Are Macs worth it?

[graceling]

I know this topic inspires flame wars, but I really just want some advice without flames, if at all possible. I'm starting college in the fall, and I need to get a laptop. It would really be more for general use (YouTube, the odd Facebook game, 30 tabs open at once), than for gaming or editing. I've done a bit of research on the topic, and people seem to think that PCs are more appropriate for gaming and that Macs are more appropriate for editing, but I don't really know what the consensus is on general use.

I'm looking at the 13" Macbook Pro for $999. This seems expensive in comparison to the $300-500 PCs I'm looking at, but those tend to need replacing in 2-3 years. Macs supposedly last longer and are less susceptible to viruses. Is this true? Do Macs really last 4+ years, and are they worth it for a college student? I've already said that the computer would be for general use, so what's most important to me is that I would not need to replace the computer until after I've graduated college at the earliest.

Oh, and if you think that PCs can do the same thing as Macs for less, would you mind pointing out a specific computer? People tend to give grand blanket statements about PCs with superior specs for the same price, or much much cheaper PCs that can do the same thing, but no actual examples.

Edit: I forgot to add that I was always pretty happy with PCs until, of course, the inevitable failure. Vista and 7 were fine, but I am convinced that Windows 8 is the devil's spawn because it is just so impractical for a regular laptop without a touchscreen.

Edit: I am really forgetful. For those who think that I should get a Mac, is their AppleCare Protection Plan worth it?

 

[Munchbot]

While PC's are cheaper and can often provide the same specifications for less money as you stated, macs are favored among many people for their reliability and general ease of use. When you buy a PC, you have to be careful to buy the right one - as you say, lots of them need replacing in 2-3 years if not chosen correctly. A well-chosen, quality PC will last just as long as any mac.

However, the longevity of any computer, while being affected by failure, is also often affected by a user's demands. A gamer will want to continually update their system to keep up to date with the latest games, while a regular user will not need much power and will not care if their computer isn't the most up to spec. For general use, any good computer will last 4+ years.

About virus safety - macs rely on "safety by minority". That is, since there are less macs than PC's, it is more likely for one to create a virus for a PC. Doing so does, after all, give the virus more computers to work with. It isn't true that there are no viruses for macs, it is however true that there are less.

For a good windows laptop - lenovo laptops are known to be reliable, although there are many others that are fine too.

Here's one: http://shop.lenovo.com/us/en/laptops/ideapad/z-series/z580/
Look through their website a bit to find one that suits you - look for one with a hard drive that's big enough, an i5/i7 processor and good looks.

Hope this helps!

Edit: I didn't like windows 8 either. I installed windows 7 on my new computer. If you look around the internet, you can find models of laptops that run windows 7. Some also allow you to choose between windows 7 and 8.

For apple care, I wouldn't say it's really worth it. If you were to buy an AppleCare type plan for each of your computers and you broke one in ten, you still would've paid less not buying the plan. As long as you're careful with your computer, you should be fine.

 

[graceling]

Thank you!
My sister goes through PCs like crazy. She literally replaces her computer every 2-3 years, so that experience is what I'm going off of.
My family seems to think I'm the tech-y one, but I actually don't know too much about computers. How big do you think the hard drive should be?
Windows 8 is the bane of my technological existence. My sister called it shit and gave up within five minutes, while my brother somehow struggles through even though he refers to it as the devil. And it's everywhere. But I'll look for Windows 7.

 

[lightsong]

I'm not sure what you are going to school for but for my computer science program, starting year 3 we were required to run certain software that was Windows only. Imo I would go with a comparable PC unless you really need an apple product for something in particular . And for college I prefer an Ultrabook... so much easy to cart around. Haswell would also be nice.. but i haven't seen many in your budget... they should be coming out w/ more models soon I hope

Regarding windows 8... dont beleive all the "devil's spawn" nonsense until you actually use it. Its not like its hard to click on the left corner of the screen instead of a button on the left corner of the screen. Honestly its not that different and certainly better than vista

 

[Munchbot]

If you only work with small files such as doc/docx files and the occasional image/ video clip, any hard drive 320GB and up should be fine. What you can also look for is an SSD drive, which would greatly improve the boot-up and shutdown speeds of your computer and generally make it more snappy and responsive. The drawback to buying an SSD is that SSD's are more expensive. The minimum SSD size I would recommend is 128GB, buying a disk of this size will give you about 90GB of space for files. You can always opt for a bigger 256GB drive (The next step up), which would give you a lot more space for more files and especially larger programs.

 

[graceling]

I don't actually know what I want to major in yet, so I don't know if I will run into software issues. My college has stated that there might be assignments that require Windows only software, but that they could be completed in the computer labs.
Ultrabooks are lovely, but I think I will probably still need an optical drive.
I have used Windows 8, and I really dislike it. I'm sure that it works perfectly fine on a tablet, but it really irritates me when I've used it on my dad's laptop. In my opinion, it was a pretty nonsensical change.

 

[graceling]

Thank you so much Munchbot! Now I actually know something about hard drives, haha.

 

[Munchbot]

I'm not sure what you are going to school for but for my computer science program, starting year 3 we were required to run certain software that was Windows only. Imo I would go with a comparable PC unless you really need an apple product for something in particular . And for college I prefer an Ultrabook... so much easy to cart around. Haswell would also be nice.. but i haven't seen many in your budget... they should be coming out w/ more models soon I hope

Regarding windows 8... dont beleive all the "devil's spawn" nonsense until you actually use it. Its not like its hard to click on the left corner of the screen instead of a button on the left corner of the screen. Honestly its not that different and certainly better than vista

I had windows 8 installed - after an update, my mouse and keyboard literally didn't work in the lock screen. Both worked fine in the BIOS and with other computers, and installing windows 7 fixed the problem. While I still had it, I found windows 8 extremely unenjoyable, especially since programs in metro and desktop mode didn't synchronize, i.e. tabs in chrome in metro were not the same as in desktop mode. Overall, I would not recommend windows 8 unless you have a touchscreen or tablet to go with it, it really makes no sense for a traditional PC.

 

[Munchbot]

Thank you so much Munchbot! Now I actually know something about hard drives, haha.

Yaaaaaaay!

 

[lightsong]

I've got 2 computers with windows 8 and 3 with Windows 7. My girlfriend has The retina macbook pro.. and I have unbuntu on my primary PC as dual boot... honestly they all work for everything I've needed. However.... I suppose I may have just avoided some of the problems others are seeing from windows 8. I like the overall look the matte menu's and everything... and yes i find the touch stuff annoying. 8.1 update looks like it will add a few little improvements. But in Windows 8, i Just stay in the "desktop" so often I really don't notice much difference