It really does boil down to how much you are wanting to pay. If you want something in the 500-600 range then you are pretty much stuck on the PC side. After everything I've been researching (and testing out), however, if you are willing to spend about 1000-1200 I think going with the Mac is an easy choice. Being a PC guy all my life I think there is a lot to be said for the options you have if you are a 'break the case open and upgrade' type of guy. So I can understand that. (Of course that doesn't really apply to laptops anyway) Still, it all depends on where you find your value. A lot of you are also mentioning Dells; however, hasn't their customer service been an issue for the last few years (I don't know; as I said I haven't 'bought' a retail PC in years)? In addition, your only option is to deal with them directly since there is no brick and mortar retail presence that exists? I know also that it is harder to get parts in some instances for a Dell from, say, a CompUSA or a Frys, since they don't really deal with retail channels. It seems like that would be one thing to consider.
Interesting. Are they the only one? Obviously you aren't going to be looking for service from Wal Mart. Then again I probably wouldn't buy a computer from there either. Dell used to have actual retail stores, didn't they? I can't remember how long ago those went down.
My sentiments exactly. For a good BitTorrent program, I would recomend Azerus (sp?) for Mac. The only issue I have is gaming, but now with the new Tiger/Leopard/Cheetah/Mongoose/whateverthehellitis Mac OS, you can switch back and forth between Windows and Mac OS, which is friggin sweet. Once you go Mac, you'll never go back...
Interesting. I wouldn't care. If Walmart sold the same model the cheapest, I'd buy it there. Ya can't remember, because they're still around. There're something like 10-20 of them in Texas - usually kiosks in malls from what I recall.
Yeah, they and HP have been selling too many pc's for their own good. Actually everybody's customer service has been tanking a bit for the past few years. You're saying it's harder to find parts for a Dell than it is for a say... oh... Apple? Now that's funny. The parts in both companies' products are pretty much off-the-shelf stuff except when you get to things like the motherboards. Remember when Apple used to be pretty much proprietary? They learned their lesson... The memory, cpu, video card, hard drives, etc in both are the same equipment you can go buy online or by walking into a CompUSA or Fry's. Actually they're usually lower-end than products people who build computers can get (for the most part).
Yeah, but how likely is it to find that model at Walmart? If I'm looking at a 600-700 PC and Walmart has the same brand/specs/model for 400, then yeah I'd reconsider. I just don't think it very likely. Not too mention they aren't going to give a rat's ass what happens to it after you take it out of the store. For more tech minded folk, probably not a big deal. But otherwise you aren't going to get much support. I remember more of a retail store model, not kiosks. Are most of them kiosks now? If so, I would think there are probably more than 10-20 of them. Actually, no...I never said that at all. ??? The motherboard is pretty important. And yeah, I also remember when companies used to do stuff like integrate everything so horribly that even if you wanted to upgrade the simplest things you'd have to go directly to them. Hopefully they've all learned their lesson.
they have mall kiosks. but its still online ordering. the walmart dells are only specific models geared toward the walmart shopper. no crazy xps.
I'd go with Windows XP system, no Vista. MOst companies are not comfortable migrating to Vista yet due to its being unstable and buggy and SLOW. For macs, you won't be able to notice the diffrent in performance. They look cool but to say that it's more stable than Windows XP, that's not right. Windows based are still cheaper.
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