Thinking of getting a mac...

macs are awesome. the switch can be a bit daunting at first, but if you get used to it i think you will like it. all the pro designers and such seem to use macs (i don't really know why) so maybe theres something there. If i was you i'd get the lowest spec macbook pro - btw max your ram asap (not using apple they are too expensive) 'cause OSX seems to love/need it. also if you are a student/know one you can get 17% discount at macstores!! go into a macstore and mess about with one first i suppose see if you like it or not...

BTW the whole virus etc stuff is rubbish. XP never really crashes either (unless theres a hardware problem etc) & if you know what you are doing both are rock solid. {although i don't know anything about OSX yet}
 
I think PC's are better - it's easier and cheaper to upgrade and theres a better choice as there's no one company making all of them. Windows also gets a lot more games then OSX... but for design etc, Macs are supposed to be the best. If you're after games, then OSX probably won't be great until Alky is available:

http://www.fallingleafsystems.com/

Talking of which, there's a few things that are working against Microsoft's monopoly at the moment (Alky, Wine, ReactOS, Cedega), so hopefully within the next 5 years we will start seeing choice and interoperability on the operating system front... then choices such as "Mac or PC" won't be affected by which OS has the largest cut of the market, but rather by which OS is actually better ;)
 
utajoker said:
if u get a mac u get a stupid mouse
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you can just use a normal USB mouse, then right click works aswell ;)
does the mac have direct X 10 and will it be able to run crysis? if not then then id rather have a spare wheelie bin than a mac.
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the mac pro and macbook pro will run crysis, but not in DX10 as i doubt that the nVidia Quadro 4500 is DX10
 
does the mac have direct X 10 and will it be able to run crysis? if not then then id rather have a spare wheelie bin than a mac.
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Buying a mac for gaming is like buying a shovel to clean the floor with. It's good for some things but gaming is not one of them.

I personally will always stick with PCs. I can't stand apple or their computers. You're paying twice as much for what you can get in a PC. I don't understand anybodys attraction to macs. You can get good looking PC cases if that's really what bothers you. Personally I prefer having my eyecandy on screen though and a good performance case rather then a good looking one. Just have a look at some pictures of my Titan case, not the best looker but massive space and fantastic airflow.

I just won't ever want to give up my option to tinker with my PC.
 
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an honest opinion..

hi i am a mac user and i use pc's for work, i like both but prefer macs tbh

they do crash, but what you will find is (and i am going to go out on a limb here) they very very rarley crash due to hardware conflits, the only time i have experienced crashes is because of poorly coded third party software.. lightwave 3d being the main cause of my os x crashes a few years ago..

id say go for it mate, youl love os x, very user friendly and youl love the fact that you dont need to re format it every couple of months :) also the ilife tools that are bundled are really top notch, iphoto for example..

just my 2p worth :) hope it helps some...
 
Given up with the idea of getting a mac now. Will just upgrade my pc and save about 500 quid... And not have to learn a new OS, find programs etc.

I genuinely thought they never crashed, like phones never crash etc. That was the only thing that made me want one...
 
Darg said:
I just won't ever want to give up my option to tinker with my PC.
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I said that once a long time ago, but then I started to rely on my computer to earn a living and switched to a mac, it does crash once in a while, but then most computers do. the main point for me is I spend more time being productive rather than tinkering. I do own a couple of desktop pc's for playing with, but when I need to 'do' something I go back to 2year old mac....
 
28ten said:
I said that once a long time ago, but then I started to rely on my computer to earn a living and switched to a mac, it does crash once in a while, but then most computers do. the main point for me is I spend more time being productive rather than tinkering. I do own a couple of desktop pc's for playing with, but when I need to 'do' something I go back to 2year old mac....
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That is sort of why I also was asking about a mac originally.

A PC crashing, if i haven't saved, could end up costing me quite a bit of time and money.

If i got a powermac, g4, about 1ghz is that comparable to a 1ghz pc running xp? (ie, a bit crap, but bearable)
 
I youst use macs everyday at work more than PCs, back in the day MACs were required to desktop publishing stuff. Now I find I use a powerful PC instead.

Its very easy to upgrade
Software is easily available
Runs everyprogram a MAC can (for me I mean: Illustrator. Phshp. Indesign. Qwark etc.)
Dosnt cost the earth

I think the creative label apple promotes is a myth that too many people buy into. Oh, and apple fonts are.... aargh. But hey if you want to look cool.
 
A PC crashing, if i haven't saved, could end up costing me quite a bit of time and money.
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Blame yourself for not saving regulary, not the computer. I've used Apple's and they were in fact more unstable and slower than the PC's we had in the office.
 
I manage a lot of sites and use web based interfaces. Meaning its not really easily possible to save. Computers shouldn't crash imo.
 
Chronicle said:
Computers shouldn't crash imo.
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Yah I agree - you wouldn't accept a brand new car stopping every now and then "because that's what they do", so why a computer? Human error and/or lazy/bad programmers, I guess :(
 
Chronicle said:
If i got a powermac, g4, about 1ghz is that comparable to a 1ghz pc running xp? (ie, a bit crap, but bearable)
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I had a 1.07GHz iBook and I did some serious MATLAB research work on it. It was perfectly serviceable, even with the Core 2 Duo 1,83 MacBook to contrast it to now. I have been scanning fleabay for ages looking for a cheap Powermac. I used MS Mac Office constantly, entourage, word and powerpoint had my entire media catalogue on it, used a variety of external monitors and suffered no downtime from the operating system. I did burn through 3 internal drives as the thing was on 24/7. It did all the things I wanted of a PC except play games, or invite me to rip it open and overclock.

The Powermac G4 has a faster FSB, uses desktop components and so would be a massive step up on my old trusty iBook. Obviously a Powermac will be out of warranty, and the prices are very high, as Apples keep their second user value like white on rice.

Depending on what you want to use it for - then a qualified yes. For the 200? you might pay for loaded Quicksilver G4 you might as well get a mini. If you push the boat out a little a lowe end Powermac G5 with the stunning case might be within your reach (and potentially within warranty)
 
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I find that so long as you build your PC with compatible good quality components it will run perfectly fine and rarely if ever crash. If however you throw in bad RAM or a bad motherboard then you're just asking for trouble. Right now all my components are top-notch apart from my motherboard and that occasionally will cause an instant reboot but maybe twice in the month or more since I upgraded from my terrible old RAM. I will be getting a new motherboard soon, probably a DS3 and I doubt that I will get many if any crashes on it apart from those caused by poor software, even then most of those are recoverable from nowadays.
 
I've had a 12" PowerBook for just over two years now. Programmes such as msn messenger and vlc have crashed in the past but I've never had the thing lock up/randomly reboot completely on me once. I don't know what Tiger's like but Panther's rock solid for me.
 
OspreyO said:
I like macs but its just a machine like any other.

http://www.macfixitforums.com/ ;)
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Top site. However the Mac is not a machine like any other PC.

Yes the memory and hard drives and motherboards fail at the same rate as PCs - its basically the same hardware as is in a PC.

But...!

The Apple machines have a limited number of specifications, and the operating system is tuned specifically for these components. Unlike Windows which has to be compatible with thousands upon thousands, and each of them has to play nice with thousands upon thousands, and it will be your crazy combination that doesn't.

Therefore errors from using motherboard X with graphics card Y do not occur (often!).

Given the limited hardware ecosystem; when there is a problem lots of people get, Apple sees it and patches it, or it is easy to go to macfixit and get the temporary workaround, or likely Apple replaces the component if was a genuine fault (logic board replacements in iBooks et cetera).

Of course Apple is commodity hardware in a nice box... so buying boutique components, you might even get a better stability, if and only if they play together nice. Buying an Apple is likely better than carefully choosing your own components because they have X thousand engineers checking them for compatibility. Yes you are the tech wiz when building your own - just like me - but you don't have the resources to test like Apple.

[edited for clarity]
 
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