Should I buy a Mac or a PC?

[Joe Matt]

I'm dual booting 7 and OSX off of my new MBP 13". Find a machine for the same price and specs, you can't (2.56ghz stock one.) I can run Autocad and Inventor great and fast and boot into OSX for everything else (including webmaster for my fraternity's site, graphic work, to answering emails.) It's thinner than any other machine I'v seen, solid built like crazy, and beautiful. You can't go wrong with it.


As for Chief Pride, yeah, that's good for you. Irrational posts don't deserve rational responses.

[Bryan Herbst]

Originally Posted by Chris is me

I've used a Mac for 5 years now. Personally, they're not perfect machines, but I've been much less frustrated with machine problems overall as compared to Windows XP. The idea that it's a miracle machine that "just works" is dumb, but I've personally not had more than a handful of frustrating bugs and problems with it.

I'd say get a Mac if you can afford it and dual boot. Best of both and all that.

I was going to stay out of this, but....

If you're going to dual boot, I would go with a windows machine. If you buy a mac, then add on a windows OS, you stuck with one of mac users' biggest downfalls- a total inability to upgrade your hardware. Additionally, you can find the same mac specs on a PC for buttloads cheaper. The only advantage to buying mac in this case would be that you get the sleeker design.

Finally, I thought I would add a plug for windows 7. It's awesome. The main point of this, though, was to inform you that starting around June 26th, those who buy a PC with Vista will be eligible for a significantly discounted Win7 upgrade. Current estimates are around $10 to upgrade. It is also good to note that Win7 currently looks to be far cheaper than vista all around, with prices around $75-$100 depending which of the three versions you are buying.

[Billfred]

Originally Posted by Tanis

If you're going to dual boot, I would go with a windows machine. If you buy a mac, then add on a windows OS, you stuck with one of mac users' biggest downfalls- a total inability to upgrade your hardware.

I suppose the expansion slots on the Mac Pro don't count. I suppose the fact that we're discussing laptops is also moot--Mac or PC, hardly anybody does upgrades to a laptop beyond perhaps RAM or a hard drive. Also note that Apple's EULA for Mac OS X only allows it to run on Apple-branded hardware.

Additionally, you can find the same mac specs on a PC for buttloads cheaper. The only advantage to buying mac in this case would be that you get the sleeker design.

Wanna bet? A Dell Latitude E6500 with education discounts actually costs MORE than a 15" MacBook Pro with similar equipment and discounts ($1633.08 vs. $1599). The price gap has closed for most scenarios short of "What's the cheapest computer a manufacturer makes?"

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Billfred

The price gap has closed for most scenarios short of "What's the cheapest computer a manufacturer makes?"

I guess if you want a $300 mac netbook, you get an iphone? too bad it involves paying ATT every month....

[Joe Ross]

Originally Posted by squirrel

I guess if you want a $300 mac netbook, you get an iphone? too bad it involves paying ATT every month....

Or a Dell Mini 9

[Herodotus]

Originally Posted by Joe Ross

Or a Dell Mini 9

I can personally vouch for the Mini 9, though I also like the Eee PC 901 and 1000. If you just need a way to go online and do some typing these are awesome machines.

[MrForbes]

We have an Acer Aspire One, the older version with a 120g hard drive. The newer one with the 160g drive is only $300 at walmart, and looks like they fixed the unusable (for me) touchpad problem.

Best thing is it comes with XP

[Molten]

Something New
How about instead of throwing out individual setups and arguing points that can be found anywhere on the net, why not give some college experience?

For instance, a fourth of my campus is run on mac. At any given time 90% of these are unused. I won't judge why, I'm just making the point that the computers the school has, does not say what computers the school uses.

A second note, some schools give out software for free. If you'd like to see the software available for free(at my school) please go to http://iuware.iu.edu/

Your school may do something similar, and the software they provide might have an impact on your decision.

Lastly, you do not need a computer for the first day of college. I didn't have one my first year, and did not need one. Freshmen courses are generally low tech and pretty laid back so you have time to use a computer lab for the few instances it is needed. If you haven't decided for sure, wait. This advice may be bad, if you go to a school such as Rose Hulman where all the students are expected to have a laptop. I am just stating from mine.

If there are any other college students out there, please continue my line of thought with your experiences(both agree and disagree with mine). As a previous searcher of advice(can't find my old laptop thread), this type of advice just seems more easy to process.(not to mention a bit less biased)

[Rick TYler]

On our team, anyone discussing Apple vs. Windows is fined $1, which goes into the year-end party fund. There was a lot of money in it last year.

For what it's worth, I bought a Dell Studio 15 running Vista a while ago, and it has been absolutely bullet-proof and fast the entire time I've owned it. I can't see what all the fuss about Vista was all this time.

[bobwrit]

Like people have said before, it depends on what you'll be trying to do with it.


Me, personaly, have both Windows and Mac, as well as running Linux on a few computers. I like to use windows when dealing with games, Mac, when I work with music, photo's, video's, and word processing, and Linux when I'm programming, or looking for raw power from my computer.

[Steve W]

I am a Mac user first. I own a Mac Pro which is not a laptop. I run Vista and OS X on the computer. Call of Duty 4 was recommended as a great 1st party shooter game so I got Vista and use bootcamp when I want to play.

My daughter has a Macbook and just loves it. We have had a few small issues that were easily solved. I would however recommend getting the extended warranty if purchasing a Mac. Get the one from Apple not Futureshop etc. My daughter is not very respectful of laptops so it has gone through a lot. We had one power supply go ($120.00) and a problem with her internal wireless part ( $200.00) and they replaced her keyboard (they noticed the chipped pieces) all under warranty at no cost. When purchasing as a student you get cheaper rates on the warranty.

I use an IBM laptop for work and only have complaints about the speed because of all the Business stuff that the company puts on to keep security at a max. The PC I have at home costs me for spyware and virus protection that if not kept up is a disaster. I am pretty good at working PC's and do most of the troubleshooting in the office and most of the problems are are caused by internet access or adding "questionable" programs.

Most important is what a lot of others have been saying. What programs do you need at school. Both a Mac and Windows based machine will allow access to the network and internet so you need to explore the niche programs that you will be using.

Good luck and remember, I am a Mac user (since the Apple 2).

[MrForbes]

Originally Posted by Steve W

The PC I have at home costs me for spyware and virus protection that if not kept up is a disaster.

Strange....I've been using PCs for 20 years and haven't had any viruses....and I don't use AV software.

I guess a Mac would be the way to go if your computing habits cause virus problems with a PC.

[Chris is me]

Originally Posted by Tanis

I was going to stay out of this, but....

If you're going to dual boot, I would go with a windows machine. If you buy a mac, then add on a windows OS, you stuck with one of mac users' biggest downfalls- a total inability to upgrade your hardware. Additionally, you can find the same mac specs on a PC for buttloads cheaper. The only advantage to buying mac in this case would be that you get the sleeker design.

Apple doesn't license Mac OS X to other platforms. It's against their EULA to install it on a non-Apple machine, and is thus illegal and very tricky at that. It's not fair, really, but too bad.

[Kyle]

I have a 15 inch MacBook Pro, up until this past year I was a diehard Windows user till I got this Mac and I will never, ever , ever , ever go back to a Windows system. Mac is easier to use, runs smoother I have had ZERO problems with this at all, not a single one I run Windows programs on here all the time but I keep finding the Mac version of Windows is better anyway. If you can afford it try Mac and see how you like it I promise that you won't be disappointed

[Joe Matt]

Originally Posted by Molten

A second note, some schools give out software for free. If you'd like to see the software available for free(at my school) please go to http://iuware.iu.edu/

Lastly, you do not need a computer for the first day of college. I didn't have one my first year, and did not need one. Freshmen courses are generally low tech and pretty laid back so you have time to use a computer lab for the few instances it is needed. If you haven't decided for sure, wait. This advice may be bad, if you go to a school such as Rose Hulman where all the students are expected to have a laptop. I am just stating from mine.

If there are any other college students out there, please continue my line of thought with your experiences(both agree and disagree with mine). As a previous searcher of advice(can't find my old laptop thread), this type of advice just seems more easy to process.(not to mention a bit less biased)

OK! I'm in colllege too! My comments still stand, but to add on what you said....

My college has a free software site with XP, Vista, Vista 64bit, and OSX software, for free, for download. Including OS's, Word, AutoCad, etc. http://software.udayton.edu (pw protected, just want to link it)

I can upgrade my MacBook Pro easier than any PC laptop. RAM, HD, battery (yes I have the new one) can be replaced. The idea Macs are hard to service are from the late 90's early 2000's. The origional 96 iMac you had to remove the logic board to replace both sticks of RAM.

You need a laptop freshman year, and I started freshman year 4 years ago this fall. I wrote, and turned in papers, online, did research, and did model building and created and presented presentations. Yes, you can do this in a lab, but neary ALL of our labs have been removed and replaced with laptop stations (monitors w/ keyboards and mice with an ethernet hook up) or turned into more classrooms.

Finally, Macs are just as good of a value, if not more so than a PC. Notice how I didn't say cheap? They don't participate in the thick, plastic-y, low end laptops. And when you upgrade the higher end Dell, HP, or Lenovo machines to match the Mac's specs and battery life you match or exceed the price of the Mac.

Plus, if you buy a new Mac with eduational discount (between $50-$200 depending on the machine) you get a free iPod touch with the purchase. Which adds another $229 to the value of the machine. So when I got my 13" MBP I got $329 in rebates.

Oh, and to shut up anyone who will bring up the SATA 1.5Gb transfer...

http://support.apple.com/downloads/M...re_Update_1_7_

BOOM. Roasted.