Should I get a Mac for Graphic Design?

...why a $3,000 mac is any better than a $2,600 alienware(?)

Because you can run the Mac OS instead of Windows on it, and not be plagued by all the disadvantages of using Windows.

why a $3,000 mac is any better than a $2,600 alienware.

Very simple:

If you are working in graphic arts or media production or anything along those lines, Mac OS X is light years ahead of Windows in efficiently handling the large files that are inherent to those lines of work. The MBP will simply not get bogged down as easily in large projects. OS X is much more efficient and feels much "lighter" (for lack of a better description) when operating in these environments. I did some lightweight editing work on Windows machines a few years back and they felt like dogs despite having the latest hardware. In contrast, G4 Macs running OS X (at the time) didn't get bogged down as easily.

Add that to all the other benefits to using OS X (stability, security, compatibility, ad infinitum) and I can't imagine any reason why any sane person would pay more than $1000 for a PC. As soon as you get higher than that price point a Mac makes infinitely more sense, especially in your line of work.

You can run Windows on it, but who would want to? Your college will almost definitely have volume licenses of the relevant applications for your studies, in both Mac OS X and Windows versions. Try to stay away from Windows and you will be a happier graphic arts student, guaranteed.

If you have any questions about the switch, don't hesitate; that's why we're here.

--Travis

You most DEFINITELY should. Not only are macs far superior than PCs when running the Adobe Creative Suite and QuarkXpress, but most importantly they render color more accurately and PCs and you'll be using Macs for pretty much the extent of your career as a designer.

Well, I'm not exactly in the graphic design field... I'm actually a senior biotechnology student (which, admittedly is probably graphic design's polar opposite) but I have done some amateur editing work through school and almost everyone uses Macs except a few (stubborn!) people who simply will not listen to reason.

I'd recommend talking to an academic advisor at your college about your major though; they should be very willing to discuss the opportunities in the field and what will be required in the program. Get to know these people, or a specific person in your field that you can come back to routinely! They are (and will become more so as you go along) instrumental to your success in any post-secondary institution.

Oh and I was wondering if there is a command prompt, task manager or any sort of thing like that, and is there anything I should know so I can become more familiar with a mac?

There is a command prompt, being that Mac OS X is built on Unix. However, it will not work the same way as you would expect a DOS (or later, Windows) command prompt to work. The commands will not be the same. I don't have (really) any knowledge of command prompts, despite being what I would describe as a fairly "prosumer" user who knows a thing or two more than the average person would. It really is not necessary in OS X, at all.

Same thing for a "task manager". I'm not sure what purpose you would have for one of those? The Dock in OS X functions as an application launcher and allows you to monitor running applications, and quit them.

All in all, the Mac is much more intuitive than Windows (IMHO) and so there is not much to really explain to most people. You seem to be fairly knowledgeable (or savvy) with computers off the bat so I doubt you would have much trouble (if any at all). The basic concepts are all the same across the platforms because Microsoft stole all the basic ideas a couple decades ago. I'd recommend taking a look through Apple's Mac OS X pages at http://www.apple.com/macosx

What kind of programs would I use for graphic design so maybe I could try them out on my mac once I get it.

Basically any program that you could use in Windows in this field has either a Macintosh version or a Macintosh equivalent. Photoshop is obviously the big one but there are others. I don't know much specifically about these applications (Photoshop is all I've really used) but rest assured that there will be applications for your purposes. Perhaps there are other, more knowledgeable posters who can chime in on this matter.

is there anything that I can do to increase the battery life other than not running it on the NVIDIA video card and lowering the brightness? I heard of battery cycling?

Not really. The 9600M GT and the display are probably the two largest battery draws in the machine. So, unless you are doing 3D rendering, the 9400M is probably the better choice. When you need to do renders, you'll probably have the machine on a desk plugged in anyway, so you can activate the 9600M GT without having to worry about battery life. You'll find that the MBP display is quite bright; even in daylight conditions I rarely run mine at maximum brightness. At school when I need battery life I don't find it inconvenient to run it at 1 bar of brightness either. Of course, calibrating the battery on a regular basis will provide you with a more accurate readout of the remaining battery capacity, but will not actually increase battery life.

Any more questions? Feel free to keep them coming, and I apologize for the length here.

--Travis

Rudy,

The question is not whether you should get a Mac specifically for graphic design (you undoubtedly should, if that's the direction you take in life), but whether or not you should get a Mac regardless of the field you study.

Almost everyone here will say yes, you should. The only reason I could think of that one would not want to get a Mac over any other PC is if that computer will be used exclusively for gaming. Note that I say "exclusively." I say this because any Macbook Pro will run any game- Windows or Mac- acceptably at the very least. It might not run those games as well as a machine configured specifically for that purpose, but it will run them nonetheless.

If one expects to do anything other than run games on one's computer, the Mac almost instantly becomes more desirable. OS X is just that much better than Windows for every other task, not to mention the fact that it does not require any anti-virus or anti-malware software.

Also, any true comparison between a Mac and your generic "Alienware" PC must take into account all of the specifications and particulars of the two machines. Regardless of the Alienware processor's clock speed, is it the latest Intel T9600/9800? Regardless of the size of its display, does it have 1920 X 1200 resolution and LED backlighting? Regardless of the amount of RAM in it, is that RAM DDR3, or the much slower (and older) DDR2? Does it provide anywhere close to the same battery life as the Macbook Pro? Backlit keyboard? Multi-touch trackpad? The list goes on and on.

These are the questions you should be asking, if you want to compare the relative costs of the two machines. And, I haven't even mentioned all of the built-in functionality provided by OS X and its accompanying software, which would require third-party solutions ($$$) with the Alienware machine.

Then there is the whole usability issue. Just consider that my wife's 4 1/2 year-old iBook- running the very latest version of OS X quite happily, mind you- currently has an "uptime" of.... 49 days (I had to pick it up off the couch next to me and check). I have seen hers go over 170 days. That's almost 6 months with no shutdowns or restarts!!! Could you do that with any windows portable? I think not (LOL).

When all is said and done, the relative cost is not an issue; the Mac is far and away the better value. What is an issue is whether you want to experience the ease, power, and flexibility of OS X, or if you want to stay tied to Windows. We could go on and on about the benefits of OS X, but ultimately, you have to make the choice.

Scott

i still use windows till this day! don't know why, maybe it's a bad habbit:)
anyway.

i'm also a Graphic Designer, let me tell an example. when i run Bridge, to browse files, if i just open a folder with files more than 1 or 2 GB each, Bridge just shutsdown! everytime this happens, but when i run the same folder on my MBP, nothing ever happens. ofcourse i took into consideration Cache settings... nothing worked, always shuts down in win!

u can take this simple example and apply it to Photoshop, Maya, Indesign,
After Effects.... the list goes on.

Rudy, Travis gave you some excellent advice.

I'll add my 2 cents, as I am a working graphic designer (started way back before computers!). Graphic designers work in a variety of disciplines, but the crux of almost all of it is finding solutions to effective communication. 3d rendering and animation isn't graphic design in the strictest sense.

You'd be wise to do a little research, as there are lots of options and directions one might go in the Graphic Design World. Googling "what is graphic design" should give you lots of reading options. I also second Travis' suggestion to speak with your advisors. Check out the American Institute of Graphic Designers web site at AIGA.org, and the Graphic Artists Guild web site at GAG.org. You might see if there's an AIGA chapter near you--AIGA's a great resource for students.

Most of my work is in printed materials. I worked for a large corporation for many years doing visual branding and working on everything from HR communications to merchandising to ugly disclosure brochures, billboards, advertising, etc. etc. In my freelance career I've worked on all that plus designing company logos and identities, hardbound picture books, marketing packages... really, ANYTHING that gets printed is game. The list is endless. I don't do web work, but I work with web designers and developers to create web sites that speak to the user in a similar way that a company's printed materials do.

In my day-to-day work I use the following applications on my Mac: the Adobe CS4 Suite, which includes InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Acrobat Pro; a font manager called Suitcase Fusion; the Microsoft Office suite (Word, Excel, Powerpoint); Quickbooks (for billing and keeping track of my finances); a time tracking app called iBiz; Firefox, an internet browser; plus the usual iTunes, iPhoto, the software that came with my Canon and Fuji cameras, printer drivers, etc. Again, the list goes on. Currently I'm researching color management software/hardware, which will help me keep color consistency from screen to printed output.

Other software that is popular includes CorelDraw for vector illustration, QuarkXpress for page layout, Adobe Flash and a host of others for web design. These and the above are the main in the print world.

All of the above applications (or similar) are available on both Mac and Windows platforms, but I've been using Macs since 1985, literally, and for graphics work they are the best. Others have quoted more technical rationale, and they are probably correct too. Besides, they're way cooler than any Win machine, and if you're going to be a graphic designer, you gotta have cool stuff.

The Adobe suite is pretty pricey, so if you can find someone who has it already, or even take a class at your local technical college, that will be much less expensive than making the investment even in the student versions of the suite.

Anyway, I can go on and on, so I'm just going to stop now. Need to get back to work anyway. :} Good luck!

This is just my two cents, but if you're looking for a computer to do 3D rendering in, I wouldn't be looking into a Macbook Pro, or any form of laptop for that matter.

When I first got my Macbook Pro (2007 edition), I had both XSI and Maya installed on it, and the actual rendering process for 1024x720 images took forever. The computer literally spent about two full days rendering out a 28 second test animation in high-quality. Suffice to say, a PC around the same price is going to take about the same amount of time.

If you truly want to enter the world of 3D animation for high end movies, which is what it sounds like you wanted to do, you would be looking at more of a $30,000+ computer as opposed to a $3000 computer. Naturally, a student entering the field can't afford something like this unless they're extremely lucky.

My advice to you would be to do a little bit more research on 3D animation and find out which schools you would like to attend, specifically if they teach in Maya or 3D Studio Max, or I suppose even XSI (though not likely). Maya can be used on both Windows and OSX, while 3DSM is strictly Windows based. I wouldn't recommend using Boot Camp to run Windows while trying to use a program that would use high resources like 3D Max would. If you're looking into a school that would predominately use Maya however, I would definitely suggest the Mac Pro for it over a PC.

Regardless, if you're just playing around, doing tutorials, learning for school/doing some work at home for your 3D projects, the Macbook Pro with Maya would do the job, or I suppose an Alienware for 3D Max would as well. I wouldn't recommend rendering anything out on these unless you want an inactive computer for extended periods of times, instead I would transfer the project files over to the school computers and let those render out.

Hopefully that helps a little bit.

My daughter is in graphic design at Auburn University. When you get accepted into the program at the end of 2nd semester of soph year, you are strongly encouraged to get a MacBook Pro. In fact they give you a sheet with the recommended configuration and only say that if for some reason you can't afford a MacBook Pro you can get a PC but....it would be to their advantage to get a Mac.
Their computer lab is all Mac Pros and everything that they do is geared strongly toward the Mac.
Other Graphic Designers that I know are about 5-1 Mac users.

I am going to buy a cheaper laptop so that if I decide to go to a different major, I won't have to incur a big cost.

If you are undecided on your major then a Macbook is probably a more suitable choice in my opinion as well. Most students at my university (and most of my friends) use Macbooks. They are more than powerful enough for general studies and normal usage you'd see from a college student. The only thing that a Macbook is (comparatively) underpowered for is gaming. The 13" screen is also small for some people, though I find it fine. I didn't buy my MBP for the larger screen, I bought it for the dedicated graphics.

The Macbook you quoted is $1700. For $2000 you could have the 15" Macbook Pro with dedicated graphics and the larger screen. Of course, the decision is up to you but you haven't mentioned the 15" MBP yet so I thought I would bring it up. Don't forget that your college should have a student discount which is $100 on both those machines (I think); you might as well take advantage of that.

Battery Calibration is just a procedure that you should use every couple months on a portable computer to ensure that the battery readout that you see on the screen is accurate to the amount of charge left in the battery. All it does is make the "% Remaining" readout more accurate.

--Travis