My Macbook Pro 13 Died.......

[LostAtSea2011]

Take it somewhere other than an Apple store. There are other independent repair shops that will repair it for way less.

[witzgall]

Look online for information about repairing your macbook. There was a specific issue that could be fixed by putting your logic board (the main board) in an oven for a bit of time. No lie! The issue was that a solder joint had broken, and the oven trick re-flowed the solder just enough to fix it.

Chris

[DeepFrz]

Every time I connect our pc's to the network, Microsoft wants to download 60-70 critical security patches to it.

Now that is a gross exaggeration, unless you only connect to the net once or twice a year, which is not looking after your system. I will grant you that Win XP did have a lot of upgrades. Win 7 not so many, but they do keep improving it.

Take it somewhere other than an Apple store. There are other independent repair shops that will repair it for way less.

If they are so reliable why is it that independent repair stores can stay in business.

[DotDun]

The reason to buy Apple goes way beyond the hardware. And no, you won't get comparable quality hardware in a $500 PC. I consider Applecare as a cost of the machine, there is no better repair service.

Applications are the reason to buy Apple. Application integration is second to none, plus iPhone/iPad integration. Ever use Time Machine? It by itself is a reason to own a Mac.

[Dsanduril]

I live in a split household, we have both Windows and Apple machines. Since I get to do all the tech support, and since this debate has raged in our house for years, we decided to keep a log. Overall here's what we've found over the last 5 years:

Software Problems - Apple (somewhat surprisingly) loses. We have far more unexplained crashes on the Apple boxes than on the Windows boxes. That's not necessarily Apple's issue, since most of the critical software on both systems is by third parties. We're both technical people and run some pretty demanding applications, these have just been more stable on the Windows boxes. We do run different applications, so it is hard to get an oranges to oranges comparison (it's just not fair to use MS Office for that)

OS Problems - Windows loses. Far more OS related problems on Windows than on the Apple boxes. Way more updates, and they sometimes break things that used to work. Drivers and whatnot are a pain compared with Apple. We've had a few OS related problems on the Apple systems, way more than a few on the Windows systems.

Hardware problems - Call it a tie. A few more hardware problems (by quantity) on the Windows boxes, but they are cheaper and easier to deal with. When we get hardware problems on the Apples they are generally more severe (including a bad logic board on a MacBook Pro - Apple Care...).

Overall, after years of data collection we're about even in terms of cost, frustration, lost time, etc. This is kind of like anchors or multis vs. monos, every person's experience is different and opinions are strong.

YMMV

[sailorchic34]

HA I was just thinking this was another anchor thread.

Being a budget cruiser (read: cheap crazy blonde singlehand woman sailor) I just purchased the cheapest netbook I could fine. $200. Woo Hoo.. While a faster computer would be nice. Charging that puppy on the hook with limited power would be a Royal pain.

As it is, it gets 8 hours usage on a charge. My most important criteria in selecting it was amps used when charging. Well and price. And ability to run OpenCPN, google earth, etc...

I disable auto updates on everything as its too much bandwidth in the boonies.

Got to figure that computers may fail anytime after 2 years. They are pretty much disposable nowadays... well when they are on boats and salt air anyway...

[DumnMad]

My MacBook Pro is great for me, gets onto the net in a flash and I don't have to worry about the antivirus programs playing games on it first. This time-saver is worth it for me but may not be important for others. I can see why my daughter is OK with a low price PC - she's had 2 stolen and the kids wrecked another.
Witzgall is right, it horses for courses.

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by sailorchic34

Got to figure that computers may fail anytime after 2 years. They are pretty much disposable nowadays... well when they are on boats and salt air anyway...

We use Del Latitude's at work - I googled the model and it is about a $1,200 machine. They lease them and rotate them out at 36 months so it's $33 a month for computing per employee.

I expect the HP I bought will go 5 years but I am happy at 3 - $10 a month for computing...

It seems sad to say they are disposable but they are...

Most people buy way more computing power than they need for web surfing, email and CF.

[roverhi]

Unless money is no object, cruising with a MacBook just doesn't make sense. You can buy three or four netbooks or even low end PC laptops for the price of an Apple. The Apple will be a better computer but so damned much more money and just as vulnerable to getting a dollop of salt water or flying out of a berth onto the deck as a cheap computer. Have that happen to a net book and it's not that big a thing. If it happens to my new MacBook, it would be a disaster for me.

On my TransPac, went with a fairly good net book by Fujitsu and a cheap no name back up netbook. For one thing, Winlink email software for Ham radio doesn't have an apple version. Yeah, I know there is PC emulation software for the Mac but didn't want to screw around with it and possibly have it not work. The Fujitsu screen is getting funky but worked without a problem on the trip so never took the backup out of it's plastic bag. Both still work and have travelled with them off the boat since then. Figure they've already paid for themselves if they crap out. May buy another cheap neatbook as a backup before the next long voyage and will still be dollars ahead over owning a MacBook.

Ideally would go with an iPad but without the Winlink software, it's a bit useless and still twice as expensive as a netbook. Don't like typing on the screen though and too many parts to keep from self destructing if I use a separate keyboard. The iPad does have the advantage of cheap water proof cases that make it nearly impervious to the salt air environment on a boat at sea.

I'm not anti apple, typing this on my iMac and have an iPad, but just can't see possibly wasting the money if Neptune decides to incapacitate an expensive Apple.

[DeepFrz]

Dsanduril, thanks for your insight. Although my experience is slightly different it is hard to argue against facts. I am surprised to hear that you have more OS problems on Windows. Are you running Win 7 or XP? Win 7, at the very beginning had some problems with drivers but that was cleaned up very quickly.

There probably are more updates for the PC as there are more threats. There are far more Windows systems in the world, especially the world of business, so there is a bigger threat from the outside. Also, Apples system, based on Unix, is more difficult to infiltrate.

Linux is also safe but the learning curve is so very high and there is so much obsolete documentation on the internet and so little documentation on current systems that it is very difficult for someone to set up their own system, initially.

[minaret]

Apple is great for the iPad and iPhone, but for your main computer? No way, not enough horsepower possible. I run an Intel Core i7 six core processor, with 12 gigs of Corsair RAM, dual GeForce GTX 660's in SLI config, a PhysX GPU, a 256 gig solid state drive, and a 1 TB backup drive. Custom liquid cooling and extra fan banks for everything. I added extra ports and fans and thermal pasted it all myself, after building from scratch. Even threw in some LED interior lighting. It's built in to a cabinet on the boat with extra fan ducting from the engine room intakes run to it. I never turn it off so it never gets humidity. It cost over 4k to build, but you just can't get close to that raw horsepower with Apple products. It's two years old now so I may build another soon.

[DeepFrz]

Sounds like a great LOW energy solution...LOL

[Ex-Calif]

Originally Posted by minaret

Apple is great for the iPad and iPhone, but for your main computer? No way, not enough horsepower possible. I run an Intel Core i7 six core processor, with 12 gigs of Corsair RAM, dual GeForce GTX 660's in SLI config, a PhysX GPU, a 256 gig solid state drive, and a 1 TB backup drive. Custom liquid cooling and extra fan banks for everything. I added extra ports and fans and thermal pasted it all myself, after building from scratch. Even threw in some LED interior lighting. It's built in to a cabinet on the boat with extra fan ducting from the engine room intakes run to it. I never turn it off so it never gets humidity. It cost over 4k to build, but you just can't get close to that raw horsepower with Apple products. It's two years old now so I may build another soon.

For email - LOL...

[minaret]

With 2600 amp hours of battery bank for the inverter and a 7.5 kw generator, I'm not too worried about it's draw. Which is actually surprisingly low. And it does a whole lot more than e-mail.

[DotDun]

Originally Posted by minaret

Apple is great for the iPad and iPhone, but for your main computer? No way, not enough horsepower possible. I run an Intel Core i7 six core processor, with 12 gigs of Corsair RAM, dual GeForce GTX 660's in SLI config, a PhysX GPU, a 256 gig solid state drive, and a 1 TB backup drive. Custom liquid cooling and extra fan banks for everything. I added extra ports and fans and thermal pasted it all myself, after building from scratch. Even threw in some LED interior lighting. It's built in to a cabinet on the boat with extra fan ducting from the engine room intakes run to it. I never turn it off so it never gets humidity. It cost over 4k to build, but you just can't get close to that raw horsepower with Apple products. It's two years old now so I may build another soon.

Apparently you missed the 12-core Mac Pro ....