Moving to Apple - advice please.

PatrickO

PatrickO

Suspended / Banned
Messages
2,808
Name
Patrick
Edit My Images
Yes
After yet another Windows disaster and another Windows laptop dying on me (one month out of warranty!), I'm thinking of making the move to Apple on the basis of reliability, software stability and build quality.

Our household use laptops for surfing, gaming and picture editting (Lightroom mainly with a bit of Elements). The gaming we can do without (use consoles instead). I'm also thinking a separate monitor for when I'm editting seriously.

Is it worth considering a reburbished macbook?

Can you guys suggest online resources where I can read up on the various Macbooks?

Not aiming to start a PC vs Apple flame war, just want advice.

Cheers, Patrick
 
Last edited:
Go to the Apple store on line for all the details, plus list of refurbs available. I'd opt for at least 4Gb of memory, but it probably will be cheaper to purchase additional memory seperatly, as it can be cheaper from Crucial.. However the machines available may have 4 Gb installed already

Alternatively try the Apple Sore itself in Norwich.

http://www.apple.com/uk/retail/chapelfield/

Have a play, but leave credit card at home
 
Last edited:
PatrickO said:
I'm thinking of making the move to Apple on the basis of reliability, software stability and build quality.
Click to expand...

would now be the time to mention the batch of new MBP that arrived with faulty network cards? ;) spend as much on a windows laptop as a mac laptop and id wager youll have a whole nicer experience. stability should be on par with W7. not saying you shouldnt go apple (the whole mac vs pc is pointless, theyre the same thing at the end of the day), its your decision, just make sure you have an informed reasoning before doing so.

going back to the original question. youll want an external IPS screen ideally.

refurb will give a good saving, enough to grab some extra memory (not from apple) and install yourself. theres even a MBP on the refurb page with the matte anti-glare screen which is a bonus.
 
Seriously if you are used to windows stay with it.

For the same price as a MBP you could get a top spec Win7 laptop with a 3 year next business day on-site warranty.
 
+1 for a refurb. All my apple machines have been refurbs and all have come looking and working like new. I've even brought refurb machines with a specific spec, but when there delivered they have been a better spec, which is always nice :)
 
If you dont mind me asking - what laptop did you have and how much did you pay for it?
 
If the laptop has failed just outside the warranty then I'd be contacting the retailer as it isn't of satisfactory quality if it has died at 13 months old.

I've found that pc hardware with a decent linux installed is about the cheapest answer to reliable and secure computing.

I'm running some ancient apple gear still. Never managed to get more than a couple of years out of pc hardware before something died. Apple stuff seems to be more long lived although the wireless on the intel macbook I have was totally awful with my old router in my old house. Never did discover why it would always drop the connection. Especially as the two G4 machines on the same network worked perfectly!
 
barneyrubble said:
If you dont mind me asking - what laptop did you have and how much did you pay for it?
Click to expand...

It's an Acer, can't remmember the exact model (it's in the shop being repaired) . Cost about £600.

Got another laptop at home collecting dust as two different repair shops failed to get it working.

Thanks for other thoughts/advice.
 
I was sort of following on from Neil's point.

£600 is not a lot to spend on a laptop. I just Spent about £1400 on mine. Acer is also not one of the better makes.

You need to work out if you want to go to the Apple OS or wether its just down to the unreliability of the hardware.

If you buy a top make like Lenovo, Dell or Toshiba, you can get a decent onsite 3 year warranty for less than the equivalent macbook. My latest one is i7 with 8gb ram and a 128gb Solid state drive. Including the Applecare the equivalent apple is £1800.

So the question really is - do you want to run OSX? or is it purely hardware thats the driving force behind the change?
 
Get an iMac or Macbook and install Windows on it. Shazzam!

If I had the money I'd have all Apple machines with Windows 7 loaded on and Windows 8 when it comes along.
 
Try OSX, - as said just go to an Apple Store and see what you think of them all.
 
If I went for a refurb...any thoughts on what spec of mac I'd need for comfortable photo editting (LR and Elements)? Or alternatively where's a good place to look up this sort of thing (google not helping me).
 
Is that a bit of FUD Mr _g? Can't find any supporting evidence through google, let alone anything remotely recent....
 
barneyrubble said:
I was sort of following on from Neil's point.

£600 is not a lot to spend on a laptop. I just Spent about £1400 on mine. Acer is also not one of the better makes.

I must agree. My niece went to university with an Acer laptop. Had nothing but trouble with it. I still have a £900 HP windows laptop, 6 years old - still going strong!:)
Click to expand...
 
PatrickO said:
If I went for a refurb...any thoughts on what spec of mac I'd need for comfortable photo editting (LR and Elements)? Or alternatively where's a good place to look up this sort of thing (google not helping me).
Click to expand...

This is the min spec for Lightroom

Mac OS
Intel processor
Mac OS X v10.5 or v10.6
2GB of RAM
1GB of available hard-disk space
1,024x768 display
CD-ROM drive
Click to expand...

Elements 10

Mac OS
Multicore Intel® processor
Mac OS X v10.5.8 through v10.7
1GB of RAM (2GB for HD video functions)
4GB of available hard-disk space (additional free space required during installation)
1024x768 display resolution
DVD-ROM drive
QuickTime 7 software required for multimedia features
Internet connection required for Internet-based services*
Click to expand...

Any newish Mac will have these specs as standard so it will come down to how much you can afford/want to spend over that basic spec. I had refurb iPods back in the day, it was still going strong when I sold it a few years later whilst my friend got through a few he bought straight from the shop.

Might be better to Google for something like "macbook issues/ macbook problems" therell be plenty of sites that come up with people griping about certain models so you can try and avoid them.

Ive used Apple for years but theyre by no means faultless or bulletproof as some people want you to believe.
 
PatrickO said:
If I went for a refurb...any thoughts on what spec of mac I'd need for comfortable photo editting (LR and Elements)?
Click to expand...
First or second generation i3/i5/i7. First gen have names/numbers in the form i3-xxx, second gen have names in the form i3-2xxx. Higher number i's are generally better. i5 would be preferred over i3, i7 is more debatable. You need to know the -xxx numbers to really know which to choose. 4G of RAM, 8G better. 7200rpm HDD (if available) of appropriate size or SSD.

If you went for a laptop, I'd recommend the same :)
 
trencheel303 said:
Get an iMac or Macbook and install Windows on it. Shazzam!

If I had the money I'd have all Apple machines with Windows 7 loaded on and Windows 8 when it comes along.
Click to expand...

But that really defeats the purpose of it; the best thing about owning a Mac is OS X. The Mac environment is famously stable because the machines are so tailor-made and the operating system is perfectly tuned to their hardware configurations. People complain about the lack of options for expanding or upgrading the insides of a Mac (with the exception of memory), but it's this tightly controlled configuration that ensures a Mac runs without problems. I bought my first Mac (a Macbook) just over five years ago - I've never had a single crash, I've never had to reinstall the OS, and I've never had any hardware issues with it, and I still use it everyday. Since then, I've expanded my Mac arsenal to include a Mac Mini and a Macbook Pro, and they've all been beautifully reliable. I'd never, ever go back to Windows.

To the OP, I'd recommend a Macbook Pro.
 
onona said:
<snip>...the best thing about owning a Mac is OS X...<snip>
Click to expand...

I can bomb around Windows all day, delving into the registry when I need to, and while I'm not THAT profocient with Unix-based operating systems, I have to agree - OS X is the puppy's privates. Especially the new one. A couple of minor little niggles with OS X Lion (such as the Library folder being hidden by default) but there's a wealth of knowledge on the net to address these things.

It doesn't take too long to get used to the change either - having worked with Windoze for the best part of 20 years, and being a relatively new Mac user, I now find myself typing in Cmd-V at work on my Win7 pc and wondering why the hell nothing's been pasted from the clipboard...

If I had to sum up OS X in one word, I think it would have to be 'slik'...
 
Sorry and it's going to sound like I'm anti apple or starting a mac versus pc thing which I'm not on both counts, but OSX isn't invincible to the odd crash and they can and do slow down over time requiring a rebuild.

I genuinely wish they were and didn't respectively as it would take some much needed load off us as an it dept.. Lol
 
Catdaddy said:
I now find myself typing in Cmd-V at work on my Win7 pc and wondering why the hell nothing's been pasted from the clipboard...
Click to expand...
Try ctrl-v ;) If there's nothing there, it's probably because you haven't cut it with ctrl-x or copied it with ctrl-c

Or am I missing some wondrous thing that Apple UI has over windows?
 
arad85 said:
Try ctrl-v ;) If there's nothing there, it's probably because you haven't cut it with ctrl-x or copied it with ctrl-c

Or am I missing some wondrous thing that Apple UI has over windows?
Click to expand...

No, I'm just saying that while using the UI for OS X is slightly different, it's easy to adapt to. Personally speaking, I much prefer it to Windows - it seems a little more intuitive to me.
 
I agree with Catdaddy, been a windows user for 10 years +. My main PC is still on Windows 7 now, but recently bought a MBP about 4 months ago and honestly, I've been itching to sell this setup for a iMac. I'm not fan boy, not by a long way, I just feel that OS X makes things seem.. effortless.
 
Mackie said:
on apple it's cmd-v to paste. think you missed the point ;)
Click to expand...
Yes.. that's a huge advantage... I can see that now.. My mistake :rolleyes:
 
I have a 13" MacBook Pro for my Uni work (Graphic Design) as it's easier to move work from the iMac's at Uni and obviously easy to take around with me. I've also got a good spec Windows PC at home which I still use just as much as the MacBook. One of the benefits of Apple is the customer service, if there was to be a problem the likelihood of them replacing the item straight away is high.
 
neil_g said:
Sorry and it's going to sound like I'm anti apple or starting a mac versus pc thing which I'm not on both counts, but OSX isn't invincible to the odd crash and they can and do slow down over time requiring a rebuild.

I genuinely wish they were and didn't respectively as it would take some much needed load off us as an it dept.. Lol
Click to expand...

Well the occurrence rate of issues is no doubt extremely low. As I said, over five years and never a single issue with any of my three Macs. Ever.
 
As a long time Mac user I can honestly say don't switch from what you know. Windows 7 is probably now as stable as Mac OS X, and in terms of general useability they're probably equal.

I think one of the reasons that people claim that Windows is more problematic than Mac is that, well, there's more Windows boxes out there than Macs, so you're more likely to hear about problems. Another reason is that it's very very easy to succumb to the cheap no name stuff if you're buying a windows machine, which generally means higher failure rates. With Apple you have no other option than to pay up for quality gear. Buy a Windows machine with a similar price to an Apple machine and your overall user experience should be the same.

Basically you pay your money and take your choice, much like photography. Take Sigma and Tamron vs. Nikon and Canon lenses for instance. Sure there are some gems amongst the cheaper 3rd party lenses, but as a whole their ranges don't match the quality and reliability of the Nikon/Canon ranges.
 
Slaphead said:
As a long time Mac user I can honestly say don't switch from what you know. Windows 7 is probably now as stable as Mac OS X, and in terms of general useability they're probably equal.

I think one of the reasons that people claim that Windows is more problematic than Mac is that, well, there's more Windows boxes out there than Macs, so you're more likely to hear about problems. Another reason is that it's very very easy to succumb to the cheap no name stuff if you're buying a windows machine, which generally means higher failure rates. With Apple you have no other option than to pay up for quality gear. Buy a Windows machine with a similar price to an Apple machine and your overall user experience should be the same.

Basically you pay your money and take your choice, much like photography. Take Sigma and Tamron vs. Nikon and Canon lenses for instance. Sure there are some gems amongst the cheaper 3rd party lenses, but as a whole their ranges don't match the quality and reliability of the Nikon/Canon ranges.
Click to expand...

But macs are still better, obviously :naughty:
 
After 15 years or so years of being a Windows user, I have recently made the change to Mac's. I won't be going back...
 
Many thanks for all the replies and (differing) opinions.

Going into the Apple store in Norwich today to have a browse.
 
Apple refurb is great!

I buy everything refurb now. As good as anything new, everything I bought has been perfect.

Apple Care is a worthwhile investment and if you shop around you can beat Apples price easily. I got mine for 27" iMac from amazon for £79 which is way better than the £125 (inc. discount) Apple offered.

Apple customer service is very very good. Friends who have Apple Care and have used it have nothing but praise for them. I recently took my macbook in and within 3 days it was back and the problem sorted.

Also think about buying it with lower ram and replacing yourself via crucial. It is super simple, Apple even tell you how to do it on their site, and you will save cash!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top