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Macbook pro 15" i7 vs HP ENVY 15" i7

R

rwdebes

macrumors 6502
Original poster
Jun 28, 2007
254
0
• i7-820QM Quad Core (1.73GHz, 8MB L3 Cache) Turbo Boost up to 3.06GHz
• 8GB DDR3 System Memory (4 Dimm)
• 640GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5830 Graphics
• 15.6" diagonal Full High Definition LED Anti-glare Widescreen (1920x1080)
• 6 Cell Lithium Ion Polymer Battery ( 6 Hours battery life)
Weight: 5.17lbs , 1.05" Thick. ( really really close to macbook pro )
2400U$ ( Would run MAC OS for sure on it )

or

New Macbook pro 15" i7 with HD display and 7200rpm upgrade for
2399U$

for someone who works with video , runs heavy .mkvs , want to be able to run games like Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 with no problems at all.

opinions please
 
You sound like you know your stuff. So u dont need us telling you what to do. The envy has better specs, but hey it still isnt a mac.

Want a Mac, get a Mac.

Want to hackintosh, then do that.

The i7 Mac is a beast of a laptop. Pop in an Intel SSD and wow, watch it go. The same could be said of that envy. Its up to you.
 
Well the HP is much more powerful. If you're looking for raw performance, and don't care about battery life or using OSX, I'd say go for the HP.

If you need maximum portability, battery life and OSX, the MacBook is your choice. Pick the right tool for the job I suppose.
 
Please remember the quad cores run much hotter.
So unless you really need 4 cores in your laptop i wouldn't want one in my laptop as i use my laptop on my lap on occasion.

The graphics card is only slightly faster so i don't see the point for games.
7.500 vs 8000 3dmarks06.
 
TWIXMIX said:
Well the HP is much more powerful. If you're looking for raw performance, and don't care about battery life or using OSX, I'd say go for the HP.

If you need maximum portability, battery life and OSX, the MacBook is your choice. Pick the right tool for the job I suppose.
Click to expand...


2 hours more really makes no difference for me.. but damn ive been using ibook,powerbook,macbook pro since 2004 i dont know if i can handle PCs anymore.. but the same price and a HUGE difference in terms of CPU, GPU is making me think really hard.. :mad:

greg400 said:
ATI 5830 benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5830.24733.0.html
NVIDIA 330m benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

I'd go for the MacBook Pro for the two extra hours of battery life, better GPU, better build and you don't need a shoddy hack just to make it useable.
Click to expand...

im sorry but i cant really understand anything between those tho links..

you are saying the 1gb Radeon 5830 is not much faster than a 330M 512mb ?? really ??
 
rwdebes said:
2 hours more really makes no difference for me.. but damn ive been using ibook,powerbook,macbook pro since 2004 i dont know if i can handle PCs anymore.. but the same price and a HUGE difference in terms of CPU, GPU is making me think really hard.. :mad:
Click to expand...

That HP kills the MBP in terms of specs. You'll have to make the decision. Do you want OS X and worse specs, or an HP and significantly better specs?

The second gen Envy 15 is supposed to be really nice. They cleaned up the remaining heat issues and it's now very durable. And remember, you can down-spec an Envy to the MBP's level and save even more cash.

I'm also currently deciding whether I want a 13" Macbook/MBP or a significantly better-specced PC laptop for the same price. It's not an easy decision.
 
i wasnt going to bother.... but it will be a disservice to those looking for info, please keep in mind most mac users are completely clueless, asking them for advise is like asking a blind man for directions. You are far better off going to a real tech site for advise like anandtech and tomshardware.


The graphics card is only slightly faster so i don't see the point for games.
7.500 vs 8000 3dmarks06.
Click to expand...

I'd go for the MacBook Pro for the two extra hours of battery life, better GPU,
Click to expand...

The NVIDIA 330m is not better than hd5830, the hd5830 is not slightly better than 330m. The hd5830 will BLOW THE LID off 512mb 330M.

And the hp envy is significantly better than a similar priced macbook pro. It is a no brainer, the only reason for you to get a macbook pro is if you do heavy development / using online synced softwares on mac osx, as it will not be feasible to do that on a hackingtoshi, as every update you will run into problems. Otherwise, dont even bother give macbook pro a second look.
 
rwdebes said:
im sorry but i cant really understand anything between those tho links..

you are saying the 1gb Radeon 5830 is not much faster than a 330M 512mb ?? really ??
Click to expand...

ATI HD 5830 has an average 3DMark06 of 7730. The Nvidia 330M has an average of 6539. A significant difference. And remember the ATI card supports DX11, while the 330M only supports DX10.
 
gagaliya said:
i wasnt going to bother.... but it will be a disservice to those looking for info, please keep in mind most mac users are completely clueless, asking them for advise is like asking a blind man for directions. You are far better off going to a real tech site for advise like anandtech and tomshardware.






The NVIDIA 330m is not better than hd5830, the hd5830 is not slightly better than 330m. The hd5830 will BLOW THE LID off 512mb 330M.

And the hp envy is significantly better than a similar priced macbook pro. It is a no brainer, the only reason for you to get a macbook pro is if you do heavy development / using online synced softwares on mac osx, as it will not be feasible to do that on a hackingtoshi, as every update you will run into problems. Otherwise, dont even bother give macbook pro a second look.
Click to expand...

THATS WHAT I THOUGHT :rolleyes: i was like how can a 1gb beast like the radeon 5830 not being much faster than a 330M with 512mb..

damn man dont say that , i really like the ENVY config.. but the same time i always used apple.. thanks for the opinion.
 
Beric said:
ATI HD 5830 has an average 3DMark06 of 7730. The Nvidia 330M has an average of 6539. A significant difference. And remember the ATI card supports DX11, while the 330M only supports DX10.
Click to expand...

if i knew Diablo 3 will need DX11.. :D

damn apple why you make suffer like that.. just stick 1gb GPU in there !!
 
Beric said:
Thank you.
Click to expand...

:D

is the radeon 5830 that big and hot to fit in a macbook pro ?
what about the 330M 1gb ? i would kill easily 1 hour of battery for that, beside who play Diablo 3 for hours without the power plug on ?
 
gagaliya said:
The NVIDIA 330m is not better than hd5830, the hd5830 is not slightly better than 330m. The hd5830 will BLOW THE LID off 512mb 330M..
Click to expand...

Total ********.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5830.24733.0.html

The only advantage it has is DX11, which Mac OS X doesn't even use.

Those benchmarks aren't real enough for you? Also the 330m doesn't have to push 1920x1200 pixels around the screen.
 
rwdebes said:
if i knew Diablo 3 will need DX11.. :D

damn apple why you make suffer like that.. just stick 1gb GPU in there !!
Click to expand...

I understand your pain. Wanting to game, use OS X, and yet only have one computer for the two. Unfortunately, it's nigh impossible these days. I went the gaming PC/ Macbook route, and it's worked quite well. May not work for you though. Especially if you want to work with video on the go. The new MBP will do fine with video in OS X, but will underperform with games, in Windows 7, unless you play all low or low res or something. So you just have to decide how much of a pain it is to switch to a PC and get the specs you want, but at the cost of software and the OS.

greg400 said:
Total ********.

http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html
http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5830.24733.0.html

The only advantage it has is DX11, which Mac OS X doesn't even use.

Those benchmarks aren't real enough for you? Also the 330m doesn't have to push 1920x1200 pixels around the screen.
Click to expand...

We just discussed those pages. :rolleyes: The HD 5830 beats the 330M in 3DMark06, and even more so in 3D Mark Vantage. There's no competition. And DX11 IS important, if the OP is playing games under Windows.
 
Beric said:
I understand your pain. Wanting to game, use OS X, and yet only have one computer for the two. Unfortunately, it's nigh impossible these days. I went the gaming PC/ Macbook route, and it's worked quite well. May not work for you though. Especially if you want to work with video on the go. The new MBP will do fine with video in OS X, but will underperform with games, in Windows 7, unless you play all low or low res or something. So you just have to decide how much of a pain it is to switch to a PC and get the specs you want, but at the cost of software and the OS.
Click to expand...

man thats exactly whats going on with me.. and still cant decide..
going back to PC scares me.. virus, windows argh.. but the same time i can run MAC OS on a PC with a much better config .. i dont know..

Steve doesnt know Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 will be release on a MAC ? or those games are suppose to run only on mac pros with 10 video cards ?
if i cant run starcraft 2 MAC version well on a 2400U$ Macbook PRO WTF ?????

but thanks :rolleyes:
 
Beric said:
We just discussed those pages. :rolleyes: The HD 5830 beats the 330M in 3DMark06, and even more so in 3D Mark Vantage. There's no competition. And DX11 IS important, if the OP is playing games under Windows.
Click to expand...

Right, he's going to install Windows to play Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 when they are both making a simultaneous release on Mac OS X and Windows. Sounds like a plan. :rolleyes:

And like I said, one will be pushing more pixels while the other will not be making the difference negligible.
 
greg400 said:
Right, he's going to install Windows to play Starcraft 2 and Diablo 3 when they are both making a simultaneous release on Mac OS X and Windows. Sounds like a plan. :rolleyes:

And like I said, one will be pushing more pixels while the other will not be making the difference negligible.
Click to expand...

LOL. Why do I even bother. If the OP is getting an Envy, then he will have an HD 5830 with DX11, to use to its full advantage in games. If he buys a MBP, he will have a 330M no DX11, even in Windows, and significantly worse graphics performance.
 
Beric said:
LOL. Why do I even bother. If the OP is getting an Envy, then he will have an HD 5830 with DX11, to use to its full advantage in games. If he buys a MBP, he will have a 330M no DX11, even in Windows, and significantly worse graphics performance.
Click to expand...

Right, why do you even bother? He clearly said he was going to hackintosh it(which will give him even worse performance than usual due to driver and update issues). Have a look at the game benchmarks I already posted, the 330M is a perfectly capable card when compared to the 5830 running at 1920x1200.
 
They both have 128bit bus so you don't want to run 1920x1200 on them anyway. Anyway at lower resolution the HD5830 is a lot faster.
 
lixuelai said:
They both have 128bit bus so you don't want to run 1920x1200 on them anyway. Anyway at lower resolution the HD5830 is a lot faster.
Click to expand...

If you plan on running games lower than your native resolution then in most cases they will look like absolute garbage. It's not like running 720p on a TV when it can go up to 1080p.
 
greg400 said:
Right, why do you even bother? He clearly said he was going to hackintosh it(which will give him even worse performance than usual due to driver and update issues). Have a look at the game benchmarks I already posted, the 330M is a perfectly capable card when compared to the 5830 running at 1920x1200.
Click to expand...

Yup indeed.
Since your gonna invest that kind of money in a laptop i suggest you also look at failure rate for HP laptops.
 
Quash said:
Yup indeed.
Since your gonna invest that kind of money in a laptop i suggest you also look at failure rate for HP laptops.
Click to expand...

Please oh please. That survey was shown to be related to the price of laptops. HP sells more low-priced laptops than anyone. So naturally they fail more. However, it's high-end, pricey laptops are not even close as likely to fail, simply because they use high-end components.
 
greg400 said:
ATI 5830 benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/ATI-Mobility-Radeon-HD-5830.24733.0.html
NVIDIA 330m benchmarks: http://www.notebookcheck.net/NVIDIA-GeForce-GT-330M.22437.0.html

I'd go for the MacBook Pro for the two extra hours of battery life, better GPU, better build and you don't need a shoddy hack just to make it useable.
Click to expand...

Better GPU? You have got to be kidding me. The GT 330M is weaker than the ATI 5650. Not only that, the 5830 has twice the number of cores as the 5650. How on earth did you come to the conclusion that the GT 330M is better?

Since you used notebookcheck.net as your benchmarks, alright. Take a look at the 3DMark Vantage scores:

Nvidia 330M - min: 2192, avg: 2496, max: 2743 Points
ATI Mobility 5830 - min: 4528, avg: 4785, max: 5042 Points


Like gagaliya said, the 5830 will blow the lid off the GT 330M.
 
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