Dell VS Macbook: FIGHT!

Toldo

My search for a college laptop continues.

Option 1: Apple Macbook

2.16ghz processor
2GB RAM
120GB HDD
13.3" screen
Intel GMA 950 graphics processor with 64MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory (booooo)

Price: $1,357

Option 2: Dell Inspiron 1501

AMD Turionâ„¢ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
2GB RAM
120GB HDD
15.4" widescreen
Vista Home Premium
MS Office included
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)

Price: $1,219.80

The second option is looking way better than the first. Is there any logic in this? I'm looking for a laptop that I can use for college stuff but also have the option to play games on it.

Malkor

I think you can get the Dell for a better price if you find a coupon. Also both those video cards kinda suck. Is the Mac Book a core 2 processor?

Lewisham

Macbook for college stuff, Dell for games.

Choose which is most important.

TBH, I'd take the Macbook and bag an Xbox 360. College shouldn't give you too much time for hours-on-end-style PC gaming.

GrimReaper

You've forgotten one thing.

A Macbook can have both OS X and Windows on there.

I've got a Macbook here, it's a fantastic laptop but is so, so for games. For example I can run Half-Life 2 at 1280x800 at the minimum texture etc settings acceptably. But newer games it really chugs.

The Macbook has the better processor, whilst the Dell looks to have the better graphics chipset.

You can get MS Office probably dirt cheap through your college for OS X dirt cheap. If it's just simple word processor stuff you can stick to Neo Office anyway. (BTW, Macbooks come with a trial version of MS Office)

I've recently gotten a deal of 40% off laptops for myself, so i've currently got an order for a Macbook Pro. It's actually costing me less to buy a Macbook Pro than it did to buy my Macbook. If you're in the UK (EDIT: Oh, just noticed the $, forget that then) once I get my Macbook Pro i'll be selling my Macbook, so just letting you know. (it is a six month old black Macbook)

Iroh

Lewisham wrote: »

Macbook for college stuff, Dell for games.

Choose which is most important.

TBH, I'd take the Macbook and bag an Xbox 360. College shouldn't give you too much time for hours-on-end-style PC gaming.

Money is what's most important when considering anything for college. The Dell is not only the cheaper route, but it gets him more for his money. Unless of course you place some arbitrary value in OSX as being better for "school stuff," which is a load of garbage.

There really is no reason to get the Mac here other than to say you have a Mac.

Toldo

I guess my real question is: is the Macbook good enough to run WoW without major graphical issues? Then again, my friend is clamoring for me to get WAR once it comes out, and as far as I know, it'll only be on Windows. That said, can I run WAR through Boot Camp with my Mac?

Malkor

Really that Intel chip shouldn't even be called a graphics card. It's there for the most basic of tasks. The ATI card isn't that much better, but should be good enough to run WoW. Do you really plan on taking it to class and outside and such? Because if you do that Macbook might be a better choice, because it's lighter and smaller. I have a 14.1in. Dell that I adore and I probably would have gotten a smaller one if they offered it.

Wulf

Also, Apple does have a student discount, which I don't see mentioned above, which can save you some nice chunk of change. Add on to that the fact that the Macbook will without a doubt last through the entire time you are at college, and will not have as large an issue with the worms and other crap that sneak into College networks due to morons with P2P junk like Bearshare (I mean honestly...). I am of course biased, but made it through with my 'gumdrop' flat-panel iMac without a problem.

mugginns

I built that same dell on their site and it is $989.

Also with a 85 WHr 9-cell Lithium Ion Primary Battery because I believe the best thing you can get in a laptop is a big battery

KalTorak

If you're going to be carting your laptop around campus, I'd almost definitely go with the Macbook just b/c of its size. Those things are small, much lighter, and comparatively powerful with the setup you've got there.

Toldo

Wulf wrote: »

Also, Apple does have a student discount, which I don't see mentioned above, which can save you some nice chunk of change. Add on to that the fact that the Macbook will without a doubt last through the entire time you are at college, and will not have as large an issue with the worms and other crap that sneak into College networks due to morons with P2P junk like Bearshare (I mean honestly...). I am of course biased, but made it through with my 'gumdrop' flat-panel iMac without a problem.

The price is with the student discount, but with an added 1GB of RAM.

Yet, the question remains - WoW?

EDIT: Oh, and are there any other laptops in this price range I should take a look at? I've been looking into the Thinkpad from IBM as well...

supabeast

Do NOT get the Macbook for WoW! Those shitty intel video setups chug away at WoW like Oprah on a treadmill, and you probably don’t even want to know what WoW looks like with only 64 megs of texture memory.

TrippyDK

If you do chose to get the mac, do not, I repeat do not, buy the RAM from Apple. They charge way to much.

mugginns

Toldo wrote: »

Wulf wrote: »

Also, Apple does have a student discount, which I don't see mentioned above, which can save you some nice chunk of change. Add on to that the fact that the Macbook will without a doubt last through the entire time you are at college, and will not have as large an issue with the worms and other crap that sneak into College networks due to morons with P2P junk like Bearshare (I mean honestly...). I am of course biased, but made it through with my 'gumdrop' flat-panel iMac without a problem.

The price is with the student discount, but with an added 1GB of RAM.

Yet, the question remains - WoW?

EDIT: Oh, and are there any other laptops in this price range I should take a look at? I've been looking into the Thinkpad from IBM as well...

What did you add to the dell to make it $300 more than what I posted above?

lordswing

TrippyDK wrote: »

If you do chose to get the mac, do not, I repeat do not, buy the RAM from Apple. They charge way to much.

Malkor

mugginns wrote: »

Toldo wrote: »

Wulf wrote: »

Also, Apple does have a student discount, which I don't see mentioned above, which can save you some nice chunk of change. Add on to that the fact that the Macbook will without a doubt last through the entire time you are at college, and will not have as large an issue with the worms and other crap that sneak into College networks due to morons with P2P junk like Bearshare (I mean honestly...). I am of course biased, but made it through with my 'gumdrop' flat-panel iMac without a problem.

The price is with the student discount, but with an added 1GB of RAM.

Yet, the question remains - WoW?

EDIT: Oh, and are there any other laptops in this price range I should take a look at? I've been looking into the Thinkpad from IBM as well...

What did you add to the dell to make it $300 more than what I posted above?

Faster hard drive and memory?

mugginns

Malkor wrote: »

mugginns wrote: »

Toldo wrote: »

Wulf wrote: »

Also, Apple does have a student discount, which I don't see mentioned above, which can save you some nice chunk of change. Add on to that the fact that the Macbook will without a doubt last through the entire time you are at college, and will not have as large an issue with the worms and other crap that sneak into College networks due to morons with P2P junk like Bearshare (I mean honestly...). I am of course biased, but made it through with my 'gumdrop' flat-panel iMac without a problem.

The price is with the student discount, but with an added 1GB of RAM.

Yet, the question remains - WoW?

EDIT: Oh, and are there any other laptops in this price range I should take a look at? I've been looking into the Thinkpad from IBM as well...

What did you add to the dell to make it $300 more than what I posted above?

Faster hard drive and memory?

Newp

Fallingman

Dont buy the Extra Macbook RAM from Apple. They will charge you WAAAAAAY too much - seriously.

I just bought mine from a 3rd party place and installed it myself.

Revolutionary

GrimReaper wrote: »

You've forgotten one thing.

A Macbook can have both OS X and Windows on there.

He must buy the Windows software too, though. And it is darn inconvenient to have to reboot every time you want to switch OS.

I say Dell, by the way. And you'll end up playing games in college, although not as often.

Djeet

that Dell chassis has more flex (feels chintzier) than the macbook. i cannot stand the macbook keyboard (awesome technology, but i just don't like it) nor the trackpad. i've seen OSX running on PCs (probably not legal though) and ubuntu's terribly easy to setup if you're concerned about malware. check through your school, for example a few years ago at UT Austin there were programs through which you could get either Dells or Apples at a discount, and you could Windows, Office, and a few other apps very cheap (like $10-20, just to offset the duplication expense).

Rook

Both laptops are going to be really shit at playing games from the last 2-3 years as the graphics cards are so weak.

mrcheesypants

I might be flamed for this comment but have you thought about shooting for a cheaper dell and run Ubuntu on it? WoW is supposedly the best game to run on WINE so you should have few problems running it in Linux.

Just throwing the idea out there but if I was going between the mac and dell, I would go dell. I could never understand what advantages a mac has for "college work." I mean the dell is cheaper, can run games better, and all you really need for college is internet and an office suite. But you really shouldn't buy a laptop for gaming, there are several reasons not to and few reasons to do so.

bigpanda

What will you be studying in school? If you're going into CS you're going to need Linux at some point. Sure you can use the terminals in the lab, but if you're willing to do that then a laptop is probably pretty moot then.

Macs were terribly frowned upon while I was in college taking CS but that was before the iPod and OS X so things may have changed since.

If you're really concerned about games then get a desktop. I had a Dell laptop in college and I had problems running newer games outside of 3 months after purchase. The MacBook will be the same way. You can probably get away with a MacBook Pro for games, but you're looking at a lot more money now.

Will you be able to play WoW on either, yes. Will it run very well with all the options turned on or when you're in a capital city, most likely no. BTW, I also run WoW on BootCamp and OS X and it's pretty much the same, but I tend to use Windows as some of the plugins that I use aren't OS X compatible.

I have a MacBook that I got last November and it chokes when I have most of the video options enabled. Compare that to the desktop that I built back in 2002 and never had any lag at all with everything cranked to 11.

Iroh

The Dell, whether at the price in the OP, or the ~$900 one posted later on, is pretty much the definitive winner here. The Macbook really doesn't offer any advantages for what it would be used for, so it doesn't make sense to blow the extra 1-400 dollars on it.

OS-X is not by any means worth the price of admission when you are a college student. Put that extra money in savings. You'll thank me later.

Aqua Dark

First off quit worring about if you can run WoW or not, that game will ruin your college career. I know plenty of people who failed out becuase of it. Secondly if you do not plan on lugging around a laptop with you, either dell or Mac, dont buy one. You can get a desktop that is better for the same price or the same for a cheaper price.

Speaking from personal experience, freshman year is a cake walk if you stay on top of your homework, and there is plenty of time and people to play games with, so keep in mind if you love video games screw the labtop all together and buy a better desktop with that same money.

I cannot stress enough, if you have a personality type that lends yourself to becoming addicted to games, do not bring or buy games like WoW, MMO's in general, or really indepth RPG's. You will overspend the time you alloted to video games and your grades will suffer. I am not a parent, I am a sophmore; i just got out of my freshman year. Take my word on it time intensive games can easily ruin you. My first semester i got a 2.7, my second semester i got a 3.5; the differnece was i stopped playing RPG's all together.

key points here are:

A) are you even going to carry a labtop around with you? (i know i thought i was, but the farthest it ever traveled was from my room to a buddy's to have DOW lans.)
How much do you like games?
C)Fuck WOW it will Fuck you.

FirstComradeStalin

Revolutionary wrote: »

GrimReaper wrote: »

You've forgotten one thing.

A Macbook can have both OS X and Windows on there.

He must buy the Windows software too, though. And it is darn inconvenient to have to reboot every time you want to switch OS.

I say Dell, by the way. And you'll end up playing games in college, although not as often.

You're forgetting that a lot of universities offer a free license of XP or Vista, or sometimes both. The OP should check his university's policy on the whole MSDN thing.

Organichu

I have an IBM Thinkpad. The battery power is pathetic.

GrimReaper

Revolutionary wrote: »

He must buy the Windows software too, though. And it is darn inconvenient to have to reboot every time you want to switch OS.

I say Dell, by the way. And you'll end up playing games in college, although not as often.

VMWare Fusion and Parallels Desktop say hi.

Also, if he's in college chances are he can get windows and various windows apps for either free or next to nothing.

Lewisham

I'll second saying the WoW will run like crap on the Macbook.

I'll also second that you shouldn't do this in the first place, particuarly in the first year. If you spend all your free time playing WoW, you won't have any friends and be deeply unhappy.

Just don't do it. Too many lives have been ruined!

Toldo

Haha, interesting replies all 'round...

I live outside of the US, see, and I got a scholarship that only lasts for one year. I'm not sure if I will continue studying in America after that year, but I do know that I need a new laptop, and buying one over there will save me $1000. I'll be studying English or creative writing, so I won't be getting into graphical design or anything.

saggio

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I might be flamed for this comment but have you thought about shooting for a cheaper dell and run Ubuntu on it? WoW is supposedly the best game to run on WINE so you should have few problems running it in Linux.

Just throwing the idea out there but if I was going between the mac and dell, I would go dell. I could never understand what advantages a mac has for "college work." I mean the dell is cheaper, can run games better, and all you really need for college is internet and an office suite. But you really shouldn't buy a laptop for gaming, there are several reasons not to and few reasons to do so.

Do not go with an ATI graphics card if you plan to run Linux. They do not release an open source driver, nor do they release enough specs for someone to code a driver that can do 3D rendering. The binary driver they provide will probably not work - I had to flash my BIOS and dick around with my xorg.config, and I still never got it to work properly.

Dark Moon

Do not buy a laptop with a good video card. If you want to play new games, you buy a desktop. Buying a laptop for use in a college environment should mean that you're biggest concern is getting a small, portable workstation. Therefore the smaller (to a point) and more battery efficient, the better. I'm going to go against the general consensus of the thread so far and suggest the Macbook. The smaller screen will make for a longer battery life, and once you take off that extra 1gb of RAM you're not going to buy from Apple and buy 3rd party instead, the Apple option should be cheaper than the Dell. I would also argue that having the Apple build quality/option to buy Applecare along with being able to run Mac OS X is worth paying more along, but that depends on your OS preferences.

mrcheesypants

saggio wrote: »

mrcheesypants wrote: »

I might be flamed for this comment but have you thought about shooting for a cheaper dell and run Ubuntu on it? WoW is supposedly the best game to run on WINE so you should have few problems running it in Linux.

Just throwing the idea out there but if I was going between the mac and dell, I would go dell. I could never understand what advantages a mac has for "college work." I mean the dell is cheaper, can run games better, and all you really need for college is internet and an office suite. But you really shouldn't buy a laptop for gaming, there are several reasons not to and few reasons to do so.

Do not go with an ATI graphics card if you plan to run Linux. They do not release an open source driver, nor do they release enough specs for someone to code a driver that can do 3D rendering. The binary driver they provide will probably not work - I had to flash my BIOS and dick around with my xorg.config, and I still never got it to work properly.

Yeah I forgot Linux sucks for ATI Graphics cards.

Uncle Long

Toldo wrote: »

Haha, interesting replies all 'round...

I live outside of the US, see, and I got a scholarship that only lasts for one year. I'm not sure if I will continue studying in America after that year, but I do know that I need a new laptop, and buying one over there will save me $1000. I'll be studying English or creative writing, so I won't be getting into graphical design or anything.

If you're going to play games avoid getting a laptop.

Now that that's out of the way: I just finished up my BA in English and what you're going to want is something small (though with a full sized keyboard) with great battery life. I ended up getting a 12 in iBook used and it has been about the perfect match for me. I've written two books and more papers/short stories than I can remember and being able to pull this thing out of my bag while I was at the coffee shop or between classes or whatever was simply ideal. I put another Gig of Ram in her when I got her and I now have a really great laptop that I have no need to update for a long time for around $500.00.

I'm not necessarily pushing for mac, though it has been great for me, but I am proposing that you consider getting something small with great battery life. Big laptops are just shitty to carry around and you'll end up leaving it in your dorm all day like a desktop.

KiTA

ObWarning: I work for Dell.

Toldo wrote: »

Option 2: Dell Inspiron 1501

AMD Turion™ 64 X2 Mobile Technology TL-60 (2.0GHz/1MB)
2GB RAM
120GB HDD
15.4" widescreen
Vista Home Premium
MS Office included
ATI RADEON® Xpress1150 256MB HyperMemory™ (Integrated)

Price: $1,219.80

The second option is looking way better than the first. Is there any logic in this? I'm looking for a laptop that I can use for college stuff but also have the option to play games on it.

The Dell Outlet is your friend.

$729.00
Inspiron 1501
AMD Turion 64 Dual Core - 1800
Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
15.4 screen
120 GB SATA Hard Drive (5400 RPM)
2000
DVD/RW
ATI Radeon Xpress 1150 256MB HyperMemory
1490 Wireless Card

That does not include any extensions to the warranty, unfortunately...

Raslin

Or look into something like this

http://www.cyberpowerpc.com/system/ntbkx649550.asp?v=d

2 gigs, 256mb 7600, upgrade to the 2.0 ghz, its 1325. Better than either computer in the OP, at least.

There's also the X5-5900, downgrade to the 2.0ghz processor, add a gig of memory, and use the 120 gig, 7200rpm HD... cheaper, and probably better.

Brodo Faggins

I'm also gonna recommend the MacBook here. While it may be pricier, you really do get what you pay for. The hardware itself is solid, and doesn't feel cheaply made like Dells do. I also find myself far more productive on a Mac than I ever do on windows, largely due to features like Exposé.

OS preference is all up to you though, dick around with OS X a little if you plan on going the MacBook route.

Toldo

I think I'm going for the Macbook. I'm not a big PC gamer, and definitely not a big Mac gamer. What I need the laptop for is writing - I've been writing for five years and I'm currently working on a novel which will in no way be done by August. I suppose some of you may want to ask why I am buying a brand new Macbook only for that one task? Well, I need a new laptop. A small, compact laptop with a great user interface that I can hang onto for quite a while.

I think it's solved, apart from one thing: is Newegg a good place to buy RAM from?

Malkor

Yes, although you could always find cheaper RAM if you look hard enough. Try pricewatch.com

lordswing

newegg is fine, i bought my ram off of there, but do check out ram prices in ads and on other sites. notebook ram has dropped like a brick, best deal i saw was 2 gigs for $50 after rebate, although the speed was only 533 iirc

saltiness

Do not buy a gaming laptop unless you specifically want a laptop that is too heavy and large to carry around, gets terrible battery life and will be too hot to actually put on your lap.

Another vote for MacBook here.