Mac or Windows

Ok I'm sure there are numerous posts in here somewhere asking the same question but I thought "why not post my own". I just recently bought a Dell Inspiron 530 PC from bestbuy and I am not liking it at all to be honest. The processor is loud and I have to turn the tv on to cover the noise up. Sometimes the pc will go into sleep mode and then kick in real quick like I just turned it on, plus it has awful VISTA. Anyway just weird things are happening that I am not really pleased with. I have taken it to the geeksquad in bestbuy and they said nothing is wrong, so I have 5 more days to return it to bestbuy under my 14 day trial period. The big question to you guys/gals is should I get a Imac at bestbuy and which one? They have a demo setup that I played with yesterday and it's pretty cool but will def take some time getting use to the operating system. The reason I will have to buy from bestbuy is because they will charge me a 15% restock fee but they will waive it if I buy another computer from the store, esp a more expensive one. I know the imac will set me back about 500 more but if it is going to last me a long time and not make weird stupid noises then I'm cool with that. I have searched the internet for pros and cons, mac vs. pc comments but I thought joining a forum like this would help out a lot better. Thanks for all your suggestions.

Let me just say you get what you pay for. A $500.00 Dell is a $500.00 Dell and is likely not really up to running Vista. Also you are likely to get very biased answers here as this is a Mac forum. Now all that being said, if you are willing to learn a new operating system I think you will be very pleased with the user experience. I use both Mac's and PC's on a daily basis and I like my Macs better. I use my Vista PC for gaming and my Macs for everything else. If you are not a gamer or you have a console for gaming then I would definitely say go with the Mac. I'm guessing you don't use computers for gaming though given the computer you bought at Best Buy. Also if you decide you don't like OS X you could always install Win XP or Vista on the iMac.

I agree with babarnette, this isn't really a Windows vs. OS X issue. It is more an issue of low-end computer vs. high-end computer. Dell does make some really nice systems, look at their XPS line, of course they do cost a lot more than your Inspiron. Even though it might not be the quickest computer, I am surprised you have noise complaints about your Inspiron, from what I have seen almost all Dells are pretty quiet.

I switched to Mac from PC within the last year. I previously was a Dell owner and hated all the problems I would have with the machine. I took the plunge and bought a Mac Book Pro and loved it. The operating system is very easy to learn and intuitive (unlike the PC environment). I would actually laugh at myself at times because I would make it much harder than it really was, but I was just used to the way the PC system operated. I can honestly say that I am able to do much more on the Mac in a shorter amount of time. The software is great and everything integrates very well. I have since bought a Mac Pro and love it as well. The power it has to run work flows with photos and/or videos is amazing. I would recommend you get the iMac. You won't regret it and will probably ask yourself why you waited so long. Hope this helps and good luck.

Thanks a lot for the quick replies and I agree you pay for what you get. No I am not a gamer all I really want to do is surf the web, burn some dvd's, maybe do some photo editing but that's about it. As far as the noise issues are there any known issues of the imac being loud as far as the processor is concerned. Of course I love the look of the big monitor and everything built right in saving room. I may go back to best buy and play around with the imac some more and possibly get a demo (from the dude standing there all day). I like the fact that the imac has the 802.11n built right in so maybe I can pick up a better signal from my neighbors (haha). I will continue to do some research and who knows I might just be a mac owner this weekend.

babarnette said:

Let me just say you get what you pay for. A $500.00 Dell is a $500.00 Dell and is likely not really up to running Vista. Also you are likely to get very biased answers here as this is a Mac forum. Now all that being said, if you are willing to learn a new operating system I think you will be very pleased with the user experience. I use both Mac's and PC's on a daily basis and I like my Macs better. I use my Vista PC for gaming and my Macs for everything else. If you are not a gamer or you have a console for gaming then I would definitely say go with the Mac. I'm guessing you don't use computers for gaming though given the computer you bought at Best Buy. Also if you decide you don't like OS X you could always install Win XP or Vista on the iMac.

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Made me so happy to see the first reply was a fair one. OP, I hate to say it but the problem here isn't the OS. You bought a Dell at (here's the kicker) Best Buy. I'm going to assume you're a computer user that's just going to be doing normal things rather than professional use and even gaming. Do not ignore the Dell at that same price range. You should be able to get it with XP, so Vista isn't a valid argument for its con here.
But it sounds like you're about in the same league of a user as my mom, in which case I'd say it's a win-win situation either way, it's all a matter of preference here, and there's people in all sorts of extremes when it comes to this.
I'm very surprised you say it's the processor that's loud. We should've moved a loooong way away from that problem by todays standards for even low-end PCs. Either way, I feel like I have to say be careful what you open with e-mail.

well i'm thinking processor, the geeksquad guys plugged in and hit the internet and it started making the turning noise. They said that is normal because it is loading all the interent pages, blah blah etc. I know a little about computers and programs but not to much about the inside parts and how they work. Anyway I just want a reliable computer that will last a while and not get on my nerves as far making noises that are not common.

PCs and Mac both use the exact same hard drives, so if the noise you were hearing was your typical hard drive noise, there is really no way around that (unless you go solid state, which its really reasonable at this point).

surfnc25,

I went through this same agony as you - I had an older 12 inch laptop with Windows XP on it, loved it but it died. So I started looking at Windows laptops but none had XP on them. So I bought a Sony 14 inch with Vista and really disliked
it... both the heaviness of the 14 incher and the Vista thing... So I returned and tried an HP - the same thing. 3rd try was another with Vista. I finally took the 3rd one back and traded it for a 13 inch Macbook and have never looked back. I love it... (And it's quiet). Beats Vista all to he!!.

Short story, you can't do better than a Mac. Vista is really the pits and Microsoft knows it - they are now leaning towards continuing the sales of XP because of the clamor from the Windows crowd. No such problem with OS X...

Noel

surfnc25 said:

I like the fact that the imac has the 802.11n built right in

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to use the n you will have to see a mating N type enabled router otherwise you will fall back to a G

figure out what applications you will need and try out the mac using these apps. goto a mac store not best buy to do this.
for example:
word processing, bring your resume and see if you can edit it.
internet browzer, see if you can visit our fav sites
photo editing, bring a few sample photo's.

are you required to buy additional software or will all your needs be met with the built in software. can you afford the new applications.

do you have a method to backup your new machine? how much to do this?

will your new mac mate peripherals:
your mp3 player, try it out using itunes
your speakers, connectors ok
your printer, dont know how to easy it would be to do this but necessary.

finally i bought my first macbook pro portable:
-it bricked with in 6mo, this compared to several recent dell portables that have worked w/o error for years. the macbook-pro was more expensive. i bought the macbook because i did not like the vista performance.
-original 10.4.11 os and when i upgraded to 10.5.2 noticed good and bad changes.
-unstable operation, backup difficult into an existing work/home networks
-for me itunes is so slow it is not usable
-my work is a windows environment, always an additional effort to be compatible, networking, file formats and etc.
-additional apple warranty is expen$ive maybe because there are quite a few claims against it

i really urge you to look at an upgraded dell system as well as a mac.
good luck.

It's all preference really, if you have tried Macs and they work better for you then get a Mac, if you don't than stay with PC.

The iMac will have much better hardware. So for that, it will be a better machine. But as for the OS, you might like it, you might not. I would say to look and see if you would like it first. Try one out. Or if you are just in the mood to jump in, then give that a shot. Ether way, from a hardware standpoint, you will be taking a big leap forward.