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To mac or not to mac ...
h3ndu
Registered User regular
Registered User regular
So I have an ASUS aspire one - it's my only computer; I've used it through college, to take notes, write papers, surf the web and Facebook. I like the little thing, but it's been getting noticeably slower over the years. When I have more than two tabs open in Chrome it slows down, it has trouble with Chat on Facebook sometimes, and when I put my Nike+ watch into the USB port everything stops for a few minutes. Basically, doing anything just takes time. It also has windows 7 starter - I don't know if that's a plus or a negative. I've never really had a problem with the OS. I can upgrade the ram on it from one gig to two, and I think maybe it would probably work adequately for my purposes.
Honestly, all I've ever needed it for and all I've ever used it for is as a typing machine and a web browser, and I feel like it's done that honorably. I kind of feel like it's time for an upgrade though, and I'm looking at maybe getting a Mac Book Pro. I've never had a mac before, so it's kind of foreign territory but I've played around on a friends a few times and I like how smooth they are, and she'll never shut up about it's reliability.
I like the look of the mac mini too but for me a Laptop is ideal - I move frequently in the army (three times this year, with a fourth coming up, hooray!), and having a desktop is really just a hassle to keep around and up. My ASUS has been my only computer for years now.
That said I'm kind of torn. It still works, and while slow eventually gets things done. I feel almost like I would be leaving an old friend behind. Another friend of mine is trying to get me into playing WOW and I know it couldn't possibly handle it, so there's that too.
TL;DR - My asus is slow, should I upgrade the ram, use it as a linux project, or just buy a Mac Book Pro?
Caveat - I got an iPhone 5 a few days ago and love it to bits. How is the connectivity between mac items?
Honestly, all I've ever needed it for and all I've ever used it for is as a typing machine and a web browser, and I feel like it's done that honorably. I kind of feel like it's time for an upgrade though, and I'm looking at maybe getting a Mac Book Pro. I've never had a mac before, so it's kind of foreign territory but I've played around on a friends a few times and I like how smooth they are, and she'll never shut up about it's reliability.
I like the look of the mac mini too but for me a Laptop is ideal - I move frequently in the army (three times this year, with a fourth coming up, hooray!), and having a desktop is really just a hassle to keep around and up. My ASUS has been my only computer for years now.
That said I'm kind of torn. It still works, and while slow eventually gets things done. I feel almost like I would be leaving an old friend behind. Another friend of mine is trying to get me into playing WOW and I know it couldn't possibly handle it, so there's that too.
TL;DR - My asus is slow, should I upgrade the ram, use it as a linux project, or just buy a Mac Book Pro?
Caveat - I got an iPhone 5 a few days ago and love it to bits. How is the connectivity between mac items?
Lo Que Sea, Cuando Sea, Donde Sea.
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I love my Air, though. It's the best laptop I've ever used, let alone owned. The multi-touch pad is incredibly easy to use, and I hated using touchpads on other laptops. I don't even have a mouse for my Air at all.
As someone who went through the stages of laptop death with a Dell from waaaayyy back, forget spending any money on the current laptop. It's not worth it.
I was a Mac user for a few years and for sure the OS is nice, but it is not without some stupid things. However that is just the OS and these days a Mac is really just a PC with Apple software so it can run whatever OS you like.
Also I thing one has to question if Apple is a company worth supporting. It is like their way or else...
Had no real problem with it, but never really felt comfortable with it. Just something about it hiding the back-end workings always bothered me. Ridiculous because it's objectively better, but just never could get used to Finder and how MacOS handles downloads, etc. Think the last OS update I did on it was Leopard, so somewhat dated to be sure.
So go play with one at an Apple store/friend's, and see how you like it. Hardware is always highly rated.
I did the Mac Mini thing for a while as well, but the deployments and such just necessitate a laptop.
Edit: Also, your iPhone will connect to a PC just fine! iTunes is slower and less good on a PC if that's what you're using, but I've been using it to manage my music since 2006 (maybe earlier, don't remember) without any real problems. I wouldn't worry.
Depending on your MOS a laptop might be the best option if you have a deployment upcoming.
So what I'm reading and what people are telling me is that they are stupid nice but almost unreasonably priced.
I don't play as many games as I used to; when I hit college life just kind of became too fast paced for me to adequately enjoy them. WOW would be fun I think as there are two or three guys in my shop who play. I hear macs aren't the best though for games?
I am going to coast around the PX and look at all the laptop models they have available. But there is just something desire able about those Mac books.
You may also want to look into a "Hackentosh" if you just want the ease of use of a Mac.
Are there any fun projects that I could do with it, or should I gift it away?
Install a very light version of linux on it and use it still.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_netbook-oriented_Linux_distributions
ram is cheap these days; i'd upgrade it as much as you can and see how it goes before you even bother with a new computer. my 5 year old laptop still runs flawlessly with windows 7, mostly due to the 4gb of ram. the battery life's terrible so it's now a media centre, but if that's not a concern with you, why not try to squeeze out more life from it?
If money is no object, they are worth it. You are paying for the luxury brand, but you are also paying for the quality. They also have great support in Apple shops. My Macbook's battery failed 1 month out of warranty and they still gave me a free replacement.
Macs play games just fine, but there are not so many games released for them. Of course, these days there are not so many games released for PC either! (well, lots of indie games but not so many big names)
http://www.squaretrade.com/laptop-reliability-1109/ (From 09, but its a survey of 30k warranty claims which is pretty good as afar as a data set goes)
http://www.rescuecom.com/news-press-releases/computer-reliability-report-2012-Q2.aspx
ranks them thus for q2 2012
2. Lenovo/IBM (255)
3. Asus (159)
4. Apple (130)
5. Toshiba (117)
6. HP/Compaq (109)
7. Dell (79)
8. Sony (49)
9. Acer (28)
As for games, unless you are looking to really push bleeding edge FPS play, Dells XPS line, Asus higher end laptops, etc all have discrete GPUs which should work fine. Hell I played WoWs previous expansion(November 2011) on a $350 bottom end gateway laptop from 09. Not great, but well enough to raid on.
http://www.microcenter.com/product/415326/ROG_G750JW-RB71_173_Laptop_Computer_-_Black Is 1500 and probably over-kill
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834230592 is 1000($800 cheaper than the starting 15'' macbook)
Trying to get a MacBook Pro to that level of CPU/GPU/Ram/HDD space etc, will put you at 2500, and you still aren't quite there on the GPU. Plus then you still need Bootcamp and a copy of windows for games.
Having money to burn is nice, but the extra$1500 can be burned on other fun and wasteful things. Like a PS4 and a 50'' LCD 3D Samsung(Or an XBone and a slightly smaller/crappy tv). And that'll save you the $35 apple wants so you can hook their stupid fucking-proprietary video out port into an HDMI port like every shitty $300 laptop in the world can do.
Just FYI: I was PC until my first mac about 2 years ago, big iMac, the now as gifted a MBP. It's great. My wife just got a windows 8 rig for Christmas and we are trying HARD to sell it so she can go Mac mini. Whatever you do avoid Win 8.
Yeah I think that whatever your position on Macs may be, most of us can agree on this.
Goodness, avoid the PX like the plague. If they even have stock in, they're going to try and push an older model on you to clear it out. AAFES here at Ramstein, which I would consider a "premiere" location didn't have the 15" Retina models even available to order for over 6 months.
If you don't specifically want to use Apples OS, there really isn't any reason to buy an Apple laptop.
Not to mention that many vendors with ID will drop a discount on you, some being better than others.
Like without doubt.
Satans..... hints.....
I am surprised that the touchpads on other laptops are really this bad. Trying to use gestures and having the computer do nothing makes me sad. I've been spoiled.
I signed in just to quote this and say that this was the argument I was about to make. I own a Macbook from 2009, it still runs and is fairly reliable. However, in hindsight, I would have purchased a PC due to the flexibility of the operating system, and the drastically lower price point for a computer with comparable specs to that of a macbook.
Additionally, I don't know about the U.S. military, but the CAF operates solely in Microsoft software (Word, Excel, etc.). While mac does have versions of these programs, you do run into formatting errors when the files are transferred and opened on a PC - at least in my experience.
Oh yeah.
On anything that goes to print, we have a specific cut off time where no one is allowed to work on files on a Mac anymore. Going from the version of word in Mac back to a PC always introduces some weird symbols to the text that have to be manually removed every single time. One of our editors had to just get a PC because she couldn't do her job on a mac due to the reintroduction of new errors every time the file passed back and forth.
and i would stay away from HP laptops. build quality is not very good. had 3 develop mobo issues and their service sucks
I want to say that it's a Mac running '10 sending files to a PC running '07 maybe?
Either way, it's the specific combination that always introduces those weird errors.
Since selling my Mac Pro I've had an iMac, since 2010, and although I consider upgrading, it's really not necessary. My computer runs the same as when I bought it, and I essentially ignore the upgrade game, both for hardware and software. At this point, there's enough hacks that I have been able to find ways to do everything I need to do, from streaming to my PS3 to VPN and so on.
There is still a premium compared to comparable Windows computers, in my opinion, but the true premium is only about 15-20% when you compare hardware and form factor and OS more directly. I use Windows 7 at work and have found that Windows has gone a long way towards making a more user-friendly experience, so OS X is no longer the only game in town for an easy-to-use-but-still-powerful OS, in my opinion, but it does still have the advantage of having more powerful options (like much more accessible unicode typing) just barely under the hood.
it really boils down to how much access/control you want while computing, and how much money you're willing to spend.
Registered just for the Mass Effect threads | Steam: click ^^^ | Origin: curlyhairedboy
Trackpads? Such crude instruments are for plebes. The Trackpoint is where it's at!
I highly recommend this. My mum was spending $500 every two years to replace crappy Windows laptops, and every time I visited I had to clean out all the crappy trialware and toolbars that installed themselves. I convinced her to buy a Mac, and no problems since. As a bonus, their helpline is wonderful and can answer any questions she has better than I can. She only does email and web browsing, so she only needed the cheapest laptop (which frankly was not all that cheap.)
Get one of these:
http://www.apple.com/mac-mini/