Thomas Moore Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 I can't make up my mind whether to get a MacBook Pro or a Dell XPS M1530. I'm going for portability, so the big gaming laptops are out. Both laptops are about the same weight with the Dell being .2lbs more. The Mac is definitely more money but I could dual boot it and have two computers in one box. The Mac I built out is $2001 and the Dell XPS I built out is $1443 (12% discount from work) but that includes a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse. The Mac comes with a super drive allowing for dual layer DVD's, backlit keyboard and don't forget the wow factor. the Dell has an HDMI connection. I'll be using the laptop for the following ITunes Pictures Making shooting movies Email Web surfing MS Office (reason for dual boot) MS Money Has anyone else come across this dilemma? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
zhunter Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Mac Nuf Said Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
eerw Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 We just got two high end Mac Laptops at the office..4gig ram, 200gig HD, 17" monitors.. for dealing with video from Iraq.. and playing with them..these things fly for normal stuff.. we have had three or four generation of Mac laptops in the office..and I have been happy with all of them.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
-JQ- Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 pc...but Macs have better...commercials Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 After getting tired of being frustrated with Windows for doing all of those things you mention, I bought a Mac. So far, so good. Money well spent. BTW, you might look at the refurbs online - same warranty, etc, but you typically get about 300-500 off the price of a new one I bought a refurb 17" hi-def, and the machine appeared to be brand new when I received it.... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Moore Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 Has anyone done the dual boot thing and are the happy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vettman1 Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Has anyone done the dual boot thing and are the happy? I've not used the dual boot thing, but I am using Parallels and it works pretty well with XP. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 A friend of mine is doing the dual boot thing and using the machine more as a PC than a MAC. My reaction is that if you can afford to/are willing to spend the money, buy the MAC. If you're not, I've been really happy with the three Dell laptops I've had now, an 8100, an XPS M140, and the current XPS 1210. One caveat though -- I ordered all of them loaded to the gills with processing speed, ram, and the fastest hard drive available, i.e. 7200 rpm for the last two laptops..... The older two laptops ran on XP Pro, the 1210's happily purring away on Vista Ultimate..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maineshootah Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Has anyone done the dual boot thing and are the happy? I've not used the dual boot thing, but I am using Parallels and it works pretty well with XP. Dual boot is nice, however, it gets old quick having to reboot out of each environment. Parallels lets you stay in the OSX environment and then load the Win applications. It is really the best of both worlds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thomas Moore Posted December 18, 2007 Author Share Posted December 18, 2007 I've not used the dual boot thing, but I am using Parallels and it works pretty well with XP what you're saying is i can install the program parallels and then go through boot camp to install XP and use both operating systems without having to reboot? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
XRe Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Having not used Parallels, yet, I don't know how XP would be installed - ie, if you have to do the bootcamp thing the first time or not. However, yes, it allows you to boot OS X and then, without rebooting, start up a Windows app from within OS X. In fact, you can apparently set things up so that you don't even have to see any of the Windows related junk, and it looks as if it were a Mac application.... slick stuff. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Viggen Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Switched over to Mac a couple of years ago. Go with Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
firematt100 Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 Thomas, We have been a MAC family for 6 years now. I would never go back. Have done the Dual Boot and Parallels and they both work fine. We have a 15" and 17" Mac Book Pro and an IMac. Also two Iphones. 100% mac family. MATT Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shooterbenedetto Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 for your reasons of using the laptop, MAC all the way!! what I have is both. I have both worlds. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
maineshootah Posted December 18, 2007 Share Posted December 18, 2007 I've not used the dual boot thing, but I am using Parallels and it works pretty well with XP what you're saying is i can install the program parallels and then go through boot camp to install XP and use both operating systems without having to reboot? with parallels, you do not need to use bootcamp at all if i recall correctly. Yes, you get to use BOTH operating systems at the SAME time with parallels. It works great for living in the mac environment and then starting parallels to do things like enter USPSA scores in the ez win software, then dragging the results back to the mac side (click and drag) and emailing them from there. Works great. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vettman1 Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Has anyone done the dual boot thing and are the happy? I've not used the dual boot thing, but I am using Parallels and it works pretty well with XP. Dual boot is nice, however, it gets old quick having to reboot out of each environment. Parallels lets you stay in the OSX environment and then load the Win applications. It is really the best of both worlds. Yes. It's pretty cool. They even have a mode called coherence that you can run windows and mac applications on the same desktop. BTW my main work machine is a Gateway laptop, but if Apple came out with a Mac with tablet capabilities, I would be changing over to a Mac. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nik Habicht Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 BTW my main work machine is a Gateway laptop, but if Apple came out with a Mac with tablet capabilities, I would be changing over to a Mac. In that vein, if there'd been a 12" MacBook Pro that rocked when I needed the last laptop, I might have switched..... As it is, I see a MacBook Pro in my future --- sometime after graduation..... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Adam B Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 Tom, From one IT guy to another, get a mac. It is built on a a rock solid Unix core and with parallels or boot camp there is no reason not to buy one. My wife was a hard one to sell on the mac and she doesn't know what do do without it now. Parallels is real slick, you can run coherence where the two desktops are running as one, you really have to see it to appreciate it. PM me if you have any questions at all. Adam Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThinkingDog Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 +1 on Mac But...if you can hold off a bit, there will be new models coming out very very soon with updated Intel processors (and more)! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
EricW Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 (edited) Has anyone done the dual boot thing and are the happy? Just run Parallels and forget about the dual boot stuff. Unless you're running some really exotic apps, it will work fine. I went over to the light and I can't even imagine going back. Every time I use a PC, I just can't believe how ungodly slow they are. I went from "click and wait" to "click and work." The mac really is cheaper in the end (unless you're the night shift manager at Dairy Queen and your time is worth $6/hr). Edited December 19, 2007 by EricW Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpnBlstr Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 I run a 2.33 MBP with Leopard and Parallels 3. Installed XP in Bootcamp on a 15GB partition then installed Parallels and told it to run XP from the Bootcamp partition. Doing this I can either boot XP natively for the best performance in Counterstrike or run the same Windows copy in Parallels side-by-side with OSX for convenience for more mundane tasks like DVD ripping and EZWinscore. Running XP in Parallels allows you to drag files straight from the Windows desktop to the Mac desktop. I don't allow any shared folders for security reasons - don't need Windows screwing up files on my Mac partition. If you get a Leopard machine make absolutely sure you are running the latest Parallels version. The original three or four releases of version 3 on Leopard sucked real bad reliability wise. It made the entire machine unstable - kernel panics and crashes were common to most users. Build 5582 works very very well. Also, don't overlook the standard Macbook. Nothing you list really needs the dedicated video card of the Macbook Pro which aside from the Expresscard/34 slot and backlit keyboard is the only real difference between the two machines besides the obvious screen size. You can save $1000 if you don't need these features. If you want to run Aperture or Final Cut Pro then definitely get the Pro however. Like others here, I cringe when I have to use a Windows machine now. My Macbook Pro *screams* through anything I throw at it and I can run several large apps at once without slowdown or crashes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BR Posted December 19, 2007 Share Posted December 19, 2007 One week into my testdrive of OSX on my new Macbook. Very intuitive and, for me, easy to learn and to use. While surfing, not a single pop up or disconnection. Wireless set up was effortless. Office for Mac gives me Word, and documents exchange seamlessly with windows Word. So far, so GREAT! Cheers. -br Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
OpnBlstr Posted December 20, 2007 Share Posted December 20, 2007 One week into my testdrive of OSX on my new Macbook. Very intuitive and, for me, easy to learn and to use. While surfing, not a single pop up or disconnection. Wireless set up was effortless. Office for Mac gives me Word, and documents exchange seamlessly with windows Word. So far, so GREAT! Cheers.-br Wait until Office 2008. You won't have to run Office under Rosetta anymore! First startup of 2008 will be as fast as the second startup of 2004. More stable. Can't wait. Kinda like CS3 - it flies compared to CS2 because it's a universal binary now. Sounds like you really like the platform. Once you go Mac....... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
davidwiz Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 You can get a MacBook for $1099. It is going to cost much more than that to get a Dell similarly equipped. Plus you don't have to deal with the BS that is Windows Vista. When I opened my own shop 3 years ago, I swore off PCs and have been using Macs exclusively. We have an iMac desktop, a MacBook Pro laptop and a Power Mac G5 tower, all running Leopard. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
edwin garcia Posted February 17, 2008 Share Posted February 17, 2008 I've been using Macs at home and work. 17" MBP with 2gig RAM and Mac Pro quad core with 6gig RAM gets things done in my line of work. 17" gives you a good wide screen but not as portable as I would wish.I'm switching to 15" MBP (OS X Leopard) as my 17" tends to be less portable(bulky and heavy). It should come by next week. I prefer Parallels over BootCamp as it's easier to switch between environments. I still work on PCs (some apps that would not run right in Parallels) but otherwise, Mac is my preferred machine. Good luck on your choice! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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