Tell me what to get, PC vs Mac desktop

[timmac]

I just can't decide! I had my heart set on an Apple and was waiting for the education freebie announcement when Microsoft announced the free Xbox deal AND came out with huge discounts on an XPS computer.

The first thing I noticed from you post is you mentioned getting a new MacBook last year, and that everyone else in your house right now wants this purchase to be a non-Mac. Not even delving into any of the technical issues, this alone would solve the decision for me.

In any computer purchase, I'd argue the most important question to ask is "what do you want to do with it?" Any argument for or against a PC or a Mac that only makes generalizations (e.g. 'macs are easier to use' or 'PCs are chepaer' or 'one has better security than the other') doesn't first ask this is a spacious argument. Asking this question in your situation, where your husband prefers a PC and the kids want to play games, there's little doubt that is the right answer. Yes, you could theoretically do this on a Mac as well, but you'd want to use VMWare fusion, at a cost of $80, and even then, there's some performance degradation. There would be no reason to buy a Mac if you're mostly using Windows software.

 

[timmac]

I need to look better at the Dell website. I think the total I put in came to $1100, but that was with some bose speakers and a few other extras that aren't needed, are just nice. I was just playing around with what I could get for the same amount of $$ vs. the Apple. The memory and processing are double that of the Apple and the screen was larger and nicer too.

I think if I got the exact same computer, minus the larger screen and minus the nicer speakers, etc....I would come in around $800 or so.

I think you're seeing the key point here. For the same money, you can get a lot more bang for your hardware buck by not going with a Mac. While the case hardware and a few other items (like the Mac trackpad, which is very nice) are without a doubt nicer on Apple, everything that drives your system... the CPU(s), memory, hard drive, etc, are basically the same under the hood... and more expensive from Apple.