PC vs MAC

[JAX]

Excellant discussion. I'm certainly learning lot about the pros/cons of a PC vs Mac. Wife and I have been thinking about jumping onto the Mac Laptop bandwagon when this one dies. This discussion may influence which way we actually end up going.....

Keep it up gents...

[jjmolleck]

bought my mac thru best buy because im sold on their warranties. my 60 inch DLP tv had a burnt pixel after a year, and they were out to my house withing 3 days of my call and it was fixed. no questions asked. ive bought the 4 year extended warranty on my ipod and gps thru best buy also. so when i went to get my macbook at bestbuy they had a 4 year accidental damage plan for $399 on notebooks. i know i know $399 is alot. but i had no problem shelling out $1499 for the computer....might as well protect it. i grilled the sales guy if this was a manufacturers 4 year, and he said it covers manufacturers defects AND accidental damage. so i said, if my daughter spilled juice on it and it shorts out it would be covered? and said without a doubt yes. i was still skeptical, so on another day i asked the general manager and he said it could fall down a flight of stairs...as long as you can bring back the pieces its covered. so thats what might happen once it gets closer to the 4 year mark

[anton]

my Compaq laptop cost me $349 after rebate. I'll pass on any warranty.

[jjmolleck]

Originally Posted by Anton

my Compaq laptop cost me $349 after rebate. I'll pass on any warranty.

call me in 2 or 3 years when you replace it

[anton]

Originally Posted by jjmolleck

call me in 2 or 3 years when you replace it

I've already had it for close to 3. In fact I am using it right now and it works fine. Even if it dies tomorrow, I'll gladly spend another few hundred opposed to $1900 for a MacBook with warranty that may last what... 5-6 years?

[jjmolleck]

i hear ya.... you could buy 3 of 4 for what i gave for mine. i see more value for my reasons stated above. in MY opinion mac puts out a more quality product. is it priced more reasonably no. (just to be fair mine started out $1199 but i chose a 250 gig HD and a 2 gig of ram...among other software bundles and so forth) so if you compare my macbook to a pc with similar features it would be double the price at the very most.... probably more like 35% more. that 35% more is worth it to me for the longevity of the product as well as the performance with little maintenance. different priorities...thats all

[CRider]

Originally Posted by jjmolleck

........i was still skeptical, so on another day i asked the general manager and he said it could fall down a flight of stairs...as long as you can bring back the pieces its covered. so thats what might happen once it gets closer to the 4 year mark

Oddly enough, that's happened to laptops for me twice now. Freaky coincidence

[mooseyjoe]

The school store at my college will replace your computer no matter what happens to it, as long as it is under warranty. Once the new macbooks came out (and mac stopped giving the school store the old ones)there were several computers thrown down the stairs to take advantage of the upgrade. I know at least two students who got themselves a shiny new aluminum macbook this way.



As for the longevity of a pc, I'd say a decent pc will last you four years or so, and then it isn't too hard (or expensive) to upgrade it and keep it trucking for a few more. The main deterrent is that its scary to open the case up, but for the most part it isn't too hard to figure out. Just hop on the internet and ask what to do. There is almost guaranteed to be some poor, bored nerd with nothing better to do than talk about your computer.

[JTokash]

Originally Posted by Acesfull

i dont like warranties. your equipment is down way too long. plus warranties dont cover accidental damage like a laptop screen being broken. thats how most things break, by accident and not manufacturing issues.

PC parts are easily accessable at local stores for decent prices. Mac parts are harder to find and usually cost way too much more.

Plus I dont like people I dont know working on my stuff. I just dont trust them. Thats why I do all my car's maintenance myself such as oil changes, tire rotations etc... only thing I let people do to my car is putting new tires on and recalls from the factory

I dont let anyone else work on my computers.. period

Amen, I'm the same way. I haven't needed new tires yet, but that's about all I'll let a garage do to my car. Well, that and an alignment, because I don't have an alignment rack, LOL. Computers are the same for me - I've never taken one to a shop for repairs.

-JT

[JTokash]

OK, back on the topic, my choice of PC is based on software I need for research as well as the ease of construction. I'm probably considered an extreme user when it comes to computers. I built this desktop I'm on now in December of 2004, since then all I've done was added more RAM, not because it was slowing the system, but because I couldn't afford a ton of it when I first built it and now it's dirt cheap. Right now, I'm listening to streaming music, on 6 Internet pages, writing up a MS Word document, analyzing my research data, and running BOINC at 85%... then again, I have a water cooled processor (built the cooler myself too) so heat is not an issue for me, LOL!

-JT

11/29/2008 299 AM||Running CPU benchmarks
11/29/2008 299 AM||Suspending computation - running CPU benchmarks
11/29/2008 2:30:00 AM||Benchmark results:
11/29/2008 2:30:00 AM|| Number of CPUs: 2
11/29/2008 2:30:00 AM|| 2108 floating point MIPS (Whetstone) per CPU
11/29/2008 2:30:00 AM|| 3907 integer MIPS (Dhrystone) per CPU
11/29/2008 2:30:01 AM||Resuming computation

[Python]

I have only owned PC's and I don't have any problems with them. I have had this laptop for coming up on 3 years now and have never had any problems with the software.
I had to replace the keyboard twice, but that was because liquid got spilled on it both times. If it wasn't for that, I wouldn't have had to do anything at all to it and it is still rolling strong.

[Acesfull]

Originally Posted by jjmolleck

bought my mac thru best buy because im sold on their warranties. my 60 inch DLP tv had a burnt pixel after a year, and they were out to my house withing 3 days of my call and it was fixed. no questions asked. ive bought the 4 year extended warranty on my ipod and gps thru best buy also. so when i went to get my macbook at bestbuy they had a 4 year accidental damage plan for $399 on notebooks. i know i know $399 is alot. but i had no problem shelling out $1499 for the computer....might as well protect it. i grilled the sales guy if this was a manufacturers 4 year, and he said it covers manufacturers defects AND accidental damage. so i said, if my daughter spilled juice on it and it shorts out it would be covered? and said without a doubt yes. i was still skeptical, so on another day i asked the general manager and he said it could fall down a flight of stairs...as long as you can bring back the pieces its covered. so thats what might happen once it gets closer to the 4 year mark

Their extended warranties only cover manufacturer defects that occur after the manufacturers warranty dates. Laptops take too much abuse and they can easily say that the damage is not covered. Just FYI you may be ending up paying to fix the laptop out of pocket on top of the extra money you spent on the "warranty" I used to work there... many many moons a go but I know how they operate.


They may tell you you can smash it, drop it, submerge it in water when you buy it just to get the warranty sold but actually read the warranty.. it doesnt cover unnecessary abuse. I had enough pissed off customers to yell at me even though it wasnt my fault to understand how they work there.

[Acesfull]

Originally Posted by Anton

I've already had it for close to 3. In fact I am using it right now and it works fine. Even if it dies tomorrow, I'll gladly spend another few hundred opposed to $1900 for a MacBook with warranty that may last what... 5-6 years?

I took my old old dell laptop and hooked it up to my 42" Samsung LCD as a "media center" I love it.. oh it also works as my wireless connection for my Xbox which saved me another $100 from buying one of those.

[jjmolleck]

Originally Posted by Acesfull

Their extended warranties only cover manufacturer defects that occur after the manufacturers warranty dates. Laptops take too much abuse and they can easily say that the damage is not covered. Just FYI you may be ending up paying to fix the laptop out of pocket on top of the extra money you spent on the "warranty" I used to work there... many many moons a go but I know how they operate.


They may tell you you can smash it, drop it, submerge it in water when you buy it just to get the warranty sold but actually read the warranty.. it doesnt cover unnecessary abuse. I had enough pissed off customers to yell at me even though it wasnt my fault to understand how they work there.

i know which plan you are talking about...because i used to work there too about 8 years ago...but this was a different plan with a different brochure. it was clearly accidental damage as well. now im sure they are suspicious if a laptop got runover by a car... but truly accidental damage is covered

[Acesfull]

Ahhh thats cool... just make sure your **** is well hidden... us tech's love "check" and make sure everything is working on people's computers we service..

This one time this guy had some hardcore bondage shit on his computer... it was hilarious.