Moving from Apple back to PC Laptop

[Kuripari]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/m ... til_summer

Looks like Ivy Bridge is getting delayed. Anyone else hear any veracity to this rumor? I might go ahead and build if that's the case.

[Gab]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/mass_shipments_intels_ivy_bridge_reportedly_delayed_until_summer

Looks like Ivy Bridge is getting delayed. Anyone else hear any veracity to this rumor? I might go ahead and build if that's the case.

First I've heard but it sounds legit.

As far as a desktop is concerned Shyrt's build was only missing mass storage devices because he already had an HDD, SSD and an optical drive iirc.

Although HDDs are inflated a bit at the moment you can still get a 500 GB sata 3 6 GB/s for under $100 (saw a WD on sell for $80 today on Newegg) and a DVD-RW for as little as $15. So around $800 for the desktop and you can get a decent laptop for around $500 for a total around $1300. A little on the high end of your budget but I think it would make a lot more sense. A desktop for gaming, and a laptop for school.

[Letme]

I would like to suggest a laptop to you that is ample for work and play.

If you are looking in the Alienware direction i suggest having a look over at ASUS

I bought from a company "BTOTech dot com" they were fantastic and allow a large amount of internals to be customized.

I haven't read if you have a budget or where you are located, But i will post a reasonable speced laptop that you could start with.

Asking price is 2100USD no shipping.
"Asus G53Sx-DH71 Custom
- Intel® Core™ i7-2670QM Processor 2.2-3.1GHZ
- BTO Thermo Dynamic Guarantee with IC Diamond
- 8gb DDR3 1866MHZ (2x4gb)
- Intel 510 Series 120gb Sata3 (Primary)
- 750GB 7200.4RPM (Secondary)
- 4x Blu-Ray Reader / DVDRW Super Multi
- Intel 6300 Wireless Ultimate Card
- Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit Installed with Recovery DVD (Changeable to any of the OS versions)
- 2 Year Global Asus Warranty

There is a few other prosthetic changes (Think Keyboard LED colors and what not).

I have the 17" version and use it everyday for work and play. It can get a bit large to carry around and a good backpack style bag is a worthy investment.

O and battery life is dismal on the 17", doing word documents only i get about 2 hours. nothing compared to a MBP's 10-14hours.

On the whole though it has been a great laptop with no issues after the original reformat to delete all vendor junk.

[Kuripari]

Although HDDs are inflated a bit at the moment you can still get a 500 GB sata 3 6 GB/s for under $100 (saw a WD on sell for $80 today on Newegg) and a DVD-RW for as little as $15. So around $800 for the desktop and you can get a decent laptop for around $500 for a total around $1300. A little on the high end of your budget but I think it would make a lot more sense. A desktop for gaming, and a laptop for school.

[edit] snipped too much, but you get the point.. looking at a build it yourself, is so economical, that it seems almost silly to dump the money into a laptop, unless I really really need a gaming rig that travels.

Ya that's what I realized. I kept looking at desktops and thinking, it sure is nice just to pick the processor and graphics card I want. If I could only do that with the laptop :p

I was even possibly thinking netbook route, if I let go of the idea for a laptop to game, I really only need a glorified digital note taker with access to the internet and word processing. (And some anatomy software, that'll be the catch to see what it takes)

[gibborim]

I guess I'm biased as "useless for life"

Fixed to align more closely with overriding social bias.

[Sabindeus]

Grab a Windows 7 Pro OEM, get the best MacBook Pro you can afford and set up a bootcamp partition. I do that on my rather old iMac without much issue.

Trolling? Or he could just buy a better PC for half the price and not have to worry about it (slight exageration, but yeah...)?

Sounds like you're the one trolling here dude.

Just the trackpad experience alone makes an Apple laptop better than any Windows laptop I've used.

Fact.

[Fetzie]

http://www.maximumpc.com/article/news/mass_shipments_intels_ivy_bridge_reportedly_delayed_until_summer

Looks like Ivy Bridge is getting delayed. Anyone else hear any veracity to this rumor? I might go ahead and build if that's the case.

To me that reads like it is just the mobile Ivy Bridges that are going to be delayed.

[Fridmarr]

Grab a Windows 7 Pro OEM, get the best MacBook Pro you can afford and set up a bootcamp partition. I do that on my rather old iMac without much issue.

Trolling? Or he could just buy a better PC for half the price and not have to worry about it (slight exageration, but yeah...)?

Sounds like you're the one trolling here dude.

Just the trackpad experience alone makes an Apple laptop better than any Windows laptop I've used.

Fact.

Well to be fair, the trackpad is awesome, but for gaming a standard mouse is usually better. I'd rather use a VM than bootcamp, but to each their own.

I have to admit though, to me about the only time the ROI makes sense for a Mac is on a laptop, and that's because I can't build my own and guarantee quality components. Frankly I trust Apple more than any other vendor in that arena and the price differences aren't quite as ridiculous as they are in the desktops. If you find a laptop where you have good info on the internal components and are satisfied with them, then that may be the best of both performance and cost.

[Gab]

Grab a Windows 7 Pro OEM, get the best MacBook Pro you can afford and set up a bootcamp partition. I do that on my rather old iMac without much issue.

Trolling? Or he could just buy a better PC for half the price and not have to worry about it (slight exageration, but yeah...)?

Sounds like you're the one trolling here dude.

Just the trackpad experience alone makes an Apple laptop better than any Windows laptop I've used.

Fact.

$1199
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD313LL/A#hardware

vs

$599
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=fncwq70&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=inspiron-14r-n4110

Add $130 to the Mac for Windows 7. I guess I'll never understand the fascination with Macs. To each his own, that trackpad must be one hell of an experience.

[Fridmarr]

I haven't looked at laptops in years, so I may be out of date, but one of the problems with laptops from companies like Dell were the notoriously cheap parts.

I mean if you spec HDD, CPU, and RAM, they can compare pretty well, but often the bridges, buses, chipsets, integrated graphics etc were cheap as hell. Maybe there's a lot more control over those things now, I don't really know.

Of course it's Apple, so it's going to be overpriced, but I had found the Apple premium wasn't as bad for laptops and ultimately I was getting a better representation of what I wanted.

For someone that uses a laptop as much as I do, though primarily for work stuff not gaming, that trackpad is a pretty big sell.

[Talaii]

$1199
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD313LL/A#hardware

vs

$599
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=fncwq70&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=inspiron-14r-n4110

Add $130 to the Mac for Windows 7. I guess I'll never understand the fascination with Macs. To each his own, that trackpad must be one hell of an experience.

The other big advantage is that the mac has a much, MUCH better screen. Most PC laptops, and ALL cheap PC laptops, have absolutely terrible screens. As far as external displays: I'd much rather the displayport on the mac than a HDMI connector; especially since I use a high-resolution (2560x1440) monitor, and HDMI only supports up to 1080p. I may be in the minority there, though.

The Dell has a single-band 1x2 Wifi card. The Mac has a dual-band 3x3 Wifi card. For that matter, the Dell doesn't even have a gigabit ethernet port, only 10/100.

The mac also has a 63.5Wh battery, the Dell has a 48Wh.

Given a choice between those two, I'd get the mac every time. Not trying to argue for the mac (there are other laptops I'd much prefer), more pointing out that the Dell is that cheap for a reason - it's a budget machine, with every possible corner cut. The price is about the only attractive thing about it.

[gibborim]

$1199
http://store.apple.com/us/configure/MD313LL/A#hardware

vs

$599
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?oc=fncwq70&c=us&l=en&s=dhs&cs=19&model_id=inspiron-14r-n4110

The Dell has generally inferior hardware. 720p? Not on my watch.

While I would never actually buy an Apple computer, I do appreciate the relative quality of their laptop hardware packages. Hopefully Intel's Ultrabook initiative will find more serious traction this year.

[Gab]

I wholeheartedly agree that Apple makes quality machines with quality components and decent customer service. I simply could never justify spending what I consider to be an outrageous premium for an apple stamp.

[Fridmarr]

And that's perfectly reasonable, but it doesn't mean that someone offering up a MacBook Pro as a solution is trolling, which is how we got on this little digression.

In any event, back to helping the OP please...

[Kelaan]

I wholeheartedly agree that Apple makes quality machines with quality components and decent customer service. I simply could never justify spending what I consider to be an outrageous premium for an apple stamp.

How outrageous is the premium? The hardware is very high quality, even if they don't often have "low end" hardware. You pay for build quality, whether it's Apple or Dell.

Macbook Pro 15": $1800

Dells look like they have better gfx cards than the MBPs:

Dell Latitude E6250: $2305 / $1520 after web discount. (I don't know how often those are applicable: clearly, plan ahead and be patient.)

Dell Vostro 3550: $1150 / $950 after rebates.

The Vostro looks like it's substantially cheaper, but the Latitude is not. The Macbook Pros and Latitudes have generally more robus build quality, and that's often what you're paying for. That said, the Latitude looks pretty nice at $300 less than the Macbook Pro -- I'd have to sit down and use one for an extended time to see how they compare. (I could imagine spending more if I liked the aesthetics better, as I'd be using it for the next three years or more.)