[Spooky1666]

Originally Posted by Dr.Sanchez

Let the trolling BEGIN!!

Lol and it begins toshiba were very nice on the phone though. The laptop came with a 2 year standard warrenty so they're having someone come pick it up for repair soon. Its suspected that the hard drive is broken. But after only a year and a half? How unreliable are hard drives, they nearly always cause me problems

[frozenfrozen]

Originally Posted by Spooky1666

Lol and it begins toshiba were very nice on the phone though. The laptop came with a 2 year standard warrenty so they're having someone come pick it up for repair soon. Its suspected that the hard drive is broken. But after only a year and a half? How unreliable are hard drives, they nearly always cause me problems

That happens on laptops a lot when you don't turn them off before bringing them around the place. Including hibernation or sleep mode. The hdd platter will still spin some times, and if you jostle it at the wrong time you can wear down on it or simply break it. They're reliable if you buy a good quality drive and take care of it, but if you get bundled with a cheap one from a supplier and you aren't told how to take care of it.. then it won't be so reliable.

[acous]

Originally Posted by irishdude11

The Mac is also limited to a subset of the available software, just about everything runs on windows.

I'll bite on this it was true once, but not anymore. Adium, Enqueue, Espresso, Fantastical, Garage Band, Pages, Plex, Reeder, Sparrow, Textmate, Things, TotalFinder... all mac exclusives. Mac these days arguably has more high quality software available than windows, partly because the app store incentivises indie development. It also incentivises a steady drip of money from your credit card, but that's another story

[The Black Oil]

I made the jump in 2007. Something has gone wrong with most of the Apple products I've owned, but stuff breaks. Same with the family PC and my mother had issues with her Dell laptop. I prefer the experience of Mac...it's the little things - updates seem to be less of a pain in the arse, for example. Macbook is almost 5 years old now. The HD failed over Christmas, apart from that and the known issue of the cracked case, I've had no issues with it.

[silvine]

Originally Posted by frozenfrozen

If you're not serious about video get the iMac. You will love it, and it will do everything you need and more. Just you're going to need external storage, a usb3 enclosure will do you perfectly for this. 2tb would be plenty. The iMac will handle 1080p dslr footage fairly perfectly, and you can use prores 422 as your intermediary/ delivery, which you can't do on windows.

TBH I wouldn't buy an iMac at the moment. They're overdue a refresh. It may or may not happend when Mountain Lion is released later this Summer.

That said I have an iMac and while it has its quirks, it's great machine. The 27 inch screen is a joy to work on. I can have two open side by side and see everything on the page.

[frozenfrozen]

Originally Posted by silvine

TBH I wouldn't buy an iMac at the moment. They're overdue a refresh. It may or may not happend when Mountain Lion is released later this Summer.

That said I have an iMac and while it has its quirks, it's great machine. The 27 inch screen is a joy to work on. I can have two open side by side and see everything on the page.

Yeah the refresh was mentioned earlier in the thread by the OP. I'm using a 27 inch screen at the moment on windows and it is really quite fantastic to use. So much more space to play with.

[silvine]

Retina would be an interesting addition to the iMac but I'd say the cost would be far too high for most consumers at present. Anyway, the backlit screen is pretty impressive as it is. The only display that can compare is the Dell Ultrasharp 27 inch.

The downside to the iMac it can be difficult to upgrade. If you're not happy buying into the Apple ecosystem, and their form of minimalism, Macs can seem overpriced.

[Savman]

We don't need another Mac V PC flame war, but I'll add my voice to this thread for the OP's deliberation. I went to Mac in 2010 and I do not miss Windows and it's software. We still have a small Windows PC that gets daily use but I detest having to use it, it's an absolute chore compared to the joy of an iMac.

I have an iPhone and some iPods too, so by all means consider me happily brainwashed by the evil Apple empire.

FWIW I used to recommend Dell exclusively, they had the market sewn up in Celtic Tiger Ireland, I helped a few people order machines from them. Low and behold I had no idea what I was getting myself in for, the phone would ring non-stop every time some stupid error message came up or the buggy software crashed. Never again will I recommend to family or friends to buy a Windows unit, life is too short IMHO. Mac can have their grumpy days too, but from top to bottom the platform is far more stable and less prone to trouble, from what I have witnessed personally.

The same is true in many industries: "buy cheap, buy twice" - I can testify to this.

But if you like your Runtime errors and blue screen of death, it's your money.

A well maintained Windows PC can and will last years, but will need regular TLC, disk defrags, Spyware scans, Adware scans, the list goes on. Most of the problems do come from negligence, the typical PC end user could care less about performing these inane tasks but they are essential to the lifespan of any PC.

[gimme5minutes]

Originally Posted by Savman

We don't need another Mac V PC flame war, but I'll add my voice to this thread for the OP's deliberation. I went to Mac in 2010 and I do not miss Windows and it's software. We still have a small Windows PC that gets daily use but I detest having to use it, it's an absolute chore compared to the joy of an iMac.

I have an iPhone and some iPods too, so by all means consider me happily brainwashed by the evil Apple empire.

FWIW I used to recommend Dell exclusively, they had the market sewn up in Celtic Tiger Ireland, I helped a few people order machines from them. Low and behold I had no idea what I was getting myself in for, the phone would ring non-stop every time some stupid error message came up or the buggy software crashed. Never again will I recommend to family or friends to buy a Windows unit, life is too short IMHO. Mac can have their grumpy days too, but from top to bottom the platform is far more stable and less prone to trouble, from what I have witnessed personally.

The same is true in many industries: "buy cheap, buy twice" - I can testify to this.

But if you like your Runtime errors and blue screen of death, it's your money.

A well maintained Windows PC can and will last years, but will need regular TLC, disk defrags, Spyware scans, Adware scans, the list goes on. Most of the problems do come from negligence, the typical PC end user could care less about performing these inane tasks but they are essential to the lifespan of any PC.

Why do people keep using XP/Vista as a comparison for PCs vs other platforms. The 'blue screen of death' does not happen in windows 7. You don't need 'regular disk defrags' with windows 7. Just put a free antivirus on it which takes one minute and thats it, you don't have to do anything else. It doesn't slow down after months of use, let along years. So the list doesn't go on. The only crashes that happen are when a program hangs due to its own bad code, firefox being a good example.

XP is over 10 years old and Vista was a dud, even the most ardent MS fanboy will admit to that. But W7 is excellent, although unfortunately W8 could be another dud from Ive been hearing. But as things stand W7 is a top notch OS and imo it is crazy to pay way more cash to get a much worse spec, with the only benefit being that you don't have to use the Windows OS - when in fact the Windows OS is currently very very good and no longer suffers from any of the problems that former Windows users complain about.

Its the same with linux/ubuntu people, all the negative points they bring up about Windows are the same ones that Mac people bring up and relate to XP and Vista.

[Savman]

Originally Posted by gimme5minutes

Why do people keep using XP/Vista as a comparison for PCs vs other platforms. The 'blue screen of death' does not happen in windows 7. You don't need 'regular disk defrags' with windows 7. Just put a free antivirus on it which takes one minute and thats it, you don't have to do anything else. It doesn't slow down after months of use, let along years. So the list doesn't go on. The only crashes that happen are when a program hangs due to its own bad code, firefox being a good example.

XP is over 10 years old and Vista was a dud, even the most ardent MS fanboy will admit to that. But W7 is excellent, although unfortunately W8 could be another dud from Ive been hearing. But as things stand W7 is a top notch OS and imo it is crazy to pay way more cash to get a much worse spec, with the only benefit being that you don't have to use the Windows OS - when in fact the Windows OS is currently very very good and no longer suffers from any of the problems that former Windows users complain about.

Its the same with linux/ubuntu people, all the negative points they bring up about Windows are the same ones that Mac people bring up and relate to XP and Vista.

I appreciate that they may have ironed out the problems, I've no experience of the current line of Windows PCs. But where a user has bad experience in the past there will always be a reluctance to touch them with a barge pole. The problems with the older Windows software is almost legendary, much like the bogey electronics on Renaults tbh. I still maintain the opinion that the Mac is a superior machine and better long term investment, even moreso if working with jpegs, video or audio.

[T-K-O]

I made that same move a few years back.. I love my iMac it is a wonderful machine.. I have an iPhone iPad apple the products just work..

However I work in I.T and this is where I have a problem, running certain program's on a mac is a nightmare..

Also I have a 27 inch mac monitor currently I use it as a second display, however try hook that monitor up to a pc and it's gonna cost you..

Mac sells itself as the open version of Microsoft that couldn't be further from the truth, you can do with apple products exactly what they allow you to... That has become very frustrating .

[Liameter]

Originally Posted by irishdude11

The vast majority of peoples time is spent in applications so the operating system is not a big factor these days

You are overlooking the integration between applications that OSX provides. The ease with which an image in iPhoto can be located and copied into "Pages" or "Mail", etc. The way the spell checker works in all applications. The way that other applications can work in the background in all applications (such as "TypeIt4Me"). The way that a paragraph from an app can be copied into another app (for example, "TextEdit") and maintain its formatting (e.g. Arial 14pt bold red).

For the record, I use an ancient G4 tower and a brand new shiny "Hackintosh" because I like to be able to open up my box to swap Hard Drives, memory, DVD drive etc. In this respect, I really hate the iMac concept. I like software integration but not hardware integration.

[dulpit]

Originally Posted by Savman

A well maintained Windows PC can and will last years, but will need regular TLC, disk defrags, Spyware scans, Adware scans, the list goes on. Most of the problems do come from negligence, the typical PC end user could care less about performing these inane tasks but they are essential to the lifespan of any PC.

Nope. My parents have the same windows PC for maybe 7 or 8 years, and it is dying now because of the hardware crapping out. They have never run a defrag, they might run the odd anti-virus scan (if they get a pop-up) and that's it.. And that's using Windows XP...

[Spooky1666]

Great this thread turned into a mac vs pc war anyways. Thanks to all the people who replied nicely with an answer and advice to my query. Cheers

[Sad Professor]

Alright, I'm going to lock this now. These Mac vs PC threads are pointless and it was not the OP's intention to ignite one.

Hopefully you got your answer, Spooky. If you have any other questions feel free to start a thread. Although, as you've probably learned, it's best to avoid combinations of the words "PC", "Mac" and "why" in the thread title.

Locked.