To this day, I just don't get the food spills in computers. It's beyond my comprehension how it happens......
.... I'm waiting for iri to come back and post some PC stuff. I like his posts. Specifically I'd like to see/hear some higher-quality PC models that are equivalent to Apple stuff (form and function). Information is power!
In all fairness, you didn't name any specific models either. Either mac or PC. This is important for both. Not all PCs and not all macs are created equal. I'm not sure if this is still the case, but Lenovos used to be tanks!
Until maybe about 3 years ago, I have had more macs die on me than PCs, and as I had more PCs than macs, it makes for some pretty embarrassing %'s. We've been slowly moving to mac for a while, and I do consider us a mac shop now, so do read the whole post before you call me a mac basher
The problem with form is that it hurts function. I imagine it's all about the increased heat and stress on the components to support that form. I purchased 8 imacs between 2007 and 2009, 1 is dead, 2 have yellow screens, and 1 I don't trust (I think occasional overheating issue but not 100%.) I had 1 each of first and 2nd gen intel macbook pros, they both are dead. Of the 4 imacs I purchased in 2010, all had recalled hard drives, and 1 has 3 burn in marks on the screen. So far so good on the 2 2011 imac models and 1 2013 imac model.
You can say the hard drives are not relevant because apple didn't make them, but I would respond that they didn't make any of the other parts either. IMHO, Mac vs PC, with respect to hardware, is the argument of "My foxconn computer is better than your foxconn computer."
As for mac pros, both first gen intel pros are still kicking and in great shape. Unfortunately since Apple dropped support for machines with 32 bit BIOS (why 32 bit bios on 64 bit machine?) nobody will use them. They can't run past Lion and running the modern software on them that everyone wants (and sometimes needs) is impossible. Of the 2 dual G5s we had, 1 died, and the other I use as a $5000 door stop.
I'll never forget the time that a G4 power supply blew up right in front of me. Half scared me to death. Coincidentally, the one polycarb mac we have is still kicking and has a perfect screen
Of course, it's been sent to its room (the closet) due to its 32 bit bios.
Dell desktops have always been rock solid for me though. I have had 3 Dell desktop motherboards die on my over the years, but again, I had at least twice as many of those as macs. So it's a lower %. And 2 of them had the courtesy to die under warranty so they were repaired onsite.
Don't take this as mac bashing, those are real numbers, not hyperbole. Others may have had a different experience. And notice I said ignoring the past couple of years. Also, I've never managed over 50 workstations, so ymmv.
Here's what I'm currently seeing:
We've also been moving away from desktops towards laptops. Dell Latitude 64xx laptops are utter and complete garbage. Their motherboards keep committing suicide on me. What happens is that every once in a while the CPU clock just seems to get locked in it's uber low power saving state, and the computer becomes impossible to use because the CPU is just pegged at 100%. I think I must be up to a 50% failure rate on these things. After the 4th time this happened (last week) I made the decision to only purchase macbook pros from now on, even if Mac OS isn't going to be run on it. As components get smaller and more power efficient, the hardware lends itself better to the forms that Apple likes, and I've seen the reliability of our macs go up. At least, this is my interpretation of my experiences.
And I'm ONLY talking about hardware here. If we talk about software, I've had significantly more problems with PCs than macs. That being said, the more features Apple adds to their OS, the more I see these things being rebooted, windows style...
Sorry for the long post...
