ExtraHye Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 (edited) I've been thinking of investing on a new computer. I currently have a PC at home, but use Mac at work. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using Mac? Edited November 23, 2003 by ExtraHye Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 Advantage of MAC is that it is more expensive and you can get more tax deductions if you claim it as a busniess expense. Ideally, right now, if you are not into playing any sort of crazy 3D games or need very sophistimicated multimedia stuff, a $500-$600 PC from Best Buy is mooooooooooore than enough. Monitor may be a separate issue as they can range from a $100-$3000 depending on how good you want it ... LCD or CRT etc. So if you are going to be surfing the web, doing homework, and chatting online, do not spend more than let's say $600 ... that should include a CD burner and maybe even DVD playback capabilities plus probably a ton of other stuff you'll never use. Stay away from el cheapo e-machines ... stick to Dell, HP, Compaq, Gateway and basically name brands ... For dell, best bet is to go to their site and see what kinds of specials they have. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azat Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 Second most of what Seapanchik has said. I would not even look at HP or Compaq for the low end PC(sub 1500). But for 600 you can get a good PC from Dell or Gateway and if the choice is between CPU speed and memory, got with the memory. Nice 17inch LCD screens are about 400 now days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominO123 Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 What about getting a MAC or PC, whichever you prefer, and installing Linux on it? You have many choices of distros unlike MacOS and Windows, and word processors, many things for free. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 What about getting a MAC or PC, whichever you prefer, and installing Linux on it? You have many choices of distros unlike MacOS and Windows, and word processors, many things for free. Domino, BEFORE you treat, first diagnose Azatik ... I bought a Compaq for my parents from BestBuy for $589 a few months ago (just PC no monitor). It had a 2+ Ghz AMD processor, 512 MB RAM, 60Gig disk, DVD player, CD recorder, and very decent sound/video (not for gaming but for any regular stuff). I have been very happy with that purchase as it was the easiest "new" PC I have ever gotten ... and probably the most cost effective. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azat Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 Okay i understand. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 I would not even look at HP or Compaq for the low end PC(sub 1500). My comment was because of this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azat Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 i know Sip jan. I think I have a different feeling about the low end PC stuff. I got an HP once for a friend(it was not that low end) 3 years back for about $1700 and it was all problems. He and his wife hated the thing and each time I would go there to fix it i did as well. All kinds of minor issues. This is why i made that comment. I have never heard of anyone not liking their Dell. ---- BTW i think high end PC and especially servers, HP Compaq(Same company now) are super, but very pricey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 23, 2003 Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 I'm getting a real itch to get something like this http://www.tatung.com/tabletpc/images/Tablet%20PC.jpg http://www.viewsonic.com/images/IMG_v1100_lrg.jpg http://img.shopping.com/cctool/PrdImg/images/pr/177X150/00/01/3f/0a/5e/20908638.JPG This NEC one seems to be one of the coolest ... http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008MNDW.01.PT04.LZZZZZZZ.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00008MNDW.01.PT01.LZZZZZZZ.jpg Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ExtraHye Posted November 23, 2003 Author Report Share Posted November 23, 2003 Thanks you guys... how about note books, would you go with HP or Dell? I need this for strictly school purposes,(Word and power point presentations) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Azat Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 Dell again Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vava Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 Normally I would agree about Dell - but the 2 Dell laptops I chose for our office less than a year ago have been plagues with problems - mostly video card related, but hey, any trouble is a pain... I'm thinking of purchasing a new PC (yes, I will still keep my Mac laptop, but I need both platforms available to me and my old PC is getting tired...) and I'm leaning towards the Gateway - no decision made yet however... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 I'm also thinking about a new one ... I think this one I'll put together myself ... haven't done that in at least a couple of years! I want to get a GOOD motherboard ... need to start doing some research ... to be honest, not sure what processor I'm going to go with ... but P4 sounds mighty good right now ... 3Ghz with 800 Mhz bus. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angel4hope Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 u guys seem not 2 like e machines--i have one--am using right now--i know that xp sucks ass-excuse the french--but are there any other disadvantages to it?? u seem 2 know alott about computers--esp seaphan and azat-- Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 Knowing Computers? me? Nah ... I just like them Actually Vava and Domino are also pretty knowledgable ... so feel free to ask questions about them. I'm sure someone here will be able to help. e-machines suck ass because they use EXTREMELY cheap components to really really really drive the costs down. With PCs, you really get what you pay for. They don't make too much profit except with the latest and the most high end stuff ... they just can't make profits if they want to stay competitive. So "cheap" usually means poor quality with computers. By the way, XP is probably the best operating system for a PC you can get right now... for the "average non-geeky user" that is. So it doesn't suck ass at all Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angel4hope Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 dankashane--okie i forget that pple dont really always know what that means--it means thank you ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 I thought the dashnaks were coming to take over I know a bit of German Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
angel4hope Posted November 24, 2003 Report Share Posted November 24, 2003 hehe cool--no no no no dashnaks--not that i have anything against them--but i know some german b/c my teacher in high school--hewas like a grandpa 2me--he taught me some german-he was i think german and dutch--he looked like the goldmember from austen powers movie--he was so funny---ahh memories from high school---anyway thats how i know some german btw Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bellthecat Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 e-machines suck ass because they use EXTREMELY cheap components to really really really drive the costs down. With PCs, you really get what you pay for. They don't make too much profit except with the latest and the most high end stuff ... they just can't make profits if they want to stay competitive. So "cheap" usually means poor quality with computers. If an electronic component works to start with, then generally it will continue to work for ever. So there is no such thing as a cheap component. Only someone selling overpriced and unwanted additional extended guarantee/repair warranty will tell you otherwise! A "you get what you pay for" comment might be valid for mechanical devices or componets that have moving parts, such as keyboards or mice, or hard disks, but for everything else there is no such thing as poor quality. There is only correctly priced and over-priced. Macs belong to the latter category. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
UKGIRL28 Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 When I was a student, I invested in a mac - they are very expensive and the softwares are hard to find also if you want the equivalent to a PC.. Now that Im working, I hardly use my Mac even though I still use macs at work - I design pages for a magazine and its quite useful, if you were to work at home or do some freelancing if you were a designer, but, nope, its worth getting a PC imo... costs a lot cheaper these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 If an electronic component works to start with, then generally it will continue to work for ever. So there is no such thing as a cheap component. Only someone selling overpriced and unwanted additional extended guarantee/repair warranty will tell you otherwise!Steve your argument holds well for "CMOS" as a technolgy ... if a CMOS chip is working after a certain initial period (some refer to it as burnin) then the chances of it failing as a circuit becomes very low unless there are external events such as power spikes/gliches, over heating, or physical shock, etc. The argument can even hold at the "board level" I want to call it ... once you have a chip and the supporting circuitry on a board. HOWEVER There is a tremendous difference between poor engineering and cheap manufacturing processes versus well engineered systems using quality components. Let's not forget a "PC" is much more than just a chip ... the boards, the connectors, the cables, the analog components such as the power supply (MAJOR issue in stability), mechanical disks, heat heat heat disspation which is so important, memory hierarchies (off chip caches and DRAMs), bus architectures, "chipsets", a lot and a lot of other things influence the overall performance and reliability of something as complex as a PC. Even the chips intel produces for example can vary greatly in a single production run. I am not talking about different steppings of the same chip that get better and better as they fine tune the manufacturing. I am talking about the same "batch" ... it yields chips whose quality is distributed along a curve ... some can be FAST, some need to be slowed down due to impurities ... they never publish the details as those are highly secretive of course but we know the general trends. But there can certainly be "cheap" components as in a "video card" for example. Even if it's the most amazing design, if they cut costs and use cheap interconnect metals in the connectors, they can corrode over time and result in very "dirty" signals being transmitted on the bus lines. A cheap ball bearing fan can fail in a year or start making "dying giraffe" noises while a more expensive higher quality fan could probably last for years. A $10 fan dies and your entire system could melt to a useless piece of junk in minutes. I won't go into details of motherboards and chipsets but let's just say you do get what you pay for! I do agree with you though, that "warranty" sales people don't even know 1/10,000 th of the story ---Edit: One more note ... a lot of it also has to do with after sale support ... bug fixes, new drivers to support new peripherals and operating systems, etc that will undoubtedly be needed. A "cheap" component manufacturer will not have the resources to provide that kind of down-the-line support. So their stuff may become useless not because of physical failure, but due to lack of software support. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominO123 Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 (edited) A $10 fan dies and your entire system could melt to a useless piece of junk in minutes.My dear friend, you are way too much outdated, this happens when you refuse to build your own system for years. The computer won't boot if the CPU or chipset fans stop to work. And now, even the cheapest motherboards have this protection system. Edited November 25, 2003 by Fadix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sip Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 My dear friend, you are way too much outdated, this happens when you refuse to build your own system for years. The computer won't boot if the CPU or chipset fans stop to work. And now, even the cheapest motherboards have this protection system. Do e-machines have that protection? That's what I was referring to. OH and I was talking about the video card. I don't know the answer. FYI, I am going to build my own this time But it's not something I'd recommend to others these days. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DominO123 Posted November 25, 2003 Report Share Posted November 25, 2003 (edited) Do e-machines have that protection? That's what I was referring to. OH and I was talking about the video card. I don't know the answer. FYI, I am going to build my own this time But it's not something I'd recommend to others these days.e-machines are not computers... they are computer immitations. I was talking about a real computers. Edited November 25, 2003 by Fadix Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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