Deliberating
I’ve been a ‘Mac guy’ since I can remember. From the moment I laid my eyes on the G5 iMac as a teenager, Apple had cast their spell. I used to wonder if that spell was the same that everyone else had fallen a victim to, or if my desire to have their products at my disposal was warranted and justified due to my infatuation with design – I know what typography is! Give me a Mac!
I’ve been long debating whether I should actually invest in a machine that’ll inevitably come with a hefty price tag. Having the ability to experiment freely in 3DS Max and VRay is something I’ve thought about for awhile and doing so would enable my use of time the required boost to produce more of the work I love to do.
While I already own an iMac, it’s lack of RAM capacity and cores really hinders me – 8GB and Quad core. I’d resort to Parallels in order to run 3DS Max but the split in RAM and cores (4GB and 2 threads) has thus far made the experience less than enticing. Instead, I choose to stay late at work in order to get my daily fix for experimenting with Max and VRay.
Decisions
At some point I’m going to take the leap and buy a PC. I’m always scouring the web for information on the latest tech, both because I’ve my inner geek and also, in order to reduce the likelihood of buying something that’s out of date the moment I switch it on (As much as I’m aware that’s probably the case) but I’d really like the machine to have a good 5+ years in it before it’s considered ‘expired’.
I’ve thought about buying one for the last 2 years or so. I now have a decision to make. How I arrive at it will depend on the market and by the look of things, Nvidias propensity to piss off those who spend £1200 on a graphics card only to release one that is almost as powerful a month or two later. For half the price.
The Titan XP’s pack a serious amount of power, but hits the pocket harder; I’m keeping my eyes peeled.
My current Setup
Work – I’m on a Xeon 6 core with a generous 64GB’s of RAM. As powerful as the Xeons are, I can’t help think that with the introduction to renderers like Corana, Octane and F-Storm that things may begin to shift to GPU based rendering rather than CPU. Interactive rendering is something I’ve really been excited about for a while, but they rely on a descent GPU in order to perform well.
Home – I have my 27″ iMac. It’s a 3.4Ghz Intel Core i5 with 8 GB’s of RAM, so it’s able to deal with most tasks I throw at it. Despite my desire for a machine more powerful, this won’t mean decommision for the Mac. It’s primary use will still be post production (still images). I’m as much in love with it as the day I got it, so I don’t see me giving up on it anytime soon. I have the Adobe suite ready and waiting on there whenever I need it.
I consider myself extremely lucky to be able to have the opportunity to choose between the Mac I’ve wanted for a decade and a PC I’ve needed for years. With that though comes the instictual conviction to pursue my love for the things I’m shit at, and the few things I’m good at. When and whatever rig I decide to do, I’ll keep you updated.