EPTBuy Mac or PC laptop? - Page 3
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Zlasher
United States9129 Posts
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funnybananaman
United States830 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:04 Mykill wrote: Cons: Processing power (I cant run iTunes, Safari, Msn together) Awful heating problems because its all one big case Crazy fan (if i run a flash game the mac sounds like its taking off a runway) Awful compatibility Expensive I have a macbook (not pro, the slightly older macbook that looks exactly like the current pro model as opposed to the new macbook which is white) that i use for school and its excellent i would definitely recommend it. I haven't really experienced any of the fan or heating problems you describe, nor have i ever had any problems with processing power i often run safari, itunes, microsoft word, acquisition (similar to limewire) etc simultaneously with no problems. Macbooks are more expensive and compatibility is an issue, but outside of gaming there hasn't really been any important programs that i can't get to work. My recommendation: If you want the laptop primarily for gaming, get a PC. If you want it primarily for other stuff get a mac, especially if you also have a desktop PC that you can use for gaming cause laptops in general (mac or PC regardless) aren't ideal for gaming. In my experience everything besides gaming is better on a mac laptop, plus they have great resale value compared to PCs if that helps with the pricing. Also making a poll like this on TL is a liiittle pointless since virtually everyone in the starcraft community uses windows but good luck with the search and stuff  | ||
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JeeJee
Canada5652 Posts
the main things macs have going for them currently are build quality,battery life and OSX. the main things macs don't have going for them is: power, value, compatibility. now, depending on your situation some of these are not an issue. for example, if you are not a gamer, chances are you don't need the power. if you don't run any windows-specific programs, you don't care about compatibility. on the other hand, if you can't stand OSX, or if you're planning on using your laptop as a desktop replacement, macs are not a good choice. i'll throw you my 2 cents in the pile (and i suggest you take the same approach when picking a laptop) find out what you want in a laptop my list had the following: -power (for games) -style -portability -decent quality unfortunately for mac, the "power(for games)" point automatically threw them out the window. i spent a lot of time actually considering getting a mac, and giving up games, but in the end i decided not to. OSX is a toss-up for me. my choice? envy 14 coming out june 27. here's hoping HP won't fuck it up, although envy 15 gen2 was great so i'm not too worried (and the reason i did not get envy15 gen2 is because it did not have switchable graphics and so its portability in terms of battery life was limited). plus it is not designed by HP engineers but voodooPC engineers so it follows that it will be better than your average HP notebook. my fallback if hp fucks it up? sony z. edit: also, you have to consider your own computer skill when making your decision. macs are quite stable and user-friendly, which is normally in their favor unless you're an experienced user in which case it just gets in the way. this was one of the few things i disliked about OSX and the mac philosophy in general. you know your situation. we don't. edit2: upon reading your introduction in greater detail, i suggest you get a mac. also, are you going to waterloo? ^_^ | ||
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Masq
Canada1792 Posts
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writer22816
United States5775 Posts
And DO NOT get a HP laptop, the stuff they have is so badly optimized (you see things like i7 + integrated graphics card going for $1500+) and really expensive. Do not get a Mac lol. Unless you want to be trendy and/or you're really bad with computers. You can pretty much do anything a Mac can with free third-party software on a PC, and Macs are ridiculously expensive. | ||
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stafu
Australia1196 Posts
Processing power (I cant run iTunes, Safari, Msn together) What on earth are you talking about? You can run much more than that simultaneously, unless you're somehow getting a Mac with hardware from 15 years ago. | ||
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NeCroPoTeNce
United States513 Posts
Edit: There's an Asus gaming laptop, $899, i5, 3 MB L2 cache, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB video RAM, 16.5 inch screen. This is the one I was considering getting. | ||
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biology]major
United States2253 Posts
pcs are straightforward g'd up comps no brainer | ||
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spinesheath
Germany8679 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:04 Mykill wrote: Looks cool, you get to be trendy and fashionable? This would be reason enough for me not to get a Mac. The rest of the pro-Mac arguments is completely overwhelmed by the cost, and then there are the other cons... | ||
Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On June 07 2010 14:43 NeCroPoTeNce wrote: I'm actually getting a laptop in the next week or so, but the difference for me is that I have a budget, and I just personally don't like Macs cuz there's like no games available for it (even though I on'y play SCBW and CS 1.6, and SC2 when it comes out). Edit: There's an Asus gaming laptop, $899, i5, 3 MB L2 cache, 4 GB RAM, 1 GB video RAM, 16.5 inch screen. This is the one I was considering getting. You'd also have to deal with mouse acceleration with the Mac, which is terrible for all of those games. Which laptop were you looking at? | ||
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Taku
Canada2036 Posts
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odeSSa
Sweden198 Posts
I think it boils down to economy, you really have to pay more for the same performance if you go Mac. But if economy is not an issue, I think the Mac has more pro´s. You can even dualboot and run Windows 7 on one partition if you want both. I have XP myself on a small partition just for playing Iccup. | ||
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Mr.Maestro
42 Posts
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zrules
United States88 Posts
On June 07 2010 13:41 Jibba wrote: Vista is perfectly fine, I don't think zrules has any idea what he's talking about, although I don't think you'll be able to find any new laptop without OSX or Win7. Recovering in both Vista and 7 is easy, and infinitely better than trying to save a system in XP. Good grief... Sorry... but Vista is kind of bad... Link here: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/11070_3669701_1/Vista-Expert-Why-I-Dont-Like-Vista.htm Course it did get a bump with the Service pack and no longer are there driver issues, but look at Win 7, essentially Vista that had bug fixes. I can't find sources for the Recovery problem Atm, though I do remember that it does exist in one if not both. And I don't remember if I posted this in my original post, but a virus such as TDSS 565 are a pain in XP... they are more painful in Vista and 7. And yes XP had problems but XP is still pretty stable as opposed to Vista or 7 (though 7 does run very smoothly with a lot of things I will admit. | ||
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Subwoofermate
293 Posts
The only good thing with OSX are Macbooks and you can get them cheap refurbished. All you are doing with the laptop is watching videos, browsing the web, typing documents, and other low power stuff so buying laptops with last-last generation hardware doesn't really matter. | ||
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Jibba
United States22883 Posts
On June 07 2010 14:57 zrules wrote: Sorry... but Vista is kind of bad... Link here: http://itmanagement.earthweb.com/entdev/article.php/11070_3669701_1/Vista-Expert-Why-I-Dont-Like-Vista.htm Course it did get a bump with the Service pack and no longer are there driver issues, but look at Win 7, essentially Vista that had bug fixes. I can't find sources for the Recovery problem Atm, though I do remember that it does exist in one if not both. And I don't remember if I posted this in my original post, but a virus such as TDSS 565 are a pain in XP... they are more painful in Vista and 7. And yes XP had problems but XP is still pretty stable as opposed to Vista or 7 (though 7 does run very smoothly with a lot of things I will admit. Vista and 7 are both a lot safer and a lot more stable than XP. There is no debate on that. The link you posted is just someone whining about how Aero looks, and how AV programs aren't compatible in mid-2009? That's just flat out wrong. Win7 is modulated Vista with a few extra features, but if you like 7, there's not many reasons you wouldn't like Vista either. Based on your post, I'm guessing you don't have much experience with either. We really need to know what the OP's budget is to offer a suggestion. Ideapad Y460, MSI GE600, Envy 14, Acer Timeline X would be my initial suggestions. They're all decently powerful with i5s and upper-mid video cards, they've got switchable graphics for 4+ hour battery life, they're mostly lightweight and thin, and all the other features are good, except missing USB 3.0. | ||
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Subwoofermate
293 Posts
On June 07 2010 12:52 FragKrag wrote: And then you realize that both the ASUS UL and the Acer Timeline have pitiful, old 1.3GHz Core 2 CPUs while the Apple laptops are supposedly able to muster 6-7 hours with a much more powerful i5 cpu which can be clocked as high as around 2.53GHz. Not exactly a fair comparison to be honest. The main thing that kills battery life are the dedicated high TDP graphics cards a lot of these laptops have. Laptops (Asus N61 for example) with switchable graphics can easily reach 5 hours battery life, even with i5 processors. Again, the main draw of Macbooks is the build quality. The awesome quality of the screens, frame strength, lack of keyboard flex, good screen hinges, etc is still something consumer laptops don't offer in a single package. If you don't need to game on a laptop, a refurbished Macbook Pro is a very good day to day laptop. | ||
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BluzMan
Russian Federation4235 Posts
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FrickenHamster
United States40 Posts
PC is a personal computer. | ||
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StayFrosty
Canada743 Posts
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