Pc or mac advice please best setup

Delanie

Hi folks, I want to get back involved in the 3d art graphics world and lets just say it's been a number of years since I did any.

My desktop which i used to use is a P4 running xp and as such it's a bit long in the tooth as it were.

Well what I would like your advice on is if I had the money what would be the optimum set up for a home user.

I have had someone suggest a mac g5 or a setup from alienware but i am not sure. I have never owned a mac would there be any problems especially since i have all my daz downloads under windows and i don't fancy purchasing them again.

any advice would be useful even if it was just pointers to where I could find good reviews etc.

Many thanks

Susanna

Richard Haseltine

DAZ content is cross-platform - and with the new DAZ Install Manager you get the same zip for both platforms. At worst, if you wanted installers rather than the DIM, you would need to reset and redownload your content (though you could just copy the installed files from the Windows machine). Applications likewise are cross-platform where there is a Mac version - mostly true for DAZ products, but there are exceptions, and applications from other publishers may require a new purchase or an upgrade/sdiegrade to get a Mac version.

Machieltje

If you're allready used to windows I'd stick with it besides you'd probably buy more power for less when you get a windows box. Me, I got myself an Alienware Aurora awhile back (my second Alienware) and while I bought it mostly for gaming it also works pretty well for rendering. Of course Alienware has a rather...destinct look you either love or hate (me likes pwetty lights) but then so do the macs...

Coon Ra

An Intel (or AMD) based PC is a more scalable system than any mac ever presented. My current PC config is Asus P9X79 WS motherboard, i7-3930K@4250mHz cpu, Zotac gtx 580 amp2! 3gb + Zotac gtx 580 3gb + PoV gtx 580 3gb, 32 gb 4-ch Geil memory, 1350 wt Thermaltake PSU, system/soft 240 gb sata III ssd, temp/swap 128 gb sata III ssd, storage 2 tb sata III hdd, AeroCool Strike-X ST, all aircooled, Win 7 64 pro. And it costs less than entry level Mac Pro. Anytime I would need it I can add 4 more nvidia gtx 680 or titan video cards with pcie expanders to use with my copy of octane (or arion or luxrender or whatever gpu render) at full available performance of single workstation (for now my current rig is enough for me). In case you prefer cpu render over gpu render you may have dual socket workstation mobo with two eight-core xeons or 12-core opterons (depends on your preferences) in your pc that is still cheaper than an entry level mac pro.
Elder daz products windows installers work on windows 7 without hassle in my case but someday I could not make work mac installers of 2003-2006 on supplied mac with os X 10.5.