My Computer Died...

[HuntinDoug]

Hey guys...Anyone who has tried to contact me by email, I'm not ignoring you...honest. My computer officially went to the big junkpile in the sky. It was a quick somewhat unexpected death which left my plotter & laser orphaned, as well as slowing down the CNC adoption.

I have to go to my brothers house to check my email & posts. The worst part is... Less time to build.

This all happened the day before FMIC calls me with an R&D order that is slated for the winter NAMM show. So, the next few days will be spent computer shopping, loading software, and configuring my machines...woo hoo!

OK...enough whining =~)

[westhemann]

I think my next puter will be a Mac....I hear good things and I hate my dell.

[Robert Irizarry]

I think my next puter will be a Mac....I hear good things and I hate my dell.

I use Windows, Mac and Linux and Macs are indeed nice but each is a different experience. This is all opinion but ... Macs have a more integrated feel to them. It's almost like buying an appliance. You don't hack your appliances. You turn them on and they go. Windows is kind of somewhere in the middle trying to be more integrated in the way it does things but still accessible and then Linux, despite great advances in usability, still feels like a tinkerer's delight.

In any case, you'll need some ramp up time to get used to a Mac and hardware tends to be pricier as well. Don't forget to consider that you'll need to replace any software you now have on a Windows PC with versions that will work on a Mac. You may also have to deal with compatability issues with files being moved between Mac and Windows although this isn't the problem it once was.

I'm not trying to discourage anyone from Macs, btw, just pointing out some stuff that isn't always obvious to folks when they start talking about a major switch...

Regards,

Robert

[CrazyManAndy]

Robert Irizarry's comments are spot on.

I used to be a "Mac's suck!" kinda guy, but after a little research they seem like really nice computers (I really like the MacBook Pro). If I get a notebook, it'd probably be a Mac. I'm still a Windows fan though, especially for desktops. I'm a pretty big nerd, and I just love the feeling of getting a bunch of errors and fixing them myself...

CMA

Edited August 11, 2007 by CrazyManAndy

[tim_ado]

Robert Irizarry's comments are spot on.

I used to be a "Mac's suck!" kinda guy, but after a little research they seem like really nice computers (I really like the MacBook Pro). If I get a notebook, it'd probably be a Mac. I'm still a Windows fan though, especially for desktops. I'm a pretty big nerd, and I just love the feeling of getting a bunch of errors and fixing them myself...

haha so true

i used to hate them but now i like there functionality, its easy

my dad bought home a mac from work and i use it a fair bit

still nothing like a windows

[Mattia]

Macs are fine, OSX is a great OS, but....almost every single one of my mac-owning friends (lots of them) have had to make use of Apple Cares at least once. Most of them own Macbooks of various descriptions, mind, although several of their iMacs have had to be repaired and/or replaced as well. Dead keyboards, powersupplies, fried components, harddisk crashes, memory faults, OS SNAFUs....anything you get on a PC, you can get on a Mac.

They're still computers, still made of hardware, still break down. Nothing terribly magical about them hardware-wise (not since they've moved to Intel), the OS is a little more stable than XP (let's just pretend Vista doesn't exist, because it's a huge memory hogging pile of craziness right now), although I have to say I've never had any problems with my Dell PCs, and only good service from them to date.

Ain't no such thing as perfect, sadly.

[biliousfrog]

BTW, if you like the Macbook but use windows, try out an Asus laptop...they're the manufacturers of Apple's laptops.

Huntindoug, have you checked the PSU? Most often that's the first thing to go & should only cost a little to replace (unless it's a Dell or similar). You'll then have all your settings & apps still installed on the PC. It might be worth checking it first as it will save you a lot of time & money in the short term & give you time to find a better computer & install all the stuff from the old one whilst not losing business. What happens when you turn it on, anything?

[davee5]

BTW, if you like the Macbook but use windows, try out an Asus laptop...they're the manufacturers of Apple's laptops.

Ok I swore I was gonna stay out of this, but now I need to say something. I make Apple computers. I make them at the ASUS factory and there is no way in hell you can make that comparison. That's like saying Epiphones are made by Gibson, same thing. Sure the Epi plays well enough and does what you need it to do, but it's not a Gibson.

Here's my 100% honest take:

Hardware: Apple makes wonderful hardware that is actually reasonably priced, actually these days even cheaper than a Dell of identical parts. Now that's imporatant to note because the variety of Dells & HPs you can get is much larger than the variety of our lineup. If you need what we make, fantastic, but we aren't going to give you a ton of options on hardware guts. If you want a cheaper bare-bones PC you won't find it at Apple, but if you want a mid to high-end machine come to us and try 'em out. From a physical side, the side I work in, Apple makes the absolute 1000%, no crap, no exaggeration, best quality products in the world. I mean it and I'm not in marketing, I'm a manufacturing engineer. Next time you're in an Apple store go look at teh products and try to figure out how they're made, try to find a defect, and then look at another mass-produced product. 50% of my job is trying to explain to our customers/suppliers/etc that "good enough" isn't. You will NEVER see another tech company making products of comparable quality. This point I will defend to the death, so if you want to pick a bone with my arguments here, choose a different one.

Software: OS X takes about 1 week to get used to if you've been in Windows land for a while. The new hires here who come from Wintel land look confused for a while, but then it clicks. Why does it click? It makes sense. It takes a while for your mind to stop "trying so hard" and looking for the bizarre workaround than comes from updating a legacy product that runs on the same core technology that existed in the 80s.

However if you, like me as I prepare to go back to school, need to run Windows programs like CAD then the Macs a sort of compromise. They are plenty powerful enough to run Windows on the Intel chips, but it's clearly now the native what-it-was-designed-to-do setup and it won't be ideal. For me, though, the stability of the OS, the iLife suite of applications, and the generally MUCH better workability/functionality more than makes up for those deficiencies since I'm not on CAD all day. If I was I'd buy a tower workstation, but since most of my student time will still be spent on email, Office apps, the web, and iLife with sporadic use of SolidWorks it makes a ton of sense for me to pickup the MacBookPro I'mbuying when I leave. As an aside, my discount is not that deep so that is not a monetary decision for me. I have a Dell and I have a Mac and I can tell you it's an absolute no-brainer which I'd rather upgrade as I head back to class for my masters in engineering. The few programs that are Windows only I can now run on my Mac and I don't use any of them on a daily basis, so the marginal inconvenience is quite bearable.

As for the complaints about busted hardware here's my spin: Apple has a repuation of making perfect stuff, of being unbreakable. Thus when Mac stuff does break, as all stuff is want to do, the complaints are much louder then when a Dell breaks because everyone expects to replace that cooling fan 6 times and have sticky non-functional keyboards from Gateway. All products have issues, and the closer to a major revision or product release you buy the more risk you accept with that new product. Wait about 2 months after we release anything and that product will in all likelihood never give you problems. If it does, we deal with it quickly (or so I hear, my channels are different from yours).

Blaaargh, I didn't really mean to go off like that, but that's my quick and dirty spin on it from the inside out.

-Dave

Edited August 13, 2007 by davee5

[erikbojerik]

Two words:

Mac (Duo-processor, boot up OS X or Windows)

Parallels 3.0 (run Windows in its own window at the same time as OS X)

[biliousfrog]

OK Davee5, that's good to hear. I'd heard from a rather well respected computer review magazine that Apple laptops & ASUS laptops were essentially the same but having heard from the horses mouth so to speak I will forget that I ever read it.

I've always found the Mac/PC thing a bit like hare/tortoise although things have changed a lot recently. Mac's were faster than PC's when released but would very quickly be left behind as they didn't really offer a viable upgrade path, however, for the long haul they were always (fairly) reliable & would often outlast any PC.

The problem that I've always had with Apple is that they seem to put style before anything else...people want an iPod because it's cool, they want the latest Mac because it would look nice in their lounge, they want a MacBook because it looks nicer than a Windows one. As I said things have changed but I would always look at the price Vs performance first & Mac's always seemed way overpriced...not just for the machines but for any additional hardware & software, plus they're so limited in what's available.

Of course, I'm looking at it from a 3D VFX viewpoint rather than an average Joe viewpoint. I can get a 2xQuadcore, 8gb RAM, 500gb HD, Quadro gfx workstation from Boxx for £2,500 with 3yr warranty & I know that I won't be limited to certain software & that I can upgrade it with products from my local PC store (if I was so inclined). However, when I get to the stage that I want some reliable office machines I will certainly look to Apple as I think that they excel at that area. Almost every day I wish that I could change the colour of a folder when a job gets signed off...just like I could on my old G3

[davee5]

I'll say this about Asus, though, their stuff is pretty good in general. I'd personally take it over the Lenovo stuff (i.e. Thinkpads) just on build quality and components. Their design leaves something to be desired (they know we'd just nuke their plant if they even slightly copied teh designs we contract them to manufacture) but their build quality is pretty good. I mean, it should be since we keep sending guys like me over there for 5 months a year to help them get better at making laptops...

[westhemann]

Dell is horrible about software clashing with other software...and they bundle that crap all in there so you have to very carefully go through and delete all of the stuff you don't want and did not ask for,without accidentally deleting something you need.

took me nearly a month to get this laptop to ALMOST work right.it still locks up more often than it should...and it is a $1700 laptop.

for that price it SHOULD be awesome...but instead it is barely functional.

[Mattia]

Gotta say, never had that problem with any Dell I've used, but I didn't get much of anything pre-installed, and have a full CD with drivers and the like. Maybe its different for laptops (which are fiddlier anyway), but one thing I do like about Dell as a semi computer geek: they're fine with you popping the cover, rummaging around inside, and putting it back together. No warrantee issues. I always ask just in case, but if all you want to do is swap out a hard drive (on a laptop), it's good to know they're fine with you doing it yourself...

[biliousfrog]

that's ok as long as the new component has less than or equal power to the old one. My old boss tried that being a cheapskate, he bought the cheapest desktop that Dell made & tried to install a high-end gaming card & extra memory. It wouldn't start because the PSU was the bare minimum needed for the original PC, about 250W I think. Of course he decided to then buy a more powerful PSU but it didn't fit in the case because the Dell one's are much smaller....best bit was, that he didn't buy just one to see whether it worked, he bought three...3x Dell desktop's, 3x Graphics cards, 6x extra memory & 3x PSU's by which time he could have built some quite nice machines & probably saved some cash.

What I hated most about the Dell PC's was the noise they made whenever you did anything. They start off quite quietly but then you open a document & the fans kick in ROOOOAAAAAAARRRR!!!!..& then they quieten down again, open up a program RAAAAAAAAOOOOUUUURRR!!!, you have a few of them in an office & it get's quite annoying.

[Mattia]

I noticed the noise thing on a few of the old Dells at the hospital, but the one I have is lovely and very quiet. Depends on the model, as with everything.

That is one area where Apple is nice and simple: one model, just a few upgrades, nothing much you can mess up. I mean, if I ever get around to getting a laptop, chances are it will be a macbook. Especially if the rumours about the 12" models coming out again are true...

[fookgub]

Interesting comments here. I was firmly in the "build your own" PC camp for years. Always thought Dell and other companies were just for people who lacked the time or inclination to custom build something. That all changed a couple years ago when I had to get a new computer at work. I picked out "semi-custom" Dell, and couldn't be happier. It's fast, uses top notch components throughout, and cost less than I could have built it for. It also has a nice case and is virtually silent (much quieter than the HVAC system at my office). The bundled applications that come with virtually all Dells (even when you don't want them) were a minor annoyance, but they were easy to remove.

Also, I have to say that if you're using a modern OS (Windows or Apple) on a decent computer, and you're experiencing lockups or other stability problems more than about once every two months, there is something wrong. Both my home and work computers are on 24/7, and very rarely need to be rebooted. In fact, I don't think I've ever had a hard lock-up on my work computer. My home computer (which is in its seventh year) will start to lock-up frequently about once a year or so. This solution is simple: I just blow out the fans with a compressor, reapply compound to the HSF, and it's good for another year.