Mac vs PC

Wicksta · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:25

I just got an i5 Mac Mini, lovely bit of hardware.

However I run Windows 7 on it as I have to do work rather than just use a pretty OS.

Sukh · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:25

Mac: Ultimate Plug and Play package, but limiting in what you can do

PC: Ultimate machine to do anything, but not very Plug and Play

Pretty much it in my eyes.

Shayper · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:27

I will never buy a mac.

Reason?

Proprietary hardware. I enjoy building my own PCs, and watercooling them, overclocking them and generally making a beast.

You can't do that with a mac. I understand that I am technically a niche market, but so is video editing, photo editing, and audio production, which many people use a mac for. Also the price of the things make them a niche market also.

However, this does not mean I will never buy an Apple product. My iPhone does everything that I want it to on the go, even audio production. I even bought a netbook, and sold it again within a month because I realised that between my PC and my iPhone, I don't need anything else to do the things that I want.

Anyone who won't buy a product from Apple on the basis that "LULZ THEY ARE TOO EXPENSIVE FOR WHAT THEY ARE" obviously isn't the person for who the product is aimed at. Similarly, I have friends who ask me "LULZ WHY DO YOU HAVE A FULLY WATERCOOLED 2.5K GAMING PC?!?!", and the only answer is that it fits the niche that my needs and wants create.

Tummy · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:29

I also think that OSX and Windows are aimed at slightly different audiences, professionally, not just for home users.

Nerusy · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:36

Mac > PC; it's a fact.

Problem???

and don't compare gaming pc and a mac, if you want gaming high performance PC you will go for custom built PC.

I think people are hating on macs do that out of simple ignorance. Mac is aimed at different target audience. If you're into PC gaming then nobody ever suggested you should get a mac. Their laptops are fantastic, HP envy tried to copy that and cost came to what macbook pro costs and envy still is not as good. iMac is a fantastic machine (and actually very generously priced if we take into account that gorgeous screen). It's not meant to max out crysis, that's not it's aim and please don't drag that very expensive workstation mac pro to your rearded i7 custom built with sli gtx580, once again that workstationg has different goals in mind. Mini mac thingy sure does cost a lot built its tiny, you can not compare same performance to custom bult because they'll still be uglier and bigger.

Stop with the mac hate, their good.

Inbefore people think I am mac sympathizer, I got dell laptop and I got custom built pc

peterattheboro · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:40

Raymond Lin said:
No, but are you putting a price of aesthetics? There are no price for aesthetics, as there are no price for design.

Forget and hardware and software, this is where the die hard windows fan will always argue, from that angle, that you get more bang for bucks. Well, this is where i am telling you.

What if I say I don't care for bang for buck, I want a pretty looking machine that is tidy? Bite me

That is where a lot of Mac user comes from, they like it because it is pretty, they don't know about OSX. They don't know about Viruses. They don't price compare the same spec machine to one from Toshiba or Acer.

They see it. They like the look of it. They know they can afford it.

They buy it.

People are thinking too hard on why the majority buy Macs.

Me? I want an all in one machine. Silent. and a MASSIVE IPS screen.

and yes, i wanted that 1 cable. You should see the size of my desk. i have no room for a tower.

I'm glad you said it because if I did then i'd have probably been slated further as a Mac hater. Lets pay 100s of pounds extra for something that looks pretty. That's the general population of the UK at the moment. Being sold something that looks pretty but isn't as good as it's cheaper competitors and then they come out in droves and argue that Apple are best and LOL you don't have Apple. You can't argue with these dumb people.

Raymond Lin said:
But you got to priorities and eventually, caring about that piece of metal box would be a chore and not fun and wonder why you bothered!

Let me give you an example in my life the last 3 days.

Saturday I woke up and got the 9am train to London for 2 client meetings for weddings in 2012. Got home at 9pm.

Sunday I woke up and lost my voice! But still went to that shoot with the girls, spend the night editing.

Monday (today) - I woke up aching all over and coughing badly so I didn't go to work, stayed at home. Ended up editing and this evening I sat on the floor sorting out the receipts, bank statements and spreadsheets for my taxes.

I don't have time to spend it fiddle with the PC. That thing really should serve me. Period. Not the other way round.

I built my i5 machine in February. In March I knocked the clock speed up to 4.5ghz in 5 minutes. I've upgraded my graphics card last month. Other than that I very very rarely have to tinker with my PC. It just works.

peterattheboro · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:42

Nerusy said:
Mac > PC; it's a fact.

Problem???

and don't compare gaming pc and a mac, if you want gaming high performance PC you will go for custom built PC.

I think people are hating on macs do that out of simple ignorance. Mac is aimed at different target audience. If you're into PC gaming then nobody ever suggested you should get a mac. Their laptops are fantastic, HP envy tried to copy that and cost came to what macbook pro costs and envy still is not as good. iMac is a fantastic machine (and actually very generously priced if we take into account that gorgeous screen). It's not meant to max out crysis, that's not it's aim and please don't drag that very expensive workstation mac pro to your rearded i7 custom built with sli gtx580, once again that workstationg has different goals in mind. Mini mac thingy sure does cost a lot built its tiny, you can not compare same performance to custom bult because they'll still be uglier and bigger.

Stop with the mac hate, their good.

Inbefore people think I am mac sympathizer, I got dell laptop and I got custom built pc

Why are they good? What do they do better than the cheaper alternatives? (apart from the IPS screen)

All throughout this thread and throughout time people are saying Macs are better but they can't give a reason why. They just say because it just is.

Raymond Lin · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:43

peterattheboro said:
I'm glad you said it because if I did then i'd have probably been slated further as a Mac hater. Lets pay 100s of pounds extra for something that looks pretty. That's the general population of the UK at the moment. Being sold something that looks pretty but isn't as good as it's cheaper competitors and then they come out in droves and argue that Apple are best and LOL you don't have Apple. You can't argue with these dumb people.

I built my i5 machine in February. In March I knocked the clock speed up to 4.5ghz in 5 minutes. I've upgraded my graphics card last month. Other than that I very very rarely have to tinker with my PC. It just works.

No, you can't put a price of aesthetics. I have a piece of art that cost me £400, nothing in the grand scheme of things in the Art world but in actual material cost? probably 1/10th that.

In that 5 min plus however long you installed the graphic card, which I presume if you are thorough enough, a full reformat and full install of all the programs and games which includes back up, which is hours and hours.

Waste of time.

UncleBob · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:43

Well, they um... run Windows as well, so owners aren't limited by the narrow casual / creative focus of the Apple market.

peterattheboro · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:44

Raymond Lin said:
In that 5 min plus however long you installed the graphic card, which I presume if you are anal enough, a full reformat which includes back up first? Which is hours and hours.

Waste of time.

Uninstall drivers takes 2 minutes, remove and install the card takes 2 minutes and install new drivers takes 2 minutes.

No reformat needed.

I don't believe for a second your time is so precious that you can't do something other than go meet clients, edit photos and sleep. What are you doing now? Posting on the forum at 1:45am stating your case across about the advantages of a Mac (which i'm still yet to hear

)

dowie · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:45

Silly thread is silly tbh... and FWIW the OP didn't really address the points in the post he was quoting.

FWIW I've got both a macbook running snow leopard, dell laptop running windows, HTPC in the lounge running ubuntu/XBMC and another PC at my desk with both windows and ubuntu.

They all have their uses...

dmcg said:
macs are a joke they're mostly a "cool thing" in the tech world to non tech savy people

Not true really - a few techies where I work use them - tis just down to personal preference.

Raymond Lin · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:49

peterattheboro said:
Why are they good? What do they do better than the cheaper alternatives? (apart from the IPS screen)

All throughout this thread and throughout time people are saying Macs are better but they can't give a reason why. They just say because it just is.

They are better because

1 - I have not formatted it once in 2.5 years since I had it.
2 - I have not had a need to buy Anti-Virus. Yes Mac Virus exists but you got to be an idiot to get infected.
3 - It is silent. Totally. and no, I don't have it water-cooled either.
4 - Customer Service (point proven previously)
5 - Nice OS (subjective, never had trouble with Windows myself)

oh, I forgot, they DO look better.

There, that's 5 reasons, before i even mention about the pretty part lol

Raymond Lin · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:50

peterattheboro said:
Uninstall drivers takes 2 minutes, remove and install the card takes 2 minutes and install new drivers takes 2 minutes.

No reformat needed.

I don't believe for a second your time is so precious that you can't do something other than go meet clients, edit photos and sleep. What are you doing now? Posting on the forum at 1:45am stating your case across about the advantages of a Mac (which i'm still yet to hear )

Exactly, I rather do that than fiddle with drivers

Actually, I couldn't sleep, this cough is keeping me up.

Nerusy · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:54

peterattheboro said:
Why are they good? What do they do better than the cheaper alternatives? (apart from the IPS screen)

All throughout this thread and throughout time people are saying Macs are better but they can't give a reason why. They just say because it just is.

Did you read what I said or only the first line, the whole "problem????" should have given away that I am messing about because then I go into detail that pc and mac have different target audience (and not its not "stupid" vs "smart"), different uses and different ultimate goals in mind.

peterattheboro · 13 Sep 2011 at 01:59

Raymond Lin said:
They are better because

1 - I have not formatted it once in 2.5 years since I had it.
2 - I have not had a need to buy Anti-Virus. Yes Mac Virus exists but you got to be an idiot to get infected.
3 - It is silent. Totally. and no, I don't have it water-cooled either.
4 - Customer Service (point proven previously)
5 - Nice OS (subjective, never had trouble with Windows myself)

oh, I forgot, they DO look better.

There, that's 5 reasons, before i even mention about the pretty part lol

I've not bought antivirus either. I use Microsoft Security Essentials and Malwarebytes, both of which are free. And if I keep on top of them and keep my system clean then that'll last a good while before a fresh install is needed.

Looks isn't really a reason. I think my budget Acer/Samsung monitor and Antec 300 case look better. Especially paired with a Pioneer AV reciever & 5.1 sound.

Customer Service, great but I'll get the same level of service from Logitech and others if I ever require it.

And it's silent, big deal. Not really worth the premium. If I wanted silent I'd buy a laptop.

peterattheboro · 13 Sep 2011 at 02:00

Nerusy said:
Did you read what I said or only the first line, the whole "problem????" should have given away that I am messing about because then I go into detail that pc and mac have different target audience (and not its not "stupid" vs "smart"), different uses and different ultimate goals in mind.

If people buy Macs because they prefer the OS for graphical editing etc then fair enough. But to buy it purely because it looks pretty is just idiotic.

Going to bed now anyway... Turrah!

Raymond Lin · 13 Sep 2011 at 02:03

Silence is a HUGE deal, my iMac is an arms length from me right now, and I am lying in bed.

I don't think logitech makes your case, mobo, GFX, HD, fans or psu.

Re the silence point, You are just writing off legitimate reasons that are important to me, that's me out of this conversation. Pointless arguing people who can't see things from others perspective.

Nerusy · 13 Sep 2011 at 02:04

peterattheboro said:
If people buy Macs because they prefer the OS for graphical editing etc then fair enough. But to buy it purely because it looks pretty is just idiotic.

Going to bed now anyway... Turrah!

Sigh, why would you go ahead and assume that? Look ask people who own/owned both, they won't be so silly as to say PC>Mac or Mac>PC

It's childish. Why bother buying gtx480 for £100 pounds more if you can overclock 470 to that performance lvl? Why buy a latte with chocolate and caramel on top and pay much bigger margin? Why buy luxury performance car if you want to race instead of barebones one?

It's not just the look it's a bunch of other pros and cons.

StriderX · 13 Sep 2011 at 02:05

Raymond Lin said:
Silence is a HUGE deal, my iMac is an arms length from me right now, and I am lying in bed.

You are just writing off legitimate reasons that are important to me, that's me out of this conversation. Pointless arguing people who can't see things from others perspective.

What species did you think you were speaking to...

I think you are silly pre-determining that people would care about your view.

Vorash · 13 Sep 2011 at 02:07

Raymond Lin said:
They are better because

1 - I have not formatted it once in 2.5 years since I had it.
2 - I have not had a need to buy Anti-Virus. Yes Mac Virus exists but you got to be an idiot to get infected.
3 - It is silent. Totally. and no, I don't have it water-cooled either.
4 - Customer Service (point proven previously)
5 - Nice OS (subjective, never had trouble with Windows myself)

oh, I forgot, they DO look better.

There, that's 5 reasons, before i even mention about the pretty part lol

1. I've had my PC 3.5 years and never formatted
2. I haven't spent a single penny on anti-virus and i've never had a virus
3. I built mine to be silent, I'm not sure how it would compare to yours but I have no problems with mine
4. I've had no need to contact customer services, if I did it's most likely to be someone like Corsair - you can hardly say they're bad
5. You're right, it's subjective

I disagree that they just look better because 'it's a mac', which is what a lot of people say. Some PC builds look beautiful.

Anyway, the point of this post isn't to say Macs are crap, I'm just saying your advantages of having one are meaningless since my older PC matches and beats them.

This is a genuine question though: What are Macs good at? What are the actual reasons for buying one over a PC that justifies paying such a premium? (ignoring looks)