Should I buy an MBP?

By Lucas
in Apple (macOS)

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Aaron Olive

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I just recently ordered a 17" HP Pavilion dv7t Select Edition

It was $1250 customized.

A spec comparison between the HP laptop I ordered for $1250 and the 17" MBP that costs $2350 (upgraded the HDD to 7200rpm to match the HP):

HP: Intel Core i5 2.40GHz, with Turbo Boost up to 2.66 GHz

MBP: 2.53GHz Intel Core i5

HP: 6GB DDR3 System Memory

MBP: 4GB DDR3 System Memory

HP: 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

MBP: 500GB 7200RPM SATA Hard Drive

HP: 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5650 switchable graphics [HDMI, VGA]

MBP: NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR3 memory and Intel HD Graphics with 256MB of DDR3 SDRAM shared with main memory

HP: 17.3" diagonal HD+ High-Definition HP LED BrightView Infinity Widescreen Display (1600 x 900)

MBP: MacBook Pro 17-inch Hi-Resolution Glossy Widescreen Display

HP: Blu-Ray ROM with SuperMulti DVD+/-R/RW Double Layer

MBP: SuperDrive 8x (DVD?R DL/DVD?RW/CD-RW)

HP: One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery

MBP: Built-in 95-watt-hour lithium-polymer battery

To me, I just can't see spending the price difference there. I love OS X and my Macs but for the value they just aren't worth it anymore. The prices are dropping so much for other computer manufacturers, but Apple just doesn't seem to understand that.

you sholud have gotten the Envy 17

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Emily_June

Posted
Posted

Thanks for the comments, I've decided to go for the MBP anyways. As for the screensize at home, I have my desktop PC with Windows 7, and I could always connect my MBP to a monithor, either 21 or 25.5. :p

I just bought a 27" to hook my Macbook up to a few months ago, and it works beautifully. You generally need an adapter, but those aren't hard to come by. And don't forget that Boot Camp will come with your Mac, so you can always throw a copy of Windows on there should you need it.

I hope you enjoy your MBP. :)

-Emily

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Lucas

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I just bought a 27" to hook my Macbook up to a few months ago, and it works beautifully. You generally need an adapter, but those aren't hard to come by. And don't forget that Boot Camp will come with your Mac, so you can always throw a copy of Windows on there should you need it.

I hope you enjoy your MBP. :)

-Emily

Sounds like I won't miss a thing! :)

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rawr_boy81

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I assume since you're taking computer science I assume part of programming beyond the first year will involve using Visual Studio; as desirable as Mac OS X is, it just isn't worth being out of step when it comes to doing computer science and having to always be the odd man out when it comes to programming. At the end of the day it is about having the right tool for the job - with that being said I guess it depends on what your programming course entails.

What ever choice you do make, research heavily into what your degree requirements are - the last thing you want to go is go off to purchase a sexy machine only to find yourself incompatible with what is required.

Side note, I'm studying a liberal arts degree majoring in religious studies and philosophy so having a Mac is more than sufficient.

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Emily_June

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I assume since you're taking computer science I assume part of programming beyond the first year will involve using Visual Studio; as desirable as Mac OS X is, it just isn't worth being out of step when it comes to doing computer science and having to always be the odd man out when it comes to programming. At the end of the day it is about having the right tool for the job - with that being said I guess it depends on what your programming course entails.

What ever choice you do make, research heavily into what your degree requirements are - the last thing you want to go is go off to purchase a sexy machine only to find yourself incompatible with what is required.

Side note, I'm studying a liberal arts degree majoring in religious studies and philosophy so having a Mac is more than sufficient.

With Boot Camp allowing him to dual boot into Windows, that shouldn't be an issue at all. Admittedly, I don't know too much about Computer Science and programming, but in my experience--as a graphic designer with a programmer boyfriend--any Microsoft-based tools you require on a Mac can generally be used--whether through dual booting, or not--or a decent Mac-specific replacement can be found.

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rawr_boy81

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With Boot Camp allowing him to dual boot into Windows, that shouldn't be an issue at all. Admittedly, I don't know too much about Computer Science and programming, but in my experience--as a graphic designer with a programmer boyfriend--any Microsoft-based tools you require on a Mac can generally be used--whether through dual booting, or not--or a decent Mac-specific replacement can be found.

If you're going to spend 90% of your time using Windows then you might as well get a computer preloaded with Windows - Windows running on Mac is just plain horrible, the drivers are poorly optimised, chew through battery power etc.

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sn00pie

Posted
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I've used a Mac for my first 2 years at University and its been awesome. I recently sold it because I got good money considering it was aging and bought a pretty good PC laptop. Ugh, what a mistake...computing just isn't the same.

I'll be picking up a MBP in the next week or two. :)

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vhane

Posted
Posted

but still i didnt get there point what "Special" is in macs for graphics work? nowdays PC and Macs share same hardware......so whats the difference? thats question is annoying me from long time.......

When I ask designers that question, it usually boils down to the fact that OS X is more elegant than Windows. If your profession is design, you tend to be very sensitive to these things. Very subjective, I know, but this is the feedback that I get.

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rawr_boy81

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Posted
When I ask designers that question, it usually boils down to the fact that OS X is more elegant than Windows. If your profession is design, you tend to be very sensitive to these things. Very subjective, I know, but this is the feedback that I get.

For me, I am not a designer but I do think that the ascetics of the user interface are important - if I don't feel comfortable using something I'm going to be less productive. If you use something for a long period of time each day then you'll want it to be as comfortable as possible - just as a trucker will want a seat that is comfortable for long driving or someone who enjoys driving having his/her car outfitted with the things he/she likes.

I've never felt comfortable running Windows so I own a Mac - nothing to do with some sort of 'objective superiority', but rather for me I find it superior (subjective/situational).

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evo_spook

Posted
Posted

When I ask designers that question, it usually boils down to the fact that OS X is more elegant than Windows. If your profession is design, you tend to be very sensitive to these things. Very subjective, I know, but this is the feedback that I get.

This has being done to death. But its nothing of the sort. Its down to decades ago the Mac platform was the only viable option to have if you was in desktop publishing. They was way ahead of Windows in that area at the time and had developments not available on windows, postscript, laserprinters, quark, freehand, photoshop, etc.

Now its more down to tradition and what you know, brought up through design college using Macs then their way tends to feel more natural then windows, I assume its the otherway round with someone brought up on Windows.

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vhane

Posted
Posted

This has being done to death. But its nothing of the sort. Its down to decades ago the Mac platform was the only viable option to have if you was in desktop publishing. They was way ahead of Windows in that area at the time and had developments not available on windows, postscript, laserprinters, quark, freehand, photoshop, etc.

Now its more down to tradition and what you know, brought up through design college using Macs then their way tends to feel more natural then windows, I assume its the otherway round with someone brought up on Windows.

I have at least three designer friends who were "brought up" on Windows, and who have switched to Macs. All of them owned PCs in uni, and switched to Macs a year of two after they started working. I'm merely repeating the feedback I got from them.

Having said that, I have experienced first hand how schools can be biased towards a platform. I studied multimedia and computer science in uni. The school of design was extremely pro-Mac and anti-PC. The school of CS was the opposite. Very pro-PC and anti-Mac. I didn't own a Mac in uni. I actually hated them. Ironically, I am now a developer, but prefer Macs.

Grand Master

Xtreme $niper

Posted
Posted

Ditto, I had to endure some ridicule during college regarding my Mac choice when I was doing CS. In the end, the muttering stopped because more and more of my school mates started being seen with Macs and soon enough the school introduced an Apple development course and outfitted the school with 200+ Mac Pros.

Times are a-changing.

Grand Master

Rudy

Posted
Posted

I assume since you're taking computer science I assume part of programming beyond the first year will involve using Visual Studio; as desirable as Mac OS X is, it just isn't worth being out of step when it comes to doing computer science and having to always be the odd man out when it comes to programming. At the end of the day it is about having the right tool for the job - with that being said I guess it depends on what your programming course entails.

Funny thing is when I did my Computer Science degree (2002-2007) my school was all WinXP EXCEPT for the computer science dept which was all UNIX and Linux. Having a MBP was AWESOME as it's way easier to make sure my assignments etc were going to run on the school's computer (we used make, gcc etc etc, they can run on Windows but I found it was better on OSX).

Also I could ssh into school from home and run GUI apps through X11, that saved me quite a few trips back to school :)

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Skulltrail

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I got my MBP yesterday and I absolutely love it so far. I'm simply addicted to it. Way better than my dv6 which is a mid-range alternative to the high-end Envy series (GXXt being the low-end). I love everything about it, especially the high resolution. Battery life's ok. Not as great as Apple declares. 4-6 hours depending on what I do.

I also got Windows 7 running thanks to Bootcamp. Run's like a charm.

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