Difference Between a PC and a Mac

[c_hernandez32]

I know that this sounds really stupid, but what is the difference between a Mac and a PC?

What keeps people from booting a Win XP on a Mac and installing it? Is it the processor, motherboard? Is the hardware different in terms of communicating with other hardware?

[Solarjetman]

The hardware and the OS cannot comunicate with each other. You can think of it like they speak two different languages. The only way for it to work would be to hire a translator (such a program is called an emulator). But even that is not a very good way to go. The communication is slow, plus it is not always a 100% accurate translation. In the case of an emulator, this would cause a crash if it could not translate properly.

And even though this may seem like a bad idea to make hardware that can't talk with each other, its really a good thing. After all, I don't want tgpo's computer being a bad influence on my computer!

[Defcon]

Well put SolarJetMan......

Basically Apple builds (or has it built) hardware that specifically is designed to work with it's OS software.

[Faustus]

Geeze another of these threads.

Ok the CPU design is 100% different. RISC vs. CISC google those terms if you need help. Small differences aside thats the big one.

[RabidDog]

Why cant I fit this bedford truck engine in my Ford KA?
Hardware is completely different and CPU is completely incompatible.

[Guest]

Do u think these figures are true? Seems like there would have to be more than 20 mil macs sold.

C 64


The commodore 64 is, along with the Apple II and the Atari XL computers, the most famous home computer. During its production run from 1982 to 1993 (!) 17 to 22 million (!) of these computers would sell. To put these numbers in perspective, that's more than all the Macintoshes in the world.

[tgpo]

After all, I don't want tgpo's computer being a bad influence on my computer!

At it's old age, my computer would be a good influence to these younger computers.

[BJ_M]

hmm- there is not a whole lot of diff. now , same parts on the motherboard, same I/O and RISC vs. CISC line is totally blurred .. in fact , with not much tweaking , osx could be made to run on intel and xp could be made to run on g5 ..

companies like LynuxWorks already ship a linux kernal that can run on either platform.

the G5 mac uses the PowerPC 970 IBM chip , which is used on several platforms in some form.

in fact winNT was first designed to run on RISC , the alpha proccessors.

[ps2daddy]

The processor is setup to accept mac os instructions from a mac kernel as another post stated there are some g5's that are used for xbox developement that run Win NT kernels too.

Now if we could only get those xbox games to play on a ps2 and ps2 games to play on an xbox then we would oly need one system

Also I have macs and pcs at home and the biggest difference I have noticed from personal experience is the fact that you are going to pay about $800-$1000 more to own a mac that you can do cool stuff on than a pc. The entry level mac is about $1800 for under a $1000 you can get a 3400+ 64bit processing machine if you build it yourself or a 3.4Mhz P4.

I do love my 15 Al G4 powerbook right now the most due to the fact I can do my movie editing on the go though.

[tgpo]

The entry level mac is about $1800

eMac: $799
iMac: $1299
iBook: $1099
Powerbook: $1599
G4 Tower: $1299

[ps2daddy]

The entry level mac is about $1800

eMac: $799
iMac: $1299
iBook: $1099
Powerbook: $1599
G4 Tower: $1299

Yeah I know TGPO

But if you want a new superduper G5 tower to do heavy duty stuff, which are the coolest macs its starts out at $1799 the top of the line is $3000!

Top of the line PC if you build it yourself would cost you ~$1200 or even less if you go to the right places .

The other end you can buy a 2.4 GHz Dell or gateway entry level machine for 400 or $500 with a 15in flat screen monitor click here the apple 17in flat screen monitor is $700 click here

But you an get a brand new P4 3.0Ghz machine for about $600 if you build it yourself (also I can overclock it to pump it up some more).

Also did you see that now have the new 14.1 in ibooks that are 1.2Ghz, 60GB HD, with the DVD burner now for $1699!

The 1.5 GHz Al powebook with the 80GB HD with DVD burner is still $2599!

I just sold my 366 Mhz ibook and 400Mhz g4 tower and bought an 15in Al powerbook and I wish could afford a g5 tower but I can scrape up enough money and build the 3Ghz PC with disco lighting for around about $700 with dvd burner in though............Man I wish I could even afford a $1799 G5 but I cant now

[Faustus]

The entry level mac is about $1800

eMac: $799
iMac: $1299
iBook: $1099
Powerbook: $1599
G4 Tower: $1299

Yeah I know TGPO

But if you want a new superduper G5 tower to do heavy duty stuff, which are the coolest macs its starts out at $1799 the top of the line is $3000!

Top of the line PC if you build it yourself would cost you ~$1200 or even less if you go to the right places .

The other end you can buy a 2.4 GHz Dell or gateway entry level machine for 400 or $500 with a 15in flat screen monitor click here the apple 17in flat screen monitor is $700 click here

But you an get a brand new P4 3.0Ghz machine for about $600 if you build it yourself (also I can overclock it to pump it up some more).

Also did you see that now have the new 14.1 in ibooks that are 1.2Ghz, 60GB HD, with the DVD burner now for $1699!

The 1.5 GHz Al powebook with the 80GB HD with DVD burner is still $2599!

I just sold my 366 Mhz ibook and 400Mhz g4 tower and bought an 15in Al powerbook and I wish could afford a g5 tower but I can scrape up enough money and build the 3Ghz PC with disco lighting for around about $700 with dvd burner in though............Man I wish I could even afford a $1799 G5 but I cant now

I disagree with one point only, top of the line PC if you want a REAL TOP OF THE LINE, which is only fair if your gonna compaire it to a TOP OF THE LINE apple will cost you more then $2000. In short compare it to a top of the Line Athlon 64FX if you want to be fair, after ram, a good video card, superdrive (DVD Burner), it will start to add up. Thats not to mention the case of which a case that fancy on a PC would run quite a bit of cash. Just look at some of the high end Aluminum cases out there.

[ps2daddy]

I disagree with one point only, top of the line PC if you want a REAL TOP OF THE LINE, which is only fair if your gonna compaire it to a TOP OF THE LINE apple will cost you more then $2000. In short compare it to a top of the Line Athlon 64FX if you want to be fair, after ram, a good video card, superdrive (DVD Burner), it will start to add up. Thats not to mention the case of which a case that fancy on a PC would run quite a bit of cash. Just look at some of the high end Aluminum cases out there.

Not the top of the line but still a very sweet computer

http://www.valexpc.com

Athlon 64 3400+
Gigabyte GA-K8N Motherboard
1GB of Ram
Radeon 9800xt 8X AGP
80GB HD
optowrite dvd-rw DDO203
No OS

$1511 free shipping no tax (unless you live in OH)

Could be done even cheaper if you went barebones and got the rest of the parts from pricewatch website

Entry level mac g5 tower with 256MB of Ram $1799

[galactica]

What keeps people from booting a Win XP on a Mac and installing it? Is it the processor, motherboard? Is the hardware different in terms of communicating with other hardware?

the simple shere fact that it cant be done!

That and if any conscious mac user even ponders the idea its grounds for admittance to an insanse asylum

If you really want to see the difference, hop into your local apple sture and take one of the babies for a spin. I have yet to know a PC user who hasnt at least said, Wow i didnt know mac's were like this!

Most people have the system 7 mindset about macs... they have come along way since the beginning.

ps.
What keeps people from booting OSX on a PC and installing it?

[ps2daddy]

True.............very true Galactica

I still want a videogame system that will play xbox, ps2, and gamecube games on one system.

Wonder if I could make a modchip do that?

[flaninacupboard]

yeah, it's called a brace of Opterons running a software emulator......

at 8FPS :P

[Conquest10]

Most people have the system 7 mindset about macs... they have come along way since the beginning.

And Mac users have the Windows NT 3.1 mindset about PCs.

[galactica]

so you are comparing this


to this


amazing how far we have come along

[neilpercy]

Mac vs. PC III: Mac Slaughtered Again
Page 4 of 4


We do appreciate that, and all the other remarkable features of this new Dell PC. It's the quickest single-processor PC we've ever seen at this writing, and for the price of $2964, it's hard to beat. This system is highly recommended for anyone who is tired of staring at that render thermometer when dealing with After Effects composites, or anything else that keeps users waiting around for a computer to catch up with the creative mind. It's especially quick if heavy multitasking is part of your daily routine. But whatever your application, this new Dell unit will make it so you can go home earlier if you want to, or just get more work done while you're on the job.

As for comparing the Dell workstation with the fastest Mac on the market, well, the two machines are apparently in different classes. Take a look at the test results, and you’ll have to agree that, using these benchmarks, the Mac was slaughtered again, and this time by an even wider expanse than ever. We were surprised at the huge margin of the defeat of the Mac in these tests. Even though the Mac's dual G4 chips have been sped up to 1.25 GHz and offers faster DDR RAM, apparently this wasn’t enough to keep up with the newest and fastest from Dell and Intel. The most amazing part of this is that this Dell PC cost $629 less than the Mac we tested.

see full article here http://www.digitalvideoediting.com/2002/11_nov/reviews/cw_macvspciii.htm

I'm quite happy to be sneered at by the high and mighty with too much money who haven't built there computer from scratch choosing every component because it's the best.

P4 2.4 Ghz overclocked to 3.0 with more to go and loads of money still in my pocket and a pretty fast editing machine to boot (if you'll pardon the pun !!)

PS. I've spoken to quite a few OSX users who've had nothing but crashes and some who've lost entire drives worth of work.

Just to put the case for the accused :P

[c_hernandez32]

I really liked using Macs for photoshop and pagemaker. I dealt with huge files (100Mb+) for 1 picture. Mac OS8.5 was very stable. I really liked that they let you upgrade your OS free over the internet. I don't know if they still do that, but I downloaded the upgrade from 8.0 to 8.5. I bet MS wouldn't let you download Win95 for $50.

[galactica]

not any more they dont......... those were the good ol days
now its $$ for a jump from 10.2 to 10.3
coarse they are entirely different OS's

the minor updates along the way are free to download

is it not the same with with windows??

[c_hernandez32]

Well, system updates and patches, but nothing like 8.0 to 8.5

I don't know if 8.0 to 8.5 is like MS Windows 3.1 to MS Windows 95.

You know that it is almost impossible to find a good PC-Mac emulator. vMac hasn't been update in 2-4 years, and other emulators don't support PowerPC. Its a shame, I wish I could run OS 8.5 (or newer) on my PC.

[BJ_M]

service packs to windows are free .. only jumps from 2k to xp are not ..

our G5's have been aweful in the stability and compatability area -- the g4's are stable as a rock on os9

[c_hernandez32]

I love that you could boot from a CD on G3s and install files again. I don't know if I was doing bad, but I created a CD with a copy of the HD, and if I had problems with the Mac, I would simply erase the HD and copy the CD into the harddrive. It worked and it was great when I had to copy files quickly off a Mac when it would crash.

Does still work on G4s, G5s?

[BJ_M]

[vitualis]

Ok the CPU design is 100% different. RISC vs. CISC google those terms if you need help. Small differences aside thats the big one.

As what BJ_M stated. This is no longer true anymore. The modern Intel CPUs (for many years now) are more RISC than CISC -- they contain elements of both.

Same with G4/5 CPUs.

Regards.

[WeedVender]

thats MY BITCH !... although $129 isnt that great to buy drugs...

anyway...

The Apples at my old school (the kind that have a monitor and the case fused into one big thingy) ran a dual boot of O.S 8 and O.S X and every time i ran a physics simulation or a lab, the thing crashed on me when using O.S X. Even when emulating the program from OS 8 to X, it was buggy, slow (even slower than it already was) and did i mention slow?

No offence but when I run a MAC I dont think of it as an able machine. Although you can do a lot. Any Windows User would feel like the MAC OS is like a DRM or something on ur ability to do something. On Windows, you are free to do ur own shit.. whether its program or transcode or screw the RIAA (wankers, although im not brittish). But I do have a power book that makes me look good with the ladies because its "clean" unlike windows and its cool looking, but then again thats one of the main reasons why people buy it...

I have another laptop on a Centrino Procesor (silver and black ) that runs a dual boot of Mandrake Lunix and Windows 2003 Server. Im just trying to be different but I find that those two systems can suit me better than any MAC...although I cant wait for the Windows version of Final Cut Pro..

Well.. im not here to say that MACs suck but from a personal experience... they dont suit me....

[BJ_M]

anyone who uses a mac will tell you that a iMac (what you are talking about most likly) isn't a real mac ...

[Defcon]

Not to change the topic & Not to Dis Mac owners/users but I don't think they are very user friendly like Apple promotes them to be..... As a non mac user go and try to figure out how to clear the cache (Temp Internet Files)

Also I recall the commercial where some chick stated that "My family couldn't download pics from their digital camera to a PC for Christmas and I hooked it into my Mac and they all loaded automatically", Well my Windows XP loads them auto w/ no problems....

It seems like most Mac users are more like a cult out to defend Steve

[ps2daddy]

Wheres the love fellas

Lets not bash windows machines or macs


Theres room enough in the world for both

Peace
PS2D...out