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Member Advice Summary
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PC's vs. Mac's - No Contest?
by Destinys-Child | Sep 15 '00
This review may seem one-sided seeing as how I am a PC mark. I have however used Macs in the past quite frequently so I will add my insight into the two brands as democratically I can.
Pro’s
Parts/Repair Shops
...Return to opinion
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Re: MusicXpc S2 vs Mac G5 (Reply to this comment)
by bugmenot
I'm sorry I might sound like a Mac Fanboy when I say this but it must be said, the Windows Vista is just a rip off of Mac OS 10. Check out this New York Times video:
http://video.on.nytimes.com/ifr_main.jsp?nsid=b20ca33a9:10fe6891372:-5199&rf=bm&fr_story=d14603c1e23e6ce37920a8134a2e27b1405a4991&st=1167804511133&mp=FLV&cpf=false&fvn=9&fr=010307_010831_20ca33a9x10fe6891372xw5198&rdm=911708.3805202079
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Jan 02 '07
10:11 pm PST
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no contest? (Reply to this comment)
by dfp48
I've got both machines in my home. I prefer the mac mostly because it just works and has for a long time. Fuss over parts all you want but having had a few macs over the last dozen years I never needed parts. Upgrades may or may not be more than PC. However I've found that many PC cards can be flashed with Mac firmware which opens up a large resource.
Maybe what I like best is that with OSX (unix) it just runs. Can't count the number of times we've had a virus take down the PC. I could say I just don't trust the PC. I've spent much more in time and money keeping the thing running properly - more than makes up the $ difference at the onset.
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Dec 29 '06
6:05 am PST
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Re: Mac vs PC - different and both good. (Reply to this comment)
by sirvulture
I totally agree with you and it's good to see someone not taking the side of a particular OS or computer.
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Oct 22 '06
1:10 pm PDT
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Mac more reliable...HA! (Reply to this comment)
by wixostrix
The only high-end computer I ever had was a PC. However, I have had a few crapy PC and one crapy Mac (I have also worked a lot on Macs at school). For crapy computers PC beat Mac by a landslide I think. Whenever I used a Mac attempting to run multiple programs at once they would always lock-up. When I worked on PC only one of them constantly completely froze. For the rest they would eventually complete the task. If it seemed like it froze, within seconds it would start again. I cant say that for the Mac I had. It was late and I was tired and I froze. So I went to bed and left it the way it was and it was still stuck the when I got up. Macs sure are nice, but I would never spend my money on one. As much as I love new technology...i wont even buy an iPod.
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Apr 18 '06
1:04 pm PDT
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MusicXpc S2 vs Mac G5 (Reply to this comment)
by xpcs2
By far the MusicXPC S2 is much more powerfull than the Mac G5. Just look at the stats and do your research on it, you will see that this machine carries 3 drives that dont crash and obviously the chip is better then that of a Macs. Now come on, you know the new Windows Vista is the new generation and once that hits the market "oh Lord" may have mercy on your Macs!!!
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Jan 31 '06
11:03 pm PST
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I also like fords better than bmw (Reply to this comment)
by cygnus
If you are looking for cheap food you go to macdonalds. The food sucks and has little nutritional value, It is also way easier to find a macdonalds than it is to find a premium steak house.
so is macfonalds better?
NO IT ISN"T
And the g5 has crushed most pc chips of comparible price in virtually all studies.
The only reason to buy a pc is if you are a game player. Buy a mac mini g4 if you need an inexpensive computer.
This type of reasoning always chaps my hide.
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Dec 26 '05
7:53 pm PST
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Repair (Reply to this comment)
by mcmanusword
There arent many mac repair places because macs dont break like windows PCs do. Macs dont have known viruses to be harmed by. They last longer. http://macvspc.info/.
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Nov 26 '05
9:26 pm PST
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Not the way I see it at all.. (Reply to this comment)
by ssamaha
Comming for years (almost two decades) in the IBM/PC/Windows world to the newer Unix based Macs has been a dream come true. Up until Apple went to Unix, I had no interest in mac, and was drooling over $20,000 Sun workstations.. however now, for about $8,000 I have a Dual 2.5GHz G5, with 8GB RAM, and two 30" Displays than can do more than a Sun system at twice the price. And the stability of OS X is nothing less than amazing. With X11, all of my favorite Unix apps are available, and more importantly Apple's own suites of DV and Content apps like FCP4, Motion, DVD Studio Pro 2 are all nothing less than professional grade.
So, basically I totally disagree with this review.
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Nov 12 '04
6:57 pm PST
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Mac vs PC - different and both good. (Reply to this comment)
by macpluspc
I have worked with both Mac and PC. I find both have great strengths, and great weaknesses. I use a PC for productivity in a scientific/engineering environment - the Mac is more enjoyable to use.
Interestingly, I find hardcore fans of each to be very, very amusing in their dis-information campaigns. The rabid Mac fans love to talk about how difficult PCs are to operate, and how awful it is that PCs crash all the time while Macs are completely reliable. They also love to deride the PC because all versions of Windows are built on DOS versions requiring intricate setup of the command line just to keep it running.
PC fanatics love to complain about how 'stupid' Macs are because the underlying operating system is hidden from the user. PC fans also assume there is no software available for Macs, that there are no games available for Macs, etc.
The truth is that both are wrong, though each point of view has a kernel of truth to it.
For the Mac fans - I agree that Macs are easier to use - to a point. WinXP for all its flaws is much easier to use than previous versions. I guess it has taken many years for Gates&co to figure out how to make it Mac-like while trying not to make it look like a Mac. Mac still wins. Non-computer users can be up and running quicker, easier, and become productive faster on a Mac than a PC.
As to PCs crashing while Macs are hyper-reliable.... Well, that one is not quite correct. If you compare an early Mac with an early Windows machine - no question, the Mac was MUCH more reliable. But, sometime after Win98 and up until the advent of OS X, Windows has had an large edge in memory management. In fact, my 4 year old Powerbook G3 (OS 9) crashes rather regularly - usually when two programs make uncooperative memory demands, while my wife's Dell Inspiron {WinXP) just doesn't crash - well, maybe twice in 3 years.
Finally, the complaint that command line 'must' be used for configuration... This was true up to Win98, and not true in WinXP. Oddly, it IS true of Mac OS X as it is based on Unix. Some things are better configured by command line.
As for PC fanatics, the idea that Macs are 'stupid' is just plain ridiculous. While it is true that pre-OS X versions did not allow deep intrusion into the OS, it is also true that it generally wasn't necessary as nearly all needed configuration could be done easily by an average user through various control panels - adjustments well documented in MacHelp - something I cannot say for Windows of any version.
Lack of software for Mac? To some degree this is true, but, except for games (and some scientific and engineering software), there are Mac equivalents to most PC software. Okay, the best/latest games are usually available for PCs before Macs, but not always.
My solution? I think as long as I can afford to I'll keep a Mac and a PC. As for my Powerbook, I think I'll boost the RAM, add a bigger drive, and switch to OS X. I'm tired of it crashing... and it is embarrassing, too.
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May 29 '04
8:26 am PDT
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Re: Re: MAC'ers are completely 1 sided also (Reply to this comment)
by benpatient
i spend 8-10 hours a day at work doing design on a mac, which locks up on a regular basis, runs slower than my much older PC at home, and costs more to upgrade than i would have thought possible.
i had to replace the original RAM, keyboard, mouse, hard drive, speakers and monitor that came with this G4 for various reasons. Apple charges 80 dollars for a 1 button mouse. So i have a 3 button optical wheel mouse from logitec that cost 20 dollars, although when i turn on the "wheel" it tends to crash the mac without warning.
The keyboard was replaced because the apple pro keyboard only has a 2.5 foot long cable, which barely reaches the back of the machine, and there are no front-side usb ports on it.
my old apple studio display crt monitor crapped out after 2 years, so it got replaced with a much cheaper and so far more impressive viewsonic P815 22" monitor.
All this to say that even with a new, very fast HDD, over 700 MB of RAM, and everything else that's been done to this mac in the last 2 years to keep it running (over 900 dollars in hardware expenses so far), it is still considerably slower than my much cheaper PC that I have at home.
And the only upgrade my PC has needed is another 256MB stick of RAM.
I sigh in relief when I go home to my old, according to Apple, crappy PC. It never crashes, it does things (3D games, for example) that my Mac at work could never do, and it has been a much, much better investment of money.
I wish my company wasn't so scared to change platforms...back in the late 80s-early 90s, Macs were faster, more reliable, and just all around better for the graphics professional. These days, all they have going for them are the cool designs, the LCD monitors, and the clever PR campaign.
They rely on false or misleading "comparison tests" to make them look even competitive, when the truth is that any objectively carried-out head-to-head contest will find the Mac's performance sorely lacking, and the prices almost humorous.
for example: http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2002/11_nov/reviews/cw_macvspciii.htm
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Jun 04 '03
9:19 am PDT
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Re: MAC'ers are completely 1 sided also (Reply to this comment)
by warriorx4
That's not true. In fact, a good 75% of PC users will flat out deny all facts thrown at them and state that PCs are better because Macs are just totally stupid. They base their opinion on nothing. Of course, I'm generalizing based on my experience but I believe you're guilty of doing the same. It's rare to find an open-minded PC user who will consider both sides most likely because of the abundance of PC users, which obviously means more immature idiots.
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Mar 03 '03
7:19 pm PST
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The Truth About PC's (Reply to this comment)
by darkkitty64
In my house I own an iMac and a PC. The PC is about two years younger than the iMac and the only thing it is good for is getting someone into a bad mood. When you hear someone stand up for a PC, the first thing they'll probably say is " PC's are cheaper than macs." Well little do they know, macs have been proven to last longer than PC's. If they really wanted to keep a PC running as long as a mac then they would have pay for repairs constantly adding up to an expensive price. Not to mention, macs have many things built right in that most PC's have you pay extra for. So when the adds say PC's are cheaper than macs, do they really mean it?! Another thing a PC fan would say is " PC's have more games than macs do." Well... if they really want to waste their time on games because they have nothing better to do... they can go right ahead.
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Nov 12 '02
10:48 pm PST
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A little jaded (Reply to this comment)
by rick_k
Why are there more shops selling pc parts? maybe that's where the money is, I know people that have had Macs for years and never had any part failures. as far as places to buy them, well I must be lucky there are 4 stores that sell Macs within 20 miles (one being an Apple Store, and the other an Apple only dealer). Now let's talk customer service, with a Mac you call Apple, with a pc you may have to make a few calls. I for one bought AppleCare®, if it does break they (Apple) will send someone right to my house to fix it, and it won't cost me a penny (pc's can't beat that). And tech support, well there again Macs rule Microsoft charges for tech support (even on new products) and with AppleCare®, you get 3 years of toll free no charge tech support (up from the 90 tech support)
Software, I haven't had any problem finding anything I want (there are some 50,000 software titles for Mac OS out there), and with OS X you can run Linux/Unix titles too, and even windows it the mood strikes you (again pc's can't beat that).
Speed, well you can either measure that by mhz/ghz or a better measuring method thru put (I think that's measured in flops, instructions per second). Again Macs are capable of doing more per cycle than a pc, and there's less overhead in the OS. So while the pc may boast a faster mhz rating (and run quite a bit hotter) the Mac does the same task as fast or faster using less clock cycles.
Graphics, I have seen both, and right out of the box Macs have some really good graphics cards. You can get an nVidia Ge force 3 with 64 MB DDR RAM in it right from Apple. And with the ADC connector you have a 100% digital connection to your monitor, where 90% of the pc world is still using VGA, analog (the flat screen monitors are digital but the signal has to be converted).
Expandability, with the exception of the iMac, G4's are hands down the winner here. Mine has gigabit ethernet, 2 hard drives, 1 gigabyte of RAM, 11 mb wireless, a 56k modem, digital sound a Zip 250 drive, 2 firewire ports, 2 USB ( 2 more on keyboard, one has mouse plugged into it, and 2 more on monitor). Now with all that I still have 4 PCI slots for expansion, so in the future I won't have to remove one card to add something else. As for ease, well I haven't seen a pc that even compares to a Mac for ease of upgrading
Reliability, seems Apple spends more to build them and it shows in the quality and dependability of the machine
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Jan 09 '02
3:35 pm PST
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Re: Im not so sure about ur facts (Reply to this comment)
by computernut
First of all, the P4 at 1.5GHz is a poor competitor for a Mac G4 at 500MHz because even the PIII at 1GHz can beat the P4 in today's programs! Also, of course the G4 500 can beat any current Pentium, Intel is having its problem year right now, but put the G4 up against a T-bird at 1.33GHz and see which one comes out on top! The T-bird 1.33GHz is currently the fastest PC proc available, and a much more fair competitor.
Also, it's unfair to compare a pre-built PC to a Mac. Every self-respecting PC enthusiast wouldn't be caught dead benchmarking an untested (read: untweaked) Dell or Gateway against the best that Apple has to offer! I've seen custom-built 900MHz PCs that crush a lowly Compaq 1.1GHz PC in benchmarks tests. My point is that since PCs are so open-ended in design, the manufacturer is the limiting factor against a company such as Apple, which personally manufacturers most/all Macs and makes sure they are as top quality as possible. Talk to a PC custom builder next time, and stay away from ZDNet for your hardware news! Visit the Mac and PC hardware sites instead!
And where on earth did you get the idea that firewire is faster than SCSI!? Are you mad? 50MBps top firewire against the top SCSI at 160MBps? How is 110MBps slower supposed to make firewire come out on top? Ease of use, yes firewire beats SCSI with its eyes closed, but NOT in speed of data transfer. Read your bus specs more carefully!
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Apr 20 '01
1:22 pm PDT
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I used to be VERY OPINIONATED about Macintrash!!! (Reply to this comment)
by shelleysworld1
Of course, I too, believed the windows hype and media propaganda. Then I got my hands on a Mac. I being a computer geek, I had to see what made it so different. Since I was clueless on the workings of Mac,s I had one little tiny piece left over. It still worked. I had no idea what I truly had my hands on.
Now I know. I build PC's for a living, but I will always be a converted Mac freak. Apple is not fighting millions of little companies all trying to get the jump on the other guy. Apple has built all of its systems to be on the cutting edge of technology and waits for the rest to figure it out how to develop the technology for the rest of the world.
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Feb 27 '01
2:25 am PST
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Im not so sure about ur facts (Reply to this comment)
by sephrath
I too am an ardent PC user. Most of the issues with pc's is the poorly written OS called windows. But i must disagree with you about some of the things you said about mac. Firstly the G4 processor clocks much faster then even the p4 1.5 gigahertz. Heck the new G4 powerbook clocks faster then the fastest pentium PC. My source for that is zdnet review of the powerbook G4 500mhz. Alos macs use firewire which is a really fast way of transfering data, much faster then USB or SCSI. Also CompUSA, Circuit City, Best Buy all sell Macs and mac products. It is true the the abundance of software is definitly PC. But it depends on what your looking for. All profesional software. Microsoft, macromedia, and adobe products are all readily available for the mac. Most major software developers release a mac version at the same time as the PC. The real difference is seen in small party software developers and PC games. Most games dont come out until way after they do for the PC. Even classics take a while. This is mostly due to the fact that macs are really used for mulimedia and schoolastic purposes. They are much more stable then any windows PC only linux can compete (maybe even top mac). For that school have fallen in love with macs. If you ask almost any graphic artist, or graphic designer they will tell you mac all the way. And very strongly. Mac has proven its use in the multimedia. Movies, music, art, graphics and so on. Now how far ahead is it from PC's. Depends. You can get some nice software and do some great stuff with a PC, but professionals still claim that Mac is better for those purposes. PC's are not far behind but they are there. PC's are exactly what it stands for Personal Computers, and thats how they are primarily used, as home PC's. Will I ever give up my pc . . . not unless things change drastically. I download a lot of the web and the mac is just not as good because lots of these free programs arent mac compatible. However I would love to get a mac g4 computer and just abuse its power because it is undeniably more powerful then anything else offered. Its notebooks blow the top of the line PC's out of the water.
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Feb 26 '01
10:21 pm PST
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Re: Nice review, but a bit one sided (Reply to this comment)
by cuckoo
With regard to the darkness in photoshop, it may have been due to the color calibration settings on your friend's mac. The macs have been easier to set up for proper color matching for many years. Wintel boxes are slowly gaining ground, but are still lagging.
As for the problems with printing not being accurate, that is a software issue, not a hardware issue.
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Nov 14 '00
3:01 pm PST
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Re: Nice review, but a bit one sided (Reply to this comment)
by Destinys-Child
My review on the publishing aspects of the mac may be a bit off since I was using my friend as the mac test subject.
He is not that great at publishing and when I sat down at his mac and started using photoshop I saw little if no difference between his mac and my PC. The one difference I noted was it took longer for photoshop to open on his Mac and it seemed a bit darker (which Im pretty sure it could be fixed).
The other thing I noticed is that when I went to print out the example on his Mac I wasn't alowed to do anything else while it ws printing because it slowed down too bad. Of course this may differ from model to model.
Thanks for your comments
Destinys-Child
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Oct 21 '00
7:02 am PDT
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Nice review, but a bit one sided (Reply to this comment)
by doninsocal
I like your straight forward approach to this topic, but you missed the mark when it can to the desktop publishing aspect when comparing the mac to a pc.
Although windows has come a long way with its wysiwyg display it is far behind that of a mac. I can ALWAYS be assured that the image on the screen of my mac will print correctly, but the pc will 30+ percent of the time need adjustments to get the desired result.
I am stuck with a PC at work and the bulk of my job is publishing. I do give the pc far higher marks for processing power and universal acceptance in todays workplace.
DS
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Oct 20 '00
11:21 am PDT
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