Laptop decision help

[gorockies]

Ok, so I have never owned a laptop before and I am now looking into one. I need some advice on the 2 I am currently looking at. Money aside (parents are buying it) if you had to choose between a 15" Macbook pro or Alienware m17x which would you choose? Obviously the Alienware, graphic wise has a much better GPU and can produce some pretty nice visuals. What could I expect on something like Crysis warhead with each laptop? low, medium, high settings? Gaming is not a necessity as I have a PS3/360 but I may use it for games not on consoles. I need the laptop for CAD, school work, internet browsing, pretty standard stuff nothing crazy.

Here's my conundrum, I'm not a huge fan of Apple OS, I've never owned it so for me the inability to right click always annoys me. But on the flipside, they're very intuitive, safe, fast and my college ONLY uses macs. I've heard nothing but good and I've heard that it's so expensive based on quality. I personally have always felt you pay more for less technology for a mac. That's my current hold-up, but everyone is telling me a PC laptop will last a few years and a mac will last much much longer. I'll quit rambling, any help is very welcome. Thanks.

http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/specs.html <---mac specs


and here is the Alienware:

Intel® Core™ i5 520M 2.4GHz (2.93GHz Turbo Mode, 3MB Cache) VIDEO CARD 1GB ATI Radeon™ Mobility HD 5870 LCD PANEL 17-inch WideXGA+ 1440 x 900 (900p) MEMORY 4GB Dual Channel DDR3 at 1066MHz HARD DRIVE 250GB 7,200RPM SATA-II HDD INTERNAL OPTICAL DRIVE Slot-Load Dual Layer DVD Burner (DVD+-RW, CD-RW)

 

[jjsevdt]

I would encourage you to buy the Mac. I'm not sure why you're under the impression there's no right click but I've been using it on my MBP from the day I bought it. It's called Secondary click and is usefull on both the touchpad and the Magic Mouse. I can pretty much run anything I did in Windows. You won't be able to play many games with the included gfx card at higher resolutions or very much detail. There is Steam on the Mac and just about all the games work for both Mac and PC.

 

[daisymtc]

neither

 

[Cameldude]

Crysis on a mac would NOT work, i think. and even if it did, probably the lowest setting prossible.
I would go for Alienware, if you so wish.
i mean really alienware, you are looking at the two most expensive brands out there. look for something cheaper, perhaps ask your parents to give you the same amount of money that you would spent on a Alienware laptop and then buy a good Windows based pc, like my one below, and the rest you could spend on something else.

and as a joke, yes macs do not have a right click,

 

[FuryRosewood]

i dont recommend gaming laptops...their just asking to let out the magic smoke, get a cheap laptop if you need for mobility, and buy/build a desktop for gaming...you will be far better off

 

[bkribbs]

If you buy a USB mouse, you can right click with it like you do in windows.

 

[gorockies]

If you buy a USB mouse, you can right click with it like you do in windows.

Oh ok! I already have one of those so that's cool. Like I said everyone I have never really used a Mac so I never figured this out. Seems like the majority of people don't recommend gaming laptops as they get very hot. So I guess it's more down to personal preference at this point. Someone pointed out get a laptop and PC, I already have a windows based PC, so its not very necessary. I'm leaning towards the mac at this point because of their history of quality. Plus it is compatible with every computer at my school. But thank you everyone for the help.

 

[linkin]

Mac have had right click for years... It's a just a gamer joke... eg, how can you right click to use the scope, you're using a mac etc etc...

anyway, i voted for the alienware, but honestly, gaming is better on a desktop. If you need mobility, buy a cheap netbook or something and use the leftovers to build yourself a decent desktop capable of handling games.

 

[DMGrier]

The 15" macbook pro has a pretty decent graphics card for a laptop, NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M. You should get what you want and there is nothing wrong with gaming on a laptop. I am in the navy and a lot of people on board game on there laptop's. But if I may recommend if you go alienware you should consider a laptop from either cyberpowerpc or ibuypower.com. Thats just my two cents.

 

[Method9]

Do you need this laptop predominantly for school or for gaming? Which is more important to you? Perhaps a goal of a gaming desktop as a graduation reward for yourself might help straighten out priorities.

 

[gorockies]

Do you need this laptop predominantly for school or for gaming? Which is more important to you? Perhaps a goal of a gaming desktop as a graduation reward for yourself might help straighten out priorities.

It's for school. The most graphics intensive thing I imagine doing is Autocad. I really wanted the macbook because of their history and my college ONLY uses macs. I just didn't know if I could justify the price for what I was getting. The only reason I compared it to the alienware was to see what people thought, because they are both about the same price. I didn't really plan on gaming on it to be honest, I was just curious if I did what results I may get.

 

[DMGrier]

I have never heard of a school that only requires mac's, but if that is the case then don't post a retarded post like that again cause your going to get the mac, or so I hope if you realize that school is more important.

 

[gorockies]

I have never heard of a school that only requires mac's, but if that is the case then don't post a retarded post like that again cause your going to get the mac, or so I hope if you realize that school is more important.

I go to CU Boulder, they have a deal with Apple and all they have on campus are Mac computers. They all have windows office on them so they are compatible with PC's. I was leaning towards the mac more for the reliability and their reputation. I've never owned a laptop and wanted to see how people felt about them.

 

[Method9]

My school has a deal with Microsoft so I get OSes and other software at shipping cost--hence my preference for Microsoft stuff as my workstation. Can you get a deal on a Mac through your school? I'd ride that.

 

[linkin]

My old school used windows pc's for ms office and that, and we had a few rooms full of iMac's for video editing and creating.

 

[iGeekOFComedy]

People that say crysis wont work on MacBook Pros are immature pc fanboys. Heres how crysis works on last year 13" MacBook Pro http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uKrUYQ4T_ww with the older 9400M graphics and the 15" has the dedicated 330M

 

[gorockies]

My school has a deal with Microsoft so I get OSes and other software at shipping cost--hence my preference for Microsoft stuff as my workstation. Can you get a deal on a Mac through your school? I'd ride that.

Yes for $2180 w/ tax I can get the 15" core i5 I mentioned, a HP printer, $10 Itunes gift card, Microsoft office 2010 and Applecare. I may just get it from Apple though because I've heard that Iwork is better than Microsoft word for mac. Apple offers a $100 education discount, $100 rebate on a $100 printer and Iwork is knocked down to $49. So that comes out to $2004 w/ tax and I get $100 of that back within 30 days. So than if I decide to get Applecare later from Apple with my discount it will come out to something like $2095 total.

@linkin - Yeah it's crazy I've never seen a school have strictly just macs, but they must have got a hell of a deal.

@Geek - Cool! I didn't know that, plus that's the core 2 duo and the older GPU. Surely the next i5 and GPU could bump that up to respectable FPS. Is that running in mac though or is that running in Windows? I've seen people have windows on a mac, not sure how they do that...

 

[gorockies]

Ok so now I have decided on a Macbook Pro. I am almost set on a 15" i5, the problem now is price. I have enough but it will be tight on my budget. So my question is do you guys think the roughly $300 difference is worth the 256mb 330M GPU, I5 processor and extra 2" screen?