A Macbook or Win Laptop??

Forums › Mac OS › A Macbook or Win Laptop??

1 | 2

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#457720 12-Apr-2011 10:18

For our household, the transition was particularly smooth. Both myself and my partner... we have slowly morphed into a 100% Apple home.
I find the links to the blog in dclegg's post to be of interest... as the user seems to have hit a bit of a wall knowledge wise, but in the end, other users have offered advice to get the machine running how he wants it to.

I must say, for what you're looking to do, the biggest issue will be gaming. Personally, I have a console for gaming - so it's a non-issue.

nakedmolerat

4629 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#457759 12-Apr-2011 11:20

oneilv: Can i dual boot with Windows 7 on a MacBook? Is that simple enough to do incase i realise i need to run windows too?

When you talk about Pocket i realise what you mean....the prices in USD look awesome its the NZD that choked me !

as pointed by others, if gaming is one of the criterias, get windows based laptop. there is no point to dual boot into windows to play game, or if you end up using windows 90% most of the time. i had terrible issues in the past as the games will not play nicely on windows xp - boot camp. you cannot use vmware or parallel to play heavy games out there.

i have mac air 11' - for travelling and occ browsing on my lazy boy. i use osx 10.6 (no windows). i would not say osx is better than windows - for me they both the same and let me do i want to do well. osx also has their own issues just like windows.

macbook pro etc, have comparable spec with windows based laptop. why pay more if you want or end up using windows most of the time.

scensation

63 posts

Master Geek

#459767 17-Apr-2011 16:09

I?ve had my current Mac for close to four years. While I?m generally happy for it?s permeance, my next laptop will be a Windows one.

The most important app I need to run nowadays is Windows based, so I rely on Parallel. However, it just lags and not as snappy as it would be if run natively. Allocating more resources to the VM slows the entire laptop down.

I also have Windows XP on Bootcamp but XP only recognises 3GB of RAM instead of the 4 installed. The biggest two problems with Bootcamp, however, are the booting process and system freezing. Often it takes a long time to boot to Windows. Also often is how often it hangs, giving me a black screen. Rebooting takes even longer and the fan spools up big time, not to mention the check disk process. Once booted up, the file system does not behave completely properly. Often times I would click on either Windows Explorer or Firefox and would have to wait for at least a minute before it shows up, even if I wait for at least 1 minute after the system is freshly booted and no other background process in play apart from the free AVG. That is just not acceptable. Neither Finder or Firefox gives me the same problem in OSX. I tried fixing it during the first 3 months of ownership but have long given up.

Cost is also an issue. A new 17? MBP would cost me about $1500 more than a Dell XPS 17or Asus equivalent. It just doesn?t make sense.

For gaming, you can get a Windows laptop that is much cheaper and offers the same if not better performance than a MBP. One last thing. How many Windows laptops have a VGA/HDMI port? Does MBP have one, or do you need to buy an adapter?

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#461986 24-Apr-2011 17:20

I'm going through the transition now. The MacBook I have is old 15" (Core 2 Duo with 4GB) so I can't make any comment on "shiney" aspects and it would too old to look cool writing your memoirs in Starbucks.

The MacBook was someone elses so I have clean installed it (an experience in itself). Being familiar with Linux I thought this would be pretty straight forward for me to learn but many aspects are quite challenging. Using dual head which is kinda odd as to get to the application menu bar I have to change displays. Oh, and the green button, no idea what the requirements statement behind that are.

I'll keep you in the loop as I continue this voyage of discovery. ps. iMovie is not included (I mistakedly thought it was an out of the box application).

lyonrouge

1993 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#461989 24-Apr-2011 17:28

ps. are you looking at standard form factor MacBook or Air?

oneilv

29 posts

Geek

#467022 9-May-2011 10:00

Thanks for all the replies and suggestion guys,

I ended up buying the new MacBook Pro with the Quad core i7 processor. Its got a good Graphics Card and by running Windows 7 on BootCamp I am able to explore both ends of the world. Windows takes care of the Gaming requirements and the rest MAC OS :)

Thanks again.

Oneil

dpw

843 posts

Ultimate Geek

ID Verified

Trusted

#467029 9-May-2011 10:20

oneilv: Thanks for all the replies and suggestion guys,

I ended up buying the new MacBook Pro with the Quad core i7 processor. Its got a good Graphics Card and by running Windows 7 on BootCamp I am able to explore both ends of the world. Windows takes care of the Gaming requirements and the rest MAC OS :)

Just out of curiosity, what size MBP did you buy? I'm not a gamer and always wondered if a 15" screen is enough for gaming. Did you buy stock standard screen or the higher resolution anti-glare one?

Android user, software developer, a semi-typical (not a gamer) geek, and a Bernese Mountain Dog nut!

http://savitarbernese.com | https://nz.linkedin.com/in/danywu

Equinox IT

Cloud spending continues to surge globally, but most organisations haven’t made the changes necessary to maximise the value and cost-efficiency benefits of their cloud investments. Download the whitepaper From Overspend to Advantage now.

oneilv

29 posts

Geek

#467032 9-May-2011 10:24

The 15inch is what I got. Its pretty descent size unless u really need a big screen then go for the 17inch....(hurts the pocket more too).....And i went for the standard stock screen, the anti-glare again was more expensive and would not fit my budget.

nakedmolerat

4629 posts

Uber Geek

Trusted

Lifetime subscriber

#467060 9-May-2011 11:48

how can u game on 15'???

i need 24inch x 3

Dunnersfella

4086 posts

Uber Geek

#467069 9-May-2011 12:01

17" versions are certainly well pricey - the i7 versions in particular!
I have a Core i5 17" with a matte screen, and I wouldn't be without it.
Gaming is great (viewable distance is find on a laptop obviously) - but then I'm more of a console gamer.

1 | 2