Help! My brother is about to buy a PC!!

[elchicano99]

Hi, so I have this issue... my brother bought a used macbook pro recently (not the SR one, the one before that, 15in high-end) and then sold it to me as he wants to buy one of the SR ones once the next model is introduced. But now he's saying that he'd rather just get a PC laptop because he can get it with a beter graphics card. He really liked his first experience with OS X, but dons't really comprehend the it's huge benefit over Vista. He says that he wants to get in to video editing and Flash and eventually 3D modeling and stuff. I've told him that all this can be done great with macs, and that the only real reason he would need a super high end video card would be for gaming, which he says is not that important to him. He seems to think that the graphics card is the absolute most important thing about a computer. I know he'd be much happier down the line with an , but am having trouble convincing him not to get a PC. Are my assumptions about video cards correct? He has no experience with 3D rendering or flash or any of that, but wants to go to school for it, and I'm telling him that by the time he'd be good enough with all that to really need a super high end computer, it'd be quite a while from now and he'd need a new computer anyways, plus, I don't think laptops are the computers or choice for professionals doing this sort of things, you'd really want to go with a desktop in any case. So I'm bringing this issue to all you experts out there: please save my brother from the windows woes! Give me some good talking points
Thanks!

 

[shoulin333]

tell him i can run all the newest games at high setings on my 15" SR MBP with geforce 8600GT 256mb..

i have been playing the new TF2 beata at 1440 x 900 with everything almost maxed out, it plays awesome on windows under bootcamp,...

...i was a pc user for years, but i couldnt live with all the boatware anymore

i now only use windows under boot camp to play my windows games...

and the only way he is going to get a pc laptop with a video card as good as or better than the MBP it will be about a 2 inch thick laptop, he will look like an absolute ass carrying that thing arround!

ayways just my 2cents, goodluck

 

[thejadedmonkey]

Help! My brother is about to buy a PC!!

That's the problem with all you mac zealots, you all think that PC=bad, Dell=Hell, etc.

I had a Samsung laptop, and it did what I wanted it to do. Now I have a MBP (C2D, pre-SR) and it can't do what I want it to do. For my usage, it's (as of right now) an inferior machine.

I think that when it comes to 3D rendering, every bit of power is important, and that a PC just might be more economical for him.

I think you're associating PC with inferiority because the majority of Windows PC's are $500 pieces of crap. My Samsung laptop was only $400 less then the MBP I'm typing on now, and it works just as well as my MBP does now. Possibly even better, that is before it finally died.

As long as you know how to keep Windows spyware free, there's no difference except personal preference, and if your brothers personal preference is for XP (hell, I prefer the GUI of XP and openness of the PC world to any day of the week!) then I don't see what the issue is. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

 

[shoulin333]

1) I had a Samsung laptop, and it did what I wanted it to do. Now I have a MBP (C2D, pre-SR) and it can't do what I want it to do. For my usage, it's (as of right now) an inferior machine.


2) As long as you know how to keep Windows spyware free, there's no difference except personal preference, and if your brothers personal preference is for XP (hell, I prefer the GUI of XP and openness of the PC world to ? any day of the week!) then I don't see what the issue is. Perhaps you could enlighten me?

Response:
1) were not talking about a pre SP MBP, we are talking one with the newest processor avail in a laptop (if you cant do everything you need it to do you dont know what you are doing (ex. bootcamp... etc..) )

2) why deal with spyware at all?.... openess? run bootcamp, run linux....

 

[bertpalmer]

I guess it is really up to him - maybe he doesn't feel like paying the Mac premium and wants a cheaper machine and is prepared to put up with XP/Vista.

He is fairly correct in that if he wants to work with graphics then the graphics card is going to be an important component which he may want to upgrade in the future.

 

[stainlessliquid]

Well the graphics card is the most important thing with anything involving 3d. The 8600 is one of the best mobile cards you can get though, some laptops have desktop cards in them but they are expensive and huge (size doesnt really matter if its your main computer though).

 

[blurb23]

Well the graphics card is the most important thing with anything involving 3d. The 8600 is one of the best mobile cards you can get though, some laptops have desktop cards in them but they are expensive and huge (size doesnt really matter if its your main computer though).

Correct.

The 8600GT GDDR3's used in the MBP's are just about the second best graphics cards available for laptops right now. However, they are underclocked, so keep that in mind.

Some laptops are now shipping with 8700GTs, and some with 8700GTs in SLi. If I'm not mistaken, 8800m's should be coming out soon as well.

 

[synth3tik]

Well, you got his MBP and it wont effect you when he gets a PC, so I would not worry. If he has any big issues then he can come back. I mean. If your more familar with something and do not see something else as "better" why bother. He will be able to do all the things it sounds like he wants to with a PC and maybe more so. I had to keep a PC around for years to run 3DS Max.

 

[Roy Hobbs]

who cares, if he wants to get a Windows maching thats his problem

 

[suneohair]

Let him buy it. It is not your duty to convince anyway. If you haven't so far, you aren't going to. It will be something he had to realize himself. And please divide up your text, no one wants to read that.

P.S. Vista sucks.