PC or Mac!? I can't decide!

SlickShoes · Feb 22, 2008

I am purchasing a new computer soon, it will be a laptop, i will be using it pretty much every day. Some work based stuff but mostly gaming in the evening and weekends. I will be buying with the pay over 3 years finance so the computer NEEDS to last that long. I am trying to decide between the following two options:

Mac:

Macbook Pro

Price:£1599

* 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1440 x 900 resolution
* 2GB memory
* 160GB hard drive1
* 8x double-layer SuperDrive
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM

Pros: Its a mac and i do enjoy macs! Ive had a macbook for two years now and know they are well built and should physically last the 3 year period.

Cons: Its about £400 more expensive than the PC

PC:

Dell XPS M1530

Price: £1089

* 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
* 1440 x 900 resolution
* 4GB memory
* 250GB hard drive1
* Fixed Blu Ray 2X Slim Slot-Load Drive, including SW
* NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT graphics with 256MB SDRAM

Pros: The price is less, blu ray player, allready own a few blu rays and watching them while out of the house would be nice.

Cons: Windows Vista, i have never owned a dell so have no idea how well built they are?

Anyway these are the two options i currently have an im stumped and cant decide, can anyone sway me either way or am i stuck with this bothering me for even longer?

Thanks for any advice folks!

RiDE · Feb 22, 2008

If it is primarily a gaming machine... get the windows machine.

PapaChunks · Feb 22, 2008

I would say get the pc. Since you are going to be using it for gaming.

I have a Dell laptop right now and hardware wise, it has never had any problems. Had it for a year. Software tho.... Vista Sucks...

Leave it at that.

cwa107 · Feb 22, 2008

Agreed. Providing that you can tolerate Vista, Dell makes a fine and very serviceable notebook (full disclosure: I am a Dell-certified technician and am very biased toward their hardware, having years of experience servicing them).

The XPS M1530 and M1330 are both sweet notebooks and frankly, if I could tolerate Vista on my "daily driver", I'd probably have one (more likely the M1330 as the 1530 is a bit large for my taste).

Aqua · Feb 22, 2008

Excuse the ignorance, but when ppl say gaming are they talking heavy duty games (such as the ones that take lots of mem, hugely 3D intensive ect)? Aren't quite a lot of games made for both (my father plays civilizations type games on his mac) I play a lot of games, I haven't tried them on my mac yet, but I doubt they are problematic for the mac - course the games I play are more the calibre of Real arcade O:)

. Would your games work with Boot Camp or Parallels maybe? Maybe with time even those platforms will improve.

When you are talking of the extra cost of the mac, are you considering the lack of need for virus and firewall. The one thing I've noticed tho with the PC is they are outdated quickly and newer games tend to use the new technology readily and quickly enough at times, it just seems to be MS that is slow in stability. As for Dell, are they willing to give you XP rather than Vista? IMHO Mac has less of a need to be upgraded (and keep thier value) within 3 years but with PC, my guess is that there will definitely be the need. Have you considered refurbished?

What I like about Mac is that it comes with a lot of things that with PC you need to pay for, add on or hunt down (honestly with PC I found myself looking for something - usually a fix - more often or thinking I wish it had X). From my stand point, each OS on PC seems to add more to make it look nice, not run better and then take out compatible features that makes it like the commercial (got a prob with X, buy a new Y) hehe

ab30494 · Feb 25, 2008

Aqua said:
Excuse the ignorance, but when ppl say gaming are they talking heavy duty games (such as the ones that take lots of mem, hugely 3D intensive ect)? Aren't quite a lot of games made for both (my father plays civilizations type games on his mac) I play a lot of games, I haven't tried them on my mac yet, but I doubt they are problematic for the mac - course the games I play are more the calibre of Real arcade . Would your games work with Boot Camp or Parallels maybe? Maybe with time even those platforms will improve.

When you are talking of the extra cost of the mac, are you considering the lack of need for virus and firewall. The one thing I've noticed tho with the PC is they are outdated quickly and newer games tend to use the new technology readily and quickly enough at times, it just seems to be MS that is slow in stability. As for Dell, are they willing to give you XP rather than Vista? IMHO Mac has less of a need to be upgraded (and keep thier value) within 3 years but with PC, my guess is that there will definitely be the need. Have you considered refurbished?

What I like about Mac is that it comes with a lot of things that with PC you need to pay for, add on or hunt down (honestly with PC I found myself looking for something - usually a fix - more often or thinking I wish it had X). From my stand point, each OS on PC seems to add more to make it look nice, not run better and then take out compatible features that makes it like the commercial (got a prob with X, buy a new Y) hehe

ok where do i start. pc's are great for gaming and other items, sure some hardware go outof date fast but must new games work great on cards that ar like 3-4 years old. And windows is very stable, with 10 years with windows i never had any stability probs. and about viruses and spyware . i cant remember since i last had viruss protection and spyware protection enable. i cant bet u $100 that if i scan it now it will find nothing. You just have to use comon sence when using the internet. and only thing i had to fix in the llast 10 years was a broken hdd and a graphics card tha was DOA. there are plenty of free items prob 10 times more for the pc than mac,(spyware free) and unlike mac with pc's u dont have to pay for service packs).

and the only reason pc's supposedly get more viruses is cause more people use windows so thats what viruses are made to attack, im sure if most people use macs mac will get more viruses.

i would defiantly go for the PC.

EGGO · Feb 25, 2008

No question about it, go for the Dell. Great warranty there too (I think they give you three years, that's how it is for their displays). If only it had XP, but other than that, no contest man.

baggss · Feb 25, 2008

ab30494 said:
and unlike mac with pc's u dont have to pay for service packs).

Apparently you are only here to expose your ignorance about the Mac OS. The last "service pack" for Leopard was 10.5.2 and it was free, same as always. If you are considering the 10.4 to 10.5 upgrade to be a "service pack" then you truly are one ignorant individual and know little about the OS.

SlickShoes · Feb 25, 2008

EGGO said:
No question about it, go for the Dell. Great warranty there too (I think they give you three years, that's how it is for their displays). If only it had XP, but other than that, no contest man.

Aye i think i am going to, sad to be leaving my macbook behind but i dropped the blu ray drive off the dell and its even cheaper and the warranty seems good and will last for the life of the computer. I use XP Vista and OSX at work and Vista is my least favourite but i suppose i can put up with it and get by since getting the PC will save me about £700.

Thanks for all the advice folks! and i will still own one mac so im not totally ditching mac land!

JohnTheMacGeek · Feb 25, 2008

IMHO, my an xbox and a Mac! But then again, my opinion of MS isn't very high these days...

SlickShoes · Feb 25, 2008

jbergsing said:
IMHO, my an xbox and a Mac! But then again, my opinion of MS isn't very high these days...

I have had an xbox and i now have a PS3 its great but there are no MMO's out and thats what i used my laptop for playing

mynameis · Feb 25, 2008

The XPS line is pretty well built, not quite as nice as a Mac Book Pro but better than most of the junk PCs that you find at B&M stores.

Vista isn't that bad, I prefer it over XP, just make sure you disable UAC since it is just worthless.