Mac vs. PC: The Ultimate Lab Test for New Desktops & Laptops

Popular Mechanics ^ | May 2008 | By Glenn Derene

[Swordmaker]

Head to head comparison of Mac v. PC (Vista) by Popular Mechanics... PING!

Shhhhhh, don't tell anyone but.... Mac wins.

Thanks to Spktyr for the heads up...

Mac Wins Ping!

If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Vinnie]

I’m sitting here fuming this AM. Well, every day at some point.
Why?
My virus scan program caught me at a most inopportune time again.
I’m typing away ( I look at the keyboard while typing, I know ) and the virus program has the box all tied up.

Stop typng, nothing appeared on the screen anyway. Wait to download the latest patch, scan the box, blah, blah, blah.

I HATE IT.!!!!

Should be using my Mac Book Pro.

[ByteMercenary]

While Popular Mechanics is not really the last word in computer technical publications, this is an interesting comparison. It should come as no surprise to a more than casual user that a unix based OS would outperform almost any Windoze system. Even the now-bloated RedHat Linux is sleek compared to Vista.

We use *nix almost exclusively in our office with only two machines with W2K on them. One is a ‘honey pot’ and the other is a firewall. The real work is done on *nix systems, mostly Suse.

[doodad]

As a support person for both systems and some other things, my only beef with the Macs is the users. They really don’t know how to *do* anything when it is not as expected. They don’t know how to troubleshoot and just throw their hands up. I had one tell me it was just a tool. Fine, but don’t pretend it is a crisis when you don’t even try.

/rant off. Whew I feel better.

[KoRn]

"the virus program has the box all tied up."

I use AVG, and I can run a full virus scan at anytime, and not even know it's running because it doesn't slow down my machine at all. How much RAM do you have and what kind of AV scanner are you using? I'm running on 4GB of DDR2.

[Vio24]

I recently purchased the following:

HP Pavilion Slimline s3400z PC
- Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium with Service Pack 1 (32-bit)
- AMD Athlon(TM) 64 X2 4400+ dual-core - 2.3GHz
- FREE UPGRADE to 3GB DDR2-800MHz dual channel SDRAM from 2GB
- Integrated NVIDIA GeForce 6150 SE
- No Modem
- 250GB 7200 rpm SATA 3Gb/s hard drive
- LightScribe 16X max. DVD+/-R/RW SuperMulti drive
- 15-in-1 memory card reader, 2 USB, headphone port
- Integrated 5.1 Capable Sound w/ front audio ports
- No additional security software (60-day Norton Internet Security trial)
- Microsoft(R) Works 9.0
- HP keyboard and HP optical mouse

I have a 19” Dell flat screen monitor already. The above speced unit cost me $430 including freight (tax not included). Since I use the thing for surfing the web and email 99% of the time, the value appears to be with this unit vs the more expensive alternatives shown above.

[Vinnie]

512megs of RAM and Trend Micro.

I can run a scan in the background, slows down the comp. but it will run.
However it interrupts me to ask me whether I want to download, etc.
If I have it on automatic, I really get frustrated.

Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have a Mac desktop and say adios to MS and virus scans.
Typing this on the Mac laptop, getting ready to go to work.

[ovrtaxt]

Too bad they didn’t include a comparison with an XP machine too. I’d bet the XP comp would blow Vista out of the water.

Thanks for the post. That price comparion has me thinking now- I may finally switch to a Mac with that in mind.

[RachelFaith]

You could buy Vista for your iMac and STILL SAVE $100 !!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHA !

Or you could keep yer head in the sand and tell yerself PCs are better and Macsa re too expensive !

[texas booster]

Another comparison that drains my resolve.

Time for a new system for daughter who is in school to be an architect specializing in interior design.

Is there a version of AutoCAD for OS X?

Is there a version of Photoshop for the Ma ... umm, never mind, I think I know the answer to this one.

Will she even need an Office type program?

Will it run Folding@home, so her Dad will have hope when he is even older and grayer?

This could be interesting.

[KoRn]

"Hopefully by the end of the summer I'll have a Mac desktop and say adios to MS and virus scans."

Good for you! I'd sooner die than to buy a new PC and end up running Vista.

[nonliberal]

I bought an IMAC. 24"screen and all the bells and whistles. I had been a PC guy (my office still uses PCs but I upgraded from Vista back to XP) until I bought my Mac.

I now have a 24" monitor but a 19" television.

[bcsco]

I’m running AVG on a laptop with 1.25 Gb of RAM and have no problem with it scanning in the background.

[jwparkerjr]

What an interesting observation! I worked several years at a large newspaper that was combined in one building with a major NBC TV outlet and an online organization. I was in the news photo department of the paper so I had occasion to work with people in every department of all three organizations. We were one of the first major groups to embrace ‘convergence’, the idea that everyone could share everything and everyone would be better off. It's a concept that must have been dreamed up by a liberal. It looks great on paper, better when described by the CEO and absolutely heavenly when presented as a multimedia production on a 50 plus inch plasma display. In practice it turned out to be much like most liberal ideas and programs, easier said than done.

I'll not bore everyone with the details but it was a disaster. None of the components was ever as good as it was before.

There were both Mac and MS systems all through the building. Your grasp of the difference in the users is the most accurate description I've seen. I cringed anytime I answered the phone and found myself talking to a Mac user. MS users were frequently problematical too, especially the photographer of 30 years being forced to move from film to digital, but as a whole the MS user was easier to deal with.

Thanks for the observation. Certainly brings back memories!

I could have been more tolerant of the problem users if they had simply acknowledged that their trouble stemmed from having little or no understanding of what they were trying to do and had abandoned any hope they had of solving the problem to the vagrancy's of the computer. Never a good place to be. They were always very defensive and often downright nasty.

PS I recall the day corporate announced they were abandoning the Mac platform and would be moving to strictly MS systems. I will leave the reaction of the Mac users to your imagination. Think big.

[The_Victor]

Or you could keep yer head in the sand and tell yerself PCs are better and Macsa re too expensive !

I can get an HP quad core ~4GHz, 320Gb HD, 1Gb memory, for $649 at Fry's Electronics. Who has their head in the sand?

[OneRatToGo]

The Gateway One PC had a processor that runs 400 MHz slower than its iMac competitor (not a heck of a difference in this age of dual-core chips), but it also had two extra gigabytes of DDR2 memory. In the laptop category, our Asus M51 had a 2.2 GHz processor, compared to 2.4 GHz for our MacBook. But the Asus had a larger screen, a more sophisticated graphics card and an extra gig of RAM.

So the MS machines had slower processors and somehow the Macs outperformed them. What a surprise!

I sit here typing this on my Quad PC running Vista with 2GB of RAM watching TV on my USB tuner with my email running and AVG scanning the PC without one single bump.

[VanDeKoik]

Am I the only one who sees a close similarity between vocal Mac users and Obama supporters?

They act as if they are God’s gift to humanity.

They routinely speak as if they are all knowing, but usually never say much of substance other than how great it is that they support what they support.

They look at anyone that is not the same as rubes “clinging” to backwards ideologies.

When you poke holes in there land of make-believe they accuse you of being a bigot.

They put logo stickers in the back of their car windows, so they can find each other and gush over how cool it is that they are who they are.

They think they are the change that they’ve been waiting for.

[Damifino]

I work in engineering; the ee simulation and modeling software isn't made for Mac and won't run (integrative) in emulation.

Every comparative test I see like this is centered around a user that surfs the web, downloads music, video and chats with friends. It's funny, when I think of a Mac user, I think of someone that uses their machine (I suppose Mac users don't call their personal interface device a machine) as an entertainment outlet, more like a TV. It's probably a stereotype, but it is my perception.

[dangerdoc]

An occasional tech post is interesting but:::::

Have you posted anything not Apple related???

Have you even responded to anything not Apple related????