Going Mac

[KU_Bassmaster.]

Well it was an expensive last week. I was in "need" of a more powerful PC. I have had my eye on iMac since the first of the year. There were tons of rumors all over the internet of an iMac update being released in April/May 2011 so I waited around for that. The update was released last Wednesday. I just received it yesterday, and so far I REALLY like it. The screen on this thing is amazing. I can see me owning Mac computers from here on. That's the good.

The bad ... the iPhone. Last Thursday I had to go in after my boat. A cleat my boat was tied to broke from the dock while I was parking. Soon as I saw my boat floating out into the abyss I panicked and went in after it full out Baywatch style. After a cold swim I get on board and realized my Droid was in my pocket. Crap!!!!! Went to Verizon and the "cheapest" "good" phone I could get was the iPhone because they waived some sort of reactivation charge since my contract was not up. They only waived that on iPhones. There is no doubt the thing looks and feels good but .... I hate the thing. Its a multitude of little things. The biggest one being an indicator light. I mean come on!!! How can they not put some sort of indicator light on the outside to let you know you have a missed text, call, voicemail, etc. Can't wait to get another Droid when I am up for an upgrade. Counting down the days. The bad.

[GrundleLove]

You should change the title to "The bad and the bad"

Seriously, I like the "idea" of Macs, but the price that hey want for them is highway robbery. "ZOMG but they dont get virus's?!?!!!!" Wrong. They do.

This misconception that macs are fool proof for virus/malware is crazy. Go into an apple store, know whats in the software section? Norton for Mac. MacAffee for mac. etc....

The problem being is that their "powerful" iMacs are great because you can get an i7 ( or i5) which is cool, SSD, also cool..and up too 16GB of ram...also cool. But that ends up running you about $4100. ( my co-worker got a 27 inch iMac with an i7, 16GB of ram, and 2 internal HDD's one SSD and another a 1TB drive..he paid $4100)

The fact of the matter is, if you got a PC with that equivalent? It would be SIGNIFICANTLY less. about 2 grand less. I could go on and on.... /rant

That being said: If you have the money to burn on an iMac? DO IT. But to me, its such a waste of money its silly.

As for your Droid mishap, I feel for you man. I have a DroidX and LOVE IT. I also own a iTouch and pretty much threw it away after getting the droid. How can a phone NOT have flash? LOL@Iphone.

The new droids are coming out this month and I plan on upgrading. If my father doesnt take my DroidX I will send you mine to have as a public service to get rid of that horrible IPhone

[GTrombly]

This misconception that macs are fool proof for virus/malware is crazy. Go into an apple store, know whats in the software section? Norton for Mac. MacAffee for mac. etc....

Macs are much more fool proof than a PC running windows. Those virus programs for macs are just to make money and for people who do not know what they are doing. The user has to allow anything to be installed on a mac, unlike windows that allows programs and other software to be installed through ads and other stuff. Because it's UNIX based the virus has to be mounted onto the hard drive by the user, it does not run itself automatically. For every attempted mac virus there are hundreds written for windows.

[GrundleLove]

Macs are much more fool proof than a PC running windows. Those virus programs for macs are just to make money and for people who do not know what they are doing. The user has to allow anything to be installed on a mac, unlike windows that allows programs and other software to be installed through ads and other stuff. Because it's UNIX based the virus has to be mounted onto the hard drive by the user, it does not run itself automatically. For every attempted mac virus there are hundreds written for windows.

Most Mac virus's are scripts...which Unix caters too quite nicely I might add ..AND does not have to be installed by the user.

be that as it may, its apples and oranges really. this debate has gone on for years and will not stop any time soon

[hookingem]

Guess I'll be the oddball here, I came from a droid and absolutely love my iPhone. The screen is incredible, navigation on the web is far superior, and the camera is downright awesome. The indicator light wasn't a big deal to me. I thought the touch screen was hard to type on at first, but now I'm much faster on it than I was on the droids slide up keypad. I Think you may end up really liking it it grew on me fast. Happily typed on my iPhone

[tyrius.]

The new droids are coming out this month and I plan on upgrading. If my father doesnt take my DroidX I will send you mine to have as a public service to get rid of that horrible IPhone

Then he can send his iphone to me. I'd like to get the new version. I love the 3gs that I have. I have zero complaints with it.

[JaxBasser]

The problem being is that their "powerful" iMacs are great because you can get an i7 ( or i5) which is cool, SSD, also cool..and up too 16GB of ram...also cool. But that ends up running you about $4100. ( my co-worker got a 27 inch iMac with an i7, 16GB of ram, and 2 internal HDD's one SSD and another a 1TB drive..he paid $4100)

This is the biggest problem I have with Macs. I can build an i7/i5 rig, 8 or 16 gigs of RAM, an SSD, and even a powerful graphics card (HD6950 or GTX560) for like $1000. I'd have to take out a loan to get a Mac with that kind of power.

Virus problems on windows are way overblown. The only AV I run is the FREE Microsoft Security Essentials and I haven't had a virus in a LONG time. Smart web browsing and downloading is the best AV you can get.

Apple products are "cool" and all, but they are incredibly overpriced. They do make one hell of a marketing campaign though.

[jack1]

Well, I'm no expert on computers but I've heard a professor say that Macs do get viruses and the notion that they don't is absurd. The majority of users in this world are PC users...so with that said...obviously that higher percent of users will be targeted. Again...what he said.

[GTrombly]

Haters...

[Nibbles]

This is the biggest problem I have with Macs. I can build an i7/i5 rig, 8 or 16 gigs of RAM, an SSD, and even a powerful graphics card (HD6950 or GTX560) for like $1000. I'd have to take out a loan to get a Mac with that kind of power.

Virus problems on windows are way overblown. The only AV I run is the FREE Microsoft Security Essentials and I haven't had a virus in a LONG time. Smart web browsing and downloading is the best AV you can get.

Apple products are "cool" and all, but they are incredibly overpriced. They do make one hell of a marketing campaign though.

Try $1800.

You have to factor in the cost of the case, an adequately powerful power supply, fans, a P67 chipset for Sandy Bridge architecture, a keyboard, a monitor, a CD/DVD drive, a card reader, and regular HD's to run in Raid 0. If you're only running an SSD, you're probably not going to have enough space to store all your stuff unless you get a massive one, which is just not cost effective. You're not going to need more than 8 GB of 1333/1600 RAM either unless you like to flood your temp folder with several processes loading massive amounts of data running in real time.

That being said, viruses are only part of the issues with Windows OS. Drivers are another huge pain in the butt.

That being said, I'm perfectly fine dealing with all this if it means I can get the same processing power in a rig for about half the price of a Mac.

[GrundleLove]

Try $1800.

You have to factor in the cost of the case, an adequately powerful power supply, fans, a P67 chipset for Sandy Bridge architecture(LOL?), a keyboard, a monitor, a CD/DVD drive(if you dont already own assumin..most already do), a card reader(not a necessity), and regular HD's to run in Raid 0(you can TOTALLY get away with a 256 SSD and running RAID is a luxury). If you're only running an SSD, you're probably not going to have enough space to store all your stuff unless you get a massive one, which is just not cost effective. You're not going to need more than 8 GB of 1333/1600 RAM either unless you like to flood your temp folder with several processes loading massive amounts of data running in real time.(i went from 8 to 16 and the difference was so noticable it was not even funny)

That being said, viruses are only part of the issues with Windows OS. Drivers are another huge pain in the butt.

That being said, I'm perfectly fine dealing with all this if it means I can get the same processing power in a rig for about half the price of a Mac. AMEN.

[JaxBasser]

I just built myself a new PC. i5-2500k with a P67 board, 8 gigs of RAM, a 64GB SSD, an HD 6950 GPU, 1GB HDD, a Seasonic PSU, a Cool Master Hyper 212+ cooler, and a nice case with 4 120mm fans. I have right around $1000 in it. I already had the monitor. But it's a 22" Asus 1920x1080 I paid $150 for. I could have added 3 more hard drives, a bigger SSD, 16 gigs of RAM, and not even come close to $1800.

If someone didn't know how to build that rig would for sure go for $1800+ though, and the majority of people that buy computers just get pre-built ones.