Apple vs PC - Should You Pay Twice As Much For a Mac?

Here’s why: quality. You may be paying half the price, but you’re getting crappy parts from HP. Why not compare a Sony Vaio to a Macbook? Yeah, then prices some closer since the Vaio’s use top of the line parts, just like Apple.

But it’s not only that, Macbook’s come with more: Bluetooth 2.0 built in, an IR sensor, a motion detector, iLife ‘08 and, best of all, Mac OS X Leopard. Macbook’s are more for the money. They may not have the same specs, but they have better quality and will most likely still out bench those HP laptop’s referenced.

I wonder the same thing Ron? Do you have any macs? Personally I like Vista and I bought a laptop with Vista Home Premium for less than half the cost of a macbook.

For a Mac I would spend 10X over cost if that is what it takes to buy a Mac, all my life I was on a PC, a month ago I bought my Mac Pro, it was the best choice I made, I was in the same boat, PC or Mac, I bought both upgraded to a new PC and bought a Mac, both sit on my desk, I use the Mac as my Primary, more then the PC, Macs handle audio/video better then PC’s which is why I bought it

Thats my Reason for buying a Mac.

Scott

Thanks for the comments everyone.
Nicholas - nope. No Mac here.

I’m a software developer. Having owned, used and worked on Windows machines since the 3.1 days, I’ve recently sold my Vista Thinkpad and bought a macbook pro, mostly out of frustration and headache caused by constant usability bugs, daily crashes and other problems I’ve encountered in Vista, that were actually made worse by SP1. I don’t know if these are Vista bugs, 3rd party bugs - whatever. After re-installing the OS for the 3rd time I was fed up.

Now the only time i ever use windows is from a VM (I’m currently developing a Windows Mobile application).

Ironically, MacBook pro turned out to be the best Vista machine I’ve used You just can’t beat the whole “it just works” thing. Everything on this thing - from the magnetic power cord, to light-sensitive screen and keyboard (not to mention the multi touch touch pad) and the OS itself s just so wonderfully thought out, cohesive and … well - simple.

For this kind of quality I’m willing to pay a bit more.

I just switched from PC to Mac. Why? I was tired of all the additional software I have to install on the PC just to get a PC to work and stay safe on the Internet, think antivirus, anti spyware. A Mac does not come with all the crippleware you don’t want. It’s clean from the start. I am completely satisfied with my Mac and very happy I made the jump.

i have a Sony Vaio, from 98 to SP2. they did cover the 2 broken power supplies. i just was tired of the crashes and the long restarts (they shortened the restart on XP by making the shut down longer!). the Apple (eMac) allows you to restart only the failed program. my major use is home movies and still photos. there are many more photo and movie programs available for the PC (including the free Irfan), but who cares when the few for the Mac (and included with machine) are as good as the best.

You’re also leaving out the resale value. This is why, say, a Toyota or Honda would ultimately be a better buy than a Fiat with similar specs that is cheaper.

As salon.com points out, it is ultimately cheaper to own a mac when you factor this in:

http://machinist.salon.com/feature/2007/11/07/mac_price/index.html

Just bought myself :
2.4 QUAD CORE
750GB S-ATAII
4GB 1066Mhzram
ATI HD4850 DDR3
22″Widescreen TFT

Windows vista X64
Runs everything &
if you protect it
there’s no fear 4
virusses.

Price for all this?
€900

However …

Price for apple system
with slower cpu & crap
gpu? €2.250

That leaves me some money
to get wireless stuff + a
design case and mouse with
one button.

Right?

well I have a 98 pc that still functions perfectly. everything mac i’ve ever bought has failed. 2 ipods 2 computers. the life expectancy of a mac is very low.. ask someone at a mac store, they’ll tell you that the logic board on a mac will fail in about 3 years. with all of the problems with ipods catching fire and the laughable problems with the iphone, and the closed source attitude of mac I can only assume that mac popularity is due to a genius marketing campaign. people actually go to bat and defend apple with vehemence when they often know nothing about computers.

mac is playing the upgrade game big time misinforming users about what it is that they are buying. their products were designed to die.

it’s cost effective and quite easy to build a pc, and furthermore a really gratifying experience. apple will have you believe that computers are far too complicated for the average person to understand on even a minimally technical level.

there are so many different PCs to buy it reflects a healthy thriving market, whereas mac users wait with baited breath to hear about whatever doodad steve jobs oh so generously bestows upon them.

for a company that considers itself on the cutting edge of technology they sure seem to be missing a boat or two i.e. where’s your touchscreen computer?

not to mention the tired design factor of macs. sheesh imagine an apple only existence. everything is white and a clone of each other.

perhaps apple should take it’s own advice and think different.

Well a quick review of my blog will show you just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Apple’s company policies, employee treatment, and culture. I don’t think that we should support any company that behaves in such a fascist way. At any rate there are a lot of other reasons not to buy an Apple. Windows stinks, there are no 2 ways about that, but it can be secured, there are more applications for it, and you can easily get a machine that has better hardware in it than an Apple for the same price. Since Apple designs slightly different hardware themselves the only standard they have to meet is their own, so when an Apple rep. tells you that the hardware is good you have to ask compared to what? Definitely not when compared to Sun or even Alienware. The Apple techs at work seem to get more bad, dirty, or generally poorly refurbished parts than the Dell techs do. The users never see it so they don’t know. Dell even has the common sense to do things like mount their motherboards on easy to replace, already grounded plates, Apple just sends the parts along hoping that they are being put in in a safe environment, or rather shifting that responsibility to the techs. Still Apple runs Intel chips now, so they are not much different than a mid-grade PC. Plus Apple covers up hardware problems. For example, the HDDs in recent MacBooks (aka the Seagate coverup) where Seagate admitted to their mistake, but Apple kept putting Seagate drives back into MacBooks even after the problem was discovered. Apple has a long history of questionable hardware like most large manufacturers. Apple is very good at saying one thing, but meaning another. They say they don’t have tech support in India, for example, but that doesn’t mean it’s all in the states. They just know that by saying that they can get most customers to say “Thank God I’m getting an Apple.” They also benefit from their support structure where again the consumers don’t see the problems, and their lower percentage of overall machines sold leads to fewer reported problems overall. NOT BECAUSE THEY MAKE BETTER MACHINES. The OS is a little bit better, but you loose hardware control, and the machines are designed to look good first often making them difficult to service even by trained professionals. Plus their parts service flat sucks. You may wait weeks, if not a month to get a machine back and you can’t get parts yourself. Even as a certified tech you have to become a distributor and setup an account with X amount of credit with them to start receiving the parts you need to fix the computer that shouldn’t have broken in the first place. It’s a total pain in the ass. They also offer no accidental warranty coverage. The only model that works on both ends, meaning a good OS with good hardware, is to use Linux. Even Dell offers Linux machines with support now, but the problem with Linux is the availability of 3rd party applications that people have come to rely on. Cross Over helps with this, but vendors need to get behind Linux. Some have. Still this is a small problem to overcome. 90% of people can switch to Linux now, and once that happens vendors will make things for Linux instead of Windoze or Crapple. It’s time to demand real control of our computers and Apple and Microsoft is not going to give us that. Their whole model rotates around creating a single product that they can provide whatever level of support for that they want to. With Linux you pay simply for support, if your support is bad you can just choose another support company. It is a better model for computing period, but Apple is definitely far worse than Microsoft right now. We need something better than Windows, but Apple is not the answer.

I have recently bought a mac, and don’t mind spending the extra money. I have been a long time pc user, but with the costs associated with my need for top notch speech access for the blind, the mac won hands down. The speech access through voiceover is quite comparable to stuff that would cost me $1200 or so in Canada . As far as the last comment re: saying one thing and doing another, It’s a regrettable thing for apple to do, but since microsoft rules the world, taking a page out of there book isn’t much of a surprise.

I switched 4 years ago to the Mac - bought the G5 iMac (rev A) when it debuted in 2004. I personally converted about 4 families to the Mac since then but the loyalty wasn’t immediate and, in fact, it’s waning badly now.

3 months shy of my iMac’s 3 year anniversary (and 3 months shy of running out of its bumper-to-bumper coverage), the computer wouldn’t boot. A week or two at the Mac repair shop and all was well… except the bill for the repairs I *would* have faced without the extended warranty was for just shy of $1000! Had that been a PC, I could have replaced the innards myself and done so at a third of the price.

Fast-forward another year and my now four-year-old iMac is still running - but the other couple of days it’s been failing to wake up again (that was how the final “no boot” issue started). I did a major backup over the past weekend and reinstalled the OS from scratch. All seems well enough for now but I can’t help but wonder how much longer it will be before this computer dies again - and I’m NOT spending any money to revive it if/when it does… not at Apple’s inflated prices.

I tried Linux a few times and as close as Ubuntu, Mandriva, OpenSuse and the likes come, they’re just not good enough for a family computer. Your kids can’t use Linux to play the latest web-based 3D game on the Internet and they can’t use Linux to share a Web cam with their buddies on Yahoo, AOL or MSN (the latter being an absolute deal-breaker for one family I know).

So, what am I left with? The lesser of 3 “evils,” Windows. There simply isn’t another option. If you want the best bang for the buck (I’m referring to hardware here!!!) a PC is the only choice. That narrows you down to Windows and Linux with Windows being the more capable (because of third party support - so don’t flame me because I’m only stating the facts here) of the two.

Hello VS Dude,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. It is the lesser of 3 evils.

Well, You really don’t have to know much about computers to know what runs better. With personal experience, I have been through many failed PC’s. I guarantee that I have spent well over $6000 on fixing parts, and just buying new PC’s. After a long time, I was introduced to MAC. I have had it for about 4 years now, and it is still running great! I have never had 1 problem whatsoever. I will NEVER go back to the dark side! LOL! But really, I love it!

Hi Valerie,
Thanks for sharing your experience with us. I’m still in the dark! LOL

Enjoy your MAC.

Well when it comes to the buisnes aspect of computers networking themselves with the whole server deal going on pc rules in that realm of marketing. But i have been going to school for quite some time now and relizeing the complexity of vista os and all the layers and the different bugs that get tiresome trying to work out i have have decided to switch to MAC and over the past year of dealing with mac and its much less complicated os this computer just simply works. I mean it much more user friendly and it gets the job done with out all the crashes and blue screens of death and all that other garbage. Im not against pc’s or nothing but I would never go back to one as a personal computer. After experiencing the enjoyment and less hassle of a mac.

I don’t have a Mac but I was thinking about getting one. I’ve never bought a Desktop that is made by a big company like Dell or HP because I don’t see any advantage of it. I put together all my desktop and I understand the frustration that comes with building them, but that is where the fun is, making the PC finally work.

I think I can compare both systems with a form of government. One (PC) can be compared to democracy which everybody can pitch in and hope it works, and when it does work we are all happy camper, and when it doesn’t we all whine and kick the gutter. While on the other hand (Mac) can be compared to a communist, socialist or facist party where only one have a control or say and “they” make sure it works properly and you the consumer have no say to how it should be designed. Just be happy with what you get and pay a lot for it. One gives you freedom to choose what hardware to put together, the other they tell you that they “will” put the best parts together and you just use it. To tell you the truth, I rather have my free agency to choose what hardware to use and when to upgrade, that is the capitalistic way of life - reward those who deserve it best.

I guess the only reason why Mac has not been attacked by virus as much as PC has been in the past is not just because it is any more secure than PC, but rather because there are few hackers out there that can afford Mac to mess with them that it’s not worth their time to create a bug for it.

When the time comes that Mac systems and harwares can be available in the public, that will be the time that I will create my Mac to make sure that the best harwares are put together without any bias from the big apple. But right now, I’ll just have to wait….