Are Mac's worth the Money?

ScumLord

We've not made it any easier have we? :pac:

The important thing is to pick a side and stick to it no matter what! I've already killed 400 Mac users in this horrible war and we'll expect the same from you. If you can't keep up that kind of kill rate then please choose a Mac.

Duke Leonal Felmet

Khannie wrote: »

Apple do produce savage hardware. Anyone who's ever taken apart anything ever made by them (and I have, twice) will know what I mean. I'm not an apple fanboy by any means. Had an iPhone and sold it to replace it with an android. Have never owned any other apple kit and have no plans to. It's all sturdy, well put together and very attractive stuff though IMO. People pay a premium for that. I'm not one of them, but I understand why they do.

I used to work in Apple in Cork, on a production line. God knows how many of those feckin things I builts. The vast,r vast majority of the gear is built in China (Cork just puts the last few bits together so they can avail of low taxes), the same place where their rivals get their stuff. In fact, I don't recall ever seeing a 'Manufactured in California' label. So the idea that their gear is somehow special is bollocks. And believe me, the people doing the final assembly in Cork ain't exactly rocket scientists...

Eamonn Brophy

No. Mac are a designer PC brand. the same way designer clothes dont do much extra, macs don't. Be aware lots of the cost is the "premium" of having a mac, pretty and expensive packaging and to fatten their marketing budget whilst maximizing their profit margins.

A few years ago Mac switched to using intel architecture which basically turned them into shiny expensive pc's running osx. (You can run osx on any intel based machine pretty much now.)

There are many, just as fancy made and designed alternate windows machines that you will find are more powerful and functional and cost less.

Many argue they're superior for media editing which I've never fully bought into, anything you can do there you can do on a windows machine just as well.

I'm not a linux, windows or mac fanboy, in fact I think they all have massive glaring flaws, But the premium you pay for buying into the apple cult is beyond ridiulous. Don't buy into the hype.

Eamonn Brophy

Trojan wrote: »

I can't help you if you choose not to actually read what I said, which was:



Build quality. No more, no less.



I'm far from being a mac fanz. I think they're very expensive to buy and maintain, and I don't like their OS. But the point remains that they are way ahead of any other manufacturer in terms of build quality.

No they're not, you just assume so because you're uneducated in what other laptop manufacturers have available.

This:
http://www.acer.co.uk/ac/en/GB/content/photogallery/aspiresseries

This:
http://reviews.cnet.com/laptops/lenovo-ideapad-u300s/4505-3121_7-35041988.html

And they took me 3 minutes to find. There are plenty of just as beautiful and expensive designer laptops that look as good or better than macs.

teddansonswig

buy the hype, it exists for a reason, hardware tec shi* aside there beautiful machines. given up on windows long ago, and linux more recently. finaly went back to a mac air @ 900E, worth its weight (nothing) in x10 gold

challengemaster

The way this arguement works is :

Anyone that's used a Mac at one point or another will vouch for how good they are

Anyone that hasn't, automatically thinks it's an expensive POS, especially people who've built their own gaming PC's

How do I know? I've been on both sides.

I've a Macbook for day to day use, and gaming spec PC for anything major (photo/video editing, gaming) but honestly, the macbook is worth every penny. I couldn't imagine going back to a windows laptop. Before I got it, I didn't see the point either.

The only way you'll find out if it's "worth it" is to use one. Go to a store (pc world, etc) that stock them and play around with it for a while. See how it feels, have a chance to get used to it. If you like it, great, if not, then you know.

yawha

challengemaster wrote: »

The way this arguement works is :

Anyone that's used a Mac at one point or another will vouch for how good they are

Anyone that hasn't, automatically thinks it's an expensive POS, especially people who've built their own gaming PC's

How do I know? I've been on both sides.

Ah come on, that's as biased and silly as any other reply here.

There are all sorts of people with different opinions on the Mac vs. PC debate for various reasons, many of whom have formed them as a result of poor reasoning.

I mean, on the other side, there are the people who switched to Mac after using XP or Vista, and haven't experienced Win 7, or who decided to splash out a lot of money on a Mac after using middle of the road Windows laptops.

It's a stupid skub war anyhow.

Odaise Gaelach

I've had my second-hand 2006-era iMac for about eight months now. The build quality is really nice, on the hardware side. I'd never appreciated before how much better a computer can seem with a good screen!

Spec-wise, it's capable and can run Windows 7 smoothly enough, though it is pretty underpowered for more demanding tasks. There are a few things that really irritate me: the 2006-era keyboard layout has some keys in different places - it always takes me a few seconds to find the \ key on this thing. It also has some quite obscure keys like § but it doesn't have a hash/sharp key, which is a real pain especially as my occupation is as a C Sharp developer!

I think that OS X would probably be the most compelling reason to get a Mac, and I'd much prefer Windows 7. OS X takes up a 40GB partition on my hard drive and removing it might make Boot Camp stop working, which is a pain because I'd like the extra space.

So while I don't really mind my iMac, my next computer is going to be a custom-built rig. Provided I'm still employed as a C (****-this-****ing-keyboard) Sharp developer by the end of January. And I'm looking forward to it.

stimpson

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

but it doesn't have a hash/sharp key, which is a real pain especially as my occupation is as a C Sharp developer!

Alt-3 is hash.

You know you can plug in any USB keyboard and use it too?

The Black Oil

No question they're expensive, but I prefer the OS and didn't want to use Vista at the time I changed. I've had people start to spout about the cost of Macs to me before, half of them then usually proceed to pull an iPhone from their pocket.

PogMoThoin

What I've seen from my experience, many times. People buy a budget, cheap as chips 300 quid Celeron, minimum ram laptop/desktop that struggles with Windows. Then after 2 years of terrible experience they swear it won't happen again and fork out 1200 on a Mac and are blown away.

Odaise Gaelach

stimpson wrote: »

Alt-3 is hash.

You know you can plug in any USB keyboard and use it too?

It isn't on this one.

Plus this is the only USB keyboard I have. I'm not too pushed about getting one just for that one symbol, especially since I'm building a whole new system next year.

stimpson

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

It isn't on this one.

Plus this is the only USB keyboard I have. I'm not too pushed about getting one just for that one symbol, especially since I'm building a whole new system next year.

Should be - make sure you're using the alt key not the CMD key. If you run Keyboard Viewer it will show you what the keys change to when you hold down the modifiers.

Cuddlesworth

I've used both high spec windows machines and apples and I can't justify the 30% mark up on the Apple side. It doesn't make sense to me.

CamperMan

Windows sucks... just a pile of doggy poop, I either use Mac or Linux

tonsiltickler

For me its a case of what software I can use. Os x will never have software like solidworks or unigraphics running on it. I know the interface is better and its prettier but really, an average laptop can run a far more extensive range of software.

It used to be the case that mac's were the machine of choice for photo and video editing. That's not even true anymore. And also btw, aluminium casings =/= build quality. A pretty high rate of hd failures and some poor customer care
(dodgy chargers catching fire and apple not telling customers which models are affected unless they buy applecare), means I'll never ever buy one.

CamperMan

tonsiltickler wrote: »

For me its a case of what software I can use. Os x will never have software like solidworks or unigraphics running on it. I know the interface is better and its prettier but really, an average laptop can run a far more extensive range of software.

It used to be the case that mac's were the machine of choice for photo and video editing. That's not even true anymore. And also btw, aluminium casings =/= build quality. A pretty high rate of hd failures and some poor customer care
(dodgy chargers catching fire and apple not telling customers which models are affected unless they buy applecare), means I'll never ever buy one.

my iMac has had 2 HD failures and a DVD failure. (had it for 3 years)

this is minor compared to the failures I had with PCs , I had many many more failures with PC's by Dell, Compaq etc

jonon9

Was in the same boat when I decided to build a hackintosh instead for the same price of a iMac 27 inch I built a beast of a machine for the price of the iMac well worth looking into

cherryghost

I fail to see why anyone would buy a Macbook Pro. The motherboards are contracted out to Asus. The RAM is generic and several other modules are compatible with the motherboard. Nvidia/ATI are contracted out to do the GPU's. Intel do the processors. The only thing that's differential to a Windows laptop is the laptop body. And even at that...

Odaise Gaelach

stimpson wrote: »

Should be - make sure you're using the alt key not the CMD key. If you run Keyboard Viewer it will show you what the keys change to when you hold down the modifiers.

...Well it isn't! Trust me, I've looked!

Keyboard Viewer isn't much use, as I use Windows (it's where I do my C Sharp work). But there's even no hash key on the On-Screen Keyboard - it has the § and ± key, but no hash sign.

Odaise Gaelach

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

...Well it isn't! Trust me, I've looked!

Keyboard Viewer isn't much use, as I use Windows (it's where I do my C Sharp work). But there's even no hash key on the On-Screen Keyboard - it has the § and ± key, but no hash sign.

Could you manually override the US-esque Apple keyboard with one of the standard Windows layouts in Region and Language in the Control Panel?

Cork24

Hal Emmerich wrote: »

HOHOHO, this should be good.

My opinion - Total waste of Money and only attention seeking gob****es buy them.:)

You can buy a far better specced Windows Machine for same money, that all programs will work on.

I have one but i must be a attention seeker ??


OP>> to answer your Question from a Person that Uses Mac products Win & Linux.

Is YES & NO..

What i like about Mac OSX is that its build Around UNIX... I use FreeBSD and RedHot and alot of the CMD codes are the same unlike Win.

What i dont like is that you can build a PC with twice as much fire power at half the price.

We could All wish one day that Apple will start Working with Normal Computers without the Need for a hack

Cork24

Enderman wrote: »

I fail to see why anyone would buy a Macbook Pro. The motherboards are contracted out to Asus. The RAM is generic and several other modules are compatible with the motherboard. Nvidia/ATI are contracted out to do the GPU's. Intel do the processors. The only thing that's differential to a Windows laptop is the laptop body. And even at that...

RAM Is made by Samsung..

stimpson

Odaise Gaelach wrote: »

...Well it isn't! Trust me, I've looked!

Keyboard Viewer isn't much use, as I use Windows (it's where I do my C Sharp work). But there's even no hash key on the On-Screen Keyboard - it has the § and ± key, but no hash sign.

Ok Alt - 3 will only work on OSX. You can remap a key using a util like SharpKeys on windows or use alt+036.

challengemaster

Enderman wrote: »

I fail to see why anyone would buy a Macbook Pro. The motherboards are contracted out to Asus. The RAM is generic and several other modules are compatible with the motherboard. Nvidia/ATI are contracted out to do the GPU's. Intel do the processors. The only thing that's differential to a Windows laptop is the laptop body. And even at that...

You're forgetting to add something like the €270 (£229.99) cost of Windows 7 Ultimate to the bill, Macs come with OSX on them - which are not limited to different "versions" so a fair comparison would be the cost of Win7 Ultimate. All the software that comes preloaded as well.

And if you're talking about actual PC's.. You can't argue with this tbh.

challengemaster

challengemaster wrote: »

And if you're talking about actual PC's.. You can't argue with this tbh.

Yes but try upgrading the video card in that iMac...

challengemaster

Karsini wrote: »

Yes but try upgrading the video card in that iMac...

I never said it was perfect or without limitations, but in general, you're paying for more than just a bunch of hardware, which is actually justifiable.

PogMoThoin

challengemaster wrote: »

You're forgetting to add something like the €270 (£229.99) cost of Windows 7 Ultimate to the bill, Macs come with OSX on them - which are not limited to different "versions" so a fair comparison would be the cost of Win7 Ultimate. All the software that comes preloaded as well.

Who pays for Windows

AlmightyCushion

challengemaster wrote: »

You're forgetting to add something like the €270 (£229.99) cost of Windows 7 Ultimate to the bill, Macs come with OSX on them - which are not limited to different "versions" so a fair comparison would be the cost of Win7 Ultimate. All the software that comes preloaded as well.

And if you're talking about actual PC's.. You can't argue with this tbh.

Most don't need windows 7 ultimate though so why add in the cost of that if you never need any of the additional functionality. Also, on your second point.

http://www.google.ie/search?tbm=isch&q=all+in+one+pc&gbv=2&oq=all+in+one+pc&aq=f&aqi=g10&aql=&gs_sm=e&gs_upl=2270l4197l0l4492l13l12l0l1l1l0l151l972l8.3l11l0&biw=1920&bih=1085&sei=yU7RTvbYEpOwhAe0uKixDQ

challengemaster wrote: »

Anyone that's used a Mac at one point or another will vouch for how good they are

Anyone that hasn't, automatically thinks it's an expensive POS, especially people who've built their own gaming PC's

It's nowhere near as clear cut as that. I've used them quite a bit and I still wouldn't get one. Hardware is nice but I've never been a fan of OSX. I much prefer windows. I have a friend who is a complete apple head. He owns a MacBook, iPhone, apple TV and he still thinks some of their products are crazily over priced (15" and 17" pro)

Khannie wrote: »

Apple do produce savage hardware. Anyone who's ever taken apart anything ever made by them (and I have, twice) will know what I mean. I'm not an apple fanboy by any means. Had an iPhone and sold it to replace it with an android. Have never owned any other apple kit and have no plans to. It's all sturdy, well put together and very attractive stuff though IMO. People pay a premium for that. I'm not one of them, but I understand why they do.

I've taken apart an old MacBook (the plastic one, it was one of the first ones released) and didn't think much of it so I don't really get you.

Apple do make nice computers but so do other manufacturers at a much more competitive price (at least in most cases). I don't like OSX so I can't see myself ever getting one especially with with windows 7 as good as it is and windows 8 looking as impressive as it is.

Odaise Gaelach

Karsini wrote: »

Could you manually override the US-esque Apple keyboard with one of the standard Windows layouts in Region and Language in the Control Panel?

I tend to get confused as to which keys are where then.

stimpson wrote: »

Ok Alt - 3 will only work on OSX. You can remap a key using a util like SharpKeys on windows or use alt+036.

Actually, Alt+3 doesn't work in OS X. Found that out when I gave iOS development a go.