Why Do People Buy PC's

[designs216]

I use both Mt. Lion and Win7 daily and personally prefer the user experience of OSX. Windows 7 is good, and is arguably the best OS Microsoft has produced but it's still Windows. I also like the fact that my Apple hardware can run Windows if I need to test a web site in IE or I have software that was only written for Windows.

Windows machines are used almost exclusively in the corporate/enterprise/retail world and so people purchase that to which they are most accustomed.

[rockman0]

for me, in the past, it was always because PC was supported more than Mac. I don't know how it is now. Howver, now, it's mainly because I don't have 2400 bucks to spend on a Mac. I got a budget gaming PC for about 500 bucks because that's all I can afford at the moment. If I someone manage to strike rich, then rest assured, I'd defintely make the switch to a mac.

[Renzatic]

I'll be making the switch sooner or later, though not because I hate Windows, or PCs, or think of OSX as the operating system that "just works" or whatever. I'm perfectly happy with Windows. Have been for years and years now. Rather, I'm switching because the new rMBP is pure geek bait, and has made me all envious and covetous. It's just...so good.

...well, besides the screen ghosting issues, the stuttering scrolling, and other little hiccups I've been reading about. That's why I haven't switched yet. I'll likely be making the jump when the second rev rMBP comes out and has been on shelves long enough to get some user feedback. I'm thinking if I'm going to be spending $2100+ on a new computer, I want to make sure it performs flawlessly.

Hell, at that price, I almost expect it to wash my car and put out at night.

[Snowbug]

I honestly have to go with PC in this case.
Not that I don't like macs, but they are not suited for all my needs. I have a 21 Inch iMac(don't know the specs really), and it is fine for general computing. I got it thinking that it would be a great thing for me to get into if I was getting into artsy stuff and creativity, which it was-for a little bit.
I then discovered that anything to go beyond basic programs for creativity on a mac is a lot of money. A LOT of money. So I kinda let the creativity go because of price. I then got more into electronics and computers(and of course, gaming), and decided I needed to upgrade from an old dell inspiron 1520. Ugliest thing ever.

So instead of going for mac, I built my own computer, something you can only do on a mac if you have a few thousand dollars you aren't doing anything with. I spent plenty of money on my machine, but much less than a mac and much more connected to the hardware than a mac.
Side note: The specs are an amd FX 8150 I think, 8 cores, 4.1 GHZ each ATM.
32 GB DDR3 Ram with a rather high cycling speed and frequency. Geil EVO I believe.
an EVGA GeForce GTX 680 FTW Standard, 4GB 256-bit GDDR5. Amazing thing.
An asus M5A97 Motherboard,
a CORSAIR HX Series HX850 850W ATX12V Power supply,
and a 480 GB
Corsair Force Series GT 2.5" 480GB SATA III Internal SSD, along with a 2 TB HDD for other stuff. Operating system of windows 7 Ultimate 64-Bit on the SSD.

Anyway...... Those specs are, to my understanding, not reachable on a mac unless you buy a high end mac pro, which would be better than this. one cannot compare to twin i7 hex cores, but that is a entirely different ballgame. And that sort of machine is an insane amount of money for the stuff inside of it. I find that the interface with windows can be a little trickier, but I want to know about my computer's guts. I wan't to know what it is doing and why it is doing what it is doing. I honestly like to work the kinks out myself. I find I have much more control on a windows than I do on a mac. If I feel like browsing the internet, sure, I'll use the mac. If I need to do something with photos, I used to use mac but I got adobe Creative Suite. Far better than built in mac stuff in my opinion, and I get a student discount on it.

I am not a huge fan of macs, but I don't hate them. What I do dislike is people who think they are special because they have a computer that they don't understand. When people say that macs are more powerful than PCs, they should see computers that are custom built by the people who use them. If you wan't to just have your computer work and not ask why, go ahead and sink a ton of money into a mac. But if you want to learn about them, build your own. Not every computer that is self-built is that powerful, by the way. My buddy built one that was very nice, as good as a 2500$ mac would be but for about 600 bucks. And if you tell me about resale value and the life of it, I will tell you that a person who builds their own computer Isn't going to sell it. They are going to continue upgrading it, as am I. I will never get an entirely new machine with all new parts. I will slowly remove old parts and add new ones as technology gets better, and eventually my machine will be different than it was a long time ago.

If you talk about how long they will last, a self built computer that is maintained and upgraded on a semi-frequent basis will last forever. There is not really anything that can go wrong with it after time, because to people who build their own, a piece of broken hardware (which is rare), is just a sign that that part needed to be upgraded.


What I'm saying is, if you want to just blindly follow an expensive machine to do your work for you and to not understand how it works, go ahead and get a mac. If you wan't to know your computer and have a powerful one, stop thinking mac. If you want a powerful computer, go with a self built windows. Odds are that if you want a high power computer, you are willing to go through some effort. Mac takes that effort away and replaces it with money, and they aren't actually that powerful. Sorry for the really long response.

[OnceYouGoMac]

Originally Posted by Renzatic

Hell, at that price, I almost expect it to wash my car and put out at night.

It'd be nice if it made the tea as well

[Renzatic]

...and scones.

[jnpy!$4g3cwk]

Some people buy (Windows) PCs for the games. No argument that there are more, better, faster games on Windows PCs than Macs.

Others buy (Windows) PCs because that is what they use at work to run MS Office, and MS has been leveraging the Windows/Office combination for decades. And that in turn leverages a lot of third-party software. Ought to be illegal, but, they didn't ask me.

[tech4all]

Originally Posted by Mr. McMac

Mac's are no better than PC's hardware wise. As a matter of fact, PC's are much more flexible, easy to repair if there's ever a problem. I can swap out a hard drive in less than 2 minutes. Try doing that on an iMac or a Mac Mini.

I can do that on my Mac Pro in no time. (yes I know what you're saying, I'm just be an arse)

Originally Posted by Mr. McMac

What if your Power Supply, or any other component goes on an iMac? I'll bet it cost a fortune to replace any part if it's out of warranty.

True.

Originally Posted by Mr. McMac

Yes I've own a few Dell's over the years, and believe it of not, they've been dead reliable.

My friend's has owned several themselves and all went bad. YMMV.

[Hyper-X]

Originally Posted by iMacBookPro

People always buy PC's to play games with. Thats just stupid since Macs do so much better things. It has a nice screan then most PC's. There just better. Once you get a Mac you can never go back to PC, its just not as good. People with PC still feel there better than Macs which is crazy. Apple For LIFE!!!!!!

I guess 9 year olds can make fanboy threads too.

[throAU]

If the apps you need to run are PC only, there is no point paying more for a mac.

[hakuryuu]

I have both, but other than for Gaming I have no need of Windows at home and so have a Mac Mini and a couple Macbooks. At work I am a System Administrator and run OSX for primary desktop with Windows VMs/RDP for all the admin tools. Outside of the Windows specific tools I prefer to do my linux and networking work in OSX.

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Originally Posted by Mr. McMac

Mac's are no better than PC's hardware wise. As a matter of fact, PC's are much more flexible, easy to repair if there's ever a problem. I can swap out a hard drive in less than 2 minutes. Try doing that on an iMac or a Mac Mini. What if your Power Supply, or any other component goes on an iMac? I'll bet it cost a fortune to replace any part if it's out of warranty.
That said, it all depends on your needs. I own both. Sometimes I prefer my PC, sometimes my Mac's.

I forget to mention, I've been building my own PC's since the early 90's. Yes I've own a few Dell's over the years, and believe it of not, they've been dead reliable.

You do realize that HP and Dell and many others make PCs competing directly with the Mini and iMac, right? In those markets the iMac and Mini are largely the best choices (excluding the obvious requirements of which OS you need). The only all in one that has any sort of access to the internals is the Z1 which is just fine, but is not targeting the same market.

At the end of the day if you want to build a PC then thats fine, but do not compare a self built PC/tower to an iMac or mini and their direct competitors. They are not meant for the same people. And yes its a pain in the ass to change a hard drive in a Mini or iMac, i've done it. Do not want. The Mac Pro I used to use at my last job on the other hand was the single best tower I have ever used. It was a dream to work on (though I thankfully never had to pull the power supply out, twas the only difficult part).

[Pakaku]

I prefer OS X out of other operating systems, but the hardware depends on the form factor for me. Apple excels in the laptop department, where upgrading parts is minimal at best. The trackpad is one of my favorite parts, hardware-wise, and they just look nice.

But PC towers will always be better than Apple desktops due to the near-infinite customizability. My next real computer, as in a proper workstation, will most likely be a Hackintosh, since I still like OS X.

I'm running a 2008 octo-core Mac Pro that I bought in 2010, and the ability to upgrade parts is something that I think no sane computer enthusiast should live without, concerning desktops at least. And then Lion finally added support for third-party graphics cards in one of the minor updates, which was a godsend. Mountain Lion continues to keep the support, and I'm running a nifty 560 Ti in my desktop now. It's the main if not the only reason I would not downgrade now.

iMacs and Mac Minis are pretty desktops, but seem to be considered by Apple to be more like works of art than computers for getting actual work accomplished. And OS X seems to be going in a very bad direction these days. Mountain Lion may be the furthest I upgrade.

[OnceYouGoMac]

Originally Posted by mrsir2009

A Mac is a personal computer too, is it not?

Yeah. It should be Mac vs Windows really, but I think the whole Mac vs PC thing is a 1980s throwback, when you had the Macintosh and the IBM PC and compatibles. I guess the term stuck.

[mrsir2009]

Originally Posted by OnceYouGoMac

Yeah. It should be Mac vs Windows really, but I think the whole Mac vs PC thing is a 1980s throwback, when you had the Macintosh and the IBM PC and compatibles. I guess the term stuck.

Apple itself even embraced the term for their Mac and PC ads, and for various things on their website (even tho it's technically incorrect ).

[roadbloc]

Originally Posted by tech4all

My friend's has owned several themselves and all went bad. YMMV.

It entirley depends what Dell you get. Get a £300 one and it will probably have dropped to bits within a year. Get one at £500-£700 and you have some seriously durable and powerful hardware in them, more so than Macs anyway (although admittedly Macs do look a lot better).

I mean, take a look at this. It has a top quality subwoofer inside it and for a laptop, the audio quality is unreal. Dell do some real interesting and top quality pieces of hardware catering to niche markets as well as the mass majority. I don't see why Apple cannot do this and I think it is a total shame they don't.

[BiteMyApple]

Originally Posted by iMacBookPro

People always buy PC's to play games with. Thats just stupid since Macs do so much better things. It has a nice screan then most PC's. There just better. Once you get a Mac you can never go back to PC, its just not as good. People with PC still feel there better than Macs which is crazy. Apple For LIFE!!!!!!

The Internet really needs TV-like content ratings... As in, my over 30 year old ass should not be reading this.

[mac is terrible]

Originally Posted by iMacBookPro

People always buy PC's to play games with. Thats just stupid since Macs do so much better things. It has a nice screan then most PC's. There just better. Once you get a Mac you can never go back to PC, its just not as good. People with PC still feel there better than Macs which is crazy. Apple For LIFE!!!!!!

i am asuming you are a mac user last due to what you just wrote which means your already classed as a technically impared duck so i wont make this to complicated for you, macs are factually worse they have less features they run slower and in actuall fact lots of PC's have more than double the screen quality than the new retina macintosh there is a reason windows owns 70% of the computer software industry so before you go full retard and make up **** check your facts. plus PC's are alot ****in cheaper so get a PC or ****

[MorphingDragon]

Originally Posted by roadbloc

I mean, take a look at this. It has a top quality subwoofer inside it and for a laptop, the audio quality is unreal.

I found this absolutely hilarious and thank you for brightening up my day. I'll go back to my surreal HD598's and my ASUS Essence STX.

[smellysox8]

A Mac is good for web surfing. I'll take a Windows PC for everything else.

[jessica.]

Originally Posted by smellysox8

A Mac is good for web surfing. I'll take a Windows PC for everything else.

Really?

I have to use a PC for work and I think I'd prefer a PC for gaming.

[adder7712]

Originally Posted by iMacBookPro

People always buy PC's to play games with. Thats just stupid since Macs do so much better things. It has a nice screan then most PC's. There just better. Once you get a Mac you can never go back to PC, its just not as good. People with PC still feel there better than Macs which is crazy. Apple For LIFE!!!!!!

It can't get any fanboyish than this!

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I have both, I mainly use my desktop running Windows now though.