Apple Conputers

mrochester

My overiding and very simplistic advice is desktop = Windows, laptop = Apple. Apple make cracking mobile devices, but their desktops are far less compelling.

Lum

grizzly1911 wrote: »

Do you have any experience of Toshiba? Their business ones always used to be robust. Son has a current satellite with an i3 processor that seems to be doing pretty well.

I've not touched Toshiba in many years. My memories of their laptops mostly consist of weak hinges that shortly after the warranty expired the screen wouldn't stay upright but would flop back onto the table.

They may be better these days, but Tosh haven't offered a laptop deal compelling enough to make me consider one.

Lum

gonzo127 wrote: »

Reliability - there is no definitive answer too this, as there are too many manufacturers of Windows PCs (let alone self builds). However based on the latest reliability surveys which have been done on warranty claims and helpdesk calls, Apple tend to come out as 'only' 3rd or 4th place usually behind Asus, Lenovo and Samsung, this is not to say they are unreliable, just that they are not the pinnacle of reliability

I would be careful with this statistic. Apple users pay a premium for their product and so expect premium quality and premium service. The age-old stereotype of the Bentley driver making a warranty claim because the ashtray is full may well apply here.

Mr_Toad

Lum wrote: »

With Windows machines, I'd go for Asus or Lenovo if I was looking for build quality. I'd be very careful with Dell (their business machines are pretty decent, their consumer ones tend to be rather flimsy) and I'd steer well clear of Acer.

I agree regarding Asus and Lenovo, my work laptop is a Lenovo and it's a great machine.

I have to say that I have a different view on Acer. I bought one for my daughter when she went to Uni and it never gave a minutes trouble and is now 5 years old and still going. I also have a one of the Acer Aspire One netbooks, the Linux version with the 120GB HDD, I forget the model number, and that's still used every day by family member.

I suppose our opinions are coloured by the experience we have and my family and friends may just have been lucky with Acer kit.

billy98111

Mr_Toad wrote: »

I agree regarding Asus and Lenovo, my work laptop is a Lenovo and it's a great machine.

I have to say that I have a different view on Acer. I bought one for my daughter when she went to Uni and it never gave a minutes trouble and is now 5 years old and still going. I also have a one of the Acer Aspire One netbooks, the Linux version with the 120GB HDD, I forget the model number, and that's still used every day by family member.

I suppose our opinions are coloured by the experience we have and my family and friends may just have been lucky with Acer kit.

This is true. It's too bad that most people are scared of using Linux on a laptops because it's so worth using on a little netbook. Plus it's more secure and less prone to having issues with new computer users.

bod1467

People might want to take a look at Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon ... quite familiar to Windows users and Mac users alike.

mrochester

bod1467 wrote: »

People might want to take a look at Linux Mint 13 Cinnamon ... quite familiar to Windows users and Mac users alike.

The main problem with Linux, I find, is that it doesn't run any of my blasted software or games!

Lum

Mr_Toad wrote: »

I have to say that I have a different view on Acer. I bought one for my daughter when she went to Uni and it never gave a minutes trouble and is now 5 years old and still going. I also have a one of the Acer Aspire One netbooks, the Linux version with the 120GB HDD, I forget the model number, and that's still used every day by family member.

My experience was somewhat soured by an Acer TravelMate laptop I had back in the day.

It had a shared heatsink for both the CPU and the GPU. Problem is these two chips were slightly different heights and Acer "solved" this by just loading in extra thermal goop to fill up the gap.

Combine that with a flimsy case that would flex when you pick it up, and just outside the warranty period the thermal goop dried out, detached from the heatskink and the GPU fried.

mrochester

sam959 wrote: »

You dont really know what you are talking about do you! Apple are far superior at making desktops like the Imac for instance is a very powerful machine and works very well i have 3 in the office and are superb! They are far faster than any PC i have ever used!

I do know what I'm talking about because I've used a bit of everything and I've found the above combination of devices to be the best on offer.

mrochester

sam959 wrote: »

Yeah well ive been ive been using computers for years as well and disagree with what you are saying. I had PC for the first 15 years and had nothing but problems so when i switched to MAC my life became so much easier! MAC outlast PC and a G5 desktop has so much room to upgrade you can fit 4 of everything in it. you can have up to 64mb ram, up to 4 tb of hard drive space and so on. They are so powerful its is incredible!! Plus MAC hold there price i sold my 10 year old IMAC for £250 what would a PC be worth after 10 years?

I'd agree that that used to be the case, but Windows 7 is a pretty rock solid and stable OS, so you can't go far wrong on the desktop with that. The reason I recommend Apple for mobile is the quality and usability of the keyboard and trackpad, which are unrivalled in the Windows laptop market. You also get stellar battery life in OSX, it's very efficient. And then you can run Windows natively on a Mac anyway, in case you do need it for anything.