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Macbook pro and its ugly 'sister'!

B

Babaknt

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jun 12, 2008
17
0
For a long time the choice of my next laptop has been narrowed down to the upcoming MBP and the HP 8710w. I need a laptop for my visual usage. I use programs such as 3dsmax, autocad, the entire adobe family etc and I need a laptop that can handle these.

There isnt much I can say about the MBP, its really a great laptop in terms of design and performance and best of all, its a mac. However, since I need windows to run some of these programs the only option is bootcamp (Parallells and vmware dont support hardware). It then becomes difficult when multitasking between photoshop for example in leopard and 3dsmax in xp.

The upcoming MBP will probably be quicker and better than the hp, and virtua programs are improving all the time.

The HP 8710w has one really big advantage though: the Nvidia Quadro FX 3600M graphics card. A very good openGL card optimized for visual work. The highres screen has been said to be as good as the mbp's, but overall the design is not as good. Its biggest disadvantage is VISTA. I just hate it to be honest.

What do you people think? Has anyone had any experience with the 8710w? Are the any architects and designers on macrumors who can use the mbp efficiently?

Ps. Asking mac users on a macbased site about a choice between a mac or a pc seems risky, but I have good faith in you people. ;)
 
The MBP should suffice but ....... er....... Quadro is a Quadro and ther's no beating it for the job you're going to be doing!

Its your call in the end! Piece de resistance: Mac OS X!
 
go for the pc comp - dedicated gfx quad = more power - if you dont like vista install xp pro. Im sure that the company will have an option to include xp or wont mind you installing it.

macs are awesome - simple as. BUT the pc market has more power at its disposal.

I personally would go for the pc this time and then get a mac in a year or 2 when they have caught up.


k
 
whilst i would generally recommend a mac to most people, it sounds like you want the PC. The quadro is awesome and switching back and forth from windows to os x is a pain, especially if you need 3d graphics support and have to do so through bootcamp.
I can understand your reluctance to running Vista but it isn't like you have to. Just wipe it when it arrives and boot an optimized install of XP. HPs often ship with a lot of crapware anyway so it's always wise to do a fresh install in my experience and XP is an awesome operating system.
 
Yeah the power of the Quadro seems to strong to resist. But i cant really understand why apple dont use the quadro on their mbp line. It seems like the best combination.

I believe the hp comes with pre-installed vista and xp pro included. But I mean its such a ugly looking laptop though. hehehe
 
dont worry about the look - all you will see is the screen :p

the mbp probably will but they run almost nuclear already so we will have to wait!!

i would go with the pc lappy, but get xp pro - ask the manufacturer im sure they will xp it for you with no vista install.

saying that i have a desktop with vista and xp and i quite like it!

Kris
 
cant u change standard nvidia cards into their workstation equivalents? afterall they are the same chips, they just have different optimisation settings in their BIOS'
 
Have you considered a Thinkpad? At least it'll have good quality as well!

And what exactly do you hate about Vista?
 
alphaod said:
Have you considered a Thinkpad? At least it'll have good quality as well!

And what exactly do you hate about Vista?
Click to expand...


The thinkpad has a to small screen size for my usage.

I have come to appreciate how vista works after having read about it. However, as always with windows, the amount of bugs and various annoying problems just makes you angry. XP only got really good when SP2 came out and even better with the new SP3. Vistas SP1 didnt improve it enough for me to convert.

The OS X Leopard is truly a great platform but its a shame pc based softwares dotn support it; AUTODESK COME ON, MAYA ISN'T ENOUGH!!!!!!!!
 
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