You must be doing something wrong with your PCs. I have had PCs since I bought my first used IBM PC back in 1990 and all of them have lasted for a long time. My current laptop I purchased used for $75 and was a 2013 model. I used it daily as my main business machine for 4 years and it's still running and I use it for business trips. My current desktop is a used Dell that at least 7 years old. I use these machines daily for both business and personal use. Macs are nice good machines with great displays but they sell for a premium because of the apple cult. You can get similar machines with similar specs for a lot less.
The cheapest thing you can do to increase speed and responsiveness is to get as much RAM as you can afford as ashokan says get 16 GB as a minimum.
Again, I haven’t owned a pc for years but, i found that there was always some plug in, or other download needed. At the time there was no defined “App store” as there is for Apple so I ended up downloading from websites, some of which were known, others more random. The good thing about Apple that can save you from downloading inefficient plug ins and apps is that they have a defined number of developers that need to go through the App Store to sell their wares. Much less opportunity to get scammed or download “Trojan horses” in that environment. The PC regime may have changed recently but it was a bit of the Wild West as I remember.
That was a long time ago when you had to download different drivers from different companies. That's not the way it is currently. Most updates are handled automatically.
Ok, thanks for the clarification. Maybe I had my first Mac longer than 11 years..😂
Pretty sure the OP is a she. And she didn't give any clues I picked up as to budget. $800 would be, IMO, very low for a new computer you want to last. If you want to get a new computer every couple/few years, and you don't care about performance or display quality, then maybe you can get away with $800. If you care about performance and want a good display and don't want to have to get a new computer for 10 years, you gotta spend a lot more than $800.
Actually, I disagree. Probably the cheapest thing to increase performance is get a faster NVMe/M.2 SSD, versus a slower SSD using a slower bus interface (e.g. SATA) or an HDD.
If you're not going to game on it, and not planning to use a large super high resolution external monitor or three with it, then it's probably not worth a discrete graphics card. I say probably because there are almost certainly some very substandard integrated GPUs out there and, if the computer has one of those, a discrete GPU makes more sense.
I have had a Lenovo Ideapad for 7 years. It still functions but is rather beat up. I am thinking of purchasing :
OP did not specify a budget. It’s not the cost that is important. It’s the value you receive from the machine. The $400 premium for a Mac is worth it , for a more intuitive user experience, better support, and likely to last longer.
There is no inherent security advantage to a Mac over a PC. There might have been at one time, a long while back, although it was a much-hyped thing when in reality the differences were much more subtle. Early virus writers didn't target Apple so much due to it's small market share.
Nah. That premium for a Mac is no more worth it than adding the same amount to your budget for a PC is worth it. A Mac is no more likely to last a long time than any other computer from a reputable vendor. Don't be cultish about a computing device.
Does BestBuy or another computer store nearby sell them? And if they do, can you visit one and play around with it some? I strongly recommend this.
Jeez, may I ask what’s in that thing? I assume some ultra high end parts? What CPU and GPU? I’m pondering getting a 4090, but my 3080 is still covering all my needs currently.
They were decently high-end at the time (around 2017 or early 2018 I think). It's all getting pretty old now, so I'm about to start building a new one (which will be way more powerful at less than half the price).
Very simple things. TKR. No more work. Cookbook stuff. Facebook/Twitter. Mail. TV News. Basketball, Baseball. Consulting papers. More troi0 come.
I said simple, very simple, Lol.
You could buy any PC to do those things. Don’t go crazy. I don’t love Apple so don’t get me started with that debate haha.
So you’re still fine for a while haha. I just recently bought one of those Asus ROG Ally handhelds….. now it turned into me using a mouse keyboard and monitor with that haha. Nice little mobile PC when I’m traveling in my RV.
Costco has that for 100 off. Looks like a decent value for 699 for the use you describe. After. carrying some bricks for years I bought a slim form factor Samsung and love it. And no, spending more for a discrete graphics card is not worth it for general use. Good screen size - big but probably still fits in a carry on. Remember you can always use a dock at home to hook up 27” monitor, ethernet, keyboard and mouse. There are some other options within 100. If it’s in your local store I usually suggest taking a look in person
I have no clue what you are talking about. Keep it simple stupid when talking about me.
Whoa such a geek - do you even game or anything of you just into the power OCs?
I run a lot of CPU intensive stuff, some in highly secured VMs. Security adds lots of overhead. Thus the need for all the CPUs and RAM. Overclocking provides much better performance at the cost of a lot of cooling requirement.
Most pre-built laptops and desktop now come with an ssd most basic users won't know the difference between ssd buses but they will know the difference 16 gb and 8 gb and usually computers in the same family allow for different RAM and HD configurations so my advice is usually based on screen size and get the most RAM. You have to know your audience.
Once again, there's nothing anybody can do on Mac that someone can't do on a PC and in the same amount of time. There's no inherent advantage (or disadvantage) to a Mac or a PC. They are built of the same stuff, and function the same way. There's no inherent difference in the hardware longevity. Neither one is better or worse.
