17" ftw

Oh was that what he was complaining about in his declaration of no likey apple clause?

Anyway, you make a great point, before you buy the macbook... wouldnt you read the specs before hand?? I mean dell, sony has laptops around the same price as the macbook with the exact same gpu.

If I could pay $1400 for a gateway with a X2300 HD Graphics (128MB) or the macbook with the x3100 (in white) to me the macbook is worth it at the same price as the gateway just because of osx, fw400, ease of use, 2 finger scroll, etc.. and even more so when they upgrade the macbook to an led screen + multitouch for the same price.

But to me the only thing I see the gateway would offer more is in the gaming department or using some 3d programs to do some modeling. But if I were doing something 3d intensive.. I would buy a dedicated desktop or something much faster which would cost considerably more from any company besides apple.

But I have to say that nothing out there beats the mac pro (desktop) for price/performance/features. I sold mine and it was very hard for me to even decide selling it.. because it was way too overkill for me + I dont game much at all.

 

did anyone else literally laugh out loud when they saw that ridiculously long post? haha this is an interesting thread

 

As long as you acknowlege him and his posts, he will keep trolling. First rule of thumb: don't feed the trolls.

 

That is quite possibly the most mature argument I've seen in this thread yet. No, really, it is.

I'm sure if he could have argued point for point there in under 100 words, he would have.

Well, on the flip side, they don't tell you what kind of wireless card you're getting.

Or you could buy a Dell for $800 with fw400, ease of use, 1 finger scroll, 4 usb ports and an 8400gs.

 

damn, this went all over the place...

All I meant was that I am enjoying this thing a lot more than I thought I would and I've owned a lot of laptop and computers, so, I'm not that easily impressed.

I am very happy work got it for me. I can't really justify spending $3000 on a personal laptop. A plus for work though, I really do feel a lot more productive with this thing.

I use XP and Vista all the time. I don't really have anything against Windows. Sorry this turned into such a weird OS rant thread.

And for the record. LED screens are much brighter, have more dynamic range and should maintain their illumination over time much better than CCFL screens. It's just a fact, not some I need to make myself feel better kinda claim. They are an actual improvement.

And the particular 1920x1200 LED screen on this 17" is still blowing me away a week later. Images and pallet text look stunning.

My 15" LED looks great too, but the 17" screen is special.

 

Haha this is a bit out of control. However, I read his posts and I even learned some things that I didn't know before hand. Honestly, I would probably get a mac for mac specific programs (final cut for the professional world). I like PC a lot more though for everything else.

His points all make sense which is actually pretty surprising, I don't see one flaw in his argument 0_0 but he really doesn't need to come in here saying that.

Back on topic: 17" Macbooks are SEXY as hell and 1920x1200 is also amazing (I have it on my laptop )

 

Just curious.. why would you need to know what type of wireless N you have?!? And for what purpose?? I know all the pc laptops uses the intel wireless N but apple uses airport (broadcom) which is also just wireless N..??

I'm sorry but the little side bar where you can scroll with 1 finger is totally almost useless.. its so not responsive and its a pain to use than the 2 finger instant scroll, which is very accurate, responsive and a joy to use.

I remember having owned previous dell lattitudes and the inspiron on my dells, which I never bothered to install the right side scroll and the bottom left to right side scroll drivers.. just never worked very well and took even longer to use than just pointing the cursor to the right side or bottom scroll bar and dragging it was quicker.. Also I made sure to always carry around an external mouse as I hated to use the trackpad with my dells.. but its such a different story now, since I dont game I never bring an external mouse around with my mbp ever. I love the trackpad/multitouch function its a god send.

Dont really know much about fw on the pc side except that I used fw once on a sony vaio desktop pc ages ago which were a different sized port than what I'm used to right now.. I think its like an ilink or something. Does the dell use the ilink..? Just curious on this.

 

@JJ - My AW uses a 4 pin firewire connector which I turn into a standard 6 pin with an adapter I saved from my old ipod .

The 1 finger scroll is actually quite amazing on my system but I cannot say that for all systems as that would be a lie because I haven't tested every PC

@OP - Upload a few pics of your system, I want to see it!

 

Well if anyone cares for my setup, this is my desk and my mbp in desktop mode, that's an external hdd with fw800 and esata bought from OWC mercury elite pro with 1tb seagate barracuda hdd

And this is what my mbp is connected to.. also there is an xbox 360, 52" sony bravia xbr4, B&W 685 speakers, yamaha v861, rotel RA-985BX power amp, popcorn hour, 7k200 hitachi external hdd connected to the popcorn hour, etc..



This was my old setup.. 2.8Ghz 8 core mac pro, 16gb of RAM, 3TB hdd, 150gb raptor 10,000rpm hdd as boot drive, nvidia 8800gt, ACD 23", ACD 20" (had a 30" but returned it), 17" 2.6Ghz hi res mbp on the mstand.

 

Wow, talk about being mature.

How old are you?

And if you actually read my post, you'd know I'm not "defending" Microsoft. I'm just pointing out Apple's shortcomings when it comes to hardware and software capabilities in regards to the price they charge you.

Can you please show me where I specifically said I "hate" Apple?

I've never said I hate Apple. I said they need to get their offerings up to the same level as PCs if they want to continue charging the prices they do.

Actually, it was $1406.

I thought I would be okay without the GPU. After all, I was buying into all of the Apple "hype" at the time. Then a couple of months after I had my MacBook (and had OS X crash on me a few times and had the DVD drive show signs of an early death) I saw an $800 notebook that had a 17" screen and a GeForce Go 7600. Thats what made me realize I had paid too much.

Sony's hardware (all of it, PS3 included) is vastly overpriced for what you get. They're just as guilty as Apple.

Dell, however, has better deals.

Not to mention just about everyone else and their brother sells a ~$1300 system with a GeForce 8600M GT equivalent or better.

Well, you can head over to Gateway now and, for $1049, pick up a 15.4" system with a 2.4GHz Penryn C2D, 3GB of RAM, Radeon HD 2600 512MB, 160GB HDD, HDMI output, etc.

Firewire? Well, as I explained before, USB speeds are dependent on the quality of the controller. If you're getting slow transfer rates from an Intel chipset then the controller in your external HDD is to blame.

Ease of use? No more than Vista.

LED screen? Again, no better than CCFL except in terms of life and instant on.

Multi-touch? You mean so I can use my two fingers to flip a picture instead of just clicking the button to do so which takes far less time and physical effort?

Hah! You're joking, right? Sure, the Mac Pro comes with fast processors.. Which are good for how many apps out there? All but a very small number of applications are still single threaded. And all but a few multi-threaded applications can only take advantage of TWO cores at a time.

So even if you drop it down to a Quad Core system, you're still paying $2,299 for that CPU, 2GB of RAM, 320GB HDD, ATI Radeon 2600! ONE DVD writer, no blu-ray, etc.

Give me $2,299 to spend on a PC and I'll get you an overclocked Core 2 Quad running at more than 3GHz, 8GB of RAM, 1TB of storage, dual GeForce 9000 series GPUs, blu-ray, etc.

I know, right?

Exactly.

Then why is a low end $199 19" CCFL lit Samsung or LG monitor brighter than those in the MacBook Pro?

Oh thats right, because it can be. LED is a good technology but people need to stop acting like its equal to the second coming in terms of greatness.

Yeah it will be great when all notebooks have LED backlights. But having a LED backlight doesn't automatically mean the screen is brighter, etc.

Chances are that a newer notebook with a newer display would have a brighter display regardless of the backlighting technology because companies like to do things like that. It's called improving upon products.

Because brand is important? Broadcom's wireless cards are terrible. Ask any PC notebook user that has an AMD platform. The reception is bad, the connections are unstable, etc. Apple used to use Atheros branded cards that worked fantastically. The wireless in my MacBook is better than my Intel Pro Wireless HP. But the wireless in my friend and his brother's MacBook Pros (powered by Broadcom) is a joke compared to what I get with my MacBook and HP.

I'm on my 4th Windows notebook with the finger scroll bar or whatever you want to call it. It's every bit as accurate as two finger scrolling on the Mac.

 

once again skipped his post. Lol, I just find it funny that he took all that time to write it and I havnt read a word.

 

I'm one hundred percent sure he's not writing for your benefit.

 

I would love to see your Review Circa. Been thinking about writing my own since I got my MBP 17".

 

No S$%T. I was one of the first people to buy the M15x from Alienware. Complete POS. Overheated and downclocked all the time. Looked so cheap for 4k. The screen wobbled when I typed. Had to send it to the repair depot twice. Second time it didn't come back. Alienware promised me a full refund. They still owe me $400. If you want an AW I would thin twice about it.

 

You're generalizing. I'm not. The 17" LED screen I'm using on this MBP is brighter than any CCFL screen I've ever had. I have a new Samsung desktop monitor that is not as bright as this laptop, and that Samsung made my last MBP CCFL screen seem positively dim.

There is no reason to argue this. If CCFL screens were all that, the industry would not be rushing to LED.

The increased color space and dynamic range are facts. Not bboard opinion.

The improvement you speak of is LED screens and it's called not dimming over time, which is what CCFL screens do.

You're being a bit of a Luddite about this, and, that's coming from someone who is a bit of a curmudgeon and a late adopter for the most part.

 

My 17" MBP is my first 17" laptop and first Mac. In the past, I've had Dells, Toshibas and Vaios from 13" to 15" screens. All of them had their advantages which I can only dream of having on my MBP (Like Harman Kardon speakers with a built-in sub, hdmi port, more usb plugs, no fears of third degree burns etc.).

But all of them have one HUGE disadvantage that made all of those bells and whistles null and void. They don't have Mac OSX

 

alright sour-man.

i totally agree with everything you say. you convinced me, and you aren't just a whiny little kid.

you totally win. in fact, you rock. and apple does sux0rz. and windows vista is the greatest OS ever... and i wish i hadn't bought this macbook pro... i paid 1799 for it like a year ago, and now, a year later it still only has the SAME parts inside it as when i bought it.

well, i upgraded the ram, but other than that, same gpu and processor and everything! how dare apple sell me a machine for 2 grand that doesn't morph into something better as time goes on?

seriously. the nerve of them.

but you aren't in any position to tell apple what they should or should not do with their business model. they aren't here to please just you.

i'll say that again.

apple inc. was not designed to please you.

other people? maybe. you? no. steve jobs didn't sit at his desk and pick a single person out of the phone book that is ultra nit picky about everything and say: "lets do EVERYTHING in our power to make sure that THIS person is happy"

if you dislike apple so much, sell your macbook. it retains its value better than most other laptops, so you should at least appreciate that. freaking sell it and buy something else, and don't buy apple products anymore. and STOP COMPLAINING. its beyond annoying. just stop. spare us.

 

I'm sure his posts are not for anyone's benefit. Especially the OP.

 

Lol, I know how you feel.. Sarumon or whatever guy is just one of those types that just probably cant afford a macbook pro and is just venting out on everyone.

This is why he could afford the macbook yet it wasnt a macbook pro. He's in a huge denial, even thinking that led backlit screens are inferior to the ccfl or equal to it.

If you want facts, I gave it to him on one of my long post about the differences of led and ccfl, even an idiot can google it and find out the perks of led. If you just dont believe it just go check it out for yourself.

It is THAT much brighter, crisper, cleaner, vivid, more color space than the traditional ccfl displays of other notebooks. If you compare the led screens to any ccfl cheap, s-pva, tn the led tn screen of the mbp or any other company like dell will look brighter, cleaner, vivid, more color space, crisper, not murky, etc...

I've have a 23" Apple cinema display and the 23" display does look better in the color gamut much wider than the 17" hi res mbp or any other notebook screen that I've seen and it can go brighter at full brightness than the 17" hi res screen or any other led screen that I owned, even the sony vaio Tz's led screen. But you have to understand those are S-IPS screens which have a much deeper and has a much more color gamut and are more accurate as well and all notebooks have TN panels (if this is what your referring to).

But the led screens on the notebook isnt too much dimmer than the external monitors at full brightness either and they wont dimm every year and will still be bright as day 1. But even though the external monitors have the higher gamut in color range, brighter at full brightness, it just doesnt look as "clean" or vivid" as what led backlighting gives you.

This is why samsung has the xl20, xl24, xl30(only S-IPS) screen in led. And why the samsung xl30 with the led backlighting is still $4599 today.

Just go out and look for yourself instead of reading other people who are in denial.

But I'm being very serious when I say that, yes Apple's notebooks are expensive but there are other notebooks out there that are more expensive like alienware. Yes I paid $3000 for my 17" hi res mbp which will last me for a decade or longer as I've seen friends who still use their powerbook g3 and still going strong. Especially the led backlit screen will help the mbp look much newer than before (I think the ccfl screens are the only things that will dimm so much in the future that will make the notebook look old, especially if you take good care of your notebook with sleeves). So led backlighting is a good thing. I was surprised someone mentioned their mx15 or something notebook costs $4000 and has no osx either!

But hey that's the person's money and even though I was shocked at the price that's what he wanted that's what you pay for.

There are people who see the price of the notebooks and they just turn away without being angry, but then there are people like sarumon (sorry still didnt really look at your sn), that wants a mbp deep inside but just dont want to pay that much/or afford it and starts to lash out at apple or hate apple.

All I can tell you right now is that if the 17" hi res mbp costs $1999, Sarumon would be in here praising the hell out of 17" mbp hi res and the led right now and raving about it non stop.

But hey, if the dell, ibm, gateway, emachines, $400-$800 notebook/desktop or whatever suites you fine, I say there's nothing wrong with it. You can still do the same things osx can do. I have another cousin that buys the cheapest laptop he can and just tries to squeeze and tweak out everything in windows to get the best performance out of it.

I mean in the $$ wise sense that's a good idea to save money. Sometimes I do feel at shock that my 17" hi res mbp cost me $3000 and I could have gotten a thinkpad or something for half the cost.. and I know I could do away with windows like I have the last 20 years.. but then in the long run I think the 17" hi res mbp is worth every penny and it will last me a good decade to come, maybe even longer.

Or better yet if I sell it in 3-4 years I can still manage to get around $1200 in good condition and use that towards a new 17" in the future.

 

OP didn't ask a question.

Although I didn't read the whole thread, I found SauronMOS' posts informative and has some good points.
Also from what I read, you have no idea what you are talking about just like many Apple "fans".

 

Oh, please you can shove it. I've been a pc enthusiast for 20 years I know what I'm talking about, just switched over to the apple side in 2005 dec.

I was a dell/ibm lover before the switch. One thing that bugs me is that people always complain about apple but then they never seem to bash alienware or dell xps just because its pc yet they cost more than the 17" hi res mbp.

And I know how people like sarumon is he will start saying things like at least for $4500 you get the highest end dual gpu card and blah blah, but then if you really think about it.. people ask apple users why they pay so much for mediocre hardware but you will get answers like the osx and features, blah blah.

But then the same could be said about xps or alienware.. like why would you pay almost $5k for just good gpu and dual hdd?? And they will say superior hardware and gaming. These reasons have the same meaning as the people who bought an apple laptop.

OSX ease of use, style, no virus, no maintenance required, high resale value vs. Pc's better hardware for future proofing for gaming, dual hdd for more space?

But honestly I always thought too that apple laptops and desktops were expensive, until I thought about alienware and dell xps laptops. I know you get better hardware but then you do have to plop down almost $1500 more from what the 17" mbp hi res mbp costs just to get better performance for gaming and a dual hdd..

I just think its much better if you buy a desktop and get a even better gpu + 4 internal desktop hdd speeds even the 10,000rpm raptor drives than to pay $2000 more to make it semi mobile.

Either way I buy apple laptops for the all around better experience not for gaming. I dont game on the pc side and this is why I buy apple laptops. I mean you can still do moderate gaming but its certainly not for hardcore gamers.

There are always going to be huge arguments on either side no matter what. Like people will say they build gaming rigs for $1500 yet you can buy an xbox 360 for like $200 or a ps3 for $400. Then the pc people will say mouse + keyboard is better than a controller and this is subjective as well and able to load mods up on some games like elders scroll oblivion and etc..

Dont get me wrong, I LOVE apple but I DONT hate dell, ibm, sony, alienware, etc.. I even bought a sony vaio tz just last year when it was released, IMHO the vaio tz was THE best ultra portable notebook I've ever owned (I owned the macbook air but returned it, didnt like it) and the best looking led screen I've ever looked at as well (even better than my 15" led mbp but not my 17" hi res honestly).

There is something going on called EFiX that might let osx original discs install natively in almost all pc laptops, if that ever happens I'd probably buy myself a dell m1330 I always thought those looked cool or an ibm thinkpad and install osx on those suckers.

But honestly I'd always own a mbp as my main machine but will look around for a 2nd machine from sony, dell, wherever if osx can be installed in the future. I would love osx running natively on a sony vaio tz (which I did with uphuck and I even kext edited my own drivers for it to work and it did work just fine, only function it had problems with were the sleep function.) It just wouldnt sleep but only the screen would go to sleep.

I just wrote a long post just like sarumon.

 

I bought the M1530 in my sig for $925+tax, similar specced MBP costs 2500$+tax, please don't even compare a Dell vs Apple in price.
It is running OS X perfectly, having OS X is not exclusive to Apple. Since you referred that you are using illegal software/movies etc earlier, you can't really argue with that. It even has better video performance under OS X, because it is not underclocked like MBP 8600M GT.
Overall, it is cheaper, has better performance, more integrated peripherals (card reader, fingerprint reader, HDMI/VGA/Svideo outputs), more options, better support (accidental care, at home service).

 

I've just spec'd up a dell 1530 to match exactly the $1999 mbp and came out to $1383 + tax would come up to $1497 + say $50 shipping would come up to $1547 total, not bad. But then you dont get the real full experience like the multitouch, 2 finger scroll (I know there is some alternative 3rd party thing you can install but not nearly as good as the real thing, I installed it on my vaio tz), 3 finger swipe on safari for back and foward (god send especially when you get used to the multitouch functions its just split seconds to do things and done very fast), and no backlit keyboard, and I think the camera wont work under osx for the dell, unless someone on the irc channel has made a driver for it and you would have to kext edit it yourself.

If I walk into the apple store right now I can get a studen discount and I would pay a total with tax $1947 and walk out with my macbook pro. The difference is $400 that you save but then your running uphuck or not the real osx. I know some people will say same thing, but to me its not the same thing. I'm sure the sleep function has some issues and not all 100% programs will run fine like the original.

Also not to mention everytime an new update comes out like say 10.5.4, you would have to d/l the next whatever your using and reinstall as well. And to get your wifi running I would assume you would have to buy a broadcomm internal wireless card for osx to pick it up as it wont for intel wireless (minor headache) I've been through it.

Also what I love about the original mbp with the original osx is that you just hit software update and when you do receive the next 10.5.x, you really feel the fixes unlike the windows service pack whatever feels pretty much the same everytime. I noticed that windows service packs are mainly needed to play some games.

If EFiX comes out and allows osx to be natively installed and sleep function works 100%, and all apps work 100% with at least the 2 finger scroll works like it was suppose to, I'd probably get one of those dell m1530 as well, better yet probably a sony vaio tz or a ibm thinkpad x series is even better.

Lol, underclocked under osx?? Do you have any proof?? If anything since and what I know to believe is that since your dell has the exact same hardware (gpu) as the mbp 256vram version of the nvidia 8600m gt card, it is clocked down automatically as well. There is no overclocking or setting it in anywhere in the efi system. That's why on my 17" hi res mbp I can overclock the gpu just like any other pc under windows vista/xp.

And my personal experience from running osx from the sony vaio tz and a dell desktop that I had.. it just doesnt feel the same, period.

One thing to note is that the dvd/cd write is not DL, I guess you would have to add the bluray player but at least with the mbp you can get the DL burner. Also I noticed that on your sig you have a 1680x1050 display on your dell m1530.. was that before the 1920x1200 took its place because I cant config it to that spec only the 1280x800, 1440x900 and the 1920x1200. If what I'm thinking is correct you ordered it a while back before the 1680x1050 was replaced by the 1920x1200 with the same pricing which is $225 more. So in actuality your machine cost $225 more on top of that $1547 making it $1800ish because more tax from the $225.

I'd say might as well just pay the $100 more and just pick up a 2.4Ghz mbp from the apple store and just walk out with it and you have higher resale value + the real thing with full functions and features with less headaches. Also if it was a while back when the m1530 was new and selling like hot cakes.. I'm pretty damned sure that the instant $150 savings wasnt even there like any other companies do it and you probably paid the same price as the 2.4Ghz macbook pro~

oh and you upgraded from the 160gb to the 200gb which the 160gb is standard which is another $200 on top!! So in actuality the dell m1530 cost about $200-$300 more than the 2.4Ghz mbp!!


So here's the actuality of the final pricing that matches your dell $1958 without the $150 instant savings or you even with it + tax and shipping cost a bit more than the 2.4Ghz mbp. I hate it when people try to lie.

 

ouch. dual layer burner is more useful than blu ray as far as im concerned.

seeing as a dl dvd is like a dollar and a blu ray disk has like 5x the capacity and 25x the cost...

but i guess thats probably specific to my needs, most people probably just watch dvd and blu ray movies, so i'm not going to complain for 3500 words in front of everyone, even though i could *cough cough*.

keep in mind that the 1999 macbook pro has a 200 student discount (1799), and a 300 dollar ipod touch with it.

so for 1799 you actually get the macbook pro and a free ipod touch. thats about 1500 for the macbook pro, 300 for the ipod touch.

the dell machine costs about 1500. gasp.

 

Heh you can't just configure a system in Dell website and expect to get what I bought it as, system you configured is not a good deal.
Try this:
http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=19&l=en&oc=DYDNHF1&s=dhs

I bought it with 925+tax with a different deal couple months ago. DVD-RW is dual layer.

I can use 2 finger scrolling with no problems in OS X, it is not a super secret Apple feature as Apple leads people to believe, any touchpad can do it.
Camera works out of box, works with Photobooth, iChat whatever.
Sleep works 100% already.
You don't need to reinstall your system after every update, thats ridiculous. With EFI emulators like PCEFI or Chameleon, it can run vanilla systems. My system is unmodified, including Apple kernel.
Some Intel wireless cards works, but mostly Atheros or Broadcom works out of box under OS X, Broadcom is what comes in newer MBPs anyway, you don't need to buy it separately, you can configure it right from Dell, it is even cheaper.
EFIX or whatever is unnecessary, only needed if you want to directly boot from OS X DVD.
Of course it is underclocked, it is inside a 1" thick aluminum case already running excessively hot, with insufficient ventilation. You can compare stats yourself:
http://www.barefeats.com/santarosa.html
http://www.nvidia.com/object/geforce_8600M.html

 

Actually the dell 1530 would cost you about the same price if you look at my previous post the screen shot is shown of the similar specs. $175 less to go to the 1440x900 screen but still comes out to $1633 + tax and $50 shipping which totals out to 1817 and no osx.. well I guess the osx without the full real experience and with no ipod either which like you mentioned you can sell it for $250 and with the $200 student discount.

 

I've seen that barefeats website before, I follow it all the time. That proves the speed in gaming of the gpu and the higher clocked 17" mbp in the windows side, well osx is higher clocked with the 17" as to the 15" mbp because it has a bigger and more efficient heatsink which is due to the hardware.

What I know in the osx86 community is that if you match the exact same hardware and in your case is the gpu, it will run exactly the same as the hardware in the original mbp.

Those links dont prove anything and actually makes it even worse on your explaination or trying to prove something. Also I dont buy that you paid $950 with some special little deal that you got that makes the dell m1530 (which has been out for quite a while now) and that clearly you've bought some time ago due to the non existing 1680x1050 option which was over taken by the 1920x1200 to be half less when it was even more popular?!?

That my friend clearly tells me your lieing and it makes absolute no sense, people at dell are no idiots or 3rd party vendors either (which would actually cost more).

 

Uh no GPU clocks are coded in the BIOS of the GPU, OS X doesn't change the clocks for whatever it wishes, the clocks you have in your GPU BIOS are what you run it as.
In Windows side, it doesn't matter too much as you can overclock easily, but I doubt MBP with its case can overclock much if any without meltdown.

 

Sigh.. you keep editing your posts.
You have no idea, but accuse people of lieing?! Dell discounted the 1680x1050 display, you can't configure with that anymore.

 

I edited my post because I added more to it, because your discount is just unbelievable.. so your saying the 1680x1050 display, which is better than the standard 1440x900 with everything else in the hardware is the same as today AND they would give it to you pretty much half the $$??

That doesnt make any sense. Usually the time to buy laptops after its been out for a while and especially the m1530 is right now that's why they give you that instant $150 off online.

 

i hope you aren't gaming in osx. a couple of mhz of clock speed on a gpu just don't matter that much in osx. if they did, people would have made overclocking programs like rivatuner and atitool for mac.

keep gaming to windows and consoles. notice that makes generally come with midrange gpu's... you can even get the mac pro with a pretty weak gpu. its there so that you aren't sucking away system memory and so that moderately gpu intensive tasks can be done. osx is not for gaming, and thats the only time a few mhz matters, and even then, only to the most extreme tech junkies.

 

Also keep in mind, I follow the osx86 community and you need the exact same hardware to match to run osx. For example the gpu of the nvidia 8600m gt card that's on the dell as to the 15" mbp with the 256vram mbp are the exact same hardware needed to run under osx or uphuck or whatever version your using on the pc side.

And it will run the hardware exactly the same as it would under the mbp. So generally speaking the nvidia 8600m gt with the 256mb vram gpu will be underclocked and run exactly the same as the gpu in the 15" mbp.

 

It might be so hard to believe for people who buy overpriced Apple computers but Dell has deals, you can get them much cheaper unlike Apple which screws customers with overpriced stuff all the time.

 

I am going to post this again, as you still have no idea what you are talking about:

Uh no GPU clocks are coded in the BIOS of the GPU, OS X doesn't change the clocks for whatever it wishes, the clocks you have in your GPU BIOS are what you run it as.

Whether you game or not, all the effects and rendering etc you see in OS X use technologies that take benefit from faster GPU, faster GPU means more performance for other applications not only games.

 

I know about the coupons that dell gives out somewhat of the month of the year. But I doubt it would be half price off, if anything I've seen plenty of desktop xps systems get 10%-20% off at best and especially the dell monitors that go up to 30%-40% off. I look around the forums too where people post the dell deals of the month but I've yet to come to any m1330 or m1530 that are even at more than $200 off.

I've seen the instant $200 off coupon code for the m1530.. but that was before the now instant $150 savings was online.

 

I just posted on the last page an instant 600$ off. Thats not even EPP, you can get much better deals off EPP, plus you can even get % off from using DPA.

 

You mean the EPP or the DPA trick that gets you about 4%-8% off?

 

right now you can buy the $1999 mbp with $200 off student discount and comes up to $1947 with tax included + an ipod that you can sell for $250 and you get the real osx with 100% functionality and features and you can take it home with you right there and then.

 

It is not a trick, they are legit deals from Dell. I have seen 800$ off + near 20% off with EPP and DPA. If you look for it, Dell will be much much better value than Apple.

It is still overpriced and underfeatured compared to M1530, plus you need to spend $300 for iPod upfront which costs even more tax and wait for rebate. With Dell you get HDMI and VGA output, fingerprint reader, card reader, high res display option, extra USB port, accidental warranty, and at home service (which is VERY big deal as I don't have an Apple store nearby), hell you even get a remote with Dell not anymore with MBP, plus many things I am probably forgetting right now.

 

Honestly, I'm kinda surprised this thread is still going on.

You have a couple of people who just keep posting the same still that everyone says the MBP is missing.

Are you trying to convince everyone who bought an apple computer, that they bought a dud and should return it?

I'm sure the people who decided to buy one just to test it out, have returned them, and usually theyre pretty upset about them.

But I think one of the reasons why apple users like their laptops as much as they do, is because theyre good computers and if people just wanna say lotsa stuff about them, then theyd wanna reply.

I dont regret buying my MBP, its been everything I wanted in a pc. Sure its missing a few things, but honestly I dont need them, and but I've found ways to live with them.

But uhh, whatever, is this thread still gonna go in the direction its going in? It was originally about how the OP liked his MBP and now its going into the classic mac vs pc debate.

 

Anyone who believes that all LED screens are brighter than all CCFL screens should go look at the Asus Eee 701.

 

Since this thread is getting out of hand and turning into a flamefest, it is now closed.

-kdawgca
NBR Mod