I'm considering returning my m1330 for a macbook.

I'm mostly starting this thread because I think that typing this out for myself will help me to make my decision, plus all of your comments are very welcome. I'm going to college next year and I need a reliable yet fast computer to get me through at least 4 years, and hopefully another 4 years of dental school Sorry about the long post, but I would appreciate it if you bare with me and possibly give me some advice.

First of all, I'm not all that impressed with my m1330. Most of the features on it are nice, but I'm not so sure that it was worth the $2000 price tag that it came with partly because I'm not so sure I really need it to be that nice. I'm probably not going to be doing any gaming and I will be using this laptop for writing essays, taking notes, and doing research such for college and will be doing any gaming on my xbox 360. So, I don't think I'll really have much use for the dedicated graphics card.

I'm considering returning the $2000 m1330 (2.4 gHz, 4 GB memory, 200 GB @ 7200 RPM, LED display) for a cheaper (and lower spec'd) macbook for $1199 through my college (2.4 gHz, 2 GB memory, etc.). Also, I don't really care all that much for windows vista, it just seems very hectic and disorganized compared to XP, and from what I've been told OS X is an awesome operating system.

I also want a portable computer that will be easy to bring to class and transport in a backpack. The extra pound of weight on the macbook doesn't seem like that big of a deal since it had about the same dimensions (a little bit smaller?). Also, I think I like the look of the macbook a little bit more.

I'm worried, however, that I might run into problems with X being compatible with everything I will need to do in college. I'm going to be a Biology and Spanish double major. So as far as I know all I'll really be doing is word processing so I shouldn't have any problems just using iWork, right?

I feel that the macbook will last longer than the m1330 due in part to the vista operating system and the tendency of dell's products to not last so long and be less reliable. I have already encountered several problems and annoyances with my m1330 and I am afraid that there will be many more to come. I DEFINATELY do not want to be in the putting the finishing touches on huge paper that is due the next for one of my classes and then lose it all as my laptop crashes causing me to fail a class and resulting in my not getting into a decent dental school.

I like to "Hope for the best, yet plan for the worst".

Also, if I decide to return the m1330, theres always the possibility that dell will fail to credit my account and I may lose the $2000 altogether. However, if my account does get credited, I plan to put that $2000 towards a $1199 macbook, a 500 GB $300 Time Capsule, and $600 Vizio VX32L. This is because I will need a nice tv for my dorm room and one that will be big enough to be useful in the future, and with the Time Capsule I won't have to worry about losing any important documents that could ruin my life, and I still will not be spending much more than $2000.

Do you all think that this would be too much of a downgrade, or see any problems with my possibility of returning?

Thanks in advance.

 

How long ago did you buy it? Are you within your 21 days?
I think there is a 15% restock fee if you aren't.

 

Yup, I am. It's been 2 weeks as of today.

My Dad hates all previous mac operating systems and seems to be very set in his ways even though he has never used Leopard, and he is the one paying for it, so I'm not sure he will allow me to purchase a mac. However, having done the research I feel that it would be in my best interest. This way I will also not be tempted to play any computer games while I should be doing homework. It may take some time convincing him though.

Any other advice?

 

What are you planning on majoring in? If it's science or engineering, stick with a PC.

 

Well that's a matter of opinion so here is mine, Vista is awesome! So you've been told something else so it should cancel out your OS X endorsement.

How have you come to this conclusion? In 30 years of using computers I have only had a HDD die on me twice and that wasn't on a Dell. Also, if you manage your data properly and keep up to date backups it won't matter if it does. By the way, what's the difference between a Mac HDD and a Dell HDD? Nothing IMO and they both have just as much chance to break down.

My advice is keep the Dell if you have a good warranty deal and revisit the question in 3 years time. That’s how long computers are designed to last, not 8 years.

 

Where did you get the idea that Macbooks are reliable? They're no more reliable than a PC laptop in my experience. I work in IT and fix lots of different kinds of laptops and I wouldn't say any brand is more reliable overall than another.

On a side note, as a college student I've found that I don't use my personal laptop all that much. Most universities have lots of computer labs with nice desktops that are kept up to speed.

 

A Dell M1330 for a Macbook? Not a good idea. Apple does not make reliable notebooks and a lot of the software in the market today will not work, considering that Apple uses a different OS!

 

First, I've used pretty much every operating system there is out there, and I've seen others switch between operating systems. Do not be fooled into thinking that it will be easy to learn OS X if you have not touched it previously. Doing basic things will be simple enough to learn, but from what I've seen users get fairly frustrated in the beginning with little differences here and there. There is a feeling of helplessness when you're figuring out how to do some of those things that were so easy previously, learning or finding new apps because the ones you're used to don't run.

Those who do switch do so in steps. They'll use the new OS for a week or so, until they find something that takes work to figure out, then they'll switch back. Then they'll try the new one out again and get further, then switch back, several times until they get comfortable enough with the new one to plow through any issues that arise.

You can dual boot Xp or Vista, but the converts I know who bought macs with the intention of dual booting ended up not using OS X at all. At that point you have to ask yourself why you are paying extra for the Mac. If you look at apple forums, you'll see they're as littered with product problems as this site is. Not only that, but when there are major problems that surface on a mass scale, it's been documented that Apple has simply deleted the threads regarding them, as if to cover up any widespread issues.

The M1330 can be had similarly equipped for around $1200, so I find it a bit disingenuous that you're portraying the macbook as the cheaper alternative. I think you'll be surprised at how much the larger, heavier macbook weighs you down now that you've toted around a ~4 pound, thinner notebook for awhile.

Also, I find your Windows reliability concerns odd, as most of the corporate world runs Windows. If it were really unreliable, they'd be defecting in droves (and they're not). The key here is how you treat your software. Corporate environments control what users can and cannot do on their systems, which is the primary reason that it works out so well and four or five guys can manage a few thousand desktops. If you look for 'hackz and warez' and sites that offer free feature length movie downloads of films still in theaters, and don't know the difference between an email from a friend and a link to a trojan horse installer then you're going to have issues with windows, because by default it trusts the user more than other systems. On Vista, which trusts users less, users disable the security featues (UAC) because they're 'annoying'.

From my perspective, it sounds like you've already made up your mind, and that's fine. Mainly because of the 'mac is cheaper than my optioned-out XPS' point of view and your apparent distrust of windows. I just felt like voicing my warnings, and I hope you don't take them personally.

 

Yeah plus the M1330 is a lil smaller..what you might wanna do...Is send your M1330 back and get a less configured one..drop the processor down and the ram and everything you can pry get a good one for less than the price of a macbook...then buy your tv as well...Macbook = most overrated laptop ever...M1330 = most underrated...

 

Well according to my Dad, people my dad works with and other people I have spoken with who have owned Dell's "Home & Home Office" laptops, they are not nearly as reliable as their "Business" laptops. They tend to crash much more often and have many more issues. This in addition to Vista doesn't seem like the best formula for a reliable computer. However, I don't really want to venture into the "Business" laptop world.

To give an car analogy. I feel like Dell "Home & Home Office" laptops are the Ford of 5 years ago, while "Business" is more like the Toyota or Honda of 5 years ago (Despite both laptops being from American countries).

I feel like most of my purchases have been from reliable companies with products that rarely break down or have issues. I'm afraid that by going with Dell I'm stepping outside of my normal boundaries and venturing into unknown territory.

I purchased the 4 years warranty on the m1330 and the LoJack support. However even with this warranty, I may be required to send my laptop back to dell, meaning I am not only without all of the information on my laptop, but a laptop to work on for who knows how many weeks or months. With the macbook, I would be able to schedule an appointment at an Apple store that is located basically on campus and have them fix it in a shorter amount of time.

For some reason I don't mind settling for the cheaper and lower spec'd macbook (although not by that much) as opposed to my nicely equipped m1330. However, there is no way that I would return my m1330 for a lower spec'd m1300, it's just not gonna happen.

 

Yeah We need to eliminate all these windows haters...Can someone make like a super amazing badass virus that deletes the harddrives of all macbooks...Then they can stop telling me about how they wont get viruses and I will..even though I wont cause IM not an idiot

 

I think it's smart to buy more computer than you think you'll need, especially if you intend to hold onto your laptop for the length of time you've indicated. If you think Macs are more reliable than Dells, you should spend some time on the Mac forums. You'll see a good number of hardware complaints and even (hard to believe) the Mac OS X equivalent of the BSOD. I think Macs have nice looking designs, but the components are manufactured by the same vendors that sell to Dell, HP, etc. I bought and returned 2 Macbook Pros last summer due to really poor LCD panels. On the other hand, I'm really happy with my Dell M1530. I've had two Thinkpads and two Dells and both have been very reliable.

 

You're going to get a lot of Pro-PC responses since you wrote this in the Dell forum. You're responses would be the complete opposite if you wrote it in the Apple one. Having said that, I think you should trade it in and save the cash. OSX is great and a lot better than vista. It has equal stability as XP but just prettier. For what you're going to be doing in school any computer would be ok. I've been there and the most advanced thing i had to do with my computer was powerpoint. If you absolutely had to use Office for some reason you could just do it in Fusion or parallels.

The build quality of Apple is excellent but the warranty sucks compared to Dell because they lack an accidental damage policy. If you're going to be taking your computer to class then I may suggest just sticking with the 1330 and getting completecare if you don't have it already. You're guaranteed to at least almost drop your computer once in 4 years if you walk around with it and paying to get it fixed can be ridiculous. (I'm 95% sure you'll end up not taking it to class till med/dental school. You're also asking to get it stolen/knocked in lab. Even in med school the few people do it just go check their e-mail while the professor is talking, not to actually use it. actually next yrs first year class has to buy tablets from the school so yours may do something similar when you get there. )

Plus, depending on where you go to school hipsters and chicks dig macs jk.

 

Both PCs and Macs are Microcomputers. With Macs using Intel processors and chipsets, there are no significant hardware differences between PCs and Macs. You can almost run any OSs and then the applications available for that OS on both PCs and Macs.

Marketing, Brand, Bandwagon & Hype has skewed a lot of things and resulted in we not being able to see things as they are without putting an effort. That said, let me tell you that both Macs and PCs have their places and one isn't necessarily better than the other.

A person who uses Dell notebooks will most likely feel Dell notebook is the way to go where as a person who uses Apple notebooks will most likely feel Apple notebook is the way to go. Who is right? Hope you got the point.

 

Home and home office line is an inspiron, and it's true that the business models are tanks, we have a lot of them at work. I'd place the XPS up with the business models, it's not anything like an inspiron. If you look at the business links on Dell, you'll notice that they market Latitudes, Vostros and XPS to businesses.

Crashing generally doesn't concern hardware (sometimes it does, but in these cases you've got the same internals, an intel x3100 video chip driver in an inspiron is no more likely to cause a crash than an intel x3100 in any other system) so I'd say that's false. What may be the culprit is that as I mentioned before, businesses take care of their environments better and do a better job at keeping crapware off of the systems.

 

You should see if you actually like Mac OSX. Two of my room mates have Macbooks and they hate them (one plays games and has switched his macbook to Windows, the other doesn't like how everything is incompatible). Stuff like iLife may make OSX seem so much cooler, but would you actually use it?

 

Of course I don't take any of this personally at all, and I greatly value your opinion and appreciate that you have taken your time to assist me (you seem like a very sagacious person when it comes to computers). I was hoping someone would give me an in depth answer like yours.

Another thing that makes me want to switch to OS X is PC Mag's recent "OS Wars" in which the new mac OS comes in first with vista trailing far behind.
Also, I will have all summer of no school-work to become accustomed to OS X, if you think this would be a major issue.

I don't know why I feel this way, but I just can't imagine downgrading my m1330 to a cheaper m1330. While completely switching to another laptop such as a macbook doesn't seem like such a bad thing especially since an m1330 is more expensive than an equally equipped macbook.

Also, which of the two operating systems do you believe is best, especially for a college student majoring in biology and spanish?

Feel free to completely tear apart all of my reasons for switching to a macbook, as they are completely welcome.

 

Well, if you're interested in OS X then that may be reason enough to go for the Mac right there. How can anyone say that you might not like it or enjoy using it? If you don't get used to it or find it too limiting (i.e. your printer doesn't have drivers or application Y doesn't work) you can always dual boot for the cost of OEM windows (~$100).

Specific to your major, I'm not sure about biology but in science/math related studies there can often times be specific software that needs to be run, like circuitmaker student edition for EE classes. These for the majority are windows. Not at all an issue if you don't mind buying a Mac to dual boot.

On a personal note, one of the problems I have with getting used to OS X is that while I find it interesting, wanting to use it locks you into buying from a specific vendor, and that just rubs me the wrong way, especially since the hardware is the same and they're intentionally locking the OS down to only run on the stuff they make. I've got no aversion to OS X itself.

Can you say that you'd be fine with buying the Mac and only running windows on it? Perhaps that's a good barometer, even if it's remote in your circumstances. If that idea makes you think of shopping around a bit more then you might want to do exactly that and rethink things. If on the other hand that doesn't bother you in the least, then I'd say go for it.

 

The reason a macbook sounds so good is because it is something different.

Btw, if you are given any software for school (i know my chem and physics classes had some) they dont run on a mac so you would need to dual boot it to xp. But you could dual boot or only boot to xp if you wanted on your m1330 also. If you dont like vista, which i advise against, you could switch to xp.

BTW, vista is better for a student that xp is. The business edition, which i have, use, and love (it took a little while but i do love it now) has a backup feature automatically built in to it. It easily recovers even deleted files even after you empty the trash.

 

As a former undergrad and grad student, (in my experience) if you're not a music or arts student, all programs that you're going to be using are going to be windows based. If you're worried about losing your homework assignments due to a crash, I would suggest using a USB jump drive. Also from my personal experience, most university computer labs are windows based. From the sound of your post, its sounds like you've already made up your mind to go with a mac. I personally have no experience using them, but I know plenty of die hard mac fans. At one point I considered purchasing a Mac desktop, but there lack of customer service made me decide to go with a XPS 1730 which I use as a desktop replacement. Good luck with your decision no matter what direction you go in.

 

Actually, I'm thinking that I'll just stick with the m1330. I'm gonna bring my trusty old Dell Dimension 5100 w/ me in case anything happens to my m1330.

Would you all recommend installing XP and dropping Vista?

 

If you have support for your laptop, I'd recommend making sure Dell will support issues with XP. My guess is that they've spent most of their time making sure that the hardware set works with the OS that comes with it. You probably won't have a lot of problem getting XP going and running it day-to-day, but you want to make sure that if you do, Dell will help you out with them. Otherwise you'll end up here hoping someone can help.

I'll stick with vista until I have issues that I think going to XP will fix. Service pack 1 is right around the corner. Maybe dual boot linux. I might put XP in a VM as well if I need it for only minor use.

 

I'm a big fan of Windows XP since I ran it for over 4 years on my Dell Dimension 8200 and never experienced one system crash (BSOD). I however have personally seen a few BSOD crashes on Windows Vista. I have Windows Vista Ultimate, and I think its got a lot of potential. Microsoft just needs to work out a few kinks and bugs before its at XP reliability.

 

I've also had great results with XP. This is my first Vista machine. I'm running Ultimate. So far, I actually like Vista. It's taken some getting used to, but programs load very quickly and it's been stable so far. The XPS machines have enough horsepower to run Vista very well.

 

I currently have Ubuntu Linux, OS X 10.4,and Vista machines. As others have pointed out, don't believe the marketing hype from anyone.

One of my co-workers was trying to convince me to go Apple some time ago; he showed me his MacBook, which he'd had to send back "only three times" because of a dying screen. "Luckily, I have Apple Care!" And it "only" had four cracks in various areas around the case (MacBooks seem to have some sort of cracking issue). Nevertheless, he LOVED the piece of crap! My sister's iMac hard drive? Dead within its first year. More reliable? Maybe; they might not agree. I've had good luck with the hardware, but the software? Don't even get me started. "It just works?" I don't think so. Try waiting almost a minute to switch between yours and your wife's user accounts just to fire up Firefox (which then takes another 45 secs to launch!) Ugh!

The computer rags have been having a field day beating Vista down. PC Magazine loathes it. They rave about Ubuntu Linux, on the other hand. "It's easy!" "It's popularity is spreading like wild-fire!" "Watch out, Vista!" Uh huh. Yes, it's nice...and free! But if you think Macs have a lot of software compatibility issues, wait till you see Linux. Oh, and then there's driver support (or lack of). And you have to learn catchy little words like "sudo" and "gzip," and "wget."

And then there's Windows, which you've undoubtedly had plenty of experience with.

My point? I think you're smart to ask people's opinions as to what may be best for your needs, since many people on this forum have gone through whay you're about to. But don't make any decisions based purely on marketing claims. The truth is, all manufacturers have good and bad products; all OS's have good and bad qualities.

 

I got my hands on a Vista Ultimate-license (actually I kind of traded it for an XP-license just to "check it out" for a few weeks) last september, and figured I'd throw it in my desktop. I was more than skeptical with it, having read all the horror stories of how slowly it works or how it crashes every 5 minutes.. but when I had been using it for two weeks and actually hadn't faced any of the problems that it had been blamed for, I switched to it for good. I paid my friend a little extra to make up for the price difference in XP and Vista licenses, and now I've been running it for the past half a year without any problems. It boots up pretty darn quick (<40 seconds) and programs load up at least as fast as I'd expect them to in XP.

My point is, that all the dirt that's being thrown on Vista isn't just realistic. I'm not saying Vista is perfect, in fact it's far from that, but when used on an up-to-date computer it's just nice. It has better security- and backuping features than those of XP. Sure, if you install it on a 4-year-old computer with incompatible hardware, you're in trouble, but why would anyone do that?

I also have a friend that is almost fanatic about Apple and pretty much every product they make. I've been planning on a new laptop for a while now and you can guess what he proposed: MacBook of course. First I said to him "95% of the software I use is only available for Windows, so it's a no. Thanks but no thanks, buddy", and he responded "Well you can also install Windows on it and run software using this parallel desktop thing..". He also told me that I could either emulate Windows-environment (or this is how I understood it) or actually boot directly to Windows. It sounded good for a while, but when I came to think of it, it didn't make any sense. Why would I buy a MacBook just to install Windows on it? 95% of my use would be work or at least school-related, and most of that in Windows. I really don't see what's the point in having OS X if I only use it for some trivial tasks and when I need to work for real, I should boot into Windows and do my stuff there. Why can't I just stick with Windows in the first place?

And atleast in Finland, MacBook only has one year of warranty and the extra two years cost 330 euros or so. Yes, you heard it right: +35% extra just to get a decent warranty on it. So with around 1300 euros I could either pick:

a) XPS M1330 with WLED-backlit display, T8300, 3GB's of memory, 3 years of warranty, 250GB's of hard-drive and a X3100 with Windows Vista Premium

OR

b) MacBook with normal display, T8100, 1GB of memory, 3 years of warranty, 120 GB's of hard-drive, X3100 with OS X.

That's one big slice in the specs just to get OS X on your computer. And, on top of that, Apple actually overweighs the Dell. That being said, I can't imagine any reasonable arguments to actually not go for the M1330 in my case.

Ask yourself: do you need OS X? Can you actually run all the programs you need in it?

Damnit, seems like my post turned into one big, long rant.. Sorry about that, but I hope you can find the point I'm making here. And no, I'm not sure if I'm even going for the M1330 since LG P300 tries to sneak even more money out of my pockets.

Edit: Sorry about the strange gammatical tense in the first paragraph.. very hard to read. My english isn't solid.

 

It's 2008 and I still have my dell 1000.....if this bucket can last anything can with the right care

 

I don't know about Macbooks....but all I can say is that I have an Inspiron 8500 and it has been running 24/7 since summer of 2003 and I have NEVER had a singl e issue with it.

it has been bulletproof....so far.....but if it dies after 5yrs i wont be toooo sad, i will be happy about the flawless service that it has given me.

i am currently trying to finalise the spec on a m1330 that i will buy in the next few weeks.

i'd stay with dell.....cos if the macbook is as reliable as the ipod.......

 

Let me just tell you that you're putting way too much thought into your computing situation.

I was like you when I first went to college--spent $1800 on a decked-out Thinkpad, dropped $800 on a twenty inch monitor, bought nice speakers and wireless keyboard+mouse, and brought an older desktop along with me. What a waste. Once you get there and set up in your dorm you're going to find that all that cludder is just obnoxious. You'll also probably find that the computer labs on campus are awesome--the ones at mine are frequently updated and loaded with all the software you'd ever want to use.

Keep Vista and forget about bringing the desktop. Trust me, once you get to school, your computer will be the last thing you're thinking about. Especially for the first few months in the dorms, it's awesome