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First off, one handy note to start this off: Macbooks have one of the best chargers in the world, It is a magnet cord ie, when some fag kicks the cord when your charging your battery, the cord goes flying and your macbook doesn't.
The mac has the exact same word processing packages as a PC, can run windows if you desire, insane amount of high quality multimedia packages, light, etc...
That being said, OS X is weird to use if your not used to it, as its not the same as windows so you will have to relearn the general usage of your operating system.
Massive issue with mac's: You can't game on a mac really, not many games are supported, and those that are(blizzard games) any extra things to enhance your experience dont work(iccup takes some working to get on it, but you cant use AH or Lan Lat). Also, there is almost no decent virus scanner for mac's and virus' are starting to be coded for them.
Dell's are dells, I'm not sure how their laptops work, but i know that the desktops they usually have are propriatary in their parts so you can't mod them easily, not sure if this is the same as the laptops.
As a mac user, I would recommend a mac provided your not interested in gaming heavily, as thats where it really loses to a dell.
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If you are really into gaming you should always custom build your own pc anyways and not buy a dell.
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United States47024 Posts
On February 04 2009 00:20 MacWorld wrote:
And if you configure a Dell and Mac so they have the same specs, you will probably see that there isn´t much of a difference in price.
This depends heavily on the specs and what you consider "much of a difference." This isn't true as a sweeping generalization. If you compare the Inspiron 13 with the 13 inch Macbook, the Dell is 400 dollars cheaper with similar specifications. It would be more if Dell let you have less than 3GB RAM and 160 GB HD. Bear in mind, both systems are sub-$1000, so a $400 difference is fairly significant.
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On February 04 2009 00:33 MacWorld wrote:
If you are really into gaming you should always custom build your own pc anyways and not buy a dell.
This is true, but most people don't know computers enough to build their own.
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I wouldn't recommend a Dell of all Windows PCs out there, but omg don't get a Mac.
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mac is just eye candy, If I were to buy it, I'd buy the cheapest macbook right before my university career starts and have a pc for gaming, macbook working only.
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Kentor
United States5784 Posts
Okay OP what the fuck?
Cons: vista, windows, more viruses?
What's with all the negativity with windows? More viruses? Yeah if you're stupid enough to fall for the "YOUR COMPUTER IS INFECTED, DOWNLOAD THIS SOFTWARE NOW!" ads.
It sounds like you are unable to use windows properly so yeah you should get a mac. But to me, macbooks are crap. Both the OS and the laptop. I've had it for a semester in college and it pissed me off so much that I sold it. Here's a list of things why the mac os sucks: http://www.xflaws.com
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FuDDx
United States5006 Posts
Ive got a dell ive had it for almost 4 years now and its still going strog.
I had to get a new sound card and i upgraded a bit here and there.
I was pleased with them.Still am.
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Kennigit
Canada19447 Posts
I've had a Dell for 3 years and it has run flawlessly ~touch wood~.
Dude, you're getting a dell
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lol my dell pc still works after 8-9 years, not that i've used it heavily since about 06 (5 years of heavy use)
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lol, my friend told me she bought a macbook because it is so pretty.... what naive bitch
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On February 04 2009 00:34 TheYango wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2009 00:20 MacWorld wrote:
And if you configure a Dell and Mac so they have the same specs, you will probably see that there isn´t much of a difference in price. This depends heavily on the specs and what you consider "much of a difference." This isn't true as a sweeping generalization. If you compare the Inspiron 13 with the 13 inch Macbook, the Dell is 400 dollars cheaper with similar specifications. It would be more if Dell let you have less than 3GB RAM and 160 GB HD. Bear in mind, both systems are sub-$1000, so a $400 difference is fairly significant.
I just set up a similar Inspiron and I get the Dell priced at $944 and the MacBook at $999.
As you say, the Dell then has:
3gb of ram compared to 2gb of the MacBook (both up to 4gb).
160gb hd compared to 120gb hd of the MacBook (up to 320gb).
The MacBook on the other hand has:
2,0ghz with 1066mhz bus 3mb cache compared to the closest Dell with 2,1ghz 800mhz 3mb cache.
256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9400M compared to 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS.
Both have bluetooth and webcam.
No extra warranty on any of them.
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United States3824 Posts
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United States22883 Posts
On February 04 2009 00:10 MacWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On February 03 2009 23:59 Jibba wrote:On February 03 2009 23:18 Hawk wrote:
If you do work with graphic design, music etc, get a mac. If you're concerned about $ and gaming, get a pc. simple as that My sister uses After Effects/Illustrator at her work and their new Macs get crushed by their 6-12 month older XP machines in performance. And what are you comparing what with?
I don't know the computer specs off hand, but this is a professional animation studio with real workstations. The only thing I remember is that the Macs actually have more ram.
Even her home computer, which is an early dual core with only 2 gigs of ram, wins out in AE.
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United States22883 Posts
On February 04 2009 01:27 MacWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2009 00:34 TheYango wrote:On February 04 2009 00:20 MacWorld wrote:
And if you configure a Dell and Mac so they have the same specs, you will probably see that there isn´t much of a difference in price. This depends heavily on the specs and what you consider "much of a difference." This isn't true as a sweeping generalization. If you compare the Inspiron 13 with the 13 inch Macbook, the Dell is 400 dollars cheaper with similar specifications. It would be more if Dell let you have less than 3GB RAM and 160 GB HD. Bear in mind, both systems are sub-$1000, so a $400 difference is fairly significant. I just set up a similar Inspiron and I get the Dell priced at $944 and the MacBook at $999. As you say, the Dell then has: 3gb of ram compared to 2gb of the MacBook (both up to 4gb). 160gb hd compared to 120gb hd of the MacBook (up to 320gb). The MacBook on the other hand has: 2,0ghz with 1066mhz bus 3mb cache compared to the closest Dell with 2,1ghz 800mhz 3mb cache. 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9400M compared to 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS. Both have bluetooth and webcam. No extra warranty on any of them.
What are you looking at? The Inspiron 13 with similar specs comes out under $850 and has 4 gigs of DDR2 800 (the plastic Macbook you're looking at is DDR2 667), has a 250gig HD and comes with a 1 year hardware warranty + inhouse remote service.
The video cards don't mean much since they're both terrible, but just to clarify it: the Macbook 9400M is not a true 9400M, it's a 9400M G which is a hybrid discrete/motherboard card but they cut the G off for marketing purposes. The real world performance between the 9400M G and 8400M GS is not very much, but it's like comparing a giant douche to a turd sandwich.
The laptops on Newegg crush both Apple and Dell in most categories btw, especially when you get to the standard sizes.
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On February 04 2009 01:27 MacWorld wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2009 00:34 TheYango wrote:On February 04 2009 00:20 MacWorld wrote:
And if you configure a Dell and Mac so they have the same specs, you will probably see that there isn´t much of a difference in price. This depends heavily on the specs and what you consider "much of a difference." This isn't true as a sweeping generalization. If you compare the Inspiron 13 with the 13 inch Macbook, the Dell is 400 dollars cheaper with similar specifications. It would be more if Dell let you have less than 3GB RAM and 160 GB HD. Bear in mind, both systems are sub-$1000, so a $400 difference is fairly significant. I just set up a similar Inspiron and I get the Dell priced at $944 and the MacBook at $999. As you say, the Dell then has: 3gb of ram compared to 2gb of the MacBook (both up to 4gb). 160gb hd compared to 120gb hd of the MacBook (up to 320gb). The MacBook on the other hand has: 2,0ghz with 1066mhz bus 3mb cache compared to the closest Dell with 2,1ghz 800mhz 3mb cache. 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9400M compared to 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS. Both have bluetooth and webcam. No extra warranty on any of them.
the white macbook sucks, the white surface loses colour after you use it for sometime, especially
the area where you put your hand, it turns yellow.
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I was a Mac technician for a while and still use exclusively Windows machines at home. While the Mac aesthetic is undoubtedly nicer, and while it is good at what it does, I find this "what it does" to be extremely limited. The typical response from a Mac person when you ask why you can't do something (for example, delete only certain files permanently from the trash or delete something permanently bypassing the trash) is "why would you want to do that?" or, "Here's a 48-step way you could accomplish the same thing." I find the OS really limits you by design. Also, the stupid green plus button you'd think would act like a maximize window button just does random shit to the window every time you click it. That page with annoying OS X things is more or less right.
One thing I will say is that I think Macs work better with external drives (a lot more plug and play than XP in my experience) and the Disk Utility application is really useful for backing up, imaging drives, etc..
If you do end up getting a Mac, definitely definitely definitely get AppleCare on the portable machines. As long as you have AppleCare you can sell the machine for a pretty decent price 2.5 years down the line just before its set to expire.
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On February 04 2009 02:03 Jibba wrote:Show nested quote +On February 04 2009 01:27 MacWorld wrote:On February 04 2009 00:34 TheYango wrote:On February 04 2009 00:20 MacWorld wrote:
And if you configure a Dell and Mac so they have the same specs, you will probably see that there isn´t much of a difference in price. This depends heavily on the specs and what you consider "much of a difference." This isn't true as a sweeping generalization. If you compare the Inspiron 13 with the 13 inch Macbook, the Dell is 400 dollars cheaper with similar specifications. It would be more if Dell let you have less than 3GB RAM and 160 GB HD. Bear in mind, both systems are sub-$1000, so a $400 difference is fairly significant. I just set up a similar Inspiron and I get the Dell priced at $944 and the MacBook at $999. As you say, the Dell then has: 3gb of ram compared to 2gb of the MacBook (both up to 4gb). 160gb hd compared to 120gb hd of the MacBook (up to 320gb). The MacBook on the other hand has: 2,0ghz with 1066mhz bus 3mb cache compared to the closest Dell with 2,1ghz 800mhz 3mb cache. 256MB NVIDIA GeForce 9400M compared to 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS. Both have bluetooth and webcam. No extra warranty on any of them. What are you looking at? The Inspiron 13 with similar specs comes out under $850 and has 4 gigs of DDR2 800 (the plastic Macbook you're looking at is DDR2 667), has a 250gig HD and comes with a 1 year hardware warranty + inhouse remote service. The video cards don't mean much since they're both terrible, but just to clarify it: the Macbook 9400M is not a true 9400M, it's a 9400M G which is a hybrid discrete/motherboard card but they cut the G off for marketing purposes. The real world performance between the 9400M G and 8400M GS is not very much, but it's like comparing a giant douche to a turd sandwich. The laptops on Newegg crush both Apple and Dell in most categories btw, especially when you get to the standard sizes.
The white MacBook got updated last week and now has different specs.
And both Apple as well as Dell have 1 year hardware warranty.
So these are the specs I compare: (with 6-cell batteries for both the prices are actually 974 to 999).
My Components for the Dell:
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T8100 (2.1GHz/800Mhz FSB/3MB cache)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium Edition SP1
Pacific Blue
Microsoft Works
1Yr Ltd Hardware Warranty and Mail In Service
Glossy, widescreen 13.3" LCD (1280x800) w/ 2.0M pixel Camera
128MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 8400M GS
3GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 (2 Dimms)
Size: 160GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X Slot Load CD / DVD Burner (Dual Layer DVD+/-RW Drive)
Dell Wireless 1505 Wireless-N Mini-card
Built-in Bluetooth capability (2.0 EDR)
56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell)
And for the MacBook:
Intel Core 2 Duo 2,0ghz
1066MHz frontside bus
3MB shared L2 cache
2GB (two 1GB) of 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM
120GB Serial ATA 5400 rpm
NVIDIA GeForce 9400M with 256MB of shared DDR2 SDRAM
Built in camera
Built in Bluetooth
Built-in AirPort Extreme (802.11n)
And I didn´t take the time to check if the Inspiron has hdmi output or if it´s just VGA. Which matters alot to me since you can connect your MacBook to any DVI/HDMI/VGA-port.
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I'd get a mac. most people on here will tell you to get a dell. I think dells are unreliable, and the mac customer support is excellent. macs just seem to work - there's never any problems. they have long lasting batteries, print straight away, interface effortlessly with everything around them.
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United States22883 Posts
Ah, I see the problem. There's two ways to access the Inspiron 13. The first one gets you your quote, the second gives you a $130 instant rebate and the 4 gigs + 250gb hd.
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EPT
