Buying up a Macbook Pro...?

[James Herron]

I've been dabbling with the idea of taking the plunge & picking up a MBP in the New Year.

My first experiences with PCs in my College days were with Macs & the early versions of ArchiCAD. Fell in love with them both... but having worked in a few offices since, I've way more experience in the Windows/AutoCAD environment now.

Anyway, now with the whole Intel Mac development & the dual boot (Windows/OSX) possibilities, I'm trying to find a reason NOT to pick up a MBP. Up until recently, I'd set my neart on a Dell M90 laptop... but they may have been replaced by a newer model by now.

I've been scanning the forums for a while, particularly paying attention to discussions regarding MBPs... I'm trying to weigh up all the pros & cons, but I'm open to alternatives.

I'll be using it for AutoCAD most of the time, with any 3D modelling in Sketchup... but given the time, I'd be interested in getting more experience in 3DS. It would also be the main machine I'd be using between work & home. Don't mind issues about weight too much, but the budget is set at around £2k (€3k).

All suggestions are welcome.

[edvard san gabriel]

Ok...Ived bought my MBP last July,so it means it is still on the first generation.I'ved experienced a few problems with it,like it totally gets hot after sometime,and there is a whistling sound which i dunno where it came from.But asides from that,i dont have anything bad to say against MBP.(and im sure that they have done something with it by now).And as a testimonial for MBP, it was drop at least three times at about 3 feet high,and its still ok,asides from the dents it had from falling,wehehehe.(kids,dont try it at home).When it comes to performance,new MBP are about 40% faster than its ancestor.But price wise,it is much expensive to any laptop of the same specs,(or greater),at about 35%.But the benefit that you can get from it is that you can have two operating system on a single machine,means your getting the best of both worlds,(which seldom happens in real life,hehehe).So if you'll ask me,I'll recommend that you give it a try,you can still use your Windows programs and enjoy learning new stuff on Mac OS.Ciao!

[Andrew Lynn]

The reason not to would be that the keyboard and touchpad aren't great in Windows. Also, it's expensive, but it's "designer". Aside from that it's great.

Edvard: could the noise you're experiencing be the LCD inverter? That can be fixed under warranty, talk to an Apple rep.

[James Herron]

Can anybody suggest an alternative for comparison?

I can appreciate that the MBP is 'designer' like you suggest... but looking cool while surfing the net in my local coffee shop isn't a high priority. Don't get me wrong, I do love the look of it, but I'm interested in performance first.

Will I be taking a noticeable hit in performance over an equally priced alternative? Is Dell selling a replacement for the M90 (can't seem to find it on their site)?

Thanks for any suggestions.

[Andrew Lynn]

I don't think there is anything that significantly outperforms a 2.33GHz MBP - the 2.33 is the current high-end mobile chip. Dell does have the M90 with Core2 Duo (look under Small Business laptops) but when you bring it up to the same specs as the Apple it's actually a fair bit more expensive - with the 2.33, 2GB RAM, 160GB hard drive and higher res screen I'm seeing $3200. I'm pretty sure the ridiculous desktop chip Boxx and Alienware notebooks aren't available anymore, but there are some other nice Core2 notebooks out there, e.g.:
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834117372
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Produc...82E16834220106

I like the direction Asus is going in - I think it may provide a legit alternative to Apple. It's actually very similar to the MPB 17, down to the aluminum chassis, but no 2GB standard. But in general, when you're looking at similarly high-spec'ed machines (over 2GHz, 2GB standard, large hard drive, DVD burner, at least 1680x1050, good GPU with dedicated RAM, good service and build quality) you're in the price range of the MBP and it's perfectly reasonable to choose based on design.

[edvard san gabriel]

The reason not to would be that the keyboard and touchpad aren't great in Windows. Also, it's expensive, but it's "designer". Aside from that it's great.

Edvard: could the noise you're experiencing be the LCD inverter? That can be fixed under warranty, talk to an Apple rep.

Actually,one reason I bought it is that its a designer thing.Like they said,when meeting clients, show your merchandise.(I dont give prints on preliminaries unless the deal is close,people here wont pay for downpayments unless they see something)Its something that would tell your clients without saying a word that this guy is not just any punk who knows how to do 3d,but an executive who knows what he's doing.(or something like that,watch "Cath me if you can",you'll get good pointers on selling yourself.hehe.)

AJlynn,thanks for the advise,Im planning to do that,but Im having a really hectic schedule that i cannot find time to walk in the apple store to have it checked.But that sound can only be heard if im in MAC OS,it doesnt make that sound on Windows,so i think its not on the hardware,or is it?Anyway,I'll still go there to have it checked. (you never ceased to amazed me how you could be so knowledgable on technical issues).

[James Herron]

Thanks for the comments guys,

Hey AJ, what are your thoughts on the comparison between the Quadro card in the Dell M90 & the ATI Radeon X1600 in the MBP? Is it worth shelling out for the Quadro, of will the ATI card be sufficient for modelling. Does the Quadro only make a significant difference when rendering?

Cheers,

James.

[Andrew Lynn]

The Quadro makes no difference when rendering unless you're using Gelato, and Gelato isn't good enough for architecture work, so it's only going to matter when modelling. The Quadro card will be faster, but the ATI is no slouch, especially now with Max9 wanting you to use DirectX. Also, I've always been very unimpressed with Dell's notebook build quality - I don't know anything about the M90, but I know a lot of people who have the M70 (it was the recommended computer for MArch students at SU last year) and it's built like a cheap piece of plastic - in that price range I'd expect something more like what Apple, Asus or HP use.

[Jonas Callewaert]

to chime in here myself

I would say go with a Toshiba TabletPC r25 (customized) or something with the new core2duo anything BUT dell or apple!
http://www.toshibadirect.com/td/b2c/...&in_dim_srch=1
after going to a tablet myself(for 900$ about a year ago) I would never go back to anything else (but i would like to go up but am waiting to see what goes quad core first)
the power for it as a art tool is amazing, real precision of organic input, i still drooll over it

try M.O.I. if you get one (from the original maker of Rhinoceros) also ArtrageII pro

as far as quadro it makes a big difference when in real time working with openGL programs (like if you had your openGL driver in AutoCAD on) I've always run my home systems with softmoded Geforce cards and been happy.
http://forums.guru3d.com/showthread.php?t=172822

I've set up many MBP's as bootcamped/parralled PC's but I would still rather always have a Tablet

[James Herron]

Thanks for the quick reply.

Wise words. You read a lot of stuff on the Dell website about how the M90 is Autodesk certified, etc. Certainly gets your attention... but then you also need to consider things like build quality. I haven't seen an M90 first hand, so your comments are welcome.

Unless I run into a serious problem between now & Xmas, it looks like I'll be nailing my colours to the Mac flag in the New Year. One last thing, would there be any benefits to waiting a few months..? Are there any Apple developments (hardware/software/OS) in the pipeline that would justify putting off the purchase for a while?