Quote:
Originally Posted by Stephen Fox
My aging computer is quite noisy and runs XP. As Vista is rapidly becoming more accepted I need new hardware to upgrade to this. I understand I need to operate with Vista to take full advantage of multicore CPU's but Vista.
If I have to learn a new operating system and upgrade hardware then it seems I might as well consider a Mac. iMac's seem to be integrated into a monitor which I don't favour as I prefer flexibility to change my monitor or continue with my Sony Trinitron 19" display I am familiar with. Hence seriously considering Mac pro. Pricing PC hardware including case and Vista with lots of RAM and a high performance Core 2 Due CPU goes beyond £1000 and a 2.66GHz Mac pro with 1GB RAM is available at £1500. The difference being approx 50% but all hardware in a Mac should be perfectly suited and tuned to OS X (Tiger) and hopefully squeeze more performance than an equivalent PC.
Whilst I enjoy the benefits of shooting RAW, the downside in longer processing time is getting me down. If NX runs 50% faster on a Mac compared with PC/Vista then I shall be happy. If I can get current JPEG performance from my existing system from RAW/NX/Mac pro then I hope to enjoy my post processing more.
|
Be careful as Vista Home Basic and Home Premium do not support multiple CPUs, and some might argue they do not support 1 CPU, but let's pass over that. Other versions of Vista support multiple CPUs.
XP Pro also supports multiple CPUs, and you might be able to get a copy cheap.
Regarding NX, I use Nikon Capture and it is a dog speed wise. Before my hard disks died I used Rawshooter, a free third party RAW viewer, to do the preliminary selection of images to keep and delete. It was good enough to judge sharpness and composition but IMO colours were poor. I would then view selected images in NC. I must get round to re-installing Rawshooter.