Whats a Macintosh?

[trueman]

I know very little about Mac computers. Well I know they run a diffeent operating system than Windows,but are they the same as a pc in terms of hardware. For instance do they have PCI slots, AGP slots etc etc? Can you put the same peripherals in a MAC that you can in a PC such as 3d cards, internal modems, cd-burners, hard drives etc or do they have to be designed especially for MACS. What about processors and RAM? Can someone perhaps suggest a good website that explains the MAC in detail?
Do they look the same as a PC inside?

[Atomic Rooster]

Check out the Apple site:

http://www.apple.com/switch/questions/index2.html

[Warthog]

They are evil, I tell you, EVIL. Stay away. They will only force you to dress like Pee Wee Herman, drive a New Beetle and talk like a Telly Tubby.

Warthog

[CubKid]

waaaaaay too much sugar warthog.

[pc_dr.j]

The problem with MACs where I come from is if you try to tweak it and something goes wrong you're in big trouble. We have here these warranty clauses that says Apple will not be held responsible for MAC problems brought about by your hand BLAH-BLAH-BLAH

The bottom line is if you wanna tweak a MAC, tweak it at your own risk. Since a MAc in our place is pretty expensive than a PC running on a 2.8GHz Pentium4 with Hyperthreading with a GF-4 Videocard, DVD-ROM, CD-writer and 512 MB memory and built-in sound, I wouldn't recommend it

[originel]

lol @cubkid

Definitely read through the link Atomic ROoster pointed you to.

To sum things up a little tho from a technical perspective tho:
Macs do not use the X86 architecture, which means that processors are completely different (the older G4's and prior are made by motorolla and the G5's are made by IBM). THe basic architecture is completely different and IMO much better than the antiquated X86 architecture. The memory is usually the same (now) with most using pc133 and the G5's using dual channel ddr. They use 64-bit PCI slots and AGP slots, but you almost always (if not always) can't put an X86 PCI card in a mac and expect it to work. But the good news is that most manufacturers make Mac versions, namely ATI and Nvidia. You can get almost any ATI or Nvidia card for a Mac.

Hard drives are the same for each tho (at least now...they used to exclusivly use SCSI...to bad it never took off). I'm not sure if all cd-burners and such work in macs tho. In any case it's always a good idea to check the manufacturer for compatibility before buying.

USB, serial, and parallel devices tho all work in OS X (assuming there are drivers, which there usually are).

In short tho...Interior periphrials cannot be switched between Macs and PCs and exterior periphrials can.

They are a lot like Sun or SGI systems, completely different but do have some compatibility with PCs

[Droppyale]

They are very expensive.

[originel]

They are very expensive.

not near as much as they used to be...Their prices are IMO comparable to PC's. just look at a top of the line system from Alienware and compare the price to a top of the line G5.

EDIT: actually a top of the line Alienware video editing system costs $4700 and a top of the line G5 (dual 2gHz 64-bit procs) is around $4100

something people need to start realizing is that Mac doesn't make "cheap" computers. The closest thing is the EMac, which is still fairly decent as far as computers go which can be had for around $700. So when you compare a desktop computer to a G5, compare a similar desktop PC, not the cheapo run of the mill compaq.

EDIT: actually i redid the Alienware system to more closely match the Mac, and the price jumped to an even $5000. Also configured a normal area 51 to match the G5 and it came out the same as the G5...$4000

[trueman]

Well I certainly now understand better what the difference between a MAC and a PC is. Thanks for the replies.

[RayH]

Remember, personal computers is actually about software not hardware. That is, the object is not to have hardware, but to run sofware. The question is then, Does this computer run my software?

All hardware starts from the same parts bins. But that doesn't mean they are necessarily interchangeable automatically. If that were the case, all of us might be running Linnux! There still are firmware and drivers issues.

Unless you have a definite reason (software) to want to run a Mac, if you purchase one you'll find out what a Mac doesn't do in a PC world!