As a longtime windows user I hate to admit it. I always hated macs. I built my own systems. The "Value" just wasn't their with Macs. The hardware is overpriced. Sure the software looks nice, but is it actually better?! Pshah!

Well, as I've been getting more and more into photography, and with many pro's assertations that Mac is the only way to fly...I bought a Mac Mini refurb. $479. Popped in 2 gigs of RAM and a decent hard drive I had lying around.

This thing is awesome - And this is the crappiest mac you can buy.

Yes, it can't play games, but since getting my Mac I've swallowed the iLife Kool-aid. iPhoto is awesome. The new Vista "iPhoto wanna-be" is very good, but not even close.

iMovie (both of them) are awesome. I've already taken some camcorder footage and mixed them with some of my photos, and made a dvd (in iDVD) that makes everyone cry tears of joy.

No crashes. No reboots. No viruses. I can still run Firefox. I basically haven't had to give up anything.

If you are on the fence about trying a Mac, give it a go. They are really incredible - not as hardware but as a unified system that works great in a lifestyle sense.

I'm now going to get a Macbook Pro and ditch this Dell E1705 I am using - so I can play games too. Throw Vista or XP on it too and I have all the benefits of Mac OSX with no drawbacks.

Of course, now I want to buy all of Apple's OTHER crap, like iPods and stuff. Apple is an expensive hobby, but (here is the point) the time you gain actually DOING what you want with your computer, rather than fighting with the computer is priceless. (And I'm no computer dummy, but XP frequently needed reboots, had weird crashes, glitches, and other productivity robbing events).

I work in IT so all my co-workers hate me.

Ahh well, thats my plug. Happy switcher! Check out my movie of my daughter, done if iMovie 08 that comes free on any new Mac, the first video editing project I've ever done!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d3ZgPg4dF6Q

learning about how awesome macs are is like learning about healthy fats.

once you learn and convert, youre like, wtf how did i survive without this


i'm a convert since earlier this year. incred.

once you learn and convert, youre like, wtf how did i survive without this

Oh I'll try them again at some point. I am really hating Vista big time. But not enough to get over the hating from Macs from the last one (G4 Aluminum Powerbook). I've had about 5 Macs over the past ten years and every once in a while I have to get one because of some application (last couple times it was ProTools).

It's not that hard to get over Macs once you've been screwed by them. So enjoy the ride while it's good.

At the moment I have this one Vista machine jumping through hoops so it's not time to try Macs again. It helps to be really sick to death of the machine you leave behind to create the illusion of loving the one you get to replace it.

I can only agree - I switched about a year ago after having been using Windows since version 1.0 all the way up to XP and have never looked back. Trouble is (as you also mentioned) you suddenly want everything Apple - I ended up with iPhone, iPod, iMac, Macbook Pro, Apple TV, Airport Extreme .... ah well - enjoy it

Welcome to the dark side....

I used to absolutely HATE macs. OS9 was probably the worst operating system in the history of operating systems: Having things crash and inexplicably fail to work because one of the millions of extensions had some kind of conflict -- and it was nearly impossible figure out which of them was causing the problem. You basically had to turn specific ones off at random and restart the computer again and again to try and figure out where the problem was.

Oh yeah, and having to manually assign memory to applications was a real treat too....as was the giant bomb that would appear on the screen as the computer crashed for the millionth time. Another thing that was just lovely about OS9: If you dragged files from a disk onto your desktop, and then ejected your disk, your files went bye-bye. Why? Because it would only copy shortcuts and not the actual files. You had to hold down a set of keys while dragging in order to get it to actually copy the files. Everything required some weird key combination. It sucked,

So, yeah, I used to detest macs...lol. But, OSX is a HUGE improvement over OS9, and now I think Macs are great. I like OSX alot better than Windows...and in fact, this very message is being typed on a mac. :D

Oh yeah, and Safari is a kick ass browser.

I would get a mac, but they're so blasted expensive. I hate computers in general, though. No Mac/PC preference.

i've never switched.

of course thats because i've been a mac guy since about 1989. :lol:

ubuntu (or linux in general) > all :evil:

i've tried them all- macs (from apple II on), linux distros (redhat, mandrake, ubuntu...), windows (95, 98, ME, 2000, XP, Vista) and the only one that really works for me is Windows XP. I can play games, i can mess with photo shop if i do so desire, i can have all the software i want and it all works, all the time. XP (sp2) never crashes, no bugs for me, no compatibility worries (not just games), no problem!

who gets viruses these days anyway? i haven't had one since i was in high school deliberately downloading them to see what they did :lol: besides, everyone knows that the only reason mac's never got them is because it's such a small percentage of the market share :neener:we know mac's are hackable because the iPhone gets hacked over and over even after they patch and repatch it (which uses a watered down version of OS X), it's just no one cares! :whistle:

let me just point out that i'm only poking some fun at macs, if they can dish it out with their mac vs pc commercials, they need to be able to take some too. i do like them, they are very stylish (much more so than windows, for sure), they just honestly don't do what i need to do.

I hate computers in general, though.

That is the correct answer.

the only reason mac's never got them is because it's such a small percentage of the market share

Actually, Macintosh viruses have been widespread since before Windows - I remember back in 1987 when the "Brain" virus hit a lot of DOS machines, there were Mac viruses. (I looked it up - nVIR appears to have been around for Macs back then.)

I have never understood the thinking that Macs don't have viruses. It's not clear to me whether Macs or PCs are more exposed. As far as I know, I have never been infected using either type of machine.

I know there wouldn't be all these windows horror stories if it wasn't true to some extent, but I've never had it. I've been using PCs (and computers in general) since 99, and I've been building my own computers that whole time. The "you need to reboot it all the time" thing, the constant crashes, weird glitches and various other problems? Never had them. Any problems I've had over the years have been traceable to either hardware going bad, poor drivers or problems with the programs themselves. Never anything actually to do with the OS itself, beyond 98. 98 sucked, but 2000 and XP have been perfect.

The one thing I do love about Mac though, is being able to put / in the filenames. :D

I used to absolutely HATE macs. OS9 was probably the worst operating system in the history of operating systems: Having things crash and inexplicably fail to work because one of the millions of extensions had some kind of conflict -- and it was nearly impossible figure out which of them was causing the problem. You basically had to turn specific ones off at random and restart the computer again and again to try and figure out where the problem was.

Oh yeah, and having to manually assign memory to applications was a real treat too....as was the giant bomb that would appear on the screen as the computer crashed for the millionth time. Another thing that was just lovely about OS9: If you dragged files from a disk onto your desktop, and then ejected your disk, your files went bye-bye. Why? Because it would only copy shortcuts and not the actual files. You had to hold down a set of keys while dragging in order to get it to actually copy the files. Everything required some weird key combination. It sucked,

So, yeah, I used to detest macs...lol. But, OSX is a HUGE improvement over OS9, and now I think Macs are great. I like OSX alot better than Windows...and in fact, this very message is being typed on a mac. :D

Oh yeah, and Safari is a kick ass browser.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqN76gYKHMs? :D

As far as I know, I have never been infected using either type of machine.

Yup, never had any viruses here either. Browse smart, won't be a problem.

I know there wouldn't be all these windows horror stories if it wasn't true to some extent, but I've never had it.

I'll tell you an odd one that I am going through right now. I have two nearly identical Lenovo T61 laptops running Vista. The one I am using at the moment has never been any trouble at all. But the one I had before was torture with bad device drivers causing BSOD, freezes and deactivations. In fact, some of the painful lessons learned by the driver writers (intel, nVidia, and Lenovo) during the time I was suffering through first one may have made for a smoother ride on this one.

So is Vista a horror show or wonderful? I have two nearly identical pieces of hardware where it was one and then the other.

I have Xp Linux & OS X 10.5 Macs.

Almost always find myself working on my Macbook Pro which can run all 3 simultaneously....at near native speeds.

Another plus....I went to the Apple store yesterday & they solved my battery problem (gave me a new one) within 10 minutes.

+ when you buy something.....they have people walking around with wireless credit card swipers & no waiting in line......you are out of there.

Was also never a person who was fascinated by cell phones....but my iphone is the s**t.
Love it + it is hacked which makes it even more useful as I can log into my other machines when out of town.

It is just so easy to use.

XP is okay....but subjectively & realistically to call it even is to being brainwashed by a having a long Windows habit.

If you have deeply used both......OS X is so much better.


*The only thing I laughed at in the Apple store is that all of the people (it is always crowded in this Las Vegas Apple store) is that the customers all look like they got haircuts & dressed at the same place.

A 'hip' suburbanite cult.

Extremely funny when you are in the middle of it. 1984 here we are Orwell.

Sp3 for XP and SP1 for Vista is coming out soon :confused:

had over the years have been traceable to either hardware going bad, poor drivers or problems with the programs themselves. Never anything actually to do with the OS itself, beyond 98. 98 sucked, but 2000 and XP have been perfect.

I actually completely agree with you here. The OS *is* damn good (2000 and XP) The problem with the Windows experience is exactly as you describe though. Poor driver support. This is an extension of the PC supporting *EVERYTHING*.

The Macs strength is it's weakness. It's Niche. It uses controlled hardware. Thus, it is relatively easy for the "Selector Of All Hardware" , the system builder AND the OS writer (all one company) to ensure a more stable experience. There is less third part crap to support, and NO 3rd part "core hardware" to support.

Apple writes all the drivers. Apple chooses all the hardware. Apple writes the OS. Controlled environment = stability. The weakness, of course, is that Controlled environment = overpriced, un-upgradable, and proprietary. For me, the 'total Apple experience' is worth the tyranny.

-Allen

The Macs strength is it's weakness. It's Niche. It uses controlled hardware. Thus, it is relatively easy for the "Selector Of All Hardware" , the system builder AND the OS writer (all one company) to ensure a more stable experience. There is less third part crap to support, and NO 3rd part "core hardware" to support.

Apple writes all the drivers. Apple chooses all the hardware. Apple writes the OS. Controlled environment = stability. The weakness, of course, is that Controlled environment = overpriced, un-upgradable, and proprietary. For me, the 'total Apple experience' is worth the tyranny.

-Allen

Ah see, I'm the computer equivalent of a grease monkey. Arctic Silver monkey? Electron monkey? Silicon monkey? :p

Build! Upgrade! Mod! Tweak! Which is also most of the reason I still don't have a laptop. Little to no room for upgradeability. Stuck with one set of hardware. Not all that easy to remove bottlenecks with fixed, proprietary hardware. Gotta trust them to to put together a box that will have all the speeds, latencies, bandwidths, etc. in harmony.

But if someone really doesn't give a rat's ass about any of that, then it's no big deal. I.e. "the average user," rather than enthusiast. :)

What's fun with a mac though is making the icons on the menu bar thingy really small, and the mouse over size of the icons REALLY big. Then zooming your mouse back and forth over the bar.

:p I am easily amused.

I'm waiting for my first personal Mac, a Mac Pro that I ordered last week. I should have it by now, but in order to save a bunch of sales tax, I ordered through a reseller in the next state. Of course, they keep a tight stock and the night before I finalized my order and gave them billing/shipping info, they shipped out their remaining stock of 2.66quad core w/ X1900 systems, and that tacked on another 3-4 business days for them to get new stock from Apple. Once it gets to them, even ground shipping is just an overnight hop to me. I'm tempted to have them call me when they get new stuff in so I can just drive over and get it that day, but the 7 hours of roundtrip travel time and $60 in gas...not quite. Worst part is I'm in the middle of my vacation and originally expected to have my new toy for most of that time, plus I have an extra 8gigs of RAM sitting in a box next to me just waiting for its new home. Okay, enough whining about ordering woes for now.

As a TV guy I've been using Macs at work for years, video editing and such. I absolutely love Final Cut Pro. I despised OS9 and below, but enjoyed OS X, and I've always been sure I'd like it more if I had my own system to tinker with without having to worry about sharing the system with other editors. So I've always wanted one but I need a Windows box as well, and could never justify having both. Now that I can boot Windows on the same hardware, I can finally have one and retire the Windows box I built about 3 years ago.

One thing in particular to love about OS X...application packages.

What's fun with a mac though is making the icons on the menu bar thingy really small, and the mouse over size of the icons REALLY big. Then zooming your mouse back and forth over the bar.

I do love that :tu:

Ah see, I'm the computer equivalent of a grease monkey. Arctic Silver monkey? Electron monkey? Silicon monkey? :p

Build! Upgrade! Mod! Tweak! Which is also most of the reason I still don't have a laptop. Little to no room for upgradeability. Stuck with one set of hardware. Not all that easy to remove bottlenecks with fixed, proprietary hardware. Gotta trust them to to put together a box that will have all the speeds, latencies, bandwidths, etc. in harmony.

But if someone really doesn't give a rat's ass about any of that, then it's no big deal. I.e. "the average user," rather than enthusiast. :)

What's fun with a mac though is making the icons on the menu bar thingy really small, and the mouse over size of the icons REALLY big. Then zooming your mouse back and forth over the bar.

:p I am easily amused.

I am DEFINITELY an enthusiast. I have spent countless hours building tweaking, fixing, etc. I finally got TIRED of it all and just wanted to compute instead of optiziming my computer so I could compute.

Like working on a car. I could make a hot rod that is faster, handles better, sounds louder...but I'm WORKING on it all the time. I'd rather just have a nice car that works without the hassle.

I got tired of the enthusiast hassle.

Love apple here... ! pretty much have all of their products as well.. even stock, luckily I bought that at the right time too.


:tu:

macs pull more girls

macs pull more girls

oh, totally.











:rolleyes:

What's fun with a mac though is making the icons on the menu bar thingy really small, and the mouse over size of the icons REALLY big. Then zooming your mouse back and forth over the bar.

:p I am easily amused.

You can easily get that and more in windows or linux. Download objectdock for windows or kiba dock for various distros of linux.

my wife has a macbookpro. It's really nice, I've considered switching. But I dunno, might just install linux on it. I find OSX to be a bit odd... not bad... jsut odd.

Macs aren't expensive...... they are cheap if your personal time is worth anything at all.

Macs aren't expensive...... they are cheap if your personal time is worth anything at all.
Guess mines not :p

Never messed around with a mac, but I have an I-pod and if Mac's are to the computer world what I-Pods are to MP3 players, I'll pass.

PS: If your not a mac cultist and you need a sweet MP3 player, Samsung makes one the whoops the I-pod nano's ass in nearly every department (the single piece wrap around aluminum body of the i-pod is super slick, but other then that the samsung is better), and its cheaper :tu:.

Guess mines not :p

Never messed around with a mac, but I have an I-pod and if Mac's are to the computer world what I-Pods are to MP3 players, I'll pass.

PS: If your not a mac cultist and you need a sweet MP3 player, Samsung makes one the whoops the I-pod nano's ass in nearly every department (the single piece wrap around aluminum body of the i-pod is super slick, but other then that the samsung is better), and its cheaper :tu:.


Which Samsung?

With so many mac enthusiasts here, can someone recommend a site with add-ons, tweaks and how-to's for them?

Last night I tried for about 30 mins to get a command line in my wife's macbookpro. That was frustrating.

With so many mac enthusiasts here, can someone recommend a site with add-ons, tweaks and how-to's for them?

Last night I tried for about 30 mins to get a command line in my wife's macbookpro. That was frustrating.

what did you need the command line for?

anyway, just open up Terminal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_(application)), and there you go. Its in teh Utilities folder, within the Applications folder.

what did you need the command line for?

anyway, just open up Terminal (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terminal_(application)), and there you go. Its in teh Utilities folder, within the Applications folder.

Thanks!

Guess mines not :p

Never messed around with a mac, but I have an I-pod and if Mac's are to the computer world what I-Pods are to MP3 players, I'll pass.

PS: If your not a mac cultist and you need a sweet MP3 player, Samsung makes one the whoops the I-pod nano's ass in nearly every department (the single piece wrap around aluminum body of the i-pod is super slick, but other then that the samsung is better), and its cheaper :tu:.


This is a perfect example of the Apple way. Yes, technically the players aren't anything special. Yes, they miss some featuers that other mp3 players have. BUT if you swallow the Kool-aid and buy into the whole "Apple digital lifestyle", you end up with a overall, smooth, integrated experience that no other device can touch.

And, ironically, iPods *are* to to the mp3 market like their computers are to the PC market. They basically created the mass-market genre and new ways to think about human interaction with the device. (i.e. inventing the computer GUI)

-Allen

Which Samsung?
If you just want it for audio (It has photo and video, but it's smaller so optimized for audio) I would get a yp-t10, if you want a fancy touch screen in a bigger player that would be better for video and audio, the p2.

Both samsung's have longer rated battery life, FM receiver's (cause lets face it, no matter how many gb of music you have, sometimes you just wanna let someone else be the DJ), upgradeable firmware, and bluetooth connectivity for headphones (with a reported firmware upgrade for the p2 that will make it able to hook up to your cell phone so you can answer it through the player and leave your phone in your pocket, there is even a mic on the player for this planned upgrade). Other then that you don't have to install I-tunes on your PC to use them, you can do the old fashioned drag and drop, or you can use the program samsung supplies on a DISK (which isn't really much better then I-tunes, but the point is you don't HAVE to use it, sometimes I just like to drag and drop a file rather then have to mess around with a stupid program just for 1 song). Oh, also the headphones that come with the samsungs are better, not that anyone uses the supplied headphones, but its nice to see a company supply a decent set.

For the record, I have last years 8gb nano and although I have never had a problem with it, if I needed to replace it I would get the samsung (either one). I got my gf a samsung p2 and was amazed at how much better it sounded, how well the FM receiver worked, and just overall impressed with its functionality compared to my nano. And no the touch screen didn't make my opinion biased, I just like listening to music and other then its size (bit bigger then the nano) its a better player for that, so If I was going to replace mine it would be with their yp-t10.

This is a perfect example of the Apple way. Yes, technically the players aren't anything special. Yes, they miss some featuers that other mp3 players have. BUT if you swallow the Kool-aid and buy into the whole "Apple digital lifestyle", you end up with a overall, smooth, integrated experience that no other device can touch.

And, ironically, iPods *are* to to the mp3 market like their computers are to the PC market. They basically created the mass-market genre and new ways to think about human interaction with the device. (i.e. inventing the computer GUI)

-Allen
Sounds like the sony of the computer world.
I hate proprietary bullshit, and I don't want a "lifestyle" in a box, I just want a damn MP3 player and a new PC..... ones that have all the functionality I want, and they don't require taking it up the butt just to get a certain brand name on them.

Yeah, mac products are like crack. You know there are better things out there, but you just cant kick the habit once you have your first taste. Christ, my house is full of i everything and I couldn't be happier. I work in television and edit on a pc all day long, so I have extensive experience in both platforms. When it comes to needing a reliable, inexpensive workhorse that is adaptable, then yes, p.c is the way. However, when you are looking for a system that you can just switch on and have a blast with without having to overthink things, the macs are hard to beat. As has already been stated, macs are a lifestyle geared computer..

Yeah, mac products are like crack. You know there are better things out there, but you just cant kick the habit once you have your first taste. Christ, my house is full of i everything and I couldn't be happier. I work in television and edit on a pc all day long, so I have extensive experience in both platforms. When it comes to needing a reliable, inexpensive workhorse that is adaptable, then yes, p.c is the way. However, when you are looking for a system that you can just switch on and have a blast with without having to overthink things, the macs are hard to beat. As has already been stated, macs are a lifestyle geared computer..
At least your aware of this and not just a mindless drone, I can respect that. I like tweaking things and honestly I just love working on things.... anything. My car is 10 years old, not because I can't get a newer one, but honestly new cars bore me. I like swinging a wrench in my spare time in the summer but if a new car breaks you have to take it to the dealer to have them fix it under warranty... BORING. :lol:

At least your aware of this and not just a mindless drone, I can respect that. I like tweaking things and honestly I just love working on things.... anything. My car is 10 years old, not because I can't get a newer one, but honestly new cars bore me. I like swinging a wrench in my spare time in the summer but if a new car breaks you have to take it to the dealer to have them fix it under warranty... BORING. :lol:

I like to tinker too, which is why I keep an old P.C desktop in my office :lol:

You hit the nail on the head. Plus, I think the marriage between Apple and Intel was a great move on their part. The Apple notebooks get great battery life. My next laptop may well be a Mac *if* they continue down their current path. :tucool:

I actually completely agree with you here. The OS *is* damn good (2000 and XP) The problem with the Windows experience is exactly as you describe though. Poor driver support. This is an extension of the PC supporting *EVERYTHING*.

The Macs strength is it's weakness. It's Niche. It uses controlled hardware. Thus, it is relatively easy for the "Selector Of All Hardware" , the system builder AND the OS writer (all one company) to ensure a more stable experience. There is less third part crap to support, and NO 3rd part "core hardware" to support.

Apple writes all the drivers. Apple chooses all the hardware. Apple writes the OS. Controlled environment = stability. The weakness, of course, is that Controlled environment = overpriced, un-upgradable, and proprietary. For me, the 'total Apple experience' is worth the tyranny.

-Allen

Sounds like the sony of the computer world.
I hate proprietary bullshit, and I don't want a "lifestyle" in a box, I just want a damn MP3 player and a new PC..... ones that have all the functionality I want, and they don't require taking it up the butt just to get a certain brand name on them.

It's not about having a certain brand name, it is about how all the items from that brand name interact with each other, providing a total experience that is better than the sum of it's parts.

Sony isn't a good example, they just take the same thing put it in a proprietary container that is a different standard, then try to make their standard the defacto #1 standard and control the market. But, even if you buy all Sony stuff, you don't gain any 'synergy' where the products magically enhance each other. It's still just a Memory Stick which is just like an SD Card. Using that Memory Stick with a Sony VAIO doesn't 'gain' you anything.

Apple stuff is different. Each new Apple piece you plug in enhances all the other Apple stuff you have. Your iPhone connects with your Mac which connects with .Mac which connects with your AppleTV.

Real Example: You snap a photo with your iPhone. It automatically is transferred to iPhoto on your Mac AND if you want to your .Mac web page, instantly, wirelessly. Then you get home later that night, turn on the TV and your AppleTV automagically has the photo on it ready for viewing. No thought. No 'sending stuff'. No configuring. It just all works.

Another example. You want to make a slide show mixed with camcorder footage of your kids. That photo you took in your iPhone is available instantly and automatically in iMovie. You quickly edit together your video, add your sound track from iTunes (or a custom song from Garageband...both of which are automatically browsable/previewable from within iMovie) and BAM. It is on your .Mac website for your family to see, it appears on your AppleTV to be watched from your couch, if you want it appears on your iPhone to view widescreen on the go, or, you can pop it over to iDVD and quickly burn your new video to DVD out of your movie with little trouble. Oh, and if you want it automatically uploads it to YouTube for you.

Want to edit that movie? It remembers where you published everything, and tells you "Want to republish?" With one press your iPhone, YouTube, Apple TV, and .Mac webpage all have your new version of the video.

That is the 'experience' that Mac users have such a difficult time explaining to folks who CAN do all that stuff, but have to jump through so many hoops to actually make it happen (even if you bought "All Sony Stuff")

The Sony 'experience' isn't like that.

-Allen

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqN76gYKHMs? :D



Ha ha....that video really sums up quite well how I felt about OS9. The vid was really right on. One time, I had an imac freeze up on me, and of course, there is no on/off switch. You have to use the keyboard to turn it on and off. But, the system was frozen, so I had to unplug it and then plug it back in. Well, that must have created a power surge or something because it killed the hard drive (got the wonderful flashing question mark on startup). Even a data recovery service couldn't retrieve the data from the drive. So yeah...wasn't a mac fan for a long time.

However, OSX is an awesome operating system. It turned a die-hard Mac hater like me into a huge fan! :claphigh:

With so many mac enthusiasts here, can someone recommend a site with add-ons, tweaks and how-to's for them?

Last night I tried for about 30 mins to get a command line in my wife's macbookpro. That was frustrating.

You can also just go to spotlight in the upper right of the MBP & type "term"
it should be the first result. Saves some clicking through file system. You can do that with any file & launch it.

If your wife installs Quicksilver (Free) or Launchbar she can launch Terminal just by hitting Apple Key + Space Bar & T
Photoshop = Apple Key + Spacebar & PS
Microsoft Word = Apple Key Spacebar & MW
Other apps are learned by frequency of launching

I got tired of the enthusiast hassle.

I'm in the same boat. This past year was the first that I hadn't built a machine and I didn't miss it at all. We got me a new laptop as an early Christmas gift. Now when I want to go mobile I slap the lid shut and go. No tweaking, no muss, no fuss. Of course I'm not gaming anymore either!

I'd probably switch to a mac for my next computer, but I pay the bills by developing (most of my) code in Visual Studio, so that really wouldn't work for me :( I may be switching to more of PHP lifestyle in the near future, and if that happens I'll be making the switch.

To be fair, I put my current computer together from scratch a year ago, and I will never, ever, ever go back to buying pre-made PCs again. For about $900 I put this baby together which something of similar power would've cost >$1500 at Dell :)

To be fair, I put my current computer together from scratch a year ago, and I will never, ever, ever go back to buying pre-made PCs again. For about $900 I put this baby together which something of similar power would've cost >$1500 at Dell :)


Yeah, it's pretty shady. You can put together a low end or or kinda sorta midrange computer through those pre-built manufacturers for pretty cheap. But try and spec out a decent performing computer through those guys? Holy crap, the price is insane. You can build a way better computer for the prices those guys charge or build the same computer for many hundreds of dollars cheaper. Newegg.com is your GOD. Not friend, GOD. My current computer cost me less than $1k to build. Specing something like this out from a pre-built company would have easily ran me $2k+.

If only you could build a laptop from scratch the same way you can build a desktop from scratch¹, I would have done so a long time ago. As it is, specing out a laptop for a decent price means it's going to be slow and bottlenecked to hell, and building a decently performing one basically means paying an amount akin to putting a down payment on a new car.



¹Last I checked, there was one company out there that kinda sorta let you build your own laptops, including motherboard and case. But It's pretty limited and it's only one company....if they're still doing it. What I mean by being able to build it from scratch like a desktop is that if the laptop building market were the same size, diversity and quality as the desktop building market.

Yeah, it's pretty shady. You can put together a low end or or kinda sorta midrange computer through those pre-built manufacturers for pretty cheap. But try and spec out a decent performing computer through those guys? Holy crap, the price is insane. You can build a way better computer for the prices those guys charge or build the same computer for many hundreds of dollars cheaper. Newegg.com is your GOD. Not friend, GOD. My current computer cost me less than $1k to build. Specing something like this out from a pre-built company would have easily ran me $2k+.

I also started refusing to buy pre-built OEM PCs years ago. The biggest issue I have is the total lack of control and information regarding the motherboard. They never seem to use off the shelf mobos, opting instead to just grab whatever chipsets and build their own. Good luck even finding out what chipsets are in use there. But if you build your own, you can research and pick your own mobo, with a good chipset, built by a reputable manufacturer, and that goes further than anything to ensure system stability. Motherboards used by OEMs just tend to suck.

As this is an Apple thread, I'll also mention this is one area where Apple is dead on. Their motherboards are quality, and built by Asus, whom I have always loved going all the way back to the solid-as-a-wrecking-ball P3B-F.

As this is an Apple thread, I'll also mention this is one area where Apple is dead on. Their motherboards are quality, and built by Asus, whom I have always loved going all the way back to the solid-as-a-wrecking-ball P3B-F.

Really? That's pretty cool. I'm by no means loyal to any specific motherboard maker, but I do prefer Asus, Abit and Gigabyte. I'm currently running an Asus P5B-Deluxe with my Q6600. :D

I worked IT with a friend of mine in the summer of 2006 and it included a few apple boxes. I did notice that their motherboards were generally better than OEM PC motherboards. OEM PC boards are sooo crappy. There's basically exactly enough connections for what the computer comes with. No room to expand whatsoever, only swap/upgrade. In the macs there was plenty of room to expand, similar to a hand built PC.

I didn't know Apple used Asus boards, that is quite nice.

As bastardly as they usually are with using cheap (or two generations old ala their video cards), it's nice to see they went quality with their MB's.

I love Abit as well, the good old BH6 days with the Celeron 300a guaranteed overclock to 450 :)

Or the Pentium M 90MHz guaranteed overclock to 100MHz :)
Those were the days :)

I think I am going to replace my dell xps with a macbook pro (13 or 15"), buy it as barebones as possible, upgrade everything via my warehouse accounts for my hosting company (damned warehouses don't carry mac's) and see if I can't save some money. I was working with parallels very briefly yesterday and was pretty impressed.

I just wonder if I can use it for gaming... gaming in parallels.. hmmm. Maybe I'd have to fool with bootcamp. We'll see.

I do love the style of the laptop and the smart power cord - I've sent my xps flying to the ground on more then one occassion by tripping over the power cord...

I do recall it took me a couple hours to setup wep keys on my wife's macbookpro... hopefully I'll figure it out a bit quicker the second time around. :)

I think I am going to replace my dell xps with a macbook pro (13 or 15"), buy it as barebones as possible, upgrade everything via my warehouse accounts for my hosting company (damned warehouses don't carry mac's) and see if I can't save some money. I was working with parallels very briefly yesterday and was pretty impressed.

I just wonder if I can use it for gaming... gaming in parallels.. hmmm. Maybe I'd have to fool with bootcamp. We'll see.

I do love the style of the laptop and the smart power cord - I've sent my xps flying to the ground on more then one occassion by tripping over the power cord...

I do recall it took me a couple hours to setup wep keys on my wife's macbookpro... hopefully I'll figure it out a bit quicker the second time around. :)

Get any thought of buying a Mac and saving money out of your mind. They don't go together :) DO buy the lowest amount of RAM (and, if you don't mind a little surgery on a macbook pro - hard drive) you can. Much cheaper to upgrade at home.

Yes, Macbook Pro's make great little gaming machines. Parallels and bootcamp can share a Windows partition, so might as well install both.

What's with all the hate for Itunes?

I dont care one way or the other for Mac vs. PC... but I absolutely love Itunes and use it on both my pc and mac as my media player; except for DVDs that go to VLC.

Itunes did confuse the hell out of me when I was figuring out how to collaborate my music collection, but besides that.. I can browse the most popular songs....sample new stuff....podcasts, radio, playlists, etc.

What are other good media players that I could try?

What's with all the hate for Itunes?

I dont care one way or the other for Mac vs. PC... but I absolutely love Itunes and use it on both my pc and mac as my media player; except for DVDs that go to VLC.

Itunes did confuse the hell out of me when I was figuring out how to collaborate my music collection, but besides that.. I can browse the most popular songs....sample new stuff....podcasts, radio, playlists, etc.

What are other good media players that I could try?

I *love* MusicMatch Jukebox. Unfortunately, it has been purchased and ruined by Yahoo, although you can still get the older versions out there. It incidentally was what they used to pack with iPods before Apple released iTunes. It had the best CD Lookup features for ripping CD's ever. Easy to use. Easy to find stuff.

I really like it, but I wouldn't recommend to anyone as a 'new' player since it is a dead end (damn you Yahoo!)

-Allen

Apple really pisses me off! Wanting me to pay $20 for iPod touch apps that should have come free? Apple is a greedy, horrible company!!

But, I still love their damn products. What a love/hate addictive relationship.

Anyone else think their announcements at Macworld were lame and underwhelming?

Apple really pisses me off! Wanting me to pay $20 for iPod touch apps that should have come free? Apple is a greedy, horrible company!!

But, I still love their damn products. What a love/hate addictive relationship.

Anyone else think their announcements at Macworld were lame and underwhelming?

Yeah. I was really hoping they'd announce the next iPhone, since I'm holding out for that (not to mention i have a year left on my current plan).

The new ibook looks and sounds nice, but the fact that you can't change the battery for long flights is not gonna make it popular for business travelers, so I find that decision puzzling.

Yeah. I was really hoping they'd announce the next iPhone, since I'm holding out for that (not to mention i have a year left on my current plan).

The new ibook looks and sounds nice, but the fact that you can't change the battery for long flights is not gonna make it popular for business travelers, so I find that decision puzzling.

Yea, but there is an optional airline power cable so that shouldn't be an issue. Most laptops have power cords that will work on airplanes these days.