Just now I see on the advertisement iMac price is around 4200 rite (the lower spec) when I tried to calculate the desktop PC for 4200 I can get the superior PC with 2.6ghz 6mb cache, 2GB Corsair64000 RAM, and 22" Samsung monitor 2ns and the rest is the same.

now i confused....

what is the pros and cons using iMac or Desktop PC ?


Any help and opinion would be appreciate.

ahuh... thats the way it works (unfortunately)... price of cheapest imac = price of super pc...

This question is always debated endlessly and will be continuously debated till the end...

Guess it is the OS and the bundled software that make Mac so much more worth it. Once you past the learning curve for the Mac OS, there is no turning back. I switched recently as well and if you were to compare specs for specs, Mac will always seem more expensive. However, taken as a whole package, Mac is not THAT expensive.

The answer to your question is just not the hardware price...but the entire OS computing experience.

u cannot compare mac with pc or vise versa .

maybe for 4200 u got lower spec of imac but u gonna love it.

i've the same felling when i moved from my pc to mac, but so far, i love my mac!

Pro
* it is pretty
* not as prone to viruses/trojans
* relatively easy to use compared to Vista/XP, your experience may vary
* it's a single standalone unit, so it is space saving

Cons
* PC users take some time to learn about osx

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Added on June 17, 2008, 9:01 pmOne more thing, do a search. This is not the 1st time this question has been asked. Ultimately, it's up to you to decide.

iMac

IMAC- all in one, easy to move (or stolen)
PC- cpu, lcd screen, speaker

IMAC - can bootcamp, MAC OS or WINDOW
PC - vista?

IMAC - design is cool
PC -

agreed with kiangalaxy,

you can use bootcamp or parallel to boot up Windows on iMac. So you end up having 2 system in one. Then again, I see no point of ever using Windows when you learn how cool OSX really is.

This is why

Ask a barber an opinion and you'll likely end up with a haircut.

Ask for a preference here: and everyone will tell you to buy a Mac.

In the end it depends on what you want to DO with the machine. Will your needs be fulfilled with the Mac? Are you a gamer? How much do you want to spend? How important is the LOOK of the machine to you?

Buy a computer to fit your needs.

When will people stop asking this question and just search? AND the myth that Macs are more expensive than PCs, please compare apple to apple (so to say), it's not only the same spec but the whole package. Almost everyone forgets to factor in the price of original Windows OS AND all those original softwares similar to iLife.

If iMac, got many bundled software, yet if you buy a pc with same price, you still can get many softwares too.

iMac is using different operating system. If you think its not worth the money, go for pc I've been using Vista after Leopard, and its good. Never had a problem to me.

Its a great answer, thanks so much, I've work as graphic designer, so I like to use photoshop, meanwhile I stay with my boyfrens, and he like play warcraft and a few game strategy ( me also like it very well ) so I confused with this.

I know this topic will be endless, but the answer is quite moderate for me.

One thing that I doubt about iMac is only 1, the e-sata port, cuz my boyfrens use his gigantic storage (2TB) and he frequently use e-sata to my previous machine...

Arrghhh

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Added on June 17, 2008, 10:55 pm

Oww, I like this one.... thanks

and mostly ended up with flaming and locking of thread (hope this not going to happen anymore)

...and your budget.

yeah, just buy which suits u. r u a hardcore gamer? then get a PC.
richer user experience and reliability? get a Mac.
plus u can boot a Mac into Windows if u insist.

mmm...maybe u can go to any Apple reseller and try a Mac. then do some comparison based on your need.

or maybe u want to search some old threads in Apple Byte.

yea, im sorry, i've just confused.... actually i have 5k in my pocket... but i dont want regret... so thats why i post

Another thing to add, if your iMac is out of warranty, and you have a problem with your iMac, the cost of repair is a BOMB. Goes to mb, mbp also.

Pc? its cheap. you can change it, buy it yourself.

Yeah, upgrading in the future will be easier too. Just change what you need to change. Whereas you can only change certain parts on a Mac. Namely HD, Ram... or in some extreme cases, the processor.

I got both, and use both . But if you're limited to just budgetry constraints ... and since u wanna do graphic design and stuff.. i'd recommend just the iMac.

Objectively, the screen alone is already in your favour. And in doing work, you really can use the extra stability of Mac OS X vs a crappy Windows OS (unless u wanna go with linux for the PC).

If whoever wants to play PC games or whatever on it, just bootcamp the iMac and it pretty much becomes a PC.

No E-sata is just small matter, USB is a good enough substitute.


Or if you wanna stick to the PC hardware faithful ... Mac OS X86 (hackintosh) is always an option...


Only real disadvantage of an iMac is that u cannot plug in any fancy PCI cards to add whatever hardware expansion as you'd normally do with a PC. But then again, its only a niche of home-PC builders who do it , like adding more USB/Serial/SCSI/video-capture-tuner cards to really fill up the expansion slots in the machine.

But if you're considering between a pre-built PC (Dell or HP or XYZ-brand) vs iMac ..., iMac would make a better choice.

before you make any consideration. Fyi, iMac using mobile component (lappy components). So technically it can said to be underpower, especially if you are a gamer. Desktop component is only mac pro. This is why the price is hell different compare to desktop pc. The price is similar if you compare to normal laptop (with moderate gc)

iMac is an out of the box solution where it comes with iLife suite of applications. Google for iLife and see what you can do with it.

As for the higher spec you can get with a PC, no doubt the spec is higher but iMac (the lower spec) hardware and software are designed and manufactured by Apple, with good integration, thus minimising the possibility of unreliable, failing components like what you might get when you get a cheaper DIY mix and match PC.

Lastly, i would say that even at the lowest iMac spec with 1GB ram running OSX Leopard, the over stability and performance still beats Windows Vista running on your PC.

At the end of the day, if you have the budget and not into gaming, iMac is the ideal choice.

I've been using iMac for a few years from the plastic body to the newest aluminium one. I installed Windows XP Pro using bootcamp and play some heavy games which run just fine.

Not great, but fine. Heh.

get both. but not imac. mac mini + pc. at 2.5k u can get a decent pc

Before i thought like this, but back again, I will have a mess pc and mac, and 2 monitor..... yup, its seems i've plan to buy imac, since i dont like upgrade thing except for ram and hdd....

but the when the warranty end, the price for service will like a hell, how to avoid that ?

is there anyone here have a bad experience servicing imac ?

not really a problem . if you're adventurous, you can get online manuals on how to take your mac apart at ifixit.com
Otherwise, there are many Mac resellers who provide a decent service and since there is a sizable Mac community/users locally, they won't really *sharpen the knife* on the customer.

I got a good friend who's been supplying and servicing Apple stuff since the 90s, he does house calls (to client offices) and charges pretty much the same service rates as any LowYat dealer. So no worries there.

use only 1 monitor, 1 keyboard and 1 mouse with kvm

Imac is better

PC can do - XP, VISTA, Linuxes (UBUNTU, MANDRIVIA, FEDORA etc etc) and...Hackintosh . Bootcamp? There's a dozen way to multiboot a PC, most notably using EasyBCD, which even support Mac OS.

Mac also can do XP, Vista, Linuxes, DOS, ... in fact... Mac / PC ... same thing!

What can a PC do that a Mac cannot do? their hardware (CPU/Chipset) are pretty much the same liao !

GO for iMac, you wont regret.
I am using iMac and Vista Ultimate for my notebook at the same times.
Imac is much faster and user frenly. consider one of the problem free gadget.

PC can do it at 1/2 the price.

.. and 1/2 the performance...

in the end, i believe it is about what do you want...

test it mate. What do you prefer? Which one you want to live with?

thousand words maybe spoken but at last, all words may fail you if you just not like it

p/s: most people use pc (u may already have one), so no big problem in testing the system. You may try apple hardware at any apple retailer (Machines, for example, eventhough they look extremely cocky ). Test thoroughly. Type, surf the net, use the one button mouse. You may not get everything at the first glance, but at least you have some insight.

imac

this is depends on what does computer mean to you

if you get computer mainly for gaming purpose, customize own pc, better deal

imac give very slick design out of the box
Mac OS X is best for multitasking, processing, documents, online...........but not gaming

Got... Windows can do DLL & registry & antivirus & windows defender.
Macs can't do.
Macs don't even have these "privileges". By the way, do we need them?

get an imac and you have the option to run like a PC too.

if u comparing PC processor with Mac processor (other than MacPro), PC uses standard processor, and Mac uses notebook class processor, not to mention u dont have the choice to choosing ur graphic processing unit, so comparing price of iMac and PC are not so accurate just by judging both of them as desktop

what different a Mac from a PC is the OS and software... from my view, thou i didnt uses Mac OS only play around with it many times b4, at least Mac OS wont require me to use so much of my computer science knowledge

in Windows things like Task Manager, DLL and so on, which i dont even know what is what, is a hassle just to know are u doing the right thing on this computer.

actually for question like this shudnt be ask to ppl using Mac, coz they have a different view and mostly will tell u to buy a mac, the question shud ask is that are u ready for the switch to a different OS, and prepare for the "consequences"

btw, Mac market share is growing year by year since they transition from PowerPC to intel chips

@elico, yea. most ppl no idea that imac is consider 'mobile' computer. Most ppl think imac == normal desktop pc. If you are a gamer, suggest that you get a pc, which is rather cheap and with a high-end graphic somemore. Mac machine is rather 'fix' for you. No need tweak so much, whereas in winxp/vista , you have to tweak and tweak and tweak @.@