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Trying to decide between Macbook and Dell XPS M1330?

M

motox25

macrumors member
Original poster
Hey guys I'm new to the forums, although I've been reading them for awhile I haven't jumped in until today = )

I have read many forums out there about people trying to decide between the Macbook and the Dell XPS M1330 13 inch laptop.

I decided to go with the Dell, as I am primarily using it to run my Windows based programs such as Visual Studio and Microsoft Publisher. I already own a PowerMac G5 I recently purchased used 2 months prior which I use for everything else.

I am a college student, so weight, size, and battery life were all very important to me and for the specs the Dell appears to give the Macbook quite a run for its money.

The one I purchased on sale for $999.99 had specs of:
Intel Core 2 2.0 GHZ
4GB Ram
13.3 inch LED backlit screen
Windows Vista Home Premium

After owning it for a little over 15 days, the unit started bluescreening on me. I know this is common on PCs and I needed it up and running ASAP so instead of attempting to run down the exact problem I wiped my HDD, reloaded Vista (joy), cleaned and reseated memory sticks, updated drivers and bios, and 15 min later, BSOD again. Kept doing it every 15 to 30 minutes. Next I turned to the forums, seems there are MANY people having the same problem. Appears to be a MOBO defect of some kind. Took it back and got a MacBook =)
Just a fair warning to those trying to decide between the two.
 
well, 90 to 95 percent of all bsod on pcs are due to poorly written graphics card drivers.
Did your dell have the 8400 gs graphics card???
 
well 62-37 percent of all dells are evil...
was your dell possessed by the devil???
 
I was in the exact same boat as you. Going into college, I had been a Mac user for the past five or six years, but I got the Dell XPS m1530 because of the MacBook Pro specs, and the cost of a MacBook. So far I've been happy so I don't think it's fairly to generalize all Dells that way. I do kind of miss having a Mac because it looks like 90% of college students got a Mac! (Funny story - a girl sitting next to me in one of my classes had a MacBook and I noticed that she kept trying to open a .exe file. I just let her suffer instead of letting her know she can't open that... she should have known haha!)
 
xJus10x said:
(Funny story - a girl sitting next to me in one of my classes had a MacBook and I noticed that she kept trying to open a .exe file. I just let her suffer instead of letting her know she can't open that... she should have known haha!)
Click to expand...
It's clear you have indeed switched to the dark side. (Just kidding. 🙂)
 
Bengt77 said:
It's clear you have indeed switched to the dark side. (Just kidding. 🙂)
Click to expand...

Nah lol I do miss having a Mac. It's crazy that nearly every college dorm I walk by has a MacBook though. Things have really changed over the past couple years.
 
In all my years of using computers I haven't seen a "blue screen" on a Windows machine more than about twice. I certainly haven't seen once since I jumped from Windows 98 SE to Windows XP. Windows Vista has never crashed on me at all.

On the other hand, I've seen my Macs give me a kernel panic at least seven times.

Make of that what you will, but please don't buy into the hype that a Mac will crash less than a Windows machine, because it's just blatantly not true.
 
Firstly, I'd like to welcome motox25 to the forum and to the world of Mac. I'm a recent switcher thus I hope you enjoy your new MB; good luck with your Mac, it's an excellent machine and you'll find it terrific for college.

And to xJus10x, I'd like to know what is funny about somebody not knowing something that you do; why didn't you simply explain what was wrong and
why she couldn't open the exe file instead of "letting her suffer". I'm sure she'd have preferred to have been helped.

Cheers
 
Get the Mac. 100% better choice IMHO. I had Macs going back to the Mac SE in college in the late 80's. Stuck with them thru the 90's, until things got really bad. Switched to Dell's for a few years, and just came back 2-3 years ago. The new :apple: machines are incredible and much, much faster and more reliable than any Dell laptop or desktop I've ever had (including my current work laptop, which is a Dell Inspiron that I absolutely can't stand but have to use 8 hrs. a day!).

Return the Dell and run, don't walk to your nearest :apple: store.
 
motox25 said:
Next I turned to the forums, seems there are MANY people having the same problem. Appears to be a MOBO defect of some kind. Took it back and got a MacBook =)
Just a fair warning to those trying to decide between the two.
Click to expand...

Well, I don't know much about the Dell one, but the MacBook you got goes under another name.. the CrackBook. If you do a search you'll see that the MacBook is prone to cracking, usually at the palmrest area where the magnetic latch is.

Unless you keep your lid open all the time, be prepared that one day when you open it, you'll see something you don't like... Apple has neglected to fix this design flaw since they introduced the MacBook.

Just a fair warning to you. Good luck.
 
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