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Am I crazy!! Cross shopping an alienware vs MacBook pro!!

8

8000rpm

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jan 14, 2011
107
0
I can't believe it still but I sold my beloved late 09 mbp17 unibody a month or so ago.

Specs were :

3.06 ghz c2d
128 gb SSD
4GB ram

Phenomenal machine and simply best system/laptop I've ever used. Ever. Sold it because I was tempted by hardware specs, alienware style and design and running windows so I can play cs source etc. The biggest reason was probably defeating the Mac mouse acceleration. I jut couldn't game much before the mouse feel drove me crazy (wow, frozen throne).

Anyhow, I ended up buying an alienware m17x r2. Supposedly aw owners brag about the rgb screen but it didn't look better than my macs. It was Huge! Battery life made me stare in disbelief.. Literally 45 mins jut browsing the web lol. It didn't matter too much since I'm plugged in at work almost all the time. Is there anyone else out there like ne who just wants a decent package overal? I can't seem to find anything sexy beyond the mbp and the beastly looks of the alienware. The Mac is like the Audi r8. The alienware like the dodge viper lol.

My alienware was i740qm, 8gb ram, 128gb SSd dual 5870 gpus. It seemed nice an build was decent. I liked the styling but windows 7 takes sooooo long up start and turn off it drive me mad.

Anyhow I ended up returning the alienware within the 30 days and got a no charge return shipping and a full refund. I did that since they were announcing a new r3 version. So now I'm STUCK. the new r3 is a fail machine with a weak gpu. Mbp will get sandy bridge but I can't seem to find any leaks or rumors or Any credible info on when. I'm stuck between model revisions and I will definitely come back to Mac I'd I can just get an idea on when sb will be in it.

Can anyone link me any info or sites that have any info on sandy bridge in the mbp17? Would be much appreciated.
 
I don't think that there's any information on it.

However, if you're still looking into Windows systems, have you looked at the HP Envy? They basically ripped off the Macbook Pro's styling, but put some pretty nice hardware in there. If I weren't using Apple systems, that's probably what I would choose for a laptop.
 
Haha ya thanks for the comment :) I'm a big car nut and even though I own a radical American car I still crave a finely polished car like the Acura nsx. It's not faster but looks oh so good. It's smooth, flawless, reliable and so much more. I think the r8 is just a modern day NSx in a way. It's not the fastest out there or the most powerful but does everything so well.

Do you guys think it's smart to buy a current i7 mbp17 or should I wait until April at least? I do have to say though, if they make the 17 wedge shaped even just a little I think I'll be turned off of it. I really do love the current styling and I think they can revise it in other ways besides wedging it.
 
I can not believe that you bought a Windows computer, instead of booting Windows on your Macbook. When you want to play computer game change the OS, easy peasy.:apple:

By the way, HPs have heating problem. Beyond that Envy is a cool laptop, but performance gets itchy :(
 
Gok said:
I can not believe that you bought a Windows computer, instead of booting Windows on your Macbook. When you want to play computer game change the OS, easy peasy.:apple:

By the way, HPs have heating problem. Beyond that Envy is a cool laptop, but performance gets itchy :(
Click to expand...

This

I boot into Windows to game, the mouse and poor performance keeps me in Windows to game. I hope one day the performance in OSX is on par with windows, the mouse I am not sure if it can be fixed.
 
I tried the "run everything on my Mac" approach with OS X and bootcamp Windows 7. It just didn't work for me. The sleek design of the MBP doesn't allow for the cooling required to place a decent GPU for gaming. I finally gave up and bought a Windows gaming laptop and use my MBP for work only.

The ASUS is near silent even after hours of SC2 or Company of Heroes and with the Seagate XT hybrid drive the boot time is less than my MBP or my iMac. The only time Windows 7 is slow is during Windows Update. Macs now require reboots for many updates so Windows and OS X are a bit closer.

Battery life is not relevant on desktop replacement laptops. They are designed to be plugged in. I lock my GPU at stock clocks so it never steps down.

I only have VMware Fusion on my Macs to support Windows Apps that are not available on Macs.

I don't think AW or ASUS can be compared to a MBP. They serve different purposes and Apple will never produce a gaming powerhouse. Gamers are fine with tweaking drivers and Bios updates but I'd never want to deal with that on my Macs.

You may need to go with a base MBP for work and a $1500 gaming system (not AW, their prices are grossly inflated). You can get a very powerful Sager Sandy Bridge system with 460m. Plus you can upgrade CPU and GPU over time.

Cheers,
 
MacBook = BMW 3 Series
MacBook Pro = BMW M3
AlienWare = Ford Mustang
HP Envy = Camero

That's how I see it at least....:p I like my ///M3's:D
 
uggghh I hate it when people use cars to describe laptops.... :D


are looks important to you? my brother in law has a beast of an asus laptop that has great performance and build quality. thing has around 3 hours of battery life and can run pretty much any game he throws at it. I don't remember which model is it though sorry but it's definitely worth looking into... If only I wasn't into thin laptops
 
8000rpm said:
The Mac is like the Audi r8. The alienware like the dodge viper lol.
Click to expand...

Not sure the MBP deserves to be compared to the R8 :D, but I understand what you mean. I like the other suggestions of going with a dedicated Windows gaming rig. Asus would be my first choice for gaming in the Windows laptop world. Zero love here for any HP, especially if you are missing your MBP.
 
Funkymonk said:
uggghh I hate it when people use cars to describe laptops.... :D


are looks important to you? my brother in law has a beast of an asus laptop that has great performance and build quality. thing has around 3 hours of battery life and can run pretty much any game he throws at it. I don't remember which model is it though sorry but it's definitely worth looking into... If only I wasn't into thin laptops
Click to expand...

Being a Mac user ... I had never heard of Asus or Acer until they started flooding the market with cheapo netbooks ... just curious ... are they now real computer companies? :cool:
 
Looks are definitely important to me. If I'm dropping large cash I want it to look like it. I would consider sager etc if they didn't look like a broken briefcase split in two at the airport luggage turnstile. They are just so hideous.

I've read about heat management when running games under bootcamp. That's the only reason I shied away from trying it.

Sorry about the car-laptop comparisons but they're quite funny indeed. I must say the stang to m3 one is pretty good except the new 5l is a honking engine and theyve refine the pony car quite well over the years. In no small part thanks to some of my engineering work ;). If the Mac were an m3 it would have to get slaughtered by the 5L in performance but that isn't the case.

Hp envy looks ok but it has almost no appeal to me. Ugly ugly graphics and etching and color schemes. I am a huge fan of solid metals and the Mac hits the spot with the 'machine out of billet aluminum' look.

I had an hp hdx. It was a beast but the screen wasn't good (brightness), and video card weak for gaming at 1200p (8800gts). It did look good but vista was oh my god slow, and talk about embarrassment when opening it up and seeing peoples reaction at a useless remote beside the keyboard :(


The alienware was nice. I must admit I was surprised at it's build quality. I like the aluminum shell. The alienware logo is sweet too. All the lights a little gimmicky with the colors and stuff but easily defeatable. I absolutely don't mind lugging a huge computer around but it's either gotto have the whole package or a good compromise.

My ideal package would be a great screen, great looks and form, great CPU, excellent video card or decent video card at the expense of having greaT battery life. I think osx is hands down the better and I loved to use it but windows 7 isn't all that bad. With that in mind my options still remain a mbp17 sandy bridge or alienware r3 with a better-than-gtx460 gpu
 
You can't expect to have a good video card, and a good battery life. You'll notice that Apple usually uses a video card that's around a year old in all of their computers. However, if you're looking, look at the Dell Vostro computers. They're business class so the build quality is descent, they're aluminum plated, and look pretty good. I think the 17" one has a 330m in it, but unlike the MBP, it was designed for Windows, and you can game on it too.
 
I guess the words I used to describe the cards didnt help get my point across. I don't mind giving up a 485m with bad battery life for a 330m if it's got 9 hrs of battery life. I can live with playing my games at low settings. Problem really is the r3 has a weak gpu ATM and I don't want to get a mbp and see sandy bridge released a week later
 
I'm not even going to google vostro. Sounds to me like it's a Toyota camry of the laptop world. And that's a no no lol.
 
CounterStrike Source runs perfectly on my netbook. You shouldn't need NVIDIA GTX285 SLI and a quad core i7 Extreme to run that game. Just Boot Camp would suffice.
 
Apple OC said:
Being a Mac user ... I had never heard of Asus or Acer until they started flooding the market with cheapo netbooks ... just curious ... are they now real computer companies? :cool:
Click to expand...

Yes they're real computer companies. Don't know about Acer but Asus has quite a few decent machines.:D
 
I think the MBP + Windows desktop is the best combination. I have a fantastic, easily upgradable, desktop that can keep up with the latest games without breaking the bank. You have to pay much more and give up flexibility among other things to get a good enough laptop to game on. A gaming rig and smaller MBP can be had for the price of a 17 MBP.
 
That's a valid point but I don't want to lug 2 laptops to work everyday. I thought about it again and I think you were talking about a decent desktop but that I already have. I game on a simple e6750 2.66 oc'd to 3.4 ghz with a zalmon copper heatsink, 4gb mushkin ram, 2 raptor hdds, gtx 470 and a 28.5 lcd.

A 15 or even 13 mbp is really nice. But it's want more than need here. The 17 is just so much sexier. 19x1200 is so sharp I love it. Screen size def helps when watching movies etc while at work. The occasional wow time must not suffer though but I don't mind playing on medium settings since the game is cartoony anyways.


At this point if the r3 m17x pops up first with a 6970 or gtx 485 I'll jump on it. On the other hand if the mac shows with sb I'll get that first. The wait is so so brutal
 
If you were using your mouse for much more than camera angles in WoW, that was your first problem.
 
brentsg said:
If you were using your mouse for much more than camera angles in WoW, that was your first problem.
Click to expand...

I don't quite follow..


**edit** ok I think I get you.. Ya I don't mouse my spells or anything I just use it for direction etc . Its cd source and wc3 TFT where the ugly mouse acceleration eats at me
 
I would never buy a pricey laptop without knowing its REAL LCD measurements because most of them are absolutely horrible.

Look at http://www.anandtech.com/tag/mobile for objective measurements (warning, most non-Apple laptops have atrocious blacks, low contrast, low color gamut, and just plain awful quality).

The Dell Studio XPS 16 had the best laptop screen that I've encountered, but Dell discontinued it and no longer offers that display, instead replacing it with a brutal piece of junk typical on 99% of laptops out there.
 
8000rpm said:
A 15 or even 13 mbp is really nice. But it's want more than need here. The 17 is just so much sexier. 19x1200 is so sharp I love it. Screen size def helps when watching movies etc while at work.
Click to expand...

Nice Job you must have ... there are not many jobs that include "watching movies"

enjoy it while you can :cool:
 
I just dont get people who insist on gaming on laptops? Unless if you are such a game addict you have to do it on the go. I can never go back to gaming on a laptop after having a real graphics card on a desktop with a 22" monitor. Factor in the keyboard/mouse difference and its impossible to match the experience on a laptop unless if you are playing a really dated game.

I can't game at work, and there is no point in gaming at school (misewell use the time for something productive like studying etc), and when at home why not walk to the desktop that has windows etc or better yet power up the xbox360 lol. I guess to each their own
 
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