makepeace wrote
Well then you're missing the point. People have put a lot of time and energy into determining the 'random bits and pieces', and ultimately the end product is far more attractive than to spend 6 grand on a shiny box (no offence Frodo, if I had the money, I'd buy one ?). You're hardly paying for the hardware. Anyway, Mac started using Intel processors ages ago; Mac OS is designed to work well with i3,5,7.
points:
-its satisfying to build something yourself
-its unique
-its customization is almost unlimited
-its cheaper (about 50%)
-it has the potential to be better
-garage-band isn't a solution
-its not hard work at all if you have the right information, and its definitively less work than its worth
Either way you still have to buy Logic though, which is pretty expensive I hear.. But I guess any professional quality DAW would be.
Anyway, I really don't care. I'm just playing devil's advocate. I do think though that its imprudent to be dismissive.
I spent large portions of my youth building custom PCs so I have a very solid idea of how much fun it can be, and also how frustrating it can be, thanks very much. Perhaps it's imprudent to assume things about other peoples' experiences and motivations, when you don't know them at all?
You can't make assumptions about what is more or less satisfying for different people. Once upon a time I felt as you describe above: I didn't want an off-the-shelf solution, I wanted to be in control of all my components etc. These days my perspective is different: I'd much rather spend my time recording music with my "music recording PC" than tinkering with drivers, hardware and compatibility issues. Neither perspective is "correct" or "better", they're just different.
The OP said:
I want to set up something basic, but that at least works well.
A basic little Mac fits that requirement well, as does a Windows PC within his R5k or so budget. A Hackintosh does not. A Linux box probably doesn't either. Not because the latter two options can't work, but because there are legal issues around one (and obviously not everyone cares about that) and complexity issues around both. If the OP is up for that, then that's cool, it's his decision, but he should be aware of what he's getting himself into, which was what my original response to you was about regarding the Mac EULA.
You don't
have to buy Logic on your Mac, as I stated before Reaper works fine, and otherwise you also have Logic Express (as well as Garageband which is free with the Mac). On Windows you'd HAVE to spend at least some money on a DAW, unless you look open source.
makepeace wrote
And plus, I don't know what you're going on about regarding the 'experience'. Its about the functionality of a combination of hardware and software of one system versus another. I'll put money on the fact that if you asked every single person that has ever tried to do anything audio related on a computer, the percentile of those who prefer Mac + Logic will be far greater than that of the other operating systems and their corresponding software put together.
You've answered your own question, I think? The experience of using a Mac is somewhat different to that of a Windows or Linux machine, and people have their preferences. Apple actually markets the "experience" (and please note, again, the double-quotes) as part of their campaign to drive users to Mac. My point is that buying separate PC components, and then having to dig around on the web to create a Hackintosh, is not exactly what the whole Mac "experience" is about. The idea is to buy an off-the-shelf solution that has an OS that is designed to work well with a fairly narrow range of supported components (compared to Windows, which has to cope with a much wider abstraction of underlying hardware) and that includes good bundled software out of the box. That was how I understood the original post, so that's why I recommended it.
Sharonzaz's final point about it being some work to set up a Hackintosh sums things up well. As long as the OP knows what he might be in for, that's cool, and that's all I was trying to point out.
As for Macs being expensive, for the past few years that has been debatable. There are times when they are well priced (which I believe the Mac Minis are) and times when they are expensive (the current Macbook Pro lineup, where the last generation or so had better spec for the money). However, you need to take into account OS costs and bundled software costs (most people recommending build-your-own PCs often forget to include Windows licensing at the very least), and once you do that things level out a bit. You are, obviously, still paying a premium for all the snazzy design bits, but it's not always obvious what that premium is.
One caution I will add for the OP is that if you buy a Mac, the upgradeability is not great. A Mac mini, aside from a RAM upgrade and possibly a hard disk upgrade, is not going to be very customisable. For me that's fine since I prefer to buy completely new stuff every couple of years rather than upgrade and older platform, but it is a consideration.
@Majestik, sorry, I had to remove the word sh!t from your posts because my work proxy server wouldn't let me view the page otherwise. ?
