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Convince me to buy a MAC.

YoYoMac said:
Wow. What great replies from everyone. Thanks so much.
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Interesting about your signature of dont buy Alienware. As a long time Mac user i bought my first PC for Gaming and it was Alienware. Im pretty happy with it and it burns through any game in ease. It wasnt easy becoming a switcher 😉HL2,Doom3,Il2,Pacific fighters....
 
crachoar said:
As far as 'PCs sucking for anything involving graphics', that's just fanboy hype. Any computer is fine for graphics. Ignore such statements.

Also, the 'spyware / virus' thing isn't really a problem with Windows unless you're stupid, or somebody who uses your computer is stupid.

The only time I've ever gotten a virus with XP is when my friend was on my computer.

The books tend to run hot, and can actually burn your lap (and make you sterile! Weee!).

And yes, the 15" resolution is depressingly low. I don't know why Apple does this, but it makes even baby Jesus cry.

I've actually had my macs hard crash more than XP. Not that it happens on a daily basis, but still, a fact.

You said some interesting things. When people say that mac are better for graphic, they are right but most of the time dont know the 'why' and simply repeat what they hear. Mac ARE better for graphic simply because of all the color management. You could do the same on pc but it would be way harder and involve much more energy while on the mac its done automaticaly. Thats why we see a lot of mac in print shops. And for anything video, macs can compete with solutions that cost 5x more (talking about high end AVID stuff here).

Now all of the virus thing... You seem to be the kind of person who think that virus are only in mail attachements! Mail attachement and macro virus are the easiest to fix / spot / eliminate. The real problematic viruses are the one that do port intrusion / overflow, etc.. YOU CANT protect againts these no matter your level of competency unless you have a firewall set to block all port and that this firewall works as intended. So blaming virus / spyware on user stupidity is a, invalid argument. Of course ignorant users will get way more spyware!

You never got any virus / spyware? Hummm.. Thats one of the thing I find hard to believe simply because I have never ever seen a single computer (other than server and mac) who was used and connected to the internet without any such problems. I once put one of my PC on DMZ for about 3mins to do a quick test and ended up with a virus. Call it bad luck but still, it shows how easy it is to get a virus. Thats one of the reason I switched to OSX: I want my business data to be safe.

The steril argument was from a recent research that used PC laptop so this problem is related to any computer and doesnt have so much to do with the temperature of the computer but more with the fact that the user has its legs closed with a heat source over the top. So simply siting leg crossed with leather pants could be as detrimental.

Finaly, to have your mac crash more than you pc, I think there is a problem. Either with your computer or you. My work laptop crashes every time I plug/unplug the network cable if it has gone to sleep inbetween. This is a serious limitation that I never experienced with my mac and happen to me EVERYDAY! There is no patch/ solution for this since its related to the network implementation.

Anyways, I just think you painted a quick dark portrait of a mac laptop while they are viewed by most people as the best price/value one can get. Of course all your points about gaming are totaly right but hopefully will be fixed once coregraphic is out in Tiger. But for anything that has to do with work, I wouldnt trade my mac for anything!
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YoYoMac said:
For the guy who's brother is looking at AW. Tell them to stop right now. If you just gotta have a super blazing Laptop, I'd go with Dell or Sager. Sager right now seems to be on top of things in the pc laptop realm.
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Sager is Alienware....for the most part. If you have ever looked at the lineups and the actual laptops themselves, they are the same exact thing. My cousin just purchased the desktop-replacement Sager and it looks EXACTLY like another friends AW laptop (desktop replacement of course). The guy who purcahsed the Sager said he heard from many people (online and in person) that Sager makes all the stuff for AW, which is why they are slightly cheaper but essentially the same stuff.
 
OK. new question.

Does anyone know where I can get a stinking email to sales people at apple? I have a question about buying a pc internationally and I can't seem to find an email. is it just sales@apple.com? Not sure.

Secondly, does the stand of the iMac G5 come off? just curious. 🙂
 
I know you are a "gamer", so bang-for-the-buck performance and top fps speed usually goes to the PC side. But at what cost?

PC viruses = 50,000+
Mac OS X viruses = 0 (as of right now)

At my "day job" we have two PCs in the office. Every other month or so, one or the other will catch a virus online before the antivirus recognition files can be downloaded. With our rather ham-fisted tech support, this means complete hard drive initialization/reinstallation of XP.

I am writing on a DP G4 1.25ghz Mac on a cable modem connection to the internet 24/7 with no virus protection software whatsoever. It is my main production computer for video and audio production. I may pick up some antivirus software in early 2005 before my main production season begins, just as an anal-retentive precaution, but I have little fear of problems now.

Try that with a PC running XP for a week and tell me how it goes!
 
YoYoMac said:
Secondly, does the stand of the iMac G5 come off? just curious. 🙂
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The stand does come off but you would only take it off it you were opening the iMac up or fitting the system to a VESA mounting arm
 
crachoar said:
As far as 'PCs sucking for anything involving graphics', that's just fanboy hype. Any computer is fine for graphics. Ignore such statements.
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Uh, obviously you have not used both for graphic applications.

The Mac OS and iLife apps/FCP, DVD Pro, etc. provide a much more integrated and seamless environment. Also color matching is much better/easier with the Mac platform.

Apps like Photoshop are different as well. I used to know a couple where the wife was hardcore Mac/Photoshop user and the husband was a PC/Photoshop user. Finally one day she got him to come to her office. After about 30 minutes with the Mac and Photoshop he decided to trash his PC and get a Mac. As she stated, the Mac allows you to focus more on the end product vice the PC.

Another case in point is a hardcore PC (BS CS/MS degree) buddy of mine. He was using his PC to create videos/movies. He was going to upgrade his PC. I suggested that he get a Mac and use FCP. Well, he didn't believe me. After spending about 150% of what my setup costs and he still couldn't do what I could, he said that he finally saw the light. When he returns from the sandbox he will be getting a nice new G5.

Another case in point, just look at WMP vice QT. Enough said. BTW, wonderful way to demonstrate the difference in quality of the two apps -- especially scalability of the final product.

Bottom line, if you are going to focus on video and pics, get a Mac. You won't be sorry. Likewise if you choose a PC, well all I can say is have fun! 😱

Sushi
 
sushi said:
Another case in point, just look at WMP vice QT. Enough said. BTW, wonderful way to demonstrate the difference in quality of the two apps -- especially scalability of the final product.
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I just want to point out that if you were to compare WMP to QT directly, in most areas WMP would be a winner. If you add iTunes and QT together, and compare that to WMP it becomes very close... iTunes for music is about 10000x better than anything else out there, esp. WMP. When you look at WMPs video playback features compared to QTs, they fair pretty equally, imo, except that QT CANNOT DISPLAY FULLSCREEN VIDEO UNLESS YOU PAY $30 MORE! ARGGGGGH! I cannot express how much this dismays me. There isn't an application included with OSX that can play full screen video!? HOW ASSINE! If you buy OSX upgrades when they are released, they cost $130, but you have to pay $30 to get full screen video playback?!

I know you can download lost of very nice media player apps that can do FS for OSX, but it comes out of the box with WMP, and you can get most of those same apps, plus several others, for XP as well.
 
Reasons to buy a Mac:

1) It will show you how much you can use your computer for other than gaming (though to be honest, I really think that the guys on this board tend to be far too harsh on Mac gaming - More than enough games can run nicely on my G5, and I have a friend with a 1.25Ghz 15" powerbook that's around a year old, and he frequently brings it here for UT2k4 LAN sessions, he gets glitch-free performance up to normal settings with an either 32 or 64mb ATI video card, i forget which). I know, you can do most of the creative things on a PC too, but using a PC you don't really want to have to struggle through the creative process. For a start iLife gives you everything you need to start working on video and music (I'm a production student, and I must say that Garageband is a pretty frikkin amazing app, it's streamlined the process of recording music for the non-technical by 'leaps and bounds', even if it doesn't record at pro quality, i use it instead of Logic for quick sh*t.) Down to the basic fact that if you load the same image on a windows machine and a Mac the image WILL look a hell of a lot better on the Mac. I don't claim to know why, but I'm frequently annoyed at the low quality my PC using friends view my photos in ^.^

2) You get amazing free technical support on these forums, there's almost always someone willing to help you out with your problem.

3) The Mac game scene won't get better till the gamers start switching :-D
 
MentalFabric said:
The Mac game scene won't get better till the gamers start switching :-D
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MF (haha) makes a great point here. Until there is utter DEMAND for better products, in this case games for Mac, there will rarely, if ever, be delivery of those products. Until more people switch to make and start to complain about the lack of games, port companies will continue to invest little to no time in sending games the Mac way.

There are of course companies who do an outstanding job (Blizzard for one...always dual-platform all games) but they are few and far between.
 
I AGREE DON"T BUY ALIEN WARE

I had the WORST customer experience with them. You are paying for the name Ordered two laptops from them in 2003. One showed up with a broken keyboard. After paying 3900.00 for my "wheel barrow" laptop I was told that I would get a keyboard replacement next day..

One week later I come to find that my keyboard was never ordered...two weeks and 4 More phone calls my keyboard showed up. It didn't fix the problem. so they said to send it back and I would receive it back in about a month! I ask to speak with a suporvisor... "They are in meetings right now, but I will have one call you back ASAP" That never happened... the next day. I call back to speak with a suporvisor, and get the same answer... 4 more phone calls, NOTHING... the third day I finally speak with a suporvisor. and am given total appologies... but yet I would not revceive a fixed laptop for another month.

I again told them not acceptable and they should provide me with a new machine since the sent me a defective unit. Again... the suporvisor said they would not... so I wanted to return the whole order, so then they said they would charge me a 15% restocking fee. (ON 7800.00 dollars!)

IMHO 3900 for a computer is kind of like buying a Luxery Car. You don't expect to go buy a bently and pull out of the parking lot with a busted speedometer.

So I returned both laptops, and ate the restocking fee. Then contacted the Better business Bureau in FL, and received my restocking fee back.... THREE MONTHS LATER!


THe customer service reps are rude and think that they are gods gift to the world of computers... (They all are about 15 years old by the way they talk to you)

I would NEVER EVER do business with this company ever again.

I bought a Game PC note book... their customer service is excellent and the price was $700.00 LESS with Same exact specs as AW without the purdy case. I bought the three year warranty and when the power converter fried, I was back up in about a week.

But remember if you get one of these gaming machines you are lucky to get 20 minutes of battery life.... not really good unless you do lan parties... and I can honnestly say after owning one, that I would not buy unless you are a heavy heavy gamer.... As they are heavy, noisey, and the heat vents right next to your mousing hand and it gets hot.... Now that the sound card in my wheel barrow laptop is broke, I am waiting for Jan to get my first mac, as this is MY LAST WINDOWS COMPUTER

BUT DON'T BUY ALIENWARE

BTW resellerratings.com
 
efoto said:
MF (haha) makes a great point here. Until there is utter DEMAND for better products, in this case games for Mac, there will rarely, if ever, be delivery of those products. Until more people switch to make and start to complain about the lack of games, port companies will continue to invest little to no time in sending games the Mac way.

There are of course companies who do an outstanding job (Blizzard for one...always dual-platform all games) but they are few and far between.
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Catch 22 i'd say, give better game ports for consumer Macs with better Vram then you'll have more people switching. I've been using macs since 1990 but I'm going to have to wait until the rev b of the iMac in the hope that Apple give it a decent(ish) graphics card. Only used a Pc twice in my life so I can't really pass comment on their merits/demerits especially as it was running Windows 2000 and installing Canon Ixus Software and drivers was a bloody nightmare.

Saying that, Ive just got a console...I'll get me coat.
 
crap freakboy said:
Catch 22 i'd say, give better game ports for consumer Macs with better Vram then you'll have more people switching. I've been using macs since 1990 but I'm going to have to wait until the rev b of the iMac in the hope that Apple give it a decent(ish) graphics card.
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Unless they find a cheap and powerfull card to put in it, forget it. The iMac target audience isnt gamer, its family member who want to chat and do video stuff and pictures. Its a 600$ G5 with a 2000$ screen. I just wish that with the price reduction of the LCD they would find some way to upgrade the card while maintaining the price. Maybe the new GeForce 6200 PCI-E would be the solution?

Or make a gamer system with a better (upgradable?) video card for an additional 200$. But the current offering of iMac isnt targeted at gamer and IMHO its its greatest flaw because for everything else, its a more than able computer.
 
crap freakboy said:
Catch 22 i'd say, give better game ports for consumer Macs with better Vram then you'll have more people switching. I've been using macs since 1990 but I'm going to have to wait until the rev b of the iMac in the hope that Apple give it a decent(ish) graphics card. Only used a Pc twice in my life so I can't really pass comment on their merits/demerits especially as it was running Windows 2000 and installing Canon Ixus Software and drivers was a bloody nightmare.

Saying that, Ive just got a console...I'll get me coat.
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It is a touchy situation because if the games were there with the high-level hardware to support them, it would make yet another compelling arguement for a switch. If there were a ton of Mac users waiting for games and hardware, that would compel the manufacturers to produce for them because they know they would have a customer base who would purchase.

So if there were more Mac gamers demanding product, they would probably get it, but there are not enough demanding yet.

If there were more Mac games and greater hardware support then it would entice more gamers to switch over (because games are one negative tick against Mac right now...although playable not the same really).

So basically, you are right, it is a sort of catch twenty-two. Which method would you prefer though?
You are a win user who loves games....you either:
A - Switch to Mac and then demand hardware and games, hoping that "they" follow through and deliver what you asked for or
B - Stay playing your plethora of games with a wide selection of hardware on pc until the Mac community of producers makes the game selection broader and the hardware perform better.

Personally for the arguement of pure gaming, I think most would select option B. Why changeover and give up what you currently have in hopes that other companies will get their act together to produce some cool shiz for the Mac? Obviously there are a TON of other arguements to promote the switch....however just on the game topic, well you know.
 
crachoar said:
Just don't go into this thinking that the PBook will solve all of your problems with computers and cook your breakfast. It won't.
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Actually I think if you were game after a period of heavy use you could close your PB, flip it upside down and crack open an egg and it would cook it quite quickly. 😀
 
" Convince me to buy a MAC."

That reminds me of the thread posted a while back of someone complaining about the misuse of the term MAC. I can't find the thread right now but every time someone write MAC someone has to point it out. LOL

Mac vs MAC
 
Ok, so lets ask a new question.

Alright. You guys rock. Lots of cool disscussion going on here.

Ok, here is my situation. As I said before, I live in China. I'm not Chinese, I just teach English here. I'll be traveling back home during the summer of 05, then coming back in the fall and traveling back in the summer of 06 for good. In America, I live in GA. 😉

I kept reading everything people said about the current PB line and how they are running out of time and all that stuff. I would hate to buy a expensive laptop in Janurary, and then have a new one come out in the summer. Unfortunately, I need the computer now. I have lots of stuff that I need to do before the summer gets here.

So, becuase I live here in China, and since I travel back to the states in the summer for a few months, I need something that I can travel with on the plane. NOT something that I can USE on the plane, just something that I can take as a carry on. So, my Mac buddy over here and I have been talking about the iMac. I read its review in MacWorld this month, (which my mother in law graciously sends me every month. don't you wish your mother in law did that) and I have to say that they seem fairly impressive. I know I know, it only has 64 meg V ram, but like I said, my gaming is not the FIRST priority. My video editing and image editing is. So here are my questions.

1. Has anyone ever tried to take an iMac as a carry on? I figure I would just wrap the box in brown paper and handcuff it (not really) to my wrist. Would it fit in the over head or under the seat?

2. Does anyone know if they might upgrade the midplane with a new video card. and if they do, would they offer it as an upgrade to exsisting users?

Depeding on what I can fit on the plane will depend on if I get the 17" and the 20". My friend actually made me a model out of cardboard of the 20 and dang its huge. I would only have to physically travel with it 5 times. Once from Thailand to China, then twice from China to America and twice from America to China.

3. Do you all think I'm crazy? My wife sure does.



ok, thats all for now. Thanks. 😀
 
1. The first part of this post I wrote in another thread addresses the iMac G5 airline carry-on case.

2. Based on what's happened in the past, that's unlikely to happen. If it does I'll be very surprised.

The 20" is a little bit bigger but all that extra screen is really nice to have.

3. Every married male Mac user I know's wife thinks he's crazy. 🙂
 
Rod Rod said:
1. The first part of this post I wrote in another thread addresses the iMac G5 airline carry-on case.

2. Based on what's happened in the past, that's unlikely to happen. If it does I'll be very surprised.

The 20" is a little bit bigger but all that extra screen is really nice to have.

3. Every married male Mac user I know's wife thinks he's crazy. 🙂
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Thanks Rod Rod. Great post by the way on that other site.
 
Rod Rod said:
Every married male Mac user I know's wife thinks he's crazy. 🙂
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Azt pontosan tudjom.

--

I never thought of it that way but god damn it that is the case, isn't it. I am male, late twenties, mac convert, and my wife thinks I am crazy. Gonna post.

I have the 12" PB. Had it since spring/04. great machine. I haven't met its equal, as far as convenient (keyword now) notebook machines go. Very wonderful device. I am locked down in the business environment to use PC; however, for pleasure the mac is unsurpassed. I don't use the mac for gaming (isn't that what that PS2 is for?) but for internet, browsing, word processing, or any other creative task, it beats the pc. (even linux oh my)

Here is the drag. All PC/MAC hardware is commoditized. You will experience hardware hell in both environments, I guarantee it. The difference boils down to combinatorics. Permutations and combinations of how and when things will go awry, the other hardware in which they interact. Mac has a better grasp on this concept and only supports a limited subset of hardware the PC "supports". So more chances than not you will have a very wonderful experience with mac. A boost in productivity. And so on. Because it is a better system. It is unix-based. But friendly. Very nice.

But the mac/pc crowd are subject to market forces. They must get their hardware from 3rd parties. Market economics dictate this and potentials for instability are generated from this market force. By this I mean your hard drive in the mac or pc come from the same vendors; hitachi, western digital, samsung, seagate, etc. So if it craps out, is the mac to blame, or the pc?

Maybe I make no sense now, could be the Christmas cheer consumed. But the mac is not a panacea for your problems. Just a different process, a different approach. Which happens to be better in my opinion.

This 12" PB I am typing on is the most exquisite computer hardware I've used. Not the fastest, the most exquisite. It really outshines any PC experience I've had. And I am a Computer Science grad/nerd so I am picky.

But you will not regret the Mac if you don't require specific PC applications. Otherwise, if you require functionally-superior alternatives, Mac is your solution.

JaromSki
 
Apple will not solder a new GPU to your motherboard when the new iMacs come out. Sorry.

If you want to upgrade, you get a Powermac G5. And even then, you're usually screwed since Apple (often times) is a 'dollar short' with their graphics technology (ports mostly). I would not get the iMac G5, mostly because of the terrible on-board GPU. Sure, the LCD is nice, but having more horses under the hood is better (if you ask me).

I'd suggest getting a cheap iBook for now (with the fastest and largest HD you can order), selling it later and checking out the PBook G5's when they arrive (which could very well be a year from now).

Just realize that you'll need the best PBook money can buy right now to be able to play games at decent framerates. However, you've stated that gaming isn't a priority...

If you need something for simple tasks - stick with the iBook. It's cheaper, more durable and it works just fine for what you need. Granted, the memory is slower - it's basically 'yesterday's PBook'. However, from what I understand, it'd be perfect for you.

And about games? The game companies aren't even going to consider porting games to the mac until the G5 is the standard. And even then, things will still probably be years late.

Gaming, I would imagine, is the number one (logical) reason for (average / non-professional) people not switching. The second one would probably have to be the 'duuurrrr...one-button mouse!' argument.

Apple really should've payed more attention to Bungie. If Halo were developed as an Apple Exclusive, you can bet your ass we'd be seeing more game companies and people switching to OSX...
 
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