OT: PC VS. MAC? Computer Heads please recommend

[STAR3URY3]

I have a Dell Desktop right now..i had it for like 5 years..i really want a Mac...are they any good, what is the difference, are they better?

Is there any differences in terms of applications/programs. Am i going to have a hard time sending things to other people..meaning the formats of the files. And also do I have to pay for basic applications?

[hobojoe2131]

I have had both. Mac is easily better for everyday use. It is not even close. If you can afford it, get it.

[TheBluest]

Mac's are pretty cool computers but PC's IMO are still more user friendly. If you're into multimedia/publishing-graphics/music go Mac. If you're into Gaming go PC.

[livintoolive]

Get what you will be using at your job once you graduate. If I remember correctly, you're going to pharmacy school. I'm really not sure what pharmacists use.

They both have their positives and negatives, but if you don't already know them, you should concentrate on what you will be using at work.

[Big C]

I have a Dell Desktop right now..i had it for like 5 years..i really want a Mac...are they any good, what is the difference, are they better?

Is there any differences in terms of applications/programs. Am i going to have a hard time sending things to other people..meaning the formats of the files. And also do I have to pay for basic applications?

I have both. What I like about the mac is it comes with the programs already installed for music, photo editing, and movies. Plus everything is really organized for you. I rarely use my dell now a days.

Whatever computer you decide to go with make sure you get the warranty. You should also go to the Apple store and check it out for yourself. When you go to the mac store ask them to show you the programs that come with the mac book. The down fall with the mac is the sound. You will have to buy additional speakers. Where as regular pc's the volume is already loud.

Best Buy has macs that you can look at as well as other computers like HP's and sony's. You can compare them to the mac.

[pewing33ny]

Depends on what you want to do. I prefer PCs for everyday use because they're a lot more flexible than macs. OSX is really dumbed down and it gets hyped as something that "just works". If you're doing very very simple things I guess that could be fine but you'll be paying a HUGE premium just to have something simple.

As someone said though, a lot of it depends on your job. I'm an audio engineering major and thus had to buy a mac to use Logic and to an extent pro tools. My friend does a lot of graphic design and he also needs a mac.

My suggestion is that if you don't need a mac, don't get one. You can build a really nice PC for only like $500 if you have someone to help you put it together. I know that a lot of chinatown stores will custom build a computer for you at a pretty decent price too if you can't find someone to build it.

[CrazyEyes]

Apple has a 30 day return policy at their stores. I'd suggest just getting the Mac and trying it out. If you don't like it you can always bring it back.

[Ignitowsky]

Do you want a Mac because of the ads or maybe because your friends have one> Are you happy with the Dell that you have now, given that is is slower and less powerful than what you'd buy today?

Ia price a consideration? Macs tend to be more expensive than a comparably equipped PC because you have to buy the Mac from Apple, you can buy a PC from a number of vendors, Competition =lower prices.

The advice I've given in the past was this

1- Decide what it is you want to do on whatever computer you buy.

Find software that will enable you to do what you decided in step one.

3- Find a machine that can run the software.

4- Go with a combination of reliability (reputation) and cost.

[FlashFlood]

Get a PC... People just assume that macs are more user friendly and better for doing "professional" work. Really they're the same. Anything you can do on a mac, you can do on a PC. Unfortunately, the reverse isn't true... Yes you can do video-, audio- and image-editing on both PCs and Macs. Yes you can do 3d rendering with both. Macs however dont even have the option of maybe playing games. Its just not there, it's not available.

There's the price issue... Point blank, you can have a really generic looking PC but it will outperform the best macs. It's very cheap to get a dual core, 4gb ram, 500gb HD, dx10 video card box these days. We're talking ~800$ if you build it yourself. You can't get a decent mac at that price...

There's also the potential repair and upgrade paths. Simply put, there are next to no options available for macintosh upgrades or repairs. You have X model and it can only be upgraded with Y macintosh-approved parts. You can only have it repaired by mac-certified technicians. With PCs? Limitless potential... I've upgraded the same PC numerous times over the years going from an AMD single core 2.0ghz 512mb ram 160gb HD with a 9800pro to an Intel 3.3 ghz dual core with 2gb ram, about 2000gbs and an 8800gts video card. Generally speaking that's what was top of the line in 2000 to what was top of the line last year.

Macs are toys IMO. PCs are where it's at. They are cheaper, they perform better, they are easier to maintain, and you dont look like a total douche when you take your mac to the nearest starbucks to write your novel and pretend to be part of the hip 'in' crowd while sipping your 8$ caramel macciato...

[mjhp911]

They are cheaper, they perform better, they are easier to maintain, and you dont look like a total douche when you take your mac to the nearest starbucks to write your novel and pretend to be part of the hip 'in' crowd while sipping your 8$ caramel macciato...

Almost as good as... ketchup like tomato sauce, homie!

Oh, and uh, if you can afford it, go with a Mac.

[duetta]

Gates has the rep, but Jobs is the real pirate. He's built a cult around Apple. I can build a PC that's as fast as I could possibly need for $400-$500 (without monitor).

[Turisas]

If you only want to do basic things like surfing the internet then may I suggest a netbook. I just got the MSI Wind u100 and I love it!

[I_Love_NYK]

Home use Mac, Office use PC.

[StarH2O]

Mac's are pretty cool computers but PC's IMO are still more user friendly. If you're into multimedia/publishing-graphics/music go Mac. If you're into Gaming go PC.

Pretty much. Also there might be some compatibility problems, depending on what you use at school/work.

[Boss_]

pc..alot of games dont work on mac...

like some others said..do yourself a favor and dont get crap like dells..if you dont know how to put computers together..go to your local computer store.. tell him you want a pc built..tell him what it will be used for..tell him the amount of money you want to spend on the parts.

You dont need a keyboard, mouse, monitor so thats savings right there just use the ones u got and get top of the line parts cpu, ram, motherboard, graphics card. You can even use ur tv as a monitor. Just get a good graphics card.

Most of the computer stores out there will build it for you for free provided you get all the parts from their store.

When I built my computer a couple of months ago I spent like $2500. Yea its alot but I got the best parts out there and 2 graphics cards linked cuz im crazy like that..

On dell's subcompany alienware (which they build top of the line computers for gaming), the same setup was $4,000-5,000. I pocketed 1500-2000. Thats crazy money.

Granted, the computer is not gonna come with any programs. Which is good, you want that, itll be barebones clean, super fast. Stuff like image editing programs, mp3 stuff..or whatever it is u wanna do..you can probably download for free on the internet.

[-Ducky-]

These days is very easy to install OSX on intel PCs. The OSx86 project has been out there long enough to offer hardware support for most PC components. So there there is very little reason to by a Mac, unless you want customer support (which is really good), or like the glowing apple logo.

[Jitpal]

I switched in January of 2006 to Macs and I couldn't be happier. Everything works flawlessly and I have owned about 4 Macs from then until now. I had everything in our office switched over to OS X and not a single issue. Those people who say you can't do everything on a Mac or that it's dumbed down, don't know what they are talking about. When a person switches to OS X, there is a little bit of a learning curve, once they get over that, it really opens up. The thing is, most people are used to doing things a different way, a more difficult way on Windows, when you switch over to a Mac you expect things to be harder than they really are, thus the learning curve.

The quantity for applications on windows outnumbers the quantity on OS X but the quality on OS X is far superior to that on windows. I'd really recommend borrowing a friend's Mac and testing it out for a few days to see how you like it. It's not just changing your operating system, you change your lifestyle. -Jitpal

[PrecociousNeoph]

it depends on what applications you are going to need. aside from price range, that should be your #1 concern. if there are no mac/pc exclusive apps you need, or the ones you need are available for both, then its just a matter of preference. my advice:

+macs are great for professional work. they are not toys. unlike windows, they are nix based. as a developer, this means i have access to unix commands in the terminal. extremely helpful. things like mounting remote drives and ssh'ing into servers is very easy to do on os x. essentially i get the strengths of a Linux box with almost none of the weaknesses.

+ os X is very easy to use. while vista is not as bad as people say imo, the way they set the security privs is really stupid. being asked "ARE YOU SURE YOU WANT TO CONTINUE" every time you do something (despite being an admin on my machine...) is pretty annoying, and for some reason M$ decided to bury the security settings in control panel.

+ file search is leaps and bounds better than any windows search. it does a find-in-files. nuff said.

+ macs pretty much never have to reboot, another advantage of them being unix based.

- the myth that macs are more stable than pcs is well, a myth. my mac pro crashes regularly in cpu/memory-intensive scenarios where my pc at home does not. i'm talking about loading 100+mb photoshop files while compiling flash files, having 3 browsers open with multiple tabs each, aim, mounted drives, multiple IEDs, finder windows, etc. all open at once. the artists where i work who deal with extremely heavy photoshop PSDs are especially familiar with the mac Rainbow Wheel of Death. some times it doesn't crash, instead i get artifacting and other rendering bugs when im doing something as simple as searching google or typing. im not sure what kind of stuff you'll be doing with your computer, so you might not need to worry about this sort of thing.

- if you are at all serious about enjoying computer games, mac users are out of luck.

- for some reason macs (and apple-sold hardware in general) is still overpriced.

summary: macs are better than pc fanboys will admit, but not as good as apple nutriders claim. it's just a matter of what apps you need and what they run on and what your price range is.

[Lottery Bound]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vWVEtVkF8eY

[Zerostatic]

I am a Technology teacher. I was a PC person most of my life but since some of the classes I taught were done on Mac's I went out and got a macbook and honestly, I have fallen in love with the Mac. In fact, I am planning on selling my home desktop pc and replacing it with an iMac. I just love how clean and quickly everything works on Macs. There definitely was a learning curve in the beginning but I actually had fun, mastering all the little shortcuts and tips and tricks of the Mac operating system as well as the included iLife 08 suite of applications.