Gallery

32 reasons why PCs are better than Macs

Posted on 18 Apr 2007 at 12:04

We're not expecting Dell's bargain-basement models to trouble our A List anytime soon, and Kate Moss wouldn't be seen dead near one, but they'll suffice for a cheap office PC that sits under a desk all day or a computer for the kids' homework. Mac buyers simply don't have that choice.

3 Thousands of decent games

"I was designed for the home," scream the Mac ads. You were? Then how come you've got such a poor bunch of games? At the time of writing, the top-selling Mac games on Amazon.co.uk were World of Warcraft (yawn), Age of Empires III (triple yawn) and The Sims II - a two-year-old title designed for loners who need imaginary friends to compensate for the lack of actual people in their pitiful lives.

Want the adrenaline-filled 3D action and spectacular graphics of Rainbow Six: Vegas? Or a spin round the track at high-velocity in a beautifully rendered Porsche in Test Drive Unlimited? Or even to revisit a seminal classic such as Half-Life 2? Sorry, you can't. Computer says no.

That's not to mention the fact that the PC has a near-monopoly on all the decent graphics hardware. And even if you did want to upgrade your Mac's graphics, you probably couldn't anyway. "Nvidia graphics options for Apple desktops and notebooks can only be purchased through Apple or as Apple update kits," warns Nvidia's website. If you're even half-way serious about gaming, you need a PC.

4 Two mouse buttons

Yes, we know Macs are meant to be so simple your gran could partition the hard disk while solving the Countdown conundrum, but do they really need to be dumbed down to use only one mouse button? A chimp with Attention Deficit Disorder could master two buttons, but Apple's (seemingly not ironically named) Mighty Mouse resorts to a single mouse click by default. Yes, you can easily tweak the driver for two buttons or simply plug in a normal mouse, but a firing squad is too lenient for the imbecile who decided that pressing Ctrl and left-click was a better out-of-the-box solution than a single press of the right button.

5 Broadband just works

It's hardly their fault, but our poor Mac friends aren't always well served by the ISPs. USB broadband modems can fail to work properly on Macs, and when customers attempt to phone the tech-support lines for assistance, they're none too amused when the script-reading drone at the other end tells them to "click on the Start button and select Control Panel". Finding a reliable ISP is hard enough; finding one that also supports Macs is a headache you really don't need.

6 Tailor-made systems

Gaming PCs, video workstations, media centres, digital photo PCs, build-your-own, mini-chassis, midi-towers, business PCs... need we go on? There are dozens of different desktop PC configurations that can be fine-tailored with thousands of specialist components to meet a buyer's requirements. How many flavours do Mac desktops come in? Three. Mac mini, iMac and Mac Pro. If none of those meet your needs, take a hike.

The open architecture of the PC platform, on the other hand, gives you access to an immense range of configurations, enabling you to tailor a PC to your needs without wasting money on capabilities you won't use. It also means you can make modular upgrades, such as fitting a new CPU and motherboard without having to replace your existing graphics card and hard drives. Try that with an iMac.

7 Macs are months behind

If you want cutting-edge hardware, you need a PC. Remember when the Intel Core CPU was released? Apple finally jumped ship from IBM processors, even though PC processors had been outstripping the PowerPC G5 CPU for years. But even though the agreement was trumpeted from the rooftops by Intel and Apple, it still took months for the complete Mac range to go fully Intel. Core 2 was even worse, with almost the whole PC market having them before Apple shipped a single Core 2 Mac.