Is a Mac really worth it

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brevity

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I like Macs, I worked on one for two years. Very nice.

But I'm pretty confident that for about 60-70% of the price of a Mac (whichever model) I can have a comparible PC.

Currently I run all of Adobe's products on a PC. Smooth. Nice. Little slower than my old I-Mac, but only just.

I like my PC.

So now, am I missing something? Every freaking design studio I walk into: Macs (and some dude sitting there with designer jeans and a ripped T-shirt, like he wants to "actually" step into an ipod ad). And designers are usually just pumping out crappy posters or magazines. Go into a architects office where they're cramming 100 000 vectors through mesh programmes to generate lifelike 3D images (all on plain old PCs) and I'm thinking, what the ****?

Is it really just a Steve Jobs marketing miracle, or is there actually something I missed in the two years I worked on them (besides the OS - of course I can see why the OS is better, but we're talking about money and horse power)
 
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brevity said:
I like Macs, I worked on one for two years. Very nice.

But I'm pretty confident that for about 60-70% of the price of a Mac (whichever model) I can have a comparible PC.

Currently I run all of Adobe's products on a PC. Smooth. Nice. Little slower than my old I-Mac, but only just.

I like my PC.

So now, am I missing something? Every freaking design studio I walk into: Macs (and some dude sitting there with designer jeans and a ripped T-shirt, like he wants to walk "actually" step into an ipod ad). And designers are usually just pumping out crappy posters or magazines. Go into a architects office where they're cramming 100 000 vectors through mesh programmes to generate lifelike 3D images (all on plain old PCs) and I'm thinking, what the ****?

Is it really just a Steve Jobs marketing miracle, or is there actually something I missed in the two years I worked on them (besides the OS - of course I can see why the OS is better, but we're talking about money and horse power)
Click to expand...

Most software houses develop exclusively for the PC, so I don't think you'd really find good architectural software on the Mac.

Anything that the Mac can do, a PC can also do. The only issue is how easy/effective the PC way is.

The Mac was designed for idiot users from the ground up (much like iPods), so expect things to go a bit smoother on the Mac... :D
 
I HATE Mac user interface.

And what is the deal with their mice/mouses!? No scroll! And the tiny little ball scroll is pathetic! Breaks so easily.

Rant over :P
 
My time is worth money so yeah, it's really worth it. ;)
 
bwana why is mac faster again now thats its using intel desktop cpu's?

quadcore
4 gig memory
2 raptors in raid
8800gtx
vista 64 bit ultimate

would cost less than a mac
what would run better bwana?
 
killadoob said:
bwana why is mac faster again now thats its using intel desktop cpu's?

quadcore
4 gig memory
2 raptors in raid
8800gtx
vista 64 bit ultimate

would cost less than a mac
what would run better bwana?
Click to expand...

Proof?
 
well most mac's are 12-18k if not more

that pc would be around 12k

leave out the gtx if you dont need it and that pc would be under 8k
 
Screen, case, Power supply, etc etc.
From what I imagine, you are talking about those couple of components, and not a full system
 
killadoob said:
bwana why is mac faster again now thats its using intel desktop cpu's?

quadcore
4 gig memory
2 raptors in raid
8800gtx
vista 64 bit ultimate

would cost less than a mac
what would run better bwana?
Click to expand...
Is one necessarily faster than the other? I dont know.

For me speed isnt the only criteria I look at - stability and reliability are just as important if not more so. My OS is solid, my apps run smoothly and with plenty of speed and that's pretty much all I care about these days.

To each their own :)
 
No viruses.

Just take a look at a mac.

Yes, the mouse is a bit of a pain, but u can use any mouse on it.

The idiots design is quite nice when you`re tired of pc problems.

Not too sure about the speed, but haven`t found something that runs slowly yet.

Windows runs better on a mac.

I have seen macs appearing on a lot of tv shows recently, like Boston Legal, Calitornication, 24, etc. Is been marketed quite well.

It takes a bit of getting used to, but it`s worthwhile.

Is about 20% pricier than a pc, but you'll find it`s worth it.
Try using ilife, front row with the remote, and a few other things and you`ll see.
 
TiredOfWaiting said:
The Mac was designed for idiot users from the ground up (much like iPods), so expect things to go a bit smoother on the Mac... :D
Click to expand...

It's actually the PC which was designed for IDIOT users.

Have a look on Slashdot, they covered a story about an IT manage's daughter - 13 years old - who convinced her mother to upgade her
laptop to Vista because she thought Vista looked COOL! Anyhow the
daughter soon realised that Vista sucks and now wants XP back, the
mother gave Steven Ballmer a piece of her mind about the usefulness of Vista after that. Windoze computers are designed for IDIOTS who want
eye candy. Yes a 13 year old would rather love the BS eyecandy of Vista
then the Win2K/98 appearance of non-Fisher Price Windoze XP.

On a Mac things work. You don't need to mess around with registry settings, anti-virus scans, malware scans, firewalls, browsers which crash cause your system to crash and the general clutter of XP/Vista.
XP will constantly bombard you with BS messages and balloons about this and that - the Mac will never. You buy your Mac to work on it, while you buy a PC to f around with the registry or try to figure out why WINDOZE reset your DVD Superdrive into PIO mode because no matter what you
do in Control Panel you can't turn DMA back on for it.

Apple Mac OSX is bliss. The system just works. It allows you to use your
PC for what it was purchased for - to do work on it.

Are Macs worth it? If you're buying a machine to play games, browse the web and download episodes of Prison Break 2, nah Mac is not for you.
If you edit photos, do desktop publishing, create animations or edit video - the Mac is for you. Some apps don't have Mac versions - Poser? AutoCad?
However you can always run Bootcamp for these or even Parallerls.
Still if you're happy with the tinkering Windoze forces on you or
you're just lucky your Windoze is working without constant maintenance,
and your apps are not available on the Mac Platform, stay with the Windoze
machine.
 
killadoob said:
bwana why is mac faster again now thats its using intel desktop cpu's?

quadcore
4 gig memory
2 raptors in raid
8800gtx
vista 64 bit ultimate

would cost less than a mac
what would run better bwana?
Click to expand...

Except Vista will have 3 out of 4 of those cores idling while you're Sony Vegas crashes constanly because of some hardware compatibily issue. While on a Mac Pro - I have a quad core, rendering takes up to 70% of all 4 cores
and I can do a lot more while Final Cut Pro or Compressor is rendering
my M2V files or special effects. My Mac NEVER crashes. It just works.
Leopard promises to improve this multithreading more. I'm hoping to get
FCP to use 95% of the 4 cores to render so that I can just run
iTunes and listen to some music or watch an h264/xvid movie while
that's happening.

BTW when compared to the Dell Xeon workstation, the Apple Mac Pro
worked out a little bit cheaper when it came out.
 
Perdition said:
"Windoze" ... is it not possible to have a Mac/PC debate without sounding like a 12 year old?
Click to expand...

Sorry I first heard Windows being called Windoze in 1995, on some website or a newsgroup discussion. I'm definately not 12 years old. :)

I've been using Windoze since the days of 3.1 in 1992. Only last year did I try a Mac and I'm very impressed by the
1. Build quality.
2. Functionality.
3. The fact that it just works without wasting time working under the hood. You don't need to mess around with registry settings and drivers.
4. OS is intuitive and unobtrusive.

As someone said on Slashdot, Windoze loads up DLLs for its apps like Office when it starts up, to make fellow MS software
appear to run faster. Windows is more of an AD campaign or forced sandbox for MS and its other products than a neutral
operating system.
 
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PeterCH said:
Sorry I first heard Windows being called Windoze in 1995, on some website or a newsgroup discussion. I'm definately not 12 years old. :)


I`ll admit that I felt like a kid after I got my 24" iMac.:)

Anyway, once u switch from using a PC to a mac, you`ll understand.;)

I also used to say that Apple was useless.
Click to expand...
 
Perdition said:
I'm an enterprise software developer, the only thing I'll understand switching to a Mac is frustration ;)
Click to expand...

I'm a prosumer video editor. My Mac and Final Cut Pro have solved the frustation Premiere and Windoze game me. :)

Suprisingly using a Mac was not a frustration at all. :)
 
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