Mac or PC in college?? Any opinions please...

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and 2. it may not be able to run the game at decent speeds b/c the game prob messed up w/ the mac hardware drivers (or lack of drivers)

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<p>Not true, especially for video cards. The MacBook Pro uses an ATI card that already has Windows drivers, and Apple made drivers for everything else that needed them. According to this person, Doom 3 and Far Cry ran quite well on high settings:
<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060406/tc_pcworld/125325%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://news.yahoo.com/s/pcworld/20060406/tc_pcworld/125325&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

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and its not guranteed it can run those games cuz its 1. u need to install ur own xp on a certain high end model of mac, and u need a certain lvl of proficiency at both hardware and software

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<p>Again, not true. They give you detailed instructions on what to do to install Windows.</p>

<p>lol it's nice for an overpriced asus</p>

<p>if it was priced competitively it would be a nice laptop.....</p>

<p>My parents agreed to buy me a lappy for graduation.. and unless AMD's upcoming Turion X2 processor turns out to be super great performance and battery-life wise, I think I'll go MBP.</p>

<p>I was super happy when first onmac.net and then Apple enabled WinXP on the new macs. I love OS X, but it will be nice to be able to fire up Windoze if needed.. I'm not a gamer, but sometimes you need to download.com some shareware for this or that, and Windows has just about everything availible.</p>

<p>Triboot OS X, XP, and Ubuntu Dapper... life will be good.</p>

<p>I'm most likely going to Syracuse U for Arts & Sciences, specifically Psychology, so I dont have any specific requirements... I owna kind of old Dell Latitude laptop now, and its fine but I definately need/want a new one. It works fine for me now, but for college I want something that I wont have to replace in 2 years and is overall better. I have had tons of trouble with PCs before, which I have always used, everything from immense amounts of pop-ups to undeletable mysterious programs to super slow/freezing, and even just making ridiculous whirring noises when barely any programs are open. Many of my friends recently got Macs, some have desktops some have laptops, and all now swear by them. I have used some of them, and everything just seems simple. None of them ever freeze, slow up, make noise, etc. I hear they are basicaly virus free, and everything seems manageable. I love the idea of just being able to drag a file from one program to another and having it automatically convert. </p>

<p>This may be just me having some "the grass is greener on the other side" feelings about Macs. So, I just want some peoples opinions who have used PCs versus people who have used Macs in college, and see which you would recommend. Thanks so much.</p>

<p>I've used PCs all my life and I'm planning on getting a Mac in college. Apple is coming out with this emulator that allows you to run both Windows and Mac OS.</p>

<p>Macs look cooler so id give them the edge</p>

<p>Another thread about PC vs Mac. Some people like Mac, the others like PC. Just don't listen to people who say "Mac is the best, PC sux" or "PC is soo cool and Macs are stupid" cuz most of those people are either biased or simply they are stupid.</p>

<p>Here is the truth about PC. It might be harsh and mean, but it's true. Basically all those people who complain how their PCs freeze and stops all the time just don't know how to use computers right. Computers are not that easy to use but many people do not know that. I used and I'll use PC cuz it works fine for me. I know how to take care of it. In 5 years I had only 1-2 viruses. If you don't know how to do it - buy Mac. I am not saying that PCs are better than Mac, or Macs are better than PCs. It's all depends on user</p>

<p>And just so you know. Right now only 15-16% of all users have Macs. As soon as Apple will get 30-40%, there will be plenty of viruses for Macs too, so as spy-ware and so on. It's just that right now there is no point of writing viruses for Macs, even though I've heard there were developed few viruses for Macs already</p>

<p>As life long PC user, I'm switching to mac this June. I am tired of the instability, I am tired of having to worry about viruses when using protection, I'm tired of the entire OS. And my PC problems started with my windows 95 setup and continue now with XP. I will be getting a macbook pro. Though, I am a fan of the IBM thinkpads. They are the one PC I enjoy using. But, I have done my research. I'm well aware of the differences- you'll get used to it, but they have a lot of disimilarities</p>

<p>As soon as a MacBook Pro comes out in a 12" version, get it. Boot Camp will let you run Windoze if you really have to (I only use it for Microsoft Access, but I use this Windows 95 PC with a 486 processor and a 5.25" floppy drive to run Access 2000) and you'll also have all the advantages of a Mac to go with it (stability, elegant interface, great software like Keynote and iMovie, etc).</p>

<p>Also, most PC laptops are garbage, especially Dells (the XPS is built better but costs a ton) and Acers.</p>

<p>I've always preferred PCs, like my Dell laptop, but lately, the virus worry and everything is a bit much. Sometimes the whole machine slows down for no reason or will do weird things - for example, the fan is humming INCESSANTLY right now. None of my friends with Macs seem to have this problem.</p>

<p>jkp114, I think you'll be better off with a Mac. It should run your necessary programs fine (seeing that you're a psych major)</p>

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As soon as a MacBook Pro comes out in a 12" version, get it. Boot Camp will let you run Windoze if you really have to (I only use it for Microsoft Access, but I use this Windows 95 PC with a 486 processor and a 5.25" floppy drive to run Access 2000) and you'll also have all the advantages of a Mac to go with it (stability, elegant interface, great software like Keynote and iMovie, etc).</p>

<p>Also, most PC laptops are garbage, especially Dells (the XPS is built better but costs a ton) and Acers.

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<p>If you want a solid PC laptop just get an Asus or a Thinkpad....hell who do you think makes Apple laptops? I'll give you a hint or three: It's not Apple, I mentioned them in the first sentence of this post, and it starts with an A. </p>

<p>example: <a href="http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C4121/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.mobilemag.com/content/100/334/C4121/&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>I think the reason some people seem to love mac's is because they have had poor PC's in the past. If you do your homework PC's are much more capable and make more sense imo (barring some specialized applications)....but if you just want a system to do tasks like checking email, browsing the web, make spreadsheets, whatever then it really doesn't matter all that much. OS X is very good though - creating a user-friendly OS with a Unix core was a smart move.</p>

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Also, most PC laptops are garbage, especially Dells

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Another crazy Mac lover that thinks PCs are sux and Macs are the only and the best systems in the entire universe.

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I think the reason some people seem to love mac's is because they have had poor PC's in the past. If you do your homework PC's are much more capable and make more sense imo (barring some specialized applications)....but if you just want a system to do tasks like checking email, browsing the web, make spreadsheets, whatever then it really doesn't matter all that much. OS X is very good though - creating a user-friendly OS with a Unix core was a smart move.

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So agree</p>

<p>And again, there is NO **ING POINT** of buying Mac just to install and always use Windows.</p>

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Also, most PC laptops are garbage, especially Dells</p>

<p>Another crazy Mac lover that thinks PCs are sux and Macs are the only and the best systems in the entire universe.
Quote:
I think the reason some people seem to love mac's is because they have had poor PC's in the past. If you do your homework PC's are much more capable and make more sense imo (barring some specialized applications)....but if you just want a system to do tasks like checking email, browsing the web, make spreadsheets, whatever then it really doesn't matter all that much. OS X is very good though - creating a user-friendly OS with a Unix core was a smart move.</p>

<p>So agree</p>

<p>And again, there is NO ****ING POINT of buying Mac just to install and always use Windows.

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<p>The combo of an X1600 and a decent size make the macbook pro a good option for PC users.</p>

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Also, most PC laptops are garbage, especially Dells

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I see why people say this if they've owned them a long time ago. Honestly, Dell's quality has been getting better lately, especially with the Latitude line. Most people have to remember that Macs once sucked too, back during the days when Steve Jobs was in exile from the company.</p>

<p>If you want to but Mac, but 70-90% of time will use installed Windows, then buy Dell/Sony/HP/IBM/Toshiba/Acer. For the same money you'll buy more GHz and more RAM. There is no big difference between Mac with Windows on it and PC with windows on it, and more likely windows on Mac will work slower with games/big programs since Widnows wa developed for PC.</p>

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If you want to but Mac, but 70-90% of time will use installed Windows, then buy Dell/Sony/HP/IBM/Toshiba/Acer. For the same money you'll buy more GHz and more RAM. There is no big difference between Mac with Windows on it and PC with windows on it, and more likely windows on Mac will work slower with games/big programs since Widnows wa developed for PC.

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<p>If you're taking about Boot Camp, then no, it won't run slower since Windows is running exactly the same as it would on a non-Mac computer.</p>

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And again, there is NO ****ING POINT of buying Mac just to install and always use Windows.

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<p>But there is a point if you're just going to use Windows for things that only run on Windows.</p>

<p>Thanks guys... I think I'll get a Mac because I like the user-friendly style and the general system. I realy didnt even know that you could run Windows on a Mac, but thats a plus in case I need to use a Windows based program or game... Now, I know I'm completely computer illiterate, but what is this BootCamp program or whatever that allows you to switch between Windows and the Mac system? Is it something that you have to buy separately, or is it going to start coming with Macs in the future?</p>

<p>i have used macs all my life, and pcs at school (we have an intel nearby, so they donate all the computers to the schools). i am very adept at using a mac, but put me in front of a pc and i just want to cry. i'm supposed to use one once a day in vhs, and it's terrible. it freezes, and then i need to force quit (or cont-alt-del or something, bof) or the thing just doesn't work, and it's awkward to quit and open programs. heck, even force quitting is more trouble on a pc.</p>

<p>save yourself the heartache and buy a mac. they're more reliable, less gunged up with ineffiecient programming. windows is a bad copy of the mac os anyway, steve jobs and bill gates just signed a contract where apple will continue to provide microsoft with 'inovations' and microsoft will continue to create software that will run on pcs. so, yes...go with a mac.</p>

<p>jkp114, BootCamp is something Apple released just last week. It is still in Beta phase, but is slated to be part of the next Mac OS X version to be released later this year (Leopard). For more info, go here: <a href="http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://www.apple.com/macosx/bootcamp/&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p>

<p>Until then, you can download the beta and use it for free. BUT you must buy your own copy of Windows XP, which would cost about $140. Plus, to use BootCamp in the first place, you must have one of the new Intel-powered Macs. I assume you would be getting a laptop, so that means the MacBook Pro would work.</p>

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apple will continue to provide microsoft with 'inovations' and microsoft will continue to create software that will run on pcs.

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Sounds like a win-win situation for Microsoft, and Apple loses. hmm...</p>