Im happy with what i have, i understand u can buy pc's for much cheaper and understand not every one gets viruses, its personal preference and ease of use for me

Do you know how the HP died?
Most data is easily recoverable if nothing has been written over it, unless the hard drive is FUBAR'd, like my old 500GB.

My external right now, had a bunch of all my pictures, and such, and I had quickly reformatted it to put on a new update, considering some of the pictures on the drive were corrupted, so without thinking I quickly reformatted...

Right now a file recovery program is running a recovery service on my external.

And yeah, $160 for a 500GB? That's outrageous...

I'm personally a PC kid... until I go to college, which I think I'm just gonna pick up a MacBook, it just...appeals to me, then again, it is just a PC with a new OS...
So...

If i ever did get a pc i would run a linux based operating system on it, there are some great linux builds out there and not nearly as many problems as windows.

[Threadjack]

Has anyone attempted and DID put Mac OS X on a regular PC?

[/Threadjack]

Sweet, thanks!

The 'Rugged' was an example of 'portable' (not just external drive that requires a wall socket) external drives available for MACs.... not a recommendation...
I agree, they are quite a few brands that are a lot cheaper and you can still get good dependability from them... And there is also the case of 'you get what you pay for'...
I have used MACs all my life (I'm a Graphic Designer) because of their stability and not necessarily for their speed (and yes, they are quite fast)...

Alien

Nother die hard Mac user.Ive also got a 13" MacBook Pro. I think you will find Macs are a LOT more straight forward than PCs.

On a side note, if you have a spouse, family member or friend who is a teacher or para professional see if the Apple Store will give them a discount. They do for my mom and she gets $100, free iPod touch and a free printer of her choice (out of like three) after a mail in rebate. Really a killer deal if you ask me. All thats required is a check stub I believe.

So the moral of the story here is: If you don't know how to maintain your PC, or don't want to, just go spend way too much money on a Mac! Problem solved!

It's like saying: I hate paying for oil changes on my G35, so I'll go buy a 760i 'cause they're included! :na:

I cant help but agree,
I really hate all the technical stuff, I just want to get on my computer and do what i want as simply as possible. kind of like my RC stuff, i dont want to fuss with tuning a nitro motor, i just want to plug my batteries in and go. and I dont mind paying extra for those conveniences.:yes:

I've had 5 computers since the age of 8, and they've all been Apple. They've never let me down and I'll likely keep using them for a long time to come. Say they're overpriced and whatever else, but the extra cost is worth it to me. And now that I can load up Windows with Boot Camp to play games and run a few PC-only apps I'm liking it even more.

The thing is guys, these discussions always turn into PC vs. Apple propaganda. Each system has it's pros and cons. Pick the one you like and use it.

Look at the can of worms I opened up! I have had 3 windows based PCs and they have all let me down. If you had 3 Feigao motors melt down would you go buy another or would you spend the extra money and get a Neu? I know I only melted one Feigao before I got a Neu!

So far these are my immediate observations. Start-up was simple and fast, took about 5 minutes from opening the box to being on RC-Monster yesterday. PC start-up isn't hard but it does take a couple minutes longer last time I did it. The fit and finish from packaging to the actual laptop is like comparing a Geo Metro to a Mercedes. The Mac has a truly finished look to it and feels like something of substance. One of my biggest gripes with my HP laptop was that the thing ran so hot you couldn't actually keep it on top of your lap cause it burned your legs! Even with the fan running it was still hot, I actually had a platform for it that ran two fans to help keep it cool, all them fans make a lot of noise. The mac has no fans and it still runs cooler, a lot cooler. I'm sure BrianG can appreciate that. Battery life is also much better. I just replaced my battery last summer with the double capacity pack and that gave me just enough juice to watch a full length movie. My first charge on the mac with no battery bulging out the bottom gave me about 3 1/2 hrs of use.

I will not argue that Macs are capable machines, and for those who can't bother to take care of their system, are much simpler to use. Please do not take that last statement as an implication of laziness.

I just can't justify the extra cost for an Apple system versus a PC. Price vs. performance is unmatched if you build a PC for yourself. I have the unfair advantage of being technologically intuitive, so maintaining a PC is no biggie. In fact, I don't even have any type of protection on my system. It's been that way for 5 years and I haven't had a problem that was caused by outside sources other than myself. :whistle:

I can vouch for the burned legs c/o HP laptops. My sister had an HP... Seems like companies who start with the letter "A" make good stuff. As in Acer or Asus. My sister has the Acer, and my Mom has the Asus. Both of which I recommended to them, and they are working great.

So I guess all I can say is: "To each his own." ...and leave it at that.

one other tidbit to help justify a mac's extra cost (aside from the small marketshare and lack of 'clones' to lower the cost): i worked at the apple store, and confirmed what i had heard all along....almost all parts made (the same parts as PC's, true) are made of premium materials, so they last longer. when you price out a custom mac on apple's website and add more ram, it's EXPENSIVE. you think, 'i can buy a few 1 gig ram chips for a fraction of that!'. but, apple gets the best of the best, to ensure that RAM you're buying lasts almost forever. plus, when you get it from apple, they're also there to back it up. sure, companies like kensington have warranties too, but i can tell you i've had to exchange a few ram chips in the past. free under warranty, but a pain. i've never, ever in my 20 years on macs ever had a ram chip/board go bad. (i have seen hard drives go bad over time on macs, but the computers were at least 8 years old).

dell, for example, gets the 'best deal' at the time from manufacturers on their parts to make their machines. at least, the old dell did. most of those parts had a really high fail rate, which admittedly was what almost lead to dell's downfall. the new dell may be better.

+1 on Dell and your example on RAM. My wife got rid of her PC and got herself a 21.5 inch iMac and a 15 inch MacBook Pro 5 or 6 months ago. She never looked back and I get jealous when I look at how user friendly they are, how well they perform and just looking at the quality of the whole thing. It's just top notch. Nothing is perfect but Macs are pretty close to it.
To get back on the RAM thing, the RAM on my Dell PC failed a year ago and when that happens, it is destructive. Not much was saved of all the files and software I had on my Dell. I am patiently waiting for the time when I will get to make the leap out of the PC grasp and get a Mac for myself. Then I two will never look back.