Mac and PC Price Differences Grow, Does it Impact Your Purchase?

  • Thread starter Thread starter YSSMAN
  • 155 comments
  • 9,329 views
Shannon
You could have just left it at that. :p

Mac's are trendy, and trendy things can justify a higher price tag. Just like I can buy cheap jeans from Target that do exactly the same thing as $300 designer ones... At the end of the day, a computer is a computer. It doesn't matter what OS you're using, you're still doing the same fundamental tasks. I can't justify spending the extra money for something 'trendy' when I can do everything I want and more in Windows for a lot less. But, some people will buy those $300 jeans for the image...
Click to expand...

It's the same as a DeWalt versus a Black and Decker drill. Sure, they do pretty much the same thing and even have a similar spec but if you want a DeWalt, you'll probably not even consider a Black and Decker. You know one will always perform.

I've been using Macs now for at least 42 hours a week, every week for the past 14 years, and frequently for the 5 years before that and i've had very few problems with them. As a graphic designer i would'nt even consider buying a PC to work on. I'm not anti PC, i have one at home but i couldn't rely on it to do what i ask of it day in, day out. Sometimes you don't buy expensive things because you want to be seen as as being trendy, sometimes you just want the piece of mind that comes from buying the best. For me a Mac is a tool for getting the job done. Where as a PC for me is a leisure toy.
 
That pretty much sums it up right there...

Mac = Art

PC = Everything else
 
YSSMAN
That pretty much sums it up right there...

Mac = Art

PC = Everything else
Click to expand...

Not that black and white. There are tons of artists using Windows too.
 
I seriously don't get why people say if you use photoshop a lot buy a mac... Why, does a mac magically make the program better and faster than a PC with equivalent specs?

Robin
 
Robin.
I seriously don't get why people say if you use photoshop a lot buy a mac... Why, does a mac magically make the program better and faster than a PC with equivalent specs?

Robin
Click to expand...

It used to be the case that macs came with more powerful video cards (actually I don't think it was speed so much as memory). That was a looooong time ago - but the notion has stuck.

Similarly, it used to be the case that Macs were more reliable - that notion has also stuck.
 
V1P3R
OMFG! dOOd! dOOd! I'd seriously buy you Premium RIGHT NOW! Thank you so much! I gave up hope until now! :bowdown:

Sooooooooooooooo gonna sell this M$ Desktop 8000 keyboard and get that!

edit: Oh, you already have premium. :(
Click to expand...

That's fine. I'd totally take that Desktop 8000 off your hands. I brought the Laser 8000 mouse on its own and love it.
 
:lol: It's so not worth it... Although if you really want it, I'll sell it cheap. It comes with a mouse. I think the one like yours minus the aluminum... ?
 
Robin.
I seriously don't get why people say if you use photoshop a lot buy a mac... Why, does a mac magically make the program better and faster than a PC with equivalent specs?
Click to expand...

Its not just photoshop, but also video and music editing as well. I've done all of it on both Macs and PCs, and while the differences with photoshop these days are negligible, with video and music the Mac tends to fare a bit better. Especially with HD video. While my days of shooting and editing movies are behind me for the most part, if I ever got back around to doing something with it, I'd likely be buying a Mac to get the job done.

Paying for Final Cut Pro, however, that's a bit of a stretch...
 
So now Adobe Premiere and Adobe Soundbooth run better on a Mac than a PC too?! :sly: Actually when it comes to video editting, you could save the money by getting a PC with equivalent specs as a Mac, then buying a killer Matrox Video Editing Card.

It's so not worth it... Although if you really want it, I'll sell it cheap. It comes with a mouse. I think the one like yours minus the aluminum... ?
Click to expand...

Yeah it's the same. But the Aluminium makes it worth buying a $149 mouse. Though I just saw they've released new Sidewinder Mouse/Keyboard set which looks awesome.

I really want a 8000 keyboard because of the backlit keys and the portability. I use my laptop a lot in bed so having one would be quite handy, but even I'm not paying $449 AUD for the set. Especially when I already have the mouse. I can build an entire computer for that.
 
Last edited:
YSSMAN
Its not just photoshop, but also video and music editing as well. I've done all of it on both Macs and PCs, and while the differences with photoshop these days are negligible, with video and music the Mac tends to fare a bit better. Especially with HD video. While my days of shooting and editing movies are behind me for the most part, if I ever got back around to doing something with it, I'd likely be buying a Mac to get the job done.
Click to expand...

Care to give us any kind of hardware or software-related reason why this might be true?
 
The big key for most people is the software, as I recall. Final Cut Pro (and its various spin off suites) is pretty much the standard when it comes to video editing. Its what I worked with for two years, and I'm sure it has improved quite a lot since I stopped making videos about four years ago. It has essentially been what Hollywood has moved to for professional-grade editing, well, in some cases. Movies like Sky Captain, Zodiac, and that new Brad Pitt movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button were all done in FCP. One of the other things I recall is that PCs tend not to play well with HD video, particularly the MPG4/H.264 file formats that most HD quality stuff comes down with. Unfortunately I'm not enough of a computer guy to know why, but, Mac people have given me a dozen reasons for it, none of which I really cared much to remember.

That is not to say that the PC can't get the job done either, however. I think part of the problem is that I've been away from the game for a while, so I'm not exactly "up to speed" when it comes to how things have leveled out. Back in the day I was running G5 Macs at school, since then, the playing field has been leveled quite a bit. I'm still a bit weary of the PC as a video-editing source, but I haven't tinkered enough with it as I haven't had much of a reason to as of late. I'm told that PCs have a better level of equipment made available for it, and a larger amount of software that will work to keep the playing field level (and competitive). Hardware wise, you're going to see PCs that are a lot faster than comparable Macs these days, which is going to make most rendering and other "complex" editing whatchamadoos go a helluva lot faster. I recall one evening where we spent over four hours waiting for a fairly complex series of effects to kick in on those old G5 towers... I couldn't imagine what a quad-core processor would do these days!

I think part of it comes down to what you're comfortable with and what you have the money to spend on. Because I've known Apple on it, I tend to trust them for it... Anything else, I'm buying the (much, much cheaper) PC.
 
Last edited:
Danoff
Care to give us any kind of hardware or software-related reason why this might be true?
Click to expand...
As YSSMAN said, Final Cut is very, very good software. And PowerPCs were, back when single cores ruled the roost, optimized for multimedia stuff and multitasking rather than raw power (I'm sure OSX had something to do with that). Otherwise the competitive advantage was blown out of proportion.
 
I haven't tried playing around with Final Cut on a new Mac, but I'd be interested to see what kind of render times it has with the new Intel processors. My brother, who took the same video classes I did the year after I left said that we had been blessed with a "few" new Macs to use, but he never specified which models they were. I know most of the software had been upgrade from FCP to Final Cut Studio, and a lot of the cameras were starting to be switched out from the high-end Toshiba MiniDV camcorders to those (then new) Sony HD Handicams.

Simply put, for a public school, we have too much money. But I'll be damned if I don't want to go back and tinker around a bit. I've had the itch to start making videos again, and I know the PC I'm using has the guts to do most of the work, but its more of a money thing these days.
 
Robin.
On another note I can't for the life of me understand why Apple laptops don't have touch pad click support...
Click to expand...
Err, they do. At least every MacBook I've tried has had a perfectly well working touch pad click.
 
I'm forced to use Macs at school whenever I use a computer at school and frankly I hate the OS.
 
Greycap
Err, they do. At least every MacBook I've tried has had a perfectly well working touch pad click.
Click to expand...

I used all the ones in the Apple store when a move the mouse to were I want it to be and tap the touch pad it doesn't work... you have to use the click strip.
 
Robin.
I used all the ones in the Apple store when a move the mouse to were I want it to be and tap the touch pad it doesn't work... you have to use the click strip.
Click to expand...

Touch pad click is probably enabled in the System Preferences, just like right click with the Mighty Mouse.
 
I'm bumping this in hope for a discussion rather than a flame war (Although flame wars can be fun too)

Hunchblog have released this report I was reading today.

Mac vs PC People: Personality Traits & Aesthetic/Media Choices (Link to full report on page)

Anyway, while the whole thing I think is very worthwhile for dicussion, I'd like to kick off with this paragraph in the report.

There is a real risk at some point that if Apple continues to be successful growing the Mac’s share of PCs, Mac People may lose some of the feeling of uniqueness which the Mac provides for them. If these people begin to perceive the Mac as banal and mainstream, it could open the door for an innovative alternative to gain appeal.
Click to expand...

I think that's starting to happen already. I know a couple of people who were unashamed old school Mac fanboy's, who are starting to not be so into it so much since Apple has started targeting a more mainstream audience and diversified their product range.

Are any Mac people out their becoming unMacified?
 
Casio
I'm bumping this in hope for a discussion rather than a flame war (Although flame wars can be fun too)

Hunchblog have released this report I was reading today.

Mac vs PC People: Personality Traits & Aesthetic/Media Choices (Link to full report on page)

Anyway, while the whole thing I think is very worthwhile for dicussion, I'd like to kick off with this paragraph in the report.



I think that's starting to happen already. I know a couple of people who were unashamed old school Mac fanboy's, who are starting to not be so into it so much since Apple has started targeting a more mainstream audience and diversified their product range.

Are any Mac people out their becoming unMacified?
Click to expand...

Oh, yeah. Count me in. I only bought my Mac because of what it says about me as a person, and how other people will look at me when I pop out my Macbook on the train instead of some lame Dell. I also read the NYT and wear retro, one-of-a-kind clothing in order to stand out from the sameness of the rest of the idiot, USA Today reading world.

If Mac becomes too popular, though, it's going to misrepresent how much of an independent free-thinker I am, and I'll probably buy a new computer.
 
The thing I've always thought when I see somebody pop out a Macbook instead of a Windows laptop: SUCKER!!!! You drank the Kool-Aid, and you don't even know why!!! You just bought into the "I'm a Mac" campaign.

I can imagine a conversation:



Why'd you get a Mac?

It's better!

Yeah, why?

Um, . . . . 'cause! It's easier.

So using a gradient filter to fade the greens to gray in a picture is easier in Photoshop on a Mac, than in Photoshop on a PC?

Well, . . . . I don't know what that is . . . .

So setting up a SQL server for your company's accounting server would be easier on a Mac than a PC?

Well, . . . . I don't know what that is . . . .

OK. But even if it is "better" - - - Is it twice as good, as in two HP desktops for your Mac desktop?

Well, uh, I dunno. But I like that it's a Mac.
 
Casio
I'm bumping this in hope for a discussion rather than a flame war (Although flame wars can be fun too)
Click to expand...
Well, good luck with that one! :lol:

Anyway, I think the article sucks. Apparently, there is only a 'Mac user' and a 'PC user' and nothing in between? I just love those heated arguments where PC users say 'Mac is crap' without ever having tried one, or vice versa. :lol: The whole Apple vs PC thing is just as retarded as the Xbox 360 vs PS3 argument.

I happily own both, and each has specific benefits over the other. Would I say one is better? Nope, because which one is better for you depends entirely on what you want to use it for. Also, my MBP is both a Mac and Windows laptop. So where do I fit in exactly? ;)

And seriously, getting a Mac for 'uniqueness'? Yeah, you're just as unique as the gazillion other Mac owners. :lol:

wfooshee
The thing I've always thought when I see somebody pop out a Macbook instead of a Windows laptop: SUCKER!!!! You drank the Kool-Aid, and you don't even know why!!! You just bought into the "I'm a Mac" campaign.
Click to expand...
Of course, it's completely unthinkable that the person in question made a very deliberate and balanced decision when getting it. 💡 The fact that you immediately make such an assumption about a person owning a particular brand of laptop says more about you than the other person. In fact, it's just as bad as the Applementalists trying to convert their relatives when they're at a birthday (unfortunately, I have some :p).
 
In my opinion the only reason Macs aren't entirely mainstream is their outrageous prices. People see that you can get two comparable laptops performance-wise, but find the Macbook twice as expensive as the Windows computer. It's an obvious choice. Everyone likes easy things (like operating a Mac) but the vast majority also prefer to save that large sum of money. If Macs were the same price as PCs then they'd be selling like hotcakes because they're easy, and their uniqueness would disappear completely. Raising their price isn't a good way to keep them exclusive either because many Macheads don't have a lot of money laying around. Seems as though they're pushing their hardcore fanbase away.

I personally don't think they're all that special besides how beautifully the OS operates and a few clever things here and there. My friend's Pro wouldn't even play HD video and he's got the new OS. Being a Machead he had no idea what a .mkv was or how to make it work, so Windows boy had to cruise the internet and learn how to download and install programs on a Mac within about 5 minutes. VLC solved the problem.
 
There are two types of Mac users and only one gets picked on by the Windows bunch. The users who do it for try-hard cool points and the users who buy Mac for a reason.

The operating system is in my opinion much more user friendly that Windows simply because Apple can afford more time to integrate useful features instead of making it compatible with every combination of CPU,GPU,Soundcard,Motherboard, etc on Earth.
For the record I play mkv files on my Mac using VLC, can stream them direct to PS3 too, something which I could never do with Windows.

I still have Windows on a partition because of programs that just don't exist on a Mac and I happily use both OS's.

Although I don't really see this whole argument between OS's either, I mean is your life really so boring you need to be annoyed by what operating system someone else uses?
 
Keef
In my opinion the only reason Macs aren't entirely mainstream is their outrageous prices. People see that you can get two comparable laptops performance-wise, but find the Macbook twice as expensive as the Windows computer. It's an obvious choice. Everyone likes easy things (like operating a Mac) but the vast majority also prefer to save that large sum of money. If Macs were the same price as PCs then they'd be selling like hotcakes because they're easy, and their uniqueness would disappear completely.
Click to expand...
If you really want a notebook with the same features (mind I avoid the word 'performance' ;)) as an MBP, you're looking at a Dell Adamo or HP Envy, and these are very pricey as well. ;) People usually look at just the processor, size of the screen and amount of memory and conveniently forget there is more to those models (not just the Apple, same goes for the Adamo and Envy). The only problem with Apple is, is that they don't offer anything less than a top-model, unlike Dell and HP. Most people don't care about things like auto-dimming, glass touchpads, wireless-N, a shiny metal casing, ultralong battery life, etc. etc., so yes: a MBP/Adamo/Envy is way too expensive for what most people use it for! But hey, they're shiny. :lol: :p

On the other hand: some of the desktop Macs are downright cheap over here: A 27" Dell screen with the same specs as the iMac's screen will set you back 1200 euros over here. The 27" iMac comes at 1499,-, which means that I get a very fast notebook added to it for only 299,- more. Can't beat Apple there, but people only see the 1499,- and think to themselves: why the hell would I spend 1499,- when I can get a decent pc + screen for under 1000,- and save 500? (And with good reason, I certainly wouldn't recommend one to anyone in my direct surroundings)

Expensive is relative. ;)
 
Mac 24" display with 1920x1200 pixels with 1000:1 contrast ratio, 16 million colors, and undocumented response time costs $900.

Dell 24" display with 1920x1200 pixels with 80,000:1 contrast ratio, 1.07 Billion colors, and 6 ms response time costs $540.

The dell is as good or better in every way but costs nearly half as much. It's not like Dell LCDs are unreliable either. It's baffling to me how Apple sells any of these. Let's play again with 30" displays:

Mac 30" display with 2560x1600 resolution, 700:1 contrast, 16 million colors, undocumented response time costs $1800.

Dell 30" display with 2560x1600 resolution, 1000:1 contrast, undocumented but still somehow advertised colors, 12 ms response time costs $1400

That's a $400 premium in both cases to get, in my opinion, an uglier, less functional monitor.
 
Last edited:
You do realise Contrast ratio means squat. Manufactures can make up any number they wish.

Also what panel type are those Dells? I highly doubt IPS at that price.
 

Latest Posts

Back