Laptop Advice, Mac Vs MS - Uni Related.

I started uni earlier this september doing "Computer games development" Bsc.

Our tutor pointed out the huge student discount we get on macs etc and said preferably you should buy a good laptop to do your work on. Obviously we arent expected to but for various reasons i am after a laptop and may as well make it relevant to my course.

The problem is i know nothing about Macs and dont know whether to spend alot of money on one or get something else probably cheaper with just as good specs. Bare in mind i get 15% (stated) off Macs (although ive heard i get alot more off).

So what would you guys suggest, i guess ill be using various software on it for my course and i recall my tutor saying it should have 4gb of ram and 20gb hardrive.

Is there anything im missing with macs? I can get all microsoft stuff on it if i like, such as office or msn with no problems? And what are the main plus points of macs?

Thanks in advance.

everything a mac can do a pc can do for better and cheaper, just mac makes all the stuff they put in the macs and you can run any os on either (more or less) so do you prefer windows, linux or mac os? if you want cheap get a pc and download linux (it's free in most places) and throw it on an external hdd. Just make sure the laptop you get supports boot from usb, so yeah that way you have both, but quite frankly short of the mac fangirls they are dying, they serve no purpose anymore, short of overpaying for something. If you REALLY want to us mac os, you could just buy it and throw it on but a pc will be cheaper for the same specs (market competition and all)

not true, pc can't run mac OS succesfully, pc doesn't even have the screen that mac provides at all. Even MAC os makes it run more beautiful. MAC obviously has better parts better built, and it runs with much less power, it's easier to work and you will never really loose your files, the system is built that if something happens you can still recover some of your data.

in reality, anything a pc can do so can mac. have you even looked at the new macs? I have one and the way to browse through them with the mouse is amazing, you can scroll on any page with two fingers only, you don't need to click the bar.
it's all so easy and fast for work.

get a mac if you can, if you need windows on it run bootcamp and make a partition, its so simple! working on mac is simple, and intelligent minds don't complicate themselves.

mac is easy to learn how to use, if you don't know you will be used to it within a week trust me, it's definitely more expensive, by far, but it's way more rewarding at the end, so if you can get it go for it.

you can get better specs for cheaper on pc, but mac doesn't need all that massive power to run lol with a little bit you will be just fine.


btw: there are websites that provide microsoft software but made for mac, so everything that pc uses so can mac get.... and if not, run a partition with windows =)! but you will spend most of your time on mac.

/endrant.

I have a imac and although they do need less to run better, there's no hiding from the fact that you need to spend big big money on one with a decent graphics card.

just depends on what you're studying. If you are a lolartist or some worthless major like that, go with a MAC.

Science, go with a PC.

i'm a lolartist ;<


industrial/interior design ftw and it's not useless!

I've been a user of Apple products for quite a while, and overall it really comes down to preference.

As Jetackuu said, you can have the MacBook run Windows and Mac OS separately, or at the same time.

I don't know if the argument of iPhone vs. any other spin-off applies to this, but Apple just makes very good quality products, and I would gladly pay $1,500-$3,000 for a MacBook over any PC laptop, just as I had purchased an iPhone over all the other spin-offs.

If you're going into "Computer Games Development," I don't think a Mac is really user friendly for that kind of software, and a PC would probably be better, mostly because PC is so customizable, and I assume that PCs are the main choice for programming video games, if that's what Development means, but then again, a Mac can run any PC application, even FFXI/FFXIV, with the same processing power.

I'm completely biased though, and I'm no computer whiz, so you can take or leave my opinion.

Buy a macbook pro, you wont regret it.
Once you go mac you never go back ;o)


lol:P

But yeah, I used to hate macs.
Now I'm never ever gonna buy a pc-laptop ever again.
Simply amazing.

Thank you for the replies so far, i feel im getting a better understanding of what they are both all about. With the mac, my friend says ill get a "crappy graphics card" and im not sure how this will affect me yet :P.

I mean, i do want to get something to play ffxiv but i'd pushed that aside and told myself i'd get a ps3 in march for it. If i spent that same money i would on a mac on a pc would i have a laptop doing what i need + running ffxiv?

Also i think my tutors point was that macs run the sofware smoother and better or something :s but he did say that it could be a decent other laptop.

Right now my thoughts are
Mac: Is nice on the inside and out, better quality can safely do pretty much everything - perhaps some hassle if i want to start getting MS software.

Something else: Better specs for same money, perhaps run ffxiv - should be able to run everything fine. In reality of real assets it seems a no brainer to not go for mac since its stated as better specs and all, where as mac wins with perceived quality.

This is how im seeing it atm please correct me if im wrong and my view may or may not change depending if ffxiv would run on it

If you want to run FFXIV then go for a laptop as you'd need to spend well over a grand for a mac to even run low res as mine cost 800 quid and scored around 300 on the benchmark with it's lol 126mb graphics card.

Overall you'd need 1500+ on the mac lol. not worth it as i'm sure you realize.

A PC will give you more power for your money, but a Mac got all its hardware made to fit OSX, so the drivers etc run flawlessly.
In my experience my macbook runs windows smoother than most PCs I've seen >_<

The software you need will probably run smoother on a mac, but a PC will probably do just fine.

I think the new macbooks can even run ffxiv lol a macbook pro for sure can run FFXIV.

I ordered ffxiv and going to try it, I will tell you if my small humble macbook can run it which I have no doubt.

but if you are really concerned about power just go macbook pro.
it'll cost a little more, my macbook costs 1k and the pro costs uhhh 1200 i think?

Mac OS x doesn't need all that power for whatever you are doing really, for windows and gaming it's different. I am not sure about the crappy graphics card, isn't macbook designed for art and development? so shouldn't it have a good graphics card by nature? I haven't had problems with mine at all. I've used win7 and heavy games on it before too, no problems and runs smooth, but everything runs way better on the mac side of my apple.

In a macbook pro you should get a geforce GT320-330 which should be able to run XIV, but probably not at full graphics.

Edit: Hell, even the normal macbook have a GT320 now

If you haven't been to apple.com, you can take a look at this page for more details.
http://www.apple.com/macbookpro/

There are tabs for features/specs on there as well.

so mine has one and can run ffxiv? ;o mine is the newest one.

I was going off the norwegian site, but I belive it's the same worldwide, so I guess so.

this is what my mac info says

NVIDIA GeForce 9400M:

Chipset Model: NVIDIA GeForce 9400M
Type: GPU
Bus: PCI
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: NVIDIA (0x10de)
Device ID: 0x0863
Revision ID: 0x00b1
ROM Revision: 3462

9400 is in the previous model, same as I have.

hmm the uk site says this graphics card for macbook pro

NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 256 MB

My friend said it was crap, is it? :P

Edit: macbook playing ffxiv just made it sound a whole lot sexier, would be cool if you could get back to me darki :) I dont mind it not on full settings so long as its not all grainy and crap like lots of screenies posted on here.

It's not brand new, so I suppose that's crap for the hardcore gamers?
It's a laptop, it's not ment to be end-all in epic hardware.

Well, i dont think he ment compared to top end, just in general. So you recon thats good enough to play ffxiv decently?

I can play 14 just fine on my comp with a GTX280, should be alittle more powerful than the GT320, but it should work nearly as good.

can mine run it too fine?


and i promise i will minuss just hold on a few days

Idk, should run it, but idk how well.. :P

Frankly, i'm surprised that Flion hasn't shown up yet. lol


That is the biggest load of *** i have ever seen. Regardless of the OS, you can recover files if the OS crashes. As long as the hard drive isn't damaged, you can easily get into it to recover files using either a live boot linux disk or a windows install disk. I do it all the time for my customers.

Need i remind you that OSX is linux/unix based, so it should technically should be open source software. Just sayin

actually, the gtx280 should be substantially more powerful than a gt320.

But a 320 should still run it :P

oh? but you can't recover files after a disk has been wiped clean with windows. with mac you can, there are like a variety of ways to wipe clean a disk, and if you regret it you can recover the files, depending on what kind of clean up you did.

I once formatted a PC by mistake and recovered all files needed, so it's totally possible with a normal PC aswell.
I dont think the software we used were cheap, but still >_>

ahhhhh i didnt know