What's so good about macs besides retina display?

Well to be fair a NSX is an Acura, which competes with the Corvette dirrectly.

Honestly all the car anologies on this board are always way out of line. Doesn't even make sense to compare computets and cameras to cars.

Well, having used both Mac's and PC's, the only conclusion I can arrive at is that a Mac cost three times as much as the equivalent PC.

Mac uses high quality PC parts and a custom operating system. They're no more efficient than a PC. It's personal preference.

Jon_Doh wrote in post #17976303
Macs last forever. In 12 to 18 months that pc you built will either be burned up or something major will have broken in it or it will be slow and outdated. Meanwhile, the Mac you bought will be running like a new one.

I'm sure what I said will fire up the pc fanboys, but just buy a Mac and try one because once you've used a Mac, you'll never go back.

I have both, I use an HP Z600 with 2 six core Xeons in it as my main computer running Windows 7, it is about 6 years old now and still very fast.
My Macs are older now but I don't see any great differences that would make me prefer a Mac over a PC running Windows, I also run Linux Mint 17 on my main PC.

I only asked so the Mac guys can give a better understanding what is what. I can build a awesome pc in under 2 hours or less. I don't visit porn sites and use Internet on another pc that if it crashes I can repair quickly.

I seen quite alot of pros with macs which left me wondering why? I love the retina displays. Photos are crisp. Makes it easier to do some post processing. I appreciate the input.

I am a auto tech, not a pc guy. I can take them apart fast and put them back together. I don't know nothing about macs. Hope I didnt upset or anger anyone. If I did I apologize.

maverick75 wrote in post #17976340
Well to be fair a NSX is an Acura, which competes with the Corvette dirrectly.

Honestly all the car anologies on this board are always way out of line. Doesn't even make sense to compare computets and cameras to cars.

Actually the nsx is a Honda, which is advertised in most of the rest in the world as an Acura for marketing reasons.

Answer to initial question: "What's so god about macs besides retina display?"
1- On initial purchase, you lose a good chunk of your weight, from wallet side.
2- Thanks to wide range mac's non-compatibility, you will not find much peripheral or softwares to buy, so you start to save!!!!

tim wrote in post #17976358
Mac uses high quality PC parts and a custom operating system. They're no more efficient than a PC. It's personal preference.

I'd disagree,it runs overall better and runs programs using less resources than a computer running windows with the same components. It's also less prone to virus's. And its unix based so its better overall. Unless you play a lot of games then thats where I see windows being better. And plus like someone else says, its easy to use bootcamp on a mac and install windows if you want to.

OP just opened such a can of worms...

98kellrs wrote in post #17975793
The biggest advantage is how they process images and how little resources they take to do it. You're wasting you time comparing specs between PC and Macs as they perform totally different.

For example I have a early 2008 Mac, which is entry level specs of like 4gb RAM etc, yet it runs and processes the massive 50mb images my D800 makes with no troubles or annoying slowness even at 8 years old.

Contrast that with Windows based machines, which clog themselves up and start to run unbearably slow after usually 3-5 years.

I work with Windows machines 12 hours a day, coming home to the simplicity of the Mac is just so stress-free and a nice experience too.

False, though a common claim. I had a late 2012 Mac Mini with the top level i7 and 16gb of DDR3, I bought it in 2014 (because it was the newest one available) and within a year it was running like utter garbage. It would take minutes to open up an application, particularly those from Adobe, let alone how slow it actually was while editing those files. Because I was such an avid Apple supporter I kept nay-saying my friends who were begging me to get a PC to game with them anyway, but I finally caved and bought a relative cheap rig to game with them ($400). Found out within a week that it mopped the floor with my Mac, to the point where I was completely embarrassed to have supported my Mac defense up to that point.

Knowing what I know now about computers in general I can see and admit that it wasn't the Mac's fault entirely. Any computer will get bogged down after a lot of use (especially from photographers who tend to move around a lot of files and fill up various folders and drives), but even before I bogged it down it was nowhere near as fast as my PC which cost a third of what I paid for the Mac.

My 2008 MacBook is still ticking, but editing on it is a chore and it's also on it's 3rd or 4th battery, I pretty much just use it for web browsing because it's not worth selling.

Lumens wrote in post #17975939
I own two off the shelf Windows LapTops that were reduced to bricks with the upgrade to Win10. Not the fault of Win10, the fault of a manufacturer that build for marketing not computing. Caused me to go to Apple and I would not let go of my Macbook Pro - it is awesome. It performs at the standards I expected and was told I would get when I bought it.

If I were to go back to MS then I would build my own so I could assure the hardware is built to handle the OS and software I plan to run. Or I would pick up something like a Surface, built by MS and designed to run the Operating System. MS has tons of manufacturers out there building machines, not all build to a good quality standard. Be careful what you purchase and know what you are getting.

With Apple they manufacture their own hardware and do not allow third parties to make them look bad. To me I find Apple to be a safer purchase, however the Microsoft Manufacturers are putting out some really good stuff lately. As long as you stay out of Costco and Walmart (unless you really know what you want) and do your research there are some great Windows machines out there at better prices than what Apple charges.

How were they reduced to bricks by Windows 10? Windows doesn't force you to upgrade your OS, they will eventually stop supporting various applications on different OS's, but that's no different from Apple.

As for apple manufacturing their own hardware... no they don't. Their CPUs, RAM, etc are all made by different manufacturers, they merely package them together in a usually (to their credit) attractive form factor.

FarmerTed1971 wrote in post #17975949
To me it's the whole experience... build quality, industrial design, simple OS, beautiful GUI, sync compatibility with other devices, seamless integration with other i products, lack of virus's.

My previous life was as a graphic designer so I grew up with Apple and have never looked back. Dealing with PC type gear is just a frustrating experience, for me.

It's really hard to explain. It's something you have to experience. The extra cost is worth it, to me.

Their build quality is usually pretty good, but not always, there are plenty of articles out there discussing various issues with various hardware they've released over the years. My Macbook for example has just about the worst case design ever... the plastic around the keyboard began cracking and flaking off after less than a year of use, at this point it looks tattered and broken down, it also had about the most brittle power cable I've ever seen on any device, I went through 2 of the Apple $60 charging cables before going with a $12 third party one which never gave me an issue (and still works 4 years later).

I would say "simple OS" is one of the downsides to their system. Doing some very simple tasks on a Mac is painstakingly convoluted... for instance just finding a folder you want ot access is a chore using the "Finder" application. As Wilt pointed out below, it's not even that it's simpler, it's just different (and in my opinion less intuitively so, it took me months to figure out things on my Mac, then extra time every time they updated the OS, I seriously learned everything I needed to know on my PC in a couple of days and my biggest fear getting into Windows was the OS).

Compatibility with other devices is just plain not true... if anything they're less compatible with devices, unless those devices are made by Apple.

As for lack of viruses, again, just plainly false. In fact the only computer I've had in the past 10 years to get a virus was my Macbook, so much so that the hard drive was almost completely lost.

Wilt wrote in post #17976015
Over the course of my work career, on multiple occasions I have worked for companies that had Apple products as well as those with Windows base computers. The outcome of my own prolonged experiences with both is that I find...

• neither truly has any particular advantage over the other as a general statement
  
• Apple, while touting its stuff as 'intuitive', still requires some orientation and training to use effectively, or you still blunder about and waste just as much time searching for things buried in its design...it is largely marketing BS about more 'intuitive' design
  
• Apple compatible stuff is more expensive to buy because there is less available from sources other than Apple itself.
  
• Apple does indeed have an edge in general graphics-oriented handling...e.g. it better scales text to remain readable in spite of high pixel count monitors; 4K monitors are better handled by Apple O/S than by Windows
  

This.

Jon_Doh wrote in post #17976303
Macs last forever. In 12 to 18 months that pc you built will either be burned up or something major will have broken in it or it will be slow and outdated. Meanwhile, the Mac you bought will be running like a new one.

I'm sure what I said will fire up the pc fanboys, but just buy a Mac and try one because once you've used a Mac, you'll never go back.

Yeah, no. Read above. My Mac Mini was ready to be revamped within a year, and if I ever wanted to change out it's CPU (which I would have) I'd be SOL. If I decide I want to upgrade my PC because it's lagging behind, I pop off the side panel, take off whatever component I want to replace and then toss in a new one. My PC will keep on ticking for as long as motherboards keep the same mounting holes (which will likely be a very long time).

It's also extremely ironic to me that you just tried to argue that Mac's components will be less outdated than PC's components... Apple is notorious (even among Apple fanboys) for using outdated hardware in their latest machines.

Now, all of this said, if I were in the market today for a new laptop it would be a really tough choice. I do still really like Apple's Macbooks in this regard, but when it comes to desktop computers, it would take a whole lot to make me go back.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17976792
2012 Mac Mini

stopped reading your post here ^^^

Left Handed Brisket wrote in post #17976799
stopped reading your post here ^^^

Don't know why, specs are pretty much the same as what the iMac's were at the time. But keep telling yourself your computer was a good value, whatever floats your boat, just stop trying to convince others that it's not full of holes

It's easy -- Macs are like Canons and PCs are like Nikons. EVERYONE knows which one is better and anyone who disagrees with you is obviously a moron.

Seriously, Mac vs. PC fanboy wars have been going on for decades. You made a choice. If it works, stick with it. If it doesn't, switch.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17976792
False, though a common claim. I had a late 2012 Mac Mini with the top level i7 and 16gb of DDR3, I bought it in 2014 (because it was the newest one available) and within a year it was running like utter garbage. It would take minutes to open up an application, particularly those from Adobe, let alone how slow it actually was while editing those files

Stock minis are absurdly bottlenecked by hard drive performance, to a "what was Apple thinking?" degree. The 5400 rpm drives are the slowest I've ever experienced, and the fusion drive is an improvement only for people manipulating lots of tiny files (mp3, web browsing, word docs, etc), but not for photo editing that is thrashing GB worth of data. The drives decay seriously over time, not just from becoming fragmented (which you can fix with a reformat and restore) but from remapping bad sectors to the innermost, slowest part of the drive platter. It's not uncommon for one of these machines to take several minutes to boot and show the self-diagnostic progress bar every time.

The good news is, a current (2015-2016) SSD makes these minis feel like completely different machines. You would not believe the difference it makes. They are in no way obsolete, they just need some new drive love.

EverydayGetaway wrote in post #17976823
Don't know why, specs are pretty much the same as what the iMac's were at the time. But keep telling yourself your computer was a good value, whatever floats your boat, just stop trying to convince others that it's not full of holes

value is subjective, despite how hard you might try, neither of us can tell the other what a good value might be for the other.

AlFooteIII wrote in post #17976830
Seriously, Mac vs. PC fanboy wars have been going on for decades. You made a choice. If it works, stick with it. If it doesn't, switch.

yup.

i have good friends that drive VWs, i have had one in the past and will probably never do it again.

my Toyota 4Runner is exactly my type of vehicle. I give up some things compared to a VW but I also gain some things.