My wife wants a mac, is it worth it?

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Hi. I'm new to this forum. I use a dell laptop for grad school and it's been fine for what I need, but I really don't like vista. My wife uses an old laptop, but she wants to buy a desk top for photo/video editing and other miscellaneous stuff.
She is very interested in buying a new iMac for $1500. I think Mac's are great and all, but with a 25% off coupon, I can get an incredible dell desktop for that amount of money. On the surface, the dell machine seems to have superior specs.
So what makes a mac worth the extra money?
If I can get comparable specs with Adobe CS4 and MS office on a PC for the same amount of money should I do it? Or should I still go with an iMac?
 
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The crux there is the words, photo and video editing

While photoshop is the best photo editor on any platform (you can install it on a mac or a dell), the mac comes with iMovie for free, and its an excellent video editor and very easy to use.

And bear in mind she is your wife, if she is not happy with the dell you will know about it, if she is happy with a new mac ( I know she will be), then its extra points for you
 
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Well, answer the following questions:
- Does the Dell have a comparable processor? (an Intel Core2Duo at 2.x ghz?)
- Are the graphics the same?
- Is the Dell ready to use within about ten seconds of turning it on?
- Does the Dell come with a webcam?
- Does the Dell come with software that facilitates backing up your data?
- What's the name of the web design program (that also has built-in upload support) that comes with the Dell?
- What movie design software comes with the Dell?
- What's the name of the DVD burning program that comes with the Dell?
- What's the name of the multitrack recording software that has built-in instruments, sound effects, and video lessons from a real live instructor that comes with the Dell?

And why waste your money on MS Office when you can get OpenOffice.org for free?
 
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Well here is the machine i could buy for $1500 on Dell.com.
(This is a version without CS4 or Office)

Intel Core i7-920 processor 8MB L2 Cache, 2.66GHz
Windows vista
8GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1066 MHz-6DIMMS
750GB – 7200RPM Hard Drive
Blu-ray Disk burner
24 inch monitor
ATI Radeon HD 4850 512 MB video card
Wireless card included
Webcam included


My wife is the boss and she'll probably get a Mac nomatter what I say :) I'm just trying to learn more about why they are so popular.
 

bobtomay

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That Dell is definitely a superior machine hardware wise. But, you're asking the wrong question.

The question is: "Is my wife worth it?"

They're popular because of the Operating System. There are problems on occasion, it is a computer after all. But, for the most part and for most people, it really does just seem to work. No anti-virus or spyware software to install and be using up part of your system resources all the time. The tweaking you have to do to keep that other OS running at top speed is almost non-existent with OS X.

Now if it were me, I'd be eyeing the prospect of overclocking that i7 chip up to 4Ghz and definitely a great video card there along with the B-R player. But then I'd have to go back to that other OS. That makes it about a tie between the two of them.
 
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Well, answer the following questions:
- Does the Dell have a comparable processor? (an Intel Core2Duo at 2.x ghz?) YES, or better
- Are the graphics the same? COMPARABLE.
- Is the Dell ready to use within about ten seconds of turning it on? BASICALLY. BUT I CAN SPARE 30 MINUTES IF I NEED TO
- Does the Dell come with a webcam? YES
- Does the Dell come with software that facilitates backing up your data? YEAH. AND I CAN JUST BACKUP TO AN EXTERNAL HARD DRIVE. I'M FAMILIAR WITH THIS.
- What's the name of the web design program (that also has built-in upload support) that comes with the Dell? NONE
- What movie design software comes with the Dell? NONE
- What's the name of the DVD burning program that comes with the Dell? ROXIO DE
- What's the name of the multitrack recording software that has built-in instruments, sound effects, and video lessons from a real live instructor that comes with the Dell? NONE

And why waste your money on MS Office when you can get OpenOffice.org for free?

Open office is cool, but MS Office is still better for some things.
 
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My wife is the boss and she'll probably get a Mac nomatter what I say :)
Then this post is sorta irrelevant, ain't it? ;):)
I'm just trying to learn more about why they are so popular.
The only way to do that is to try it out for yourself.
See if a friend has one, go to an Apple Store and test drive one... whatever.

The only way to see if it is "for you" or not is to just try it out.
 
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Well its going to cost you 4x the amount of a PC, because once she gets one you'll be right behind her at the Apple Store =]
 
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Is it worth it? Absolutely! A joy to look at and a joy to use. Will using the Dell make you smile? You can bet the mac will!
 
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So I have two more questions. I know the answer probably is "It depends on what your wife wants." But I'm just looking for your opinions.

Laptop vs. Desktop
My wife already has a decent PC laptop that she can use for wireless internet, web browing, word processing etc. Will she regret getting an iMac instead of a macbook?

20'' vs. 24''? I love bigger screens and I think it's probably worth the extra money, but is the 20'' awesome enough?
 

bobtomay

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Once you go 24 you'll never look back.
 
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Remember the song"Whatever Lola wants Lola Gets" Just substitute wife for Lola, and there's the answer. Good Luck with the Mac. Van
 
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The compelling fact here is that she hates vista, and you will no longer have that issue with a Mac
 
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The compelling fact here is that she hates vista, and you will no longer have that issue with a Mac

You never know, she might not like OS X either.
 
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The best thing to do is to go to the Apple Store if you have one near you and play around with the various machines. The benefit of doing this is that it lets you/her see it in real time and get a feel for both hardware and software - and it also has you surrounded by experts who'll help you find the functions you might not intuit at the outset due to greater familiarity with Windows.

What I've found, personally, is that I am most attracted to the software. I prefer OS X to Windows. The hardware is (usually, with a few exceptions) a bonus. While they seem more expensive at the outset, I find that I get a greater lifespan with my Macs as opposed to my PCs and they tend to run more recent operating systems compared to PCs of the same age/generation.

That's my experience, obviously, and YMMV, but it's worth checking out. And in the end, if you buy it and she decides she prefers Windows after all, you can either sell it for a higher resale value than a comparable PC or you can install Windows on it, since it's an Intel model. And if neither Windows nor OS X are her thing, there's always the entire Linux/Unix world to explore.

But the best advice I can give you is to find one in person and have someone there who is competent to show you around it.

ETA: And if money isn't a huge issue, I would say go for an aluminum MB or a MBP if she prefers laptop computing. If she *does* prefer OS X ultimately, she'll probably wish for the portability.
 
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Is it worth it?? If "Momma ain't happy, ain't nobody happy."
 
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Hardware specs can be very misleading. The operating systems are completely different. Vista essentially needs to run on a computer on steroids just in order to do mundane tasks. OS X, being derived from Unix, uses computer resources much more efficiently. Thus, a Mac may run circles around a PC with "better" specs that uses Vista.

As somebody else suggested, go to an Apple store and try one out. A store employee will be glad to show you all of the capabilities of a Mac. Shopping for a computer is like shopping for a car. Would you buy a car without test driving it? Of course not. Would you buy Car X simply because it had more horsepower than all the others? Of course not. The proof is in the driving. It's the same way with computers.
 
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So I have two more questions. I know the answer probably is "It depends on what your wife wants." But I'm just looking for your opinions.

Laptop vs. Desktop
My wife already has a decent PC laptop that she can use for wireless internet, web browing, word processing etc. Will she regret getting an iMac instead of a macbook?

20'' vs. 24''? I love bigger screens and I think it's probably worth the extra money, but is the 20'' awesome enough?


I'll chime in...

Do I sometimes wish I had gotten a Macbook instead of the 24" iMac? Yep, everytime I want to show the darn thing off, or use it at my desk at work to do something I can't do on my work machine because of user permissions, software limitations, etc.

Would I get a Macbook instead of the 24" if I had it all to do over again? No way! My ego will just have to take a back seat :D

The 24" seems to be brighter and have a better viewing angle, at least last I looked. I don't know if they made any changes on the new ones. But even my wife said to get the 24" when she saw them both, and she's normally the one preaching moderation.
 
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Hardware specs can be very misleading. The operating systems are completely different. Vista essentially needs to run on a computer on steroids just in order to do mundane tasks. OS X, being derived from Unix, uses computer resources much more efficiently. Thus, a Mac may run circles around a PC with "better" specs that uses Vista.

I can't agree with this. You can make certain arguments regarding OS X having a better workflow, but Vista is not a slow OS if you're on relatively recent hardware. Just like OS X! Both Vista and Leopard basically require computers no more than 2-3 years old to run very well, and they both start to bog down when you try to use them on older computers.

In terms of things like video encoding, applying filters and effects in Photoshop, FPS when rendering 3D images or games, or any other demanding activity, the OS has virtually nothing to do with performance. The faster computer will win regardless of what OS it happens to be running.

I'm not saying that Macs are worthless or anything but people here seem to have this notion that they're perfect and have superhuman (or I guess supercomputer) capabilities, and it's just not true. The only difference between a Mac and a Windows PC is the OS. So yes, there's some good software, but calculations take a certain amount of time no matter what software you're using.
 

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I agree, it's the OS. I love OSX and the way it works. If it was not for OSX I would use a PC and save some $$$.

Way back before the switch to Intel, the hardware was way different than a PC. Now with the same CPU and Chipsets and everything else, it's OSX that is the reason for buying or not buying a Mac.

Just for some newer users here who do not know me very well, I have both PC's and Macs. I always build my own Gaming rigs and use AMD usually for that system. I have a heavily modded Dell Workstation for some things, but for everything else I use OSX. I also have a AMD 64 Laptop with Vista that I take on Windows Network service calls. My Gaming rig though runs XP Pro.
 

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