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Should I switch to PC?

M

manmit

macrumors member
Original poster
Jun 14, 2012
43
17
Toronto, Canada
I have macbook pro 2011 i5. I primarily used this machien for browsing, MS office, and email. However, now I need to run a company provided application to analyze terabytes of data to build statistical models. This applicable is huge processor hungry. Unfortunately this application is only compatible with windows 7. Note that now this application is my bread and butter.
So I have now two options:
1. Install windows 7 via bootcamp. I have never done this but I am fearful about the speed and use. Essentially, I will be speding 70% of my time on running this application.
2. Get rid of macbook pro and buy a pc. This is the last option as I am so much in love with my mac.

Please help.
 
Shouldn't your company provide you with a computer to run this data guzzling application?

Bootcamp works just like a normal Windows laptop would. Frankly speaking, my Macbook Pro is the finest Windows laptop I've ever owned.
 
No, unfortunately

theSeb said:
Shouldn't your company provide you with a computer to run this data guzzling application?

Bootcamp works just like a normal Windows laptop would. Frankly speaking, my Macbook Pro is the finest Windows laptop I've ever owned.
Click to expand...
No, unfortunately
 
theSeb said:
Shouldn't your company provide you with a computer to run this data guzzling application?

Bootcamp works just like a normal Windows laptop would. Frankly speaking, my Macbook Pro is the finest Windows laptop I've ever owned.
Click to expand...

+1

Exactly, windows will run just like in a normal laptop :)
 
It sounds like bootcamp is what you are looking for. It will be native speed but you will need the bootcamp drivers. The trackpad will still be limited to the trackpad support by Windows though.
 
It will run windows just fine. Don't expect the "MacBook experience" while in windows though. Trackpad performance is poor in windows and most of the management features (GPU switching, power management, etc.) don't work in windows.

Windows will run just fine on your MacBook, at full i5 speed, but the experience is far from flawless.
 
I was in a similar situation.

Most of my gear is Apple, though I needed something to number crunch/encode. Frankly speaking, most of the mac range is too slow, and the Mac Pros are so damn outdated, I gave up and got a PC, with a 6 core extreme CPU, which I over clock to about 4.7Mhz on all six cores, its cuts through videos/number crunching at an amazing rate.

Frankly it saves me so much time!.

If you are not in a hurry and happy to wait, just put windows 7 on your laptop.

If you are going to be dealing in large number crunching, for long periods, get yourself a PC and safe heaps of time.
 
mikeo007 said:
It will run windows just fine. Don't expect the "MacBook experience" while in windows though. Trackpad performance is poor in windows and most of the management features (GPU switching, power management, etc.) don't work in windows.

Windows will run just fine on your MacBook, at full i5 speed, but the experience is far from flawless.
Click to expand...

Trackpad performance could be better, hence why I use a mouse. I've never encountered any of the other issues you've mentioned. Care to elaborate?

----------
MH01 said:
I was in a similar situation.

Most of my gear is Apple, though I needed something to number crunch/encode. Frankly speaking, most of the mac range is too slow, and the Mac Pros are so damn outdated, I gave up and got a PC, with a 6 core extreme CPU, which I over clock to about 4.7Mhz on all six cores, its cuts through videos/number crunching at an amazing rate.

Frankly it saves me so much time!.

If you are not in a hurry and happy to wait, just put windows 7 on your laptop.

If you are going to be dealing in large number crunching, for long periods, get yourself a PC and safe heaps of time.
Click to expand...

That is a great suggestion.
 
theSeb said:
Trackpad performance could be better, hence why I use a mouse. I've never encountered any of the other issues you've mentioned. Care to elaborate?
Click to expand...

How much can I elaborate? GPU switching does not function and none of the OSX hardware specific power management features work. Battery life is crap in windows 7 on a MBP because of this.
 
So it seems I should let go my mac as it doesn't make sense to have two computers.

theSeb said:
Trackpad performance could be better, hence why I use a mouse. I've never encountered any of the other issues you've mentioned. Care to elaborate?

So it seems I should let go my mac as it doesn't make sense to have two computers.
----------



That is a great suggestion.
Click to expand...
So it seems I should let go my mac as it doesn't make sense to have two computers.
 
mikeo007 said:
How much can I elaborate? GPU switching does not function and none of the OSX hardware specific power management features work. Battery life is crap in windows 7 on a MBP because of this.
Click to expand...

All of the power functionality works as I would expect in windows. I can even set laptop power functions on my mini since windows sees it as a laptop due to the mobile CPU and chipset.

----------
manmit said:
So it seems I should let go my mac as it doesn't make sense to have two computers.
Click to expand...

Why? I have 4 computers.
 
theSeb said:
All of the power functionality works as I would expect in windows. I can even set laptop power functions on my mini since windows sees it as a laptop due to the mobile CPU and chipset.

----------



Why? I have 4 computers.
Click to expand...
My budget is limited. I spent $1200 on macbook pro and in order to get power pc I would need to spend another $1000. I am still not at that stage where I can spend so much :-(
 
manmit said:
My budget is limited. I spent $1200 on macbook pro and in order to get power pc I would need to spend another $1000. I am still not at that stage where I can spend so much :-(
Click to expand...

Mate, don't waste you money switching.

As your on a tight budget, just book camp off your MBP, it will just be slower with the number crunching, but you will get there.

Like seb, I have like 5 computers, and use the right one for the task in hand. If I had only one I would use that for everything.

Also, if budget it tight, you could probably safe yourself some money and get Windows 8 Release candidate.

http://windows.microsoft.com/en-US/windows-8/download

Be worth a try to see if that will run your software. Worth a try.
 
theSeb said:
All of the power functionality works as I would expect in windows. I can even set laptop power functions on my mini since windows sees it as a laptop due to the mobile CPU and chipset.

----------



Why? I have 4 computers.
Click to expand...

Like I said, hardware specific features are not all present. The MacBook bootcamp drivers are minimal, so power features are minimal. Windows has its built in power settings, but those rely on hardware integration. Hardware integration relies on drivers, which are minimal.

I don't blame Apple for minimal driver sets either. They sell Macs, not Windows laptops.
 
Build yourself a small windows server, run the application on that, access it from your MBP :) (my solution)

Otherwise, I'd say use Bootcamp.
 
no offense, but why did your company put someone like *you* in charge of data processing and statistical modeling? it sounds like you have no idea what you're doing, lol
 
yth said:
no offense, but why did your company put someone like *you* in charge of data processing and statistical modeling? it sounds like you have no idea what you're doing, lol
Click to expand...
I appreciate your concern but this issue is besides the point.
 
manmit said:
I appreciate your concern but this issue is besides the point.
Click to expand...

sorry man, i was honestly just curious. :p Your company must be an interesting place to work! they don't even give you a computer to run the data analysis. Do you have any idea how much RAM this application requires?
 
yth said:
sorry man, i was honestly just curious. :p Your company must be an interesting place to work! they don't even give you a computer to run the data analysis. Do you have any idea how much RAM this application requires?
Click to expand...
They say it requires minimum 2gb ram.
 
manmit said:
I appreciate your concern but this issue is besides the point.
Click to expand...

I don't know, I tend to agree. I've never heard of a company making you personally buy a new computer because they want you to buy new software.

I'm not sure that's even legal. Technical discussion aside, you're being taken advantage of.
 
goMac said:
I don't know, I tend to agree. I've never heard of a company making you personally buy a new computer because they want you to buy new software.

I'm not sure that's even legal. Technical discussion aside, you're being taken advantage of.
Click to expand...

I'm guessing he is a contractor but still, that does seem pretty shady.

And I think in general, people use their own systems for things that should be run on a server type system. A system that isn't being moved around and can't get lost/stolen.

Also, no one mentioned this, but you can probably get away with using Parallels and the software. You would just use the software under a VM. Again though, I'd say look into what it'd take to build a stand alone server that is network connected.
 
Go Bootcamp. I did. It's much more cost-effective than buying a whole new computer. Plus, why would you want to worry about keeping track of, and taking care of, two computers if you don't have to?

Windows 7 works as well on my MacBook as I've ever seen it work on any other machine. Two finger scrolling on the trackpad is far better than any implementation I've used on other PC laptops. No, it's not quite as perfect as it is in OS X, but if my only experience had been with PC machines, I would think the MacBook with Windows 7 had an amazing scrolling experience. It really does provide the best Windows 7 experience. The complaints you hear are due to the much better experience under OS X.
 
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