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Apple or Dell

Which one, please provide comment

  • Total voters
    75
A

astudentis

macrumors regular
Original poster
Oct 7, 2007
206
0
Hello everyone,

I am looking to buy a new desktop (replacing my almost 10year old dell P3 500MHz!!!) I do have a black macbook that i bough past summer, but now i am looking to by a new desktop. I would like to do a bit of gaming and movie watching. My requirement is that I can buy a desktop that will last me another 8-10 years... So have upgradability option is good. and by budget is below 2grand. Now I am looking at the 24inch iMac vs the dell XPS 420. the imac costs 1799 (canadian with edu. discount) vs the dell which 1560. Any advice/ comments as to which one i should go for?

i presume all the mac fans here know the specs of the imac, however i am attaching the xps's specs in the attachment
 

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both of the hardware's beauty are almost equivalent in my eyes (though form a performance perspective the dell's hardware seems better... however apples os x is better too)... though i like os x, i dont mind vista

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haha yea i am still using that as well for some purposes... it still seems to work well, but compared to my macbook which i use more often, its it too slow and is starting to show its ware and tare, so now its about time to put it out of commission
 
Personally, I believe that you should go for the iMac, but then again, my opinion is a bit biased. That does look like one hell of a tricked out PC though. (Does anybody else find it funny that they have to advertise the point that it is a Genuine version of Vista. For movie watching, I would go for the iMac, FrontRow is cool and a great interface, and I always seem to find some sort of problem when trying to get a movie to play on a PC. I am not all that knowledgeable when it comes to gaming, but my feeling tells me that the PC might be better for it.

QuarterSwede said:
My mother is still using a Dell from 98 but has been wanting a new computer for at least 5 years.

Remember that the iMac's footprint is A LOT smaller.
Click to expand...
I just replaced my grandmother's computer over the summer from a 1998 and it still worked fine, but the look on her face when she got to see the difference in performance from a computer that had practically no specs to the one that I made that was tricked out was pretty hilarious.
 
QuarterSwede said:
My mother is still using a Dell from 98 but has been wanting a new computer for at least 5 years.

Remember that the iMac's footprint is A LOT smaller. It's even smaller than just the monitor's. Really sad actually.
Click to expand...

footprint is smaller?



JML42691 said:
Personally, I believe that you should go for the iMac, but then again, my opinion is a bit biased. That does look like one hell of a tricked out PC though. (Does anybody else find it funny that they have to advertise the point that it is a Genuine version of Vista. For movie watching, I would go for the iMac, FrontRow is cool and a great interface, and I always seem to find some sort of problem when trying to get a movie to play on a PC. I am not all that knowledgeable when it comes to gaming, but my feeling tells me that the PC might be better for it.
Click to expand...

windows media center is nice as well... and there is the all purpose vlc player for both platform to play videos :D
 
::Lisa:: said:
You mention that you do a fair bit of gaming. Will all your games work on OS X?
Click to expand...

no i would probably have to but extra copy of windows ($$ :() and run it via bootcamp


CrackedButter said:
Nobody walks into a Ford Car dealership and asks the people inside whether they should buy a Ford or a Nissan. Why walk into a Macintosh Forum and ask your question?
Click to expand...
I am just asking for some honest advice, if you dont want to give any, why bother replying?
 
Well, the dell could kick the iMac's *** in everything except foot print but the dell seems like a better computer for you because you want it to last the dell can take more ram more hard drive space. It also has better Graphics for movies and games
 
if you absolutely need your desktop to last 8-10 yrs, get the dell. in addition to better upgradability, parts for the dell are gonna be cheaper and easier to find. i'm typing on a 98 dell dimension pII 450 w/ 2tb+ hdds right now. iirc, mine will be 10 y/o in a few months, so yours can't be 10 y/o yet. ;)
 
Get the Quad Core Q6600 in the Dell XPS 420. You already have a MacBook so enjoy a gaming machine if you aren't up to building it yourself.

See signature!
 
Well, I'm still using a Mac from 99 and another from 2000 (both as servers), so you needn't worry about longevity. (Not to mention that my Mac Plus from '87 still works... lol)

Buy the Mac. It's better made, nicer to use and the next version of OS X will likely offer better performance, whereas the next version of Windows will undoubtedly be slower....
 
tersono said:
Well, I'm still using a Mac from 99 and another from 2000 (both as servers), so you needn't worry about longevity. (Not to mention that my Mac Plus from '87 still works... lol)

Buy the Mac. It's better made, nicer to use and the next version of OS X will likely offer better performance, whereas the next version of Windows will undoubtedly be slower....
Click to expand...

The hardware it self will last long but he needs to upgrade it the iMac cannot be upgraded except ram and 1 hard drive as he gets more games and videos (the iMac cannot even play todays games that well) It will take up more storage one drive won't cut it he needs the 2 or 3 that the dell offers and macs are not built better than dell in any way dell towers are the best they last forever our 10 year old tower is still being used everyday.
 
astudentis said:
no i would probably have to but extra copy of windows ($$ :() and run it via bootcamp
Click to expand...
I guess your best bet with the gaming n' all would be the Dell, rather than spending more than you have to with an additional copy of Windows to play your games.

It's obviously truly up to you. If you really want the iMac and are happy to spend the additional for Windows??
 
If you want gaming, an XP PC is the way to go IMO (actually consoles are the better choice). If you think the beauty of the 420 is equivalent to the iMac and you don't mind Vista I'm probably not the person to give you advice. Personally, my choice begins with OS and the only reason I would choose a windows machine is for gaming. For the occassional windows-only software I would virtualize. For those on a budget, a windows machine may seem like the better choice. In my experience, a mac gives more usable years of service but YMMV.
 
I have a copy of Windows XP Home and Pro that aren't OEM bound to a single machine. Why do people seem to think Windows is some sort of additional cost to computing?
 
For upgradeability go Dell. That being said my LCII mac from 4th grade or 1992 still works to this day.

Macs if treated right do last a long time. Although I believe a more reasonable request from a computer is to last 4-6 years not 10.
 
lofight said:
This is an apple forum, what do you think the most people will choose?? :p
Click to expand...
Mac OS X or Windows doesn't matter as much as general hardware knowledge. The OP already has a MacBook so they know the value of OS X. Why try to push more Apple hardware as well? I have my MacBook for OS X and portability. My minitower takes care of the gamer and hobbyist in me.

It never hurts to be on the bleeding edge of technical knowledge either.
 
Eidorian said:
Mac OS X or Windows doesn't matter as much as general hardware knowledge. The OP already has a MacBook so they know the value of OS X. Why try to push more Apple hardware as well? I have my MacBook for OS X and portability. My minitower takes care of the gamer and hobbyist in me.

It never hurts to be on the bleeding edge of technical knowledge either.
Click to expand...

sorry:eek:... But such things i would make out for my self, not with a poll, because it's what YOU want that you will (if you can) get.
 
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