Buying a New Computer

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You cannot change the motherboard for a different type either. That is pretty critical in that it controls what (and how many) devices you can plug in. Thats at the heart of what makes a mac so standardized, and is the heart of customizing.

Can you put dual PCIe graphics cards in a mac? What about triple?

Choices in cooling(such as water): none. choices in ram brand name: none. Upgrade power supply? I dont believe so. Certainly not after market.

Working around these things,including doing it yourself, voids your apple warranty, which I would think is the biggest selling point of an apple computer. Customizing your computer doesnt always mean you do it yourself.

I personally wouldnt want to pay someone for these services, so I eschew purchase of one. I want to do it myself, I want to design what my interface looks like. I can do these things, and to me, they are a big element of what is fun about computing.

I don't know about the others, but you can most certainly put any brand of RAM you want in it, as long as it meets the specifications. Throughout Macintosh history, RAM has almost always been industry-standard.

Have you actually tried to upgrade any of those components you mentioned? The only hassle free way is to buy from Apple, otherwise it's actually nightmarish.

Just add to what Fuzzy already said, a display card needs to have EFI BIOS just to boot on a mac and you still need a driver to use it properly. So you are stuck with what Apple thinks you should use. Want the lastest AMD 5xxx series monsters? Well wait a year and pray that Apple doesn't charge you a price you can buy 2 now.
Yeah, someone said that "If you have the spare cash...". To me, I would rather give
that away to charity than to be exploited but that's just me.

You sure can plug any PCI/PCI-E card in a mac but you still need a driver. Good luck finding any besides NIC. Oh, did I mentioned that a mac PSU doesn't have PCI-E power connectors? If your card need extra power, you need to buy an adapter too.

I respect your opinion that mac is easier to use but even that is personal preference. So, the only additional choice mac gives is OSX. Whether that is worth all the premium you pay is again personal preference.

I have no idea what things are like now - I've never used an Intel Mac. I have installed numerous PCI cards of all types and never had any trouble. So I don't really have much to say in that aspect of things. I DO know that Mac is not nearly as good as it used to be, but that doesn't mean it's an inferior platform.

Whoa Great.... I'm gonna go and load Mac OSX on my crap Dell PC then..

That's true. RAM and harddisk are about the only components you can be sure it will work. (if you get the correct kind of course)

OS X gives you little to no choice in how the UI will present itself to you unless you are willing to delve into some deep dark magic that probably won't work, and if it does work will probably break everything. Working within the GUI, there is very little similarity between OS X and Ubuntu (these have been my two primary operating systems, so I've compared them closely). If you are accustomed to working on the command line... well, they both feature a POSIX-compliant Bash shell, so you really can't tell much of a difference between Mac and Linux on the command line. As a general rule, you will not be manually editing config files in OS X- you typically handle all of that through the centralized "System Preferences" GUI. There is a third-party prefpane you can install called "Secrets" that gives some extra options.

Now for some other comparisons between OS X and Linux: OS X is, as you noted, UNIX-based. This means that (at least in theory) any Unix or Linux program can be compiled from source to run in OS X. However, many of these programs will depend on X11, and Apple's rendition of X11 is just horrible. Also, Apple really doesn't intend for you to compile stuff from source, and most people who would do that sort of thing run Linux instead of Mac, so to get the necessary tools you have to go to largely inactive third-party projects with woefully incomplete documentation. The final point (to me, the biggest shortcoming of OS X) is the lack of an integrated package management system like APT in OS X. After a short time using Ubuntu, I was really hooked on APT. Being without it makes me feel like I'm not running a complete system.
In Mac's favor: OS X is more stable than Linux for the most part. Maybe Debian stable is able to compete on that metric, but who runs Debian Stable? Also, you will basically never run into driver issues- my audio quality is still crap in Linux, and my webcam's drivers are still broken.

Yes, but YOU cannot put them in unless you are certified so as to not void the warranty. My friend wanted cheapish ram in her laptop and she had to do it herself(her warranty over). The geek squad would not do it(or she wouldnt pay them, unlcear). She said that the apple help guys wouldnt agree to do it at all unless it was apple approved brands(and thus, purchased from them).

And the geek squad scared her with talk about not using magnetic screw drivers near her computer.. sigh.

I want to thank everyone here for their input about this. The thing is I'm more confused then ever! A lot of people here have a real vast of knowledge of computers that I do not have or ever will have. When I hear things about Linux and Unix-Based.... I'm totally lost. Then I'm hearing that many computers only last a year! I had my current Dell computer for 8 years! Even though I had some issues with it, it wasn't totally catatrophe either.

I'm sorry that I'm all over the place here with my response but a number of these postings (don't take any offense or anything because I do appreciate all of the responses believe me) are above my head!

To simplify things a little if I do decide to get a Mac will I be able to do the following:

1. Use Verizon DSL.
2. Would I need a Internet Security Program? I hear that Mac's are mostly virus/infection proof to some extent.
3. Is it really true that upgrading a Mac would be a lot difficult then a regular PC? I never upgraded my Dell since I first got it 8 years ago but with how things are going I cannot say I would not upgrade any other computer that I might get.
4. If I do decide to operate Windows on my Mac will the Windows work better since it's on a Mac? Also, will Windows 7 be available for Macs?

Again, my apologies for being all over the place but the response here are helpful but a bit above my head. Thanks again!!

RedRocket,

Ignoring everything else for the moment, the Mac vs Windows thing comes down to personal choice. Try both. You've used Windows, go to an apple store and play. They'll be happy to help you.

Regarding Linux...

I'm not suggesting that you run linux but I do think you should consider using it for internet services. Essentially, you can download a CD that will allow you to start your computer from it and access the internet. The FBI director last week publicly stated that Windows should not be used for online banking. (not internet explorer ... Windows). So, regardless of what system you run, you should consider having a linux boot CD. If something goes wrong, at least it's unlikely that anything will harm your computer.

Regarding Mac (and I'm not expert).

1. Your ISP will be fine.
2. Yes... You always need security programs regardless of what people tell you. Even linux has them though the boot CD example I mentioned earlier wouldn't be such a problem.
3. Adding hardware to a Mac is always more difficult than adding it to a PC but if you buy the right computer at the start, you won't need to. As for external devices, they'll all be USB, so they'll be ok.
4. Macs can dual boot. You can decide that "today when I switch on, I want to run Windows". We actually have a Mac here at my workplace which has never run the Mac OS.

Good luck.

I'll chime in...

This is correct, and a great way to learn. Try it out, macs are nice to use.



Right again. You can try out linux for the cost of a blank CD. Or they will send you one! Take a ride, no need to buy.



Oh thats harsh. Haha.



Yup. Your ISP doesnt care what you use.


if not for yourself, then to stop the flow to other people. I use a virus scanner to take a look at windows from linux.. not that I bother booting to xp anymore.



Yup. This is important in computers. Buy the best you can. It will save upgrading -and problems- later.


This is probably the best idea for a lot of people. As a linux guy, I advocate that everyone have as much option, opportunity and choice as possible. Even if you dont use linux, it pleases me to know you use the other two operating systems.



Good luck from me too.

One thing: Apple makes great machines, but they always like to wow people with the new stuff. Since Apple's development is so secret, you have no way of knowing if they're about to change everything and leave you out in the cold (as they recently did to PPC users). It's kind of a leap of faith. Still, a Mac is a good computer and even if Apple ditches you, Windows will run just as it would on a Dell.



Of course.


Honestly, you probably don't even need that in Windows- it's mostly a placebo. In Mac especially, an antivirus like Symantec will do far more harm than good. Actually, it will do no good whatsoever, and it will constantly nag you about harmless stuff while making you suffer a huge performance hit.

I am aware of two (2) pieces of malware that exist for OS X. They are both trojans distributed through pirated software. Don't pirate stuff, and you're safe.


Adding RAM or getting a bigger HD is easy, and honestly that pretty much covers everything the typical user would want to upgrade. If you're going for a laptop, that's as much upgradeability as you'll get in any brand.


Yes. Macs are Intel computers and will run Windows just as any normal machine would. The main issue is that if you are on a laptop, the Windows driver for the Apple touchpad is crap. (You can't tap to click, and right-clicking is a pain without tap-click) Windows 7 is officially supported on all new Macs via BootCamp (which comes free with the Mac).

What do you need other than a decent firewall (included in OS X) and perhaps NoScript on Firefox?

Give me a PC with Internet Explorer and a firewall and I'm sure I can infect for you it fairly quickly.

Love my mac, best decision i ever made

I suspect that the Mac will suit you best if:

a) you don't mind paying a little bit more for things, especially if that gets you some status
b) you've always thought the world owed you a little but more than its giving you
c) you don't really want to know the deep bit shuffling things about your computer
d) you don't mind being a little bit behind the real wave

For the record, I was an Apple developer for most of the eighties, but haven't been near them since. I'm most at home now with Linux, but I suffer Windows for work.