal software and there will be no patch. So it looks like if I keep my Mac I'll be using Rosetta for over a year. I'd like to hear the opinions of some Mac users on what I should do. I know once universal applications show up this thing will be smoking but it will also be a year to two years old. I feel like I bought a gimped system that will be outdated before I can ever even use it to full potential. So is Rosetta in Adobe suite on par with an XPS 700 at least? I know once Adobe comes out with a native version the MP will smoke it, I'm just concered about the time between. Thanks in advance- Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jgrimes80 Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Well, like you said once Adobe releases a native verion... it'll be smoking... OR When parallels annouces 3d support for virtualization... OR If Lepoard comes out with a built-in "Crossover" like setup... For the time being, you can always run the Adobe suite under XP (assuming you had it on your previous pc) and be smoking till then. Otherwise, it'll be lagging (as it was in my experiences) -jgrimes80 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
asap18 Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 stay with the mac pro except use photoshop under windows in boot camp. the mac pro owns the xps 700 and you will eventually be able to upgrade the processors to kentsfields. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 well, it won't be running as fast as possible, but in an article i just read in Macworld they compared photoshop running on a 2.66 mac pro and a dual 1.42 power mac g4. the results were about the same in both. so basically, it should be fast enough on a mac pro to use without problem. when a universal version comes out, you'll be flying, but til then you'd have to settle for "good" performance. and you could always use bootcamp and use photoshop on xp for now. as far as being outdated, i don't see that happening. most mac systems will run a long time and still perform quickly. people still use the old emacs all the time, i don't think a mac pro will become outdated too quick. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Swad Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Welcome to the Forum! A lot of us have been in your shoes, being new to Macs - it's not easy making the switch, especially when you can't figure out how to use some things you really need. Check out Boot Camp: http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/ It'll allow you to run XP on your machine and all your Adobe apps at full speed (which is really fast on a Mac Pro) just like a regular PC. Then you can boot back into OS X for everything else. BTW, it'll probably be less than a year for the Adobe stuff. We should know a lot more in January at a big conference known as MacWorld. In the meantime, let us know if you need any more help! -Mash Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DarkSpartan Posted October 8, 2006 Author Share Posted October 8, 2006 Thanks for the input. I decided to keep the Mac Pro for a number of reasons, including many you guys mentioned here. Thanks for the welcome to the community! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rollcage Posted October 8, 2006 Share Posted October 8, 2006 Thanks for the input. I decided to keep the Mac Pro for a number of reasons, including many you guys mentioned here. Thanks for the welcome to the community! Congrats on the decision! If you help/advice with anything, remember this forum, we'll be happy to help. You may want to check out this site: http://www.switchingtomac.com/training.html It has video tutorials on OSX, and the iLife suite. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aberracus Posted October 20, 2006 Share Posted October 20, 2006 i myself do graphic designer for living an use adobe products a lot, yes now they work in rosseta, but in may Conroe or your mac pro its really fast, theres no problem to work in it really. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sycros Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 in Macworld they compared photoshop running on a 2.66 mac pro and a dual 1.42 power mac g4 Huh?! 1.42 vs 2.66? That's a pretty big difference to compare. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBK.Xscape Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 yea at my school all they have all emacs and the blueberry imacs, its fun to play around with them Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bluedragon1971 Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 Huh?! 1.42 vs 2.66? That's a pretty big difference to compare. Remember that you cannot directly compare processor frequencies between different architectures. A dual 1.42Ghz G4 was, and still is, a great machine for running Photoshop, and they are still used in many production houses to this day. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GBK.Xscape Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 yea its kinda wierd for a lil while computers where getting really high frequencies but were not that fast. my 3 year old desktop at home is 2.53 ghz pentium 4 with 512 ram is slow compared to my 2.16 ghz c2d. the latop has more ram but its still wierd Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Colonel Posted December 13, 2006 Share Posted December 13, 2006 n Macworld they compared photoshop running on a 2.66 mac pro and a dual 1.42 power mac g4 I'm not surprised. Rosetta translates at the speed of a PowerMac G4 so it would make sense to compare the Mac Pro to a PowerMac G4. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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