Looking for a PC - fed up with Macs

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good luck.
I run 3 windows machines and a half dozen macs. had macs since 1984, windows machines since 2004.
I find windows to be much more irritating- it constantly updates itself without telling me, gets blue screen, sometimes takes 20 minutes to boot up, and is much more complicated to control.
I have windows machines because some software I need is just not available for macs. No decent payroll, certainly no simple cheap ones. NO bitmap to vector programs that will output in sewing machine languages. Certain other categories, mostly pretty math or engineering heavy, simply dont exist for macs.

ALL computers are basically consumables- they do not last forever.
If you do anything online, upgrades in software, for either type, makes your machines obsolete in 3 to 6 years most of the time, regardless of maker. Laptop batteries always die, eventually. Replacement batteries are usually cheap knockoffs, once apple stops buying 5 million a year, the factories quit making them as nice as apple demands.
So replacing batteries is usually not as good as when they were new.

If you need to run fancier software- Adobe illustrator, lightbox or photoshop, high speed film editing, GAMING, (whatever the heck that is these days- I am more a sodoku guy), or things like CAD or other machine interface software, updates are just necessary.

I actually have run windows on mac hardware for years, and find the apple hardware much more reliable as a windows platform- go figure.

If you are really into computers, and insist on customizing everything, you can make windows machines do what you want, but its complicated.
If you want simple, intuitive instructions, commands in plain english, you generally are more comfortable with macs.

These days, with AI buying up all the chips, the price gap for actual apples to apples mac vs windows machines is pretty narrow. Unless you erector set build the whole desktop windows machine yourself from individual components.
 
plug it into a USB battery backup
UPS battery backup is what I meant to say. Uninterruptible Power Supply. Needed for desktop computer, especially in Argentina. With a scheduled 2 plan to replace the battery.

Good example:

The models which cost $10 more have a USB port and software to eliminate that annoying beeping alarm that occurs during the summer blackouts.
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I gave up on Macs about 6 years ago and started using Lenovo 2:1's. My wife is an academic and has been using a Lenovo 7i. She particularly likes the touch screen. They are for sale now at Lenovo for $799. We've been amazed with its performance and durability. It only had one minor software repair but every day she teaches class, has remote conferences, does research and streams on it. I can't guarantee what your experience would be with a similar machine but I hope this info helps.
Good luck.
 
4GB is not going to get you anywhere, 8 minimum or better 16GB.

By non-Intel you mean AMD? From what I’m reading, AMD have overtaken Intel in the technology race.
These days non-intel often means not using the x86 architecture. That is what most personal computers have used the past 20-30 years. Built by both AMD and Intel. Apple made the change in 2020 to ARM architecture, with great success. That is why the Windows operating no longer works on Apple hardware.
So now Microsoft is promoting new CoPilot tablets that are using new ARM architecture chips built by Qualcomm in their Snapdragon chip series. I do not recall if Nvidia and AMD have already shipped ARM, but it is their goal.
ARM requires a completely different branch of the Windows operating system. It is almost a complete rewrite. This has had positive results, plus good reviews. Still, a long way to go for Microsoft. Perhaps that is the type of Lenovo laptop/tablet mentioned before by @Caribbean Cool ?
 
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These days non-intel often means not using the x86 architecture. That is what most personal computers have used the past 20-30 years. Built by both AMD and Intel. Apple made the change in 2020 to ARM architecture, with great success. That is why the Windows operating no longer works on Apple hardware.
So now Microsoft is promoting new CoPilot tablets that are using new ARM architecture chips built by Qualcomm in their Snapdragon chip series. I do not recall if Nvidia and AMD have already shipped ARM, but it is their goal.
ARM requires a completely different branch of the Windows operating system. It is almost a complete rewrite. This has had positive results, plus good reviews. Still, a long way to go for Microsoft. Perhaps that is the type of Lenovo laptop/tablet mentioned before by @Caribbean Cool ?
all the new ARM machines I see are more expensive, and, of course, the software is more cloud and subscription oriented. Many reviews lately are saying that mac laptops are a better buy than the new ARM laptops...
I think all the manufacturers are going to use the tech switch to raise prices and add bells and whistles.
 
I used to have a VMWare virtual machine on my MacBook running Windows 10. In my experience, the virtual machine based Windows installations were mucho more stable than native Windows.

I need to look into reactivating it, VMWare’s business model has been changing so I’m not sure what I will find now.
 
I used to have a VMWare virtual machine on my MacBook running Windows 10. In my experience, the virtual machine based Windows installations were mucho more stable than native Windows.

I need to look into reactivating it, VMWare’s business model has been changing so I’m not sure what I will find now.
That is what I currently do on my 2024 M4 Mac mini. VMware Fusion is free. Really it just as an experiment, since I have little need. What is it that people need Windows 11 for that can’t be done with the Mac? Microsoft Office is on Mac, and Adobe suite is on Mac. Software code development is better on Mac. You can also remotely connect to any cloud VM of Linux for cheap, and windows too though at a premium.

I guess for gaming most, but not all, of the games are only on Windows and those do not run well in VM of Windows. If that is your need, you have a good reason still in 2026.
 
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