I considered making a Hackintosh and guess what I found out!

[uberamd]

do you understand what a netbook is? i don't think anyone is arguing that a netbook is going to outperform a MBP, who tries to use one for those functions or for "serious use"? I think the point they were trying to make is that W7 is versatile and light enough to work on a netbook.

I can't even count the number of times people here have said "Mac's are SO overpriced! I can get a Windows netbook for $300!"

-or-

"Screw getting a Macbook, I will just get a netbook that can perform just as well"

Too many people here think netbooks are supercomputers.

 

[loslosbaby]

Refurbs: The minuses...

refurbs are between 15% and 40% cheaper than new prize. salestax is only 6%-8%.

however sometimes the base model of the new MBP's is as good as the top end model of the old MBP's. So it really depends on what is important to you and how the models where updated. But you can get sometimes great deals where you get 10% less performance for 30% less money.

There are a couple minuses to refurbs, but, they are wayyyyy minor:

- Back rev OS, only sometimes

- Back rev iLife, only sometimes

- Basic "return to customer" post-repair type box

...but there's gotta be SOME perk to new ownership! I'm on my third refurb and I look all the time at the list!

G.

 

[PoptheKing]

Lucky sales tax is only 6% in the big California it's nearly 10% if i'm correct ?

 

[Meever]

Dell and HP have horrible horrible build quality. Asus, Acer and Toshiba has better build quality but.... meh. Still not fantastic. If you want Mac caliber you have to go into high end Sony, Dell/Alienware territory.... and yeah.... those cost almost as much, if not more than Macs anyways.

Then there's the aesthetics. No one but apple really seems to understand that not everyone wants friggen 20 leds and indicators flashing left and right with bright buttons all over the place.

 

[loslosbaby]

Forgot to say...

...we still have all the refurbs I bought...and they're all still working.

(Even the white macbook that still doesn't have any cracks in it)

G.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

I find that PCs cost either a bit more or about the same as a Mac. The pricing myths behind Macs are over exaggerated. Not to mention, Macs have a far better design, iLife, and better OS.

 

[lixuelai]

Hackintosh is more worthwhile on a desktop. You can build a Mac Pro performance hack for much cheaper than a Mac Pro.

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Dell and HP have horrible horrible build quality. Asus, Acer and Toshiba has better build quality but.... meh. Still not fantastic. If you want Mac caliber you have to go into high end Sony, Dell/Alienware territory.... and yeah.... those cost almost as much, if not more than Macs anyways.

Then there's the aesthetics. No one but apple really seems to understand that not everyone wants friggen 20 leds and indicators flashing left and right with bright buttons all over the place.

All the new Dells are built very well. My friend got a refurb Inspiron 15" and it's sweet. It was so nice that it sold me on a 12" which I just got last week. It has one single LED on it, the same as my mac, it's build solid and it runs smooth...
/FUD rebuttal

On topic, the point which everyone seems to be missing is that if I wanted to, I could build myself a hackintosh for $350. No, it may not be great, but for $600 I could build myself a hackintosh that performs about the same as a $1200 iMac.

And that is why people say macs are overpriced.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

but for $600 I could build myself a hackintosh that performs about the same as a $1200 iMac.

And for about $800 you could build one (including monitor) that destroys an iMac in benchmarks.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

And for about $800 you could build one (including monitor) that destroys an iMac in benchmarks.

Show me specs. This computer better not be a tower. I could destroy Dell's Studio One AIO with a $400 tower in benchmarks too. Does that mean anything? No. I just said one category of computers can beat another category.

 

[SnowLeopard2008]

All the new Dells are built very well. My friend got a refurb Inspiron 15" and it's sweet. It was so nice that it sold me on a 12" which I just got last week. It has one single LED on it, the same as my mac, it's build solid and it runs smooth...
/FUD rebuttal

On topic, the point which everyone seems to be missing is that if I wanted to, I could build myself a hackintosh for $350. No, it may not be great, but for $600 I could build myself a hackintosh that performs about the same as a $1200 iMac.

And that is why people say macs are overpriced.

People have terrible logic and reasoning skills. Your Hackintosh is a TOWER. The iMac is not. For $400 or so I can build a TOWER that can perform better than a Dell Studio One (not a tower, but AIO). That is basically what you are saying here. One category of computers can perform better than another. So what? Find me a comparison of two computers in the AIO category, one being the iMac and another being a PC AIO competitor. That's fair. We can't compare a Lexus SUV to a Ford Mustang. A Mustang costs less but is a sports car, two different categories of cars.

 

[steviem]

For me, my needs are as follows:

-Lots of Storage and have the capacity internally to add more, I don't want to have a load of external drives and I don't have the money for a drobo.
-Enough power to run Lightroom, a little bit of Photoshop and Garageband.
-To be able to serve my xbox 360 and portable with media.
-Be fun to look after, I don't want to be using AV or Anti Spyware at home.
-To be able to run other OSes in VirtualBox for learning.
-Be static for the serving reasons above.

I then found that my iPhone isn't quite enough for my mobile computing, but my MacBook is slightly too big - read big, not heavy - the Air would NOT be a good solution for me as it is the same size as a MacBook. So I bought a Dell Mini 9 for a very low amount.

My mobile needs are:
-Web
-Communication, text and video
-Using media on public transport/air travel or just on the couch or in a cafe.
-Note taking
-Network troubleshooting

So with all of these at hand, the reason for sticking with OSX rather than ubuntu or going back to Windows (yuck) is that I love the way OSX works, I love the applications that I can only get for OSX and I want to keep my iPhone, buy TV and flims from the iTunes store and at some point, buy an AppleTV.

So these are the reasons that I considered hackintosh, and why I enjoy having hackintoshes so much. On the desktop side, there is nothing between the Mac Mini and Mac Pro and on the Portable side, nothing carries on the iBook philosophy like a Netbook. Plus this Dell mini is freaking SILENT!

 

[dukebound85]

People have terrible logic and reasoning skills. Your Hackintosh is a TOWER. The iMac is not. For $400 or so I can build a TOWER that can perform better than a Dell Studio One (not a tower, but AIO). That is basically what you are saying here. One category of computers can perform better than another. So what? Find me a comparison of two computers in the AIO category, one being the iMac and another being a PC AIO competitor. That's fair. We can't compare a Lexus SUV to a Ford Mustang. A Mustang costs less but is a sports car, two different categories of cars.

Err we know

Now show me a tower from Apple that isn't a mac pro.....you can't can you

I know I do NOT want an AIO as I have invested in monitors already

If I can get the same performance or better than an imac for substantially less then that is reason enough for me to pursue a hackintosh, even if it is a tower..

 

[cmwade77]

I've been shopping for a new MBP recently, I don't think refrubs are all that everybody says they're cracked up to be. I did consider refurb, but you have to buy refurb from Apple, and Apple charges sales tax. It's cheaper to buy brand new from another retailer online that doesn't add sales tax, than it is buy a refurb from Apple. It was for me, anyway, and I live in Michigan where sales tax is 6%. Something to think about...

Macmall also sells refurbs at http://www.macmall.com

They usually offer mail in rebates, plus any incentives that Apple is currently offering and are slightly cheaper.

I don't know their policy on sales tax, as I live in California and since they have a physical store here they have to charge it, plus in California, even if you buy from somewhere that doesn't charge tax, you must declare it on your income tax, and pay the sales tax then, so it doesn't matter too much, a lot of people try to get away with not doing it and I am sure many succeed, but a lot don't and the penalties are very high.

 

[stainlessliquid]

People have terrible logic and reasoning skills. Your Hackintosh is a TOWER. The iMac is not. For $400 or so I can build a TOWER that can perform better than a Dell Studio One (not a tower, but AIO). That is basically what you are saying here. One category of computers can perform better than another. So what? Find me a comparison of two computers in the AIO category, one being the iMac and another being a PC AIO competitor. That's fair. We can't compare a Lexus SUV to a Ford Mustang. A Mustang costs less but is a sports car, two different categories of cars.

The iMac is the closest thing Apple offers to a regular PC desktop. The comparison is completely fair.

Just like if there were only 4 cars in the world: A motorcycle, a Mustang, a Lexus SUV, and a dump truck. The Mustang and the Lexus SUV are the only 2 cars that could be compared when the person wants something with a roof but doesnt want a dump truck since it costs $300,000 and they dont need to carry 10 tons of dirt.

 

[drossad]

I hop the taskbar doesnt start acting like the dock because its nice to have one OS where minimizing windows actually works.

Are you inferring that OSX cannot minimize windows? Because it most definitely can.

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Are you inferring that OSX cannot minimize windows? Because it most definitely can.

Im implying that minimizing in Windows actually works like minimizing should. In Osx minimizing a window takes up more of the limited dock space which kinda defeats the purpose of minimizing it.

 

[Eidorian]

Im implying that minimizing in Windows actually works like minimizing should. In Osx minimizing a window takes up more of the limited dock space which kinda defeats the purpose of minimizing it.

Which is why I hate minimizing in OS X and use hide instead.

 

[dejo]

In Osx minimizing a window takes up more of the limited dock space which kinda defeats the purpose of minimizing it.

That's what Hiding is for...

 

[NoSmokingBandit]

Hiding only works for the entire app though, not just one window (unless im missing something). Window management in osx is just really bad.

 

[stainlessliquid]

I agree that minimizing on OSX sucks, its basically a gimmick since the window takes up some random space on the dock and its really hard to tell what is minimized (the snapshot sounds good on paper but it just doesnt work, with a small dock you cant tell what that little thumbnail is supposed to be, text and an application icon is better). But I think expose trumps any shortcoming minimize has, I practically never have the need to use minimize with expose.

 

[peterbooth]

Getting a Hackintosh to sleep and wake up reliably has always been a challenge. Then getting the Hackintosh to sleep and wake up and resume wireless networking and audio has also been a challenge.

My most reliable Hackintosh so far is Nehalem Core i7 hackintosh at 3.6ghz with a retail install of Leopard. Fast and very stable at 10.5.6.

About four/five years ago I wasted a huge amount of my life building Hackintoshes from various left-over Dell desktops and laptops. I still have a collection of USB ethernet adapters and seven different USB wifi cards from that time.

Now I'm using real Apple hardware, but its awesome and inspiring to read of someone with a Core i7 Hackintosh at 3.6 GHz.

I m ready to upgrade my 2007 MBP and the current Macbook Pro's, beautiful though they are, use teh slower mobile i7 chips and so the freakier Clevo, Mtech and similar 17" laptops, with their desktop CPUs are calling out to me...