Using a Windows Machine on a "Mac Campus"?

I'm going to college next year and I'm looking at my options for laptops. My school is a mostly "mac Campus" in that nearly 80% of the students have MB/MBP and the faculty has iMacs/whatever other desktop apple makes. They provide all of their software in both Mac and Windows format (XP/Vista), but I'm wondering if I might run into issues if I get a Windows machine over a MB/MBP. Will there be file incompatibilities (for example, if a professor uses some Mac only program to create a presentation, then I won't be able to access it?) Are there any other issues I might run into?

I ask this mainly because while I do like the MBP, I can get a much better equipped HP for a lower price.

Macbook Pro (15/17")
C2D 2.5 Ghz
4GB RAM
Geforce 8600m GT 512MB
1440x800 (15 in) or 1920x1200 (17 in) matte LED LCD
Mac OS X
200GB 7200RPM HD
Price: $2900 for 15 in or $3200 for 17 in (school discount)

HP 8710W
C2D 2.5 Ghz
4GB RAM
Geforce Quaddro FX 1600M 512MB (significant increase in performance over the 8600)
1920x1200 matte LCD
160GB 7200RPM HD
Windows Vista Business or XP Pro
Price: $2500 with their special 18% discount until May 31

The HP is faster, better built (business level notebook), looks better to me (although I also like the MBP design), and is cheaper. So, if I wouldn't have any issues with a mostly Mac campus, I would definitely go for the HP.

 

have you considered ibm or sager?

 

From my experiences, most of the slides/lecture notes are formatted to pdf or powerpoint [req. powerpoint viewer(free) or microsoft powerpoint]. So, a mac isn't really necessary unless you want to conform.

 

Lenovo doesn't really have a powerful GPU (I'm a gamer [I know I won't be doing as much in college, but I still want decent FPS for the times I will be] and the FX1600M is much better than the 360M). Sager doesn't really have that great battery life although the specs are awesome. The HP has very good battery life .

Also, my school isn't on Lenovo's student discount list so I'd have to pay full price (wish I had the discount, it's 25%!)


Hmmm, I just priced out a T61P and it only came to $2100, even without a discount. That's very tempting for the price...

 

And just FYI, the FX 570M is pretty much the same card as the 8600M GT, from what I've read. So gaming performance would probably be similar (especially if you got optimized drivers).

 

Hmmm, I checked out some benchmarks from notebookcheck.com and it seems you're right, the fx 570m actually seems like it beats the 8600M GT in a few tests. However, the HP still seems like an awesome deal for the hardware I'd be getting.

Nobody has answered my original question though.

 

sager gets excellent battery life. i'm not sure how it compares to the two models you've listed though. i'm sure it's very comparable. not a whole bunch of consumer notebooks get alot better battery life. i just recommended the sager because you can do alot better on price than the models and price you've listed.

i personally didn't answer your question because i have very little experience with mac's though they usually have good feedback. i also personally despise HP because of personal experience and their tech support. alot of people that have dealt with their tech support will agree. but on the other hand, HP's business models have good build quality usually and the feedback on nbr has been pretty good about their line.

for the money you're willing to pay, you could get a decked out 5793 and a couple batteries since the battery life won't be optimal with an 8800m gtx. but i also understand that to get 6 hours battery life or so, not many people want to change a battery out 3 or 4 times and have to keep up with charging them all the time.

 

I wouldn't worry about file compatibility, they're pretty interchangeable. PDFs, PowerPoint presentations, Photoshop Documents, Word Documents, etc. are all cross-OS compatible. Most likely, even though they are on Mac, the professors will be accepting and creating files using Microsoft Office for Mac anyway, so it is completely compatible with Windows.

 

What college posts statistics like "80% of our staff and students use Macs"?

If your professors are cranking out files that are only usable on proprietary Mac applications.. get the heck out of there.

 

What makes windows any better to crank out proprietary files?

The only problems you might face are if a professor is using iWork as opposed to Office. It's more likely, though, that the school has Office installed over iWork so I wouldn't worry about it if I were you. If on the the off chance they do have iWork, you'd just have to make sure the professor exports files to ppt or pdf(which they shouldn't really say no to), or go to a computer lab that has iWork and export the slides/documents into Office compatible files.

Short answer, you have nothing to worry about either way you go.

 

you said they provide all of their software for windows and mac, so i guess you should be alright.

 

I never thought about just using the Macs they have in the computer lab if I run into issues. Stupid me. I think I'll be going with a Windows machine then since I can get better parts for way less.

 

you can get a mac and have your money go a LOT further.

Get the cheapest macbook pro 15" (1799) and upgrade to 4 GB of ram YOURSELF from newegg.com ($60)

and if you wait a bit longer, apple usually has some sort of "free ipod with mac purchase" promotion going on by mid summer for the back to school crowd.

get the apple care warranty with your money ($250?)...

that still saves you almost 1000$... buy a ps3 and a big screen TV... or sell the free ipod and buy an iphone and you'll still be up quite a bit of cash.

good luck.

 

After a lot more research, I decided to drop the HP because of its size. When I realized just how big a 17 inch laptop was going to be, I laughed at myself for even considering it for college. And after further research into 15 inch notebooks, I came down to the XPS 1530 vs. MBP(only ones which met one of my most important criteria, battery life). The breaking point was very simple: screen options. The XPS doesn't have a matte screen option while the MBP does. The MBP is much more expensive but price isn't that much of an issue especially when my old budget was $3000+. I think I'll wait until the back to school deals show up (and that rumored update?) before I purchase one, although it is SO tempting to get one right now. I'm limping along with an AMD 2500+, 1.5 GB RAM, IDE (YES, IDE!) HD, 6800 Ultra, and Windows XP. It works fine for everything except my games and looking at things like 3dmark scores, these new laptops outscore me by atleast 3-4000 points and in games the FPS difference is amazing. Oh well, I can survive with this for a little longer if I can get some good deals on the MBP.

 

if you're worried about battery life also, you should definitely consider a sager2092. the xps1530 has gddr3 ram as opposed to the 2092's ddr2 but they're comparable otherwise and the 2092 has better battery life and tech support whups dell's butt. and you can get a 2092 cheaper than both options.

 

Let's try to keep this to discussion about a Windows machine on a mostly Mac campus. If the OP wants to discuss his options for notebooks he can create a thread in the What Notebook I Should Buy forum.

 

I'm glad my uni distributes all work in pdf form, makes my options much less restricted.

 

You know you would think so! I had a .pdf that I needed to print at school the other day and I swear, I tried 3 different labs. One had Reader on it, but would only print blank pages. Two others did not even have Reader. I finally was able to get over to one of the Math Labs with Mac Minis and was able to print.

 

Just FYI, the MBP gets 4-5 hours (mine only get about 2 due to the battery having died out already, but that's another story...) With the 9-cell battery, the XPS 1530 gets around 3.5-4 hours of battery life.

All three computers (these two and the NP2092) use the 8600M GT card - as was previously stated, both the XPS and the MBP use GDDR3 memory.

The MBP is the only one with a matte option, though both others have higher resolution options.

 

I had this problem. I was look at alternatives to the MBP and found my Asus M50 with an identical CPY plus a way better GPU and the price was about a thousand dollar cheaper. But if you're just going to use your computer for basic word processing and stuff then you won't need an MBP. A regular MB would be more than necessary.

Anyway, Bootcamp is there if you want to have the option to work in either Mac or Windows environment.

 

To get back to the OP's first topic, yes, you'll be fine either way you go as far as the essentials are concerned. Most common formats used in universities today won't have a problem regardless if you're running OSX or Windows.

To throw in my $.02, you might also take another look at the T61p. It has a matte LCD, and probably most of the other options you might need. The 570M is also more or less equivalent with the fastest 8600m's out there and the battery life isn't shabby for the performance you get either.