I do not recommend buying a Dell, just as I don't recommend buying a Mac ( unless you need to run FCP or something you can't find on PC side ). Their build quality or cost is irrelevant, befause unlike with Macs, you have many other, better, options

The rest we sort of agree on.

My PC is just as elegantly designed as Mac Pro. Anybody can buy a Lian-li case and whatever parts and arrange all of the wiring as they please. You are not forced to buy a crappily designed Dell or some other pre-made PC.

The consensus among 3D crowd is, it's preferable to go with nVidia.
I don't know of many professionals switching to Mac to run their 3D apps, so I have to take those "running blazingly fast" not so seriously.
It probably at best runs the same if set-up the right way, so why switch?

>>>.I thought we were in agreement that everybody should buy the computers that run 90% of the software they use?<<<

Sure, that is the most important point.

>>>>And we agree that Flash runs 25-50% slower on Macs this month and next, until Adobe releases the native code version.<<<

I've been using Flash since 1997 and been hearing the same thing since around then. I'll believe it when I finally see it. And I do hope they finaly deliver. But it goes deeper than just doing the native code version.

And as I demonstrated with that ASUS laptop price, yes , it is still signficantly cheaper to buy a PC without sacrificing quality, you just have to know where to look. Apple is easy, just go to apple.com, but hey that is one of the reasons I don't like them, no choices.

OK, so let's summarize:

My PC is just as elegantly designed as Mac Pro.

Please allow me to doubt that very very much. You've got a digital camera to post something here, or would you care to Google the Mac Pro first to look at photos of its innards?

If anyone can get close to that with off-the-shelf components, I'll be an eager student.

I'm a big fan of nVidia cards myself for my Windows machines, and I wouldn't buy ATI cards for what I'm doing for these machines right now.

It's really a matter of drivers, so when top post production pros who work long hours with these cards tell me that the ATI 1900 cards are solid in the Mac Pro, I trust them on that and don't fret any further. I don't have a Mac Pro currently but will probably have to add one this summer for more heavy duty work, hopefully an 8-core if they are at all affordable, especially as those models are rumored to also have some other architectural improvements for kick-butt performance. And don't worry, I'll still be using Vegas for a lot of stuff!

As an aside, I think Vegas is a much better complement to FCP than Premiere Pro is.

Why? PP has more overlap with FCP, while Vegas has unique features that are quite useful and save time, leaving FCP for those things you just can't do in Vegas currently.

I have never suggested anyone to switch for the sake of switching, merely that it is helpful to have access to both platforms because if you are working with video and film professionally, you are very likely to have to work with FCP people. Your preferences don't come in here, unless you simply don't want to work with them.

as I demonstrated with that ASUS laptop price, yes , it is still signficantly cheaper to buy a PC

So your ASUS laptop is cheaper than a MacBook Pro, therefore it is always cheaper to buy a PC than a Mac, you just have to know where to look?

It's a given that you can always find something cheaper. What professionals have found when buying professional class workstations is that the Mac Pro is often the same price or less, compared to Dell, HP, or any of the other workstation suppliers. Of course as I indicated in previous posts, you just have to know where to look so you don't buy RAM or hard drives from Apple, because that will raise the price pretty quickly, but if you know what you're doing, you can configure a Mac Pro system that is competitive even when the other guys totally drop their pants in panic as many have testified they have done to try to get the business.

Even with that, a choice frankly should not be made on the basis on "this platform cost me $5.22 less so I'll go with the Mac," or "the Dell Irium Workstation shaved 1.32 seconds off my rendertest." That would be insane.

I only use LIan-li cases ( and not the cheaper ones ) , so trust me, they are just as nice inside or better than Macs. I do agree that macPro case is nice too, have nothing against that.

I thought I made it clear that I was talking about saving at least a few hundred dollars and getting a better laptop at the same time.

even the most basic macbook pro is already $300 more, and you still have to add to it just to match the ram and HD.

No matter where you buy your ram, macbook pro will still cost you $400 - $500 hundred more than the asus in question, and it will still have an inferior video card and display.

There is NO WAY AROUND THAT FACT :-)

>>>>>Even with that, a choice frankly should not be made on the basis on "this platform cost me $5.22 less so I'll go with the Mac," or "the Dell Irium Workstation shaved 1.32 seconds off my rendertest." That would be insane.<<<<

As we finally established above ( I hope we did ) it's hundreds of dollars, not something like $2.99.
But we agreed, the choice of hardware/OS should be based on your applications of choice. If a person really has to use FCP, then paying $500 more for a Mac is irrelevant ( I'd pay $1000 more for a PC just so I could use fusion , XSI and Vegas over some other apps if situation were reversed ).

OK folks. The OP back again. I'm getting conflicing reports on whether a Mac system will work as I had hoped so I'll ask the questions here (like I have elsewhere) and hope for an informed response.

I was under the assumption that Bootcamp would allow me to do anything I wanted. From what some folks have told me, it doesn't sound like it.

My plan was to get a Mac with 3 (internal) drives.
#1 (system drive) to be set up with the current Mac OS and XP Pro SP2. The system would come with FC Express HD. I'd be installing Vegas 7, Photoshop 7 and CorelDraw 11 on the PC side of it, hopefully by using Bootcamp (or do I need Parallels or both?).
#2 (video drive) would be formatted for Mac use.
#3 (video drive) would be formatted NTFS for PC use.
I've got NTFS-formatted externals already (both USB and Firewire 400) that I'd like to continue using.
My hope in doing it this way is so that I could bounce files back and forth from the PC sideo to the Mac side and vice-versa, preferably without having to re-boot.

Is there any other software I'll need (such as MacDrive) that I'm missing?
Is this going to work like I had hoped or am I dreaming?
If I'm dreaming, then I'l l go with plan B (quad core PC).
Prices are comparable either way I go but I had kinda hoped to start getting
into the Mac side of things.

Mike

Parallels Desktop would cost you either $0, $40, $60, or $80 depending on if the vendor tosses it in for free with the system (not unheard of) or you use one of the frequent deals on it.

You would need it to share the drives between the Mac side and the Windows side, using its Shared Folders feature.

Also using Parallels, you can have both environments active simultaneously.

(Note that you can ALSO run Linux, Solaris, OpenBSD, and more under Parallels which could come in handy for some future super app.)

Man y thanks Bjorn.
From your response, it sounds like I don't need Bootcamp then, just Parallels, right?
And MacDrive too?

My exchanges between FC Express and Vegas would (probably) be limited to using things like LiveType.
It's possible that I'd have both running simultaneously but, as I've never owned a Mac, I'll have to wait until I get one to see if I really need to do this.

Mike

With the Parallels in the Mac the flexibility does look intriguing.
JJK

There's lots more useful stuff than just LiveType.

Look at all the cool stuff for Motion, of which this is just one tiny example.

Bootcamp is free right now, but I don't see that you need it for what you have mentioned.

The $39.95 MacDrive program would be useful if you want to read and write other Mac drives from Vegas or Photoshop, for example if somebody sends you a drive or you want to ship somebody a Mac drive.

Just one thought. If there is a chance you would benefit from the features in the full FCS, then March 19, 2007 is the last chance to get the super-cheap upgrade to the entire Final Cut Studio ($99 or $199 to get the latest FCP+Motion+DVDSP+Soundtrack Pro+Compressor) from an older version of either one.

After March 19, it will be a $699 upgrade + the cost of an old FCP, or $1299 straight.

Right now, there is a DVDSP4 for sale on eBay, current bid is $53, auction ends at 8pm PST today. This product is upgradeable to FCS for $199.

There are also ready-to-go FCS for sale on eBay, for more money of course.

All this matters only if you might have a need for it.

The latest ad in the Mac vs. PC series is one of the best. It's a good parody of how asinine Vista can seem.

Click on Security

Bought FCP 4.0.1 on eBay for AUS$195 last week and have mailed off the installation DVD to Apple on Monday for an upgrade price of AUS$298.
FCS 5.1 costs AUS$1995 from Apple Australia so I reckon I've done well.

Vegas7/DVDA4 + ProTools + FCS5.1 + Studio 8 + SwishMax + PhotoShop CS2 + Director + Flix Pro + EDL Convert and a host of other useful apps make a nice Multimedia (whatever the hell that is) collection ;-}

New Hope Media