Is a MAC reall worth it?

[Guest tnfireman]

So, I'm starting to have some problems out of my laptop. I had the thought if the repair costs are going to be half the cost of a new laptop I would just go with new. While browsing I took a look at the Mac pro line, very nice except for the price. I do not have a problem with paying if the Mac is truly worth it.

So, is a Mac worth the price difference???

Thanks in advance.

[mikegideon]

Not to me, and I was an early Mac adopter (mid '80's). It's a different story if you're in a creative field.

[jcj]

Whether you realize it or not, this is a very sensitive question to some people. Mac owners are a passionate bunch just as some gun owners are passionate about a brand or platform.

My .02: Apple hardware is high quality and built well. A lot of thought is given to ergonomics and design. Mac OSX is a great operating system. Easy to use, fast, and stable.

That said, I just can't justify the price premium for my purposes. A *lot* of your money goes into paying for that little Apple logo.

There are high quality systems out there for far less money than a comparably equipped Mac based system.

Windows is not and probably won't ever be quite as stable/intuitive/bulletproof as OSX, but it still offers a decent way to meet your computing needs.

Personally, I'm one of those crazy Linux users. Windows *and* OSX users look at us like we're insane. But that's just me. I don't really recommend my way to everyone.

[mikegideon]

The Mac has always been elegant and stable. I ran one on my desk for probably 10 years. During most of that time, I also needed a machine from the DOS world to run programs that simply weren't written for the Mac. I understand the intense loyalty, 'cause I was one. I pretty much dumped the Mac when Windows 95 came out (OS 7.5).

The Mac platform is STILL the best, but that wasn't the question.

[DaveTN]

It may not be a matter of which ones better, it’s more a question of what you want to do with it. If it’s just a general use computer; it won’t matter.

For example; if you are a heavy graphics user you might want a MAC, if you are a heavy CAD/CAM user you can’t use a MAC.

[Guest bkelm18]

To me, yes it is worth it. I find the Mac platform to be worlds better than the PC platform. It's just what I know and grew up with. I've always bought Macs and I always will as long as they're around.

[Guest tnfireman]

Thanks for the fast responses. It is just for general use. I have started back in college so I will be writing a few papers too.

Guess

I'll go with a pc and head to the gun shop with the difference...

Thanks again everyone!!!

[mikegideon]

Yep... if you do any engineering work, forget the Mac. A lot of the advantages of the Mac platform kinda went away as hardware got more powerful, and Microsoft stabilized the Windows OS. Windows was a real turd until they released the NT based versions. 2k was a decent enterprise OS, and XP was even better. We spit Vista back out, and are just now slowly working into Win7.

[Guest drv2fst]

I switched from PC to Mac over 5 years ago. I think MAC's are worth it. I have 4 MaCS's at home and all MAC's at my office.

YMMV

[vaiger]

Nicemac is yoda smart on macs. Maybe he will chime in.....or you could pm him.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

[Guest adamoxtwo]

If you know how to use them they are good, but not anything special. It's more about the OS then anything else.

[felinesNfreedom]

I switched 6 years ago and have never looked back. I have a mac book pro and have had no problems out of it at all. It's the first gen intel based platform.

[Sandman]

I love love love love my mac. Had it for 4 years and no problems. Still as fast as the first day I turned it on.

[wcsc12]

So, I'm starting to have some problems out of my laptop. I had the thought if the repair costs are going to be half the cost of a new laptop I would just go with new. While browsing I took a look at the Mac pro line, very nice except for the price. I do not have a problem with paying if the Mac is truly worth it.

So, is a Mac worth the price difference???

Thanks in advance.

For anyone who wants a Mac, I always ask why?

Will you be doing any advanced image editing? Are you a DJ? Do you have the desire to do any dj'ing?

If the answer to those questions is no, you really don't "need" a Mac specifically and it should be left to features and bang for buck.

Play around with the OS and just see if you like it. Just know that software for Mac will be more expensive than for PC just due to the larger competition on PC applications vs Mac.

In my experience, I've always passed on Macs but my reasons deal solely with features. For 3 grand, you're getting similar (I say similar because it depends on what you're comparing) features to a $1200 PC laptop. Just pick the absolute best PC laptop you can find and compare it spec wise to the Mac.

[Guest WyattEarp]

Up until April of this year, I have been a devout PC owner and lover. At school we've been using MAC's, and I hated them, unfortunately the learning curve between the two was enough to frustrate me, doing work on a MAC at school, and then coming home and trying to do that same work on a PC was enough to drive me up the wall, so against my desire to learn a MAC system, i buckled down and got a 27" iMAC.

I must say, I'm rather surprised at how much I've come to love my MAC. It does EVERYTHING my pc's do, and if such a need for a PC program arises that can't be found on MAC? well there's a cool little program called VMFusion 3 that allows you to run a Windows Virtual Machine on your MAC, so you can do use your MAC and for that rare occassion, you can use PC programs.

After having learned about MAC this summer in depth, I won't be going back to PC ever again. I've had enough permissions problems, blue screens of death (which oddly enough I just got one the other day on my Dell Latitude E6510), windows update this, windows update that, firewall not active warning this, firefox crashed notification this, and all the other stupid bull**** you have to put up with Microcrap Winblows. I don't have to worry about those same problems with my MAC. This is not to say it doesn't from time to time, freeze up, or slow down for a few seconds, but I have yet to have this thing crash, or an application crash, and I have about 50 or 60 high end programs installed on here.

To me Apple is just a higher quality product, with a higher price tag, but you get what you pay for. Cheaper is not always better (and there's a reason PC's are cheaper, why you think they crash so much?)

bottom line, the choice is up to you. If you're comfortable with a PC, buy one. Or you could pick up a used one off craigslist for a decent price

It may not be a matter of which ones better, it’s more a question of what you want to do with it. If it’s just a general use computer; it won’t matter.

For example; if you are a heavy graphics user you might want a MAC, if you are a heavy CAD/CAM user you can’t use a MAC.

Yep... if you do any engineering work, forget the Mac. A lot of the advantages of the Mac platform kinda went away as hardware got more powerful, and Microsoft stabilized the Windows OS. Windows was a real turd until they released the NT based versions. 2k was a decent enterprise OS, and XP was even better. We spit Vista back out, and are just now slowly working into Win7.

I'd really like to know where the two of you get such blatantly false information at???

There's at least 10 pieces of software that do CAD and AutoCAD for MAC that come up on google, and that's just at a first glimpse.

autocad software for MAC - Google Search

TurboCAD

Autodesk 2012 Products - New Releases

ArchiCAD 15 - Overview

Welcome to ilexsoft: modern CAD software for Mac

Architosh - Welcome to the #1 Mac CAD / 3D / AEC Website

RealCADD

CADintosh

2D/3D CAD Software for Mac and Windows | Ashlar-Vellum Graphiteâ„¢

10 useful CAD software for Mac OS X

and not only that, you can run VMFusion 3 w/ Windows Vista, XP or Windows 7, and run any PC programs on a MAC.

Autodesk makes tons of software for industrial engineering and design CAD programs

Autodesk 2012 Products - New Releases

AutoCAD Civil 3D - Civil Engineering Software - Autodesk

AutoCAD Electrical - Electrical Control Design Software - Autodesk

AutoCAD LT for Mac – Drafting Software for Mac – Autodesk

Inventor - 3D Mechanical Design and 3D CAD Software - Autodesk

Moldflow - Plastic Injection Molding Simulation Software - Autodesk

Navisworks – Project Review Software - Autodesk

Revit Architecture - Building Design Software - Autodesk

Revit MEP - MEP Engineering Software - Autodesk

Revit Structure - BIM Software - Autodesk

and btw: Microsoft just unveiled Windows 8. just another pile of in a cellophane wrapped cardboard box

Windows 8: Microsoft's Swiss Army knife vision | Microsoft - CNET News

[hornett22]

I'm not impressed for the money for general internet use. If used heavily for work maybe.

If you want everyone at the Barnes & Noble cafe to see your fancy Apple logo lit up,it's worth it. If you like going to the mall for service,It might be worth it

If your just doing email and browsing,get a regular PC. And install Ubuntu 10.4 or 10.10

You could also look at the new Google Chrome books but i think they are overpriced for what you get.

[Peace]

ok. I can give you my take on it. I grew up on windows based systems. Macs were a "joke" around my family. After college, I was working in recording studios a lot, and I had to learn the art of working in a mac OS, so I made the switch for work. Remember this: David Pogue - "Switching To The Mac". Great reference book. Saved my bacon.

Now - If I can help it, I will never go back. Here's why: Macs generally have one chipset and one hardware spec for each run of computers. That means ONE set of drivers. That alone makes it much easier to maintain a stable user experience. In this, PCs cannot compete - way too many hardware/chipset combinations out there to give a "power-user" guaranteed stability. Of note: If apple ever changes this way of doing things, I will jump ship to whomever makes a stable, innovative OS. My loyalty is to a quality product that fits my needs, not a coolio, glowing piece of fruit.

Macs have problems too. They are not perfect; they just have problems that I can live with. I have had my share of frustrating days with Apple products. Anyone that tells you otherwise probably doesn't actually rely on the things.

Case in point. Monday evening my 2.5yr old MacBook Pro started locking up. (I usually have to do a wipe and install of the OS about once a year. I move a LOT of data, and that is just part of it - I was past time to do it, and just thought it was a fragmentation issue.) It got worse Tuesday morning, so I booted from another partition on the HD and opened up disk utility - that locked up too.) I took the MacBook Pro to the apple store. It is still covered under AppleCare. I left it with them at 7:40pm. I got a call at 9:00am the next morning saying that my computer was ready to be picked up. The hard drive had failed. They replaced it at no cost to me (2.5yr old computer!). I brought it home, hooked it up to my "Time Machine" backup drive (Time machine is built into OSX), and 40 minutes later, I went back to work (pretty much) as if nothing ever happened.

IF you can have a positive attitude about making the transition to a different OS (apple), you will most likely find a more stable existence in the computing world - until apple goes insane and stops making things that "just work".

You'll be fine either way. OSX and apple just work for me.

[mikegideon]

I'd really like to know where the two of you get such blatantly false information at???

There's at least 10 pieces of software that do CAD and AutoCAD for MAC that come up on google, and that's just at a first glimpse.

and btw: Microsoft just unveiled Windows 8. just another pile of in a cellophane wrapped cardboard box

Windows 8: Microsoft's Swiss Army knife vision | Microsoft - CNET News

Real engineering work, in the real world. NOBODY is using Macs. I'm not so sure you need to be making those kinda comments until you get out of school.

[Caster]

Absolutely worth every penny. Junk trash HP, Sonys, and other silicone valley excrement were crashing on me yearly. Give a grand for a computer, use it for a year, trash it. What a system. The ONLY reason the PC thrives is the marketing power of the Microsoft juggernaut.

I bought this iMac 4 or 5 years ago. I had a friend replace the hard drive once. Other than that.....I open any email I want, I go to any site I want, I click on any thing I want. They're not invincible but they wear LVL IV kevlar with trauma plates and 99% of the hackers are firing .22's.

I was a mac boy way back when. My father had to have them for work. We had first internet in the house around '93. I remember the first powerhouse Mac we had. A Quadra 950. It was a beast and no IBM compatible could touch it. My wife was a PC person. Took me years to convert her. Now, she wouldn't wipe her hind end on a PC.

A PC can be made to run STRONG, but I'm a simple person. I don't want to update software all the time, I don't want to run spyware, adware & women's underwear & the other crap ya'll use.

Nicemac is yoda smart on macs. Maybe he will chime in.....or you could pm him.

Sent from my DROIDX using Tapatalk

Yes, powerful in the ways of the apple, He is.

[mikegideon]

Absolutely worth every penny. Junk trash HP, Sonys, and other silicone valley excrement were crashing on me yearly. Give a grand for a computer, use it for a year, trash it. What a system. The ONLY reason the PC thrives is the marketing power of the Microsoft juggernaut.

I bought this iMac 4 or 5 years ago. I had a friend replace the hard drive once. Other than that.....I open any email I want, I go to any site I want, I click on any thing I want. They're not invincible but they wear LVL IV kevlar with trauma plates and 99% of the hackers are firing .22's.

I was a mac boy way back when. My father had to have them for work. We had first internet in the house around '93. I remember the first powerhouse Mac we had. A Quadra 950. It was a beast and no IBM compatible could touch it. My wife was a PC person. Took me years to convert her. Now, she wouldn't wipe her hind end on a PC.

A PC can be made to run STRONG, but I'm a simple person. I don't want to update software all the time, I don't want to run spyware, adware & women's underwear & the other crap ya'll use.

All true. Windows sucks. Most of us are stuck with it.

[LagerHead]

Mac is definitely not worth the extra money.

Unless of course you like:

Better hardware

More stable operating system

Much better graphics

More dependable accessories

Far superior ease of use

Fewer driver issues

Waaaaaay fewer system crashes

Blue screen of what?

Not needing to buy a new one every year or two

Being able to run Windoze in a VM faster and more reliably than on PC hardware

The power of a *Nix command line

Better audio performance

Not running virus software

Other than all that, they really stink on ice. I have been hating my Mac Pro for about two years now. I'll probably hate it for at least two more before I buy another one. My daughter will likely be detesting a Macbook Pro next year when she leaves for college.

[DaveTN]

I'd really like to know where the two of you get such blatantly false information at???

Do you work in Engineering? Do you use any CAD systems or do any CAM programming? Do you have to set-up or use any communications with machine tools? Of course you don’t, or you wouldn’t have posted something like that.

Why would you even make a statement like that, which clearly shows you are clueless about the field? Because you did a Google search? Roll those eyes and check back with us when you get out of school and have some experience.

[zapfbroad]

mac has a "walled garden" approach to building the platform. if properly tweaked windows can outperform as the design allows the user to spec up processes for faster threading. maintaining that performance is not a novice's job. if you're toolin around the internet and the like and you've got the money buy a mac and have fun. windows will degrade faster without maintenance than mac because you are permitted to more directly impact core ops as an enduser with a windows pc. if you've got skills go to a unix platform and get erw33t with it above everybody. there's a reason so many commercial servers are on unix based os with a percentage on windows and the smallest on mac. speed, performance, control, reliability for uptime. my old apache box was up nearly 7 years before a crash? what's a mac?

[Guest nicemac]

It is a myth that there is an Apple premium. If you configure a Dell and a Mac with the same specs, the Mac will be cheaper. It works out that way very time we try it.

Can you buy a pc cheaper? Yes. BUT, and this is a big but, you are not buying a machine that is comparable to any Mac. To get a cheaper pc you have to:

a) build it yourself from components scrapped together and have no warranty (and a kludgy looking box)

buy a machine with inferior specs (no NIC, no wireless, slower/ fewer processors, less RAM, etc…)

c) sacrifice security. The Mac OS is UNIX. It is secure.

Somebody will reply that they bought x,y,z machine and it is faster, better, cheaper, etc… than a Mac. They didn't. I work in a corporate setting where we buy hundreds of computers per year. The Macs last forever (we have Macs in service today that were built in 2001) If we could truly buy pcs that worked just as well for less total cost of ownership, we would.

Of course all of this is focusing on just the hardware.

The software included on every Mac is excellent. Software is bundled for music, video, DVD and web creation, etc… The interface is clean and logical. Apple controls the hardware and software, so stuff "just works." Plug a printer or digital camera in to a Mac. No drivers to download, nothing to install. It recognizes the device and it is ready for use. Immediately.

The whole "You don't need virus/ malware software" aspect is a bonus.

Apple customer service–#1 for how many years running now? (Six years in a row–J.D.Power)

There is a reason that Apple is the most highly valued company in the world, (and still growing rapidly in a market where other manufacturers are shrinking), that their customers are loyal, and that their products continually outperform the competition. They make great products that typically have no peer.

[Guest tnfireman]

WOW you all have given me a lot to think about. Thanks for staying on topic with such a touchy subject.