Friday, June 06, 2008

Mac v. PC which is the better deal?


I like Macs, it's no secret. In fact by telling you that I'm a graphic designer and web developer you'd probably guess that I like Macs. The stereotype plays out quite well - arty guy = likes Macs. Truth is, I like them not because they run my Adobe programs better (CS3 runs really well in Vista) or because the UI inspires my creativity - I like them because I'm comfortable with them. Sure I think that IE is the worst piece of software ever thrust upon anyone and that the UI of Windows - especially Vista - is somewhat confounding. But still, I buy Macs because I just like them. So, I'm used to paying a bit more for my computers (though I actually paid less than nothing on my most recent Mac - yeah it's oldish). Imagine my surprise when Popular Mechanics did a comparison of Macs and PCs and found that Macs are a better deal (the verdict for those not wanting to read the entire article). To quote the article:
Our biggest surprise, however, was that PCs were not the relative bargains we expected them to be. The Asus M51sr costs the same as a MacBook, while the Gateway One actually costs $300 more than an iMac. That means for the price of the Gateway you could buy an iMac, boost its hard drive to match the Gateway’s, purchase a copy of Vista to boot—and still save $100.

It's great to see that the Mac beat the PC on all the important categories - performance and price. Granted both of the PCs tested were not the budget PCs most people buy, so while the Mac will presumably still win on performance - also by a presumably larger margin - the budget PC will win on price.

Notes: The PM website was kind of sluggish when I used it this morning. Give it a minute, it'll come through.
Hat tip to MacsAndStuff for pointing me to the article.

4 comments:

Rob Fay said...

Sean, the iBook I got from that deal is now dead (I too did that deal). Good news is that if you want something portable, you can always go for the MacBook Air using a similar deal: http://www.customerdirectsavings.com/?PromoID=16088

Sean said...

That's too bad. My iBook is still kicking - just got a new infusion of more RAM for it. I will look at the thing you posted, since I am officially in the market for a new notebook. I'm not sure if the Air has as much power as I'd like, but since I'm using a G4 iBook right now, that shouldn't be a problem.

CRCHAIR said...

I own the Macbook Air. It would not be a good primary computer, but is a very nice 2nd computer. It is really tiny in all the good ways and none of the bad.

The screen is brighter and nicer than my 17" Macbook Pro which is a few years Old, but the graphics capabilities are not that great. There is obvious slow down in a fireworks screen saver that I use.

CRCHAIR said...

If you like to have a new computer every year, then buy a PC. If you like to have something that should last you a while, then go for a Mac. Our Mom's iBook is 7 1/2 years old and other than replacing the batteries has had no problems.