Mac or Windows computer for printing?

[Miranda Smith]

We are about to update our computer for our wide format printer.

we currently use a Mac computer but need more grunt. we are having trouble opening those 21GB images files!!

We are requiring a 32GB computer this time.

we cannot decide whether to stay with Apple (over priced I think and I am not an Apple fan I will admit - but then I don't use the computer much so I don't count) or get a windows based computer this time. One of the team like windows and the other, Apple.

we have one printing application that required us to use a windows computer and another requiring an Apple.

we are planning on getting a seperate quality monitor soon.

Our clients seem to use both.

So, fellow print knowledgable Grumblers, can I ask for your 2 cents worth? Apple or Windows for printing?

 

[Warren Tucker]

We only use Macs in our digital imaging lab, but that's mostly due to PhotoShop (we currently have two G5s and a G4. In order to switch our editing and printing computer to Windows we'd have to buy a Windows version of PhotoShop making the Windows computer as expensive as the Macs. One of the best printing/layout (and certainly the least expensive) is Qimage and its Windows based. We have a
Windows computer just for Qimage. Our Cruse art scanner's software is Windows and we have another computer devoted to it. One G5 and the G4 are legacy computers running previous versions of Apple OS. The G4 runs OS9 for our ex Drum Scanner. Silverfast software for newer operating systems would cost around $2000 and probably wouldn't work anyway since the interface is SCUSI.

If you don't already have a Mac version of PhotoShop, Windows is the way to go. And try to get windows 7.

 

[stcstc]

it does depend on the rip your using

but i used to use a mac pro for printing, and switched to win 7 custom PC, it was more to do with the mac os getting all a bit funky about printing which made me make the change

 

[Lance E]

I makes little to no difference - we elected to use a PC because they can be more effectively cooled.

BTW Warren, change to Creative Cloud and the PC/Mac thing is no longer an issue.

 

[Warren Tucker]

50 bucks a month for Creative Cloud, 600 a year and I only want PhotoShop. It's not that much money but I'm only using a small part of the suite, a small part at that. And I was just moaning about paying $600 for a Windows version of PhotoShop. Btw, PhotoShop CS6 will be the last PhotoShop we'll be able to buy; no more upgrades. I might do it if there are significant improvements to PhotoShop. My guess is there won't be. Surely there are a lot of users like me who reproduce art, restore photographs, and do photo prepress. We only want
PhotoShop. Still, $600 a year isn't a lot of money and it's deductible.

 

[troyveluz]

50 bucks a month for Creative Cloud, 600 a year and I only want PhotoShop. It's not that much money but I'm only using a small part of the suite, a small part at that. And I was just moaning about paying $600 for a Windows version of PhotoShop. Btw, PhotoShop CS6 will be the last PhotoShop we'll be able to buy; no more upgrades. I might do it if there are significant improvements to PhotoShop. My guess is there won't be. Surely there are a lot of users like me who reproduce art, restore photographs, and do photo prepress. We only want
PhotoShop. Still, $600 a year isn't a lot of money and it's deductible.

Warren,
When I looked at creative Cloud a few months ago, I believe if you only want a single app (i.e. Photoshop only), the monthly subscription is only $19.99 and if you own CS3 or later the fee is $29.99/mo for the first year.

Regards,
Troy

 

[dmitridal]

There are so many other aspects to this, it seems like an incomplete question...
for example, what sort of printer do you have? is it the only one?
where do you print from?
do you have a seperate RIP driving the printer?
etc....

also, I think the files you are printing are WAY too big...you are wasting time and electricity for little noticeable gain in quality....
you may want to consider hiring an imaging consultant before you make any major purchases, the cost of the consultant could save you the trouble!!

We use a mac for our printing and all digital imaging in house, and an older wildly upgraded g4 for large format scanning.
the rest of the computers here (wizard, LS, office, etc are PCs, but only because of no other option)
Macs are too expensive still, but you can now build your own with PC parts if you feel adventurous! just don't expect any tech support from apple!
I did it using this site, and saved over 5,ooo USD
files that used to take over an hour or more to rip to our HP DESIGNJET 5500PSUV now RIP in 1/10 the time

www.tonymacx86.com

We are about to update our computer for our wide format printer.

we currently use a Mac computer but need more grunt. we are having trouble opening those 21GB images files!!

We are requiring a 32GB computer this time.

we cannot decide whether to stay with Apple (over priced I think and I am not an Apple fan I will admit - but then I don't use the computer much so I don't count) or get a windows based computer this time. One of the team like windows and the other, Apple.

we have one printing application that required us to use a windows computer and another requiring an Apple.

we are planning on getting a seperate quality monitor soon.

Our clients seem to use both.

So, fellow print knowledgable Grumblers, can I ask for your 2 cents worth? Apple or Windows for printing?

 

[i-FRAMER]

I did it using this site, and saved over 5,ooo USD
www.tonymacx86.com

Just out of curiosity, how much did it end up costing and which custom mac did you build.

 

[dmitridal]

Just out of curiosity, how much did it end up costing and which custom mac did you build.

without the special monitor setup and my graphics card, it was about 2000, and that was two years ago, I have built three now, and the price for a really nice inexpensive setup is about 800-1000, or if you are a poweruser and want a beast of a machine, you could/should spend around 2K

I recommend the CustoMac Mini with z77n-wifi board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128568 in a mini ITX case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID= .

It's not easy to assemble physically, but it's TINY, cheap, quiet, and super powerful and responsive little system. pair it with an SSD and a nice big good quality monitor, and you can not go wrong!


specs on this work machine (my 2011 build) are

sandy bridge i7 OC to 4.2 (very stable)
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics ...

1 x CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

1 x Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

1 x CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full ...

2 x SAMSUNG P2770HD Rose Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor Built-in HDTV Tuner & Speakers

1 x Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

1 x GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 x EVGA 015-P3-1480-KR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ...

1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B

1 x Targus ACB10US1 Bluetooth 2.0 Adapter

1 x Logitech C910 USB 2.0 1080p HD Pro Webcam

apple keyboard, magic touchpad, logitech trackman wired

NO WIFI

 

[dmitridal]

oh, and it dual boots, windows 7 64 bit off another internal 40GB SSD, and it also has VMware Fusion running win7Pro inside of mac os if needed...

 

[Kirstie]

Most of this thread is Greek to me. We use a Mac with the latest OS software to print on our Epson 7890. We don't use a lot of fancy RIP software, and I have to admit, for bread and butter printing, we haven't needed it. We print directly from Photoshop CS5. We print mostly photo resotrtion work, own own interior signs, some amateur family photo enlargements, and commercial work with files provided by the client. We have printed and framed for an Adobe campus and various other demanding high profile clients with no problem. Of course thier files are perfect to begin with and they want to know what printer we are using so that they can have thier graphic departments prepare files properly. Thus, some of the most beautiful photos we have printed have required no work on our part. We just tell Photoshop to print on the correct paper using the built in Epson profiles, and some quite amazing work flows out of the printer.

Having said that, there have been recent problems. If you read this thread you will see that the latest Epson update should not be installed on Macs running Epson large format printers:

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/5005644?start=0&tstart=0

Hopefully this problem will be ironed out soon, but it caused us a few days of headaches.

We work in a cross-platform environment at the shop, use Frame Ready POS which runs on both, and have dedicated PCs for the Wizard and Visualization. Otherwise, we prefer Macs.

Can you use Creative Cloud on more than two computers? The CS5 registration limitations have been inconvenient.

 

[Lance E]

Can you use Creative Cloud on more than two computers? The CS5 registration limitations have been inconvenient.

The EULA remains much the same in that you can have it available during work hours on a business machine and when the primary operator of that machine is elsewhere it can be run on another machine. My license is on a work destop, my laptop and my home PC, if I need to use it on the one which isn't currently "active" I simply click & deactivate the other 2. When opening after being deactivated it is a simple click that adds no more than a brief moment to loading.

 

[Peter Odems]

without the special monitor setup and my graphics card, it was about 2000, and that was two years ago, I have built three now, and the price for a really nice inexpensive setup is about 800-1000, or if you are a poweruser and want a beast of a machine, you could/should spend around 2K

I recommend the CustoMac Mini with z77n-wifi board http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813128568 in a mini ITX case http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produ...-na-_-na&cm_sp=&AID=10446076&PID=4902415&SID= .

It's not easy to assemble physically, but it's TINY, cheap, quiet, and super powerful and responsive little system. pair it with an SSD and a nice big good quality monitor, and you can not go wrong!


specs on this work machine (my 2011 build) are

sandy bridge i7 OC to 4.2 (very stable)
1 x Intel Core i7-2600K Sandy Bridge 3.4GHz (3.8GHz Turbo Boost) LGA 1155 95W Quad-Core Desktop Processor Intel HD Graphics ...

1 x CORSAIR Hydro Series H80 (CWCH80) High Performance Liquid CPU Cooler

1 x Intel 520 Series Cherryville SSDSC2CW120A3K5 2.5" 120GB SATA III MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

2 x SAMSUNG Spinpoint F3 ST1000DM005/HD103SJ 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5" Internal Hard Drive

1 x CORSAIR Professional Series Gold AX850 (CMPSU-850AX) 850W ATX12V v2.31 / EPS12V v2.92 80 PLUS GOLD Certified Full ...

2 x SAMSUNG P2770HD Rose Black 27" 5ms HDMI Widescreen LCD Monitor Built-in HDTV Tuner & Speakers

1 x Antec Performance One Series P183 V3 Black Aluminum / Steel / Plastic ATX Mid Tower Computer Case

1 x GIGABYTE GA-Z68X-UD5-B3 LGA 1155 Intel Z68 SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 ATX Intel Motherboard

1 x EVGA 015-P3-1480-KR GeForce GTX 480 (Fermi) 1536MB 384-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready SLI Support Video ...

1 x CORSAIR Vengeance 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model CMZ16GX3M4A1600C9B

1 x Targus ACB10US1 Bluetooth 2.0 Adapter

1 x Logitech C910 USB 2.0 1080p HD Pro Webcam

apple keyboard, magic touchpad, logitech trackman wired

NO WIFI

A "Hackintosh" computer is not legal........