Are MACS just really overpriced PCs?

[kuba]

Just thinking about a future computer purchase and wondered.
Essentially the guts of a Mac are the same as a PC, what makes it different is the OS.
So you're really paying a lot of coin for a fairly stable OS are you not?

 

[The Boston Dangler]

yep. paying a lot of coin for style too.

 

[SparkyJJO]

Pretty much. From what I understand a mac doesn't have a BIOS but something else, plus a few other differences. But the HDs are the same (aside from a firmware difference perhaps) the RAM, the optical drives, even now the CPUs. I pulled a mac labeled stick of PC133 back in the G3/G4 days and stuck it in a PC and it worked fine. Got me curious so I put the cheap non-mac RAM in the mac and guess what, it worked. So yeah all those people who paid 2x the price for "mac" ram didn't have to

And in my opinion the mac style sucks big time. Plain white plastic boxes with rounded edges. No thanks, I'll take my sleek black aluminum case any day

 

[SoundTheSurrender]

They aren't really different anymore, they use EFI as opposed to a BIOS, people have been running a hacked version OSX on regular PCs with AMD processors and nforce boards. Even getting hardware that never touched a Mac to work with it.

 

[DaveSimmons]

It depends on the model. A Mac mini is cheaper than a Shuttle cube or XPC100, and is better designed.

 

[soydios]

the Mac Mini is, IMHO, about $200 more than what it should be
Macbook is quite a good deal
Macbook Pro is expensive, but it can be, because it's the best if you want a portable Mac
iMac is competitively priced
Mac Pro is expensive, and upgrades to it are also expensive, but that's because it's server hardware

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: soydios
the Mac Mini is, IMHO, about $200 more than what it should be
Macbook is quite a good deal
Macbook Pro is expensive, but it can be, because it's the best if you want a portable Mac
iMac is competitively priced
Mac Pro is expensive, and upgrades to it are also expensive, but that's because it's server hardware

Sums it up pretty well.
Shame about the Mac Pro really, I'd like one, but I have absolutely no need for dual CPU's now that we have cheap dual cores.
On the other hand, an iMac isn't for me either, and with no middle ground model, that leaves Apple without a suitable model for me.

 

[russell2002]

I think macs look cool.

Often thought about building a PC in to a mac case.

And then running MacOS on it !

 

[Googer]

Originally posted by: The Boston Dangler
yep. paying a lot of coin for style too.

And the MAC OS; It's the only reason to buy one.

 

[Sunner]

By the way, a pet peeve of mine.
Neither the computer brand Mac, nor the company name Sun, are acronyms, hence they shouldn't be in all capitals

Yes I'm nit picking, and yes I'm bored

 

[40sTheme]

No; they are somewhat like PCs, but there are large differences between the two. Like it was said above, Macs are sometimes a good deal and other times not at all. I don't think you can build your own Mac. Also, Macs are productivity computers, PCs are fun computers (although Macs can play some games and PCs can be optimized for productivity as well). The OSes are quite, quite different.

 

[drag]

Originally posted by: 40sTheme
No; they are somewhat like PCs, but there are large differences between the two. Like it was said above, Macs are sometimes a good deal and other times not at all. I don't think you can build your own Mac. Also, Macs are productivity computers, PCs are fun computers (although Macs can play some games and PCs can be optimized for productivity as well). The OSes are quite, quite different.

The OS is different, but they are using the same generic stuff that Dell or HP uses. Their laptops are built in the factories and probably on the same assembly lines.

If you go and compare like computers between Apple and somebody like Gateway then there isn't a huge price difference. You have to take into account size and such. The industrial design of Macs tend to be very good and they tend to be quiet computers, which may not matter a whole lot to some people, but it matters to a lot of people.

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: drag
The industrial design of Macs tend to be very good and they tend to be quiet computers, which may not matter a whole lot to some people, but it matters to a lot of people.

I hate to be "that guy", but FWIW my roommate's Macbook Pro is far louder than his Lenovo Thinkpad (why he has both, I couldn't tell you). That is mainly a factor of its significant thermal management problems, which lead to the fan running all the time.

There are counter-examples, of course, though Apple's most famously quiet computer was ill-advised at best.

The new Mac Pros have some pretty heavy-duty cooling (which they have to), but I don't know how loud they are.

When you buy a modern Mac, you're buying a PC that comes with Mac OS and a pretty case. You pay a bit extra for that, but I don't know that it's an especially large difference.

 

[Looney]

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: soydios
the Mac Mini is, IMHO, about $200 more than what it should be
Macbook is quite a good deal
Macbook Pro is expensive, but it can be, because it's the best if you want a portable Mac
iMac is competitively priced
Mac Pro is expensive, and upgrades to it are also expensive, but that's because it's server hardware

Sums it up pretty well.
Shame about the Mac Pro really, I'd like one, but I have absolutely no need for dual CPU's now that we have cheap dual cores.
On the other hand, an iMac isn't for me either, and with no middle ground model, that leaves Apple without a suitable model for me.

Wouldn't the Macbook be your middle ground? At least it was for me.

 

[Sunner]

Originally posted by: Looney

Originally posted by: Sunner

Originally posted by: soydios
the Mac Mini is, IMHO, about $200 more than what it should be
Macbook is quite a good deal
Macbook Pro is expensive, but it can be, because it's the best if you want a portable Mac
iMac is competitively priced
Mac Pro is expensive, and upgrades to it are also expensive, but that's because it's server hardware

Sums it up pretty well.
Shame about the Mac Pro really, I'd like one, but I have absolutely no need for dual CPU's now that we have cheap dual cores.
On the other hand, an iMac isn't for me either, and with no middle ground model, that leaves Apple without a suitable model for me.

Wouldn't the Macbook be your middle ground? At least it was for me.

Aside from the fact that I hate laptops, yes

 

[corkyg]

Another perspective might be that PCs are cheap Macs. Apple is the innovator, and Microsoft tags along. Convergence is Utopia.

 

[Midwayman]

Ill be happy when Apple releases their OS without the hardware locks it has now. If I could install it without buying new hardware, Id give it a go.

 

[NaOH]

Laptops are way overpriced in my opinion. Especially the macbook pros.

 

[fire400]

cheap core2 1.86
945 mobo
2gigs of DDR2
x1900 XT
160GB SATA300

XP pro w/Vista

that right there is a mac ownage already

 

[pretendR]

Hi there,
I know that the Mac Pro is realy expensive, but for certain applications you will need much computing power, biomedical computations for example. I tried to order a quad core system some month ago from a german online store. The price was about 2300 EUR, a compareable Mac Pro was about 2500 EUR and the DELL System was in the same range. I dont know how the prices differ in the U.S.A.

 

[s44]

Macbooks would be fairly appealing if it weren't for that toy pointing device.

 

[SickBeast]

It's nice to be able to run OSX IMO. It's a better OS than XP/Vista IMO, plus you can get some really cool apps.

I know someone who hibernated his laptop on OSX repeatedly for a year (he never shut it down!) and it ran beautifully.

 

[Leros]

Originally posted by: SickBeast
It's nice to be able to run OSX IMO. It's a better OS than XP/Vista IMO, plus you can get some really cool apps.

I know someone who hibernated his laptop on OSX repeatedly for a year (he never shut it down!) and it ran beautifully.

You can do the same with Windows provided you don't get tons of spyware or programs with memory leaks.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: Leros

Originally posted by: SickBeast
It's nice to be able to run OSX IMO. It's a better OS than XP/Vista IMO, plus you can get some really cool apps.

I know someone who hibernated his laptop on OSX repeatedly for a year (he never shut it down!) and it ran beautifully.

You can do the same with Windows provided you don't get tons of spyware or programs with memory leaks.

Those are two things that don't affect the Mac nearly as much.

 

[SickBeast]

Originally posted by: s44
Macbooks would be fairly appealing if it weren't for that toy pointing device.

You can use any mouse you want...