PC or Mac for College?

<p>This is the age-old College Confidential question! I’ve seen some of the arguments get pretty rowdy! I should state up-front that I’m a Mac fanatic; I’ve been using Apple Computers since the early 1980s (Apple II Plus). Bottom line, if your son/daughter is an engineering or computer science major, you should check with his/her university because they might state a preference. PCs are better for serious gamers. Macs are fast, easy to manage, stable and there aren’t a lot of viruses written for them. Most colleges/universities accept both platforms. As for cost, my Macs have lasted a long time with easy software upgrades, so in the long run the cost has not been high when amortized over the years. Anyway, be prepared for some passionate poster’s advice on both sides of the Mac/PC issue! </p>

<p>A sampling of links to previous discussions on this topic: </p>

<p>Macbook Pro, Lenovo Thinkpad, Alienware?
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=190791%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=190791&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Switching from PC to Mac?
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=190458%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=190458&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Laptops-Mac
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=166053%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=166053&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Buying a Mac
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=64078%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=64078&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Cons of Getting a Mac
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=88951%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=88951&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>PC VS Mac in College
<a href="http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=75420%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/showthread.php?t=75420&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>
[quote]
Also, what size screen for a laptop is best ... i.e. easy on the eye but not too heavy to carry around campus?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>Whatever platform you chose, if your student wants to carry it around campus, the smaller the better. Many students keep a display screen and keyboard on their desks to use with their laptops (essentially using the laptop as a hard drive). </p>

<p>Anyway, Twinmom, good luck with your computer choices. As someone who has a lot of twins in my family, I’ve enjoyed reading your other posts. Congratulations on both of your children’s acceptances to incredible schools. I hope their move-in days are far enough apart for you to rest a little in between!</p>

<p>My son has a 17 inch Powerbook and for the last 2 years, there has been absolutely no complaints of any sort. He even upgraded to the Mac Tiger operating system and he loves it....wouldn't trade it in for anything.</p>

<p>i think a screen larger than 15" is unneccessary. I have a 15" widescreen and I think it's even a little too big</p>

<p>I have a 14 inch ibook and it is a perfect size for me- but if you haul it around everyday-you may even want to consider smaller</p>

<p>ek4- I agree. I have a 10-inch ibook that I haul around everywhere. It's perfectly fine for all word documents, internet, etc... and it's light and compact, about the size of a thin text book. If I were into design or movies, though, I'd want a bigger screen, even if it was heavier.</p>

<p>Apple's new MacBook notebook computer has just been released. It is reasonably priced ($999 with student discount, or via Amazon, though I like the student priced $1199 version), as low or lower than a similarly equipped other brand, it comes with just about everything. It has a 13.3 inch cinema wide screen, built-in iSight camera, magnetic power connector (if one pulls on it, it comes immediately off without pulling the computer on to the floor), wireless (WiFi & Bluetooth), very modern intel core duo processor, built-in monitor spanning (one can hook up another monitor and use it as extended desktop space),and many other features. It comes with iLife '06 software which is not available on windows, and runs Microsoft Office 2004/Mac, which can be purchased at substantial student discount. The only upgrade one needs to purchase is more RAM, at least an extra 512 MB.</p>

<p>And as Ron Popeil would say: But wait, there's more. The new Mac's are the only computers to natively run both Mac OS X and Windows XP/Vista. If there is ever a time when it becomes essential to run Windows, one can.</p>

<p>Running in Windows, however, does not offer the same virus, add ware, etc. protection as is found on OS X.</p>

<p>If you Google Mac vs. PC you will come across some interesting sites. One particularly easy to understand site is "Mac vs. PC system shootouts". I don't think I am allowed to post the link, so you have to search for it, but essentially they compare similarly priced laptops or desktops side by side (i.e. a $1,500 laptop system shootout between an Apple 2.0 GHZ MacBook (stock model) and a Del Inspiron E1405 (with add-ons).</p>

<p>PC, I prefer building non-proprietory systems just the way I like it, and upgrading them whenever I feel like it. Plus, all the programs that I use are easily available to PC operating systems. In my opinion, those who can actually benefit from Macs are those in graphic design or video editing, and I guess people who are rather new to computers.</p>

<p>I never even have to run anti-virus on my PC, and it's still clean as a whistle.</p>

<p>Two issues with the shoot-out. They chose the black MacBook. If one chooses the white one and upgrades the hard drive to match, it costs $150 less (or even less with student discount); for some reason, one pays more for the color. The other issue is that the software the comes with the MacBook is worth hundreds of dollars if it were to be replicated (though no identical integrated suite is available) on the Dell.</p>

<p>Unless you use ilife you just don't know what you are missing. :)</p>

<p>I use neooffice as well as ilife and neooffice opens any MSOFFICE document I could possibly want- plus it is a very good price</p>

<p>[url=<a href="http://www.neooffice.org/%5DFree!%5B/url"&gt;http://www.neooffice.org/]Free![/url&lt;/a&gt;]&lt;/p>

<p>If you buy a Mac, you can run Windows on it. Apple has free software which allows you to set up a separate partition for Windows. It includes all the necessary Windows drivers for the hardware - like for Bluetooth. It does not, of course, include an actual copy of Windows. You can then select which OS to use. A Mac running Windows in this way is exactly as fast as an equivalent PC.</p>

<p>It also appears Apple will build this capability into its next version of OS X. That will be released later this year, probably before MS releases Vista - which btw the new Macs will be able to run as described above. There is speculation Apple will somehow enable Windows programs to run without installing Windows. That's yet to be seen.</p>

<p>Even so, a company called Parallels has released a beta of its virtualization software for the Mac. This allows you to run Windows within your existing Mac OS X without losing the speed required for emulation - like with old Virtual PC, which had to emulate an Intel processor. The software even in beta runs Windows programs very well, but it doesn't yet support all aspects of the hardware. The cost will eventually be $50 and it will make running multiplie OS' on the Mac - Windows, Linux, etc. - essentially transparent with little speed loss. Note: games often are affected much more.</p>

<p>With an educational discount, a 2.0 GHz MacBook is $1200. I would buy a 3rd party RAM upgrade since those are cheaper than Apple's and installing RAM is simple.</p>

<p>Interesting video on adding RAM to a MacBook. Looks pretty easy.</p>

<p><a href="http://youtube.com/watch?v=8c6ckjy-gdY%5B/url%5D"&gt;http://youtube.com/watch?v=8c6ckjy-gdY&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p>

<p>Thanks for the great advice. It sure looks like there are a lot of satisfied Mac users out there. I think we'll head over to the Apple store and play before making any decisions.</p>

<p>Tahoe - I appreciate your kind words. Fortunately, we do have a good amount of time between move-in days. I wouuldn't even want to think about what it <em>could</em> have been like ...</p>

<p>My biggest problem (or maybe not!) is becoming an instant empty-nester. Having twins with no younger children is like sending off two only children at one time. It will be very quiet on the home front.</p>

<p>From a CS major's perspective, would one be preferable over another?</p>

<p>The MacBook will run all major operating systems, OS X, Windows/Vista, and Linux/Unix. That might be an advantage.</p>

<p>also if you are thinking of getting a mac
you can get an education discount either through the online store or through the college that will save significant dollars</p>

<p>If you are or know a teacher, educators get discounts at Apple stores as well - also good for Ipods, etc.</p>

<p>yes, make sure to remember the education discount! A copy of my acceptance letter was all the store needed when I got mine.</p>

<p>beware... you can easily spend a lot of hours looking around an apple store =P</p>

<p>My sense is CS majors go with Apple. My S has mentioned that lugging a 15' around does become inconvenient. It also helps to have another monitor back in dorm room 19"). Besides helping with multiple screens, it also gets used for playing movies</p>