Mac or PC laptop as desktop replacement?

[heatherwb]

Currently, I have a desktop PC and PC laptop. I'm thinking about consolidating the 2 into 1 well-equipped laptop that I can use at home with a bigger monitor at my desk, as well as when I'm out and about.

A couple of options I'm looking at:
1. 13" Macbook Pro--since I'll be hooking it up to a bigger monitor when I'm at home for photo editing, screen size doesn't matter that much.
2. 14" Dell Studio laptop (http://www.dell.com/us/en/home/noteb...io-1450-cto4~~)

I'm looking at the Mac because I'm not super crazy about Windows anymore (although Win7 seems to be OK better in comparison to Vista). Besides the greater expense of buying a Mac, I've read about some of the performance issues and conflicts between Adobe and Apple. I currently use LR and PSE8, but eventually want to pick up CS5.

A bit out of the box, but another option...
Pick up one of the new Mac minis (http://store.apple.com/us/configure/...co=MTgxNTgzNzk) and keep my PC laptop with the idea of eventually replacing it with a Mac laptop.

Any opinions and insight would be most helpful.

Thanks.
Heather

[inkista]

Mac laptop + Bootcamp = Mac Laptop/PC Laptop in one box.

Mac laptop + Parallels Desktop/VMWare Fusion = Mac with Windows in a window. (I've never gotten VirtualBox to do what I want, but it's out there, too).

Mac laptop + CrossOver Mac = Mac that can run some Windows .exes directly in OSX.

But then, I have a very very skewed view of these things, and I've been using a Mac for twenty years.

[Solarian]

I currently use a Dell Latitude E6500:
Notebookcheck: Review Dell Latitude E6500 Notebook

I couldn't be happier with the thing. The specs are great, the build quality is second to none, and I've been extremely happy with it since day one.
I have a personal issue with Apple and the way they do business. I just don't want to support a company with such a lack of business ethics. I think they're so evil, they make Wal Mart look good.
Also, as a person that likes to play and tinker with things, their offerings have never appealed to me. Do they even let you open the laptop? Can you take out or change the battery? I know you're not able (or allowed) to do that on any other device they make. I don't know if they're ridiculous enough to try the same things with laptops, but knowing them, anything is possible.

[velvet4269]

I'm someone who just made the switch - from a Dell Celeron 320 with a whopping 1GB of RAM to a 15" Macbook Pro (base model: 320GB HD and 4GB RAM).

Maybe I just got lucky, but I've *knocks on wood* had no issues with the virtual machine (I run Parallels & Windows 7) for the few things I use it for: Photoshop 7, Exifer, and Microsoft Money. I've been able to hook up external hard drives formatted for the PC, moving files between the hard drives, the virtual machine, and the mac with little to no problems.

I typically hook the macbook up to an external monitor (an old Samsung 20" LCD), open the VM, run PS, drag the window to the external monitor, and do my thing. It does eat up my RAM, but I haven't noticed any slow down on the machine.

As for "customization" - you can upgrade your RAM & hard drive on your own (they even provide instructions in the manual); anything else, they do like you to to talk to one of their "geniuses" or send it back to Apple. That said, I've only had my MBP just shy of a month, so I haven't had any issues to report (as of yet).

[DivotMaker]

Chalk another one up for the macbook.

After YEARS on the window$ platform...started when they first came out with something called Windows 3.0....(ouch, just dated myself)....it was quite a big decision.

I have now had a macbook pro, for over a month. I run Bootcamp for my hardcore business stuff during the day... and OSX for all my other stuff.

Was not much of a learning curve....and the plus is, I always have Windows 7 to go to..
It really is the best of two worlds..

I would think about going to one of the 15 inch...i5 or i7s, though. If this is going to be your only computer...

my 2c's

[jdepould]

Just bought my third Mac laptop (PBook G4>15" MBP>15" MBP), the 27" iMacs tempted me, but portability won out. I haven't used a tower in years.

Running CS5 (including AfterEffects) no problem. If you go with the regular MacBook, you won't be able to run 64-bit, but that isn't really a deal-breaker.

[bono]

So I make it one vote for a PC.

Macs and PCs nowerdays use the same hardware components. They only are a little different in the BIOS area. The Macs have an EFI-Firmware that ist compatible with Windows and MacOS but MacOS cannot be directly installed on a PC without hacks or virtual machines because it is bound to an Apple specific EFI which is only used to prevent everyone installing MacOS on a PC.

I think Macs are quite good. But they are really expensive. I think it doensn't really matter what operating system you are using - MacOS X and Windows 7 are both quite okay. The hardware is the main point - a faster processor is better than a slower one and more ram better than less. This ist the part where Apple really rips you off. If you compare the hardware specs the Macs are generally 50% or more expensive than a comparable PC.

So go for a PC because it is cheaper for what it has and you have a larger market competition.

[inkista]

Originally Posted by Solarian

I have a personal issue with Apple and the way they do business. I just don't want to support a company with such a lack of business ethics. I think they're so evil, they make Wal Mart look good.

Whereas Microsoft and Dell are so squeaky-clean. ...?

Also, as a person that likes to play and tinker with things, their offerings have never appealed to me. Do they even let you open the laptop?

Yes. Most folks don't want to, but yes, you can. I've always upgraded the memory and hard drive in every Mac I've ever owned myself.

Can you take out or change the battery?

Actually, you can. Apple would rather hose you over it and do the replacement for you for $150, but just as with iPhones and iPods, (and I'll assume iPads), if you know what you're doing, yes, you can.

Right now, I'd like to up the RAM in my Dell Mini 10v. In order to do that, I'd have to remove the wi-fi card, remove the keyboard, remove the palmrest, remove the hard drive, remove the palmrest bracket, remove the motherboard, flip it over, and then I can get to the freaking memory socket. Assuming I haven't broken anything along the way. That's a whole hell of a lot more work than it would be to mess with the memory in a new MacBook. And all Dell would've had to do was cut an access panel on the back of the damn thing, and I could be done in 10 seconds. Every company does these idiotic things. Apple's no worse than Dell in this regard.

I know you're not able (or allowed) to do that on any other device they make.

What you know is wrong. The Mac Pro tower is one of the easiest to work on of any platform.

Originally Posted by bono

Macs and PCs nowerdays use the same hardware components. They only are a little different in the BIOS area. The Macs have an EFI-Firmware that ist compatible with Windows and MacOS but MacOS cannot be directly installed on a PC without hacks or virtual machines because it is bound to an Apple specific EFI which is only used to prevent everyone installing MacOS on a PC.

This actually isn't an issue if you're buying a Mac, only if you're trying to build a hackintosh.

And the hacks for EFI and loading on MBR are pretty frickin' easy these days. All you have to do is run an app, thanks to some mad hackintoshers. Now, whether the rest of your box's hardware will work is the hard part (welcome to .kext hell), but booting up and into OSX on a non-Mac intel box isn't as hard as it used to be. And that Apple made it hard for you? Tough. I doubt Apple chose to use EFI and GUID in OSX primarily to prevent hackintoshing. These are technical decisions that were made for feature advantages. EFI/GUID is a newer, better scheme than the old old BIOS/MBR boot model. We're using 64-bit systems. BIOS is limited to 16-bit addressing, because it was created around the time the Intel 8088 was the hot processor (1979). EFI is designed to do 64-bit addressing. OSX is now 64-bit from the ground up. It's a cleaner, obvious choice for them.

But, y'know, don't let technical considerations get in the way of your own personal prejudices...

So go for a PC because it is cheaper for what it has and you have a larger market competition.

Of course, it would be even cheaper if you loaded up a Linux distro of some sort, rather than Windows.

[velvet4269]

Adding one more thing in: with my Macbook, the only software I've had to purchase for it was Parallels (to run Windows 7). Everything else has been freeware (GIMP for photo processing; NeoOffice as an alternative for M$ Office (and yes, it works just as well, and is able to save as a .doc/.xls/.whatever file)).

My printer (an Epson NX100) and Router (Netgear WNR2000) work just swimmingly with it. I also use a M$ "natural" keyboard & a cheap Dell BlueTooth Mouse (picked up for $9 at Discount Electronics) that also work well (and an additional Dell BlueTooth keyboard for when I hook the laptop up to my 40" Samsung LED TV (on the newer model Macbook Pros, the mini display port does Audio Out, so for a whole $20, I'm able to hook it up via HDMI to the TV).

[inkista]

Originally Posted by velvet4269

Adding one more thing in: with my Macbook, the only software I've had to purchase for it was Parallels (to run Windows 7). Everything else has been freeware (GIMP for photo processing; NeoOffice as an alternative for M$ Office (and yes, it works just as well, and is able to save as a .doc/.xls/.whatever file)).

Actually, this isn't really an OSX/Mac advantage--you could just as easily be using the Gimp and OpenOffice on either Windows or Linux. And there's VirtualBox if you want the open source version of something like Parallels.