Is it worth buying a Mac purely on the basis of reliability

stevemLS

I'm not very techie but have a Mac desktop and laptop.

The desktop is the G5 model, I think it is about 5 years old - but still works absolutely perfectly. I've had the laptop a few years (intel model) and, again, not had any problems with it.

I was very nervous about switching, but have had no problems.

The ease of use when it comes to things like hooking up to the internet is head and shoulders above PCs and the bundled software is fantastic.

If you are a games player you might find software a little limited - but even then, if you must you can run Windows on new Macs. Not quite sure why you would want to though.

As others have said, you just aren't troubled by viruses.

Well worth the money for the durability and ease of use, as well as the drop dead gorgeous looks, in my view.

spaceboy

I find PCs reliable and easy to fix if anything does go wrong. Macs to me are all Flash Harry "look at me I have paid a few hundred more for a swanky product that does the same thing..."

They are quite nice to use though, but I couldnt justify the extra outlay myself.

ashleysly

its your own choice but i am going to get a mac as they are powerful, stylish and better than windows. you may think the same

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ashleysly wrote: »

i am going to get a mac as they are, in my opinion, powerful, stylish and better than windows

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n1ck75

ashleysly wrote: »

its your own choice but i am going to get a mac as they are powerful, stylish and better than windows. you may think the same

powerful? - compared to?

Also "windows" isn't a PC

glossyhair

Marty_J wrote: »

Macs are very reliable, but PCs can be very reliable too. It's just the cheap ones that aren't.

Your dilema isn't really Mac vs PC, it's premium computer vs budget computer. You can buy Dells that cost the same as Macs, and those Dells are very different beasts from the £300 ones they sell.

Macs certainly have their advantages over PCs though; the software that comes with them is generally much better (iLife is worth the price of admission alone), you don't really have to worry so much about viruses and what not, they are (IMHO) easier to use (though some adjustment will be required if you're moving from Windows), and the hardware is the best designed hardware you can buy, bar none.

It's up to you really. If you like the advantages a Mac offers, go for it.

I couldn't have put it better myself!! I bit the bullet and switched about 18 months ago and can honestly say I have never regretted it for a single moment.

tomstickland

I like cheap desktop PCs from Dell. I believe that they offer far more for the money than an Apple.

There is no hardware design - a keyboard and mouse are off the shelf items, the monitor is standard Hewlett Packard and the box sits out of sight.

I've had one or two minor issues to deal with, but the reliability has been fine.

BillScarab

ashleysly wrote: »

its your own choice but i am going to get a mac as they are powerful, stylish and better than windows. you may think the same

Since Macs use the same basic hardware as Windows or Linux PCs how are they 'more powerful' ?

Stylish is a matter of opinion, if you're prepared to pay the same amount for a machine running Windows there are plenty of stylish ones available.

As for 'better', define better. Is the OS better, the applications available or what?

gonzo127

i think the issue here is the reliability and the problem in comparison between a Mac/premium PC and a budget system (BMW vs tata) and the fact it is such a hard one to quantify.

with this in mind i would also suggest at least trying out Linux (probably ubuntu however please bare in mind a new version is due to be released very soon) as what have you got to lose? Ubunutu is free save for the price of a disk to burn the ISO image off on,

ok so it will be a bit of a learning curve however if you are willing to learn Mac OS then there should be very little problem learning Ubuntu, and if you do have problems you have the help and support for ubuntu which can be gotten from the community forums

anyways it is your choice, i would personally try Ubuntu and see if that fixes the problems

[Deleted User]

londonman81 wrote: »

My problem: I have two PC's from a well known manufacturer, around 3 years old each, one of which has seen minimal usage and yet they both still keep crashing and giving errors etc. Infact I had my first Blue screen within a few days of receiving one of them.

Have you done any investigative work into what is causing the instability, i.e. has it been caused by the software installed on them or is it a hardware issue?

Often the best, and simplest, course of action is to format the hard drive and reinstall the operating system with the latest drivers and updates and chose to use better security software. It's a task that shouldn't take you more than half a day, with the majority of it being ok to leave while you go and do something else.

It's almost an urban myth that PC's become obsolete after a few years, it's the poor configuration and use by the user that renders them that and you'd be surprised how a bit of maintenance and possibly upgrading the RAM if necessary will extend the life of the machine by another few years.