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Dillema between Macbook Pro & Windows 7 laptop

J

Jle7385

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Nov 25, 2009
1
0
Hey everybody! I know this forum is more for desktops, but I was hoping someone could help me out here. Lets get the basics out of the way:

- Have $1300 to spend
- Want to play games at least as graphically intense as The Sims 3, don't need maxed settings on everything
- Want speed, enough to use some photo and video programs once in ahile
- Don't care about blu-ray
- Want reliablity
- Want a cool running laptop
- Want a laptop that has decent battery life, but wont use it often
- Don't care about display size
- Most importantly, don't want it to be completely outdated in a year, would like it to last 3 years and still be able to sell for around half of what I bought it for
- Need before Christmas

OK, now that that stuff is out of the way let me tell you more. I know laptops arent very upgradeable but I want at least 4gb ram with possibly an upgrade in the future. The Macbook Pro 2.53 ghz comes with this and in DDR3. Most Windows laptops I have seen have DDR 2. Comparing prices I can get everything in the Macbook Pro in a Windows Laptop for around the same price except the Windows laptops have better graphic options. I don't plan on playing Modern Warfare 2 or anything, this is mainly for my wife and she just messes around with Sims 3, facebook, Microsoft office, internet, etc.... But I don't want to spend 1300 on a Windows laptop and in 3 years be able to sell it for 200 bucks. I bought a Windows Vista laptop 3 years ago for 700 and now I can get about 125 for it on ebay, that is horrible! But it would be nice to spend 900 instead of 1300...lol.

What are your guy's opinions on what I should do for the things I want listed above? Thanks!
 
Have you ever owned an Apple? I'm going to speak to everyone who's on the fence right now, you don't know what you're missing...no matter what you imagine, it's better than that.

I expected when I got my Mac that I'd be able to be a little more care-free but...things have changed and at each turn my Mac is there taking the initiative and going above and beyond. I swear it's like some fresh-outa-highschool dork-laborer, do do do and do it by the book hahaha.

What I'm saying is, if you get a Mac you can expect to never be disappointed. And I have a feeling you're going to glance over at your wife fooling around with some mind-blowing feature and the two of you will be roshambo'ing for it constantly.

Of the things you listed, my 2.53ghz MacBook Pro 13" does it all without a hitch.

RAM? The MacBook Pro can be expanded to up to 8 gigs of memory! I say that gives it a lot of room to grow in the future ;)

- Have $1300 to spend The 13" MacBook Pro starts at $1199, $1299 if you configure it to have 4gb of memory! (use the extra dollar for...a stick of gum...for the stockings?)

- Want to play games at least as graphically intense as The Sims 3, don't need maxed settings on everything I played Call of Duty 4 with medium-high settings without missing a beat on my old aluminum MacBook with 2.4ghz processor and 2gb ram. As far as I've heard the lowest MacBook Pro option smokes the old MacBook even! Trust me, it has da POWA! And if you want to install Windows 7 on this laptop and run it by itself (like a PC) or WITHIN MacOS, it's easy! So you'll never have to compromise ;)

- Want speed, enough to use some photo and video programs once in ahile Speed? Sorry is there a degree above speed to use to describe the MacBook Pro? I edit HD videos all the time and have never once had to put on coffee between exports. It will get it done ;)

- Don't care about blu-ray Eh, what's it matter. You could put a blu-ray drive in it in the future if you changed your mind! :D

- Want reliablity That's why you're on a Mac Forum right?

- Want a cool running laptop It takes a LOT to get the fans to speed up in this notebook, at times the palmrests are cool to the touch. You can survive easy without a chillpad but just never set it down on a soft surface (a bed) because the vents are under the screen so they can get blocked easy and shorten the life span of the laptop pretty quick

- Want a laptop that has decent battery life, but wont use it often Each time I look up at the battery meter I have to try and wrap my head around how it could be possible that I'm running Keynote, iMovie, Safari and iTunes with the display at full brightness yet it tells me I have 5-6 hours! I've even gotten 8 hours with less intensive use! And it charges super fast too ;)

- Don't care about display size The display is GORGEOUS and with Spaces and Expose, you wouldn't need anything bigger anyway

- Most importantly, don't want it to be completely outdated in a year, would like it to last 3 years and still be able to sell for around half of what I bought it for I feel ya. Talk to some people here who use their PowerBook G4's from all the way back to 2001, or iBook G3 from 1999!

- Need before Christmas Great! Apple has some Black Friday deals! Black Friday Sale!


If I can only suggest one thing, if you get a Mac be sure to remember to forget everything you know about computers and the way they work. The MacOS is designed to work the way you THINK! It should come natural if you keep that in mind. Also be sure to visit Apple.com for Tutorial videos and remember that this forum is here to help you every step of the way!

Apple site tutorials

Ciao
 
Wirelessly posted (iPhone: Mozilla/5.0 (iPhone; U; CPU iPhone OS 3_1_2 like Mac OS X; en-us) AppleWebKit/528.18 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile/7D11 Safari/528.16)

The days of exorbitant prices on used Macs is pretty much over. In 3 years, your laptop won't be worth half of the original price. Sorry.

Just get the lowest end 13" model and save the money you would have spent towards a new laptop in 3 years.
 
I should also suggest Refurb!! With this option you could probably get the 2.53ghz model for the price of a new 2.26ghz model!

Refurb is as good as new, honest! Same warranty and packaging and everything!
 
You can get a Dell Studio XPS 16 with
Core i7 720QM
4GB DDR3 RAM @ 1333Mhz
250GB 7200RPM HD
ATI 4670 with 1GB VRAM
etc
for 983$ after Bing CB (884$ if you have Discover card).
 
I definitely would suggest the 13" Low-End MacBook Pro and upgrade the RAM and Hard Drive yourself according to your needs and save some money. I would buy refurbished to save more money. Total should be about 1200 after all is said and done. Apples keep their value better overtime.

Or if you are looking at a decent Windows Laptop that will keep it's value very well, I would look at Thinkpads. These are extremely durable and are just as good as Apple when it comes to quality. They keep their value extremely well, and would probably be cheaper. Look at the refurbished section, sometimes you can find refurbished T500s for 800.

$925 Lenovo T500:

-15" 1680x1050 Resolution
-2.53ghz Intel Core 2 Duo
-4 GBs of RAM
-320 GB HD
-ATI Radeon 3650
-Windows 7 Professional
-6 Cell battery (3-4 hours, can upgrade to 9 cell for 79 bucks I think)

$1200 Apple MacBook Pro:

-13" 1280x800 Resolution
-2.26 Intel Core 2 Duo
-4 GBs of RAM
-320 GB HD
-nVidia 9400G
-Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard
-Built in battery (5-6 hours)

If you upgrade your hard drive and ram on the T500, total should come down to 925 bucks or so.
 
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