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Try not to kill me just yet...

Stephen Dowling

Stephen Dowling

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jul 29, 2009
128
0
GA
Okay here is the thing.

I'm selling my Unibody "Collectors Edition" MacBook so that I could go Pro.

Now, here is the fun part.

I decided to head over to Newegg and see what I could build for the price of a baseline 13" UMBP. Needless to say, the results surprised me.

The PC I "built" could probably beat up on a Mac Pro, and completely obliterate the 13" MacBook Pro.

So I'm leaving this for you all to decide.

MacBook Pro 13" (possibly 15" refurbished) or a PC Gaming Monster?
 
First off...What's a collectors edition MB?

How important is osx to you?
You talk about building a PC or buying a Laptop..Which do you need? Portability or something that cannot be moved easily? That's something for you to decide first
 
By "Collectors Edition" I mean the Aluminum MacBooks that don't have the SD slot, 7 hour battery, and Pro on them. As for portability and such, that doesn't really matter. I find my self using my MacBook hooked up to my external display most of the time anyways.
 
13" Macbook.... vs..... PC Gaming Behemoth Beastly Monstrosity Killer Machine.

Not quite a apples-to-apples (pun intended) comparison, huh?

Really, basesloaded is right. Decided if you want portability or not. Desktops are always more powerful than laptops, dollar for dollar, and a custom-built PC is (almost) always more powerful than any Mac, dollar for dollar. You gotta decide what matters to you. OS X matters the most to me (though I have been seriously eyeing building a dual-boot Win7/Snow Leopard hackintosh...).

EDIT: If portability "doesn't really matter," then don't get ANY laptop. Get a desktop of some sort, whether its a PC or a Mac.
 
Stephen Dowling said:
By "Collectors Edition" I mean the Aluminum MacBooks that don't have the SD slot, 7 hour battery, and Pro on them. As for portability and such, that doesn't really matter. I find my self using my MacBook hooked up to my external display most of the time anyways.
Click to expand...

So if you don't need the portability and don't want/need osx than by all means build yourself a PC. More power to ya! If you still want osx look into a mini/imac. That again depends all on what you plan on using it for.
 
Well, thats the thing. I really do love OS X, but sometimes I have to ask my self why I pay so much for so (seemingly) little power. I love my MacBook to death. It looks good, it's very durable, plus OS X is great.

But on the PC side, I love power, I love gaming, I love being able to change out any of my parts when I need to. Thanks for all of the input though! You all are great!
 
Why not just buy a Xbox 360 or something for gaming? Sorry, but i have never looked at computers as a gaming platform, although i am sure they are very popular. you play WOW? Seems that is one of the few games they don't have on the game consoles (but again, i have never played a single game on a computer).
 
Stephen Dowling said:
Okay here is the thing.

I'm selling my Unibody "Collectors Edition" MacBook so that I could go Pro.

Now, here is the fun part.

I decided to head over to Newegg and see what I could build for the price of a baseline 13" UMBP. Needless to say, the results surprised me.

The PC I "built" could probably beat up on a Mac Pro, and completely obliterate the 13" MacBook Pro.

So I'm leaving this for you all to decide.

MacBook Pro 13" (possibly 15" refurbished) or a PC Gaming Monster?
Click to expand...

I don't understand. How would we know what you want or need? If you have to ask total strangers, I would say you need neither. Look inward, grasshopper :)
 
If portability doesn't matter then I think you've answered your own question. And I'm sure your custom Windows gaming machine would "beat up" on a MP, since a MP is a workstation, not a gaming rig.

I built desktops for years and it's tons of fun. If you don't need the laptop, go for the custom Windows machine.
 
Stephen Dowling said:
Well, thats the thing. I really do love OS X, but sometimes I have to ask my self why I pay so much for so (seemingly) little power. I love my MacBook to death. It looks good, it's very durable, plus OS X is great.

But on the PC side, I love power, I love gaming, I love being able to change out any of my parts when I need to. Thanks for all of the input though! You all are great!
Click to expand...

That's notebook for you. Even in the PC world, desktops always have greater performance than a notebook of the same price. While I do love changing my hardware, it's not the best use of my time. Instead of having spending $$ on a graphic card that only gives me minimal performance boost, I could do something productive.

Being able to change your computer's hardware is not always the best option. It's not always the best use of your time.
 
If you will be using your computer to play heavy games most of the time, you don't mind using Windows 24/7, and you can deal with any viruses/crashing that comes your way and fix it then I'd go the PC.

If you want a Mac Desktop to game on, maybe you can afford a MP Quad @ 2.93, 6GB RAM and a GTX 285? + Windows to dual boot.
You could get an iMac but I don't know how good they are with games.

Personally I can't live w/o OSX.
 
Yeah, it's always the case on both Mac side and the Windows side. Notebooks are always more expensive than comparably spec'd desktops.
To be honest, I always find Mac's to be just over maybe $150~200 over the ones with comparable specs... like the uMBP vs. Dell XPS13 laptops for example. And I'm more than willing to pay that premium for superior OS and the overall workflow that suits my needs.

But computers are "personal" thing, so it's up to your needs to pick the ones you need. If you can give up the portability of laptops and will be happy with a windows desktop PC, then definitely go that route.
 
I had a PC before I got the Mac. If you're going to get a PC then make sure you have a real good stock of cuss words, you'll need them.

Seriously though, my daughter and her husband are mainly gamers. They envy my Mac but need the PC's they built, even with all the headaches.

Me, I don't need the headache, :)
 
Until I recently bought the MB 2.4 ghz ($1050) I scoured the web for deals on PC laptops with graphics comparable or better than the 9400M. Guess what, they are few and far in between.

To get any kind of decent graphics, LED-backlit LCD, decent battery life, anti-virus protection, decent service contract, and software suite comparable to iLife, you will end up paying something close to the Macbook if not more. AND you don't get anything close to the build quality, slick design, and resale value of the Macbook.

I dare you to find a Dell, HP, or Lenovo that's comparable.
 
Keep the MB, imo.

I played a bunch of games on my custom built $1K desktop until newer games started coming out. Then it got sluggish and I really got tired of spending $200 on a new graphics card every year or less.

I bought a 360, which I thought I'd never do, 'cause I always sucked at FPSes on consoles and I was pretty good on PC. Needless to say, I love the ability to plug it into my 24" HD 1080p monitor and then switch to a 65" 1080p TV with absolutely no worries if the GPU will keep up.

Keep the MacBook and buy a 360 IMO. Games like CoD4 and stuff are more challenging therefore more fun.
 
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