EPTIt's virtually problem-free honestly it's a dream to use
Mac or Dell - Page 6
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-orb-
United States5770 Posts
It's virtually problem-free honestly it's a dream to use | ||
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eX-Corgh
Russian Federation386 Posts
On February 04 2009 23:37 Jibba wrote: And iTunes?! Every time we have this discussion the rest of the Mac people spend most of their time making sure everyone knows there are viable alternatives to iTunes, because no one wants to use it. Everyone knows Macs win form factor. The light aluminum is nice, the Multi-touch pad is nice and MagSafe is very nice. But aside from the small advantage in DDR3, they do not come close to this type of performance. Nowhere in the same realm. You could honestly get a laptop with comparable hardware to the $2k MBP for around less than $1k. iTunes is awesome once you get how it works and don't try to oppose it. I don't know a SINGLE person who has a Mac and doesn't use iTunes. Even some Windows guys I know use it because its very good music management software. Have you read my post? I said you have to consider a form factor and case design when comparing computers. Everything that Asus has is specs. Macs are all about usability. You want specs - you get PC, you want usability - you get Mac. What's so hard to understand about it? As I said, neither platform is superior to another as they are targeted toward different markets. On February 05 2009 03:26 Fontong wrote: LOL I took a look at the apple site. woww In order to get a computer that is equivalent to mine costs about 4000$. I assembled mine for about 600$ + reused a few old parts. Going from 2gb ram to 4gb ram costs 500$. Please tell me that isn't overprice, I would love to hear you say that. Edit: The ram isn't even 1066mhz, 800 only lol and in 4 slots I'm sick of LOLs, this is a civil discussion. Everyone knows that upgrade prices at Apple Store are insane. You don't have to get upgrades from Apple. Macs use the same RAM and HDs as the rest of the industry so you can get it in every computer store. I don't know what model are you talking about in your Edit. The machine being discussed here is a MacBook which has DDR3 1066 MHz (the aluminium models) and DDR2 800 MHz (in plastic model). Both have 2 RAM slots. On February 05 2009 05:40 TheYango wrote: Except since its possible these days to run either OS on either hardware, buying hardware for the default software it runs is kind of silly. How does being forced to spend money on things you might not care about count as a plus? A lot of these would be fine as options, but being forced to bump up the price for features you don't want is not a good thing (e.g. I don't care about size/design/weight, my existing Wi-Fi already gets good service everywhere on my school campus, I don't use Bluetooth peripherals, and I can already type just fine in the dark, so a keyboard backlight isn't useful). Again, you aren't forced into buying it. Mac isn't for you. | ||
Jibba
United States22883 Posts
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
have you seen the dell adamo http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3495 it has design plenty, and is way cooler than a mac. putting such a premium on design simply is not the right move for volume segments. macs are luxury items, stop treating them like something unique | ||
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Cambium
United States16368 Posts
On February 05 2009 13:53 oneofthem wrote: asus actually built macs for apple. true story. have you seen the dell adamo http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3495 it has design plenty, and is way cooler than a mac. putting such a premium on design simply is not the right move for volume segments. macs are luxury items, stop treating them like something unique that thing is going to be crazy expensive, just like the voodoo | ||
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Ilvy
Germany2445 Posts
On February 05 2009 13:53 oneofthem wrote: asus actually built macs for apple. true story. have you seen the dell adamo http://www.anandtech.com/mobile/showdoc.aspx?i=3495 it has design plenty, and is way cooler than a mac. putting such a premium on design simply is not the right move for volume segments. macs are luxury items, stop treating them like something unique it´s unique the rest just to try to copy | ||
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ffswowsucks
Greece2291 Posts
![[image loading]](http://i274.photobucket.com/albums/jj264/budweiser37/1229212041ak8.gif) I dont think you wanna be the Mac dude. | ||
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food
United States1951 Posts
On February 04 2009 16:22 eX-Corgh wrote: This thread is getting more and more retarded with such single-line replys like "Macs suck", "Plz dont get a Mac", "You can't game on a Mac", "Macs are for eye candy", "You can't do anything with Mac", "I have 5 TB RAM and over 9000 GHz CPU and Macs have nothing for more $$"........... sigh To OP: please disregard such comments because they are posted by people who never seen/used/owned a Mac or they did but a looong time ago and don't know what they are talking about. I see that you are planning to use the laptop for studying, editing/storing photos, playing SC and other general computer stuff (internet, IM, etc). The main reason people use Macs is not the hardware - its the software. The Mac OS X "Leopard" operating system is considered by many to be "on the next level" compared to Windows. It has an intuitive and easy to use GUI, works fast, isn't bloated, supports all kinds of stuff, can be used in many fields, has UNIX base so its incredibly stable and secure (yes, NO viruses for Macs at ALL), doesn't require as much maintenance as Windows. Apple says it "Just works" and I agree with this statement. I've been using Macs for over 10 years and I have yet to run into a serious problem with them. When you connect a divice it doesn't require drives in most cases, setup is extremely easy and intuitive if necessary at all. In short, using a computer is much less frustrating. Some of its features are really nice: - Exposé. Press a button and all of your open windows are scaled and located on the screen so that all are visible at once without overlap. Select the one you want and it is brought to the foreground while the rest slide back to their original place. Press another button and all your open windows slide behind the screen edges and your is desktop visible at once. Do whatever you needed to do on a desktop and press that button again to have all those open windows back to their original place. A VERY useful feature for small screens (MacBook). - Spaces. Make up to 16 screen spaces available and move between then with a press of a button. For example have web browser/mail/chat in one space, some Word documents in the other, music player in the 3rd, Microsoft Windows open in virtualization software (see 1) Study) in the 4th space, etc. Helps you organize your work (and play), especially helpful for small screens. - QuickLook. Preview files without opening them just by pressing Space bar. Files can be anything from text documents to movies and multi-page PDFs. - Time Machine. The automatic backup software, absolutely THE best I've ever seen. All you need is an external hard drive (you can get a Terabyte for less than 150$ these days). It is absolutely amazing! No setup required, just plug in the HD, press "On" and never worry about data loss ever again. For a demo of how great this is, watch the Leopard Guided Tour (Time Machine is at 9.35 minute mark) - Spotlight. The fastest system-wide searching tool I've seen in any OS. Starts giving you the result as you are still typing a word to search for. Results are instantly grouped by kind with more recent items on top of the list (closer to the input point). Can be used to instantly find things from applications and files to areas in FDF maps, metadata in your photos music, etc. Windows XP search is pathetic in comparison, while the one in Vista is better than XPs, but still can't match Spotlight. Thats just a few highlights of Mac OS X features that make people love Macs ^^ Now, to your requests: 1) Study. Macs have a bunch of software to choose from for this. - Apple's own iWork suite which contains easy to use/learn and intuitive applications for word processing, page layout, presentations, spreadsheets. Its compatible with Word, PowerPoint, Excel formats as well as PDF and other industry standards. - The next package is Microsoft's Office 2008 which is basically a Mac version of Office 2007 for Windows. Its more expensive than iWork, but provides familiar environment if you're so used to Office and has ultimate compatibility with other Office documents. - Free alternatives are NeoOffice, OpenOffice and others. These are viable alternatives, especially if you don't want to pay for your office suite (or dont want to download them from torrents), but they lack some features and are not as refined as payed software. I know a few people who use exclusively Open Office because they refuse to pay Microsoft any money for BS software they make ^^. The feature set is enough in most cases. Besides office suite you may need some additional specialized software depending on your major, but if it doesn't have a Mac version or alternative you can use Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion to run Windows (or Linux, or other OS) alongside Mac OS X without need for rebooting each time you want to use a different OS and with other convenient features. 2) Editing/managing photos. Again, a bunch of great software is available. If you are not a professional in this area: - As a part of Apple's iLife suite that comes with every Mac for free, the iPhoto application does a great job of storing, organizing and editing your photos. The ease of use, very intuitive interface, integration with the rest of iLife's applications and some nice features make it my personal favorite application in its category. - The next is Google Picasa. I have no first-hand experience with it, but from various reports online its a very good competitor to iPhoto. And its free too. - Pixelmator. Inexpensive photo-editing software with great interface with similar layout as behemoth Photoshop and many similar features. Has the ability to use your graphics card and OS X's built it Core Image technology to edit photos fast and efficient. - Adobe Photoshop Elements is more of an editing software, but has organizing funcionality too. Not free, but more advanced editing features. If you're Pro or a serious hobbyist: - Apple Aperture. Basically a much more advanced version of iPhoto with a more complicated, but more efficient for heavy use interface. Excellent for RAW processing and storing, powerful organization and editing tools, including batch processing. Has a very nice "image versions" feature that allows you to make as many versions of the original "Master" photo as you like, while taking very little space (only changes are saved, so each version os like a few KBs in size). This is the application I use myself. - Adobe Lightroom. A competitor to Aperture and seems very well-made and refined too. Interface is similar to the Creative Suite apps and has tight integration with it. More expensive than Aperture. - Adobe Photoshop. An industry-standard photo editor. Not much to tell, same as the Windows version basically. 3) Playing SC That's already been said by other posters, but I'll say it again. Yes, there is Starcraft for Mac, yes its runs just like Windows version, yes you can play on ICCUP, BUT you can't have AntiHack, Lat changer, etc. But thats if you're running a Mac version. Windows version which you can run in either BootCamp (by dual-booting) or virtualization (see Parallels Desktop or VMWare Fusion above) lets you have all that. 4) General computer useage. This includes web browsing, e-mail, chat, file transfers, music, moves, tv-shows, etc etc. - For the web browser you have a ton of options. The default browser is Apple Safari and is very good. Its not bloated, runs fast, has a pleasant interface, tight integration with the OS (for links, bookmarks, search, etc). My favorite. The competitor is of course Firefox. Most of people use either Safari or this, but there are less widespread browsers as well. - E-mails are covered either by the default Mail or 3rd party software such as Microsoft Entourage (part of Office suite), Thunderbird, etc. - IM chat is not deprived of vividness too. The king is (IMO) a multi-protocol-in-one application called Adium. Supports protocols such as MSN, ICQ, AIM, Yahoo, GoogleTalk, Facebook Chat, MySpace IM, Jabber, QQ, etc. No need to keep multiple IM apps if you use multiple protocols. Open Adium and it lets you stay connected and being able to chat in all of them. No bloat, nice and tight. The most customizable software I've ever seen. Oh and its free of course. The drawback is that it doesn't yet support video/audio chat, but developers promise its inclusion in the next major version. The next app is Apple's iChat which supports AIM, MobileMe, ICQ and other protocols, but also has the A/V chat feature. The best A/V chat app if your interlocutor also has a Mac. Skype. A/V chat app, compatible with Windows version. The best cross-platform a/v chat software. MSN Messenger. Part of the Microsoft Office suite or can be downloaded separately for free. Never used it so can't tell much about it. Obviously for MSN protocol only. - File transfers: Download managers, torrent clients, FTP, P2P, etc. Speed Download is one of the best download managers. Others include iGetter, etc Torrent clients: Transmission, Vuze, paid Xtorrent, uTorrent (still a beta though), etc FTP: Speed Download (see download managers), Cyberduck, etc P2P: Limewire, etc. - For music management and listening I strongly recommend Apple iTunes. The best jukebox software for Mac. There are alternatives though if you don't like it. An awesome add-on for iTunes is Coversutra - improves your experience with iTunes even more. - Videos are covered partly by iTunes for viewing and storing them, but other software includes: VLC - a player that supports virtually all video formats. Can also be used for live SC watching. Perian QuickTime component significantly broadens the number of supported formats in QuickTime (iTunes and Front Row as well). A must-have. Handbrake - Mainly a DVD conversion tool. Insert a movie on DVD, choose the preset (for iPod, for PSP, just for computer screen, etc) and click start, wait, enjoy the result ready for storing/archiving/viewing/, etc. Can also be used to convert movies other than DVDs, like an AVI you've downloaded, or FLV, XVID, whatever. In short, despite a popular belief, there is absolutely no problem with software on Macs. Hardware As for the hardware part of the question, I can tell you this. Macs aren't overpriced. If you match a comparable PC in specs the price difference is virtually none or probably slightly more for Macs. When I say "comparable" I mean comparable in ALL or MOST aspects of the specification. This includes not only CPU, RAM, graphics and screen, but also case thickness, battery life, quality, etc. The only real drawback Macs have now is that there's no way to watch Blue-Ray (other than in Windows with an external blue-ray drive plugged in), but additional features in Mac laptops like MultiTouch trackpad, MagSafe power cord (that will save your laptop from flying down from the table or bed more times than you can imagine), better design, (in most cases) thinner and more solid construction, lighter weight, Wi-Fi N, Bluetooth 2.1, keyboard backlight (on higher end models), better case materials usually make up for it in terms of price. You just can't compare a loud 1.3" thick 2.5 kg cheap plastic ugly PC laptop with nothing in it except for basic computer components and with a battery that lasts 2 hours max to a 0.9" thick 2 kg beautiful MacBook in the strong aluminium case, LED display, MagSafe, Multitouch glass trackpad, newest Bluetooth and wi-fi chips and over 4 hours of real battery life that is still just as fast in performance. Its just not the same league. Again, its all about selecting comparable hardware. Aslo, considering the value of the software that comes free on all Macs and no need to buy Anti-virus (annually) its safe to say that the actual cost is lower than PC. If you think you don't need any of this stuff - fine, no problems, go and buy a PC. Macs aren't for everyone (same with PCs). Both have their uses. Sorry for the huge post, I'm done. Hope this helped someone. http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=macs_cant you know how hilarious you sound light 2kg beautiful top of the line mac and the heavy, grotesque, cheap 2.5 kg PC in a year it would be beautiful 1.8 kg mac and ugly, heavy 2.0 kg PC i dont know where you take these quotations from, probably brainwashing yourself on mac website itunes is complete garbage, i would never install that shit again and i had to deal with it plenty safari? are you on crack? software blablabla, you know how many apps could be listen even with Vista? why did you even get into this bs? "oh you can see through while you using leopard" Who gona get impressed with this shit to spend extra money on it? macs are not overpriced? okay, i havent heard this one yet. You must be feeling shaky with your shitty computer to start disproving obvious things. In my honest opinion youre one biased mother. And this is exactly what happened in this thread: you acted like you dont care but then after reading few pages you couldnt hold it anymore and started copy pasting all this barely relevant garbage | ||
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Fontong
United States6454 Posts
On February 05 2009 11:26 eX-Corgh wrote:I'm sick of LOLs, this is a civil discussion. Everyone knows that upgrade prices at Apple Store are insane. You don't have to get upgrades from Apple. Macs use the same RAM and HDs as the rest of the industry so you can get it in every computer store. I don't know what model are you talking about in your Edit. The machine being discussed here is a MacBook which has DDR3 1066 MHz (the aluminium models) and DDR2 800 MHz (in plastic model). Both have 2 RAM slots. Macs are overpriced before the upgrades. Yes I know they use the same parts as any other computer. I have had a mac before and it fucking sucked, was slow, and crashed more often than any PC I have ever had. I don't care if that was 7 years ago, once you stick your hand and the fire and get burned you don't going around trying that again do you? | ||
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mahnini
United States6862 Posts
the only macbook that is currently "worth it" is the cheapest one. for most first time dell buyers i dont know, maybe the others are comparable but here's the cool thing about dells, after you buy one laptop / PC they deliver you this awesome catalog to your house monthly and it has ridiculously sick ecoupon codes or whatever. some the the PC deals in that catalog are better than building it yourself (24" monitor Q6600 4gb ram 750gb hdd for like $899), same goes for the laptops. one more thing, unless you fill apple's target market with the macbook do yourself a favor and dont get one, i'm talking about doing professional work aside from movie making, sound producing, or whatever. you'll just end up paying a huge premium for something that will be obsolete in the same time but look nicer. | ||
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eX-Corgh
Russian Federation386 Posts
On February 05 2009 19:12 mahnini wrote: people who buy macs because they like them are great. people who buy macs then try to justify buying a mac are jumbodumbo. ex-corgh you understand the majority of your post is justifying macs by saying "look at how many apps it can run"? the only macbook that is currently "worth it" is the cheapest one. for most first time dell buyers i dont know, maybe the others are comparable but here's the cool thing about dells, after you buy one laptop / PC they deliver you this awesome catalog to your house monthly and it has ridiculously sick ecoupon codes or whatever. some the the PC deals in that catalog are better than building it yourself (24" monitor Q6600 4gb ram 750gb hdd for like $899), same goes for the laptops. one more thing, unless you fill apple's target market with the macbook do yourself a favor and dont get one, i'm talking about doing professional work aside from movie making, sound producing, or whatever. you'll just end up paying a huge premium for something that will be obsolete in the same time but look nicer. Sorry if my post turned out to be "look at how many apps it can run", it wasn't my intention. I was merely suggesting what apps the OP could use for his needs if he bought a Mac. To people who still insist iTunes sucks: I'm sure you tried to use it not the way it was intended to (most common problem). Statement that Safari sucks can only be justified if you were using its Windows version - THAT sucks for sure I agree. Anyway, this discussion seems to be pointless because it seems the OP has got all the information he/she needed and haven't posted in a while. | ||
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TheYango
United States47024 Posts
On February 05 2009 23:42 eX-Corgh wrote: To people who still insist iTunes sucks: I'm sure you tried to use it not the way it was intended to (most common problem). What? How can you not use it the way its intended? On February 05 2009 23:42 eX-Corgh wrote: Statement that Safari sucks can only be justified if you were using its Windows version - THAT sucks for sure I agree. Its not that Safari sucks more than the fact that Firefox is going to be the baseline for judging a browser experience regardless of platform, and it outdoes Safari. Regardless, I don't see the point of defending either software, seeing as neither is core to what makes a Mac a Mac (both exist on Windows and have better free alternatives on both platforms). | ||
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
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eX-Corgh
Russian Federation386 Posts
On February 06 2009 03:05 oneofthem wrote: apple employee spotted. use itunes the way it is intended? fuck you. i decide the proper method of using software, not your company. you absolutely fail if you have to reverse that relationship. I'm sure you didn't need to use such language >_> No, I'm not an Apple employee, never have been. Its sad that you don't understand how you can use particular software not the way it was intended... There are plenty of ways. Some try to manage music in the iTunes folder themselves and wondoring why iTunes "messes it up all the time", etc What's your problem with iTunes anyway? I don't hear anything constructive besides "It sucks lolz" | ||
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TheYango
United States47024 Posts
On February 06 2009 16:01 eX-Corgh wrote: What's your problem with iTunes anyway? I don't hear anything constructive besides "It sucks lolz" As someone mentioned, its bloatware, just like Acrobat Reader. It uses up a lot more system resources that should ever reasonably be needed to run something so simple as a music player, especially since it doesn't do much more than other players. On top of this, Apple proprietary software is generally harder to write/use addons for tha open source alternatives. | ||
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oneofthem
Cayman Islands24199 Posts
actually this is just silly | ||
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MacWorld
Sweden227 Posts
These are Gartners (student monitor: computing and the internet) numbers from fall 2008: of all student that intend to buy a latop next 12 months - 50% of them intend to buy a mac 21% a dell 14% a hp 4% toshiba 3% gateway 2% compaq The numbers from 2005 were: 17% a mac 46% a dell 100% (give or take) of those who already own a mac intends to buy a knew mac next time. 64% of current dell-users plan to try a mac next time. Do you see a pattern? Do you understand what is happening? Hello?! - where is the vision Dell? Where is the innovation? Where is the progress? Where is the creativity? | ||
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feathers
United States236 Posts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152086 you will be able to play sc2 max graphics no problem with it. vista is a fine os, naysayers are just mactards. Just remove Unnecessary Services and disable the Aero interface and it will be as fast as windows xp. | ||
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LimitlessSky
United States434 Posts
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115546 | ||
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JeeJee
Canada5652 Posts
On February 06 2009 17:29 MacWorld wrote: 100% (give or take) of those who already own a mac intends to buy a knew mac next time. 64% of current dell-users plan to try a mac next time. Do you see a pattern? Do you understand what is happening? Yeah, students now value looks over performance and willing to pay a huge premium for it. Aka judging a book by its cover and so on. | ||
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