Mac vs Intel: What's Your Preference?

[Cyrus]

Other than games, why does one need to mod and over clock their computer for? I can't see any use of it. Is buying any particular OS really all that important? Its not like your making that computer a network server for a 50 computers anyways.

 

[Danger]

One of the major Mac advantages for me is the functional speed (as opposed to clock speed). Who wants to sit around for half the day waiting for a stupid PC to refresh a Photoshop or Illustrator file? My 233 MHz G3 is way faster than the 1.81 MHz P4 that I have at work.

 

[alex caps]

I like macs for video editing and graphics but I like pcs for everything else.. but the main reason I haven't been a fan of macs is the compatability issues.. Until Now. I am considering getting one of these.. they look perfect for me: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=MacBookPro

 

[Cyrus]

I must say, apple has an amazing marketing team, though I find their products way too expensive. But in this case, you get your money's worth. $3 grand, outch.

 

[Danger]

Oh yes! I absolutely want one. (Can't afford it, though. )

 

[BlackJack]

Apple is stylish but expensive.
Since the new macs will be running with intel processors you'll have the choise :).

 

[Mk]

windows is a must in this case (though Mac games exist for all the major titles that anyone actually cares about)

This is why I actually prefer Macs for games, because of a combination of 3:

I tend to not like computer/video games very much, and am only entertained by "the best," which all come out for mac.

Macintosh's graphics are better [period]

I love my Mac soooo much!

 

[Moonbear]

Seriously, how can anyone like Mac's?

Unfortunatly our Physics department here at Exeter uni Choose to use them and only them! ARGH! They have all just been upgraded to the new flat ones, (cant be bothered to remember what they are called) And they suck sooooooooooo Bad! For example, a friend needed to hand in some work into a folder that was on a server controlled by the person that was teaching that module. The mac then turned around and said, Sorry there is already a copy of this file in this folder. "do you want to over write or cancel?" naturally he pressed cancel. The mac then proceeded to delete both copies of the work! What the hell is the deal with that!

PC all the IMO. :)

I've never had any problem like that. It sounds to me like a personal screw-up. When you copy a file to a server, you have to go out of your way to actually move the original file, otherwise the default is to just create a copy of it, so the original remains where you left it.

Of course, I could tell plenty of stories of all the things lost on a Windows machine too, but I'm not going to just say PCs are all crap because of it.

I do a LOT of work with high resolution digital images in Photoshop and Illustrator, and the version of Photoshop for PCs doesn't even have all the features that the Mac version has, and that I need to use. I've never tried using Illustrator on a PC, so can't really compare. But, as I've been saying, it's all about knowing what you are using the computer for and which one suits that need best. If you don't know or don't care, whatever the cheapest one is on sale is probably enough computer for you.

I do know that I don't have the patience for Windows. It's just too painfully slow to do anything. Of course part of that is the need to constantly be running antivirus and antispyware and antieverything else software in the background. But, hey, I used to like PCs better back when they ran Windows 3.11 and Macs were on something like OS 6 or 7 (I don't even know which OS it was then, but those were pretty awful...those were the days when you could use the mouse to scroll down a page and read every line while scrolling at the fastest speed). Whenever I'm on a machine running XP, I get really nostalgic for Windows 3.11.

 

[woodsy2k]

My 233 MHz G3 is way faster than the 1.81 MHz P4 that I have at work

That's because its a P4

Oh and Chi Meson, Forgive me if i sounded short, I had a rough night that night, as i went to A&E after drinking too much

No hard feeling :)

Woodsy

 

[Kakarot]

oh yea well macs can't run half-life the greatest game ever! :)

 

[ComputerGeek]

Seriously, how can anyone like Mac's?

Unfortunatly our Physics department here at Exeter uni Choose to use them and only them! ARGH! They have all just been upgraded to the new flat ones, (cant be bothered to remember what they are called) And they suck sooooooooooo Bad! For example, a friend needed to hand in some work into a folder that was on a server controlled by the person that was teaching that module. The mac then turned around and said, Sorry there is already a copy of this file in this folder. "do you want to over write or cancel?" naturally he pressed cancel. The mac then proceeded to delete both copies of the work! What the hell is the deal with that!

PC all the IMO. :)

Canceling a copy does not delete both copies, so your friend most likely did something wrong. O S X is not some weird POS system that does what it feels like.

 

[ComputerGeek]

I like macs for video editing and graphics but I like pcs for everything else.. but the main reason I haven't been a fan of macs is the compatability issues.. Until Now. I am considering getting one of these.. they look perfect for me: http://store.apple.com/1-800-MY-APPLE/WebObjects/AppleStore?family=MacBookPro

Macs have been "compatible" for almost a decade now.

 

[Moonbear]

Macs have been "compatible" for almost a decade now.

I have not had any compatibility issues with Macs in years. The only "compatibility" issues I've run into have nothing to do with using Macs, but with people who never upgrade their software. The only other issues that people claim are compatibility issues are actually all user issues. Those big red X's in powerpoint presentations are the most common, and it just means people have inserted images linked to files without copying the file the image is coming from...just insert it as a picture instead of a link to a file, and you never have that problem.

I have never had a problem opening a PC file (as long as I own the software of course; Microsoft still has a stranglehold on people in that arena, but it makes no difference between Mac or PC), and have not had problems with opening my Mac files on PCs either. Now it's even easier to be certain files are compatible, because when I send an email using Mail and include an attachment, I just check a box that says to send it as a Windows friendly attachment. Nobody has had any problems opening anything I've sent them yet.

 

[russ_watters]

Other than games, why does one need to mod and over clock their computer for? I can't see any use of it.

It's more about being a hobby than having a need. I enjoy building computers and the hobby has been useful for learning how to fix them for work and for friends.

Is buying any particular OS really all that important? Its not like your making that computer a network server for a 50 computers anyways.

Depends. With any vendor, newer products have different features. Some people need/want the new features, some don't. Ie, one biggie these days is compatibility with USB flash drives: if your PC doesn't have Windows 2000 or XP, it isn't native.

One of the major Mac advantages for me is the functional speed (as opposed to clock speed). Who wants to sit around for half the day waiting for a stupid PC to refresh a Photoshop or Illustrator file? My 233 MHz G3 is way faster than the 1.81 MHz P4 that I have at work.

While it is true that applications optomized for Mac run faster on a Mac than on a similar PC (Photoshop is a typical example), we're not talking more than double (and then only for very specific tasks) and the raw speed difference you cited is probably a good 5x, so if your Mac actually does run faster than that PC doing exactly the same tasks, there is probably something wrong with the PC.

The entire reason Apple has switched to Intel processors is the raw speed advantage of PCs years ago made the optomization advantage of Apple software irrelevant.

 

[ComputerGeek]

While it is true that applications optomized for Mac run faster on a Mac than on a similar PC (Photoshop is a typical example), we're not talking more than double (and then only for very specific tasks) and the raw speed difference you cited is probably a good 5x, so if your Mac actually does run faster than that PC doing exactly the same tasks, there is probably something wrong with the PC.

The entire reason Apple has switched to Intel processors is the raw speed advantage of PCs years ago made the optomization advantage of Apple software irrelevant.

I took his comment to mean that OS X's work flow makes getting things done much faster than in windows.