Should You Buy a Mac?

• Author: reemixx
• Filed under: Apple
• Date: Feb 27,2008

Macs sure are getting popular these days. I’ve found myself giving advice to people lately who’ve been asking which computer they should buy, and whether they should try out a Mac. A lot of people are hesitant about making the ‘Switch’, and rightly so. A Mac is different to a PC. It’s a completely different experience. It does the same things but in a different way. So, for those wondering about whether they should make the Switch, here’s a list of questions to ask yourself to help you decide.

What will the computer be used for?

Do you only need to surf the web and check your email? Do you plan to play games on your computer? Are you a developer or designer who works with specific applications? It is crucial to pinpoint your exact requirements to make sure your computer will do everything you want it to.

For the average user who just wants to surf the web, check email, listen to music, watch movies and upload their photos, a Mac would be a great investment as it does all of these things extremely well and comes with everything needed to do so right out of the box. It also has the advantage of being very easy to use for the non-experienced computer user. Even for the experienced user, a Mac computer is a great benefit, combining a robust operating system with a beautiful user interface.

For web developers, graphic designers, photographers, movie makers, and many other creative professions, the Mac is often the platform of choice by many professionals. This is largely due to the amount of professional software packages available for the Mac computer, such as Adobe Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Final Cut Pro, etc.

For gamers, Mac computers are still at a disadvantages against PCs when it comes to playing games. Macs can play games, either buy purchasing games specifically made for Mac, or installing Windows on your Mac via Bootcamp. But if playing computer games is your primary reason for buying a computer, a Mac would be a poor choice compared to its PC counterpart. With a Windows PC, not only do you have full support for the games you want to play, but you can upgrade your hardware very easily when your graphics card, processor, etc, gets old or suddenly dies.

One thing I will mention is that Mac computers make excellent home theatre computers and media servers with their optical out combined with the headphone out port, and Front Row that comes with every new Mac.

Is being able to upgrade important?

One of the many differences between Macs and PCs is the upgradability factor. Whilst both Macs and PCs are comprised of many different parts from many different companies, the major difference is that Macs are sold as a complete package in which you can’t (or rather, you’re not supposed to) pull apart and tinker with, other than the RAM, hard drive and battery which are generally user-replaceable. It’s also much harder with a Mac to get to the ‘guts’ of the computer, as they’re generally sealed up rather nicely. The only exception to this is the Mac Pro, which has upgradability and expandability in mind, but still not equal in scale to a PC. With a PC, it’s easy to buy separate parts and build your own custom computer. If a part fails, you can return it separately without voiding your warranty.

A lot of people view the lack of upgradability is a disadvantage for Mac computers, but in this way of thinking they miss the benefits. Since Mac computers are sold as a complete package, the user can be guaranteed that all of the parts work together perfectly well and are tested and optimised to give the best performance. Not only this, but technical support and warranties are much better and more straightforward with a Mac since you’re only dealing with the one company, rather than several different companies for several different computer parts.

Personally, upgradability isn’t as important to me as it used to be for one simple reason. Technology moves so fast these days that a simple PC upgrade every two or three years usually requires you to buy several different parts because your new processor and RAM needs a different type of motherboard, and the graphics card requires a higher wattage power supply, etc. It’s near impossible to future-proof yourself when it comes to selecting computer parts because technology changes, plain and simple. Obviously, the exception would be the PC gamer who wishes to stay on top of the demands of recent PC games by upgrading his/her graphics card or CPU regularly.

Is price a major factor?

While it’s common to hear that “Macs are more expensive than PCs”, this isn’t necessarily true. Building a PC part-for-part like a Mac would cost approximately the same amount. The difference is that there are only so many models of Mac computers, and therefore pricepoints, to choose from, whereas it’s almost limitless with PCs. Cheap laptops (sub US$500) that come with Windows now exist using yesterday’s technology, but there is no equivalent of this for a Mac. The cheapest Mac notebook computer is the 2.1GHz MacBook which costs US$1,099 at the time of writing. Obviously, this is a factor for some people who only need the bare necessities for web surfing and email, etc.

Is security and virus protection important to you?

All new Macs come with the OSX Leopard operating system, which is based on Unix and is extremely robust against viruses and other malicious attacks. While not indestructible, they’re much more protected than PCs running Windows which are extremely vulnerable to attacks. This could become an important factor in your purchase decision when the computer is for a non-experienced user who may not know that you shouldn’t click on that particular browser popup, or download that particular file. It could also mean spending less on anti-virus, spyware and malware programs over the years.

Final thoughts…

Most people know I’m an Apple fan. I love Mac computers, and rarely use anything else these days. I often recommend them to people looking for a new computer due to their ease-of-use, style, excellent operating system and applications, value for money, and great product support. However biased I may be, I won’t recommend a Mac to someone who clearly will not benefit from one. Cheap Windows based PCs are easy to find or build these days, particularly using older technology that’s being phased out, and casual to hardcore gamers would probably be best going for a Windows-based PC for their gaming needs. Ultimately, what you decide should be based entirely on your individual computing needs.