Computers, Advice, Reviews, Laptops, desktops, Back to School
Mac vs. PC -- Which Is for You?

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Definitive Technology BPX
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Denon AVR-4306 (black)
Incredibly well-featured 7.1-channel receiver; excellent sound quality; three HDMI inputs; converts analog video to HDMI output; upconverts analog video to 720p/1080i HD resolution; iPod and USB MP3 player connectivity; Internet radio and MP3/WMA streaming audio via built-in Ethernet port; XM Satellite Radio compatible; touch-screen remote; multizone, multisource operation; browser-based control via home network; accurate autocalibration routine. Full Review
KEF KHT3005 (black)
The KEF KHT-3005 is one compact, beautifully designed speaker package with solid aluminum satellites that feature unique driver technology to produce incredible clarity. Meanwhile, the equally astounding dual 10-inch, 250-watt powered subwoofer delivers ultradeep bass. Full Review
SignalBoost Mobile Professional Amplifier Kit
The Mobile Professional Amplifier delivers a powerful signal boost to your cell phone. Also, it offers a compact design and easy setup. Full Review
Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL cell phone signal extender
The Wi-Ex zBoost YX510-PCS-CEL significantly boosts your cell phone reception and is easy to operate. Also, it uses a wireless connection to your phone. Full Review
LG VX6000 (Verizon Wireless)
Compact and stylish; impressive battery life; solid audio quality; sharp color screen; built-in camera; USB ready; affordable. Full Review
Canon EOS 1D Mark III
Extremely fast, 10-megapixel continuous shooting; very low noise; highly customizable; well-designed body with weather sealing; 3-inch LCD; abundant optional accessories. Full Review
Nikon D3 (body only)
Full-frame sensor; well designed, pro-level weather-sealed body; very low noise, even at extremely high ISOs; fast. Full Review
Canon EOS-1Ds Mark III
Very low noise, high quality images; 21.1 megapixels; live view shooting; pro-level build-quality and performance. Full Review
Velocity Micro Edge Z30 (Intel Core i7)
Best value among midrange gaming PCs; Velocity Micro's consistently high build quality; compact case makes few sacrifices; second graphics card slot previously uncommon at this price. Full Review
Apple iMac (24-inch, 2.8GHz)
A minor specification update results in some significant performance gains; graphics upgrade an option on this 24-inch model; sleek, polished design didn't receive an update, but we won't start clamoring for a new design until the current one is at least 12 months old. Full Review
Velocity Raptor Signature Edition Gaming PC
One of the fastest PCs we've tested; a PCI Express RAID card helps media encoding performance; typically immaculate Velocity Micro assembly; strong, three-year warranty. Full Review
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
Frank said 6:27AM on 8-06-2008
Get a Mac.......
You'll never look back..........
Reply
TIMLITZ said 9:29PM on 8-07-2008
MY 11 MONTH OLD MAC CRASHED THREE TIMES.
APPLE STEPPED UP TO THE PLATE AND TOOK CARE OF IT.
THE ONLY DOWNFALL OF MAC'S CAME WITH THE NEW INTEL
PROCESSOR.
I HATE TO SEE APPLE GO DOWN THE TUBES FROM FLAWED TECHNOLOGY.
Jeremy N. Rauch said 12:33AM on 10-31-2008
For a vast amount of Mac-over-PC information come to haveanapple@blogspot.com. On this coming Tuesday I will be posting a 5 page essay on why Macs are better than PCs.
Ethan said 6:28AM on 8-06-2008
Mac vs. Windows, I say who cares because it's all about Linux yo'.
Reply
Apple ROKZ said 8:26PM on 8-27-2008
linux!? yo not serious
R U
SOOOOOOOOO MAC
juan tello said 6:46AM on 8-06-2008
macs are the best
Reply
Alphacat said 6:56AM on 8-06-2008
Mac vs. PC = Obama vs. Mccain :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaLvGGMpGFg
Reply
krazie835 said 6:03PM on 8-06-2008
Macs are good, but not everyone can afford them.
Reply
dennis said 7:17AM on 8-06-2008
Ok, for all those that seriously care. I was a big mac head in the mid 90's. Then I began to realize that as graphics programs were being ported to the PC in effective ways, PC hardware was becoming cheaper pound for pound. In other words, I could get a PC as powerful as a mac for much cheaper and by Windows 98 or so, the OSs were becoming effectively the same. In fact, Windows was adopting the good Mac attributes while it seemed the Mac was adopting the bad ones.
Flash forward to this year, where, for the first time in over 10 years, I bought a mac pro BUT i also installed vista on it.
Why?
The mac pro can take an insane amount of ram.
Photoshop cs4 will be the first 64 bit enabled version of the program plus it will be able to allocate more than 4gb of ram. BUT it will only be available on Windows for the frist six months or so due to Apple not supporting a 64 bit version of one of their programming languages.
Best of both worlds, yo.
Reply
mh said 7:33AM on 8-06-2008
not quite right. apple is providing a great 64 bit solution with core image, adobe is just too lazy to use it.
Apple ROKZ said 1:42PM on 8-28-2008
point taken but apple iz betr
cmoonburton said 7:18AM on 8-06-2008
Mac is better, way better than the PC.
Reply
iDude said 7:48AM on 8-06-2008
Hey Tommy--
Nowhere in your series of articles did you mention that Macs can run XP or Vista.
Also, the Mac mini, iMac, MacBook, and Mac Pro have three year warranties for less than $349.
How about the time wasted when you do / don't update virus and spyware protection? That's a real tangible for Windows chusers.
Nice job...
A brief story: I had a 4X DVD burner that had only a "Windows" badge on the box. It worked fine in my Mac. Then I sold it to an XP bud for $20. He had a 2GHz rig, Pentium 4. After a week of it not working in his rig and coaching via phone, scrounging the internet for firmwares, flashing via DOS (all horrors I had to endure while I coached him), the best we could do is burn at 2X and eject the disk after the burn. Otherwise his rig would lock up. The Windows Rage I went through for about three weeks total was not worth the $20 at all.
Remember. the iPod is the number one mp3 player on the planet not because of Mac users. Think about why. Nothing else worked / works quite as well, despite "all those options" out there for Windows users.
Reply
Tom Samiljan said 8:46AM on 8-06-2008
Hey iDude,
Thanks for mentioning that stuff. Yes, you are correct. We updated the extended warranty information and added a bit about how Macs can run Windows XP -- an important point!
Best,
Tom
zargon said 8:21AM on 8-06-2008
Mac zealots are some of the worst out there, which makes it painful to even read comments when either Macs are pitted against the PC or someone talks about Macs in a bad light. They seem to come out of the woodwork, as though they have some system to monitor the internet and save their precious Macs name.
I also find the blind Mac sheep, the people that buy Macs just because they are "cool" or "hip" and just add comments like "Macs are better" or "PCs sucks" with out backing up their claim at all.
I don't really care about Macs or PCs. I support most Windows based systems at work, because lets face it, in the corporate environment, Windows is really the only choice. But we do have some Macs that we have to support also. I could pull stats from our issue tracking system, but I am pretty sure we have as many calls per computer for the Macs as we do the PCs. This whole false bubble of Macs just working or being more secure (one of the stupidest claims since it will give people a false sense of invisibility) is just myth.
At the end of the day, I don't care what type of computer I support, I just care about getting the job done. At home is another story, I run linux on on my computers since I don't want to have to do extra work or worry. While some may say that not having to do extra work is a oxy-moron with linux, and some cases it can be. Overall, I know I spend less time supporting it then I do with Windows or OSX.
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Richard said 7:33PM on 8-06-2008
mh,
You must know a lot about programming? Do you realize that there are already a bunch of 64 bit programs out there but all are for windows only? So you think all those different companies are lazy? Wouldn't you think one of them would want to be the first if it didn't mean an entire rewrite of their code? Think about it
Reply
phyllis said 12:58PM on 8-06-2008
From the first paragraph your bias was quite obvious. How much did Bill Gates pay you to write this? I left the wonderful world of PC's and Bill Gates after a MULTITUDE of viruses completely disabled my Dell laptop (with Norton Antivirus up and running!), finally leaving me with a dead computer that required more in repairs and upgrades to irradicate the viruses than the cost of my Mac...which, by the way has never gone "haywire", contracted a virus (with NO antivirus software installed) or become infested with spyware. I'll pay more for my Mac any day of the week. Also, please do your homework, there's lots of downloadable after market software available for the Mac. You also fail to mention how seamlessly the Mac interfaces with all of the superior Mac accessories like the iPod and iPhone. I guarantee the only people your article has convinced are basic unknowledgeable PC users, who don't know any better. P.S. Buy a Mac!
Reply
forbusmj said 6:13PM on 8-06-2008
Intel Pentium Dual-Core processor E2220
800Mhz frontside bus
1MB shared L2 cache
2.4GHz processor speed
4GB PC2-6400 DDR2 SDRAM
500GB Serial ATA hard drive (7200 rpm) and a 200GB secondary drive
NVIDIA GeForce 7100 graphics with Turbocache 128MB dedicated graphics memory, NIVIDA GeForce 8600 GT graphics card
2 IEEE 1394, 6 USB 2.0
10/100/1000 ethernet w/RJ-45 connector; 56 Kbps modem
Windows Vista Home Premium
I LOVE YOU PC!
Reply
Konradson said 9:13AM on 8-06-2008
I've installed Mac OS X 10.4.5 (First Intel version), on a Fujitsu Scaleo Pentium 4 with 512 Mbytes. Intel or Via Chipsets.
Although Linux sounds great, You can't play with Linux, Ubuntu gives some chance. You can play with both Mac and Windows. You can use Photoshop with both Mac and Windows.
if you want Unix, use Solaris, HP-UX. If at home... Mac OS X.
Granny wants Word? you have MS Office 2008 for Mac
And what's better, it is steadier than a PC!!!
Changing parts in a Mac Workstation is easier than in a PC, no matter if it is self built or from Dell or HP.
I'm not happy with any Support from any Company. Worst, maybe ACER, and it doesn't matter if it is for home or a company with a 24/7 Gold Support with Dell or HP, or even SUN.
You'd rather know first the Company's support in your city...
good luck!!!
Reply
Joe Goodof said 9:33AM on 8-06-2008
A Movie sent to me this week had a dot mov suffix.. it will NOT play on my great Dell 530 vista loaded pc... sorry, Mac.
Reply