MaximumPC 2002 09

102 | MAXIMUMPC | FEB 09 | http://www.maximumpc.com

AV Alternatives

I just finished reading the

antivirus roundup by Paul

Lilly in the January 2009

issue and found it to be

informative, to a point.

It seems like McAfee and

Symantec always get

included in these reviews

by default. I would be

interested in seeing how

Computer Associates and

Trend Micro compete with

the Dynamic Duo. I have

used both and find it invalu-

able to use their online ser-

vices as well as their home

computer products.

—Steve Gardner

Deputy Editor Katherine

Stevenson Responds:

Practically anytime we do

a review roundup we have

to limit the number of prod-

ucts we can cover—this

isn’t simply a matter of time

and resources; it also keeps

a single story from taking

up too much space in the

magazine. In choosing the

10 antivirus products for our

January feature, we tried to

select a mix that would be of

greatest interest to enthusiast

users, but inevitably, some

worthwhile products were

left out. We appreciate your

suggestions and will certainly

take those apps into consider-

ation the next time we do an

AV story.

Mac Pro vs. PC

I would like to see you

guys do a competitive

comparison of the Mac Pro

workstation booted directly

into Windows (using Boot

Camp) against comparable

PCs. Why is this interest-

ing? Because for technical

applications (data acquisi-

tion, video capture, etc.)

there’s way more hardware

and software for the PC

than for the Mac. On the

other hand, for day-to-day

use (word processing, pre-

sentations) and particularly

when accessing the Internet

(email, web), it’s more

sensible to be in the Mac

universe, if for no other rea-

son than not to have to deal

with Windows’s incessant

bugs and security holes. The

ideal setup for me would be

a single box that runs Mac

OS X when connected to the

Internet and for standard

office work but which can

be booted into Windows

(and disconnected from

the Internet as desired)

for specialized technical

applications.

The question is, how

does such a setup compare

to a standard PC worksta-

tion? It seems to me that

this topic would be of great

interest to hardware geeks

like us who subscribe to

Maximum PC.

—Cahit Kitaplioglu

Senior Editor Gordon Mah

Ung Responds: I simply

don’t see a reason to do this

comparison. As far as I’m

concerned, a Mac Pro is not

worth the premium price

when you can actually get

more performance from a

Core i7 (which is not avail-

Maximum PC reader (and Jack Black lookalike) Keith

Whisman introduces us to a future MPC acolyte, his

newborn son. Daniel Joseph Whisman was born

on December 3 at 11:25 a.m., and we found Keith

celebrating by posting comments on our website a

mere hour later—a true testament to his devotion

to our magazine. Meet Keith and other readers

on the message boards and discussion threads at

MaximumPC.com!

PHOTO OF THE MONTH

MPC’s Newest Fan

We tackle tough reader questions on...

 Mac vs. PC

 SAS Drives

Mac vs. PC

SAS Drives

Mac vs. PC

H.264 on a Netbook

COMMENTS^

YOU WRITE, WE RESPOND

CUTCOPYPASTE

Our January 2009 article “How

to Connect Your PC to Your

Surround-Sound Audio System”

contained a factual error. Motherboards

using Nvidia’s nForce 750i, 790i, or

780i chipsets are capable of sending six

channels of compressed digital audio

(e.g., Dolby Digital and DTS) over an

internal S/PDIF cable.