By Patrick Cowles
Asst. News Editor
Published: December 14, 2009
By Skylar Smith
Daily Titan Staff Writer
The Mac has always taken a lot of heat from the gaming community and much of the computer science and engineering community, rightfully so. Its recent advertising is made to poke fun at the PC world and has caused Windows to respond with its own anti-Mac advertising campaign. However, beneath all the bragging and beneath all the sleek advertising lies a solid machine capable of handling far more than people expect.
Every program installed on Mac, made by Apple or otherwise, is custom tailored to fit that specific operating system and that specific arrangement of drivers and parts, thus, allowing updates to go smoother and programs to run faster.
Go ahead and run any Adobe program on a Mac then run it on a PC with the same specifications and see the difference. Sure, you can get similar results with a custom built PC with much higher specs and cost, but there are many people out there who don’t have the time or knowledge to do that.
Macs are also great because the applications that Apple makes are always top of the line compared to the competitors, and every program, no matter what the industry you work in other than computer science, the Apple application is the industry standard.
Now, for the specific stuff. Most PC’s currently come with a 60-day trial of some security software, and after the trial is over, you are out of luck unless you buy a new annual subscription to new security software. On the Mac, there is no need for Anti-Virus software, thus, saving you hundreds of dollars.
How about software and hardware problems? A diagnosis without warranty can cost $100 or more. A diagnosis at an Apple store? Free.
Then there’s the bundle of features that come with “iLife,” which is pre-installed on every Mac and lets you organize photos and movies and share them with friends or family. There is also “GarageBand,” which is the most easily accessible and broadly used recording program for many podcasts and new music artists; and that’s free too.
Hewlett Packard laptops or most Windows-based laptops have a battery life of about three hours at most. The MacBook Pro keeps users running and operating their programs for up to eight hours.
At the end of the day, if you took the program costs, security costs and troubleshooting/repair costs that a PC user would require over the life of their computer – a MacBook’s out-of-the-box standards – it would cost close to $1,500.
The PC user would pay around the same price as a Mac, and their PC would still not be running as smoothly.
By Patrick Cowles
Daily Titan Asst. News Editor
In July, I spent $1,300 on a new desktop computer from a small company that produces high performance PCs for people like me, avid gamers.
I’ve grown accustomed to this price because every so often I need a new computer, since the hardware in my old one will no longer be capable of running newer games. And just above $1,000 is about the price I need in order to build a computer I won’t have to substantially replace within the next five to six years.
With my PC, if I need a new video card, I can spend the $100 to $200 for a top-of-the-line card in between those years or a few dozen dollars on faster RAM, but those prices aren’t damning.
With an iMac, every two to three years, it’s time for a new one. Can you simply replace the video card instead? No. Can you simply upgrade your RAM instead? No.
I’ve been informed by an Apple employee about the hoops one must jump through to upgrade or replace their hardware, and it’s just not practical. You even void your legal warranty if you look inside the iMac (Incredibly Misleadingly Advertised Crap).
Regardless of the software bundle you get with an iMac, the price of the machine you’re buying is disproportionate with the value of the parts, software and services you’re paying for (I got a software bundle and three year parts and labor with mine).
I’m on the Apple Store Web site right now, looking at their iMac of comparable hardware to mine.
For $2,000, you get half my RAM, meaning you’re a technological shift behind in graphics (which you can’t upgrade). But you have a slightly better processor. To have eight gigabytes of RAM like my computer, add $200 for four sticks at two GB a piece or $600 for two sticks at four GB a piece. Considering I bought Kingston Hyper-X with mine, you’ll probably have to add $600 to equal my power.
Either way, if you buy the “closest” iMac to my PC, you’re paying much more for much less. Kudos, because I have $700 – $1,300 left in my pocket to buy tons of beer with in order to help fuel my latest crave … Fallout 3 (be quiet; I finally have a PC that can handle it).
And by the way Mac-olites, when your power supply dies (very cheap “$50” and simple fix “under five minutes”), your iMac is legally dead, and you void the warranty if you replace it. Enjoy the wonders of the transportation industry if you ship it in for repairs. I drove my own car to pick up my PC, no two week waiting period necessary.
P.S.: The comparable Mac Pro to my PC is $2,949.
So, hey, Mac … my PC may “crash” (rarely), but at least I’m not broke.
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The article by Mr. Cowles is a poor substitute for analysis. The majority of adults are not video gaming on their computer. They want something that works, handles business, and does it without needing an IT department. A PSP3 runs blu rays, plays games, and is only $300. Are you really not able to game on a Playstation 3? Why?
More disturbing is the failure to compare his computer to an out of the box iMac 21.5″ with a 3ghz CPU. Instead he compares it to a dual core Mac Pro, which are used for video production. Upgrading RAM on an iMac takes about 30 seconds and requires one screw to be removed. It does not void the warranty. RAM can be purchased at NewEgg.com for the same price as PC RAM (it’s often near identical).
Video is now at 1080 and will stay there for the foreseeable future, what video card do you need better than the iMacs, and why? 1080 takes a 30″ screen or larger to display without being reduced in size (for computer screen pixels.)
I quickly went on the Gateway site, and it’s $790 for a DX4822-03, with 2.66 Ghz and 8GBs of ram and a 1 TB hard drive. The problem is of course you’re still running Windows 7, not OS X 10.6. The you have to buy a display, for about $200 and it’s nowhere near the apple display. Now that’s $1000, and you’re only $200 from an apple. You need to upgrade the CPU on the PC still, and I’m not sure what that will cost for a 3Ghz chip and someone to install it. Of course you have to have a faster chip to compare a PC to a mac because Windows uses so much CPU to run as compared to a mac. You’ll also need that extra RAM because you’ll want to have things move faster with everything in Windows 7 running that 16GB operating system, as compared to the mac’s 6GB operating system. And the iMac 21.5″ still has a faster CPU, comes with better software, and for $50 bucks you could upgrade the ram. So the claims about PC’s being cheaper does not appear to be that true.
Mr. Cowles failed to state the speeds of hardware in his $1300 pro computer, nor why a particular video card made today and capable of 1080 video will be sufficient to run 1080 video in the future, nor what is required to have a “gaming computer”. It appears a Gateway and an iMac are about the same price. and it’s like they say, “Once you try Mac you never go back.”
Mac Pro’s can be upgraded to near $17,000 each because they are a specialty product used by architects and video production companies. Many blockbuster Hollywood movies have been made on them with mac software. It is the ability to upgrade in the future, or have the best video editing computer that people choose a mac pro. Not for gaming. Gaming is for children.
I edit video on my 2008 20″imac (1920×1080 blu ray), work in multiple video codecs, and also run my business on it (I’m an attorney). I have no compatibility problems, get tons of the best software and upgrades for free, and don’t need an IT department.
Mr. Cowles should better explain his analysis to help those in the gaming market understand why an iMac is not a valid choice to run video games, and why someone would want to spend $1300 over the Playstation3 at $300.
P.S. You can’t watch blu ray movies on a Mac because there is no way to implement the digital rights management on a fully Unix system. This is because once a native blu ray plays is installed inside a mac, the firmware could be manipulated to ignore the DRMs. You can author, view, and watch MPEG-2 and MPEG-4 video (the bluray codecs), just not the hollywood movies, because Apple cannot promise the computer will adequately protect the videos from being illegally copied.
The article about the Mac is obviously biased. The best anti-viral software on the PC is free – Avast. You can spend $39 a year for competitors if you like.
The Mac is attacked by virus programs and an even more costly issue for users Phishing attacks.
I have used both for several decades and don’t like the Mac. The screens on the laptops are small except the $3,000 ones.
It’s a closed world on a Mac and the customer service is terrible but so is Dell.
The Adobe software does not run any better on a Mac. Adobe software like Photoshop and Premiere is a pig on any computer.
However, for those who like Macs, enjoy your computer and smug attitude.
There are things about both of these articles that I can agree with. Firstly, nobody can disagree with the fact that Apple has a better Operating System and iLife is a better package than the Windows substitute. However, now that Apple’s use Intel processors, there are no excuses for the prices being almost twice what they should be for Macs.
I find it hard to believe that Photoshop works better on Mac than on PC with the same exact hardware, considering both versions are made by Adobe and BOTH versions are “custom tailored” for their respective operating systems. I use both OS’s and have Photoshop loaded onto both and can’t tell the difference.
The fact of the matter is that Macs are the exact same thing as PC’s just with a different OS and more intelligent marketing. It’s just marketing that makes people think there are no viruses for mac. The first virus ever was written for mac in 1972. The reason people don’t complain about viruses on mac is because Apple owns less than 10% of the market, so the majority of viruses are written for windows…it’s not because OSX is more secure.
Let’s not get ahead of ourselves though, Windows XP and Vista are horrible OS’s, but IMO W7 is a step in the right direction.
You don’t pay more for either operating system as far as 3rd party software goes, because both have alternative free versions of everything, from Antivirus to Video editing. In the end, it comes down to this…most companies won’t buy Macs, because they cost 3 times more, and most home users can’t afford one, so there is a mystical aspect to them, kinda like Mazzeratis.
Skylar – your pompous attitude is a thin vail for your need to justify spending more money for what is obviously a over-priced PC. As for OSX, it is a good OS, but the only reason you beleive it is more secure is because you believe that no one is writing viruses for it, which is wrong. Are there less viruses for OSX? yes, but that is only because there are less computers running OSX.
As for your overpriced PC, I can buy or build a faster PC for much less money and install OSX on it and it will run screaming past the locked down, closed intel based PCs that Apple sells and calls a MAC. Will it be all white and shiny and look like a suppository? No, but I wont need to shove it anywhere to believe it is better than everyone elses PC.
David
Macs are essentially locked down PCs with Apple branding on them running a different OS. If Apple owners want to spend the extra money to have a simple O and look “hip and trendy,” by all means do so. The rest of us will continue to use platforms that are not locked down and enjoy our relative computing freedom.
Macs are essentially locked down PCs with Apple branding on them running a different OS. If Apple owners want to spend the extra money to have a simplified computing environment and look “hip and trendy,” by all means do so. The rest of us will continue to use platforms that are not locked down and enjoy our relative computing freedom.
@ Stephen Pate: Really? So you know of a virus program for OS X? You sure it’s not a trojan? And do you imply that only Mac users are duped by Phishing scams?
And BTW, 17 inch Macbooks start at $2499.00…less if you get it through school.
i like your information abt this n i want more information on my email address
AAAH every single who has comment on this terrible article are a bunch of stupid fan boys. Even the good arguments were tarnished by nonsensical fanboyism. There hasn’t been a solid argument yet. The best computer to buy for college is a MAC. Not because os-x is a better operating system or anything else mentioned here, but because dealing with apologist mac fanboys is way worse than listening to pc enthusiasts.
I’m firmly in both camps. I have a new alu body 17″ MacBook pro, that is my on the road workhorse, prior to this I had the 15″ version. In 4 years of ownership neither missed a beat. Swapping to the new machine meant joining both to a shared wireless network, and within 30 minutes all my settings AND PROGRAMMES were installed on the new machine. Windows cannot emulate this process.
I also run windows 7 under bootcamp, as well as parallels. Mainly to run some windows specific software (studio plus … and portrait one manager) Runs like a dream.
And to keep my feet firmly in the window camp, at home I have a self built windows machine, with a Asus maximus extreme motherboard, 6600 QC processor , 260gx graphics, 8GB of ram and 6 TB of storage on an adaptec raid card. The upgrade to windows 7 64bit from vista … £169 (macs latest upgrade £39) I love it, runs a dell 30″ plus a 12″ wacom display. But my gripe about windows … The last 4 days I have spent rebuilding the system from scratch after a windows “security update” rendered the raid cards driver as “unsigned” under 64bit. No ifs, no buts, and other than f8′ing the start up every time no work around.
And therein lies the issue, windows machines are compiled of hundreds of manufactures products. They come, but more importantly … They go (or at least their product support does) and the user is left with an oversized paperweight. Mac has a price premium, but that premium helps ensure that all components will integrate without any issues, that support, and / or approval to use won’t suddenly be withdrawn. And from a business persepctive, Id rather pay that cost up front, as opposed to the potential cost of downtime (which is a very real cost) when the windows pc is rendered useless.
And that last sentence tells it all … If it wasn’t for windows, pc’s would be perfect.