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I have a PC - I want a Mac: but..

You have two paths.
Get a 15" MBP for 2 grand and use it for 4+ years
Or...
Get a Windows laptop for $1000, Hackintosh it, and use it for 2 years until you upgrade again.

If you're not confident in your hacking skills, then I would recommend the MBP.
If you are, I would still recommend the MBP.
If money is an issue, go Hackintosh.
 
Honestly, PC people...when is the last time you upgraded your CPU? I am asking because I've built more than 20 pc's in my lifetime over the years (I don't do it anymore because i'm busy) and have never upgraded the CPU or graphics card. By the time I need to upgrade, new chipsets are out so I have to upgrade the motherboard & gpu as well as hard drives.

To say that PC's have upgradability, is true, but to a certain extent. If you're one of those super technical people who gets off upgrading CPUs, etc, then go for a PC.

You will definitely save some money when you get a PC (especially a laptop) but that $400-500 that you save will cost you later. You might get a few extra USB ports, a bigger drive, a blu ray drive, etc., but when it comes down to essentially using a machine productively, you can't really beat a Mac.

To top it, if you really do like to be "cutting edge" (I loathe this term) then just resell every 2 years and get the newest mac. No need to worry about upgrades etc. Better yet, if you pop in more Ram, buyers will eat it up. Increasing your resale value.

One thing to note is that if you're just going to be using it as a Facebook machine, please don't get the most expensive MBP, making it into a $2,500 Facebook machine is really irresponsible. Buy yourself books instead! If you're definitely going to be doing many things, especially creative work (ie, music photo editing, video editing, etc.) and want to become at least average at it, then by all means upgrade the speed a bit.

In this economy, it doesn't make sense when you buy a $2,500 machine just to browse the web and write papers. You look like an extreme troll with that illuminated Apple logo sitting at a Starbucks checking your Facebook page and instant messaging your "bff".
 
surjavarman said:
I don't believe you. If you said that you had laptops 10 years ago that means that you must have been around 12 years old. I am sorry buddy but when I was 12, I had to use the family computer which was always taken by my older brother. Noway would any sane parent give their kid a laptop at that time.

and 2+4.5+5= 11.5 years but you said 10 years. AND EVEN IF it was really 11.5 year then you must have been 10 years old. I am sorry but you don't even know what a computer is when you're 10.

I call baloney on this one
Click to expand...

You're splitting hairs. Maybe he has more than 1 laptop at once. Many people do. I got my first laptop when I was 13, and my friend's father used to give her laptops to play with when she was in elementry school.

----------
SDAVE said:
Honestly, PC people...when is the last time you upgraded your CPU? I am asking because I've built more than 20 pc's in my lifetime over the years (I don't do it anymore because i'm busy) and have never upgraded the CPU or graphics card. By the time I need to upgrade, new chipsets are out so I have to upgrade the motherboard & gpu as well as hard drives.
Click to expand...
I think we're talking about laptops, not desktops...

But I last updated my CPU about a year and a half ago. And my graphics card around the same time. There's no reason to upgrade 6gb's of DDR2 RAM to DDR3, and the new motherboard that comes with it, so I can have an extra 200mhz FSB.
 
thejadedmonkey said:
[/COLOR]
I think we're talking about laptops, not desktops...

But I last updated my CPU about a year and a half ago. And my graphics card around the same time. There's no reason to upgrade 6gb's of DDR2 RAM to DDR3, and the new motherboard that comes with it, so I can have an extra 200mhz FSB.
Click to expand...

Of course, since we're in the notebooks category :).

It was just a general overview of my thoughts on the subject matter. Sorry for having an opinion. :(


P.S. How much did the upgrade cost? It seems that Intel keeps pushing a new bridge every few years now so you have to upgrade to new motherboards...or get an older CPU that's a bit faster than your current due to the price drops.
 
surjavarman said:
I am sorry but you don't even know what a computer is when you're 10.
Click to expand...

Not to thread hijack, but this jumped out at me. When I was 6 I got my first computer that ran Windows 3.1 on a floppy disk. I learnt all the DOS code relevant to doing what I needed to do, run commands, setting boot targets etc. And I was 6...
 
Misterhappyface said:
If my macbook lasts more than 3 years: will it become obsolete?
Click to expand...

It all depends on what you expect the hardware to do. in PC land your hardware can last a long time as well - my PC at home is an intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 that i built in... 2006? 2007? Its about 5 years old now and still runs stuff, and works just fine.

However, if you're going to expect to run high end 3d games, whatever platform you're on you'll need to upgrade regularly.

That said, I also have a 2007 spec mac mini that is sitting in my living room running Lion Server, as a time machine backup location and transmission daemon server - and its also working just fine.

Just make sure you get plenty of RAM or upgrade the RAM as required, for most uses, CPUs have been fast enough for years already.


edit:
i tried the hackintosh route. its just not worth it, the whole point of the mac is that the hardware and software "just work" together. the hardware is nice to use, too. if you go hackintosh, sure you might get some copy of OS X running in an unsupported manner, but it may break at any time with any update, etc.

Also - that Q6600 is on its third graphics card. Nvidia 7600GT -> 8800 GTS -> GTX450. My early 2011 MBP 15 has about the same GPU performance as the Nvidia 450GTX as far as I can determine.
 
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SDAVE said:
Of course, since we're in the notebooks category :).

It was just a general overview of my thoughts on the subject matter. Sorry for having an opinion. :(


P.S. How much did the upgrade cost? It seems that Intel keeps pushing a new bridge every few years now so you have to upgrade to new motherboards...or get an older CPU that's a bit faster than your current due to the price drops.
Click to expand...

It just seemed like it was phrased like you thought we were discussing desktops. My apologies, no harm intended.

I went with AMD so it was a lot cheaper. It was about $110 for a tr-core CPU, and another $65 for a fanless ATI 4550. Judging by the price points, you can tell I wasn't doing heavy-duty gaming, but all in all it was about $175to convert my storage tower into a gaming PC (plus RAM). It's an AM3 socket so I can still upgrade somewhat (to what tho? :p), and I've been thinking about upgrading the GPU to a higher-end, fanless one, but my laptop's GPU is a 6630, more than good enough for now.
 
surjavarman said:
I don't believe you. If you said that you had laptops 10 years ago that means that you must have been around 12 years old. I am sorry buddy but when I was 12, I had to use the family computer which was always taken by my older brother. Noway would any sane parent give their kid a laptop at that time.

and 2+4.5+5= 11.5 years but you said 10 years. AND EVEN IF it was really 11.5 year then you must have been 10 years old. I am sorry but you don't even know what a computer is when you're 10.

I call baloney on this one
Click to expand...

There was some overlap between the HP and the Apple. I'm also 23, so say 23-11 = 12. I refereed hockey from age 11 onward and was regularly given cash for birthdays and Christmases. Instead of having parents who forced me to save my money, it was all mine to spend. So I bought my own laptop because I wanted a computer in my room. My peak was when I was 14 and made $2,500 in a month and a half when I didn't play spring hockey and reffed three leagues instead.

I also bought a 20 GB Archos JukeBox MP3 player in 7th/8th grade, was a few hundred bucks at the time. Still have it, but lost the charger. Bought my own Dreamcast and Xbox and so on. Every single penny on something nice I bought with my own money. I briefly had a side newspaper gig. I've had a job constantly since age 11 except when I was studying in Rome when in college.

Sorry to disappoint you.
 
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No Macs have a much longer usable lifespan. Im still using a 2008 iMac and it still does everything i need it too and will do so for another 2 years at least. You also don't need to reinstall the operating system every 6 months to keep it running fast like you do with Windows.
 
miles01110 said:
Nope. Windows machines can last as long as you want them to, just like Macs.
Click to expand...

Nope, In my experience pc software usually needs the latest hardware where Mac software will run on older hardware for much longer. For example there are many people that are using macs that are over 5 years old and are still able to run many of the latest apps. PC software is not so forgiving.
 
you should defiantly go for a mac, my mac is 6 years old and it works great running the latest os and software and i had an imac g5 from 2004 before that and it still works amazing it cannot run the latest os or the latest software but it is still a great computer and i see it lasting many more years.:apple::apple:
 
surjavarman said:
A lot of nonsense and possibly fanboyism in this thread.

If you bought an SB i5 PC laptop now and you bought a MBP with the same i5 CPU. Why would that PC suddenly be obsolete 5 years later but the mac won't?
Click to expand...

I agree... lots of fanboyism around here... a PC and a MAC become obsolete at the same rate. It depends on what type of applications you use and what software updates you install. Heck, my dad still uses my former 5-year old Dell laptop (Windows XP, C2D, 2gb RAM, etc) and it works great for internet browsing, email, facebook, skype, YouTube, mild photoshop, etc.

Any new laptop (Mac or PC) can easily last 5 years if you use it at a standard consumer level.
 
All computers have the capacity to last far longer than 3 years if they are well maintained and nothing significant goes wrong, but a 3 years old computer is always going to be out of date and struggle with the most demanding up to date software.

Where a Mac is better than a PC though, in the that respect, is that well looked after hardware hangs on to better residual value - basically like comparing a BMW and a Ford.
 
SDAVE said:
You look like an extreme troll with that illuminated Apple logo sitting at a Starbucks checking your Facebook page and instant messaging your "bff".
Click to expand...

Actually, if you're at Starbucks with your MBP pretending to do work, you'll fit right in.
 
My 2007 Macbook Pro is about 4.5 years old. I had to upgrade the memory to 4GB, replace the hard drive (needed more space than the 120GB drive that came with it, though that one was doing just fine) and Apple replaced the logic board for free due to the faulty solder/flux on the nvidia gpu that finally gave out about 2 months after the 4 year limit. Other than the gpu issue it has not once given me any trouble and I have not been kind (it was in a motorcycle crash with me).

Lets just say I would gladly buy another if I needed a new personal laptop and work wasn't already providing one.
 
I still use, and enjoy, my *obsolete* Dell XPS 1210m laptop and it does everything I need be done on a computer :)

The MBP is my first Mac, and it's just as good.. except when using Office :p

Anyway, if you want a Mac, go for it.. but to assume or think Macs outlast [ functionally or cosmetically] PCs is an unwise thought :)
 
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