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Rameses · 5 May 2006 at 20:42

Blimey, whats going on here then?

Its my choice, and I believe I've made a good one, but lets not get bogged down in pc's vs. mac's...

Like the post above me, they do similar tasks, but OSX is considered to be great, than Windows, and guess what? They are stylish too! YaY...

PS. Still got to wait till Wednesday :/ - Will give me a couple of days to backup and dismantle this pc, and get ready to flog it in OcUK Market.

Energize · 5 May 2006 at 21:25

Software isnt an issue for most people though I dont actually know anyone who pays for it and no one cares about the legality of using osx on a pc, even though most tech people use windows. I was refering to desktops that were double the price.

id10T_error · 5 May 2006 at 21:27

The only reason to get a MAC imho is for Final Cut Pro! Everything else can be done faster/cheaper on a PC.

bbreezeuk · 5 May 2006 at 22:01

a feel a fanboy war coming on

Al Vallario · 5 May 2006 at 22:13

Energize said:
Software isnt an issue for most people though I dont actually know anyone who pays for it and no one cares about the legality of using osx on a pc, even though most tech people use windows.

Sure software isn't a problem for people who obtain it via illegal means (and I'll have you know quite a lot of people care about that), but what about the honest, law-abiding members of society? If someone reads up on OSX and decides they want to make the switch, they're not going to go buy a PC and run some hacked-up pirated version of the operating system on it. They're going to go to Apple and get official mac hardware; and Apple have every right to keep things that way.

"Most tech people use windows," do they? What exactly do you mean by "tech people?" Are you implying OSX users, by the very virtue of their user-friendly, intuitive operating system, are of a less technical ability than their Windows using counterparts? That's a whole new arguement in itself!

av.
(Not a mac fanboy; just setting facts straight, kicking butt and taking names)

Monstermunch · 5 May 2006 at 22:27

Al Vallario said:
(Not a mac fanboy....................)

Really! Could've fooled me!

Just one last thing to say cos this is getting like the old Amiga vs Atari discussion. Here's an example spec:

CP-148-AM AMD Opteron UP 170 Dual Core San Diego 2.0GHz 2MB Cache (Socket 939) - Retail (CP-148-AM)
£249.95 £249.95
HS-003-SY Scythe Ninja Plus Heatpipe CPU Cooler (Socket 478, 754, 939, 940, LGA755) (HS-003-SY)
£26.95 £26.95
MB-014-DF DFI LanParty UT NF4 Ultra-D (Socket 939) PCI-Express Motherboard (MB-014-DF)
£79.95 £79.95
MY-057-OC OCZ 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC3200 Dual Channel Platinum Series EL-DDR CAS2 (OCZ4002048ELDCPE-K) (MY-057-OC)
£139.95 £139.95
GX-060-PC PowerColor ATI Radeon X1900 XT 512MB GDDR3 AVIVO TV-Out/Dual DVI (PCI-Express) - Retail (GX-060-PC)
£249.95 £249.95
HD-001-HI Hitachi Deskstar T7K250 NCQ 160GB SATA-II 8MB Cache - OEM (0A31637) (HD-001-HI)
£46.95 £46.95
CD-033-NE NEC ND4571 16x16 DVD±RW Dual Layer LabelFlash ReWriter (Black) - OEM (CD-033-NE)
£24.95 £24.95
CA-005-AK Akasa Eclipse-62 Aluminum Case (CA-005-AK)
£69.95 £69.95
CA-008-TG Tagan TG530-U15 530W ATX2.01 Easycon SLi Compliant Modular Silent PSU (CA-008-TG)
£61.95 £61.95
Subtotal £950.55
Shipping (City Link Parcel Next Day (Delivered Mon-Fri)) £12.95
VAT £168.62
Total £1,132.12

Name me a mac that would have the all round ability of the spec above, without spending a lot more money!

Solarius · 5 May 2006 at 23:53

Think were all going to have to agree to disagree.

I own a decent spec PC and a 17" G5 Apple MAC.

Only thing i have really noticed is that i tend to do a lot more 'work' on my mac due to it being reliable (for me anyway), able to handle a massive amount of programs running at once and enable me to do my vehicle design work much better than my pc.

PC is just a gaming machine, Something to have fun with. Will occasionally do work on it, but the mac is 'Nice' to use for that.

Personally i think:

A mac is a bentley....
A pc is a ferrari......

(So all in all i did not help posting this reply, thank you)

Al Vallario · 6 May 2006 at 00:05

Monstermunch said:
Name me a mac that would have the all round ability of the spec above, without spending a lot more money!

Well you're aiming at a gap in Apple's product range there; by-and-large Apple computers aren't meant for the purposes that kind of a machine is (Gaming, as much as one could argue, isn't one of OSX's attractions). Not to mention you haven't included the price of the operating system, basic software (equivalent to the software which comes out of the box with any new mac) or vital peripherals such as a monitor, keyboard and mouse. Once you add those on that £1132 will quickly become closer to £1500 (£50 for Windows XP Home, £50 for peripherals, £100 for a copy of Microsoft Office (and that's only the student/teacher edition), £200 for a basic LCD monitor).

A 20" 2GHz Core Duo iMac won't be too hot playing games (that's a fact we all live with), but it has a better, higher resolution screen than anything you could get for the £200 I stated above, could give your gaming specification a run for it's money (could well rape the Opteron; I'm not really up to date on all these new fangled processors) in the processor department, has a bigger hard drive, has built in wi-fi and bluetooth, looks beautiful and comes with all the required software and peripherals. Oh, and it's £250 cheaper.

I could counter the arguement and ask you to source a laptop that could make the base model MacBook Pro scream for mercy; I've posed this challenge to a number of people and I haven't had a response yet

av.

Energize · 6 May 2006 at 00:18

If someone was actually bothered about illegal software, there are free os and alternative office programs that are free.

As for the base macbook pro a lot of laptops could beat it, 512mb ram is low for todays standards and an x1600 is hardly state of the art either, no matter how fast the cpu is, games are gpu limited.

XPS M1710 £1499 delivered. Was a 10 second search.

2GB Ram
2Ghz intel core duo cpu
Geforce 7900gs 256mb Gfx.

Includes os microsoft works etc. Built in wifi. Also includes a protection plan which an apple doesnt come with. Has a bigger screen as well 17" compared to 15.4".

If I looked harder no doubt I could have found something better/cheaper.

Al Vallario · 6 May 2006 at 00:53

Energize said:
*** ***** £1499 delivered. Was a 10 second search.

2GB Ram
2Ghz intel core duo cpu
Geforce 7900gs 256mb Gfx.

Includes os microsoft works etc. Built in wifi. Also includes a protection plan which an apple doesnt come with. Has a bigger screen as well 17" compared to 15.4".

It may have more RAM (Can easily upgrade the MacBook Pro to 1.5GB RAM yourself for about £80 extra), a slightly faster processor and a better graphics card, but it's also impractically large, 1.5kg heaver and God knows how much thicker than the MBP, has the battery life of a tomato and it looks it's been dropped... from a great height... numerous times... into a bucket of fairy lights. It will most probably have the build quality of something which has been, anyway. It's also £70 more expensive than the MBP and still doesn't come with great software to rival Garageband, iMovie and iPhoto.

And the search goes on...

Energize · 6 May 2006 at 14:06

Al Vallario said:
It may have more RAM (Can easily upgrade the MacBook Pro to 1.5GB RAM yourself for about £80 extra), a slightly faster processor and a better graphics card, but it's also impractically large, 1.5kg heaver and God knows how much thicker than the MBP, has the battery life of a tomato and it looks it's been dropped... from a great height... numerous times... into a bucket of fairy lights. It will most probably have the build quality of something which has been, anyway. It's also £70 more expensive than the MBP and still doesn't come with great software to rival Garageband, iMovie and iPhoto.

And the search goes on...

You said the spec of the laptop not design and the dell clearly wins in that department, besides that dell laptops are known to have great build quality, and if something went wrong you've got the cover plan which the mac doesnt have, and I prefer the design over macs anyday, and I prefer the free windows software to the mac software so we should stick to the technical specs which is what you asked for in the 1st place and not opinons. If you look around you can find loads of different laptops to beat that spec and you can find lighter ones with the same spec as the macbook that are much cheaper.

earlyflash · 9 May 2006 at 13:33

Energize said:
besides that dell laptops are known to have great build quality

Sorry, but that single line had me in stitches...

Chewy · 9 May 2006 at 14:33

Energize said:
and I prefer the free windows software to the mac software

Windows movie maker and paint are gems, aren't they.

What you said about build quality, you're having us on, right?

Diesel · 9 May 2006 at 14:37

Never really used a Mac except configuring and installing them at work. From my experience, the build quality of the Dell laptops isn't bad BUT the build quality of the iBooks we have is truely superb, very solid with a quality feel - but without adding weight.

Shame their users are a pain in the arse!

marcus_667 · 9 May 2006 at 14:58

lol i wouldnt mind a go on a mac that osx looks spiffing but macs are uber expensive

earlyflash · 9 May 2006 at 15:33

marcus_667 said:
lol i wouldnt mind a go on a mac that osx looks spiffing but macs are uber expensive

Not second hand, they tend to drop in price quickly. There are loads of bargain Powermacs available if you look.

Energize · 9 May 2006 at 16:02

Chewy said:
Windows movie maker and paint are gems, aren't they.

What you said about build quality, you're having us on, right?

Have you heard of the internet?

But actually yeah windows movie maker is pretty good.

muddyfox470 · 9 May 2006 at 16:27

good for you

i love my mac mini! just truly awesome

make sure you install bootcamp

ian

When could PC's do half of this? http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17567818&highlight=mac Check out the video link i put in that thread!

Energize · 9 May 2006 at 16:46

muddyfox470 said:
When could PC's do half of this? http://forums.overclockers.co.uk/showthread.php?t=17567818&highlight=mac Check out the video link i put in that thread!

Since 10 years ago?

Capt Doufos · 9 May 2006 at 16:55

earlyflash said:
Sorry, but that single line had me in stitches...

You used one of there current ones latley?

My last 3 laptops have been dell, and the build quality just keeps getting better. The 9300 I currently have has by far the best Laptop Screen I have ever used.

For the size of laptop it is very light, but still very solidly built. Not flismy at all.

Edit*

Infact I had my hands on one of there £299 jobbies the other month, and I was suprised how well built that was for such a cheap laptop.