Ednsb Loc: Santa Barbara

I've been a mac user for years but worked for companies that used PC's until they looked at the total cost of ownership of mac vs pc. Their studies and my experience is that macs will always be cheaper in the long run. And these are not small companies (IBM and Oracle). In general PC's have to be replaced every two years or sooner. On the other hand macs last 4 to 5 years. There are articles on the internet that discuss these costs. Or as a real-life example, my wife teaches computer science classes and the college runs its admin software on pcs so she has to use one. We bought her a high end pc laptop and after 2 years it is almost worthless. It takes minutes to start, it is way slower than when we first got it. The laptop has 24 GB of ram and an SSD drive yet...Next weekend I am going to rebuild it from scratch which will take hours in the hope we don’t have to go out an buy another one just so she can do her work. On the other hand, I do all my post-processing on a 2011 iMac. It has 32 GB of ram, but no special graphics cards or anything. Cost me about $1,400 originally which works out to $156/year! The only reason I will update it will be because some of the new pp software is using graphics which is not in my version. But even then it won’t be thrown out. I'll just give it to my wife to use for all the non-pc stuff she does. Also, I'll try to finally get her to try run the pc stuff on the mac.. like I did when I was at Oracle.

Picture Taker Loc: Michigan Thumb

I work with Macs, I hav a bunch of friends who HATE MAC'S. They end up in the usual argument every time, saying I got ripped off BECAUSE I paid too much. I love my 27" Mac and my old laptop. I upgraded to the new 27" Mac with a great screen so I could give my grand son the Mac. Worked fine, was 5 or more years old, don't see any change, didn't need the new one but, love the new screen for my pictures.

PS Apple Tech Svs. is the best and all USA. Any problem or stupid question. I believe 24/7

One Jughead Loc: Greene County, OH

For about $19.00 you could try Advanced System Care Pro.
Cleans up and tunes up the PC to keep it running like new.

photoam Loc: Fergus Falls, MN

I call Apple Support often, as I am good at screwing stuff up. Out of >300 calls, I have ONCE dealt with a rude guy. The rest of their tech guys and gals are great. They either solve my problem, often by screen sharing, or they get me to the next level expert. Occasionally I have been kicked up three levels. Often they are all over the US. But I also get people in Bangalore or the Philippines who have English names and speak perfect unaccented English.
They are polite, friendly, and they know their stuff. I reap praise on Apple Service.
I've been an Apple guy since an Apple 2E in about 1983.
But I'm not biased. Not at all...........

Independencenorm

The Apple iOS is a system that just works!!!! No one mentions that the software that comes on a Mac is worth a $1,00.00 or more. It integrates with my iMac, iMac Mini, laptops, iPads and iPhone.
I use a Dell laptop for Quickbooks tuning Window 10. An abomination to the Lord.
My old iPhone 6S is a better camera than my $900. 00 Nikon because of the processor and software.
I also do lots of video and iMovie (free) does just about everything I want, plus integrates in Keynote tricks and Photos.
Go to a Apple store and really ask intelligent questions. You will find a Mac is less money in the long run and more productive.

I have sold both pcs and Apple products since 1986.

hardymorgan42

I've not used PC for photos, but Mac simply makes it quick and easy. Also if you are working in ancestry.com or findagrave.com, the ease of transfer of photos makes it worth the extra money.

Hardy Morgan

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Agreed! Resource hunger will choke any computer. It has to be sized and spec'd to the task.

Probably the RAM and "drive" space are more important than the processor for most tasks. Fast processors are important for rendering large numbers of still images. But I/O speed is critical. With too little RAM, the operating system has to swap code and data from RAM to disc all the time. It does that less often with more RAM, and it does it much faster with an SSD. More RAM is added lung power or breathing room. A large SSD is like having a bigger stomach and a bigger mouth to gobble up data faster.

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Parallels Desktop rocks! You do need sufficient RAM, processor cores, drive space, and graphics memory. With the right setup, Win 10 runs quite well.

Bill P

The mac's last longer business is a sham. I just replaced my PC, it lasted lasted 15 years.

Bobcat87

I am not a "techie", but FWIW, I am still using my white "plastic" MacBook after almost 10 years. Took it in for a checkup today and it received a clean bill of health. My son added some additional memory several years ago. It has been very dependable and I plan to continue to use it for awhile longer. It cannot handle past the OS High Sierra operating system, but works fine.

Edia Loc: Central New Jersey

This question comes up every few months. The computer you are familiar with and use, always works better; no matter if it is a Mac or a PC. Apple is not always a friend to Mac users. From time to time, they make their legacy equipment obsolete and make you buy a newer model. I have been burned twice with older Macs. An other weird thing about Macbooks is that do not have touch screens. On the small screens of laptops, touch screens to zoom in or out, make photo processing much easier. This is why I like PCs better. PCs are more configurable and expandable than Macs. An other consideration is that computer sales is a small portion of Apple's business. That said, Apple does not put R&D money to develop new and improved computers compared with the developments of the iphones. A new iPhone comes out every year and a new ipad every few years. The Mac pro was not updated for over 10 years!. Speed with a fairly new computer is not a big issue. Both iMacs and PCs use Intel chips in their CPUs. i5 or i7 chips will provide all the power to run all the available photo processing software. More memory and a more powerful graphics card may provide faster processing for either platform.

mp97070 Loc: Central Oregon

I too am a convert, with no regrets. I got into Mac with a MacBook Air, that is now 8 years old and still keeping up. I have an iMac now as well. I looked at specifications and compared to a PC from various vendors, equipped similar to the Mac and the price was not that much difference. Add to that longevity, free OS upgrades, and support support I think more than made up for it, plus it just works right all the time.

My MacBook Air was purchased for a travel device that was light weight, the netbooks were the PC version of a lightweight laptop, but were very under powered. I never intended to go away from Windows (which Macs run quite nicely) but turning on the PC became a dreaded experience, so that was that!

Either way you go, good luck!

rochephoto

If you love the obtuse. If you love restarting your computer. If you love searching for the device you just plugged in. If you love viruses. If you love buying a computer that appears to be cheaper until you have to buy third party basic software.... Buy a PC. If you want a computer that is intuitive and easy to use, That has video and music software built-in and lights up every time you plug in your phone or camera and asks you how you want to proceed, buy a Mac. Ask yourself how much your time is worth in $ when it comes to frustration.....

aikiboy

The hard drive in my laptop (4 yrs old)died last winter. I put in an SSD and the difference is astounding. You don't really know how much a bottle neck a hard drive is until you have an SSD. Also, that is a cheaper than a new computer.

Kaib795 Loc: Maryland, USA

Nothing wrong with going with a Mac as I've used them for years but having built a computer for my son to game with, I've moved over to using PC's. You can build a faster computer in a more affordable package. My new computer, just built for photo editing, is a i9-9900, dual m.2 drives with 8 TB backup dives (two that mirror) and a 6 GB video card GeForce 1060 TI and 64 GB RAM plus one firecuda 1 TB for disk imaging the unit. This isn't a ordinary computer but my custom build at about $3K in cost. Mac computers are not power monsters unless you buy a video editing version that costs double what I've made. So if cost is a factor, build a PC. Just find a person who has done it before and have fun. Costs could be lower with a lesser case (was a full tower), less RAM, a cheaper mother board. My intention was to make a computer that could have more mirrored drives added as needed and this case can hold many.