Mac on a budget

Pig Cat said:
hunnymonster said:
I would say that there's life in the old girl yet... lots of crudware would accumulate over time and if Mrs PC is downloading copious quantities of shite^H^H^H^H^Hgames from t'internet it'll all be just clogging up the PC...
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OK, sounds like it's worth a try. We can't afford to fork out a grand for a while anyway, it would take some saving up. Thanks HM!
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I have both mac and pc (pc is work and mac is home). Looking at your pc specs you are using 2 hard drives not a good idea it has to search in 2 places for info and you only have 1gb ram so multi tasking will never be great also being fair your AMD processor is a bit on the old side. But you have to ask yourself what you want to do with it all. if its just surfing the net and playing the odd game then with a bit of tweeking and a few pounds spending on the old girl it could serve you well until you have to money to shell out on a shiney new computer.
A few ideas,
Either get an external HDD (500GB cost me £45.00) and put everything exept your operating system on it, or an internal drive and put everything on it.
Install more ram, DDR ram is cheap and you should have at least 4 ports on the motherboard.
Get some software clean up programs, registry edit (pay), or <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-software-downloads/best-free-windows-registry-cleaners/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.online-tech-tips.com/free-so ... -cleaners/</a><!-- m --> (some free ones)
Spybot (free) as Mrs PC has probably got more spyware on there that you can shake a stick at............. :lol:
Defrag the thing regularly.....
I used to build pc's from scratch and I built one of similar specs to yours and gave it to my mate when I got my 1st mac, it still runs well and is in use every day,
I would not bother with win 7 yet, AVOID VISTA LIKE THE PLAGUE, (sorry Vista is crap), XP is an old sold platform that will work with your pc and should do what you want it too.
If I can be of anymore help get in touch,
Aah one last thing...............come over to the dark side, save up for a Mac..... :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted: :twisted:
Steve
 
Richard...that hi end hardware comparison can be a bit misleading, think of an Apple like a Lotus compared to a Chevy PC, the Lotus just doesn't need the cubic inches because it just handles better. The value in PC hardware I would say is really at the sub £500 level. If you are going to spend £1200 on a new machine I would purchase a Mac but as the previous post asks it really depends what your'e going to use it for.
 
antdad said:
Richard...that hi end hardware comparison can be a bit misleading, think of an Apple like a Lotus compared to a Chevy PC, the Lotus just doesn't need the cubic inches because it just handles better. The value in PC hardware I would say is really at the sub £500 level. If you are going to spend £1200 on a new machine I would purchase a Mac but as the previous post asks it really depends what your'e going to use it for.
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Totally agree, I’m on a £400 Toshiba that gets used nigh on constantly (that different user log on thingy, 4 people) has been dropped more times than Frank Bruno. The only thing I’ve changed is I now use Firefox, have got the CC cleaner (nifty bit of kit).

I’m going to treat myself soon to a new one that’s just mine...all mine...and nobody else’s....and looking and reading the whole Mac v Pc leaves a bloody great grey area in the middle of the heated debate about what’s better.

And like most I tend to look at the specs on the different models/brands and there just seems to be a hard to justify/swallow price difference.

If somebody was going to give an answer to a non technophobe who asks:
I will be using it mainly for web browsing, keeping my music/photos, the odd word processing and spreadsheet thingy’s. Oh... and a couple of games here and there and watching a few films.

What do you reckon they’d say?
 
PC Laptop for that sort of use and a £500 budget should easily suffice. Decent screen with good graphics capability if you want to watch HD. I'm not a a games player but that used to be the domain of a PC.

I'm sure the others will chip in.
 
Ok from a Macbook owner.
Pros:-
Good looking.
Boots up faster.
No anti virus to slow down system
Easier to load programs
Cleaner interface.
And probably a lot more that I have forgotten............
Cons;-
Expensive. (about £950.00 to £1500)
Apple getting a bit more possessive about what you can put on your mac (not as bad as Bill yet tho.... :D )

But for what you ask for you can get a sub £500.00 laptop that will do everything you want it to do and have a similar spec to the Mac.
AVG free anti virus.
Open Office (free) for your spread sheets (works on Mac as well)
15" wide screen.
3Gb Ram (2Gb on Mac)
250g HDD
Intel or Athlon Dual Core Processor.
Loads of makes to choose from Asus ( a lot of my family have these and they are good value for money), HP/Dell (same make), Toshiba...........the list goes on.
I paid a grand for my Macbook because I WANTED one not because I NEEDED one, so the choice is yours. If you get a Mac tho get Applecare off Fleabay (£45.00 for a 2 year Apple G'Tee.........no brainer).
Go to PC World and have a play, then go search the web for the best price.
Good luck.
Steve
 
Gets a bit hard not to fall into the whole laptop debate without coming out none the wiser. Well for me anyway, anything more than an on/off switch is overkill. Have to admit though, those Macs look mighty fine.
 
Seems most of the major players offer refurbished models with all the benefits of buying new...I'm wondering if it's just a rouse to get them off the books like used cars with a few miles on the clock. I've bought a couple of refurbs in the past 24 months, looked and behaved like new to me.

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspire-8930g-refurbished-laptop-03826399-pdt.html" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.dixons.co.uk/gbuk/acer-aspir ... 9-pdt.html</a><!-- m -->

<!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/255532/acer-aspire-8930g" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.pcpro.co.uk/reviews/laptops/ ... pire-8930g</a><!-- m -->
 
Most of them are mail order returns - because the original buyer changed their mind and exercised their rights, or those returned (and restocking fee paid) after being used once and the user being confused. They're then re-imaged using the supplied recovery tools (or should be, but you do see stories in the tech press about "Woman, 93, buys PC from PC World and it's chock full of pr0n" where it didn't go well). DSGi are familiar with the inside of magistrates courts for selling returns as new, so they try not to do it these days and sell them as refurbs instead.

Obviously those that were returned with a restocking fee - if that was 20% and they offer it as a 10% discount they actually make more from the refurb than the new...
 
Be careful most Mac users I know become smug, evangelistic, gimps who insist on spouting off about Mac goodness to all and sundry.

You'll have an iPod, iPad and no freinds before you know it.

:)
 
andyml73 said:
Be careful most Mac users I know become smug, evangelistic, gimps who insist on spouting off about Mac goodness to all and sundry.

You'll have an iPod, iPad and no freinds before you know it.

:)
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such is the cult of Apple :lol:
 
I have always been a pc user do I like them no. I have wastes vast amounts of time trying to get them to work. will I buy another no.
I'm no Mac expert but they do have alot going for them.
1 hardware software made by the same company so should greatly reduce compatability problems. Windows supports everything so thats a boat load of things to fix and not enough time to fix them.
2 Macs have better quality parts in them yeah I can build a higher spec pc for loads less but you will not be able to build the same quality for less.
3 Software well Macs have less without question that means there is alot less crap to be loaded on to you machine. Anyway the issue will be a no issue in the future with the rise of cloud computing.
4 greener? well apple is making its stuff smaller and if you get a mac mini you can reuse your screen and key board and with less software you might be inclined to use web based stuff cloud computing again is also greener.
5 Looks this is the least important reason but they do look good and to get a pc to look as good your going to have to pay mac money. also the internals of the mac pro are well thought out.
 
Absolute tosh Dave. How can less available software mean there is less crap to be loaded to a machine? Apple use Intel processors now so the old line about the hardware is better designed doesn't hold true anymore.Apple also don't to my knowledge own a wafer fab so they won't be making memory, same goes for the hard drives.The video cards are either Intel or NVidea so that's pretty much all the main components produced by someone else.Cloud computing is available to everyone, google docs has been running for years.As for the internals being 'well thought out' :lol: how do they build PC's these days? open a box and chuck everything in? come on that has to be the weakest plus point I have heard on the old PC/Mac debate. I was thinking seriously about picking up a macbook pro in the states recently, alas when it cam to the crunch I couldn't justify paying so much extra for it.Instead I went for a nice little Samsung win 7 laptop with double the RAM, I3 processor and Blue Ray player.The display looked better when I tested them side by side and the spec was way ahead of the X2 priced macbook. The only thing I found with the mac was a better battery life and it was thinner.As always this debate will go on and on with people from both sides extolling the virtues of each platform.Like I say I have looked at both and made up my mind for what was best for me and that's probably the advice I would give to everyone who asks my opinion on which is better.
 
I fully agree Boab.

I don't really see the point of Mac's more expensive and do the same job, its just that the brand has a certain exclusivity. Admittedly they were better for DTP and design work at one time but things have moved on.

If I want something different to a PC I use Linux.
 
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