Most of the people complaining about Windows also talk about their experiences from WAY back to say how horrible the platform is TODAY. This clearly won’t help anyone as none of the people who ask about Mac vs PC questions are looking to go back in time to buy those ancient machines.
I don’t know about “today”. Mine is one year back. I used to work, and I am currently working, on PCs, doing most of my daily work, which is as an organization counsultant, there. My employer has a MAC only profile, so they furnaced me with a MAC book. I bring it to work every day, but I do most of my work that involves a computer on my PC at home, and move the result to the MAC before going to work. That is how much I prefere PCs over MACs in general.
Cubase is however another thing.
I have not limitless, but at least an ample access to new PCs for low cost. So when I determined to take the leap to 64 bit and from XP to Win 7. I had someone (a professional company) build me a PC (payed for that) to run Cubase only. In addition to that, I got myself an out of the box PC with specs according to recommended for running Cubase PC/Win7/64 bit. Thought I would use them as a master/slave.
What was my experience? Well both PCs behaved almost identical. To begin with approx 30% of my 3. party plugs would not install or not install properly. I have invested in approx 200 plugs so this was a great let down. Most of the plugs (approx 70%) that did not install were 32 bit (at the time). But they would not show under the bridge either, or crash installation. I can’t even recon how many hours I spent trying to get it to work. I also experienced halts, freezes, sudden shut downs of both Cubase and the PCs themselves. Sometimes bluescreens. Cubase behaved sluggish. I complained to the guys who had put the PC together for me, but they said they had build the PC according to the specs so this was my problem not theirs. I then spend a lot of money to buy a MAC Pro. It was delivered at my door by a carrier, The one I got was soooo loud from hard disc spinning that is was very anoying to listen to. I then called Apple to have the discs changed. Thought I needed to quarrel to get it done and if they at all agreed to do the change, I would need to bring the computer to some Apple store. What happened was that they came to my house, took the MAC Pro with them and gave me all my money back - no questions asked. Even if that was not what I expected, it showed great service. I then gave the PCs another try: I upgraded one of my older PCs so I had 3 alltogehter to try CB/64 bit/Win7 on. I used to work in a computer company, building and testing computers, but my skills were of no help here. I even hired a consultant for help. Almost the same result as previously. Now many weeks had passed without making music. Making music was the reason for buying computeres and CB in the first place - not to be more educated in solving PC problems. I then bought MAC Pro number two. The maschine was silent as a grave. All but TWO, I repeat TWO, plugs installed without any problem at all (well actually only ONE did not install, the other installed but would not show in the VST list). I have during the last year experienced TWO, I repeat TWO, sudden close downs of Cubase (both CB7 after it was installed this spring).
TWO ONLY! And that is Cubase, NOT the MAC.
Later when upgrading to Mountain Lion alas another plug has been added to the list of plugs that won’t work on my MAC. That is 3 out of 200. And almost no hazzle with running CB and the computer. Even if the MAC was several times the cost of the PC it saves soooooo much time for me (due to no interrupted music making) that it was well worth the extra money.
Does this make me a fan of MAC in general? Nope, I still prefere PCs over MACs for my business work. But for my Cubase I will “always” prefere MAC. Do I think that everybody should run CB on MACs? No. I know people that uses PCs without the problems described above. But they do not have the exact set up as me in respect of connected hardware, soundcard and plugs. So I will stay with the computer that solved all my problems.