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Laptops VS. MacBook Pro's?

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RawrRawrRob
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 685
Alright, so for college I'm taking a multimedia course (photography, website design, 3D, motion graphics, etc) and I'm looking into getting a new computer for it. What would be the best choice, to go with a laptop or to get a MacBook Pro? I've never had a Mac before, but they seem really sweet and reliable in comparison to PC's from what I've heard. Would who you go with?

+K for good answers!
Jun 25 2012 2:06AM
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eheath
Posts: 61603 - Karma: 123,082
What does your school use? Choose that.
Jun 25 2012 2:06AM
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RawrRawrRob
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 685
Good idea haha, I'll call them and ask
Jun 25 2012 2:25AM
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InFlamesWeTrust
Posts: 163 - Karma: 16
Macbook Pros ARE laptops, FYI. Not trying to be a dick, but people need to take their heads out of their asses when talking about Apple products
Jun 25 2012 6:34PM
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S.C
Posts: 3068 - Karma: 2,285
get the $1800 macbook pro 15". I know its expensive, but it will for sure be worth the money
Jun 25 2012 9:12PM
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rigzz
Posts: 1768 - Karma: 147
Buy refurb Apple products. Macbook pro 15 going for 1350 right now!
Jun 25 2012 9:19PM
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NWPA
Posts: 2309 - Karma: 165
so worth it.
all my friends hate their pc's
Jun 25 2012 10:03PM
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Benji.
Posts: 1146 - Karma: 88
Check what software you'll be using most. Whatever platform the important ones is your platform. Hopefully you asked what software your school uses when you asked about what computers your school uses.


Jun 25 2012 10:28PM
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cwphoto
Posts: 2332 - Karma: 780
if you have the money get the retina pro. 16 gb of ram, 765 gb of ssd, retina display, and a lot more. i got to play on one in the apple store and its crazy fun. but, they're a hideous amount of money
Jun 25 2012 10:38PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7147 - Karma: 17,498
As said before get what your Uni uses, chances are luckily it will be windows. Macs are good, but heavily overpriced, also the new ones are not upgradeable (they are soldering components so you cant change stuff yourself!) so to get a half decent one you need to get the most expensive one.

If you go the windows route you will generally find for the same price you can get close to twice the power. But also consider that a windows desktop will be about twice the power of a windows laptop of the same price.

Unless you absolutely have to have portability get a desktop, even better, get a good desktop and a super cheap laptop, that you can be mobile with.
Jun 25 2012 10:46PM
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corona
Posts: 12795 - Karma: 32,751
without even looking at the specs I can tell you any stock laptop going for $1800 is NOT worth it.
Jun 25 2012 10:59PM
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corona
Posts: 12795 - Karma: 32,751
oh boy. actually out of curiosity I looked at the specs.

I guess this new "Thunderbolt" port (no affiliation to Pokemon) is worth $500 bucks. Sucks nothing uses it.
Jun 25 2012 11:03PM
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GNARwalls
Posts: 1287 - Karma: 528
i'm studying graphic design next year and they told me to get a MacBook Pro 15 inch minimum size. i hear they're great for all that design and artsy shit as apposed to a regular dell is more for the business spectrum. i love my macbook pro and it works great with the whole adobe software (assuming you'll have to be using that as well)
Jun 25 2012 11:04PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7147 - Karma: 17,498
^ you should try adobe software with an nividia card, adobe and Nvidia have been in bed for ages, so it makes sense to use nvidia. Barley any Macs can get the full potential of adobe such as the mercury playback engine or the raytrace renderer in after effects.
Jun 26 2012 12:21AM
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RawrRawrRob
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 685
I asked and we'll mainly be using the Adobe Creative Suit, but they said we use both platforms throughout the program. They also said though that most students use Mac Book Pros
Jun 26 2012 12:24AM
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RawrRawrRob
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 685
I wish I could afford one of those
Jun 26 2012 12:25AM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7147 - Karma: 17,498
Well if your using Adobe what I would sujest is somthing along these lines,

i7 The faster and the more cores the better,
16 gig Ram, Move up to 32gig if you go for an 8 core chip
Nvidia Graphics card, (very important for Adobe) Geforce 560 or above will work
Hard drive config will depend, if you get a laptop then go for a decent solid state drive
If Desktop, either SSD or two fast HD in raid, plus a Larger slower storage drive.

That should get you going nicly with adobe.

The newer Mac Book Pros will sort of run Adobe with the new features but you will be much better off with a laptop or desktop running a nvidia card rather then an ATI.

For reference Im currently working in the adobe master collection, Maya, Zbrush and Mari.

Hope that helps.
Jun 26 2012 12:33AM
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cwphoto
Posts: 2332 - Karma: 780
same. or you can just go all out and get a 12 core mac pro. for the small price of 7000 ish haha
Jun 26 2012 1:29AM
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michael_bc
Posts: 1386 - Karma: 720
My girlfriend and I have laptops with identical specs... same processor, same RAM, same HD, same screen size. Hers is a Sony Vaio, mine is a MacBook Pro.

Hers is a shitty turd that is slow as fuck, crashes all the time, and electrocutes her wrists. After 1 year her battery lasted less than 15 minutes. It's been sitting in a shelf for months because she only uses my computer.

I ordered the new retina MacBook Pro (to me the screen is the most important component). Have you seen the benchmarks? It is ridiculous.

If I do the math, I use each laptop that I buy for 3-4 years. So even a fully specced MacBook Pro will be about $80 per month. I don't see the point in say, going down to $40 per month and then spending 3 years frustrated with a shit computer.

I know a couple of non-Apple laptops that are excellent as well, but they are most definitely not cheaper and it is very difficult to find one with a display as color-accurate as a 15" MacBook Pro. If the iPad 3 is a reference, the 15" retina display will be nuts. I can't wait.
Jun 26 2012 4:16AM
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B1kessk1s
Posts: 953 - Karma: 691
either you go for an ASUS for windows or a macbook...

ASUS products are underrated. my ASUS beats all the macbooks for the same price. i have twice the power, never crashes, no battery problem, awesome protection from asus.


Jun 26 2012 10:01AM
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TijmenDal
Posts: 4849 - Karma: 1,295
This. Or just buy second hand.

Get something like this:
http://photography-on-the.net/forum/showthread.php?t=1199744&highlight=macbook

1300$ for hi-res anti glare, 2.4ghz quad core i5 and 8GB RAM.

Great deal if you ask me. You can always run Windows with Bootcamp.
Jun 26 2012 10:03AM
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Randy_Quench
Posts: 5447 - Karma: 4,343
I was in the same position last year, and ended up going with a 13" mbp refurbished.
What I saved by buying refurbished and the smallest screen size allowed me to buy the quadcore i7 and a few other software goodies.
all in all I love my laptop, the screen is plenty big for me and if I need a bigger workspace I'll buy an external monitor.
Jun 27 2012 2:27PM
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DeRizzo
Posts: 3827 - Karma: 3,485
i just got a mac and they are much better and faster than any windows computer. much better resolution and i did not get the retina
Jul 4 2012 10:13PM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24725 - Karma: 29,944
Yes on this. I bought an older macbook pro 13" for 500$ and then threw maxed out the ram. I'll be buying an older iMac or Mac Pro to compliment it soon enough as a stationary editing/production suite, rather than trying to get this old gateway desktop to work well with Adobe stuff.
Jul 4 2012 10:24PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7147 - Karma: 17,498
^ just a heads up, if you use Adobe CS5, CS5.5 or CS6 you will not get the full potential form an older mac. As has been said above premiere and now after effects require an Nvidia card, which is not an option in the Imac, and the only option in a pro is a Quadro 4000, which is really expensive.
Jul 5 2012 12:40AM
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BROBRO
Posts: 563 - Karma: 1,245
The thing people do not realize about mac is the reason there so expensive is because they have virus software and other security software built in. So buying a pc and then spending another chunk of money to by security software will get you to roughly the same price. Mac all the way
Jul 5 2012 12:47AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24725 - Karma: 29,944
Not exactly worried about that... CS6 works fine on my 13" mbp from 2009. Any iMac or MacPro I get would be of similar vintage - which would have an Nvidia card...

by "older" i do not mean a G5 or something lol.
Jul 5 2012 1:17AM
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PacificRimJob
Posts: 24725 - Karma: 29,944
Bingo. When I need a larger viewer, I have a 40" TV to hook my shit up to if I really want.
Jul 5 2012 1:21AM
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michael_bc
Posts: 1386 - Karma: 720
This is not really true.

Macs don't have special anti-virus software built in. The difference is that OSX is based on Unix which makes it more secure and more difficult to write viruses for it. For example, unlike Windows, on a Unix-based system a program cannot write into the memory of another program. This is also the reason why Windows has such bad crashes, one crappy program can take everything down.

The current versions of Windows are based on Windows NT which in turn is based on software stolen from IBM during their collaboration on OS/2. Based on shaky foundations like that, Windows can never get really good unless they start over from scratch.

Nevertheless, as Macs gain in popularity, more and more viruses for Mac will appear and anti-virus software might become a necessity.

And there are many reasons why Macs are expensive:
- the use of non-shitty batteries in the laptops
- the use of high-quality display panels
- the use of high-quality materials (glass, aluminum) rather than all plastic
- the design cost
- the brand (advertising)
- because they can (because Windows is shit and nobody is releasing decent software for Linux)

It is public knowledge that Apple is sitting on a pile of cash. This shows that Apple can ask a premium on their products because there is no decent competition. There is more competition in the phone/iPad market, and there Apple prices are much lower, similar to the competition.
Jul 5 2012 5:30AM
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*geezer*
Posts: 645 - Karma: 301
.

somebody knows their shit.
Jul 5 2012 10:15PM
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Benji.
Posts: 1146 - Karma: 88
My school told me they use both platforms but I have yet to use any Mac based software besides word processing and Mathematica (which is setup to run on both). I major in engineering so I kind of expected that. It really depends on your major area of study. If they say you'll be using that software for what you're studying then believe them. And plus, if you buy one of those new MBPs just buy a virtual machine generator and run Windows with a quarter of your RAM (if you actually need to run Windows at home). You'll still have 6GB left over.... haha fucking ridiculous.
Jul 5 2012 10:30PM
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[~_~]
Posts: 20239 - Karma: 1,273
Funny you say that, because the best anti-virus software for PC is free from Microsoft. You're a sucker if you actually pay money to kill your computer's performance with Norton/McAfee/etc.
Jul 6 2012 1:28PM
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Dustin.
Posts: 13839 - Karma: 7,704
Apple computers are very expensive, but my wife and I have both turned exclusively to Mac in the last few years. Before I owned a 13 inch MBP, her HP, and a Fujitsu tablet. I've since thrown away those two PC's and a year ago I bought a 15 inch MBP for myself.

Reasons I decided to put out that kind of money:

-Durability. You pay for it. I travel a lot, I have a clumsy wife :), and I put my laptop in a backpack when I ride my motorcycle/bike a lot. The aluminum body of the MBP is extremely durable and does a fantastic job protecting the computer. No PC laptop I've ever owned has help up to drops onto tile like these MBPs wil.

-Software. I like OSX a lot. I work on Windows 7 during the week and it can be very frustrating when the simplest task becomes a security nightmare. When Windows 7 decides to do whatever the fuck it wants, or install updates whenever it wants, etc., I want to walk up to Bill Gates and smack him.

-Viruses. Say whatever you want, I don't care. I haven't had a single flicker of virus activity in 4 years on either computer. I download pretty much whatever I want too, so it's not like I'm that careful.

-Battery life. I know there are plenty of other good options if this is a huge concern of yours, but I replaced the battery in both my old HP and Fujitsu 3 and 5 times respectively because they simply wouldn't charge anymore. The wife's MBP still has amazing battery life and holds a full charge.

-The touchpad. If you've ever owned both a MBP and a competitors laptop at the same time, you know what I mean when you talk about how nice the touchpad is. It's seriously worth about $400 to me when I consider a purchase. It's huge, precise, smooth, and awesome. Anything less is a piece of shit.

-The screen. Enough said, just look at one. Even the old ones are impressive pieces of glass.

If you take care of a MBP, it can last a very long time. The price really isn't bad if you use it for it's full life, and you can very easily and cheaply upgrade RAM and hardrives for cheap at places like OWS online.
Jul 7 2012 11:53AM
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RawrRawrRob
Posts: 1841 - Karma: 685
Thank you for the great answer! +K to you!
Jul 7 2012 12:10PM
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erikK
Posts: 3245 - Karma: 2,328
threads
Jul 9 2012 12:13AM
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OG_Loc
Posts: 428 - Karma: 2,085
Get a macbook, fast and reliable, plus you have the app store where you can get anything you need on the go… i have a macbook and i love it
Jul 9 2012 5:11AM
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sneezin
Posts: 632 - Karma: 430
These specs are ridiculous man. In a laptop this is $2000+

Not sure what you mean by adobe. Adobe is a company that makes a ton of programs...

Even if you're using their more powerful programs like photoshop or premiere pro or whatever you do NOT need these specs. I run these programs on my desktop at home with 2gb ram, core 2 duo, mid level graphics card. Sure, there is a bit of lag but it is entirely bearable.

If you want it to run flawlessly and are not made of money you probably only need 8gb ram, core i5 or core i7 and an alright graphics card. Solid state drives drain power like no other and cost an arm and a leg. Just go for a 7200 rpm hard drive with 10x the storage and half the price. This you can find for about $1,000
Jul 16 2012 1:36PM
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sneezin
Posts: 632 - Karma: 430
Didn't realize you said Adobe Master collection. That probably does take more RAM. but for most multimedia courses I am sure 8GB is fine.
Jul 16 2012 1:38PM
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erikK
Posts: 3245 - Karma: 2,328
adobe master collection is just a way to get photoshop, premiere, after effects etc all together. it wouldn't take more ram than just downloading each individually.
Jul 16 2012 2:08PM
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sneezin
Posts: 632 - Karma: 430
then 16gb of ram is beyond overkill if you are just taking a class haha
Jul 16 2012 2:17PM
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tomPietrowski
Posts: 7147 - Karma: 17,498
If you use after effects then it is recomended you use 2-4Gb of ram per core, so if you use a quad core the bare minium is 8GB. I currently work on a comp with 16GB and after effects eats through that in no time. Obviously you can use less but you are holding yourself back.

If he wants to get a comp that hopefully will last him 3 years of school, get 16GB to start (2x8GB sticks) and then upgrade to 32GB when he can.

Ram is super cheap now so there is no reason not to max it out.
Jul 16 2012 5:35PM
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snakerton
Posts: 2434 - Karma: 1,977
as long as your not a hardcore gamer or programer and you have the money get a mac. i kinda hate pc's. they are fine at first but im really lazy and get viruses and stuff. its nice not to have to worry about that on a mac
Jul 16 2012 5:52PM
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