I need some advice on buying a Mac

[Richard_Marklew]

@theyesfish

I’ve just done some basic calculations when it comes to rendering animations. I worked out on the lowest settings with raytracing turned off relatively simple 10 minute scene at 640x480 on my laptop would take

24 fps x
60 seconds x
10 minutes x
(lets assume 4 seconds to render 1 frame) /
60 seconds to an hour /
24 hours in a day = 40 days

Nearly two months of non-stop rendering. AAAAHAHAHAHAAHAHA I’m scared. So disregard my last post, you need a really fast machine.

Maybe you should learn how many seconds are in an hour. Your example comes out at 16 hrs not 40 days.

Richard

[blenderman345]

@pine

And forget about the price issue when talking 8-core. 8-core PCs will cost the same as the Mac if not more… (with the same specs)

Anyways,

no computer or component will last a decade. And when using Blender on Mac remember that it’s far from perfect still. The biggest concern is that it’s 32-bit only, but it seems as if this is about to change though =) Which is nice.

Cheers,
-mats

Wanna bet that a computer can’t last for a decade?"
I got one running for 6 years and it’s still in stupendous condition.
Fedora 10, fresh install yesterday, messing around since then.
Fedora is awesome.
I have a Macbook Pro, with Leopard, and it’s pretty fast compared to every Windows PC I’ve EVER seen in my life. But its only got 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD.

Since it looks like your willing to afford it,

Go for it.

[pine]

Wanna bet that a computer can’t last for a decade?"
I got one running for 6 years and it’s still in stupendous condition.
Fedora 10, fresh install yesterday, messing around since then.
Fedora is awesome.
I have a Macbook Pro, with Leopard, and it’s pretty fast compared to every Windows PC I’ve EVER seen in my life. But its only got 2 GB RAM, 160 GB HD.

Since it looks like your willing to afford it,

Go for it.

Oh, I’m sure it can physically last - but I really meant that the specs won’t. I have a 120 MHz Pentium Pc from 1996 still running, but I think I won’t use it for 3d work

Cheers
-mats

[theyesfish]

XD lol I didn’t account for the minutes. Thanks for pointing that out, that was crazy.

[blenderman345]

@pine

Oh, I’m sure it can physically last - but I really meant that the specs won’t. I have a 120 MHz Pentium Pc from 1996 still running, but I think I won’t use it for 3d work

Cheers
-mats

Actually, it still clocks at 3.2 Ghz. I use for Blender. I added some to the 512 MB RAM to make it 2.5 GB RAM, and it has a 70 GB HDD. So, unless I wanted some more Disk space, which I haven’t found a need for yet,
This one still standing.
(Of course, I did have a 1997 computer that has 400MHz Proccesor, that one would still be standing if I hadn’t dissasembled it. I did that cuz the guy who gave it to me said it was useless junk. (I installed Windows XP on it and used it for some time, then when I got my Mac ( this is in late '07) I took it apart and let it rot in the basement next to my also dissasembled 2001 900 MHz computer. (I attempted re-assembling the 900 Mhz one today… another thread in Off Topic)

[blenderman345]

@blenderman345

Actually, it still clocks at 3.2 Ghz. I use for Blender. I added some to the 512 MB RAM to make it 2.5 GB RAM, and it has a 70 GB HDD. So, unless I wanted some more Disk space, which I haven’t found a need for yet,
This one still standing.
(Of course, I did have a 1997 computer that has 400MHz Proccesor, that one would still be standing if I hadn’t dissasembled it. I did that cuz the guy who gave it to me said it was useless junk. (I installed Windows XP on it and used it for some time, then when I got my Mac ( this is in late '07) I took it apart and let it rot in the basement next to my also dissasembled 2001 900 MHz computer. (I attempted re-assembling the 900 Mhz one today… another thread in Off Topic)

Oh yeah, I forgot to say, the specs are still lasting.

[j11 (j)]

hmm. can anyone throw in some small and pretty Silicon Graphics computer solution,
could be an option, if them have kept making small graphics computers. Some SGI machines
were great in hardware and chasing real nice too, lol I remember this one that looked like
modern vacuum cleaner. I am talking of small computers now… I do remember at somepoint
pixar and such finding it cheaper to use loads of linux computers for rendering instead of
expensive Sgi machines, or was it Pixar… not quite sure.

[ai-yo]

Regardless of render performance, how about the whole “user experience.” I don’t mean OSX in general, but Blender specific. How well does Blender’s custom UI fit with OSX? I’m not that familiar with the Mighty Mouse. Will it work similarly to a 3-button/mousewheel mouse on Linux or Windows? Anything else I should be aware of before thinking about using an iMac for Blender?

Again, I’m not too concerned with performance right now. Based on render benchmarks I’ve seen, even a slow iMac will be 5x faster than the circa-2002 machine I’ve got under my desk right now!

    Thanks!

[Linkeltje]

@ai-yo

Regardless of render performance, how about the whole “user experience.” I don’t mean OSX in general, but Blender specific. How well does Blender’s custom UI fit with OSX? I’m not that familiar with the Mighty Mouse. Will it work similarly to a 3-button/mousewheel mouse on Linux or Windows? Anything else I should be aware of before thinking about using an iMac for Blender?

Again, I’m not too concerned with performance right now. Based on render benchmarks I’ve seen, even a slow iMac will be 5x faster than the circa-2002 machine I’ve got under my desk right now!

    Thanks!

From what I understand, it is no problem to connect a good third party PC mouse to a Mac. I’ve had more then one report that you might be better of with another mouse. But if it is possible at all to use the mighty mouse for Blender, I do not know. Maybe someone else can shine some light on this matter.

An iMac will be also a lot faster then my 2000 PC but I want to do again as long as possible with the new one. I’m was not kidding when I said I wanted to use it for a decade. Lucky enough I’m not always seeking the limits of computer powers. But I will try to explore the new creative possibilities that will be within reach when my computer is a tad faster.

Thanks again everybody for your tips on the new hardware!