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AhmedFaisal
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Need advice: Apple 12" PB or Dell Inspirion 600m
- Thread starter AhmedFaisal
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Are you sure you're talking about the 600m and not the 700m? The 600m has a 14" screen.
If you can get the student discount, you will save $300 on the PB. I'm not sure if you can if you're not yet in school, but it seems to me you should be able to. Someone else can confirm that. Also, you can put off getting Applecare for a year.
On the other hand, www.xpbargains.com probably has some coupons you can use for the Dell.
The 600m and 700m have pretty bad battery life, < 2.5 hours (see the reviews on cnet. The 1.6GHz P-M will be faster than the 1.5 GHz P4, and the screen is higher resolution. But they are not as well constructed.
Rememer that you also have to pay for VPC - $249, so if you just wanted to run MS Office on the PB, it would be cheaper for you to get the Student and Teacher edition ($149) for the Mac.
I personally would go for the 12" PB - it not being a Dell Windows PC is worth the difference in price. But in your situation I would go for the 12" iBook. In my opinion the 600m/700m are consumer PCs at about the same level as an iBook. For an equivalent PC to the the PowerBook, you would have to look at the IBM ThinkPads.
If you can get the student discount, you will save $300 on the PB. I'm not sure if you can if you're not yet in school, but it seems to me you should be able to. Someone else can confirm that. Also, you can put off getting Applecare for a year.
On the other hand, www.xpbargains.com probably has some coupons you can use for the Dell.
The 600m and 700m have pretty bad battery life, < 2.5 hours (see the reviews on cnet. The 1.6GHz P-M will be faster than the 1.5 GHz P4, and the screen is higher resolution. But they are not as well constructed.
Rememer that you also have to pay for VPC - $249, so if you just wanted to run MS Office on the PB, it would be cheaper for you to get the Student and Teacher edition ($149) for the Mac.
I personally would go for the 12" PB - it not being a Dell Windows PC is worth the difference in price. But in your situation I would go for the 12" iBook. In my opinion the 600m/700m are consumer PCs at about the same level as an iBook. For an equivalent PC to the the PowerBook, you would have to look at the IBM ThinkPads.
Bingo, you got it in one: No MS-Access for Mac = more Windows sales.AhmedFaisal said:
Plus Access is built around the Jet database engine, which is deeply embedded in Windows and is not on the Mac.
plinden said:
Under the student discount
Who is Eligible To Purchase
The following education individuals are eligible to purchase through the Apple Store for Education individuals:
* Faculty or staff member of a public or private Higher Education Institution in the United States
* Student currently attending or accepted into a public or private Higher Education Institution in the United States
there is a massive floor in the dell
IT RUNS WINDOWS, sorry but not many people are going to recommend a dell around here - because (apart from there displays) they are pap
IT RUNS WINDOWS, sorry but not many people are going to recommend a dell around here - because (apart from there displays) they are pap
Ahmed you shoud not come to this Forum expectiing a fair comparision as the Mac Zealots will look to every fault in the PC notebook and try thier best to justify the huge price difference.
I can personally say that the 700M is no cheap consumer noteboook like an Acer. go to www.notebookreview.com , and u will find a full review detailing all the feature of a very well build notebook. While I like the motion detection on the Powerbook , IMHO i don't think it's worth the price you pay in performance and battery life.
Pentium M's are just on a whole other level compared to G4's the clock speed may look similar but the performance gap is huge. just look at the difference in bus speed a 1.5ghz G4 is more like a 1.2 Pentium M as far as perfromance is concerned. you should also upgrade to the 1.8ghz model since it's only $100 more.
The Powerbook is nice , but even if you could get it at a cheaper price it's still the slower machine , slow bus , fake DDR , old CPU , no Dual Layer Drive or PC card Slot.
I can personally say that the 700M is no cheap consumer noteboook like an Acer. go to www.notebookreview.com , and u will find a full review detailing all the feature of a very well build notebook. While I like the motion detection on the Powerbook , IMHO i don't think it's worth the price you pay in performance and battery life.
Pentium M's are just on a whole other level compared to G4's the clock speed may look similar but the performance gap is huge. just look at the difference in bus speed a 1.5ghz G4 is more like a 1.2 Pentium M as far as perfromance is concerned. you should also upgrade to the 1.8ghz model since it's only $100 more.
The Powerbook is nice , but even if you could get it at a cheaper price it's still the slower machine , slow bus , fake DDR , old CPU , no Dual Layer Drive or PC card Slot.
Well, look at it like this... are you going to be doing things that require "blazing" speed, or would you prefer to invest your money in something that isn't going to be slowed down from spyware and things of that nature. Is there going to be any Pro apps used (FCP, Logic, etc.) or is it going to be like most college students and be used for things like office apps and web browsing? What you do with it is more important than how fast it is...
sounds to me then like you've already made your mind up
the only thing to do now is to wait until Tiger ships with the 12"s
and IMO i doubt you will see a PB update for a while
the only thing to do now is to wait until Tiger ships with the 12"s
and IMO i doubt you will see a PB update for a while
h0e0h said:
I have the spyware argument. It means nothing. With the SP2 update, Windwos has warned me about anything that might cause spyware. During the periods I follow those notices, I do not get any spyware, but when I do not then sometimes my computer gets infected. It's as simple as listening to Microsoft. Also, their spyware cleaning program is VERY good. It runs constantly in the background, updates definitions at 2am (for me), it does not use much RAM, and it can perform quick and accurate smart-scans of my system that generally eliminate all spyware and make AdAware and Spybot purposeless. My only complaint is that, when you install new programs that access the internet, the first time you open the program the Spyware cleaner will ask you whether or not it should grant the program access.
As for reliability of the windows system, since I installed SP2 and listened to the spyware notices, I have not had any major problems except ones that I caused myself.
I cannot attest to the built quality of the 700m, but I have seen the current line 12.1" Latitude notebooks, and they are sturdy and aesthetically pleasing.
All that said, it is a matter of which operating system you prefer. You will be happy either way. The Dell may not age as well (the chassis), has a smaller and slower hard drive, has less battery life, and has a smaller keyboard (not really too bad IMO), whereas the Apple is more expensive, has a better keyboard, better battery life, much slower processor, less RAM, and does not have as nice of a screen.
remember the powerbook has a much better gpu, even if your not playing games it's good for DVD playback, you get much sharper images with ATI/Nvidia gpu's
also one thing you have to be wary about with the pentium M is it runs slower on battery life, benchmarks can be anything from 20-40% slower on battery life, it's a shame you cant try the dell before you buy it, unlike how you can with the powerbook.
buy what you prefer using, windows with it's high maintenance, or mac os x with a few compatibility issues, business schools not supporting macs in the way that most do is plain wrong and only when more and more students use macs will they make the effort to support them more, you may think you wont make a difference but the impact of even one person on a campus with a mac is significant.
also one thing you have to be wary about with the pentium M is it runs slower on battery life, benchmarks can be anything from 20-40% slower on battery life, it's a shame you cant try the dell before you buy it, unlike how you can with the powerbook.
buy what you prefer using, windows with it's high maintenance, or mac os x with a few compatibility issues, business schools not supporting macs in the way that most do is plain wrong and only when more and more students use macs will they make the effort to support them more, you may think you wont make a difference but the impact of even one person on a campus with a mac is significant.
AhmedFaisal said:
I covered my 12" PB with an addendum on my homeowners insurance, its like 8 bucks a year and covers up to 3 grand. It was more like 50 bucks a year when it was under my renters insurance a few months ago. It covers accidental damage and THEFT anywhere in the world. I'm not sure if it would come into play with your situation, but you may want to take that into consideration.
CanadaRAM said:
Ehhhhh, Jet. I've got a headache just thinking about it. Sorry, didn't mean to hijack the thread with my random ranting but IMHO the Access-Jet combo...well, I just won't go there. *thinking about puppies and warm sunny afternoons* Ahh, thats better. I don't know your programming proficiency, but you could get an odbc driver to access access and write your own Mac front end (php, cocoa, whatever?). That way when your company migrates to a real database (no offense intended), you'll still have a way to view/manipulate it. Might be more work than you want to do, though.
Heh, I'm also going through the same dilemma between teh 12" powerbook and the 700m. I saw the 700 m today...the thing is TINY! The screen is wide and only 12 inches , so its very short ...some may find it odd. I haven't seen the powerbook screen, its 12 " but not wide so it is higher up.
Mac All the Way
I'm in the same boat as you... Although I purchased a Dell Inspiron 700m a couple weeks ago, and am now selling it on Ebay, so I can buy a 12" PowerBook ASAP. You don't realize how much you miss the Mac Platform until you aren't using it. I'm keeping Dell Dimension Desktop, just bc I like to play graphic intense games... But for Music Production and MIDI it can't come close to the Mac.
The 700m is a nice machine, love the widescreen, and still can't figure out why Apple hasn't put it in there 12" yet... But I still love the 12" PB and will be so happy when I get one next week.
Hey, and if your interested visit my auction on Ebay for the 700m if you decide to go that route. here's a link : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6758640288&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESE:IT&rd=1
If you want anymore info on the machine itself. drop me an e-mail at rjlynch@berklee.net
My 2cents....
I'm in the same boat as you... Although I purchased a Dell Inspiron 700m a couple weeks ago, and am now selling it on Ebay, so I can buy a 12" PowerBook ASAP. You don't realize how much you miss the Mac Platform until you aren't using it. I'm keeping Dell Dimension Desktop, just bc I like to play graphic intense games... But for Music Production and MIDI it can't come close to the Mac.
The 700m is a nice machine, love the widescreen, and still can't figure out why Apple hasn't put it in there 12" yet... But I still love the 12" PB and will be so happy when I get one next week.
Hey, and if your interested visit my auction on Ebay for the 700m if you decide to go that route. here's a link : http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=6758640288&rd=1&sspagename=STRK:MESE:IT&rd=1
If you want anymore info on the machine itself. drop me an e-mail at rjlynch@berklee.net
My 2cents....
It depends.... It hasn't been that much of a problem for me though, It's a beautiful bright screen, and I have to say, DVD's look great on it.
For business, I just don't see any need for the 100 GB hard drive.
You would be far better off spending your money to buy 3rd party RAM.
The base model 12" SD prices out at $1499 education and that's all you need other than RAM.
Apple software also offers education discounts so keep that in mind
when you consider MS Office for Mac.
The difference in what you were prepared to spend on the PB could nearly get you a nice 20" Dell Display.
That combo is far more usable than what you were considering.
I run both XP and OSX and I can tell you from lots of experience, that you'll
be far more productive and trouble free using OSX without all the routine maintenance required to keep XP functioning properly.
Also keep in mind that many of us so called Mac Zealots have used Windows too.
Many of the derogatory posts found here are written by those who only
wish they could afford a Mac and really know nothing about using
OSX.
You would be far better off spending your money to buy 3rd party RAM.
The base model 12" SD prices out at $1499 education and that's all you need other than RAM.
Apple software also offers education discounts so keep that in mind
when you consider MS Office for Mac.
The difference in what you were prepared to spend on the PB could nearly get you a nice 20" Dell Display.
That combo is far more usable than what you were considering.
I run both XP and OSX and I can tell you from lots of experience, that you'll
be far more productive and trouble free using OSX without all the routine maintenance required to keep XP functioning properly.
Also keep in mind that many of us so called Mac Zealots have used Windows too.
Many of the derogatory posts found here are written by those who only
wish they could afford a Mac and really know nothing about using
OSX.