Macbook vs. PC
I'll be heading back to college soon and decided that my old laptop just isn't going to cut it. Nice as it is hardware wise, it's falling apart and the battery has long since stopped working. It's also just plain huge and bulky (17" widescreen) and not fun to carry around.
So I am looking into a decent 15" laptop either widescreen or normal that has a good battery life and will be useful for the new circumstance. The new Mac Book Pros look very nice on pretty much every level, but if I am going to spend $2k I'd like to be sure it's what I actually need.
As for laptops, there are a couple nice Toshibas and HP's I've looked at, but Vista really isn't my thing. Given the choice between Vista and using OSX (I can use both) I'd prefer just using OSX for the stability. Granted, XP is still an option if I were to buy very soon, but I want to wait till I get an acceptance letter which may be a couple months off.
Basically I want a good battery on a quick little machine that is fairly light that I can take notes and run photoshop CS3 on. A windows based Laptop seems to be much cheaper for the same specs, but I hear Macbooks are extremely reliable. My overall problem? I know next to jack about laptops, so I need some advice.
So I am looking into a decent 15" laptop either widescreen or normal that has a good battery life and will be useful for the new circumstance. The new Mac Book Pros look very nice on pretty much every level, but if I am going to spend $2k I'd like to be sure it's what I actually need.
As for laptops, there are a couple nice Toshibas and HP's I've looked at, but Vista really isn't my thing. Given the choice between Vista and using OSX (I can use both) I'd prefer just using OSX for the stability. Granted, XP is still an option if I were to buy very soon, but I want to wait till I get an acceptance letter which may be a couple months off.
Basically I want a good battery on a quick little machine that is fairly light that I can take notes and run photoshop CS3 on. A windows based Laptop seems to be much cheaper for the same specs, but I hear Macbooks are extremely reliable. My overall problem? I know next to jack about laptops, so I need some advice.
Replies
Unless you demand a 15" screen the 13" for me is completely do-able. If this is to be your ONLY machine maybe I'd go for a 15".
If you want to save money I'd look at PC, if money isn't a problem then I'd just get a mac. The new aluminum bodies are quiet and take travel abuse quite well.
I get about 2.5-3 hr's on a charge...the new Macbook Pro's apparently have the 8 hr batteries.
B
i use it like that and it's ace.
What he said.
However it's no doubt I'll use mac for casual use like storing videos/photos and other personal stuffs.
Just my 2 cent.
Lenovo
T6000 series pricessor
4 gig ram
9000 series nvidia 256 meg ram
250 gig HDD
dolby sound
with hdmi output and bluetooth
all for US$800 in hongkong
I dont see what the fuss about macs is
1: You want/need to use Mac-only software, and/or
2: You hate Windows and find Linux fiddly, and/or
3: You like the look of them
Otherwise they're just expensive computers. I have a Mac Pro and a black Macbook, and I love them both to death and they're in constant use for college and life, and will be professional tools when I graduate.
Rolfness - Toshibas and HPs are looking very good at the moment. I agree, Macs are over priced. If there's really no reason as to why they are, then I'm most likely going to go with a windows based laptop. I honestly just know zilch about this whole laptop thing in general so that's why I'm considering all of them at the moment. You're right though, much less money gets you the same specs in every other laptop I've seen.
ericdigital - Well I mostly want something light and portable. Points if it looks nice and sleek I suppose. I am looking for a 15"+ widescreen with a decent battery life for going in and out of classes.
Matthew Blake - I'm not certain how it is for laptops, but I know for PCs the difference between Macs and Windows PCs are pretty much zilch. The hardware is all the same in those, and PCs are simply cheaper and easier to fix should they break. I'm beginning to think the same is true of laptops from the sounds of it.
Another question however: Are most smaller laptops like the size I'm looking for quiet? I always hated my old laptop for the sheer amount of noise the fans kicked out, but I figured maybe that's because it's 17" and huge. Also, are normal laptop batteries lasting longer these days? Mine hardly went a year before it crapped out and only held a charge for 2 minutes.
One thing to keep in mind concerning laptops and notebooks is that the hardware is much less likely to be upgradable in comparison to a desktop. i.e. get what you want on the front end, don't buy a laptop with the intention of upgrading it later (except for possibly RAM).
edit: fixed sager link
Most laptops at the 15.4" size use integrated graphics cards. Doing so, it does in fact allow them to run fairly quiet according to the research I did on reviews on Newegg. When you get into the machines that have the dedicated graphics cards (nVidias and the like) that is when machines start getting loud and hot.
Now if all I want to do is take notes, then certainly the graphics don't matter in the slightest. However, I do want to use Photoshop (my version currently is CS3 if that matters) on whatever machine I end up with. While most laptops are offering 3GB DDR2 RAM and dual core as 2.0 and higher, I don't know if that is enough to adequately run photoshop. If it is, then tell me, please.
Now as for the mac machines, so far I hear the heat output is fairly low and the sound is largely quiet. From what I can tell, it's because it has two different graphics cards in it that you can set to run, both of which are fairly good quality, or at least greater than an integrated card. But you can tell which card to run at any point to conserve energy and not have the fans blasting like small turbines.
Now I'm not saying this alone warrants them to be an extra $500 above a windows based laptop, but most of the other laptops I look at are that much lower before you add in a second graphics card. After that point, the price seems to come much closer to that of a mac. I suppose the "duh" here would be that if you're rigging a laptop to play games and stuff, then sound and heat aren't anywhere on your list of concerns in your purchase, so you wouldn't need a second graphics card to begin with.
I'm speaking purely from the standpoint that A.) I am fully aware that everything I just said may or may not actually be accurate and B.) If it is accurate, somehow macs have lower heat output and sound for the same amount of power and more efficient power use while running on batteries, but you do pay for it.
This is all based off a couple hours of research, and I'm sure most of you know better. Enlighten the inquiring minds that are following us in our debate!
GeForce GTX 260M gfx card with 1GB ram
Intel quad core 2.00ghz cpu
4gig of ram
500Gig hd
+ all the snazzy extras u get usually wifi, bluetooth webcam etc and warrenty for less than $2k. (pctorque)
macs are awesome, but i rather pay less and get more
i don't think the hardware of macs is necessarily better, perhaps the configurations are bit better tested since the turnaround of models isn't as quick as with the PC's? they do come with an OS that seems born to run on a mobile machine tho, it's quite a joy to have that over windows if you are not application-restricted. so if all you want is photoshop, you will be fine. they take 4 gigs of RAM btw. and it better be aftermarket-upgrades since apple is charging a lot for it. also a 7200 rpm harddrive or SSD is what you want, really.
the macbook is normally silent, yes - and it's not melting or anything. but as soon as the fan kicks in (and it will after a bit of photoshop-fiddling or equally CPU intensive tasks) it will be quite audible.
any somewhat recent laptop with a fast harddrive should be able to run photoshop without trouble, btw.
Been looking at the HP Pavillion dv5t model. The only graphics card you can get however is the Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 4500MHD. If that's enough to run Vista and photoshop then I think I'd be pretty happy with this little fella.
Also looking at the Sager 7682. How are the build qualitiy on sagers? I don't mind that they look sort of plain, but I don't want something that feels like it's made out of cheap materials.
Edit:
Johnny: I did some digging on Sager and found a nice little fella that seems to do just about everything I want. http://www.sagernotebook.com/product_customed.php?pid=91133
Thanks for that link. I may just end up with this beauty.
dont you mean alienware and Falcon NW?
The main reason why I made the switch is that Apple has amazing customer service. They'll fix their broken products you've bought from them sometimes even if the warranty has expired. HP and Dell pretty much tell you where to stick it.
My last laptop was a HP dv2000. Within 3 months of owning it, the laptop wasn't responsive when I hit the power button. Until it died a couple of weeks ago, I'd have to fiddle with hittin ON/OFF multiple times, sometimes up to 10 minutes, before I'd get anything besides a black lit screen.
There are 3 HPs in my house. 1 is 3 months old and already needing repairs (and HP has failed to send the Fed Exes for it twice already). The other is a tablet PC, which sounds lovely but it's no compromise for a Wacom product because Wacom and Adobe have an understanding which leaves the tablet PC completely without any pressure sensitivity. Lame.
I know there are many more PCs out there of course, but being a 3D artist and a digital painter, I went right for the high res 17" screen Macbook Pro and it makes my heart melt. I just need a screen that I can put a lot of stuff onto.
So now all I want to do is drive out to TX and bash the service guy with mylaptop. So now I'm going to have to call Monday morning and bitch, I want me money back. I'm going to buy a freakin mac. An extra $1,500 is worth more then having to deal with having a half ass put back together laptop.
If I bought a mac like I should have I could of took it to the Apple store, came back a few days latter and double checked it myself in front of them (you get what you pay for!!!). Now granted you can pay the extra $$$ if you buy one at Best Buy and buy the service plan but then you are limited to what they sell at Best Buy.
Bottom line (repeating myself) you get what you pay for. Its painful to pay the extra upfront but in the end you will be thanking yourself. Mac doesn't put out shit like the other companies that try to undercut each other. Just try to live as stress free as you can.
considering you're talking about mobile working.. I don't know what to tell you. I guess go for the pc laptop and live with the poorer experience, but at least you can work better.
Lenovo is King.
You people with macs need to get over yourselves.
I'm bias as hell -- I've got a vendetta against mac, simply because so many people have bought into their advertising campaign. the vast majority of people I meet who are pro mac don't actually know what the fuck their talking about. buying a product because you saw a TV add that created a powerful emotional association is DIRT FUCKING STUPID. if you're over the age of 20 and this happened, put a gun in your mouth.
okay rant over.
I've got one friend who's a programmer who's in love with his little mac. i have no idea why, but he's not stupid, so there's got to be a few reasons.
I figgure -- a windows machine will cost you less and run fine. It will also run everything you want, provided you can keep it free of viruses and bullshit like that.
that's my 2 cents.
edit: i just went to the Lenovo website. JESUS CHRIST. who the fuck actually organizes their products into "L series, R series" and shit like that? I have no fucking idea what that means off hand. Honestly, as much as I dislike being swayed by advertising, take a fucking hint from apple, ya? why is it that PC advertising is so fucking stupid? "do you want the R series or the SL series?" "I dont fucking know, you asshole." when i go to a site, what i know is how much money I have.
Getting back to the original question though. I don't know what college you're going to, but where I went there were enough computer labs to satisfy all the legions of Rome. I seriously do not understand people who drag laptops around campus. You never heard of a flash drive? The best use me and my friends got out of our laptops was watching youTube, or listening to internet radio.
You want to spend $2000 for a mac to do that? Do you have any idea how much college textbooks cost? A standard desktop for your dorm or apartment is all you need. Macs are just for showing off.
I don't know if it's still the case but pre-intel it seemed like Macs retained their value longer, the downside is people always want to pick a fight with you on the interwebs.