Rant about Apple - What to da about next computer

superscaper

Leopard wrote: »

It's suddenly all gone very quiet in here. Was it something I said? :cool:

Probably gone off to do other things. I for one am not actually here.

wolfman

Lots of comments about Mac's being overpriced. I wouldn't say they are, maybe fractionally higher though.

I was looking at a MacBook recently, but in the end went for a Dell XPS M1330. Same spec as the mid level MacBook but I got it at a steal of a price for £600. That's £230 cheaper which worked for me. It's very nice too.

For Mac's it's that they don't have a many entry level options (apart from the Mac Mini). Excluding the Mac Mini you're looking at spending a minimum of £700 which is quite a lot for some people.

I for example originally only wanted to spend £400-500 on my laptop as I don't use it all the time. I did go a little over budget though.

The Mac Mini is nice, although for a base unit at around £400-500 some may prefer to build there own. It works well as a simple media center. The initial 1Gb RAM is a bit of a let down. I don't even run Linux with that little.

Marty_J

Cat695 wrote: »

Yes it can a freeware program admittedly but nor can a PC without media player Which comes with xp/vista

And Macs come with software for using iPods. Swings and roundabouts.

Not quite a true statement you cannot play music that has been converted by itunes on anything other than Apple products (without the aid of software)

Of course you can. iTunes doesn't do anything special to music tracks.

I know you like me are in the forces so even if you work programs don't work on a Mac it won't on YOUR PC either but i may be wrong well you are wrong and you don't do the same job as me

But can't Windows software be run natively on a Mac?

That's just your opinion its not my opinion its fact! that if i build a PC with the same spec as a TOP END MAC it will be cheaper

As has already been pointed out, you're not comparing like for like. For starters, you're not building an all in one design. It's all very well for you to say that it makes no difference, but it does to some people. I don't have the room for a separate tower and monitor, nor do I want a tangle of leads everywhere I go. And I can pick my iMac up and move it around the house as easily as moving a laptop. I could even buy an iLugger case and carry it around with me if I were so inclined.

Secondly, as far as building your own goes, that's an argument against purchasing a manufactured computer, not purchasing a Mac. I need an all in one design, so I have to buy one from somewhere. The iMac offers better value than buying something similar from some other manufacturer.

Your circumstances are not my circumstances, so it's rather pointless to say that a particular aspect of a computer is not important, and you can't simply dismiss it when comparing them. I'm not terribly interesting in building my own computers (though I have considered building a Linux box before), and I have a PS3, an xBox 360 and a Wii for playing games on, so I'm not really interested in doing it on my Mac (though to hear some talk, you'd think all a Mac could handle is solitaire). But just because I'm not interested in such things doesn't mean that I discount your interest in them. They're just not for everyone.

Marty_J

wolfman wrote: »

Lots of comments about Mac's being overpriced. I wouldn't say they are, maybe fractionally higher though.

I was looking at a MacBook recently, but in the end went for a Dell XPS M1330. Same spec as the mid level MacBook but I got it at a steal of a price for £600. That's £230 cheaper which worked for me. It's very nice too.

For Mac's it's that they don't have a many entry level options (apart from the Mac Mini). Excluding the Mac Mini you're looking at spending a minimum of £700 which is quite a lot for some people.

I for example originally only wanted to spend £400-500 on my laptop as I don't use it all the time. I did go a little over budget though.

The Mac Mini is nice, although for a base unit at around £400-500 some may prefer to build there own. It works well as a simple media center. The initial 1Gb RAM is a bit of a let down. I don't even run Linux with that little.

Did you try the refurb store? Some bargains to be had there.

Apple really something at a price point between the Mac Mini and the Mac Pro that's not an all-in-one design like the iMac. The Mac Pro is really nice, but it's also really expensive.

Leopard

My most recent laptop purchase was a (second) 15.4" Apple MacBook Pro 2.4 GHz.

I found it on eBay two months ago, listed by somebody 35 miles away.

Its previous owner had (for reasons of security) removed its hard drive and replaced it (flawlessly) with a blank 80 GB drive. He'd also removed its 2 GB of RAM and replaced it with 1 GB. And kept its charger.

It's battery was flat, it had no operating system and no charger.

It was, however, in immaculate condition.

Its seller had bought it as part of a job lot from a company liquidator. He dealt in PCs and didn't know what to do with it.

I went (with a charger, a Firewire external hard drive containing Mac OS 10.5.4 and an Apple Hardware Check DVD) to inspect it.

He was a nice guy, it checked out perfect, completely legitimate and still with a few days of its original AppleCare to run.

He sold it to me for £550. I put 4 GB of RAM (£55 from Crucial) and a 200 GB, 7200 rpm hard drive (£75 from LambdaTek) into it. I extended its warranty for a further two years with an AppleCare that I purchased on eBay for £110.

End result: £2,100 of immaculate MacBook Pro, with another two years of AppleCare, for less than £800 (plus a charger I had spare and a couple of gallons of petrol).

That's why I didn't spend the whole afternoon arguing with a tedious twit who thinks an Apple computer costs too much to acquire.

I was too busy buying a £250 docking station for it on eBay, new, for £90.

I imagine his mummy has told him to put his computer magazines away, turn off the plastic box he plays little games with and come and have his tea.

He suckered you all. (And a bunch of other people in another thread).

wolfman

That's an exceptional deal, although eBay is another world, and deals don't always come about as good as that.

I did check the refurb store, normally get my ipods from there, but nothing quite met the spec I wanted at the time.

One case where Apple is definitely expensive. It may not be the case now, but previously their monitors shipped with the same panel that the Dell Ultrasharps used. However for the same size, the Apple's were around £50-100 more expensive.

I do like their keyboards though. Am fine with the price of them. Got 3 kicking around here (my bluetooth one won't work with Ubuntu 8.04 ).

And Time Machine, while not the best value offers such great ease of use for backing up, something a lot of people don't bother doing properly.

Oh, Airport Express, I find annoying. It's a shame they don't open it up a bit more. Great little device, just wish I could get it working with Rhythmbox. Same with Time Machine to a certain extent, which is why I stick to using a very similar and small FreeNas box (soon to become Open Filer). It gives me so much more too (rsync, ftp, samba, ssh, scheduling etc...).

Marty_J

Wow, you joined just so you could tell him you didn't care?

I think someone has a little crush! :happyhear

PROLIANT

Are we still talking bo||ocks? Hows everybody this fine morning? Off to bed shortly when I have finished installing XP Pro on my Asus Eeepc, looks a bit like a mini-mac, being white and all that.

[Deleted User]

I'm quite looking forward to see how the Apple vs Psystar situation is going to pan out over the coming months. For anyone who isn't sure about the backstory, Psystar have been selling non Apple computers preloaded with OS X and obviously Apple have decided this is not on.

Leopard

I agree. Particularly with America's far tougher anti-trust laws.

I love the hypocrisy. "Hey, isn't a Mac great! We've now built it so that it can run Windows as well." Followed by, "Hey, what the hell do you think you're doing, building a Windows machine that can run the Mac OS!"

:rotfl: