Mac or PC?

[Tech_Dude_5000]

hey all, I need help on decieding on a new computer. I use the computer for almost everything, I'm a junior in high school so i use Office 2003 pro. for all my reports and stuff. I like to browse the internet, take pictures and upload them to my hard drive. I have been thinking about doing some movie making. Not a gamer though. I'm stuck between the HP dv9000t series and a mac. I'd like for it to be a laptop. I like HP's fresh new look, and its slim design. but the macbook and macbook pro's seem to be realy nice. The only thing I hate is i like the seprate number pad. Mac's don't have them on the laptops. Do they make seprate number pads that hook up via USB for mac? Also I want to be able to run vista when it comes out in January. I know the HP series can run it, but what mac series can and under what config.?

With mac, I like the way its all just the basics. Now I hate basics when it comes to other things, but with an OS/computer. thats what I like. I like the iSigh camera, the slim and thin design, power cord, even mac OSX looks darn good.

so basicily the run down is: what choice would be best for me. If I chose a Mac, would some of the mac drivers work through boot camp when i run XP or vista? ( and I'm talking about the final verson, not beta/RC )

Also, the HP one I'm aiming at is the HP dv9060us model, whitch in my aera is around $2200 but with rebates they drop down to about $2000. so with the specs in the HP dv9060us model and specs in a mac, whitch one would be best for me?

[Digitalx]

ah the million dollar question

[h3xis]

I'm not trolling when I say this because I feel that I have enough experience to make this statement but ANYTHING is better than an HP. In this case, go for the Mac.

[blade1269]

hey,

intel mac

[+virtorio MVC]

I'd take the Mac.

[Bonk]

correct me if im wrong but from my understanding, windows vista isn't supported under a mac? i don't own a mac nor do i have experiences with an hp product but lets hope the next guy might give you a better insight to which is best for you, good luck.

[Rudy]

mac

[5Horizons]

I think you should try both of them out. Either check them out in stores or find friends with the models you're interested in.

The Mac vs. PC debate has been done enough times on these forums; you can search if you want. The only specific bit you posted was that you use Office 2003 pro a lot, which means if you use any Office 2003-specific features you're going to at least need to plan on installing Windows via bootcamp if you get a Mac.

The HP actually looks like a really nice computer, but compare the specs and see which one will get you the most bang for your buck. Well anyway, hope my post helped, instead of just telling you what to get...

correct me if im wrong but from my understanding, windows vista isn't supported under a mac?

Vista works fine on both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

[Tech_Dude_5000]

I forgot to mention my curent laptop is back at HP, HD died :pinch: . So in a few weeks I should be geting it back. and I was thinking of selling it, and geting a more powerfull one. You may think I want the latest and fastst, whitch is true, butr I also want a great notebook that I will be happy with for a while.

If I do chose a Mac, I'll also do vista via boot camp. ( I'm sure they will surport it, if not in tigar, the in leopard ) I just want to make sure theres no small or large hicupps. I don't know if I asked this, but Runs that are running macs with XP via boot camp. Do all ( if not most ) mac drivers work while in XP mode? perferbly the iSight camera. I also want to know if there are mac compatible number keypads. I have to have a keypad ( well I don't have to, but I'm so used to it, that I fell its incomplete with out it ;) ) or will apple ever add them to the laptops?

I'm not that munch in a hurry, and rather wait to see what products are comming out at CES '07.because some come out rightway, and some don't even come out till late in the year.

Sorry for the questions, but a major jump like this requres questions ;)

I think you should try both of them out. Either check them out in stores or find friends with the models you're interested in.

The Mac vs. PC debate has been done enough times on these forums; you can search if you want. The only specific bit you posted was that you use Office 2003 pro a lot, which means if you use any Office 2003-specific features you're going to at least need to plan on installing Windows via bootcamp if you get a Mac.

The HP actually looks like a really nice computer, but compare the specs and see which one will get you the most bang for your buck. Well anyway, hope my post helped, instead of just telling you what to get...

Vista works fine on both the MacBook and MacBook Pro.

Well, I'm tring to get my parents to haed over to best buy. We have a best buy and a Mac store next to eachother and I want to get the fell for both computers. I like the Mac store, cuz they secure their stuff to a point where test the items out, but don't have to be worying about setting off an alarm and having "blueshirts" runing over and imbarsing your self.

but yeah, the 9000 series on Hp's laptops are realy nice, in fact its the nicest entertament notebook they ever created.

I was thinking of keeping my curent one, and geting a imac. but thats to munch work and it will take a bit longer. So a new laptop seems to be the best deal.

Hopefully this 4-day weekend I have I'll have a chance to look at my options in person, to get a better understanding of what could be my final choice.

btw, could any one tell me the reason why we can have windows on mac, but not mac on windows?

[Boiling Ice]

Since you're not a gamer then I suggest you go for Mac. You can still run Windows on Mac using either BootCamp(Still Beta) which will allow your mac to dual boot OSX and XP, or use virtual Machine programs like Parallel. Parallel for sure will run Vista but don't expect high preformance here. BootCamp so far support WindowsXP Pro with SP2, but some people managed to run vista on it. But for sure apple will support it sooner or later. If you decide to go other than Mac, then I will suggest any other than HP, my company here got 38 HP laptops since 8 months now... so far 21 of them had some issues.

[5Horizons]

Well, I'm tring to get my parents to haed over to best buy. We have a best buy and a Mac store next to eachother and I want to get the fell for both computers. I like the Mac store, cuz they secure their stuff to a point where test the items out, but don't have to be worying about setting off an alarm and having "blueshirts" runing over and imbarsing your self.

Yeah, that should be the best way to go. Bestbuy can suck for that, though, last time I was looking at cell phones I touched a Moto Q and the alarms went off and a guy started screaming not to touch the phones :p... So good luck ;)

Oh, and as for the keypad, you can pick a USB one up for like $10 that will work with the Mac. I own an iMac and a MacBook and really like both, but I wouldn't want to discourage you from trying out your other options.

Oh, and I have installed Windows XP and Vista on my iMac. The drivers work fine, although I did get some blue screens of death in XP when I was setting everything up. Absolutely no problems with Vista, though. I don't really use either on a daily basis at all, so for long-term usage I don't really have much experience... Hopefully someone else can chime in about that.

[Tech_Dude_5000]

Yeah, that should be the best way to go. Bestbuy can suck for that, though, last time I was looking at cell phones I touched a Moto Q and the alarms went off and a guy started screaming not to touch the phones :p ... So good luck ;)

Oh, and as for the keypad, you can pick a USB one up for like $10 that will work with the Mac. I own an iMac and a MacBook and really like both, but I wouldn't want to discourage you from trying out your other options.

Oh, and I have installed Windows XP and Vista on my iMac. The drivers work fine, although I did get some blue screens of death in XP when I was setting everything up. Absolutely no problems with Vista, though.

With the mac store, tverything is tied down with one single medal cable. not ropes and chains like its holding the products agenst their will. "don't leave us! lol

if I do run vista, I would want aero, whitch looks like macbook pro would be my choice. Since the Macbook have shared memory. btw, how well is the performace index on a mac?

[Kaidiir]

For your situation, I'd vote MacBook Pro. Don't get the standard MacBook, go pro. While I personally don't like OSX, it is a very powerful and capable operating system. Office:mac is there and good, but for Office:mac 2007 you'll have to wait until June '07 (at least at last estimate).

I don't own a Mac but I hear you can run Vista just fine using BootCamp. And with the MacBook Pro you'll get dedicated video which will not only make video things go better but will also enable you to run Aero Glass.

But the #1 reason I'd say get the MBP is Apple's superb lineup of apps. Final Cut Pro is a joy to use, Photoshop (and the whole Adobe CS) run great...Mac is clearly the better choice for movie making and Photoshopping. And with the Core2 Duo you'll burn through HD rendering in a snap.

In conclusion, I say MacBook Pro. It's a solid machine that can do it all, and costs about the same as the HP.

[42n81]

Go PC or go Mac,

but whatever you do, don't go HP !!!

[LTD]

I'll try to sum it up as simply as possible:

1) If cost is not a prohibitve factor

2) If you're not in the habit of constantly messing around inside the case (a Mac pro lets you do this, and with some knowledge, you *can* tinker with other models, but a PC offers more flexibility in this area)

Then go for a Mac. OS X is a thing of beautiful simplicity, with plenty of power under the hood. And you're getting a lot of value for the money: iLife apps, etc.

MS Office also runs on OS X, though as of yet there is no Universal Binary for it. You'll be running the PPC version under Rosetta, which is still pretty decent in terms of performance. Of course, you can install Boot Camp, and then you've got a Windows PC as well. I've been running Windows XP SP2 under Boot Camp for a while now, mostly for games and certain Windows-specific software, and it's flawless.

As for the ability to install Vista via Boot Camp, I'm not sure. I've heard conflicting reports, but I do believe the upcoming OS X Leopard will allow you to do it.

[Evilpig]

This should be a poll... But I would say do whatever you want to do.

[instant.human]

id say mac since you can install windows on it anyways.

pretty easy.

[Tech_Dude_5000]

Any noticle diferance between the 15.4" and the 17" other then size? ( like resolution )

Edited November 23, 2006 by Tech_Dude_5000

[Tech_Dude_5000]

Question, the model on the HP i'm aiming for is the dv9060us. Its around the same price as a macbook pro. So whitch would be my best for me? I have print outs and everythijng, just wanted to get some opinions from you all.

[Glassed Silver]

imac

did the same, running xp will upgrade to vista home premium

games, drivers, apps, etc... oh and mac os x run just fine.

VERY recommendable :yes:

i love my iMac 20"

INTEL CORE 2 DUO of coz :p

go 64bit!!!

-fm

[Rupert]

The standard Macbook is capable of running Vista Glass although from what I hear, a small amount of tweaking is required. The performance of this card is said to be comparable to some low end x-*** cards. For a laptop, I don't think the graphics are hugely important but the Intel GMA 950 chip is capable.

[obsolete_power]

Definitely go for a Mac. It is a common misconception that Macs are way more expensive than PC's with similar hardware configs. The $1000 Macbook comes with 60 gig HDD, dual core processor, decent graphics card, firewire, usb ports, dual layer dvd drive...etc

[Tech_Dude_5000]

The standard Macbook is capable of running Vista Glass although from what I hear, a small amount of tweaking is required. The performance of this card is said to be comparable to some low end x-*** cards. For a laptop, I don't think the graphics are hugely important but the Intel GMA 950 chip is capable.

would the tweaking cost some money? or is it an easy do-it your self job?

[AlienHrGig]

would the tweaking cost some money? or is it an easy do-it your self job?

no tweaking requiered. install it via bootcamp and it will run with aero out of the box, the audio chipset and isight camera wont be detected but if you install the drivers cd they will function, even the keyboard suport. my camera didnt work because windows vista doesent let you install the grafics drivers from xp, and apple distributes the drivers as a package, but people are just extracting the drivers and installing one by one and all the hardware works fine.

anyway, in the next version of bootcamp it may be possible that apple will solve this problem. lets just wait and see.

i dont know the hardware specs from the hp laptop, but i think i dont need to know. apple is more reliable for sure, and they allways bet in cpu performance, and they have to, they just droped the PPC core and gone x86 and now x64.

[Tech_Dude_5000]

imac

did the same, running xp will upgrade to vista home premium

games, drivers, apps, etc... oh and mac os x run just fine.

VERY recommendable :yes:

i love my iMac 20"

INTEL CORE 2 DUO of coz :p

go 64bit!!!

-fm

I was thinking of just eirther keeping my curent laptop or selling it, but geting a imac 24" . but I want to be mobile, so i thought, keep the laptop and get a imac. but that option seems to be out of my way...so I'm kind of set between a mac laptop and the dv9060us model from HP. I have been going to notebook review and a few other sites to check out whats good and whats bad.... Hopefully I can make up my mind before I drive my self crazy :wacko:

no tweaking requiered. install it via boot camp and it will run with aero out of the box,

I thought Aero requres at least 128 MB of video memory. The Macbook has 64 MB shared video memory, am I missing something?