PC vs MAC

[Mickey Padge]

Well you can hack install a modified Mac OS on any of the newest hardware really, Mac's are no different "hardware" wise to PC's really

[redwatch]

True, but so far the MSI hack is the only one that is really stable.

[Mickey Padge]

Well it should be stable, but the more complicated the hardware you install it on, the trickier it will become

[Pugwash]

Well, there is some truth to it, you can build and customise your own PC, which is really a great deal of fun and I would suggest it to anyone who is technically sound, but you can't build a Mac can you?

You can't build a Patek, either.

Comparing watches to computers is, ultimately, a silly thing to do.

[Mickey Padge]

Hehe, it was his analogy, not mine

You can build a really nice, accurate franken/homage watch, and there is a great deal of fun and achievement in doing so, but like you say, you can't build a genuine

I am sure I have seen peeps on this board post that frankens and reps are more fun than gen watches, the same is true for building my own PC for me, it is how I got into computing. Macs are not the same in that regard at all.....

[fcaap_dan]

Let's not forget:

LOL.

And with computers you can build a gen. Lots of companies will special build one to desired specs.

[dbutlerman]

Let's not forget:

LOL.

And with computers you can build a gen. Lots of companies will special build one to desired specs.

That is pretty funny! But, Apple has started doing "on-site" repairs for areas that have the have local authorized repair centers. I had the Logic Board and LCD replaced on my iMac last month. I have Apple Care and am 2 years into the warranty period. They sent out a tech and had both parts replaced in less than an hour! I was pretty impress! I don't think Dell or HP do that

[Pugwash]

I am sure I have seen peeps on this board post that frankens and reps are more fun than gen watches, the same is true for building my own PC for me, it is how I got into computing. Macs are not the same in that regard at all.....

I used to build my own PCs, but then I realised I'd rather use them than spend the time playing with the insides. PC building is a young man's game.

[Mickey Padge]

How young, is young? I am 33 and still enjoy building and tinkering with PC's

And I use my custom built, water cooled rig everyday, as it has a DVB-C HD TV card in it! Water cooled quad core (4050mhz), 2GB or 4GB RAM, and two WC 8800 ultras in SLI. Plus the OS is installed on a hardware raid card, using 2xOCZ V2 64GB SSD drives

Cheers!

[fcaap_dan]

The only real problem with MacroHard is by the time XP worked right, here comes Vista, by the time Vista works right, here comes 7.

What's the point of Vista anyways? Half of your system resources get used to make the GUI look pretty.

There's always linux! I play around with Ubuntu on my second computer. It works well. I don't game anymore so I don't need a super powerful system.

[gioarmani]

I used to swear by PCs until 2003 when I got my first Mac. I'm on the new 24 inch iMac now, and wouldn't use another PC if you gave it to me. My gf owns a PC laptop and I can't tell you the amount of times I've had to do something on my Mac because her PC's simply too complicated or just won't do it. I was one of the numerous PC freaks who sneared at Mac; until I actually got a week free trial on an iMac with no restocking fee. Needless to say, I felt foolish not having tried it sooner and never went back.

PC's are for the close minded who prefer things to be overly complicated and like to make themselves feel "smart" by figuring out in-depth Windows operating problems. The rest of us actually are smart and simply prefer not to have any problems.

[redwatch]

I used to swear by PCs until 2003 when I got my first Mac. I'm on the new 24 inch iMac now, and wouldn't use another PC if you gave it to me. My gf owns a PC laptop and I can't tell you the amount of times I've had to do something on my Mac because her PC's simply too complicated or just won't do it. I was one of the numerous PC freaks who sneared at Mac; until I actually got a week free trial on an iMac with no restocking fee. Needless to say, I felt foolish not having tried it sooner and never went back.

PC's are for the close minded who prefer things to be overly complicated and like to make themselves feel "smart" by figuring out in-depth Windows operating problems. The rest of us actually are smart and simply prefer not to have any problems.

+1

[xlr8tn]

I bought a macBook Pro 17" (19" way too big for traveling) and have had no issues switching from PC. A little over a month after I purchased it, I had a problem with Bluetooth and my mouse...took it in to the Apple store. They told me there was a problem and that the easiest thing to do was to give me a new laptop. The didn't have the same processor I purchased, so they gave me the upgrade for free. I should have taken advantage of the free printer they were offering, and I mentioned that. They said no problem and gave me the printer anyway. All in all, I am very happy with my MacBook. I did purchase and install the VMWare Fusion 2 so I could run Windows, but I have to say that I am rarely on that side. Only a few programs that I didn't have on the mac side.

[Mickey Padge]

Sounds like some of you are saying ignorance is bliss, happier not to know how it all works, but just happy that it does. I like digging around with PC's and figuring stuff out, breaking and fixing stuff, that is what hobbyist PC geeks do! I much rather have an inquisitive mind than not

I don't have any problems with my PC rig either, everything works exactly as it should, and I built it from scratch. A PC (or Mac) is only as good as it's user allows it be, if you can't do something with it, then it's really just your fault, the computer did not fail, but the person sitting in front of it did! or you may simply have purchased the wrong spec machine for your needs, or you changed your needs afterwards. You can't just say peeps have more problems with PC's, so they must be worse, because then you are forgetting the sheer volume of people using them, compared to Mac users

Also XP was out for around 7 years before vista came along, and it didn't take them the whole 7 years to get it working right, it was/is M$'s most successful and widely used OS!

In my opinion Macs are sterile and boring to look at, they all look the same, sleek, but ultimately, if you have seen one, you have seen them all. At least PC's have a multitude of variation and customisation options to fit exactly to your requirements, then there's water cooling, phase change cooling, and don't forget the insane liquid nitrogen bench testing and world record attempts etc.... So much more fun!

So PC's users are closed minded? not at all, they are open to all sorts of crazy things, I think you have it backwards

[phaedo]

Plain and simple, I just can't get into macs. It was always apples they had in the computer labs at school, so I was exposed to them, at university they had both types of labs, PC were much more popular - if you needed to find a computer to do an assignment on the maclab was the best because nobody used them, and to be honest, I knew why. Couldn't stand using them compared to PC. Had to program on both types in a couple of programming courses, and again, could not stand using the apple. Even recently, have used a macbook and still just plain out don't like the way it is set up. Give me a PC any day. Some may say closed minded, but all I can say is I keep trying the apples and I keep deciding I can't stand them.

[Neuuubeh]

Mac isnt the way forward.. neither is windows.. If you think that a Mac after 4 years of use with no cleaning/reinstalling whatsoever is going to run much faster than a similar config PC, think again..

l

All the comparisons of PC vs Mac are written with EXTREME prejudice.. Dont believe the crap like "Macs are more stable" or "Macs are more virus-proof" or similar.. what you dont hear from these guys is that Macs werent interesting to hackers a couple of years ago. Now there is stuff that will affect them just as much as the stuff coded for PC.. As for the stability issues, having such an extremely limited pool of hardware options AND software options of course leads to higher stability. Does this mean Microsoft are morons tho? Hardly.

It all comes down to your preferences and the things you do on it. If you don't really do anything special you might as well hop on to Mac. User-friendly and fool proof and all those stuff. Personally I wont be able to live with a mac, most of the progs I use will never be ported to Mac.

PC's are for the close minded who prefer things to be overly complicated and like to make themselves feel "smart" by figuring out in-depth Windows operating problems. The rest of us actually are smart and simply prefer not to have any problems.

Some of those other us are natural talents . That and the already mentioned much higher performance and huge pool of software/hardware options

Edited August 2, 2009 by Neuuubeh

[Pugwash]

Sounds like some of you are saying ignorance is bliss, happier not to know how it all works, but just happy that it does. I like digging around with PC's and figuring stuff out, breaking and fixing stuff, that is what hobbyist PC geeks do! I much rather have an inquisitive mind than not

It's not quite ignorance is bliss, as I consider myself quite knowledgeable on PC internals (I built my first Pentium 2 machine back in the 90s, used a pencil on my AMDs until the AXIA-Y came out, overclocked TBirds, Semprons, etc., balancing the voltage and clocks) but there came a point where I simply didn't want to have to open my PC a few times a week. Coupled with the fact my job went from managing 200 desktops to managing ultra-stable servers, I just found the Mac was a simpler solution that didn't demand TLC to get on with the job at hand. Coupled with the constant expenditure for the latest and greatest, the "building your own is cheaper" fallacy became apparent after a while.

I switched to console gaming around the same time when I realised getting the OCed rig to perform 2fps more was the game I was playing, and not the actual game. When you load 3dmark more than Grand Prix Legends (or UT, Q4, etc) then you know it's time to change the paradigm.

Also, you don't hear about many Windows laptop users complaining about the lack of ability to overclock their CPU or swap out the GPU, do you.

Like I say, chopping PCs was a phase. I hope many people out there still enjoy it, but I feel I've outgrown it.

[Mickey Padge]

Well that comment really wasn't aimed at you Pug

In fact what you describe sounds very familiar. I did the same trick on the AMD CPU's too, back in the day. I also upgraded the CPU in my laptop, although that was a while ago, and now my folks use it....

Building you own rig is never cheaper, and in fact causes more issues than off the shelf PC's ever could. I had a hard time explaining to a mate why I didn't want to build him a PC after he saw my WC rig. His budget was way to small for it to be of any worth, and if a part went wrong, it was a warranty for "that part", not the whole rig. He came round in the end, when I showed him my "back up" parts bin, just in case something does fail

I don't bench test at all any more, although I have run my fair share of 3D mark tests in the past. I do still game, and it is nice to be able to crank things up to 1600x1050, or 1920x1080 with all the eye candy switched on. The 8800 ultras in SLI may be a few generations old as cards go, but the 4Ghz+ quad really gets the most out of them, so they still shine

The quad was my last purchase in quite a while, and a great stepping too, I won't need to upgrade for a long while yet, I don't need to be on the edge with the latest tech, as my two old GFX cards show!

Macs really would not suite any of my needs at all though, and seeing as they are basically the same hardware as PC's now, all they have are there looks and OS, and for me, as mentioned, that is not a selling point......

[smc]

Once again, the people that don't use them call them crap.

I've been using, programming, fixing, selling, consulting on and managing computers since I got my Atari 400 in 1978. I pretty much made my career on MS. I've used every piece of software written my MS (as far as I know).

Not only is the mac more stable, easier, less prone to viruses/malware (and no it's not because it's less popular it's due to the way it was designed - which comes from it's Unix/NEXT roots and which microsoft is trying to emulate in Vista/Win7), OSX is also more scalable - is stable 64bit - you can script ANYTHING you want (unlike windows). As far as I'm concerned is just as good as linux except that it works.

Many game developers started to port and even program for the mac, and Microsoft threatened to pull their distribution rights.

Coming from MANY years of experience, I prefer a mac at home and wish I could use them at work.

[Neuuubeh]

Btw these kind of discussions never really lead to any real conclusions with answers ;D

PS To throw another wrench in, the sec Apple implements Direct3d I'll buy myself a Mac . I'm serious tho..

PS2. Wait, they do make 2 button mice as well, right??

Edited August 2, 2009 by Neuuubeh

[vikkyrob]

Thanks guys for all your help and advice. I thought this topic would be short and sharp but it has sparked some real debate! As I said initially I want a good home computer that is reliable, simple and you don't need a Phd in computing to keep it running at good levels 2 - 3 years down the line. I think that a Mac seems to fit the bill and why not give it a try. Worse case they have good resale value so I wouldn't loose everything if it wasn't the right one for me. I like the idea of the time machine with mobileme so I can access my files on the move and it backs up my work. Are there any security issues or risks to be aware of and is this better than just storing the data on the computer and backing my work up with a portable hard drive?

Thanks for the advice and another great service from the RWG family.

Rob

[Pugwash]

PS To throw another wrench in, the sec Apple implements Direct3d I'll buy myself a Mac . I'm serious tho..

That's a Microsoft issue. DX isn't open to license.

Will OpenGL and OpenCL do?

PS2. Wait, they do make 2 button mice as well, right??

PS2? What that intentional? Yes, Apple make two-button mice.

[smc]

Direct3d is crap. It's easier to code for but you end up with crap bloated code that is beholden to microsoft. The need for DX is because there are a million component makers out there for PCs. DX is not a good thing, it simply makes life easier for lazy coders and has allowed the crap component makers to create even less compliant devices.

[Marken]

PS2? What that intentional? Yes, Apple make two-button mice.

In fact, the new Macbook has got a two-button mousepad. This made me lose my last reason not to change. Ages ago, in high-school, I was forced to use iMacs. They were unstable and got on my nerves. However, this spring I decided to give Macs a new try and bought a unibody Macbook. It blew my mind. I'll never buy a PC laptop again!

[docblackrock]

Thanks guys for all your help and advice. I thought this topic would be short and sharp but it has sparked some real debate! As I said initially I want a good home computer that is reliable, simple and you don't need a Phd in computing to keep it running at good levels 2 - 3 years down the line. I think that a Mac seems to fit the bill and why not give it a try. Worse case they have good resale value so I wouldn't loose everything if it wasn't the right one for me. I like the idea of the time machine with mobileme so I can access my files on the move and it backs up my work. Are there any security issues or risks to be aware of and is this better than just storing the data on the computer and backing my work up with a portable hard drive?

Thanks for the advice and another great service from the RWG family.

Rob

Good for you, decision made and I honestly think you won't regret it. And yes resale is a big factor to consider as well.

Ignore the willy-wavers and just enjoy your new machine

As much as personally I'm firmly entrenched in the Cupertino camp, at the end of the day, whatever platform, they're just TOOLS - you use them to do a job, with the minimum of fuss and effort in a way that you like and which suits you best. I think certain people lose sight of that.

The 1TB Time Capsule is what you want (Time Machine is the software app that handles your backups) and security is as expected for this level of civilian product. But as always be aware of what you're storing and accessing remotely; i.e. fine to use for photos, files, music, movies etc. but I wouldn't store any files with personal confidential, financials etc. on there. Use your HD. Oh and if you're getting a laptop (MB/MBP/MBA) I'd REALLY recommend sporting that bit extra for a solid state drive (SSD).