Macbooks worth the price?

[PUGS]

As the title: do you think spending $1000 on a macbook is worth it, or just go with a dell or hp for half the price?

 

[Pheedno]

I made the switch and ended up liking it so much I changed the entire platform for my gym. Plus, with a Mac, all you have to do is by the Parallel program and you can run windows or any PC program on the mac, while you operate the mac.
Definitely worth it, IMO

 

[fubaseball]

Definitely worth it. A Mac works like a computer should run...

 

[Juiceboy44]

Mac's are great. If you can afford it go for it.
You wont regret it.

 

[kingdawg98]

Macs are hands down the best, but if you really don't need a lap top, then definitely get the iMac. It's cheaper and way more powerful, and comes with a lot more memory and gigs.

 

[j8282]

Windows in general is pain at work. All our linux machines pretty much run circle around windows. I have an IMAC and notebook and never looked back. Depending on your set up you could download Ubuntu 11.04 or Linux Mint for free then burn a bootable disk. The download has an option to try as demo before you completely wipe out your current operation system or you could run on top of windows by just inserting the disk while logged on to check it out first. You can just buy a mac but if you just don't want windows anymore you can just give this a try. Like I said its free! It has good features like mozilla and open office for document stuff.

 

[j8282]

Download - Linux Mint

Homepage | Ubuntu

 

[ctgblue]

I'll play the other side
I am a PC guy, I have friends who work for Apple

If you do video, graphic arts, etc.. Macs are the way to go, if you want general computing power, PC's are the best value for the money.
Biggest problem with Mac's, you crash, you lose it all, PC's can have the hard drives recovered, Macs are toast
that said, they do not crash as often, but my wife is a teacher and several students this year lost every bit of their work on the Macs

My two buddies who work selling macs, have PC's at home, "more program options, more memory, comparable speed, less money" are their words

the biggest thing I can give to Macs is: because they are not nearly as popular or prevalent, and not really used in businesses, their systems are not targeted by virus designers, so they are less susceptible to this problem

But I use a good AV software from CA trust and I don't have problems at home like we do at work

 

[Mota]

Macs are a complete rip off. Buy a PC with the same specs for half the price. It will work just as well, last just as long, be able to do more things for you, and its HALF the price.

 

[BOOMSHAKER]

I'll play the other side
I am a PC guy, I have friends who work for Apple

If you do video, graphic arts, etc.. Macs are the way to go, if you want general computing power, PC's are the best value for the money.

Agreed, I shopped around and read everything I could for a number of months. Decided to go with a Windows laptop to run my dj software. Buddy of mine bought a Mac book. We both have the exact same dj software, and it runs pretty much exactly the same on both machines. No hang ups, crashes or what ever. Only difference is he paid $1,200 for his and got a 11" or 13" screen(?) LOL, and I paid $950 with all the extra bells and whistles I added in and a 17" screen! I have a old pc at home still running win95. I have another pc running win2000 on it for the last like 10years. My daughter and wife have windows based laptops they use for school and work. Again, no problems. My laptop is windows based, NO PROBLEMS.

In the end (IMHO) it comes down to what are you planning on doing with the machine, and a matter of preference.

 

[Curiousity]

As the title: do you think spending $1000 on a macbook is worth it, or just go with a dell or hp for half the price?

Quite frankly it depends on what you are using it for.

Mac's value come from being a closed system. The programs, while more expensive, are typically higher quality. Typically people in the creative arts gravitate towards them. Great marketing!

PCs: I have a nice laptop that I picked up on the last Black Friday sales for $400 that is quite good. (I went with that vs. buying business grade parts because I primarily use a desktop.)

Linix: If you are just looking for email, web surfing, using an office suite, etc - then you really should consider picking up a good deal on Craigslist and loading Linux on it. It's free and has been great advancements in the last bit of time to being more user friendly. Ubuntu is nice because it has a software repository that you can browse and click-install new programs. Linux Mint focuses on usability, and includes some 3-party drivers in the install package so that you don't have to install them (such as flash, etc.)

 

[Ash2021]

So worth it.

My macbook has been on pretty much 24/7 for 5 years now. Always online. No virus protection, and absolutely no problems. Can you say that for a PC? (if you can you know it's some kind of fluke or you wear a pocket protector daily)

I'll never go back.

 

[alan1973]

Agreed, I shopped around and read everything I could for a number of months. Decided to go with a Windows laptop to run my dj software. Buddy of mine bought a Mac book. We both have the exact same dj software, and it runs pretty much exactly the same on both machines. No hang ups, crashes or what ever. Only difference is he paid $1,200 for his and got a 11" or 13" screen(?) LOL, and I paid $950 with all the extra bells and whistles I added in and a 17" screen! I have a old pc at home still running win95. I have another pc running win2000 on it for the last like 10years. My daughter and wife have windows based laptops they use for school and work. Again, no problems. My laptop is windows based, NO PROBLEMS.

In the end (IMHO) it comes down to what are you planning on doing with the machine, and a matter of preference.

What DJ software and do you have a rig to connect to your laptop? my wife wants me to get back into it only to teach my daughters how to....I did clubs overseas and stateside and also did the mobile DJ thing then I retired 10 years ago becuase clubs have smoke and the asthma was getting out of control and I was losing my hearing. i never went the MP3 route with DJing so I that would be new to me. i need another 2GB of RAM for my laptop though before I decide for sure.

 

[Pheedno]

I'll play the other side
I am a PC guy, I have friends who work for Apple

If you do video, graphic arts, etc.. Macs are the way to go, if you want general computing power, PC's are the best value for the money.
Biggest problem with Mac's, you crash, you lose it all, PC's can have the hard drives recovered, Macs are toast
that said, they do not crash as often, but my wife is a teacher and several students this year lost every bit of their work on the Macs

My two buddies who work selling macs, have PC's at home, "more program options, more memory, comparable speed, less money" are their words

the biggest thing I can give to Macs is: because they are not nearly as popular or prevalent, and not really used in businesses, their systems are not targeted by virus designers, so they are less susceptible to this problem

But I use a good AV software from CA trust and I don't have problems at home like we do at work

yeah, but all you have to have is a time capsule. It automatically backs up the entire hard drive, and acts as a wireless router. Reinstalling is just a matter of turning on your new computer. It does everything for you. I had a mac at work crash(just form being defective from the store). Took it in, the fixed the hard drive for free. Came back turned it on, it automatically sensed the wireless network and reinstalled everything for me.

I also would'nt necessarily agree with more program options. I run windows on my mac for a few things mac doesn't support so the options are there. It may be more expensive but you get a mac and a PC platform all in one.

 

[BOOMSHAKER]

What DJ software and do you have a rig to connect to your laptop? my wife wants me to get back into it only to teach my daughters how to....I did clubs overseas and stateside and also did the mobile DJ thing then I retired 10 years ago becuase clubs have smoke and the asthma was getting out of control and I was losing my hearing. i never went the MP3 route with DJing so I that would be new to me. i need another 2GB of RAM for my laptop though before I decide for sure.

I'll PM you the info later on tonight when I get home so as not to get off topic here. But I am more then happy to help her. (philly is "almost" smoke free, and Jersey is 100% smoke free inside anywhere, finally! LOL)

 

[alan1973]

with Macs becoming the norm in colleges now...more and more bad code is being written for Macs...but so far not as bad. I like the idea that I can run windows on a make just in case but I don't think it would be necessary. I already have 3 laptops in the house and 3 computers (IT dude here).

 

[BOOMSHAKER]

ALAN, cleanyour PM box out brother...

 

[alan1973]

ALAN, cleanyour PM box out brother...

sorry bro....cleaned out about 25 for now...should be good.

 

[DrZaius7]

YES!!

I switched all computers to MAC after the first IPhone came out. I could not be happier!

 

[bubbafrombama]

I'm an Apple junkie when it comes to toys (iPhone, iPad, etc), but I still use, and am happy with, Windows based systems. If I owned a Mac, I'd still load Windows 7 (I need it for what I do).