Laptop: Mac vs. PC

GWC Community GWC Hive Mind
#21

I work at the Nerd Herd at my local Buy More. (Not using my actual company, name and job, but I hope you get the idea.)

First off, what Solai said. You can get a good PC laptop for what you are going to do for ~$400-500. A good Mac laptop is going to start at $1200. I would love to have a Mac laptop because they are really cool, But I would probably also have a PC laptop anyway because I do use some specialized software for some things and they won’t run as well on a Mac. Macs are best for someone that is doing video or audio recording but not proffesionally. The software that comes on the Mac is great for that. Less than that, you don’t need it, and more than that you are talking about professional software that will work better on a PC.

Dell is good for hardware, but if you every have to deal with their tech support, you may regret that decision. Toshiba has cheap machines, Gateway has some nice hardware, but I hate how their keyboard feels. Personally I like HPs myself.

#22

What? Everything I’ve seen for the past few years says that Macs actually make the best PCs (You can dual boot them, or just use them as single-purpose PCs.) What kind of software are you thinking might be problematic?

#23

i had an HP, and that laptop heats up like a stove. the ventilation holes are put all in the wrong places and it gets so hot that after a while (an hour or two) the mouse pad will just quit working. And it starts to get extremely slow.

so… regardless of the brand… check if the laptops are over heating if they are on display before even thinking about getting them…

#24

I do graphics work and I find it much easier to do it on a PC than a Mac, the processors and related graphics gear do a better job of rending images and effects faster on an image than a Mac can. It doesn’t sound like much, but you can see a major difference in speed that a $1200 PC has over a $1200 Mac. Most graphics professionals that I know still stick with Macs because that is what they grew up with, but the software is the same or better on a PC. Also, any CAD work has to be done on a PC if you want to render quickly. The very few music people I know go 50-50 PC vs. Mac, mostly on what software they really like.

#25

THERE’S my problem…

#26

Check around and see if any of your local shops build laptops. Always try to buy local that way you can actually take it to them if it breaks. Over the counter stuff is a crap shoot, if local isn’t an option. Dell has some decent priced ones, but their tech support is a horror show. HP is a little better tech support, with hit and miss laptops. I have a friend who’s company uses completely HP laptops. Out of ten he sees 2 great running laptops and 2 that normally have to be replaced and the other 6 are ok but have minor issues. Toshiba make some really low priced with decent specs but I have know clue about the tech support or quality. Lenvo is top of the line and you pay for it.

#27

Yeah. I totally echo what Solai said. And to reinforce my earlier post: you can get a perfectly good Dell laptop (Inspirion 15 series) for about $500 bucks. Can you really justify spending about four times that amount for an Apple laptop?

But, if your realy really used to the Mac, you will be frustrated at first getting used a PC laptop. My wife is grumbling a lot about the adjustment.

Cosmetically, Windows 7 seems very similar to the latest and greatest Mac OS version, but my perspective is skewed on that since I’m a PC guy.

#28

The universe is funny. I was typing how great Lenovo is when Vista decided to freeze on me randomly. And, this hasn’t happened before. d:

Anyway, I love my Thinkpad and been using them for 17 years now (wow, that long?).

But, I have a special need in the trackpoint mouse since I type and mouse one-handed. So, there’s my bias.

#29

trackpoint mouse would be difficult for gaming and graphics i imagine…

Thinkpads were great when it was still IBM. Now it’s with the Chinese company Lenovo. Oh well, at least they hadt he money to buy off IBM latetop division.

The only OS that itunes doesn’t work great on is linux… because Apple doesn’t like linux taking over the market i guess. because if Apple can make their products run on Windows, I imagine the gap is a lot smaller between MAC and linux.

#30

I can manage in most games with 80-95% efficiency. Not FPS though, which was why ME2 was so hard for me.

I think Thinkpads are still pretty good. They’ve dropped their prices to be more in line with common laptops compared to the 90s. My thing is that mine came loaded with Vista, so it’s slow as heck. I can upgrade, but I’d need to find the correct drivers and doodads before then. That’s another drawback btw. So many proprietary software and drivers, but one can usually find what’s needed easily once motivated.

I can’t speak to itunes though. I try to avoid Apple products/software less Apple starts to control my life like I’ve seen happen to others. “I’m not cool enough for an apple” is really I can’t afford apple in my case. d:

#31

fc, you reply on the Starcraft2 thread often, so i guess you enjoy Starcraft original a lot also. Can you get a game of original SC going with Trackpoint? I think it will be equally as hard as FPS games. Because you do need the fast mouse displacement to be able to move around the map.

#32

I didn’t mean to derail the thread, but I was “ok” at Starcraft. The biggest worry/issue is wearing out the mouse buttons as an external Trackpoint keyboard used to cost 80-130 bucks to replace. So, I stopped playing after my buttons began wearing out. d:

http://www.amazon.com/IBM-Integrated-Point-Device-Cable/dp/B000F1YJ92/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278363009&sr=1-2
http://www.amazon.com/Thinkpad-USB-Keyboard-W-Track/dp/B002ONCC6G/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278363009&sr=1-1
http://www.amazon.com/IBM-USB-Keyboard-UltraNav-31P8950/dp/B00009APTK/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1278363009&sr=1-4 (I prefer this one with a numpad, but these are hard to find now)

Now Homeworld (an RTS game I highly recommend), that was a game I had no problems playing. More open spaces meant less terrain to maneuver around.

But to answer your query directly, playing SC wasn’t an issue with Trackpoint (other than replacing the kb). An FPS requires me to hold down a mouse button while moving the pointer to aim after I’ve settled into whatever position I wanted. I can’t move the character while shooting (and expect to hit anything). An RTS has more mouse clicks, but requires less coordination if that makes sense. Basically, an FPS requires me to try to do 2-4 things at once with one hand, where an RTS narrows that to 1-3.

So, I strongly recommend Thinkpads or Trackpoint keyboards to people with a disability like I have.

(For the curious, I don’t use the trackpad/mouse pad. I lack the fine motor control to use them efficiently and I accidentally double click a lot.)

Anyway, back to the thread. I bet Macs don’t have a comparable device. d:

#33

sorry for derailing the thread…

but i gotta ask, have you ever tried trackball mouses? do those work well with your condition? because i’ve heard people using trackballs exclusively for FPS games.

#34

I thought about those 15 minutes after sending my last post. But, again, trackballs require a level a precision that I lack.

#35

From what I’ve heard, they’re still pretty good (at least the X-200 line is.) Plus IBM does their service in the US and it’s first-rate.

Just out of curiosity, has anyone had good experiences with Dell laptops?

#36

More good feedback, everyone. Thanks again.

#37

My nephew has a Dell notebook (at least 5 years old now) that has held up well, of course his favorite Aunt cleaned off all the extra crap Dell preloaded on it before he got it. :wink: One of my sisters has had 2 Dell notebooks that hardware wise were just crap from the time they arrived.

#38

I’ve used a Dell laptop since 2002. My first one lasted and worked great from 2002 to 2008. Eventually the LCD screen stopped working. But I still have it and it works okay with a monitor.

The Dell laptop I have now (which is owned by my employer, not me) has been working great. But it has one issue —amd it’s one that is preventable:
After about a year of using it, dust accumulated inside it and it prevented the hot air from getting out. That caused the Nvidia graphics chip to overheat and it destroyed the system. This happened about a year ago. The motherboard and hard drive was replaced-- so essentially a “new” computer again.

I was warned that I need to blow canned air into the vents of system about once a week to prevent that from happening again. I didn’t keep up with that often enough AND I didn’t realize that I need to blow canned air into the vent UNDERNEATH the laptop.

A year after that (last month), my laptop just suddenly would not start.
Repair guy looked at it, and again it was the frakkng dust. It blocked the air flow and caused the graphics (Nvidia) chip to overheat. This time however, it just shorted out the motherboard --which is good–because this time the repair guy just had to replace the motherboard. And, to my great relief, when he did that the system booted up as good as new —the harddrive was fine and no data lost.

Anyway, moral of the story : Beware of dust!!

#39

Once a week!? Unless you work in a sawmill, that seems like a design flaw.

#40

Yeah. According to the Internets, the Dell / Nvidia overheating thing is indeed a design flaw. The guy told me once a week, but maybe that’s a little extreme.