bazza_g Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 This should get the Mac vs PC camps at each other I've recently ditched a couple of older laptops and am now left with just my work laptop and Lady T's laptop. I'm sure work is getting annoyed with all my music, photos and applications clogging up my work one so I think the time has come to get something of the desktop variety. Whatever I get will live in on a desk in the spare room, be used mainly for web, email, music management (iTunes) and photoshop editing/manipulation. Could also be used as a TV I suppose. Part of me says gets a reasonably specced iMac 24" - it will do everything I need it to and look great at the same time. The other part of me says get a desktop PC with a nice big LCD and hide the PC 'box' in the desk for about half the price. Am throwing this one open to the TSN knowledge - I am absolutely undecided on this subject and am open to be swayed either way (as they say!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Ummm, it's a difficult one. I use a Mac and PCs regularly every day. If we look at my usage patterns I see that all my audio/video/photo processing is all done on my Mac now, rarely go into Windows to do anything like that. My work stuff is a bit of a mixture. For my tech author type stuff (which is pretty much what I do) my Macbook with 4Gb and a 300Gb 7200RPM kicks the pants off ANY of my Windows workstations for working with large documents - I.e. 50Mb+ word documents. For other work based stuff it's a bit restrictive. We use things like Office Communications Server for real-time comms and the functionality in the Mac client is restrictive compared to the Windows one.... VoIP to PSTN doesn't work - I.e. you can't use Enterprise voice functionality. VPN-less connectivity is also a pain as the client doesn't appear to do correct SRV lookups for service access points. I don't have Visio on the Mac either - there isn't one. That's my BIG pain... I tend to use Omnigraffle then import into Visio before embedding into word. I know you can embed direct from Omni->Word but it embeds in the wrong format which is a pain if I want to edit stuff on a Windows machine where Omni format is not natively supported. The other thing my mac rocks at compared to a Windows w/s is VMWare support. I can run my entire demo enviroment on my Macbook - this includes Windows 2008 for Active Directory, Exchange 2007, OCS as well as SQL 2005. My Windows w/s struggles with that - my Macbook takes it all in its stride. So if we break that down to your requirements - well, like I say, for all my 'home' stuff the Mac now rules the roost, but anything that involves tech work I still have a dependency on Windows. Booting my Macbook also boots up my Windowx XP install in VMWare for example. One thing I've always struggled with in this Mac v PC world thing is the insistance that the Mac is so much faster than the PC. It isn't. Also, in terms of powering up - I.e. logon to launched appes - the Mac is often slower. What you will get with the Mac though is consistent and strong performance. I rarely reboot my mac(s) - they tend to get 'Sleep'ed' more than anything. If I do reboot, it also fires up Word, Excel, Firefox and my VMWare session for Windows. Once it's all running it's slick and it's fast. Also, one thing that's interesting is that running OSX my laptop gets 4.5hour ish battery life. Boot into BOOTCAMP (I.e. Windows natively) and the battery life struggles to reach 2 hours. In terms of price the Macs don't fair well compared to their Windows equivalents... Bear in mind though with the Macbook at 699 ish you can easily add a 7200RPM HD (90 quid) and 4Gb of RAM (60 quid) to make a kick ass laptop. There's not a huge amount to choose between the two. OSX has some interface restrictions that I struggle with - Finder is not a patch on Explorer for exampe - but it's a good solid environment and doesn't require the maintenance or effort to keep running sweet. So for your uses I'd spank out for the Mac - in fact I have done. I wasn't convinced when I first got the Mac (Macbook first) as it just seemed a lot of fuss to do things differently, but the environment does grow on you, as does it's little subtlties on ways of use. Thumbs up from me personally, in a work environment I'd say it only really comes into its own for me with VERY large documents or when running VMWare. As a side note, Office for the Mac sucks monkey compared to Office 2007 on Windows - especilly Entourage. Entourage is a complete joke IMHO. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Oh, one more thing, you don't get as obsessed with specs with the Macs as you do in the Windows world. I have a 2.2Ghz macbook and a 24" iMac...dunno what that is. Tried the newer 2.4Ghz Macbook and couldn't feel any difference at all. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rottenbend Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Why not have both? I've got a MacBook Pro and it triple boots into OS X, Vista and Windows 2008 server. Really easy to do using the Boot Camp software which comes with OS X. I do all my iTunes, Photo editing, video editing etc. on OS X and keep the other two operating systems for work/games/programmes that don't work on Mac. A decently specced Mac Pro will kick @$$ as a PC. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 cheers for the most comprehensive answer there MacMan I've seen a iMac running VMWare running Vista and to be honest, I couldn't tell that it was an emulation running. I would worry that having shelled out all that extra money for the iMac I'd just end up pretending it was a good looking PC...! I'm never going to be running any hardcore development demo environments - photoshopping is as hard a life as this machine will ever see. Its all a bit confusing Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 Last month's PCWorld ran an article saying something like - 'Buy a Mac - Get a PC'. The point being that buying a Mac piece of h/w gets you fantastically specified piece of kit that just works as it's effecitvely proved from the same house. Sure, they're a little more expensive than a 'normal' PC based piece of kit, but I think you have wider options. If I were just going to run Vista though I have to say I think the Mac would be overkill. In terms of price though find another laptop that has build in BlueTooth, Webcam, Firewire, DVD writer and a 4+ hour battery life and you'll see it's not that expensive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Muppetboy Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 I have a Macbook at home, bought last June from the Apple outlet store - I saved a couple of hundred quid (I think!). It takes ages getting used to Mac OS after having used Windows for donkeys years but it's just so stable and reliable, unlike Windows. Like Mac says above you don't get obsessed with specs on a Mac either... The fact is Macs just work, whether you're syncing an iPod or setting up wireless! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 but I'm looking for a desktop Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 As a side note I'm at Microsoft's Thames Valley Park site quite a lot and I always make a point of taking the Macbook One thing I'm curious about too is that I get better benchmarks on WinXP when virtualised through VMWare than I do running natively - go figure. Think it's something screwey with the drivers. There's other things you can do to make your life easier. I have Paragon's NTFS product installed on OSX so I can read/write NTFS at native speeds (Unliked the 3G implementation were write performance is crap) as well as MacDrive installed in my Bootcamp to give native read/write to HFS partitions too. When I boot Windows whether through VMWare or native a small VBScript that I've written runs - works out whether I'm in VMWare or not and then maps my drives accordingly. My Docs are always in a single place for example. Also, Bazza - as this is your personal stuff I'd strongly recommend a Mac simply cos of the backup technology that is TimeMachine. My Mac's backup automatically every hour and I just don't think about it.... I have backups going back months & months with zero effort. Couple that with things like MOZY (for off-site backup) and my data is secure.... Would be an inconvenience to lose my work stuff, absolutely gutting to lose my personal photos/videos etc. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 You may want to re-assess the desktop to laptop thing matey. I have an iMac 24" but it hasn't been out of the box in over a month since I packed it up while decorating. I have a big Dell screen, a wireless keyboad & mouse - I rarely use anything but my Macbook now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rottenbend Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 As a side note I'm at Microsoft's Thames Valley Park site quite a lot and I always make a point of taking the Macbook Sounds familiar! Can sometimes be a bit awkward when you're supposed to be a Microsoft employee as far as the customers are concerned ... Seriously though with the latest 64-bit drivers for Windows, I reckon my MacBook Pro is the best PC laptop you can buy. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted August 7, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 I have an iMac 24" but it hasn't been out of the box in over a month since I packed it up while decorating. want to sell it to me? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Se5aScott Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 I moved from XP to a Macbook 3 months ago and I am loving every minute of it Having played on a couple of vista machines I can say that switching to OS X is no harder than switching to Vista. I also ditched the desktop and got myself a NAS/print server. It uses less electricity, is much quieter and takes very little space Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 I would but I suspect the people who own it may have something to say about that Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritey Posted August 7, 2008 Report Share Posted August 7, 2008 If your not doing high end stuff and want to keep it neat, why not plump for a mini mac with a 24" screen, you can then get the iTV software on it which provides a good 2nd media centre box with more capabilities than just an iTV Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bells0 Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 If your not doing high end stuff and want to keep it neat, why not plump for a mini mac with a 24" screen, you can then get the iTV software on it which provides a good 2nd media centre box with more capabilities than just an iTV Exactly what i was going to suggest! Been using macs for years now, never had a bad experience. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rachel Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 ditto. If I need Windows or Office 2007 (for work) - I just run up a VM with XP or Vista and off I go... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 Bazza, nothing I can add that others have said really, but I have a Vaio laptop, a Powerbook G4 and a new MiniMac for work use... and to be honest the MiniMac wipes the floor with the other two. At home my wife and I use a new 24" iMac and an AppleTV. All of which work as they should without any hiccups. In fact, the only Apple products I've ever had a problem with is the 3G iPhone, but I think the last update fixed a few issues. Go for the 24" iMac, there really isn't any reason not too and there's less wires and a PC box to try and hide. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted August 8, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 arrgghhh, you're all making too much sense, I wasn't expecting this from TSN would a Mac Mini have enough guts to run photoshop reasonably quickly with its 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and max 2GB memory? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Biscuits Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 arrgghhh, you're all making too much sense, I wasn't expecting this from TSN would a Mac Mini have enough guts to run photoshop reasonably quickly with its 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo and max 2GB memory? It would be fine, only really struggling with rendering HD video. If you already have a GOOD LCD monitor, keyboard, mouse... then a MacMini makes sence... but I'd go for an iMac everyday if you don't. The graphics card, memory, chipset are all better in the iMac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mac Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 I wouldn't buy a Mini at the moment - they are way past the update point in terms of product lifecycle. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Se5aScott Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 I wouldn't buy a Mini at the moment - they are way past the update point in terms of product lifecycle. agreed, it has been almost a year since the last and that was only a minor speed bump. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ritey Posted August 8, 2008 Report Share Posted August 8, 2008 Hoping the screens are gonna get a much needed update in January too Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bazza_g Posted August 9, 2008 Author Report Share Posted August 9, 2008 bazza has his thinking hat on Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tom_hargreaves Posted August 18, 2008 Report Share Posted August 18, 2008 In fact, the only Apple products I've ever had a problem with is the 3G iPhone, but I think the last update fixed a few issues. You jammy sod, i've had 3 duff iPod's and i've had 2 MacBook's where the hard drive failed within 2 weeks of purchase. Apparently a known problem with the Seagate hard drives, but still really annoying. My iPhone 3G had the same problem brought on by the new software but since yesterday when I updated it is now fixed Those problems aside, i've got a Dell Latitude Notebook and a Macbook 2.4ghz Core 2 Duo and it's brilliant. The software is very good and after a week or so becomes so easy to use. Only had it 3 months and it's already miles ahead of a PC in every way IMO. Apart from a few compatibility problems and reliability. I've stood on my Dell when I was smashed one night. There's an enormous crater in the keyboard now but it still works fine and i've also dropped it several times on solid ground. That didn't phase it either. Whereas the MacBook broke from not being moved an inch off my work desk....:confused: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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