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Quote:

Originally Posted by Slick Fork (Post 496296)

That doesn't mean it will run todays software. I have an ancient toshiba "laptop" sitting in my basement, it doesn't even have an optical drive... running windows 95. It fires up just fine, all the programs on it still work, but I don't kid myself into thinking that it is an acceptable alternative to anything unless I have a burning desire to run 15 year old programs. My Iphone has more computing power than that thing.

Any computer, whether it be a mac or pc will cease to be current in 6 months and obsolete in two years. If all you want to do is surf the web then yes your 10 year old G4 tower is just fine. However if that's all your doing a $200 netbook will outperform that and be portable.

Doug: I would absolutely suggest that if the Toshiba is almost half the price then that's the way you should go. Unless you NEED a certain program that only runs on one or the other than go with price and $500 buys a lot of other nice things.

Actually, I have to disagree. Macs can usually run the latest software and operating systems for many years. I have only upgraded machines every 4 to 6 years. And most of my older Macs have seen service for years after that with other people who didn't need to do anything fancy with them. Apple made the transition to intel processors almost 5 years ago and only over the last 6 months has software and the new version of the operating system been released that only supports the intel processor Macs. And with intel processors in all new macs you probably won't have to deal with that kind of transition for the foreseeable future.

Any Mac you buy today will happily run anything you need to for years to come. The only reason to upgrade a machine every year or two is if you are a hardcore gamer and need the latest greatest top speed components or you are an imaging pro who needs the fastest speed you can get for work efficiency.

Quote:

Originally Posted by mr.wilson (Post 496198)

The macBook Pro will still be running smoothly and relatively current five years from now. The Toshiba on the other hand will be sitting broken and obsolete on a shelf in your basement :)

My Mac G4 Tower from 1999 still works flawlessly and pretty damn quick for a 400 MHZ processor. My G5 Tower is from 2005 and I have no reason to update it for a few more years. My 17" MacBook Pro is two years old now, and looks like it will be with me for a few more years.

With a replacement track record of every five years, that's a lot better than I was getting with my old PC's.

hmm my toshiba a10 has been around ther world 6 times in the last 8 years and still works fine. just to slow for new games that need huge graphic cards. oh I did replace a hard drive in it 3 years ago..

Steve

Just as a point of fact. I,m no gamer. I surf, e-mail and do lots of photo stuff, {one reason the Mac appealed to me.

Thanks for the info Slick Fork. And Ron also. Will consider it.

I was factoring costs today. Looked at the HP, pretty fast and with a 17in. screen. But figured on adding the 3yr. warrenty, price comes out the same as the mac, which I figure can get by on its 1yr. warrenty because of its reliability. So if I went Toshiba, I wonder if this would be similar and an extended warrenty required.

Also as mentioned in regards to photo editing, Mac has a very good one. With the pc I would just use the crappy one I have now or purchase a decent one, which now again adds to the price.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron99 (Post 496303)

Any Mac you buy today will happily run anything you need to for years to come. The only reason to upgrade a machine every year or two is if you are a hardcore gamer and need the latest greatest top speed components or you are an imaging pro who needs the fastest speed you can get for work efficiency.

hey that holds true for PCs also. I upgraded my desktop after 8 years, my laptop after 7 or 8, the previous desktop was 6 years old.. hmm every upgrade was for a game.... I actualy still use my old laptop in the shop for my referance material, and to run my auto diagnostic program.. and surfing the net, e-mail, ect.. got the new laptop so I could play big time games when I was at sea.

Plus another $100 for set up on the pc,s because they have so much crap on them and being the computer dufus I am, I cant do it. Its my belief thats not really needed on the Mac?

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ron99 (Post 496303)

I think that's sort of what I was trying to say. You can browse the web, look at pictures and type letters on any 10 year old PC running windows 98se or Windows XP.

If you're gaming or doing heavy photo editing you need something more current, be it mac or PC. Don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against Mac but I don't see them having this magical edge over a PC... certainly not to the tune of double the price

Quote:

Originally Posted by Doug (Post 496311)

Plus another $100 for set up on the pc,s because they have so much crap on them and being the computer dufus I am, I cant do it. Its my belief thats not really needed on the Mac?

Correct. No need to remove bloatware on the Mac :biggrin:

Something else to consider when we are talking longevity. Upgrading RAM is usually the only thing you can do on a notebook other than the hard drive. If you look here at the apple store

http://store.apple.com/ca/memorymodel/ME_15_306_MBP

You'll see that the 8gig upgrade is almost $900

Check out memory express for PC RAM

http://www.memoryexpress.com/Product...)/Default.aspx

And voila half price RAM! as far as the crappy windows photo editing software goes, you're right on that one... however if you are planning on getting the bamboo pad anyways it comes with Photoshop Elements which I use and am VERY happy with it.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Slick Fork (Post 496324)

But really only a dumba$$ buys RAM upgrades from Apple :lol: They have been overpriced forever. Macs use standard memory just like PCs and upgrading is pretty staraightforward so it shouldn't cost any more than a RAM upgrade for a PC. I have done all my own RAM upgrades for as long as I can remember. Upgrading the HD is a bit more work but I also just put a 500GB 7200 RPM drive in my Macbook Pro and it was pretty straightforward either then being delicate when opening the computer up to do it. Start by putting the new drive in an external enclosure, connect to the Mac, use disk utility to clone the drive, swap the new drive into the Macbook and the old into the enclosure, reboot the Mac that starts up flawlessly with the new drive and reformat the old drive in the enclosure for a nice portable 200GB drive.

Upgrading RAM is as simple as removing the bottom plate with a screwdriver and installing RAM modules. It's really easy.

Also, if you are interested in photo editing go Mac. iPhoto is pretty good out off the box unless you want to do really advanced digital editing. Then the cost of software is the same whether you are on the Mac or PC.