New Hardware - Change to Apple / Stick to Windows?

[Dan_1981]

After some views on this if people fancy weighing in, would prefer it not to become a typical Apple vs The others thread but realise this may be difficult with the topic matter!

Current Windows based PC is now 7 years old, its old, outdated and pretty slow. Its also taking up rather alot of space in the spare room.

So the intention is to in the next couple of month upgrade and replace.

We use the system mainly for web browsing, some basic spreadsheeting, I play a few basic games - Champ Manger etc but this is not very common. I also do quite a bit of photo editing, mainly using Elements - no video work however. So nothing too intensive really.

Could probably fulfil all these requirements with a reasonably middle of the range laptop.

However I keep being tempted to change to Apple and go for something from them. Both wife and I used Iphones and are unlikely to change.

But i've never used an Apple system so am unsure what level of tech we'd need.

So what would you go for?

Windows based Laptop?
Apple Laptop?
Imac?

Way behind on spec so am unsure what is available and what we'll need - would like some future proofing as don't intend to upgrade again for at least 5 years or so.

Understand solid state hard drive is a nice to have.
Currently have several external hard drives for photography back up - would these work OK with an Apple product?

So what should I buy?

[andy-xr]

Dan_1981 said:

So what should I buy?

Whatever you want and what your budget can run to.

It's nice with Apple that say, with iMessage, you can start off a conversation on your iPhone, move to your iPad at work, carry on with it, then when you get home conclude it on your Macbook. But that's just the ecosystem working well. Having an iPhone and buying a Mac off the back of it, I dont think generally stands up

Buy a Mac for the OS stability, the fact that yes, it's expensive, but it's an OS designed securely to run on specific hardware, optimised with mid to top of the range stuff. You're paying top dollar for that hardware, and it'll last but it comes at a price.

Compare that with Windows, which is written so it has to run on hardware that may or may not be optimal, has to support an infinite amount o fdrivers and OEM bloating, and has to be licensed in a specific way.

Apple are a h/w and s/w company, MS are still a s/w company, regardless of what they say. Their whole commercial model is set up to still sell licenses.

The best answer is to have a play around, I run both and it's easy to switch around between them. For what you're thinking of doing, either would work fine

[Dan_1981]

Agree that selecting a system as I own an iphone seems a little extreme!

Budget is flexible and I realise the price differential is quite large between all the options.

How much would I need to spend on Apple kit to be happy that I could do what I want for the next 4 / 5 years or so?

[firemunki]

One point to raise for the gaming front, check the games you want to play in the future have Mac versions.

A mac isn't marketed as much as a gaming machine so there are less available, have a look on Steam to see what Mac titles they have for example. You can run Windows on a Mac through a virtual machine but I don't know what that would be like for performance. The other things mentioned like browsing and photo editing works as well on either (for normal person use) so you wouldn't lose out there.

Just a point to think about.

[supersport]

Go MAC, I made the swap from Win 7 to Mac earlier this year and have never looked back, it is just simply so good and easy to use. Really nice bit of kit too.

The fact that it integrates nicely with my iPhone and iPad is a really bonus, that should just get better with the next OS release.

[HRL]

You can have both if you buy a MacBook Air and have a Win7 or Win8 license. Bootcamp is your friend.

I'm currently typing this on my work MBA in Safari but have just finished installing updates for WIn7 Enterprise first before switching to OSX.

You can boot the MBA into either OS at startup and so far it's been completely hassle free.

[LordGrover]

There's a gentle learning curve if switching to OS X, but then there'll be a similar curve going from XP/Win7 to Windows 8.1.
Go play with both and see which you like best - these days they're both very good.

[Dan_1981]

So can I get away with a Macbook air or do I need to go for a pro?

Say budget is a slightly flexible £1000 give or take a couple of hundred

[Xaero]

Apple stuff is good, it is expensive, but holds value much much better which really offsets their asking prices. Look at a 1,2,3,5 year old macbook pro and compare it to an equivalent spec windows computer. They often work out cheaper if you factor resale into it (man maths here).

I moved over maybe 4-5 years ago now. I use windows 8 at work and its encouraged me to stick with Apple for the time being.

At the very worst - you can sell if you're not getting on with it. I bought my last 2 Apple computers slightly old (3-6 months), both in perfect condition but with £100-300 saving or so off retail price.

As for what one..

Air - lightest and most portable, least powerful
Pro - lovely screens for a laptop, more power, only slightly less portable
iMac - in various size screens depending on what you want, not at all portable.

They work in the same way, so it's up to you really.

[HRL]

Dan_1981 said:

So can I get away with a Macbook air or do I need to go for a pro?

Say budget is a slightly flexible £1000 give or take a couple of hundred

Well my work MBA is running an i5 with an SSD and they paid <£900 for it. I opted for the 13" MBA due to it's size and battery life. Can't fault it at all except for the fact that, as is always the case with Apple, it's considerably more expensive than a comparable spec laptop.

Bootcamped it on day one and haven't looked back.

[ReaderScars]

I've been using apple products in educational, professional and home environments since 1989. But there is another alternative - Ubuntu + PC hardware.

You could run it on your current windows machine without installing it. If you like it, upgrade to a newer, faster PC laptop and install it - it'll give you the security of Linux-based operating system and the low cost of cheap PC hardware, and a free yet very well supported OS - all for the cost of a USB stick and an optional donation to Canonical.

If you install it on your current windows machine you'll see a speed bump which might satisfy you for a bit.

[The_Jackal]

You say you do quite a bit of photo editing, I would seriously consider how comfortable that would be on a 13" screen.
Unless you really need to be mobile, you will get far more computing power (and bigger screen) for your pound with a desktop.
But if you just want something shiny, I think your mind is already made up.

[gpo746]

Popcorn anyone ?

[bitchstewie]

Have a go in an Apple Store and see how you get on, or buy online as they have a very good returns policy.

I've used OS X at home for about 8 years simply because my dayjob is servers, storage, and (mostly) Windows so it's nice to come home to something that isn't a continuation of that.

I suspect the bottom line is that either platform will do what you want, and you're arguably going to pay a premium for a Mac.

[Flip Martian]

I bought a Macbook Pro early last year - but as a replacement for a Windows laptop. Couldn't do without a desktop myself - use them for different things. When I replaced my desktop this year I got one custom made and put Windows 7 on it (8 can bugger off).

I like the Macbook - its a great bit of kit. I prefer working in Windows though, on the whole, for file management (I run Parallels on the MBP which lets me switch into Windows 7 whenever I want).

[toohuge]

With what you are planning on using the computer for, I would go for an iMac to be honest.

The screen will be much more suited to photo editing etc. plus as a large desktop they are wonderful to use.

Our iMac is getting on for 7 years old now and is still more than usable plus it looks great too.

My recommendation would be to go for the base iMac but upgrade the RAM with whatever budget you are left over with - that'll see you good a years to come.

Chris

[Dan_1981]

Thanks all.

With regard to laptop / desktop I would prefer a desktop however the office space is being reallocated!

I'm trying to find a space to squeeze one in but it's looking more and more likely that it'll have to be a laptop.

Which makes me think it'll have to be 15"?

[Zod]

Squeezing in an iMac, even a 27" one is really not an issue. The screen is slim and the keyboard and touchpad/mouse are small and unobtrusive.

[Crafty_]

Is apple stuff still expensive to upgrade, e.g. add some RAM etc ?

Personally I don't see the point in paying more for Apple kit that you don't know how to use over a windows box that you do know how to use and will do whatever you need it to just as well. The only benefit to the Apple stuff is being part of the "in crowd".

But thats just me I guess.

[CDP]

Crafty_ said:

Is apple stuff still expensive to upgrade, e.g. add some RAM etc ?

Some of it is impossible to upgrade. Check very carefully before you buy.