Mac Or PC

[Chris]

I have a sense of humour, and I sensed none there. It wasn't funny, was mildly offensive and added nothing constructive.

Someone mentioned this to me before.
Can you not change parts and upgrade on a mac?

Not easily no. You can replace the SSD but it's non-standard and expensive, you can also replace the battery but that's about it. The RAM is soldered onto the motherboard. The parts are high-quality so you shouldn't really need to replace anything through failure (excepting accidents) but you do really need to buy the spec you want, you can't easily get one and upgrade it later. It's not an ideal situation, but there it is. You also need a non-standard screwdriver to get into it.

Wow - this is much more split than I expected. Thanks very much for your feedback everyone. Looks like there's no clear winner, although it seems people that have switched from Windows to Mac have been pleased with the switch on the whole.

How much money do you have? Money is not an issue at all. I'm selecting a rebuild for work and can choose either (lucky boy!)
Do you like playing around with software? Yes.
How important is hardware performance? Extremely - this is the thing I really dislike about my Windows system now - it's super slow, getting slower and I have zero idea how to fix it.
How much do you want to show off to your peers? Not at all. Showing off really not my thing.
What will I use it for? My favourite things are OneNote; Powerpoint and then some web collaboration like zoom.

Also:

I live at the top of a MASSIVE hill (13%) and need to cycle home with my laptop every day - so weight is an issue.
I have a beautiful keyboard which uses USB and I want to use that.
I have a trackball mouse and I want to use that. That's USB too.

How's that?

There is no clear winner, it depends entirely on what you want to use it for. I'm not a gamer, I prefer UNIX and I hated Windows 10 so for me a Mac made sense. Your mouse and keyboard will be fine, bear in mind that if you're buying a new one it will only have USB-C ports so you may need a hub / adaptor for your existing stuff. The 2015 and earlier models had standard USB ports. I also have an iPad and an iPhone and the three integrate nicely via iCloud so my email, calendar, messages, photos notes etc are synced between the three devices. I can also start reading a webpage on one device and pick it up on another. The continuity between Apple devices is really good.

Rebuilding your Windows machine may regain its prior performance at zero cost.

 

[Count of Undolpho]

"this is the thing I really dislike about my Windows system now - it's super slow, getting slower and I have zero idea how to fix it."

Do you not have an IT department/Support company you can ask? Usual reasons are not enough RAM, slow CPU, slow HDD, HDD is full, bloated software.

RAM you can upgrade (usually), CPU you can't, HDD can be replaced with an SSD (usually), Make sure you have at least 10% of your drive free, reinstall either in place or wipe first.

When it comes to laptops I'm afraid my advice would come from Googling and comparing which you could do yourself.

 

[Northam Saint]

Wow - this is much more split than I expected. Thanks very much for your feedback everyone. Looks like there's no clear winner, although it seems people that have switched from Windows to Mac have been pleased with the switch on the whole.

How much money do you have? Money is not an issue at all. I'm selecting a rebuild for work and can choose either (lucky boy!)
Do you like playing around with software? Yes.
How important is hardware performance? Extremely - this is the thing I really dislike about my Windows system now - it's super slow, getting slower and I have zero idea how to fix it.
How much do you want to show off to your peers? Not at all. Showing off really not my thing.
What will I use it for? My favourite things are OneNote; Powerpoint and then some web collaboration like zoom.

Also:

I live at the top of a MASSIVE hill (13%) and need to cycle home with my laptop every day - so weight is an issue.
I have a beautiful keyboard which uses USB and I want to use that.
I have a trackball mouse and I want to use that. That's USB too.

How's that?

Mac Air only has two USB ports. I ended up splashing out on a Apple Magic Mouse which uses Bluetooth. I often transfer files between two drives. The Magic Mouse must be the best mouse I’ve ever used.

 

[jmudrick]

No you can't. Mid 2012 unibody non-retina MacBook Pro was the last upgradeable one. Which by the way is still a great computer but rather expensive on the used market.

Someone mentioned this to me before.
Can you not change parts and upgrade on a mac?

 

[Dr Watson]

No you can't. Mid 2012 unibody non-retina MacBook Pro was the last upgradeable one. Which by the way is still a great computer but rather expensive on the used market.

Mine was a 2015 Retina, soldered RAM and the battery is glued to the underside of the keyboard IIRC?

 

[jmudrick]

Unless you're all about style the easily upgradeable Thinkpad 440 is a much better deal than comparable MBP. Even my older X220 with its great IPS screen, SSD, and old style keyboard leaves little to be desired.

Mine was a 2015 Retina, soldered RAM and the battery is glued to the underside of the keyboard IIRC?

 

[Chris]

Unless you're all about style the easily upgradeable Thinkpad 440 is a much better deal than comparable MBP. Even my older X220 with its great IPS screen, SSD, and old style keyboard leaves little to be desired.

Depends why you're buying it, hardware or OS.

 

[jmudrick]

Sure. Of course while I personally don't understand the appeal Hackintosh is a thing.

View: https://youtu.be/q2ThjW8m9HI

Depends why you're buying it, hardware or OS.

 

[Dr Watson]

Unless you're all about style the easily upgradeable Thinkpad 440 is a much better deal than comparable MBP. Even my older X220 with its great IPS screen, SSD, and old style keyboard leaves little to be desired.

Indeed, typing this now on a maxed out T420

 

[Randomangle]

I have always had Mac. This is because many years ago I was using a lot of creative software and also because I wanted less faff. I have tried to go over to a PC, but just the initial research stage puts me off as there is too much choice. As has been stated it all depends on what you want to use it for. I did have a Chromebook for a couple of years between Macs and found it to be good for what I was doing at the time ... mostly nothing but general web and email use.

 

[jeepie]

Thanks for the very interesting discussion. My IT department are great but wouldn’t get involved with performance (which is important to me).

I am going to check if I can run my headset, mouse and keyboard. If I can I will make the leap. The key will be those peripherals. Cheers chaps!


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[sɐǝɹpu∀]

Wow - this is much more split than I expected. Thanks very much for your feedback everyone. Looks like there's no clear winner, although it seems people that have switched from Windows to Mac have been pleased with the switch on the whole.

How much money do you have? Money is not an issue at all. I'm selecting a rebuild for work and can choose either (lucky boy!)
Do you like playing around with software? Yes.
How important is hardware performance? Extremely - this is the thing I really dislike about my Windows system now - it's super slow, getting slower and I have zero idea how to fix it.
How much do you want to show off to your peers? Not at all. Showing off really not my thing.
What will I use it for? My favourite things are OneNote; Powerpoint and then some web collaboration like zoom.

Also:

I live at the top of a MASSIVE hill (13%) and need to cycle home with my laptop every day - so weight is an issue.
I have a beautiful keyboard which uses USB and I want to use that.
I have a trackball mouse and I want to use that. That's USB too.

How's that?

I have never owned a Windows computer, but I had to use them at work for years.
For many years I bought a Windows laptop (Thinkpads) and installed Linux on them right away. Getting everything to work was usually a big pain in the backside.
Six years ago I bought a MacBook Air for my better half, tried it and bought one for myself two weeks later.
Everything just works and it has a proper Unix like operating system. Windows is not usable for me - I'm a programmer.
Six years later I need a more powerful computer (My MacBook is still very capable, but the stuff I'm working on these days is quite demanding).
So the computer I ordered last week was without any hesitation another Mac.

USB peripherals should work without any problems.

 

[missingskin]

I moved to Mac's when they started to use Intel processors (2006?) and other than the 1st one turning orange I have not regretted the move. I am currently using a mid 2012 MBP, changed the Hard drive to an SSD a few years back and I am going to keep it for the forceable future. I might upgrade the ram, we will see......

 

[Randomangle]

I should have added that one of the reasons I was attempting to go for a PC was cost. The only problem with this was that the only laptops that had anything near the build quality (IMO) of Macs ended up costing pretty much the same ... so I stuck with them.

 

[Chris]

I should have added that one of the reasons I was attempting to go for a PC was cost. The only problem with this was that the only laptops that had anything near the build quality (IMO) of Macs ended up costing pretty much the same ... so I stuck with them.

That’s a good point actually. A MacBook costs more than a low to mid end Windows laptop, but compare it to another aluminium ultrabook and the price gap closes.