Advice on a MAC

requiem

requiem

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Hey guys.


I've been a PC user all my life - quite comfortable with linux now as well.


However my experience with Mac is limited to the Iphone :P

I need a laptop (my specs are very difficult I know) and after looking at all the options available PC wise - I can't find anything that competes with the MAC on the following areas.
1) Battery life.
2) Performance.
3) Portability.
4) Screen Resolution.


I see I can use Bootcamp to install Windows 7 as a dual boot - any problems with this?

Of the Macbook Pro's I would be looking at either the higher specced 15" model or the 17" model.

Any advise on pitfalls - other suggestions? - general comments like "WTF you doing" or similar.

Oh - my primary use will be to work on the go - either coding - spreadsheets - documents - email - etc.

How easy will it be to integrate into my current PC based life?

Thank you -
p.s. sorry for the rambling post.
 
Why exactly a Mac? You seem to want to use windows and I don't see the point in buying a Mac. Your battery life in windows will not be as good as in Snow Leopard either. I have MacBook Pro 15 inch so I know. I'd love to recommend one but you don't seem to actually need one to justify the R20k price.
 
MacBook pro 17" is expensive but from my experience it

It last more than 4 hours with moderate use. Ive had 7 hours, but that was more or less just word and no wifi

Resolution. 1900x1080. Enough said

Portable, but a bit big though. So look at the 15" with an upgraded screen

The frame is great. Aluminum is better than plastic

Mac OS is getting use to, but it is quiet effective.

If you hold on until July, you might even get os x lion

And buy parallels 6. You can run windows without rebooting.
 
IceDreama said:
Why exactly a Mac?
Click to expand...
Even in Windows battery life still rocks. Build quality is the best. Screen, keyboard, trackpad everything. They don't get hot on your lap either! Yes they're expensive but they're the best.

It's extremely easy to integrate into your PC life. OS X takes a while to learn, even if you're a geek but eventually is worth it. Installing Windows on Parallels or with Boot Camp is really easy.

I recommend the baseline 15" for best value for money - you still get an awesome quad core. The upgraded models get quite expensive! Don't know what your budget is. Obviously the 17" rocks - best laptop ever but it costs!

@creeper it's 1920x1200. ;)
 
Well - it's always useful to learn something new - and comparing the macbook pro to Dell - the closest comparison is the XPS 15 - similar specs - but the dell has a much worse battery - and not quite as "rugged" as the Mac.

The R20k for the 15" upper end is more expensive than the Dell.

I used to carry around a HP 17" notebook around with me - and it was hell.

The thing weighed a ton. With a large charger and a real crappy battery.

Being able to use windows will be for those "how the **** do I do this on a MAC" moments :P

I had the same experience when I started learning Linux....

Thanks for all the replies so far
 
Macbook Air 13" is also amazing. Great resolution, great performance with the SSD. If they get Core i7 would be even cooler.
 
Synaesthesia said:
Even in Windows battery life still rocks. Build quality is the best. Screen, keyboard, trackpad everything. They don't get hot on your lap either! Yes they're expensive but they're the best.

It's extremely easy to integrate into your PC life. OS X takes a while to learn, even if you're a geek but eventually is worth it. Installing Windows on Parallels or with Boot Camp is really easy.

I recommend the baseline 15" for best value for money - you still get an awesome quad core. The upgraded models get quite expensive! Don't know what your budget is. Obviously the 17" rocks - best laptop ever but it costs!

@creeper it's 1920x1200. ;)
Click to expand...

Budget is not an issue.

I want a machine that will work - and work for a while to come - Is the greater resolution and expresscard slot worth the extra dosh? - I suppose the battery will also die faster on the 17"?
 
Of the two, the 15" would be much better for the "on the go" stuff... The 17" is HUGE. The 2.2GHz i7 should do it but you might want to have a look at the antiglare screen. Don't bother upgrading your memory and hard drive from Apple, you can get those here for a fraction of the price and pop them in yourself. The OS will take a week or so to get used to and then what creeper said... Check Apple's website 'bout Lion's release date or with the store about upgrading you from Snow Leopard to Lion if you get the machine a couple of weeks before Lion comes out.
 
Synaesthesia said:
Macbook Air 13" is also amazing. Great resolution, great performance with the SSD. If they get Core i7 would be even cooler.
Click to expand...

Yep... 13" for me thank you very much and an i7 13" would really kick ass.
 
requiem said:
Well - it's always useful to learn something new - and comparing the macbook pro to Dell - the closest comparison is the XPS 15 - similar specs - but the dell has a much worse battery - and not quite as "rugged" as the Mac.

The R20k for the 15" upper end is more expensive than the Dell.

I used to carry around a HP 17" notebook around with me - and it was hell.

The thing weighed a ton. With a large charger and a real crappy battery.

Being able to use windows will be for those "how the **** do I do this on a MAC" moments :P

I had the same experience when I started learning Linux....

Thanks for all the replies so far
Click to expand...

the bolded part i can promise you is not true on a 17'' my brother has a 17 inch and the charging brick is smaller than most laptops, not like a ups that some laptops lug around...
 
requiem said:
Budget is not an issue.

I want a machine that will work - and work for a while to come - Is the greater resolution and expresscard slot worth the extra dosh? - I suppose the battery will also die faster on the 17"?
Click to expand...
Yeah go and take a look for yourself at the Apple store. It's awesome. The battery life on the 17" Macbook Pro is rated at like 7 hours and lasts 1000 cycles - up to 3 times longer than regular laptops.

It's so expensive but it's the lightest, thinnest 17" laptop around. As well as being the most powerful!
 
The only big thing i can see there is coding, the other tasks you have set out can be covered even by a dual core. If the machine is supposed to be a work horse then get the high end spec 15", otherwise 13" will work well for portability. Even though budget isnt a concern, i dont see much point in a 17" unless you really need that extra screen estate and resolution. Currently enjoying using my 13" pro, only bothersome part is to bootcamp to do c# coding. Then again i can do my c# and iOS apps coding on the same machine which is relatively much lighter than the 15".
 
Oh yeah SSD!! I cannot stress enough how crucial it is. I recommend Intel 320 SSD's for reliability, compatibility and speed. Although the Sandforce ones are good too (vertex etc)
 
Mystic Twilight said:
The only big thing i can see there is coding, the other tasks you have set out can be covered even by a dual core. If the machine is supposed to be a work horse then get the high end spec 15", otherwise 13" will work well for portability. Even though budget isnt a concern, i dont see much point in a 17" unless you really need that extra screen estate and resolution. Currently enjoying using my 13" pro, only bothersome part is to bootcamp to do c# coding. Then again i can do my c# and iOS apps coding on the same machine which is relatively much lighter than the 15".
Click to expand...

You could always install Oracle VM VirtualBox and not have to reboot
 
Last edited:
The Macbooks are sleeker than typical Windows laptops and they have big batteries. Whether they're more durable is questionable. If I put my Macbook through the kind of handling my plastic Dell has been through I guarantee the Macbook would look a lot a worse. The only possible advantage is that the aluminium will dent rather than crack if you drop it onto a hard surface, but you'll probably break the screen anyway. For raw processing performance you should be able to easily do better with a Windows laptop, and for less money. The Macbooks are seriously lacking in ports. But the trackpad beats anything I've seen on a Windows laptop. It's not only the huge size and gesture support, but that it generally just works whereas every Windows laptop I have ever used has had flaky drivers which you're forced to get from the laptop manufacturer, and they quite often cannot be bothered to keep them up to date or fix bugs.
 
requiem said:
3) Portability.
Of the Macbook Pro's I would be looking at either the higher specced 15" model or the 17" model.
Click to expand...

It's still 17" and big to lug around. Ask Pooky, he got one and then wanted to sell it and get a 15".
 
I made a trip to Digicape today - and bought the 15" Macbook Pro - the top specced one - so far a pleasure to play with - going to have to bug you guys for tips as I learn :)
 
Good call - great machine. Wish I had the moola.

A while back, I hackintoshed an LG Netbook. SL ran on a usb external and 'doze on the internal. Eventually, I swapped out the drives so that the internal is SL and the 'doze is gone. The thing that I noticed is that when running SL on the internal, the battery life has been better than what it was with 'doze. I wonder, does Windows chew battery by design?
 
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