Just... Why a Mac?

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Ste Manns said:
The sales jargon for macs states that all the components are made by Apple themselves, all to work together. This does make a difference in terms of stability. PCs generally tend to have components from all sorts of manufacturers, they all have to work together and they're all made to a price. Then MS has to write operating systems that work with all possible manufacturers components. Apple don't have this problem.
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hate to be pedantic but last time i checked macs use intel and nvidia thats 2 manufacturers for starters before you get on to things like memory and hard drives ;)

Also, you can't compare the spec of a mac with the spec of a PC to the same extent as a PC vs a PC, macs and OSX use resources better than PCs do. If a mac has a 1 Ghz processor, a PC with a 1.3 Ghz processor isn't necessarily going to be faster, in the real world.
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i think youve got the wrong end of the stick there slightly.. a processor will aways be as fast as its stated, it has a working frequency and the OS has no control over that (well unless you have an overclocking util but thats becides the point slightly), i think youre talking more about memory footprints. yes different OS's will have a different footprint and will utilise memory differently. but thats swings and roundabouts really..
 
jamesoliverstone said:
Now, Gary you are a nice bloke, but dont make me angry here.... we all know Raiden could kick Ryu's butt all day long :D
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I dunno, a nicely timed Dragon Punch followed by a nice SHAROUKEN, finished with a hurricane kick is a pretty awesome combo. Stick said combo on repeat and watch your friend explode in frustration :)

The one I really don't understand? Mario vs Sonic. Absolutely in no way did the blue little **** of a hedgehog hold a torch to Mario. Fine, he's fast. And.....oh yeah that's about it. Mario on the other hand, whilst not AS fast a runner, was a badass...

How many plumbers do you know that pop magic mushrooms before going on a trip through a pipe to a swinging sixties style fantasy land, where turtles can fly, beetles are the size of small dogs, and a hot blonde princess waits on you to rescue her from an evil half dragon half turtle nutcase who owns a fleet of flying war ships! Mario is and always will be top of the video gaming tree. Immediately below him? Link....Zelda is absolutely fantastic.

:D
 
EdinburghGary said:
I dunno, a nicely timed Dragon Punch followed by a nice SHAROUKEN, finished with a hurricane kick is a pretty awesome combo. Stick said combo on repeat and watch your friend explode in frustration :)
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Fatalaties my friend... nuff said. Ryu is dead... forever.

EdinburghGary said:
The one I really don't understand? Mario vs Sonic. Absolutely in no way did the blue little **** of a hedgehog hold a torch to Mario. Fine, he's fast. And.....oh yeah that's about it. Mario on the other hand, whilst not AS fast a runner, was a badass...

How many plumbers do you know that pop magic mushrooms before going on a trip through a pipe to a swinging sixties style fantasy land, where turtles can fly, beetles are the size of small dogs, and a hot blonde princess waits on you to rescue her from an evil half dragon half turtle nutcase who owns a fleet of flying war ships! Mario is and always will be top of the video gaming tree. Immediately below him? Link....Zelda is absolutely fantastic.

:D
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Now your talking, in fact I was playing snes super mario world this morning whilst having my breakfast :D
 
im_a_pc_im_a_mac.jpg
;)
 
jamesoliverstone said:
Fatalaties my friend... nuff said. Ryu is dead... forever.



Now your talking, in fact I was playing snes super mario world this morning whilst having my breakfast :D
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You may have a point RE fatality...never thought of that :nuts:

Mario World is probably my favourite of all Mario Games, and my fave platform game of all time. Highly polished in every respect, I remember getting the snes and game bundled, what a feeling playing it for the first time.

Bringing it right up to date, have you played New Super Mario Bros Wii? Absolutely excellent. Captures that old school feel, it's lush 3D visuals in a 2D world and it's pretty hardcore too if you want it to be. The last world is absolutely rock solid, can't get past the first level on it...it's a tribute to SPECIAL WORLD on the snes game we are discussing...

G.
 
neil_g said:
hate to be pedantic but last time i checked macs use intel and nvidia thats 2 manufacturers for starters before you get on to things like memory and hard drives ;)



i think youve got the wrong end of the stick there slightly.. a processor will aways be as fast as its stated, it has a working frequency and the OS has no control over that (well unless you have an overclocking util but thats becides the point slightly), i think youre talking more about memory footprints. yes different OS's will have a different footprint and will utilise memory differently. but thats swings and roundabouts really..
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See? No one is ever going to agree on this argument :D

I didn't say the faster chip wouldn't be faster, I was saying the pc might have a faster chip but in reality the mac might still "work" faster because of the way it uses resources. My mac has a chip speed of 3.06, my laptop has a chip speed of 3.66. The mac is a LOT faster, nor does it slow down over time like the laptop does.
 
I don't understand why the discussion is always about the machines and the OS. Two separate things, but the general idea is always Macs vs. all PC's.

Build quality has always been extremely good with Apple products. There have been problems and all brands have had similar problems, mostly related to hardware integration (eg. chargers, batteries, LCD panels, ...) the company who designs the product trusts its suppliers. In 99% of the cases (this is for Apple, Sony, HP, etc.) the suppliers are at fault. You cannot guarantee every single mass produced product to be perfect in every single way, and that it will never ever break (look at the problems with the high end Canon DSLR's to name just one example)
Compared to most consumer laptops and desktops, with the exception here and there, Apple (pro) products have been top grade. Thinkpads were at that same level, too bad Lenovo doesnt pursue the same kind of build-quality

The OS is something different. This is a very subjective choice, and I prefer OSX, preferred OS9 before it and even OS8.
I use Windows daily (98, XP, Vista and started using 7 a few days ago) for work. Never ever have I been tempted to give up on OSX.

I meet with a lot of IT-people for my job and I have to say, not one of them was using a Mac 5 years ago, About 1/5 of them are using one now.
They boot in windows for their job and use OSX privately.

And I don't care if you use Windows or not. Why get upset? Do you care that I drive a Mercedes and not a BMW? It's a choice you make and feel comfortable about.
Is it such a problem to be someone that doesn't follow the majority? And if you made a well considered choice to use Windows, than please do so. What does get me off is people who never used OSX for a decent amount of time, and then come to boards like this and shout all kinds of bad things.
OSX is a very good OS, Windows 7 is a major leap for Microsoft and I applaud the competition. If someday M$ makes an OS that in my opinion is better than OSX, I see no reason not to switch. Up until now (even after a few days with 7, maybe my opinion changes in a week) I haven't been tempted.

That's my right to think so, just as it is my right to eat steak even though you might not agree with what I like.
We make choices because we are free, and most of the time we have good reason to make that choice.
However it becomes absurd to defend your actions when your actions are determined by the majority instead of you own cognitive thinking.
 
EdinburghGary said:
You may have a point RE fatality...never thought of that :nuts:

Mario World is probably my favourite of all Mario Games, and my fave platform game of all time. Highly polished in every respect, I remember getting the snes and game bundled, what a feeling playing it for the first time.

Bringing it right up to date, have you played New Super Mario Bros Wii? Absolutely excellent. Captures that old school feel, it's lush 3D visuals in a 2D world and it's pretty hardcore too if you want it to be. The last world is absolutely rock solid, can't get past the first level on it...it's a tribute to SPECIAL WORLD on the snes game we are discussing...

G.
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I am on world 6 atm on that game, although I still prefer the snes classic in terms of difficulty and overall awesomness :)

Oh, and super mario galaxy 2 is almost here :D :D :D

I spent far too long collecting all the stars with mario, then luigi on the first!
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Now... Can anyone here persuade me, or even just explain to me why i'd drop a thousand pounds on a macbook pro, rather than a top of the line windows laptop for the same price?
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No. You will use the machine so you need to decide what works best for you and then figure out if it's worth it. Whether or not people on here think MAC's or PC's are better is frankly not relevant.
 
Another reason I am "upping" macs - whenever I use my mac I always enjoy the experience, as they say themselves, everything just works. I remember unboxing it, plugging it in and within seconds I was connected to the internet. When I press the on button it springs into life straight away and 20 seconds later I am doing what I intended to do with it. If I buy a new printer, I plug it in and it works. No loading software first. I dare say theres a piece of hardware out there that needs some drivers before it will work, but I haven't found it yet. It even knew how to read my 50D RAW files before I'd loaded the Canon software. In twenty five plus years of PC use (yeah, I remember DOS!) I have never known that before.

PC's a great, I'll always have one. They're cheap nowadays and are always getting better. Macs are just nicer to use, look nicer and don't give me head or heartache whenever I try to use one. If a PC is a Ford Mondeo, a mac is a Rolls Royce, for me anyway.
 
EdinburghGary said:
In all seriousness guys, live and let live, and if you can have both, even better...

Do you notice how this argument exists in so many different places?

Just a few I remember from a few years back!

Commodore vs Spectrum
Sega vs Nintendo
Mario vs Sonic
360 vs PS3
Streetfighter vs Mortal Kombat!
Mountain Bikes vs Racers
HD-DVD vs Blu-Ray
Cant'on vs NIKON :D

Biased to the old video game industry...but still. Pointless arguments :D

I bet there are MANY more, the arguments ALWAYS go the same way too.

G.
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You forgot Amiga vs Atari ST - man oh man did that debate used to get heated, mainly because we all knew the ST sucked and the Amiga ruled.
 
neil_g said:
same model, same stepping, same batch etc? some processors clock faster than others depending on lots of factors. also take into account things like FSB and memory timings... blah blah blah :D
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Definately not the same model chip no. Laptop has a FSB of 800Mhz, not sure what the mac has. Laptop has 4 gig memory, mac has 2, on paper the lappy should be faster :shrug:
 
I've been using Macs for 15 years. Nothing I've seen on a Windows machine would make me want to go down that road. Any crash I ever have on a Mac has been related with Microsoft Office - always.

Now, why don't we compare Scarlett with Kiera? Much more fun.
 
chrisgeary said:
Why not embrace both? I do. Windows has its strengths and weakness, as does OS X. I use a Mac for video editing and Windows for most everything else. And I agree, OS X and Windows are about as stable as each other. All software has bugs :)
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I've been working in mixed PC / Mac environment for 12 years now, the PC's are always more trouble. Although they are easier and cheaper to fix if the hardware fails.
 
jamesoliverstone said:
I am on world 6 atm on that game, although I still prefer the snes classic in terms of difficulty and overall awesomness :)

Oh, and super mario galaxy 2 is almost here :D :D :D

I spent far too long collecting all the stars with mario, then luigi on the first!
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Keep at it, it gets hardcore :)
 
Ste Manns said:
Aye, I should get some work done :D

Enjoy Mario. Oh, by the way, I was with the Amiga camp :D
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Amiga's were awesome./ Loved the paint package, and the DIZZY series was awesome on it. The transition from the Spectrum to Amiga was lovely. Cool games, my fave I think was Magicland Dizzy.

G.
 
Luke

You have two Apple Stores in Manchester.

Go to one of them and have a play with the Mac you think you might like. No hassle from the staff and you can stay as long as you like, provided they are not closing for the night.

Most of the Macs have decent programs on such as Photoshop and Aperture, pity but no Lightroom.

If you don't find the answer, Then buy a PC. Only you can decide if a Mac is for you.
 
Seems thats what il have to do chappers. Was hoping for some actual hard facts about why a mac is preferable to a PC but none so far! Il go take a look later this afternoon and report back my findings.

If i was to get a mac, best place to get them is john lewis for their 2 year warrantee correct?
 
John Lewis is fine if they have the model you want. The two yar warenty is an excellent option especially on a laptop.

If you are going to the Apple Store, don't take your credit card,;);)

To be frank if you think what you are getting is what you consider value for money then fine. If not then PC world !!!!!

I was in and out of a couple of Apple Stores before I made up my mind.

Don't buy a Mac 'cos someone says "it's Cool". Buy it for what it can do
 
Chappers said:
Luke

You have two Apple Stores in Manchester.

Go to one of them and have a play with the Mac you think you might like. No hassle from the staff and you can stay as long as you like, provided they are not closing for the night.

Most of the Macs have decent programs on such as Photoshop and Aperture, pity but no Lightroom.

If you don't find the answer, Then buy a PC. Only you can decide if a Mac is for you.
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While your at the Apple store, make sure you take a card full of your images to upload to the machine (they let you do it no problem) and then you be trying the mac and software with images your familiar with.
 
I like all the mac people saying your paying for quality...

So your telling me im not just paying for the apple badge on the front....

Any laptop (presuming you get from a respectable make/not dell), will have as good build quality if not better. Personally recommend HP, not too expensive, established name, they look shiny all our gear in my house is by them, and nothing has gone wrong. Stick Windows 7 on it, you can keep on for at least a month at a time (I do) and your away! Its like OSX with its clean cut not fattyness.
 
whiteflyer said:
While your at the Apple store, make sure you take a card full of your images to upload to the machine (they let you do it no problem) and then you be trying the mac and software with images your familiar with.
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Great idea, thank you. All mac pro's have SD card slots correct?
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Great idea, thank you. All mac pro's have SD card slots correct?
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As far as I know but a quick check on the Apple site will confirm this.

If you are looking for a laptop, might be worth hanging on for a short while, rumour has it a new model with an improved chip is due soon..

Might pick up a bargain with the current (older model!!)

Don't ask the people in the Aple store about it as they probably don't know. Apple are very circumspect about new models launches.
 
Perhaps it might help to specify the actual models you were considering.

Knowing the PC model might help you spot any issues that might make a difference.

Otherwise, it's just a 'PC' which can be just about anything.

Graham
 
Skyline On Fire said:
Great idea, thank you. All mac pro's have SD card slots correct?
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macBOOK pros have an SD card slot, mac pros are the desktop machine and do not have an SD slot. (Just to clarify things in case of slight confusion!)
 
Chappers said:
Don't ask the people in the Aple store about it as they probably don't know. Apple are very circumspect about new models launches.
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When there is a new launch the Apple store staff know about there being A LAUNCH the next day/day after because they get several boxes appearing. They are taped up and the staff are forbidden from removing the tape till a specified time. The store will often open at say 10am on launch day or staff are told to come in early and the normal staff find out about them literally just before {allegedly :)}
 
Crazy Dino said:
I like all the mac people saying your paying for quality...

So your telling me im not just paying for the apple badge on the front....

Any laptop (presuming you get from a respectable make/not dell), will have as good build quality if not better. Personally recommend HP, not too expensive, established name, they look shiny all our gear in my house is by them, and nothing has gone wrong. Stick Windows 7 on it, you can keep on for at least a month at a time (I do) and your away! Its like OSX with its clean cut not fattyness.
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Sorry not true. A MacBook pro is about as good as build quality gets for a laptop. Thinkpads were in some respects even better, but since Lenovo took over, that sadly isn't the case anymore.

At work we use high end HP and Dell laptops, they don't even come close.
Jiggly bits, plastic and metal stuff that doesn't fit well, etc. Even the much hyped Envy isn't as good. It comes close, but the design is also very very similar to a MBP.

All brands have their problems, some machines are lemons. But a good MBP is still at the very top of the heap.
By the way, ever seen the internals of a Mac Pro? I have yet to see a tower with a layout designed and built like that.

And I don't pay for the badge. My 2 year old MBP was cheaper or as cheap as the models I compared it to when I bought it. A comparable Envy is more of less the same price, and when Apple updates the notebooks to i5 and 7's with new graphic cards, I expect them to cost the same or even a bit less for the base 13 & 15" models.

It's the exact same reason I buy Mercedes and not Ford. They both might have GPS and AC and comfy leather seats etc. Still I don't pay for that star on the front. I pay more because I know they are extremely well made, to a higher standard, and with design in mind. Everything is considered equally important, from the key to the first aid kit.
Same story with Apple, both companies are leaders in innovation. I consider my car as an investment I will enjoy for many years. Same is true for my Apple computers.
 
Gary said:
ever had that feeling of deja vu?
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lol

Well at least everyone is being well behaved this time. No one has been called a "latte drinking fanboy" yet :)
 
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