New computer suggestions?

GarageBand is excellent. This is something people don’t consider in the TCO calculation of a Mac. You get a well-featured DAW, a fully featured office suite, included in the price you’re paying.

What's even cooler is it comes with iMovie, too. So you can then integrate video with the audio you recorded and make a pro quality YouTube and share.
 
Yep, and if you want to go more professional DAW, Logic X is a steal for $200.

Also, as far as TCO for Macs, I notice that people tend to keep their Macs longer than PCs. I have no hard data to support this, but just something I notice so take it for what you will.

The build quality of a MacBook Pro is second to none. So, rather than buying 2 or 3 laptops in a 6 year period you may very well just keep the same one. When you think about it that way, the Mac is not all that expensive. Higher up-front cost, but it evens out over time.
 
When I first got into home recording, I had a ProTools platform with a Windows PC. I had system issues galore (she had a sister in the movies). Granted, it was many years ago, and the newer technology has improved, but I finally gave up on the PC and went Mac. It cost me a pretty penny, but since going Mac, I have had almost no system issues. Put me in the Mac column.
Same situation - I spent about 3 weeks trying to get Pro Tools and Windows to work and finally got a iMac - in 2009 that I still use, and still works every time.
 
The build quality of a MacBook Pro is second to none.

I'm not a Mac guy at all, but I'll certainly agree that they are well made. We use Dell laptops exclusively at work and after about 2 or 3 years, those start to look pretty rough though usually still quite functional. With anything though it does depend on how you take care of it. In IT, we get some laptops back from users looking like new while others look like they've been dragged behind a truck on a gravel road for while. Some folks just know how to destroy things.
 
My 2009 pc desktop on win 7 was perfect until "free" win 10 upgrade. Never the same after that so i decided i wouldnt make the same mistake with my 2010 laptop (which was performing fine). But then my brother in law came over and took the liberty of upgrading it for me : (
Now both sit in a corner of the garage
 
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:p
 
My 2009 pc desktop on win 7 was perfect until "free" win 10 upgrade.

This happens with Macs as well. Upgrade to the newest OS with very old hardware and all kinds of stuff goes wrong. If you're savvy and backed your Mac up with TimeMachine before the "upgrade" you can revert back, but sometimes the damage is already done.
 
Speaking of things ruining your computer, on my last PC I installed iTunes and it was never the same. That is some scary software.
 
I actually managed to skirt by the free downgrade to windows 10 on my old laptop, but this one comes with it installed so we'll see how that goes. I haven't used iTunes in years and years but I remember it being a weird one
 
This happens with Macs as well. Upgrade to the newest OS with very old hardware and all kinds of stuff goes wrong. If you're savvy and backed your Mac up with TimeMachine before the "upgrade" you can revert back, but sometimes the damage is already done.
I’ve never been forced to upgrade a Mac though. Microsoft has taken a very aggressive stance on forced upgrades in the last 5 years or so.
 
My 2009 pc desktop on win 7 was perfect until "free" win 10 upgrade.
Same here, but it wasn't my DAW laptop thankfully. It was my Asus ROG gaming laptop and that "free upgrade" ruined it all. Since it was trashed already anyway, and I'd been running Win10 on a work laptop for a few months and knew it wasn't really that awful, I went ahead and wiped everything, clean install Win10, then reloaded everything. It's been working great since then.

My DAW laptop? Still on Win7 x64 with all updates turned off. I've even blocked wupdate.exe from getting through my firewall, and even blocked it from running via my AV software. It's frozen in time, exactly where I want it. =)
 
I’ve never been forced to upgrade a Mac though. Microsoft has taken a very aggressive stance on forced upgrades in the last 5 years or so.

Absolutely!

It was me trying get fancy, LOL. Apple gives you the choice, I just picked the wrong one!
 
I'm going to run mine into the ground! The Red drive hasn't quit yet!
I got to the point where I wanted the speed update. The machine itself is still going strong. It's sitting in a box in the garage. Figure I'll donate to a computers-for-X type of program when one comes around.
 
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