New computer: PC or Mac?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ll be buying a new computer in the next few weeks. No rush, but my current is an old laptop.

I’ve never owned an Apple computer. The family does all have iPhones and iPads though, and like them just fine.

So, avoiding fanboyism and anti-Apple ranters, what are the honest pros and cons of an Apple computer/laptop iof some kind or a regular Windows PC?

I don’t play games often on the PC, but I do like the occasional RTS. I work on it - mainly web design and related stuff. I use various media files a lot, have a PS3, and am big on having it all networked.

2

Hardware wise, under the hood its pretty much the same stuff. Apple tends to use different styles of ram and motherboards with a BIOS modification for OS installers to check to make sure its being installed on apple hardware. This makes parts harder to come by at times. I’m not up on the latest developments WRT Apple motherboards so this may have changed in the last couple years.

You do pay more for a Apple per unit of performance and in most cases you can get a more powerful windows unit for much less money than a similar performance Apple.

MacOS is tough and secure, more so than a typical windows machine, but not bulletproof.

You also hear alot of “just run windows on your apple computer” Something the Apple fanboys almost never want to talk about…if you are running in windows on an apple computer, you can be infected just like any other windows machine.

Windows7 is a solid OS and Apple communities will probably never match the breadth and depth of hardware, software and information available for Windows machines.

For what most people do, there is effectively no difference between the two…they can both email, surf the web, play facebook games, write a letter, etc.

If you are looking for the ability to do business, you go windows. I deal with tons of small businesses using a broad variety of specialized software. Most of those software packages are not available in windows.

Since you do web design, both platforms have a variety of excellent options.

Games, windows will win every time for availability and variety.

3

it’s safer, not necessarily more secure.

4

AFAIK, Macs have fewer vectors by which someone can download and run malicious programs without your knowledge and approval.

However, no OS in existence can fully protect you from malicious programs that get into it because you were fooled into approving it.

5

Apple makes great hardware, and some of the best laptops on the market. They are priced roughly equivalently to competitive PC products. If you do not care about size, weight, portability, build quality, keyboard feel, etc., you can certainly find cheaper PC alternatives. Apple does not make any “discount” products, while HP and Dell will be perfectly happy to sell you a $400 laptop that’s a cheap piece of shit.

The nice thing about Apple is that you never have to do any research to confirm that you’re not buying a piece of crap.

They also hold their resale value far, far better than PC equivalents, probably again because Apple does not sell any cheap laptops. I sold my three-year-old laptop last month for $900, after paying $2200 for it originally. That is just nuts.

I recently bought a 13" MacBook Air and love it. I hook it up to an external monitor, keyboard and mouse when I am at home and work, and it is faster than my PC desktop (the SSD makes a huge difference). If I have to travel, it is very thin, light and sturdy, and can be packed just about anywhere. The 1440x900 screen is the same resolution as a lot of 15" screens.

These days, for performance, the single biggest bottleneck under ordinary use is the hard drive. You can have a blazingly fast CPU, but if you buy a laptop with a cheap 5400 RPM drive, you will still be sitting around waiting for stuff to load while the hard drive churns away. Unless you need a ton of storage space for video or something, and can’t use an external hard drive, get a laptop with a SSD.

What is your budget? The 13" MacBook Air for $1299 is a great deal.

If I were buying a PC laptop, I wouldn’t consider any brand except the Thinkpad.

EDIT: Rumors are that Apple will be updating the MacBook Pro line shortly with a new design, closer to the MacBook Airs. If you think you want a Mac, you should wait and see what they come up with. Then you can decide whether you want the latest and greatest, or whether you want to pick up one of the remaining “old” models at a discount.

6

As an exclusively Linux/Windows user, I can honestly say that there’s no good reason not to get a Mac, unless you are a hardcore power gamer (which you said you’re not). Any RTS you want to play will probably do fine on a dual-boot on a macbook on medium to lower graphical settings.

I do believe that you’ll be “overpaying” for whatever Mac you get, but the resale value will be higher years later, and you don’t have to worry about getting a lemon, so if that’s worth it to you, then that’s not overpaying.

I’d never want a Mac for any reason whatsoever, but there is absolutely nothing wrong with them if they are in your price range, and the flexibility of having both Mac OS X and windows 7 (or 8) is very nice.

7

I would say the same about Lenovo, of the 40-50 customers I know of that bought lenovo laptops on my reccomendation, only one is bitching about it, and that was a DOA that was replaced promptly as a warranty issue.

Also the build quality on a $1299 windows machine is not going to suck. Comparing a $1300 apple to a $400 dell is the worst kind of strawman.

8

if you want it for media (like advanced), then apple, especially if ur gonna download stuff…u have no clue how many hard drives i’ve lost to viruses

i’m a finance guy, use a lot of office applications and macs are a big pain in the butt for me… there’s like 1/2 the keys on the keyboard, excel sheets can be navigated in 1/2 the time on a pc… and yes i’ve tried a mac and can use one well, everyone i know who has a mac tries to crucify me for not having one and tells me i haven’t gotten to know them…trust me, i have, yeah u can fn+ stuff or applebutton+ stuff, but it’s way slower

if ur not gonna download (from places that aren’t amazon, itunes, etc… i think u get the idea) and just want basic music and video ability… also go pc if cost is an issue to u … macs generally cost about twice as much (often more), and consider how every little apple accessory is gonna set you back a significant amount of cash … apples don’t have HDMI ports and the converters don’t keep the hdmi quality, so if u wanna like connect to a pc or projector and quality is a big deal, then don’t go mac

every time i buy a comp i consider apple but i never end up doing it … for me, aside from the virus advantage, i haven’t found any, except joining an “elite” circle of people superior to everyone else, i’m not trying to rag on them, i just hate how much people really try to make you feel like the lowest form of life for buying a pc, it’s not like i put a gun to their head and told them to buy one, i just made a choice for myself…

but i have thought about getting one just for garage band … haha, that’s a really cool program and when u learn how to use it u can actually do some fairly advanced stuff (i figured out how to sample on a friends by using unconventional methods)

also depending on the software u wanna use, make sure it works well on mac… keep in mind that running windows on a mac instantly makes them 1/2 as fast as u don’t turn off mac OS (or snow leopard/tiger style wu tang, whatever they call it these days) when this happens

once again, i’m just voicing my opinion and i go through this dilemma every time…

i just got a 15.6", hd laptop-6 gigs of ram, i7 processor, 750g hard drive (don’t need more), 2 year warranty (costco), for about $750 … that’s like what a new ipad costs (haha i know not quite, but still)

speaking of ipads… the thing that bothers me above and beyond about mac is how protectionist they are, u can’t get flash player on ipad or iphone, that’s just dumb…

that said, if you do get a pc be VERY careful about the make… i used to only go dell (or sony when i had loot) but it seems like they’ve really gone downhill, apparently hp has gotten better but I would never get one- my two biggest disasters of any purchases in my life, even my car that lasted 2 months were hps… i just got a samsung, have had it about 5 months really like it, it was a gamble though as i hadn’t heard much about them … once again, if cost is a big deal, acers are supposed to be really good… oh my 2nd biggest disaster (well 3rd) was a toshiba… bottom line is just do ur research, especially if u got time, read reviews on a bunch of sights - the one review i kept reading about this computer was that the speakers are weak, they are, but that’s something i can deal with

in the end i think google’s gonna launch an OS that’s gonna make both mac and pc history, and i can’t wait for it cuz it’s gonna be all open source and revolutionize computers

9

I’m not talking about build quality, more like component quality. It is quite easy to spend $1300 on a laptop and end up with one that is sorely lacking in some respect (like screen quality and/or resolution).

This is factually incorrect. There is no difference between a PC and Mac as far as display connectivity goes, except that Apple does charge $30 for their adapters. You can buy non-Apple branded adapters cheaply, though. You certainly don’t “lose hdmi quality” if you hook one up to an HDTV, projector, etc.

This is also factually incorrect. The free, Apple-supported method of running Windows on a Mac requires you to reboot into Windows. At that point, it is essentially an ordinary PC. Third-party software like VMWare does allow you to run both operating systems at once, without rebooting. The performance hit is more like 10% if you are not doing any 3D graphics.

10

and you know this how?

11

you mean like the shitty displays on the white MacBooks?

12

Thinking about this some more - the biggest disadvantage of Apple laptops is that Apple does sacrifice a lot for long battery life, light weight, and small size. If you are okay with a larger, bulkier laptop, you can find plenty of PC laptops with good build quality and largely the same technical specifications for the same price, just in a slightly larger package.

We’re not talking about huge cinder blocks here. The MacBook Air costs $1299 and weighs less than 3 pounds. This does make it hugely convenient to travel with, and even carry around the house, use in bed, etc. - but if you are okay with a 7-pound laptop, you can do a hell of a lot better for your $1300 with a PC.

13

coughApple IIIcough :smiley:

There have been a few bad Apples in the barrel. It’s not inconceivable that they might put out another lemon in the future (I’m full of puns today).

I would say that for casual use, either platform will probably do fine for you. Apple has less support for computer games, if that’s something that interests you, but many games now release on both Windows and MacOS, so that might not be a problem for you either. You can get cheaper PCs than you can Macs, and those will be cheaper in quality as well, but that might also not matter for you depending on how you use your computer.

14

Nonsense. Apple doesn’t do anything special with the pieces under the hood. Their aesthetic shell is the unique aspect of their hardware, and nothing else.

To compare, I’ll use Amazon as a retailer that is unbiased in pricing and delivery. I chose the first Apple Laptop that returned when I searched for “Apple Laptop” and I did my best to price match it with another reliable and well known manufacturer, Sony.

MacBook Pro MD313LL $1112

2.4 GHz Dual-Core Intel Core i5 Processor
4GB 1333MHz DDR3 SDRAM
500 GB Hard Drive, 8x DVD/CD SuperDrive
13.3-Inch LED-backlit Display, 1280-by-800 Resolution, Intel HD Graphics 3000
Mac OS X v10.7 Lion, 7 Hour Battery Life
Weight: 8.24 pounds

Sony VAIO SA3 $1048

Intel Core i5 Processor 2.4GHz
4GB DDR3 RAM
500GB 5400RPM Hard Drive
13.3-Inch Screen, AMD Radeon HD 6630M
Windows 7 Professional, 14.5 hours Battery Life
Weight: 3.65 pounds

As you can see from above, the Sony has a longer battery life, and better graphics.
Above all, it is cheaper and significantly lighter.

I like both Macs and PCs, but the OP asked for impartiality, and you gave him Apply fanboy.

15

I’d also like to add that the failure rate of Apple’s isn’t unique or better.

A study in laptop reliability.. Page six has a nice graph of all the manufacturers. I see that Sony is only slightly more reliable than Apple, but I warn you, if you ask me to repeat the above price comparison using Asus, Apple will be blown out of the water.

Edit: I had some manufacturers backwards.

16

Oh, for fuck’s sake, I don’t know why I ever bother participating in these threads.

The Sony you linked is almost 30% thicker than the 13" MacBook Pro, and it only achieves that “14-hour” battery life with an external battery pack which makes it thicker and heavier still. If you look for reviews on Google, you will find a number of complaints about the screen quality, and battery life (shockingly, it does not do as good as Sony advertises!)

Finally, the 13" MacBook Pro does not weigh 8.5 pounds! Even the 17" MacBook Pro is not that heavy. 8.5 pounds is the shipping weight of the box or something. Further down the linked page is the actual weight of the laptop itself, 4.5 pounds.

17

I admit, I did not look close enough at that page.

Regardless, 4.5 pounds > 3.65 pounds.

This is factually incorrect. Would agree?

In my opinion, that anecdotal evidence you have provided is insufficient compared to the SquareTrade cross study of reliability. If you can provide something similar in regards to screen quality I would be very interested. Until then, I maintain that you are exaggerating the quality of Apple with no evidence.

18

And again, you seem to be pulling numbers out of nowhere. From the links above:

Macbook Pro:
12.78 x 8.94 x 0.95 inches

Sony VAIO
13.04 inches, 8.84 inches, 0.92 inches

Where is this 30% number coming from?

19

You should do a search on the topic. People ask the question often. I’ll say the same thing as I always do.

If you have a lot of money to spend with a Mac or a Thinkpad. I have heard very little complaints about either of these models. Even after IBM sold the Thinkpad line Lenovo has kept the quality up to the previous standards. If you check most review sites you will see plenty of happy users.
And, Mac users are pretty happy with their machines, as well.

As far as I’m concerned the other companies devices are much more of a crap shoot. Some models are awesome, others are just ok. Thinkpads and Apples are a safe choice.

20

No, how is it incorrect? I didn’t mean that all PC laptops weigh 7 pounds, just that, if you’re not concerned about size and weight, Apple has nothing to offer you, and you’re better off with a PC (assuming nothing else about the Apple appeals to you).

I don’t know what anecdotal evidence you’re talking about. I never said Apple had the lowest 3-year failure rate in the market, I just said they were one of the best. Your study does not contradict that.

What do you mean, “again”? What other numbers I posted were inaccurate?

And from your own link, in the “Key Specifications” section, it says “Dimensions and Weight: 13.04 x 8.84 x 1.27 inches (WxDxH)”.

This is not helping the thread. My only point was - Apple laptops are competitively-priced compared to equivalent PC laptops, but Apple does not make any laptops that are large and cheap. If you want large and cheap, Apple will not sell you a laptop. I think everyone can agree on that.