Which Is Cheaper? Your Mac Or A PC? Does It Matter?

David Stark said:

I’ve been servicing Macs and PCs for 19 years. Periodically I compare what similarly sized Mac clients against PC clients. (You know the drill… 4 Apples vs 4 Lemons) And Guess what? Not counting the initial investment in the hardware, Mac clients pay 25% the cost of what PC clients pay. This is consistent, year after year.

Andrew Fishkin said:

It all depends on what you want to do and what sort of resources you have.  Linux has an even lower TCO than Mac, but unless you have uber-geek knowledge and can get bye without industry standard applications its a non-starter.

Windows is vastly superior if you want to play games, and no, Boot Camp does not a gaming PC make.  There are likely other specialized applications that are Windows-only, thus ending any discussion of cost comparison or any other comparison with a Mac.

Of course, there are also things that Macs do better and for those, Windows isn’t even in the running.

Where comparisons are valid is when the user can get the same work done on either platform without much difficulty.  There it is personal preference.  Windows can be perfectly reliable if you practice safe computing and Mac can be easily compromised if you believe every email you receive.  Even in hardware, price comparisons don’t always work so easily.

Yes, you can get a $299 desktop that is cheaper than a Mac Mini, but the Mini is made with expensive laptop components, though of course there is no advantage to this except for size and style.  You can get a 15” laptop for MUCH cheaper than a MacBook Pro, but when you compare a premium 15” such as a ThinkPad W500 or T500 the price is quite close.  ThinkPad hardware is also considered overpriced by most PC buyers, but just like Apple, they build to quality rather than price, and you get what you pay for.

I love my MacBook Pro, but I would move to a ThinkPad running OS X in a heartbeat (for the docking capability), but sadly that will not likely happen any time soon.

Craig said:

Willis,
Macs are unix, which is the nut and bolts of everything that Windows even connects to. If Windows machines made the world go ‘round, it wouldn’t.
BTW, it takes you about 3 times as long to do your “serious” work on a PC, due to the latency overhead that you suffer. Unfortunately, you probably don’t even notice the lag time, since you are so used to it.

Daniel Boulet said:

I have never understood this tunnel vision like fixation on price.  When competing products exist in any market, the buyer will select the product that they prefer based (typically) on a whole range of factors.  Different buyers have different criteria.  In particular, “that other person” has different criteria than “you” do.  Consequently, “that other person” may (quite legitimately) come to a different buying decision than “you” do.  Get over it.

In the specific case of buying a Mac or a Windows computer, some folks will buy a Mac because the total package (price, ease of use, familiarity, features, compatibility, etc) leads them to that conclusion.  Others will end up with a Windows box.

It’s the way the marketplace works.  Get over it!

-Danny

P.S. It is NOT about price vs cost.  It is about value to the buyer in whatever way the buyer defines “value”.

Natalia N. said:

This one paragraph says it all:

“Water flows downhill. It’s just easier to toss up a flame-baiting grabber headline to stoke an ages old controversy than it is to put some effort into the substance of computer ownership. Cheaper doesn’t matter. Cost does.”

I work in a school with hundreds of PCs and hundreds of Macs. For our Macs, the support team is two people. For the PCs, five people, and sometimes we help them. It’s never the other way around. They’re too busy. What’s that say?

iggy pence said:

You nailed the basic issue which seems to escape those willing to argue over platform superiority—cost vs. price. The Mac may be priced a few dollars more, but it lasts longer, works better, and provides more customer satisfaction than any PC maker. Who is number one in customer satisfaction? Apple. Why? The experience of ownership, which includes price, time, trouble, productivity, and so much more, is enhanced with a Mac, degraded with a PC.

willis57 said:

PCs are much less than Macs, which are notoriously overpriced and underpowered. Apple brain washes their customers to get them to pay more and love it when they do it.

If you want to do serious work on a computer, or play games at the fastest possible frame rate, PCs win, hands down, no contest.