The big decision mac or bootcamp win7 on macbook pro.

Cubase
1

O.K. it’s crunch time. I’ve been thinking about moving away from cubase but I want to give it one last go. So my question is this. Right now am I better bootcamping my macbook pro to run win7, or am I better keeping it as a mac. I am interested in two things… stability and performance… so also am i better off running 5.5.2 rather than c6?

Advice from as many people as possible please…

2

Aloha C, two questions,

First, are you use any 3rd party gear (hardware) with your MacBook Pro?
Second, do you already own a copy of Win7?


{‘-’}

3

I don’t see any advantage to Bootcamp and Win7 - I’ve found that Cubase runs fine on Snow Leopard, and C6 is reasonably stable for a first release. Why upgrade though if you’re thinking of switching?

I ran some performance tests for C6 and Logic 9 (both in 64-bit mode) using Kontakt 4’s orchestral instruments, and found CPU usage to be almost identical - buffer size for the Duet was set to 256.

4

Kontakt is a bad instrument to choose for comparisons cos it uses external ram, so doesn’t rely on cubase’s performance. Maybe a test with cubase reverbs or something would be better.

5

There is no big difference between cubase @ win7 or cubase @ macosx. The big difference is with macosx you will have a better stable os than win7. also mac systems are designed and configured by system engineers and harware experts. That’s why people are using macosx coz there is less problem. Otherwise you could build a monters PC for half price of macbook pro 17" 2011.

6

Actually, it’s fairly common knowledge that Cubase runs much more efficiently on the Windows platform.

Here’s the dawbench’s fairly thorough testing of that.
http://www.dawbench.com/win7-v-osx-5.htm

Cubase on Windows 7 comes out anywhere from 71% to 237% better depending on the variables. That’s a huge difference.

I can confirm from my own experience that running Cubase on the bootcamp partition of my Mac Pro leads to a much snappier experience.

So I would say if you have a copy of Win 7, try it on both and see which you prefer.

7

10 years ago there might have been some truth in that statement but it’s 2011.

mac motherboards are made by Foxcon, not renowned as high end boards by most PC builders, the rest of the parts are the same as you can buy anywhere,intel CPU’s ,ATI/Nvidea GFX/Seagate hard drives etc.


If you prefer OSX then use a mac, but don’t say Cubase performs better than on windows 7 x64 because it isn’t true.


MC

8

Sorry not true at all. I was a Macmaniac for 15 years, known in town for praising macs as the only choice and so on,

now because of Apples arrogance I built my i7 PC system and it costs exactly half the price of a new mac pro and performs identically to a mac with W7 64. I come into the studio in the morning, work for 10 hours and switch off the machine without a single crash. What more can a Mac offer??

9

It may work for you without problem but for sure there is million of macosx user using mac because it’s stable than win7. This cannot be a discussion otherwise all those people would count stupid as they are paying %200 more for a computer.Check all those big producers big studios even tutorials, they have mac system. Me as computer engineer and expert I used to work with cubase on windows untill 2011. I had minor problems which I could fix easily… I think win7 is pretty stable too. But mac can offer you a better stable operation system itself. Entire system is easy to use and problem-less. I have/had macbook pros and I don’t even remember if I had OS issues or crashes viruses etc. But on windows side, I’m still having minor crashed, freeze etc at least 3-4 times a week.

10

Apple are very good at marketing and advertising, a lot of ‘producers’ and people in media haven’t got a clue about computers so have historically just used what everyone else in their industry has. Apple know this and have been clever in their marketing and advertising.

Remember when Apple computers used PPC cpu’s? any comparison with windows and intel performance was quashed because they said PPC cpu’s worked more efficiently so you couldn’t compare MHZ.

Fast for ward a few years and Apple start using intel cpu’s, now the new macpro is 50% faster than the old PPC version because they’re using intel chips!!! exactly what windows people had been saying for years but denied by Apple,until it suited them.

I use both machines and OSX is a nice OS but windows 7 x64 is the best DAW OS I’ve ever used.


MC