Why get a mac over pc?

As of right now i currently have a pc and i love it but I was thinking about getting a mac. I was wondering what are some of the advantages and disadvantages of not only getting a mac but getting one over a pc I also wanted to know are macs good for games such as battlefield 2 or starcraft 2 and can you run windows on a mac thanks i appreciate it and will a mac be better than what I have now here my specs. Just in case it helps what I will be useing my mac for is editing video useing adobe programs such as photoshop and adobe after effects and playing games and making music. http://img222.imageshack.us/img222/1834/specs1.jpg

yes you can run windows on a mac.

macs are great for video editing and photo editing.

i use my mac for creating music. they are great. industry standard pretty much.

newer macs run games like SC2 well.

advantages: customer support, build quality, OSX, looks, reliability.

disadvantages: price. i would say video gaming, but you can run windows on them, so thats n/a.

you have a decent pc, but the base imac will be almost the same or slightly better.

i think thats every question answered. sorted.

The games you mentioned both run natively on Macs. Macs are the industry standard for photo, audio and video editing.

Advantages: they are much better built than you average PC, last longer, don't get viruses, have fewer overall problems*, far better customer support* and "just work."

*don't take my anecdotal word for it -- check the rankings on Consumer Reports or PC Magazine.

Disadvantages: doesn't come with solitaire.

But seriously, if you understand the difference between VALUE and PRICE, and you understand the difference between ORIGINAL and COPYCAT, then you already understand the advantages of the Mac.

To add to what has already been said they don't require near as much maintenance.

Macs win hands down on looks too!

(You mean people buy them for other reasons??? LOL)

chas_m said:

Disadvantages: doesn't come with solitaire.

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That is actually an advantage.

Cheers ... McBie

Why get a mac over pc?

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Why get a Porsche GT4 over a Toyota MR2?

Mac's are just plain superior to pc any day by far, no viruses no random shut downs, no internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close after you just plucked out 200 letters and are ready to send the email for it to close and loose the whole email so you can start over, no updates have been installed you need to restart your computer now after spending 2 hours doing work and loosing it all

chas_m said:

Disadvantages: doesn't come with solitaire.

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Actually, solitaire is a now a free download from the Mac App Store...

I have been a die hard PC guy since I was about 10. I always built my own PCs and did a lot of hard core gaming. I honestly didn't know a lot about Macs. I had gotten used to all of the quirks of a PC with Windows has and overlooked them (just like everyone else). What do I mean by that? Well, nearly every PC I have owned would mysteriously stop doing things the way it used to, and fixing those issues is next to impossible. Nfld instance: DVDs used to auto play. Now they don't. The DVD player that came with the PC used to work. Now I have to use another program. USB memory keys used to automatically open as a window when one was inserted. Now I have to go to My Computer and find it. PC used to have no problem finding my external hard drive. Now I have to unplug, restate Windows, plug it back in, and hope for the best. PC doesn't always defect the printer. PC now crashes when I try to scan something. And we all know how PCs just keep getting slower and slower as they accumulate malware and program fragments. So common, in fact, that there are numerous TV ads offering to help "clean" your PC.

You get the idea. Yeah, I pay my $30 a year for virus protection. Yeah, I bought the full version of registry cleaning software. It helps, but it doesn't eliminate problems.

The last straw was about a month ago when my brother in law unexpectedly passed away and the family wanted all the photos I had of him. My PC wouldn't access my external drive, so I couldn't get to most of them. It also had trouble printing to my wireless printer and spent the better part of an hour installing Windows updates while I was trying to get the job done.

I'm not saying that Macs don't have problems... But they are a lot better than PCs when it comes to these kinds of things. I am very happy with my Mac mini.

those are my thoughts completely. I even bought a new windows 7 laptop about a month ago when i couldn't find a decently priced battery for my tibook.... didn't really want to spend over a $100.00 for a battery for a 11 year old laptop, used the new windows 7 laptop for 2 weeks and had enough of windows so i went and traded it for a g4 ibook 1.2 with 10.5.8 and life hasnt been better so far. Mac's just work don't have to spend hours trying to figure out what the problem is and fixing it to only have it return again! my thoughts are there is no better computer made than apple!

mcbrew said:

I have been a die hard PC guy since I was about 10.

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This doesn't tell us a whole lot. What if you turn 11 this year! Ha ha!

- Nick

I'd also recommend using the search box at the top of the forum. Almost all the questions you asked have been answered or discussed in depth. You'll find a lot of good information already out there.

schweb said:

I'd also recommend using the search box at the top of the forum. Almost all the questions you asked have been answered or discussed in depth. You'll find a lot of good information already out there.

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That's another big plus for macs - you get to use this excellent forum!

6string said:

Why get a Porsche GT4 over a Toyota MR2?

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You mean a tesla roadster over a new Camaro with a built motor and setup suspension?

Macs aren't gaming machines. Other than that, I'd say get whatever you have a prefence for. You can get much of the same big name software on both platforms, so it doesn't matter too much about that. Macs are no longer better than PCs for video, photo, and audio editing, they're just different.

The form factor might work better for you too. I have a huge full sized ATX tower tht barely fits under my desk, if I was using an iMac, I wouldn't have the power, but I'd have a lot more space. But that's the same reason I choose Apple notebooks over wintel notebooks, I like the size and form.

You can also build a really powerful PC for cheap. My gaming computer has a 1.8GB GPU in it that will run most any PC game I've thrown against it at 2560x1600 resolution on a 30" monitor at full settings. I paid only $1,700 for it two years ago. If you're not into tweaking and building your own computers, then this is not really going to be an option though.

G4 ibookboy said:

Mac's are just plain superior to pc any day by far, no viruses no random shut downs, no internet explorer has encountered a problem and needs to close after you just plucked out 200 letters and are ready to send the email for it to close and loose the whole email so you can start over, no updates have been installed you need to restart your computer now after spending 2 hours doing work and loosing it all

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People also have crashes, software problems, and hardware problems with their Apple computers. If they didn't, the Apple support forums wouldn't be full of people having issues with their computers not working right.

I by no means dislike Apple. If I did, I wouldn't own any of their products or computers, but I'm also by no means a fanatic. I use several different versions of Windows and I also use OS X and for a few moments, Linux. I'm just saying you have to be realistic about things. Trying to tell someone that if they purchase a Mac, then they'll never have problems again is going to be misleading.

Village Idiot said:

You mean a tesla roadster over a new Camaro with a built motor and setup suspension?

Macs aren't gaming machines. Other than that, I'd say get whatever you have a prefence for. You can get much of the same big name software on both platforms, so it doesn't matter too much about that. Macs are no longer better than PCs for video, photo, and audio editing, they're just different.

The form factor might work better for you too. I have a huge full sized ATX tower tht barely fits under my desk, if I was using an iMac, I wouldn't have the power, but I'd have a lot more space. But that's the same reason I choose Apple notebooks over wintel notebooks, I like the size and form.

You can also build a really powerful PC for cheap. My gaming computer has a 1.8GB GPU in it that will run most any PC game I've thrown against it at 2560x1600 resolution on a 30" monitor at full settings. I paid only $1,700 for it two years ago. If you're not into tweaking and building your own computers, then this is not really going to be an option though.

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You can always build a mean gaming rig but a friend thats into that just bought a new Mac Pro said it can hold its own up against anything out there
he likes running the two for comparisons.

osxx said:

You can always build a mean gaming rig but a friend thats into that just bought a new Mac Pro said it can hold its own up against anything out there
he likes running the two for comparisons.

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I was thinking about buying a Mac Pro after my last problem, but they start out at $2,500. Sure it can hold it's own, but for that price I can build something nearly as fast and purchase a 30" monitor to go with it.

thanks for all the great responses my mother decided to go half with me with a mac i may get the mac or i may just get a pc that has an i5 or 17 intel processor to suit my gaming needs since there the same price only because if i buy the mac and it does not run those games that i want then i wasted all my money but if i buy a pc that i know is better than the one i got i know it can run the games since\e the slower one which is the one im on now can run games at medium im still very undecided

Macs aren't "perfect". They require some basic maintenance and have their issues. After 20 years with PCs, I switched. Haven't looked back. I've had corrupted files in WoW, got locked out of my system after updating to 10.6.6, and met the permissions issue face to face among other things. The problems are just a lot quicker to fix on a Mac and for the most part answers can be found pretty quickly via Google. Networking a mixed system of Mac and 3 flavors of Windows was pretty much painless.

That said, after my fiasco with my first Alienware, I pretty much told my husband that my "flirtations" with trying a Mac were over. I was switching. Haven't regretted it for a moment. I regretted it so little that when Alienware finally replaced the laptop, I gave it to my husband. I didn't want PC headaches. It runs very well for a PC, BTW. I'd have loved it had I not met the iMac first.

As far as gaming, I think it works smoother on a Mac. I'm usually running WoW and switching back and forth between iTunes, Skype with DH, and any number of browser windows, and I don't have the lag switching between them that I've always had on the PC. You know the one: The display blinks and the hourglass comes up as if the PC is startled that you're gonna work and play at the same time. I don't get that with a Mac. My base 2010 iMac can hold her own with that Alienware, and specwise it shouldn't be able to. I have half the RAM, only 1 vid card, and an i3 processor versus an i7. Unfortunately, it's this ease of switching between programs that has relegated me to the "hey, google this quest for me, I'm confused" person when DH and I game together.

We've both built rigs, we've had insanely high end machines, and in the end I'm in love with an entry level iMac. That is saying something. DH refuses to touch it. He says he is afraid he'll like it as much as I do and his Alienware has to last him a couple of years before he can upgrade. He's seen me trying to get educational stuff for the kids going on the PC, having trouble getting it to work properly, and then swapping it to the Mac where it inevitably works flawlessly. It buys me time to troubleshoot the PC.

I've been scanning knitting books and magazines here lately to declutter the house. On my PC, I'd start getting memory errors and would have to scan a magazine into 3 files and then combine them. On my Mac, I can scan a 200-page book in full color all at once with no complaints. At the end of the day, when I sit down to do something at the computer, I want it to shut up, get out of my way, and do it. From what I've seen so far, the odds of that happening are just better on a Mac. I got by on Windows for years, and sure it's fine for a lot of things. Why settle for fine when you can have good?

BTW, as far as price, I think a decent quality PC is gonna run you $1200, which is what I paid for my iMac. Unless you're really really broke and having to buy your PCs off the shelf from Walmart, you should be able to pull it off.