Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Guess it depends what you are used to. I know my way around a PC and not Mac. Also object to what appears to me to be price fixing of the Apple. Good for Apple, not so good for the consumer. Plus I can take a PC apart, fix bits, upgrade bits and am not tied to one brand.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I guess the point we are trying to make is that with a Mac you don't have to.

But you are right with

as it took me awhile to get use to it and become one of the converted.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

But to do an upgrade on mac you still have to do this...

Mac's don't just add there own memory or a new hard drive themselves, In that respect that are still just a PC.. and sorry but they do break and fail just the same as any other PC, its just that parts are much more expensive..

I know my way around *nix, which is what a Mac is based on, and to be honest it may be better than windows, but not by enough to justify the price tag

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Getting back to the original question, laptops (and/or Apple products) are cheaper in Canada than the UK.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

and to push the point cheaper still in the US.......

and if you're prepared to use ebay and buy direct from China.............

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Granted. But, I figured what I needed for memory and haven't found a need to add more (may change years down the road) and I keep it clean with most large files (all my photos, music, movies) that I'm not using are kept on external drives. I haven't had any hard drive issues on our three Mac's and asking around the office neither has anyone else (not saying that it doesn't happen).

I guess what us Mac users are saying is that we are willing to pay more to not have as many "issues" with our laptop as you would have with a Windows based PC.

I agree.

or buy "slightly" used

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

We use Mac's in the studio (the studio I helped set up)at work, and to be honest they seem no more or less reliable than the Dell PC's used by the general staff...

Hard drive failures are around the same, which isn't really a surprise as Mac's use a common std drive nothing special, power supply failures when we've had issues with the mains are just as common on the mac as it is on a PC, they are no more robust or spike tolerant..

I sorry but hardware wise a Mac is just another Intel PC, software wise its an expensive fancy *nix clone, with a lot of licensing around it..

Worth the money if you hire graphic designers, because those literate on non Mac hardware come at a cost...

but for home use, like I said, only worth the cash if you've already got a lot of apple products you want to connect easily..

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Same comment as my brother-in-law as he is PC guy that likes to build his own computers from scratch. But don't the majority of PC users run with Windows? maybe it should *nix vs *dows.

I'll still stand by the Mac as way less headaches when compared with PC on *dows especially for people (or in my case, my teenage girls) that just want to turn the thing on and have it work.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

You'd have had a valid point maybe when vista was around, but not today..

Windoze has improved a lot..

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

I end this argument with.. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C5z0Ia5jDt4 :D (to be taken light heart-idly)

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

It depends, of course, on the intended use of the machine but, if it's internet browsing, email, looking at pictures taken with a digital camera; normal domestic use, then go to Costco, get whatever they have for $500, run it for three years, then throw it away. A computer is just a domestic appliance now, you shouldn't have to think about it more than you do about your toaster.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Hear hear! I got my wife a laptop at Best Buy, more than enough for domestic needs. They even come standard with built-in webcam now, great for Skype. $420.

Oh and I threw off that piece of junk called Windows 7, but that's another story...

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

Whether you like Mac's or not, those were great ads!

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

What's so special about that? I used to edit HD video in Avid Media Composer with effects and/or colour grading in Eyeon Fusion on a Pentium-4 running XP.

Not exactly fast, particularly when rendering in both programs at the same time, but it got the job done. You might have had a good argument back when Mac and PCs had very different hardware, but today you can buy a Windows PC with exactly the same hardware as most Macs for a fraction of the price.

Re: Quick question re. purchasing laptops
 

You have to throw it away of pay some exorbitant price for a tech to fix it, when with a PC it is easy to do yourself.