Gaming Buying a laptop this weekend. Macpro or PC?

[JJBro1]

I really want a macbook pro but i heard it wasn't that good at playing windows games. I don't want a pc because i like mac os better and ive had bad experiences with windows (viruses, crashes etc) but i want to be able to play windows games. I know that you can bootcamp windows with macs but i heard that macs are overpriced and you could get a laptop with better specs for cheaper. I also heard that you can't change the graphics card for either of them (correct me if im wrong). So which one should i get?

 

[Seven]

Get a PC.

Honestly... you'd have to /try/ to get a virus to get one these days, especially if you've got a fine antivirus program, etc. Moreover, as you said, Macbook prices certainly don't warrant its relatively lower specs.

 

[Lodis]

If you want to play Windows games, get a Windows based laptop. if you want to play real games with real performance on a laptop then nothing less than a 9800M or a GTX 260M should be considered. Check out the NP8662.

 

[notnarb]

Wait two months, then get a Vista based laptop. You will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out. As far as viruses: don't be stupid and you won't get one. Protip: Pokemon_the_First_Movie.exe is not a movie file and if it won't open in OSX, you'll probably just end up logging onto your windows partition to load up the virus.

Post what games you are aiming at playing so we can better evaluate your situation.

 

[JJBro1]

Wait two months, then get a Vista based laptop. You will get a free upgrade to Windows 7 when it comes out. As far as viruses: don't be stupid and you won't get one. Protip: Pokemon_the_First_Movie.exe is not a movie file and if it won't open in OSX, you'll probably just end up logging onto your windows partition to load up the virus.

Post what games you are aiming at playing so we can better evaluate your situation.

the orange box, left 4 dead, cod4. Is this a good choice?
http://www.shopping.hp.com/webapp/shopping...e=HDX18t_series

 

[JJBro1]

also is 8 hours of battery life for a notebook ridiculously long? The hp that i linked to said it can come with 2 8 cell batteries, how long will that last?

 

[notnarb]

also is 8 hours of battery life for a notebook ridiculously long? The hp that i linked to said it can come with 2 8 cell batteries, how long will that last?

8 hours is ridiculously long, 8 cell batteries on the other hand are commonplace among large laptops. I would not recommend an 18" laptop, it's going to be large, heavy, and chew through batteries like nobodies business. I would look up reviews of the laptop to see how well it fares with batteries

Edit: It shouldn't be hard to get something that runs the orange box. Check benchmarks of mobile gpus.

 

[dark42]

You can play all the Windows games you want on the Macbook Pro if you install Windows on it through Bootcamp. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html

 

[JJBro1]

You can play all the Windows games you want on the Macbook Pro if you install Windows on it through Bootcamp. http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/bootcamp.html

that's what im trying to tell people. But i think im sold on that hp.

 

[Joe88]

the performance to price ratio is just really bad
alot of people just buy a mac/apple products because they think its a status symbol

but smart shoppers look elsewhere, you are not gonna get a good deal on performance with macs without paying an arm and a leg
besides, you can just get hackintosh if you really love the OSX interface and install that on mostly any PC

 

[JJBro1]

the performance to price ratio is just really bad
alot of people just buy a mac/apple products because they think its a status symbol

but smart shoppers look elsewhere, you are not gonna get a good deal on performance with macs without paying an arm and a leg
besides, you can just get hackintosh if you really love the OSX interface and install that on mostly any PC

i just liked the fact that its "virus proof" and that it can run windows so im not missing out on anything, but what do you think about the laptop that i linked to?

 

[kjean]

i just liked the fact that its "virus proof"

QUOTE(MiniMoose64 @ Dec 31 2008, 03:51 AM) I don't need any. I have a Mac.

That's made my day. Keep telling yourself that, you do know the first virus was on an Apple.

yeah, lol @ small world.

 

[dark42]

There's no such thing as a "virus-proof" OS, if you're an idiot and just run anything you see you deserve what's coming to you. There actually are a few pieces of malware for Macs. For example, recently there was a trojan'd pirated copy of iWork 09 floating around on Bittorrent, yes, for Mac OS X Leopard. The only reason there are "no viruses" for Mac OS is because of the low market share. With any OS, you have to be smart, don't just go running random things you get off the internet as root. I'm really sick of Apple's "no viruses" campaign, because they're gonna be in a world of hurt when Mac OS's market share rises and there will be more malware written for the platform, and the clueless users will take it out on Apple because they were promised a "virus-free" computer.
Yes, I know Mac OS X is UNIX, a very secure OS, but if the user gives root access to anything that asks for it all security is worthless.

 

[playallday]

i just liked the fact that its "virus proof"

First of all, it does have a few viruses. Second, you don't want viruses? Then get Linux (Ubuntu) on that PC, even better then a Mac for viruses.

 

[Mangofett]

I wanna say to honestly consider an Asus laptop.

My friend got this a few weeks back http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1218044029168

It gets about 4 hours of regular use (read: non gaming) with wifi and it has a great graphics card and everything.

 

[JJBro1]

I wanna say to honestly consider an Asus laptop.

My friend got this a few weeks back http://www.bestbuy.com/site/olspage.jsp?sk...d=1218044029168

It gets about 4 hours of regular use (read: non gaming) with wifi and it has a great graphics card and everything.

but isn't the 1GB Nvidia GeForce GT 130M better than the one that laptop has?

 

[MicShadow]

Honestly, DO NOT get a macbook pro. Way too pricey for way too little.

 

[Governa]

i just liked the fact that its "virus proof"

First of all, it does have a few viruses. Second, you don't want viruses? Then get Linux (Ubuntu) on that PC, even better then a Mac for viruses.

You are confusing Trojans (require user permission to actually 'infect' a machine) with Viruses (don't require any user intervention to 'infect' a machine). There are zero viruses in the wild capable of infecting Mac OS X.

The argument of the user base penetration is also, to my opinion, not valid. Mac OS 8 and 9 had a couple of viruses (specially, surprise, MS Office macro viruses) while having a much much lower market share than Mac OS X.

The Unix underpinnings of Mac OS X make it safer since the NeXT days, not magic or Apple's PR.

Regarding Linux, I already saw a per-process Linux worm infecting the ELF's PLT section, and ptrace() can be perverted very easily, so lets not make quick assumptions here.

On a personal note, I'm comfortable with a whole variety of operating systems (mobile included) due to my work in the telecommunications field. The best option runs down to personal and/or professional needs, budget or preferences. I find myself being more productive on a Unix based OS but grandma might not.

 

[tatumanu]

It really depends on what you need a laptop for, if you want it for gaming definatly buy a good pc, you will pay way less.
If you can afford a Macbook Pro, it is excellent for basicly anything! Gaming on Bootcamp is pretty good. The only thing i hate about the new macbooks is the damn screen, way to glossy, except for the Macbook Pro 17" Anti-Reflex screen, it is awsome ... and expensive as hell. You can also buy a PC laptop with the same processor and graphic card as a Mac and install Mac OS X through the Hackintosh Hack. I've seen a desktop Hackintosh before and it works extremely well.

 

[tatumanu]

It really depends on what you need a laptop for, if you want it for gaming definatly buy a good pc, you will pay way less.
If you can afford a Macbook Pro, it is excellent for basicly anything! Gaming on Bootcamp is pretty good. The only thing i hate about the new macbooks is the damn screen, way to glossy, except for the Macbook Pro 17" Anti-Reflex screen, it is awsome ... and expensive as hell. You can also buy a PC laptop with the same processor and graphic card as a Mac and install Mac OS X through the Hackintosh Hack. I've seen a desktop Hackintosh before and it works extremely well.