My Mac, A New Thread, Lets Talk.

[theanimaster]

Funny these 'viruses'. They just keep getting worse. Now they're hijacking M$$$oft ASP websites? Classic.

The other day I was trying to show our AFS student a website on the PCs in our faculty. Fucking hell -- it took AGES for the fucking thing to load. The first thing that came to my mind was "This computer is fucked with a million viruses". I wish I was wrong, but looking at the CPU and being a Core Duo, I don't think there was any other explanation.

Now the funny thing was how SLOW this fucked up Windoze computer was compared to my 5 YEAR OLD MAC. It was SO goddamn slow that it was PAINFUL to use the hunk of junk. I was tempted to go to the computer lab to pull my mac out (I was downloading a 500+MB update for my OS there) just to use that instead. The PCs are just such worthless pieces of crap for viewing the net now and I feel sorry for the poor bastards that have to use them.

Unfuckingbelievable.

You know what... if you want to spend the last days of your lives troubleshooting viruses, trojans and all that crap and living in fear that your antivirus won't catch all the bugs out there (which it won't) -- STICK TO WINDOZE.

That's just my other way of saying "Just Buy a Mac".

[naboo]

I've not had a virus since switching to Firefox and now Opera. Occasionally Avast pops up to warn me something I'm downloading is a virus, sometimes I get a warning something is trying to hack into my computer, but the firewall stopped it.

Never spent a penny on anti virus software. My mother on the other hand has all kinds of problems with her paid for protection. She won't let me remove the stuff either because she paid for it.

Macs are for girls though.

[theanimaster]

Originally Posted by naboo

Macs are for girls though.

Yeah, keep telling yourself that.

[Killing Me Softly 101]

PC Tools Firewalls Plus is the firewall that I have been using. It seems to be somewhat ineffective. I am about to replace it. Probably just don't have it set right.

Originally Posted by zehner

i am most concerned for those folk with "viruses"

Maybe you have one and just don't know it. Have you tested by using another program to check?

[theanimaster]

Originally Posted by re_fuse

I can make a pc that will smoke all over a Mac...

Yeah, them Windoze machines have the tendency to break down in smoke...

PCs are more versatile, supports more games

Score 1 for the PC. But that's about where it stops...

and most important of all its more user-friendly.

Oh, so pampering your PC with Antivirus, Antispyware, Antitrojan, and Antithisandthat is your idea of user-friendly? Alright. I thought I was missing something.

First, its ease of use,

All you need to do to uninstall a program whose uninstaller has been corrupted is go into the registry and look for the E587TFH8.reg file and delete this, then go into the GJKSFIYSFO5786 folder nested in the other registry folder and then delete this and be sure to change the fJHGKHK4766 registry value to FHSGFJHS. Next, be sure you have all your antivirus, antispyware and antitrojan and antieverything apps perpetually scanning your system. To be safer, have at least 2-3 of each of these apps leaving you with about 10% of your total processing power for other tasks. Easy peasy.

anyone can operate a PC, as long as they can read they can do it,

As anyone can use a mac, as long as they don't have that "macs are hard to use" mentality.

but when I looked at the Macs in an electronic store, I see a maze of very difficult to understand buttons and icons.

On behalf of Apple I apologise. Next time we'll put it a slew of cryptic error messages, a blue screen of death, and this thing called The Registry File. That'll make it more familiar to use.

Secondly, I like to relax and unwind in front of my computer and play a few games during my downtime and the number of games supported by Macs is just utterly disappointing.

I have over 20 full-DVD games on my mac from 1st person shoot em ups to World of Warcraft to strategy games and rally racing games. I've so much I don't have enough time to finish them all (currently addicted to a rally racing game). For the average working person, I can honestly say there's adequate games for the mac. Even moreso for the new Intel mac people who can run Windoze games on their macs. Sorry but the whole "macs don't run PC games" adage is a thing of the past.

Furthermore, I have no idea how the graphics solutions on Macs perform, they are not very widely publicised. I asked the shop assistant at the store for some technical specs and they seem to be lost. What graphics card? GPU? No its CPU! I walked out of the Apple store at that point.

The people who work the store at ACER in Central World are just as idiotic. Don't judge a product by the idiots they get to sell it. The fact is that 90% of those store employees never owned or used a mac to begin with and all the people who do know their stuff about macs are too busy teaching English.

Ok, you get another point for CONSUMER macs not being able to upgrade, graphics-wise. However, this hasn't stopped me from outputting far more successful graphics projects with my 5-year old laptop than the equivalent bug-n-virus ridden Windoze PC can. I've also had far less problems with macs in the workplace as I am experiencing with the PCs we have.

Going back to graphics -- if you buy a standard consumer mac you get the latest graphics card or graphics chip built-in. However you can't upgrade this unless you happen to have bought the more expensive Mac PRO which you can almost upgrade to eternity.

Another reason would be the price tag. I nearly fainted when I saw the price tag, but I guess its to be expected.

You get what you pay for. The OS comes in 'free', updateable and reinstallable as well. I would never settle for anything less and the hassle-free, virus free usage is worth every single satang for me.

so if you have bought a Mac you would have to get parts from Apple, no one else.

No entirely true. You can use any PC keyboard or mouse with a mac. You can use any PC RAM with a mac, provided it meets the correct RAM specs (as with any system, PC or Mac). You can use any PC hard disk, external or internal with a mac. What parts are you talking about exactly? CPU? Alright, we've discussed graphic cards. True you can't get certain parts like the built-in optical drive unless you search hard enough (though you CAN get them). It's just much easier, faster and less warranty-voiding to go down to the place you got it and have them do it. Lots of people do that anyways with a PC! If you're like my brother though you can still do it yourself -- just look up and match the parts carefully. If that task seems to difficult for you -- just send it to the shop!

Furthermore, you can't customise a Mac like you can with a PC. You can't build it from the ground up, and choose from a whole range of motherboards, it is very restrictive.

And this is why the hardware-software integration works so well -- there's nothing left for you to feck up. Again though, you CAN customise a Mac PRO to hell... graphics and everything, but they're quite expensive. Macs are restrictive so that they work well (or just plain work). For me it ain't the computer I can 'customise' the most (if I wanted that, my mac would have an aluminium spray-painted finish and cheap neon lights taped to the sides) -- rather I prefer the machine that works the best, is hassle free and doesn't get viruses every 10 seconds on the internet.

The nail in Mac's coffin I think is the price, only one company sells it, so there is no competitor pushing the prices up

Well, you DO get a lot of what you pay for in terms of hassle-freeness and virus-freeness.

I have also heard some horror stories about technical support from Apple

I've heard similar stories with Microsoft Windoze... and worse -- hence threads like these.

but I guess its to be expected, you get meet any grief you can't just take your business elsewhere and ask someone else to service your Mac, because there aren't any!

Not true. There are authorised Apple Service Centres in pretty much every country that sells macs.

Due to the restrictive nature of Macs regarding hardware customisations and coupled with its high price, I believe PC's are the way to go.

And as I said, if you want to do all that lovely Windoze-virus-trojan-malware-troubleshooting, you're making the right decision.

Macs are not suitable for the average consumer, it is just not worth it.

On the other hand, macs are PERFECT for the average consumer who's real goal is probably just to have a computer that just WORKS, with little hassles to fix or worry about.

[daneel]

I thought Macs use Nvidia 8400GT and 8600GT graphics cards, Does anyone know?

[zehner]

mine has a Nvidia GeForce 8600M GT

[daneel]

MMX2 card 256MB ram?

[zehner]

GeForce 8600M GT:

Chipset Model: GeForce 8600M GT
Type: Display
Bus: PCIe
PCIe Lane Width: x16
VRAM (Total): 128 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0407
Revision ID: 0x00a1
ROM Revision: 3175
Displays:
Color LCD:
Display Type: LCD
Resolution: 1440 x 900
Depth: 32-bit Color
Built-In: Yes
Core Image: Hardware Accelerated
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Display Connector:
Status: No display connected

[theanimaster]

Originally Posted by daneel

I thought Macs use Nvidia 8400GT and 8600GT graphics cards, Does anyone know?

The iMacs have either an ATI Radeon 2600 Pro (256MB) or an NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GS (512MB). Those any good?

The Macbook Pros have an NVIDIA GeFore 8600M (512MB) card.

You can get any card you wish with the Mac Pros. Some BTO recommendations are the ATI Radeon HD 2600 XT with 256MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports or
NVIDIA GeForce 8800 GT with 512MB of GDDR3 memory and two dual-link DVI ports or
NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 with 1.5GB of GDDR3 memory, two dual-link DVI ports, and one stereo 3D port. I don't think the last one is too bad.

[daneel]

Z Yup got ya, good enough for most games and then some.

Still not convinced about the 8600 card though, the old 7600 did better on Windows computers.

Animaster, those cards are middle of the road cards, only die hards want more mate. I wouldn't g for the 5700 though.

Nvidia lost a lot of ground compared to ATI over the past few years and are finally making a comeback with the 7600, 8600, 8800 and 9150.

[theanimaster]

Oh, and the mac Pros can only support up to eight 30-inch Cinema Displays with the proper cards. tsk. tsk.

Originally Posted by daneel

Animaster, those cards are middle of the road cards, only die hards want more mate.

I reckon. To be honest the mac was never thought to be a die-hard gaming platform. But it helps to have the ability to run PC games now

[daneel]

Cool, but in the meantime I will make my lowly Acer mac compatible

[ScienceGuy]

Originally Posted by theanimaster

Yeah, them Windoze machines have the tendency to break down in smoke...

Score 1 for the PC. But that's about where it stops...


Oh, so pampering your PC with Antivirus, Antispyware, Antitrojan, and Antithisandthat is your idea of user-friendly? Alright. I thought I was missing something.



All you need to do to uninstall a program whose uninstaller has been corrupted is go into the registry and look for the E587TFH8.reg file and delete this, then go into the GJKSFIYSFO5786 folder nested in the other registry folder and then delete this and be sure to change the fJHGKHK4766 registry value to FHSGFJHS. Next, be sure you have all your antivirus, antispyware and antitrojan and antieverything apps perpetually scanning your system. To be safer, have at least 2-3 of each of these apps leaving you with about 10% of your total processing power for other tasks. Easy peasy.


As anyone can use a mac, as long as they don't have that "macs are hard to use" mentality.



On behalf of Apple I apologise. Next time we'll put it a slew of cryptic error messages, a blue screen of death, and this thing called The Registry File. That'll make it more familiar to use.


I have over 20 full-DVD games on my mac from 1st person shoot em ups to World of Warcraft to strategy games and rally racing games. I've so much I don't have enough time to finish them all (currently addicted to a rally racing game). For the average working person, I can honestly say there's adequate games for the mac. Even moreso for the new Intel mac people who can run Windoze games on their macs. Sorry but the whole "macs don't run PC games" adage is a thing of the past.


The people who work the store at ACER in Central World are just as idiotic. Don't judge a product by the idiots they get to sell it. The fact is that 90% of those store employees never owned or used a mac to begin with and all the people who do know their stuff about macs are too busy teaching English.

Ok, you get another point for CONSUMER macs not being able to upgrade, graphics-wise. However, this hasn't stopped me from outputting far more successful graphics projects with my 5-year old laptop than the equivalent bug-n-virus ridden Windoze PC can. I've also had far less problems with macs in the workplace as I am experiencing with the PCs we have.

Going back to graphics -- if you buy a standard consumer mac you get the latest graphics card or graphics chip built-in. However you can't upgrade this unless you happen to have bought the more expensive Mac PRO which you can almost upgrade to eternity.

You get what you pay for. The OS comes in 'free', updateable and reinstallable as well. I would never settle for anything less and the hassle-free, virus free usage is worth every single satang for me.


No entirely true. You can use any PC keyboard or mouse with a mac. You can use any PC RAM with a mac, provided it meets the correct RAM specs (as with any system, PC or Mac). You can use any PC hard disk, external or internal with a mac. What parts are you talking about exactly? CPU? Alright, we've discussed graphic cards. True you can't get certain parts like the built-in optical drive unless you search hard enough (though you CAN get them). It's just much easier, faster and less warranty-voiding to