PC vs MAC LOL

Stappa

Enthusiast
Macs will do every thing a PC can do(virtually) but u pay considerably more for a Mac thats identically spec'd a PC
and yes a Mac can get virus's but as far fewer people use Macs far fewer virus's are written for Macs(I can personally see no advantage in Macs...)
 

LDUK

Master Poster
Being mainly a Mac user myself, I think Mac's advantage is not about better movie-making or photo-editing or anything like that, but about how Apple keeps their products simple to the majority of users. Note how they pull off older lines of products when new ones come out, so that you don't get overwhelmed. At any given time there're only that many options for you to choose from: Macbook White, Macbook Pro 13", 15", 17", Macbook Air. And also they make the distinctions about these products visible to the people who don't know much about computers: the size, the colour, not the components inside; but still you know which one's more powerful due to common sense: Pro > White, larger size > smaller size. In term of software, same story. iMovie, iPhoto are much simpler, not because they're smarter, but because they have everything set up for you: themes, transitions, colour sets, etc. You are literally just 1 click away from everything.

But the same advantage is also the disadvantage, advanced users normally don't like Mac because they are so not flexible. They take away the excitement of building a system from scratch, take away the freedom to go into little details, etc.

Edit: Oh and I'm not saying all Mac users are noobs in computer world, I'm just saying in most cases they are, like me ^^

But you could get a simple PC, that would be so much cheaper?
 

spikopsycho

Enthusiast
I have to say I generally prefer using a pc, as I used macs and I really couldn't get used to the OS, but maybe thats because I didn't give it enough time to grow on me :p.
However, I think some of the software only available to mac is awesome, for example, Logic pro - I've used a couple other audio programs but none of them are as good or comprehensive as it in my opinion.

I wish there was a version for PC :(.
 

LDUK

Master Poster
I have to say I generally prefer using a pc, as I used macs and I really couldn't get used to the OS, but maybe thats because I didn't give it enough time to grow on me :p.
However, I think some of the software only available to mac is awesome, for example, Logic pro - I've used a couple other audio programs but none of them are as good or comprehensive as it in my opinion.

I wish there was a version for PC :(.
Ah ha! There we are. An application that is preferred on the Mac. Makes sense. However, you did say you use the PC more. I guess one program can't be a good enough excuse to use another computer type.
 

Sleinous

Author Level
I absolutely agree, and if they sold their kit at a reasonable price ie, what its worth i would be into macs a lot more.

Oh and if i had never met a member of the cult of mac, that didnt help either!

Totally agree, I admit that macs look clean and there's not too much to choose from but seriously, the prices are outrageous, and, if I took one apart, don't anyone tell me I WOULDNT find teh same poor internal build quality that im finding in my Sony Vaio (ranomd branded memory, not veen same supplier for two different modules!) and a whole bunch of other stuff. I bet they dont use well known makes, I bet its all tiny firms noones ever heard of. All this for 200% markup on each item. THAT is what disgusts me.
 

rocknroll

Bronze Level Poster
It's simple....
can you custom spec a Mac with a flashy case etc..
like you can your wonderfull pc at pcs
Not than i can remember
 

Voyeurism

Member
Personally, I have been using a MacBook as my main machine for the last couple of years as I lived in a tiny tiny flat. I've just bought a four bedroom house, and the first thing I've done is order myself a desktop PC (from PCS).

In my experience, Mac OS X is a much nicer operating system to use than either Windows XP or Vista. I don't have a great deal of experience with Windows 7 yet, but from what I have seen there is a lot to like. Having said that, it appears that many of those things are "inspired" by features of Mac OS X - I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Compared to every version of Windows with which I have extensive (sysadmin/netadmin) experience, Mac OS X is joy to use - I personally find the UI to be cleaner and simpler, and the OS in general more intuitive for a new user. Combined with reliability of the FreeBSD based kernel and the power of *nix commands/utilities/programs which are available to those confident in using the terminal, without the driver issues that seem to plague linux distributions, I personally find Mac OS X to be the best operating system I've ever used.

There is one single factor which is keeping me from being a 100% Mac user:

1 - Software availability/compatibility. There are some very specific pieces of software which I use regularly for which there is no Mac version, and no Mac alternative. There is also a paucity of games for Mac OS X, although to be perfectly honest I could live with my gaming experience being limited to my PS3 and Wii - I personally don't consider this a deal breaker, although I understand that many will. The situation is also likely to improve over a relatively short period of time now that Steam is available for Mac OS X.

At present I run Windows XP in Bootcamp to access those programs, and while this works there are associated hassles which make the experience less than ideal - for example I had to purchase software to allow the Windows partition to access the Mac partition, and I had to install an unreliable filesystem driver to allow Mac OS X to write to the NTFS partition. There are other minor niggles as well, which I think it is easily within Apple's power to resolve in future versions of Bootcamp - although whether they choose to do so is up to them.

I have tried running Crossover, DarWine, Parallels etc to let me run my Windows software in Mac OS X, and again the experience was less than ideal. Partly this is because of the dated spec of my MacBook (Core2Duo, 2Gb RAM) and partly because I consider each of those solutions to be lacking in some particular way - I accept that not everyone will feel this way.

Some points that others have made which I don't believe are a huge issue:

1 - Cost. The PC I have just ordered is an overclocked i7-950 with 12Gb of RAM and a 120Gb SSD/1TB HDD combo, and cost just under £2k (not including mouse/keyboard or displays). I then spent approximately £700 on dual 23" monitors, keyboard, mouse, and speakers - for the record this is far more than you would need to spend on such things, but I happen to like high quality products.

While there is no direct Mac equivalent to compare it to, it would appear that the closest I could get a would be a iMac with a 2.93Ghz i7 processor and 16Gb of RAM, which would cost about £700 more but would include a 27" display, keyboard and mouse (albeit less featured than the ones I've ended up with) - I would then have to buy the SSD which would be another £250 from online suppliers. While this is clearly more expensive than the PC, it is arguably a better spec (although this will of course depend on what you're intending on doing with it), and I suspect its not AS more expensive as a lot of people (myself included) would have expected. I would say that its close enough that I can accept the increased price buys me higher build quality (no slight on PCS intended), better customer service (my 4 year old MacBook just received a replacement battery and bevel free of charge, on the day, just by taking it into an Apple Store - without me having paid for an extended warranty or similar. Can't see many PC manufacturers doing this), and to subsidise the operating system (which they practically give away, on the basis that it can only run on Apple hardware).

The reason I think Apple machines seem much more expensive is that there are less options for configuration, and there are basically no "low end" machines in their range.

2 - Configurability/Upgradeability. I agree that there is significantly less scope for configuring or upgrading your iMac than there is for upgrading or configuring a PCS custom built machine. However the Apple machine is probably just as configurable as a machine bought from Dell, HP or a similar company - its only fair to compare Apples with... apples. In terms of upgradeability then the PC camp have a fair point. However, arguably there is less need to upgrade the Apple machine due to the nature of the development of Mac OS X. Subsequent (recent) versions of Mac OS X certainly appear to run quicker than previous versions on the same hardware - this is in direct contrast to Windows versions (again I can't really speak for Windows 7) which in most cases run significantly slower or require some features to be disabled.


Anyway... long story short, I prefer the Mac operating system to any Windows version I've spent a lot of time with but I need to use Windows for specific tasks. The way it works out, I prefer to have a PC as my desktop machine and put up with dual booting on my laptop for when I'm on the road. If I could move to being 100% Mac then I would, and once I had I would probably moan about the lack of configurability/upgradeability - but then I'm a contrary c**t, and if I was ever completely happy it would probably mean seas of blood and mountains of skulls for the rest of you.
 

Gorman

Author Level
All good points, however my point of view is this:

For what it is and the equivalent parts the Macs are overpriced, way overpriced.

This is a well known example of just how overpriced they are.

1283525187943.jpg


http://www.3nglish.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/1283525187943.jpg

Mac Os x is nice and works well, as for it inspiring Windows, Mac Os X is heavily ripped off from various Linux distros (unix parentage they are the same thing in my eyes). Good ideas travel fast, especially if they are not protected.

As has been said before Mac Os X does not suffer many of Windows niggles as it does not have to support as much hardware, its swapping versatility for reliability which is great for some, horrible for others. The firmware in my coffee machine runs like a dream, it should do too as it has a very limited scope, just like the Mac.

As for higher build quality, i am somewhat shocked by this. Apple have a long history (sorry i dont mean Apple as such, more of Steve Jobs) of ignoring basic principles in order to meet design ideals. That is they prefer form over function. This is evident in designs where they opt for passive cooling where it is not suitable (aluminium macbook too hot to touch after a few hours etc).

And at the end of the day, theyre all made by Foxconn whose mainboards are so unreliable we dare not stock them!

I had a lot of respect for Apples design in days gone by, recently with the move to intel they are simply selling poorly thought out PC's at horrendously marked up prices with Mac Os x on them.

Sorry, that turned into a bit of a rant there didnt it =[

One last thing on my rant. Apple hates the UK and treats us with utter contempt.

Heres an example:

Mac USA http://www.apple.com/macmini/ Mac Mini from $699.

Mac UK http://www.apple.com/uk/macmini/ Mac Mini from £649

lol wut?

$699 USD = £447.474553 GBP

Maybe its VAT?

£447 + 17.5% = £525.25

Ok, maybe not. That my friends, is the Apple tax.
 
Last edited:

Darko

Well-known member
Ok here's my experience with macs
NONE
!:p
2 years ago i moved in the uk for studies, i bought my *NEW THEN* acer aspire 6920g. I am a gamer (my roommates are gamers too) playing 7 hours per day cod4:p. Anyway to the point. One of my roommates is studying graphic design so he has been told to buy a mac. So he did. He bought imac 27'' inch monitor. wow i couldnt say a thing, (i was so jealous). After 2-3 days u know while we were playing cod4 with my roommates he came in my room and he asked me. Dude can u download cod4 for macs? yep i said. downloaded, he tried to installed it but nothing, i told him ok u should buy it. He bought the game(he installed it) and we were playing cod4... a week after he took his laptop and left his imac in the corner. SO is it worth to buy MACS? well we are kids(am 22 :p), we ll never stop playing games unless u will find a good job and make family!
yey i just finished!:p
 

Gorman

Author Level
Sorry if I sound ignorant Akikos, but what was the point you were trying to make with that last post? :p

I believe the jist of it was

"In the early 90's the PC got Doom and the Mac got Princess Dreams Pony Riding School, that is all you will ever need to know about gaming on a Mac"
 

rocknroll

Bronze Level Poster
Apple
# One 3.33GHz 6-Core Intel Xeon “Westmere”
# 8 GB (4 x 2 GB)
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# 1TB 7200-rpm Serial ATA 3Gb/s hard drive
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# Two ATI Radeon HD 5770 1GB
# One 18x SuperDrive
# Apple LED Cinema Display (27" flat panel)
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# Magic Mouse
# Apple Wireless Keyboard (British) & User's Guide (English)
# None
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# iWork Family Pack preinstalled
# Aperture preinstalled
# Final Cut Express preinstalled
# Logic Express preinstalled
# FileMaker Pro 11 preinstalled
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# AppleCare Protection Plan for Mac Pro - Auto-enroll
#

£5,490.95
incl. VAT

#

# Ships: 5-7 business days
# Free Shipping


PCS

Case
COOLERMASTER COSMOS 1000 SILVER SILENT CASE (£159)
Processor (CPU)
Intel® Core™i7 Processor Extreme Edition i7-980X (3.33GHz) 6.4GTs/12MB Cache
Motherboard
ASUS® RAMPAGE III EXTREME: 3-Way SLI & CrossFireX, SATA 6.0GB/s, USB 3.0
Memory (RAM)
12GB KINGSTON HYPER-X T1 TRI-DDR3 2000MHz, X.M.P (3 x 4GB KIT)
Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
2nd Graphics Card
1GB ATI RADEON™ HD 5870 PCI EXPRESS - DirectX® 11
Memory - 1st Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
2nd Hard Disk
1TB WD CAVIAR BLACK WD1002FAEX, SATA 6 Gb/s, 64MB CACHE (7200rpm)
1st DVD/BLU-RAY Drive
10x BLU-RAY RE-WRITER DRIVE, 16x DVD ±R/±RW (£89)
Power Supply & Case Cooling
CORSAIR 1000W MODULAR PSU (HX1000) 80+ ULTRA QUIET (£172)
Processor Cooling
COOLIT ECO C240 A.L.C (ADVANCED LIQUID COOLER) (£102)
Sound Card
Sound Blaster® X-Fi™ Titanium - Fatal1ty Champion Series (£149)
Network Facilities
ONBOARD 10/100/1000 GIGABIT LAN PORT
USB Options
4 PORT USB 2.0 INTERNAL PCI CARD + STANDARD USB PORTS
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Genuine Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit - inc DVD & Licence (£148)
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Microsoft® Office Pro 2010 (Incl Disc & 1 License for 2 devices) (£339)
Anti-Virus
NORTON 360 SUITE - 1 Year Licence for upto 3 PCs (£52)
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IIYAMA B2712HDS 27" WIDESCREEN, HDMI/DVI-D FULL HD 1920x1080 (£249)
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3 Year Platinum Warranty (3 Year Collect & Return, 3 Year Parts, 3 Year labour) (£135)
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STANDARD INSURED DELIVERY TO UK MAINLAND (MON-FRI)
Build Time
Standard Build - Approximately 9 to 12 working days
Quantity
1

Price: £4,627.00 including VAT and delivery.

now what would you rather have?
 

Darko

Well-known member
so my point dear LDUK friend is that MAC SUX nowdays, can only be used for video editing and graphic but HEY windows can do that also !!
 

Kalisnoir

Super Star
so my point dear LDUK friend is that MAC SUX nowdays, can only be used for video editing and graphic but HEY windows can do that also !!

It was me who asked not LDUK aha :D
Like I said though, I didn't mean to sound ignorant, I just generally didn't understand where you were trying to get at with the point, however I now understand ;)
 
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