PC or Mac?

[billysmommy]

We are getting ready to upgrade our PC (it's from 2001) and since I'm pretty much the only one who uses it at home ~ DH said I could pick what I want. We've always had Dell but I've heard wonderful things about Macs. I do alot of photo editing and if it is a lot easier on a mac than that would be my choice.

Thanks

[LD92599]

ETA: One recent thread: http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/sho...highlight=imac
And a search of the last 6 months: http://windsorpeak.com/vbulletin/sea...searchid=27805

There's a ton of recent posts about Macs. Go for it - the genius bar is fantastic, the interface is very user friendly, etc.

Macworld is this week though, so don't buy anything this week! And when you go...go through ebates.com to go to store.apple.com. Save yourself some $$ and buy a refurb. Look at the refurb page daily to get an idea of the prices and what they have. With what you save buy the 3 year extended warranty.

I work on macs all day for work and home too. Currently using an imac G5 and a macbook pro.

[ThreeofUs]

I love our iMac, but be warned that (even with the MS part-ownership of Apple) you may have trouble viewing files sent from PCs, and folks on PCs may have trouble viewing files you send them.

[BillK]

I'll admit I've ALWAYS wanted a Mac - but they're just so Godawful overpriced for what you get in comparison to a similarly configured PC. If they'd only drop their prices I'd snag one in a minute.

As a comparison - I configured up a pretty beefy Mac G5 the other day how I'd want it - it was over $4700 vs. about $1800 for a PC configured similarly.

Also the available software for Mac's is much more limited than with a PC.

[Piglet]

That's our limiting factor as well. DH grew up in a Mac family and I grew up PC (yes, we have a mixed marriage). He keeps telling me how awesome Macs are, but even he uses a PC exclusively for work. I would love to get one, but all I really need is a computer for the internet at home and the basic PCs are dirt cheap wheras you can't even buy a truly basic Mac. On the high-end it is even more noticeable.

[sidmand]

I've always been a Mac person. At home (for home and business) we have two Mac desktops, a Mac laptop, and a PC.

It's true that it is/was much cheaper to buy a similarly configured PC, but I was really surprised to find out that when my last Mac died (suddenly) the tech suggested an iMac. I didn't think an iMac was powerful enough for my work (I work on high-end books--hundreds of pages, graphics, four-color, etc.) and it's totally fine.

The iMac, brand-new, G5, including CPU and monitor (all one piece) was about $1500. Not bad at all considering what I thought and what I had paid in the past.

But as a warning, it's not as easy to find a tech to work on a Mac if something goes wrong. Not impossible, but most techs work on PCs. I have found some good people, but I've also found some that obviously have no idea what they're doing on a Mac.

I do a fair amount of photo and image editing. If you do a lot of video editing too, you'll definitely need more memory and space though than come automatically. But the upgrade for both of those shouldn't cost very much at this point.

Have fun shopping!

[elektra]

I say get a Mac. I have a Mac and iphoto is great for doing photo editing. It's so easy to get your pics up online too, to share with family and friends.

[pastrygirl]

I just made the switch to Mac in September, and couldn't be happier! For anyone who thinks their so much more expensive than PCs... they're actually not if you factor in the type of computer you'd need to buy to safely and efficiently run Windows Vista. I initially priced out a Windows machine because it's what I've always used. I'm technical, and so is my husband, so we know what's needed for a computer. It was in the 2K range for a Dell. My Macbook Pro was 2K. I've never been happy with Windows, so it was an easy decision for me.

I find that everything is so much simpler on the Mac! Installing applications is a breeze. They don't trick you into installing ten other apps that you don't want. Everything works the way you think it should. If you don't know how to do something, take a guess, and chances are you'll be right. Very intuitive and user-friendly. I love it!

[KBecks]

It was a little disorienting at first but now I'm a total convert. I've got a MacBook Pro and love, love, love it. One of the best things we did in 07

[Davids-Coco]

Mac, hands down... but definitely wait as MacWorld is happening now!