PC vs Apple Mac - Which is better?

The only Mac OS I have any experience with at all is system 7.1, and the last time I used that was about 6 years ago in middle school, so I would hardly consider myself able to make any judgements about Macs.

PC's however, I'm a great deal more familiar with. I have experience with Windows 3.1, Windows 95, Windows 98SE, Windows ME, Windows 2000, Windows 2000 Advanced Server, and Windows XP. Out of all of those I'd have to say that Windows XP seems to have worked the best for me, although I have had a few problems with it. The Master Boot Record has become corrupt for no apparent reason a couple times, and one time the Kernel become corrupt (which required a format/reinstall to fix).

I don't think that one platform can be considered better than the other, it's all really just a matter of personal preference.

I'd say go for a PC. You can get a really good one for super cheap. Mine's over a year old (1.3 AMD, 256 DDR, 64 Gforce 2) and it still does everything I want it to. The fact that you can build them yourself and you have an assortment of brands to choose from makes them better in my opinion for all around stuff. If you're just going to surf the web and play games and not edit videos or audio, then why spend tons of money on something? It'll still be able to do all of that years down the road. If you're into working with audio recording (pro tools and the like) and video editing (premiere, final cut pro...) then macs are the way to go. They just perform better in those fields. But for all around stuff like you listed the PCs are better.

yea, pc's are much cheaper...

1.5ghz,512 133mhz ram,70gb hd, dvd,cdrw,xp pro,audigyplat,ati all in wonder8500...about 2300...

but for about the same price you could get a g4 that is much more productive...

Originally posted by Kobyoshimaru
I will be using the comp for games / playing large video clips / web surfing / general word, excel etc.

Based on what you say here, you want a PC. If you can forgo the games and excel, then the Mac.

Last I heard, M$ is not going to be doing much more in the office area for the Mac. And most game manufacturers do not release their games on the Mac. Unless you play Blizzard games, then you just have to wait a few extra months.

The nice thing about the Mac is the new ones have OS 10, which is UNIX based. The nice thing about the PC is that (guessing here) 95% of computer owners use windowz.

I for one do not have a Mac, I have though about it just for fun. My main use is games, so, a PC it is.

I would suggest not spending too much on a PC though. You do not need top of the line. 1.6-2.0 GHz should do you fine, 512M-1024MB Ram, 40-80GB HD. And I highly recomend an AMD. 64-128MB video card (Nvidia or ATI).

Those are just my thoughts.

You should go to macrumors.com forums and ask the questions you might have they are very good.
And IMHO you should get a mac, I am running Mac OS X Panther right now and man this is heaven, your life will change dude
You can also have games on mac (www.insidemacgames.com).
Superior operating system, user interface, stability, great multitasking and ease of use is definitely worth it.

Once you get a Mac, you don't go back.

Oh and crayon please stop spreading desinformation

Microsoft has Office for Mac for years and many people agree its better than PC version.
Latest version was even released before equivalent version for PC.

Edit: I added little screenshot of my Mac.

Screenshot of Mac OS X

[Edited on 9-11-2003 by Megaquad]

Mac's are good but I prefer PC myself. Simply cause I'm a hardware and network tech and PC's allow for more Affordable Frankenstien-ish Creations for me to play with. I've also been a Graphic Artist/Publisher/Novice Animator/Artist for some time now and the ability of PC multimedia has caught up to the Mac over recent years IMO.

They are both equal as far as I'm concerned and I feel it's really just a matter of personal choice really. The operator behind the keyboard is where the real difference comes in anyway, not the machine. That and of course the OS.

Originally posted by Megaquad
Oh and crayon please stop spreading desinformation

Not spreading disinformation. Just what I have heard from Mac users at work. It is something to consider. Of course, if you don't share office docs, then it doesn't matter.

PC easily.

You WONT regret it.

All of what you want to do you can do witha pc no problems. A mac might be great for video, word,etc but they aren't anything when it comes to computer games or variety in software programs when comared to PC's.


isn't it something like 95% of all computers are PC's?

i wonder why?
They are cheaper to upgrade, they can do everything that you need to/want to do, more compatibility, more functions, Windows Xp is WAY stable so dont have the linux/MAC people telling you your PC is going to crash a million times and their MACs/Linux boxes are the stable ones.

Linux you wont even know how to use. Seriously.
Mac i cant even rememebr the interface, shouldnt eb that hard to use, but if u've been using windows all ur life, it's probably better to stick with it.




Look. Basiclly here is the run down.

Macs are great with video editing, word editing, etc.
Linux are great because they are more secure on the internet (but nothing is ever secure buddy).
Both Macs and Linux Os systems claim their systems hardly ever crashand are basically uncrashable. What a load of rubbihs. I've seen a mac crash and it was meant to be the best mac out on the market. I've seen linux crash a heap on my sysrtem at home. I had a hard time installing it let alone running it and getting things set up/extracted/working once it was. Couldn't even get the home network figured out, even though it was sharing internet acrosthe network. ...i still coundlt see my linux box onthe network.

Games are best on a windoms platform. Video playing/editing are great on a windows platform. Windows Xp is soo stable and you wont have problems with it..just make sure you have an anti-virus thing on it and a firewall..and u can quote me on that.
Word/excel...Micrsoft office xp...you wont have trouble doing assignments...trust me.
burnign cd's, doing anything and everything on windows. Way better.
Upgrading, way cheaper with a PC comapred to MAC.



Overall. Get a Windows XP box and u shouldn't have trouble at all except maybe with viruses/hackers, but anyone and everyone has trouble with viruses and hackers...including ATS.

So if you get Windows XP, get anti-virus protection, and get a firewall (you can get a free firewall called zonealarm).

Originally posted by bigsage
they are definately not crap in terms of whats available for pc/clones...
they are based on a kernel of nt(new technology)
and the file format is ntfs(new technology file system)...
some of the code resembles the stability of unix in that applications are independent of the core os(at least thats what you percieve)...

You Say XP uses NTFS, now i don't really know what it is but i do know that XP is on my laptop and while i don't use it that much i noticed a shortcut to "convert to NTFS from FAT32" i did this and long storey short it slowed the comp down noticable and i had to reset the laptop to factory settings to get the prev performance level. IS NTFS ANY GOOD, my old comp wan Win ME which i know is poor but ran FAT32. What exactly is the difference and why does it matter?? The hard disk in the laptop is a pretty fast 30gig drive.

NTFS is superior and more secure than other windows file systems. It allows file security and permissions. It can be slightly slower on older systems, however.

It is the recommended file system and is far more reliable. (you will never get scandisk on startup with NTFS)

fwiw.


[Edited on 9-11-2003 by Zzub]

Its kind of funny how the hard liners of each of the OS camps (MS, Mac, *nix) like to tout theirs as the one and only. Mac is actually helping to kill windows, because users who become proficient with OS X Jaguar are ready for that big scary leep to linux In a recent article MS said they no longer consider Mac the primary threat to their empire, but that Red Hat Linux was their biggest rival now. As for stability issues, its all in now the machine is setup, and what it does. Desktop machines find users playing with things, adding new software, etc, whcih over time can make the system unstable if not done properly. And the biggest buzzword of all Security, which is a joke in and of itself. Any OS that claims is "out of the box secure" is a load of crap. Do a base install of SuSE, OS X, or any other, and the first thing you have to do apply patches to the os, and update all the software you are currently using. Oh, and on the topic of grahpics and macs, thats not quite true anymore, Linux is now employed by ILM to do their graphic work, so Mac is loosing its foothold as the graphics giant.

I'm really not that bothered either way.
I built my own pc and i love it to bits, once i get a new hdd i'll be dual booting with linux.

If i had $4000 to spend on a shiny mp3 and photoshop computer i'd buy a mac.

if you want to play up to date games get a pc with billgates hellspawn...

if you want a deccent computer thats good at surfing editing photoediting website design and all the rest barr playing upto date games get a mac..

if macs didnt need their own games and could run uptodate windows games without an emulator i would have a mac...

its blatently obvious to anyone who has had the best of bothworlds macs are just better... im sorry its the way i feel...

"DOS Computers manufactured by companies such as IBM, Compaq, Tandy, and
millions of others are by far the most popular, with about 70 million machines
in use wordwide. Macintosh fans, on the other hand, may note that cockroaches
are far more numerous than humans, and that numbers alone do not denote a
higher life form."
( New York Times, November 26, 1991)


Basically, almost none of the PC users tried Mac. (if they did, they wouldn't be pc users anymore)
Mac users tried both, so we should know..


[Edited on 9-11-2003 by Megaquad]

Originally posted by Kobyoshimaru
My main computer has given up the ghost and i'm soon to get a new one. I've seen the new Apple G-whatever Chip is the fastest processor u can get. I'd not really not ever thought about getting an apple mac b4. I've spoken to a few people at work about the different options. As you can expect the PC users say get a PC and the Mac users say get a Mac, but the difference is a lot of the mac users seem to try much harder to convince you, like they have somthing to prove or somthing. Why is this and which is better, i use my computer for video, the web, games and general word processing etc??

Id say stick with what you know.

Interesting, Microsoft is buying macs.

yro.slashdot.org.../10/29/1421223&mode= thread&tid=109&tid=187

The PC is the superior race of computers.

Originally posted by Zzub
NTFS is superior and more secure than other windows file systems. It allows file security and permissions. It can be slightly slower on older systems, however.

It is the recommended file system and is far more reliable. (you will never get scandisk on startup with NTFS)

fwiw.



[Edited on 9-11-2003 by Zzub]

This is a 2000mhz 512mb 30gb 32mb-gforce laptop its fast as out.......its faster than my desktop.......we got them through work, my mate has an identical one....its a tosh, its solid as anything....better than any laptop i've seen and overall quicker than better spec machines in reviwes. Should NTFS really be slower?? oh yeah, i think i did get scandisk on NTFS im sure.

[Edited on 9-11-2003 by Kobyoshimaru]

why are macs bettter then windows?

only "real" reson i think windows is better then mac is becose there SO MUCH more stuff for them..

so much more cheaper and custemmizible...

i realy do think mac should start selling mac os that would work on "pc" hardware

what do u guys think is the best linux OS?? were u can play videos, install programs without being a rocket scientest eta,eta?


my 600e ebm 366mhz p2 220 ram only seams 2x slower then my gaming reg with xp... anyone with that laptop? i wunder if theres a way i can get AVI and FLASH to run smooth

Id wait till next year when microsoft releases the nex winows version. It should make xp look wimpy compared to it but we will have to wait and see