Laptop Advice

[dololjim]

So I am a student who will be headed to university in September. As such, I will need a computer. I would like it to be portable, but also capable off running games such as Civilization 5, Star Craft, and perhaps Mass Effect. When I look at Apple's line up, there doesn't seem to be anything that much attractive.

The Macbook only has integrated graphics and a Core2Duo.

The 13inch MacBook Pro is the same as the MacBook except you are paying $200 for 2 GB of ram and a metal case.

The 15inch MacBook Pro only offers a crappy graphics card. Not only that, but they won't let you purchase the card with 512 MB of ram without getting the most expensive computer.

I have also looked into the desktops. The mac mini offers, again, nothing spectacular. The iMac is severely underpowered for its cost.

So what are my options? Would any of these computers be remotely acceptable for a couple games? I am not really keen on switching platforms since all of my software is already for OS X. Is it possible to purchase something for cheap (under $1000) that could be able to run a few games? Just started looking into this I thought I would hear what you guys say.

 

[GoCubsGo]

A couple of things come to mind, first, what are you studying? While I realize that students going off to college are thinking about things like what games they can play on their shiny new machine I ask what you're studying because that may play a part in any answer. Notwithstanding, the 13" MBP can run Civ but not to the point where I think you'll enjoy it. If you don't want the 15" MBP with the graphics card that you need/want then unfortunately I think you may need to look elsewhere.

I do know that people are playing that game on the base 15" MBP. You may want to search these forums to see for yourself.

What other options? A MB and an XBOX. If gaming is so important to you that you're hedging your college laptop on it then I believe you should buy a console and a laptop. For the price of a 360 and a MB you'll be saving yourself a sum of cash (when compared to buying a 15" MBP).

 

[dololjim]

I have a copy of Windows 7 so I will be able to run anything I need for college.

Star Craft and Civ aren't coming out for Xbox. Not really interested.

 

[ashermechwel]

I think C2D is quite old now because now a day intel made very advanced and powerful processes i5 and i7. so i suggest you to buy and laptop how have i5 or i7.

 

[vistadude]

Indeed none of the macbook laptops are made for gaming. Could you buy a mac laptop AND a desktop for gaming? Personally I would go for the laptop and xbox 360 combo. Once you play the new games, you likely won't want to go back to old pc strategy/war games.

 

[YinnLenqq]

The iMac is severely underpowered for its cost.

Basically, for Mac, the specs to price ratio is definitely nowhere near good. If you want a good spec to price ratio, go for pc laptops instead. With the same price of a 13" MBP, you can fetch a pc laptop with much better specs.

 

[JTR7]

I will also say that price to spec ratio isn't always worse than PCs. I could have gotten a better spec'd MacBook than my Dell XPS at the same time for a lesser price. And now my Dell is coming apart at the seams.