Mac or PC for the College Student?

I am a soon to be college freshman and need to find a computer. I will need to write papers and use my university website, but I am also really into photography and like to edit my photos as okay. Through my school there is a discounted price on a Dell laptop, however it doesn't submission all that much. The school supports adjectives computers at the IT desk for $20 but offers free service for computers purchased through them. The debate then comes up, Mac or PC? I enjoy tried to find articles online for reasons why one may be better than the other but have simply come across biased reviews (from either Apple or a PC site). Therefore I am asking the general public; which is better, a Mac or PC?
Answers:
Get a PC. Similarly priced Mac's cost MUCH more next PC's. Here's something I made for a friend of mine over facebook, I will quote it:

1)windows is more secure than mac os. At all international hack contests, the mac is hacked within 30 minutes, the notebook takes several hours/days. However, because the mac has a lower user stub, hackers do not bother - why steal the money of 9% of computers users when you can target 91%? What annoys me is Apple claiming that this is due to their genius programming skills - no! WIndows 2000 is roughly as secure as Mac OS.

2) Macs are overpriced and inversatile. You can purchase the parts for and build a elevated quality gaming machine for 1000-1500 usd. A Mac next to features 1/2 of that will cost you 2000-3000 usd. Go to cyperpower pc .com and configure a pc surrounded by that range, and then do that beside on Apple. The Mac will cost significantly more, have fewer features, and run on outdated hardware. Likewise, whereas I can upgrade my pc/build my own whenever i want, you can lone run mac os on apple products, purchase only apple RAM, and never upgrade any other internal parts. Monopoly much? Apple makes overpriced, outdated cast-offs. I will concede that they look nice.

Windows PC: $1373
case) NZXT Tempest EVO
cpu) core i7 930
cooling) 120 mm liquid cooling + radiator
mem) 6 gb Corsair DDR3 1600 9 9 9 24 (a) 1.65v
gpu) EVGA gtx 260 216c 896mb gddr3
mobo) ASUS p6t
psu) silverstone 700 watt
hdd) 500 GB
OS) Windows 7 Premium
22" Screen

Apple PC: $1599

Standard Apple Case
3.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Standard Air Cooling
8GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 4x2GB
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Micro ITX mobo
500GB Serial ATA Drive
Apple Propietary OS
21.5" Screen

Unless you are highly proficient next to computers, this most likely seems similar to gibberish. Thus, i will provide a detailed breakdown.

case: toss up, some like mac, some approaching the pc

cpu: this is equivalent to comparing a porche 911 gt3 or a ferrari 599 to a ford mustang. Hands down pc

cooling; fluid cooling is extremely expensive but extremely high performance. Think Ferrari 360 modena vs honda civic si

memory: the mac have 25% more but it is 1066 mhz vs 1600 mhz, much slower and poor latencies. PC wins by a landslide.

gpu) the most ridiculous matchup of all. Think Ferrari f50 competizione/Maserati MC12 vs 1970 ford pinto. The workstation gpu (gtx 260) scores a 15000 on 3dmark06. The mac gpu scored around 300. No, i am NOT missing a 0 - MASSIVE disparity.

mobo) beside the pc, you get the most adaptable mobo on the planet. with the mac, a lackluster, cheap, stripped down one. Hands down PC; compare messi with ali dia, exponential difference.

hdd) tie

os) tie, down to personal nouns

screen) pc has the slither, higher quality, more dynamic color gamut. Although the mac isn't discouraging either


So, as you can see, the PC has A LOT better components and costs smaller quantity...

Here is further reading, but keep in mind this come from two BIASED sources

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/windows…

http://www.tomshardware.com/news/apples-…

Much of what they say however is true
go for the mac which you can run anything from window on and comes with a great photo editing program and you can buy aperture cheap and you can get a college discount at most colleges online and at an apple store you can buy microsoft works for mac or iwork which honestly is 79 dollars which would be closely less than microsoft works which would come with a notebook but only a trial version so if i be you i would totally go for the mac and if you ever need a laptop you can alway just buy a windows 7 disc and boot military camp it but i highly doubt you will

i have have a mac since christmas and love it
I think overall Mac is better than PC, but PC's are cheaper and when things do go wrong (they do beside all computers) there are more inhabitants out there that know Windows and will be able to lend a hand. It really comes down to your own preferences. Would you rather pay $2000 for a Mac or $900 for a similarly spec-ed PC? Someone already did a detailed analysis into this
The rule i stick to is:

1. If you be rich, extremely scare of computer virus, rarely play 3D games consequently go for MAC

2. If you were poor, get some trusty anti virus software (or never afraid of virus), into playing games then go for PC


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