Never have I seen a better example of the "it costs more, so it's better" rationale than this manufacturer's products.

mrfox2 wrote:Mac:

Pros:

-Very sleek and clean looking

-Never had any viruses or spyware yet and it's been over 4 months. (long time for a windows user haha)

That is the most ridiculous claim. I am so sick and tired of people acting like Windows just grows it's own spyware/viruses. First off, I have been going on .. almost a decade now.. of zero problems with my Windows machines. Every failure was hardware failure, and when I did get a virus 10 years ago (or maybe even 14 or so), it was my own stupid fault and I learned from it, which seems to be something that Mac users are incapable of doing.

Want to say it is pretty and shiny? Go for it. Want to say "It doesn't get viruses?" then stop, there is a reason there are anti-virus programs from the Mac, as it is even more vulnerable to infection that Windows systems, because the users are to stupid to act intelligently. And no, sorry Mrfox, this isn't direct at "you" so much as everyone who makes these foolish claims. Working in the tech industry, I get to hear this more than any rational person should. I am thinking of making a bumper sticker I can smack on peoples foreheads to warn of their fanboi given ignorance.

felloweskimo wrote:Dude, thats a refurb you posted. Woot is offering new. Go windows if you want, I will see you at best buy when I start removing viruses

Macs also have malware. Actually, when it comes down to it, only Krampuss and the unlucky get viruses.

crisss1205 wrote:That is wrong, dual booting is dual booting. The only time when the 2 OS's share the memory or processing power is when you use them at the same time such as Parallels or VMWare. Boot camp will use all system resources since it is 1 OS at a time.

I stand corrected, but still not like having two computers. It's like playing a game on a console, you still have to insert a new CD. I have a laptop next to my desktop which I can switch between the two easily. Usually I stream on one and work on the other.

Will this work with my . . . oh. Never mind. Merry Christmas all!

I have a Mac, and it doesn't have a right-click option.

teenracer6 wrote:Macs also have malware. Actually, when it comes down to it, only Krampuss gets viruses.

Yeah, Ive been using Macs for 8 years. Virus/malware = 0. My boyfriend built me a PC for gaming...virus = 2 in 6 months. Done. I sold the PC. Mac only here.

gusty11 wrote:It's not like having two computers though, dual-booting takes up a large amount of RAM as well as a bit of processing power. Yes, it comes with 4 Gigs of RAM and a Quad Core (2.5 GHz each), but I think it's about 1 Gig to run OS X and probably another Gig to run Boot Camp (I don't use Mac's).

Dual-booting involves restarting the computer to switch operating systems. This takes no special memory (RAM) requirements; the computer is only running one operating system at a time. When you dual-boot a computer, you are essentially getting two separate "computers" in one case.

What you may be thinking of is virtualization, where you run two or more operating systems simultaneously. Doing so does make use of additional processing power and memory, since it has to juggle multiple operating systems at once, but can still be done with the base configuration as sold here.

wapratesi wrote:Or, you can build yourself a Hackintosh for less money. You miss out on AppleCare, though, which is probably the best thing about Macs...

I;m only half-joking when I say that you risk a lawsuit from litigious Apple, Inc if you do that. Apple has long stopped licensing their OS for non-Apple products, and putting it on something they didn't bless (and make a profit off) will likely alert their legal department. My memory is weak but I beleive that such a lawsuit has already gone through the courts. I still remember the days of Mac-compatibles.

On a related subject, note that Apple wants Samsung tablets and HTC phones BANNED -- and not simply force them to pay a royalty like most companies. It's proof that Apple is afraid of competition, and if people can put their OS wherever they want, it's competition.

stormshadow999 wrote:Never have I seen a better example of the "it costs more, so it's better" rationale than this manufacturer's products.

Have you owned a mac? I was firmly in the PC camp for years until I took a job where the issued laptop was a mac. The one I ordered will be my first personal mac.

It costs more because it's a better machine, the ease of use is unsurpassed. It simply just works.

That is a fully loaded Mac, and a great price!

Roostalee wrote:I have a Mac, and it doesn't have a right-click option.

Sure it does, unless you have an old Mac (pre-Aluminum case) and haven't replaced the mouse. Mac OS X definitely has built-in support for right click ("secondary click" as Apple calls it) through the Mouse preference pane.

Old Macs included mice with only one mouse button, but the Mighty Mouse and beyond all can be configured to support a secondary click feature. Mac OS X will happily use a mouse with a real, discrete second mouse button as well, should you so choose.

Where's the numeric keypad? $1k and you get a dinky keyboard? I could see it if it was a home theater system, but it ain't.

Has it, loves it and definitely just tried to stick his magic mouse to it... fail

Good old Apple products... all sleek and pretty until you try and use a USB flash drive on the back side of a Mini or iMac and end up fighting with all the other cables jammed in such a tight spot. Wait for another HP with 2x the RAM and 3x HD space -- for 1/3 the price.

[Reformed Mac User]

I am the first person to buy 3.

Merry Christmas

I'm going to go ahead and be the pc guy... mainly because I grew up using macs and despise them with a passion. Anyways... save yourself the money and get better gear for less with a pc. Best Buy (though usually hardly the best buy) is selling a computer with an i5 3ghz processor, 1tb hard drive, and 8 gigs ram for $600. A lot of stores have it for $500 though. Here's a link for ya guys. http://www.bestbuy.com/site/Gateway+-+Desktop+/+Intel%26%23174%3B+Core%26%23153%3B+i5+Processor+/+8GB+Memory+/+1TB+Hard+Drive/3155928.p?id=1218380518359&skuId=3155928
Yes, I realize there's no monitor with this. Even if you buy one of the nicest ones at the store, it's still less than and better than the mac. So yeah... go pc for less money and more power. (And trust me here, I'm avoiding all the really techie bits of why pc's own macs)

And just a side note for the virus clause someone is sure to bring up... macs don't have better security. Less people use mac (and apple controls most of what you can put on a mac anyways) so there's less viruses. As far as security goes, Apple had to stop claiming better security after this little incident. http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9129978/Researcher_cracks_Mac_in_10_seconds_at_PWN2OWN_wins_5k

NortonsArk wrote:Where's the numeric keypad? $1k and you get a dinky keyboard? I could see it if it was a home theater system, but it ain't.

I have that keyboard. It's machined from a solid block of aluminum. It may not have a numeric keypad, but I wouldn't call it dinky.

Is this PC compatible? I thought I would switch up one of the oldest lines here on Woot

Well this is not very Wooty at all.

Wait, it's Apple...this is a bargain everyone get 3 and re-sell on Ebay.

twig123 wrote:Alienware IS Dell...
While they are nice machines, they are the PC equivalent of a MAC, as you can custom build a better computer for less.

Very true. Not everyone is capable or has the time to custom build. My dad builds ALL of his computers and he loves it. I tend to catch them on fire or make them explode. It's why I buy instead of build.

Dell owns Alienware now, but I've been buying from them since they were their own company. Geeze I can't even remember my first purchase from them. I think it was long enough to where I was still playing Asheron's Call (sp). So long, long, long, long time.

geredeth wrote:That is the most ridiculous claim. I am so sick and tired of people acting like Windows just grows it's own spyware/viruses. First off, I have been going on .. almost a decade now.. of zero problems with my Windows machines. Every failure was hardware failure, and when I did get a virus 10 years ago (or maybe even 14 or so), it was my own stupid fault and I learned from it, which seems to be something that Mac users are incapable of doing.

Want to say it is pretty and shiny? Go for it. Want to say "It doesn't get viruses?" then stop, there is a reason there are anti-virus programs from the Mac, as it is even more vulnerable to infection that Windows systems, because the users are to stupid to act intelligently. And no, sorry Mrfox, this isn't direct at "you" so much as everyone who makes these foolish claims. Working in the tech industry, I get to hear this more than any rational person should. I am thinking of making a bumper sticker I can smack on peoples foreheads to warn of their fanboi given ignorance.

*standing ovation*

Will this work with my Mac?

gusty11 wrote:I think it's about 1 Gig to run OS X and probably another Gig to run Boot Camp (I don't use Mac's).

Boot Camp is a dual-boot setup. You have 4 gigs for Windows and 4 for OS X, just not both at the same time. Virtual Machines can run multiple OSes at once -- Parallels, Fusion and VirtualBox are three popular ones, the last of them free. I have WinXP and Ubuntu virtual machines set up, and can run all three at once (each on its own monitor, no less), but rarely feel the need.

RAM is one of the few user-upgradable components on the iMac. Upgrading it to 8GB from Crucial or Newegg takes a few minutes and will set you back $45.99; double that for 16GB.

LoadStar wrote:Sure it does, unless you have an old Mac (pre-Aluminum case) and haven't replaced the mouse. Mac OS X definitely has built-in support for right click ("secondary click" as Apple calls it) through the Mouse preference pane.

Old Macs included mice with only one mouse button, but the Mighty Mouse and beyond all can be configured to support a secondary click feature. Mac OS X will happily use a mouse with a real, discrete second mouse button as well, should you so choose.

It's a Mac Classic, so it's basically only good for word processing--and only one mouse button. It was $1400 in 1992. Still, I loved the little guy. Don't think I'll be going back soon to Apple. Just picked up a Dell XPS laptop w/1080p screen, Blu-ray, i7 processor and aluminum case for under $1000. Windows 7 is working incredibly well as long as I keep sensible about antivirus/firewall/antispyware.

I have this and its a good hardware except for the lack of indicator lights. You'd have to guess when your hard disk is still accessing and feel your table if the optical drive is still spinning.

I'm looking forward to upgrade to the new 27" model next year. My guess is that the new iMacs will have a new design.

I make the purchases for my research team, and have a final say on computer equipment for my department -- and I rarely approve Apple computers for many reasons, i.e. it's MUCH easier and cheaper to fix and upgrade Windows computers, which is important in a corporate environment. Heck, we have a closet full of monitors, etc that can be reused ... but not in Macs. And that's the warning I give to people who buy these all-in-one Macs and Windows PCs. If you monitor breaks, or you want a larger monitor, you're screwed. Sure you can add an external monitor, but you'd had this thing taking uo space. Likewise of much of the innards. While my warning applies to both Apple and Windows all-in-ones, Apple is much more likely to use proprietary components. Consequently, it's often not as easy as putting in or swapping a card that you can easily (and cheaply) buy. Nor can you probably just upgrade the drive to any old BluRay writer by swapping.

Great! Something that is mac compatible!!!!

At this rate, this woot will surpass the Yamaha speaker post count by, oh, let's say 3 a.m. Gee, I wonder why,....

By the way, 5% have bought two, 5% have bought three,... and you thought people were already spent out for the holidays,....

http://www.apple.com/magicmouse/

I own 7 macs, 2 were new, 5 were refurbs, all from the Apple store. I do event production, and there are some programs that run only on a mac. I also have "hackintosh" machines, you can get the instructions online-- very easy to do. You can make a better "mac" for roughly less than half the price, however, I don't rent them to other companies, only use them on my own shows. I use Samsung laptops, and thus far, they they have outperformed my mac book pros. This is a good price; mac's are great machines, however, if you spend the same amount on a PC, it will also be a great machine, just different. In the production world, you really need both.

sdc100 wrote:I make the purchases for my research team, and have a final say on computer equipment for my department -- and I rarely approve Apple computers for many reasons, i.e. it's MUCH easier and cheaper to fix and upgrade Windows computers, which is important in a corporate environment. Heck, we have a closet full of monitors, etc that can be reused ... but not in Macs. And that's the warning I give to people who buy these all-in-one Macs and Windows PCs. If you monitor breaks, or you want a larger monitor, you're screwed. Sure you can add an external monitor, but you'd had this thing taking uo space. Likewise of much of the innards. While my warning applies to both Apple and Windows all-in-ones, Apple is much more likely to use proprietary components. Consequently, it's often not as easy as putting in or swapping a card that you can easily (and cheaply) buy. Nor can you probably just upgrade the drive to any old BluRay writer by swapping.

Not to mention that as soon as Apple decides to upgrade to the next "big cat" version of OS X, you may end up forking over $250+ just to have an OS that is compatible with that next generation iPhone that you simply must have when it comes out. Mac and their planned obsolescence can kiss my apple.

yrguide wrote:Have you owned a mac? I was firmly in the PC camp for years until I took a job where the issued laptop was a mac. The one I ordered will be my first personal mac.

It costs more because it's a better machine, the ease of use is unsurpassed. It simply just works.

I'm willing to concede that the OS is better designed and necessary for some users, but price the components of this computer and think about how much of the overall cost is that one pro. And when I refer to their products, I mean everything--from their desktops to their laptops to their mp3 players to their phones to their tablets to their apps. The comments I've read here (from people who prefer this brand) admit that they 1) never go on sale, 2) are expensive to repair 3) are proprietary. So not only are you paying big bucks for the initial purchase, the money-hungry corporation won't give you a break on anything you need later on. Seriously, tell me Jobs (RIP) doesn't look like a cult leader when he's on stage brainwashing everyone into buying the latest version of iWhatever.

chefjef wrote:i did the math... that's a 12.5% discount off retail! and it's Mac Compatible!! wow!!

yeah, thats actually 8.7% discount off the retail. Next time you do the math do it right. That same thing is 1149.99 retail, not 1199.99 like your math shows.

gusty11 wrote:It's not like having two computers though, dual-booting takes up a large amount of RAM as well as a bit of processing power. Yes, it comes with 4 Gigs of RAM and a Quad Core (2.5 GHz each), but I think it's about 1 Gig to run OS X and probably another Gig to run Boot Camp (I don't use Mac's). Having two computers is different. Which you can buy two computers at that price, one for simple office related things and the other a mid to high level gaming rig.

If you're running Boot Camp, you're booted into Windows just as you'd be with any hardware. Windows has full use of every bit and byte because Lion isn't running and the Mac doesn't even know it exists, beyond a shared partition so you can move files back and forth.

If you're using virtualization software like Parallels, the two systems are running side-by-side, but in that case Windows doesn't need the computer's full resources any more than any other Mac app does.

Jethro70 wrote:Not to mention that as soon as Apple decides to upgrade to the next "big cat" version of OS X, you may end up forking over $250+ just to have an OS that is compatible with that next generation iPhone that you simply must have when it comes out. Mac and their planned obsolescence can kiss my apple.

Okay, the upgrade from Leopard to Snow Leopard was $30 and the upgrade from Snow Leopard to Lion was also $30. Far from $250.

And the iPhone 4S requires OS 10.5 or newer (Leopard) we are currently at OS 10.7 (Lion)

calebmitchell wrote:Most expensive thing ever sold on Woot??? O.o

Hmmmmm...long ago there was a fancy washer/dryer combo (Samsung perhaps???)...yes, here it is (Aug 6, 2007):

Samsung High Efficiency Front Load Washer and Dryer
$1499.99 + $5 Shipping
Condition: New

Product List:
- 1 Samsung 3.79 cu. ft. High Efficiency Front Load Washer WF316LAS
- 1 Samsung 7.3 cu. ft. Super Capacity Electric Dryer DV316LES


OK, do I win a prize? (perhaps a current version of these models???)

Jethro70 wrote:Not to mention that as soon as Apple decides to upgrade to the next "big cat" version of OS X, you may end up forking over $250+ just to have an OS that is compatible with that next generation iPhone that you simply must have when it comes out. Mac and their planned obsolescence can kiss my apple.

I do believe I only paid $30 to upgrade to Snow Leopard from Leopard...

monix wrote:Or you know, you could get a PC with the same specs for a fraction of the price...

But it would be a PC. No thanks!

Jethro70 wrote:Not to mention that as soon as Apple decides to upgrade to the next "big cat" version of OS X, you may end up forking over $250+ just to have an OS that is compatible with that next generation iPhone that you simply must have when it comes out. Mac and their planned obsolescence can kiss my apple.

The last 2 major OS updates were $30 each. I don't recall how much they were before then, but I've never spent more than $100 for a new OS.