It’s the time of the year where students are looking for new computers or laptops for school and university, or just because their current computer is getting old. The big question that’s always asked is, should I get a Mac or PC? While I personally have more Macs at home than PCs, I’ll try to be as unbiased as I can. So let’s start out with the most common misconceptions people have on why not to buy a Mac or a PC.
Mac
- Macs are slower than PCs. Compared to PCs around the price range of a Mac, yes you can buy a PC that is faster, but not by much.
- You can’t play video games on a Mac. Not very true, there’s actually a lot of newer games that are designed for Mac and PC. But if worse case comes, you run Windows in Bootcamp (I’ll talk more about this later), or run it on emulation programs such as Parallels Desktop, or VMWare Fusion.
- Macs are expensive and overpriced. This statement really varies depending on what your budget is. Like yes, it is overpriced if you’re looking for a $500-$600 computer, but if you’re looking at $1,000+ it really isn’t. Also recently with the unstable USD, Apple has matched prices in Canada with the US, making it cheaper for us. On top of that, university students get an additional discount on top of the retail price with their Mac purchase.
PC
- PCs get too many viruses. True, but this shouldn’t stop you from buying one. No technology is 100% secure. It’s just because of how popular Windows is; there are more people who program viruses for it. But with the right security programs and virus scanners there’s nothing to be worried about.
- Too many problems with Windows. This maybe true for Windows Vista, but Windows XP and Windows 7 are actually pretty good. But believe it or not, most problems are caused because of the user, not because of the computer itself.
- PCs break too easily. Not always true. As with any computer they start breaking when they get too old or aren’t maintained properly by the user.
Those are just a few of the reasons why someone would choose one over the other. There will of course always be those “fanboys” that just won’t budge, and will always say one is better than the other just because. The real factor that should influence your decision on which one to buy is: what will you be using it for? Are you a gamer? Is it mostly for educational use? Will you be doing a lot of photo/video/sound design?
If you’re the gaming type, and also plan to watch a lot of videos and movies, I’d strongly suggest just getting a PC. The one big benefit of buying a PC is that it’s extremely easy to upgrade certain parts to your desire, if you’re more of a tech-savvy kind of person. This will allow you to have all the computing power you need to play Call of Duty: Black Ops, and Cityville on Facebook to your hearts desire.
If you’re not that type of person, but instead you enjoy using Adobe Photoshop, editing videos or creating music, I’d strongly suggest getting a Mac. While they’re on the pricier side, you actually do get a lot of computing power inside, and you’re pretty much capable of doing anything. Fact is, there’s a lot of professionals in the video, music, and designing industry actually using Macs over Windows PCs. Apple has developed a lot of extremely high end, and professional programs that are capable of almost doing anything, such as Final Cut Pro, Logic Studio, and Aperture. Those are just a few that Apple had made and all of these are Mac exclusive, meaning you can’t get them on the Windows operating system.
But what if you’re not a gamer or a video designer? What if you’re someone who wants to play video games once in a while, but still be able to do a lot of video design and photo editing at the same time? If you’re in this situation, sure you could just get a PC and call it a day, but do take into consideration what a Mac has to offer. It’s got an user friendly interface, which is very easy for the average person to quickly learn. One huge feature with Macs though is called Bootcamp, which essentially is a program that allows you to install a copy of Windows that you bought onto your Mac so you can actually use both systems! It’s having the best of both worlds, you can still play World of Warcraft as much as you want, but still be able to edit those hundreds of Facebook profile pictures you took with your friends, and the late night sleep over videos of you and your friends eating jars of Nutella.
I don’t want to start a fully fledged Mac vs PC debate here, but there are some things you’ve pointed out I feel are untrue. I am a PC fanboy, but with due reason:
1. You can buy a PC that is faster but not by much
I would disagree, I’ve built a rig for 1000 dollars that is about 6-8 times faster than the next leading Mac at 2000+ dollars
2. PCs get many viruses
I’d like to point out that the reason PCs get many viruses is because more people use PCs. It is the ideal ‘virus’ market. There *are* in fact viruses for Macs as well, but you can avoid them on either platform by not downloading anything sketchy.
3. Macs for Photoshop/Adobe
Macs and PCs have anequal ability to run Adobe software. However, if you try to render something big in Autodesk 3ds Max, expect it to take considerably longer on a Mac. They just don’t have the sort of hardware you need to pull it off.
4. Mac Exclusive programs
Bear in mind that Windows equivalents of so-called “Mac exclusive programs” exist, and vice versa. For instance, Garage Band for Mac is similar to Acoustica Mixcraft for Windows.
Buying a Mac isn’t bad or anything, however, a lot of arguments that Mac users have used in the past are simply no longer valid by today’s standards. PCs will always have more computing power *especially* if you build one yourself (there are tons of tutorials out there)
Sorry for the rant
While I do agree with you on most your points, there’s just a few I don’t quite agree completely with.
1. You can buy a PC that is faster but not by much.
While it is true you can build an extremely fast computer for about $1000, for the average user that is just not feasible to do. It’s not like you can just stop at your local Bestbuy, buy everything and slap it together with ease, even though there’s many tutorials online, not a lot of people will actually go through with it unless they’re technologically inclined.
2. PCs get many viruses
Yeah they do get a lot compared to Macs, because they have a much greater marketshare in the world which makes sense as why they are the targeted operating system. Now in no ways am I saying Macs can’t get viruses, because they can, but at the rate they pop up, Apple usually has them patched up within the next day.
3. Macs for Photoshop/Adobe
I can say from personal experience that most Adobe programs ran slightly better on my Mac than it has on my PC, with the exception of Flash. As for Autodesk 3Ds Max I can’t comment on how that runs on Mac as I’ve never used it before. But with the latest generations of Macs using the latest platform of Intel Core i’s (Sandy Bridge platform), they are actually outperforming PCs in a lot of various categories.
4. Mac Exclusive programs
Yes there’s a lot of exclusive programs on Windows as well that aren’t on Mac. But that’s what VMware Fusion or Parallels Desktop is for. Also the Mac exclusive software is developed by Apple usually, so this from a professionals point of view is a better route to go down then using third party applications on Windows.
I’m not trying to argue or start a rant with you either, I’m just stating my point of view on some of the statements you said. But like I personally find that Macs suit my needs more than that of Windows, and just the fact I’ve had terrible past histories with them. But asides from that, most PC users also have many arguments on why not to buy a Mac, and with how the development hardwise for Macs have been in the recent years, they’re becoming pretty par to par with higher end PCs.
I agree, there’s really no point in bashing people over what they use. It’s just personal preference.