Laptop Choice #2: Mac Air and pro, Dell XPS and Alienware? (Details inside)

[Alvorea]

For the ones that haven't read the first version of this thread, I am looking foward to buy a laptop next month and need your help to pick one from the list down here.

Things you have to know before posting or voting:

• I am a designer, most on photomanipulation and adobe suite (illustrator, inDesign, lightroom and photoshop) so, it would be nice to have a high quality screen.
• Sometimes, i will have to use my future laptop with my customers to show them my portfolio and their work on meetings that may exceed 3 hours so, design and battery life have to be on count
• I have a gaming desktop, core i7 hp with nice videocard and all razer crap and most of time when i REALLY want to go gaming i will sit there on my corner and play
• I want my laptop to run WoW, not on best settings but 30 fps is enough for me so I can play when i am not in home and have a free time.
• I want it to be durable, I love my gadgets and use to be very very careful with them, but I will spend alot of money on this one, and i want it to last at least 3 years.
• All specs that i will post here, goes for the same price for me here in Brazil and i cant go any higher.
• Asus has no stores here in Brazil, and I really dont want to get anything other than Dell or Mac due the customer support here and warranty
• Apple store offers me a discount for beeing in my college and that is already on the count.
• I will be carrying my laptop around ALOT.
• I use an external HD with 2tb for most of my stuff.
• Every single word you tell me will be really appreciated and will help me out with my decision
• Thanks for all the feedback on the first version of this thread here that can now be closed.
• Never had an apple or allienware before and my Dell experience is pretty nice until now.
  
  ____________________________Following the Chosen models_________________________
  
  13" Macbook Air 2011:
• 128gb flashdrive hd
• Intel Core i5 dual core 1,7GHz
• 4GB ram
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Mac OSX Lion
• Backlight Keyboard
• Aluminium cover
• Source for details: here and the image of it here
  
  
  13" Macbook Pro 2011:
  
  
• Intel Core i5 dual core 2,3GHz
• 4GB 1333MHz
• 320GB 5400 rpm1
• Intel HD Graphics 3000
• Aluminium cover
• Mac OSX Lion
• May run Windows 7
• Source for details: here and the image of it here]
  

15,6" Dell XPS:

• Intel Core i7-2630QM 2Ghz-2.9 Ghz Turbo Boost
• Full HD 1080p (1920x1080)
• 6GB DDR3 1333Mhz ram
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• 750gb HD (7200 rpm)
• NVidia GeForce GT540m 2gb
• Blue ray reader and cd/dvd recorder
• Maxx Audio 3 soundboard
• 9 cells lithium battery
• Plastic Cover?
• Source for Details & image: here

11.6" Dell Alienware M11x

• Intel Core i7-2617M (1.5Ghz-2.6Ghz)
• Nvidia GeForce GT 540M 2GB DDR3
• 6GB dual channel 1333mhz ddr3
• 750GB (7200rpm) Hard Drive
• Microsoft Home & Student Office
• Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
• World of Warcraft Installed
• Aluminium cover
• Backlight keyboard
• Source for Details and Image: here
  
  _______________________________end of the models list_______________________________
  
  
  

Guys, once again, thanks for every single feedback on the last thread, and now here is the list of the models i will get.
Please, avoid all the pc VS mac war and post construtive criticism and your own experiences with the labels I put up here.

Some Questions:

How durable are Alienware pcs and laptops? is it that well made like apple and regular dell stuff?

Will I be able to use my samsung external HD on the apple stuff to get my work images and sources?

Whats the diference btw the i5 from mbp and the i5 from mba?

Whats the diference btw video cards and processor from Dell XPS and Dell Alienware?

Sorry for the wall of text, thanks in advance,

Gabriel
(Vateriel - Gurubashi - US)

[Arslay]

1. Alienware's are made well, they are durable unless you like to press your keys with a hammer, etc...
2. Most likely it will work, you should look up the External HDD first online.
3. The MBP's i5 Dual Core is clocked quite a bit higher (500 mHz) than the MBA.
4. The Alienware can run a higher resolution/more monitors better (more VRAM.)

I will list some Pro's and Con's of each:

MBA:
+SSD (fast boot/program open)
+Light
+Looks good
+Super portable
-Awful for Gaming (No Vcard)
-Awful for video editing/photo editing (lag)
-Lowish RAM
-Low cloked CPU


MBP:
+Decent weight
+Looks Good
+Okay CPU
+Portable
-Bad for Gaming (No Gcard but at least better CPU)
-Slightly bad for video edit/photo editing (though not that bad in reality)
-Meh RAM
-Slow HDD

Dell:
+Powerful processor (excellent)
+1080P Screen
+Good RAM
+Large/fast enough HDD
+Decent Graphics card
-Not great durability (plastic)
-Big/Heavy
-Doesn't look as 'pretty'

Alienware:
+Good processor
+Good Gcard (and smaller screen, all settings to max)
+Good RAM
+Large/fast enough HDD
+Portable/durable
+Big possible down-clock (for when on battery to maximize life)
-**Quite small screen
-Intimidating/not friendly looking to customers

All in all it depends what is most important for you.

If portability/gaming is what you want (most comfortable for YOU personally go ALIENWARE)
If you want to sit down and have a workstation (sit down and you have a machine go DELL)
If you want a balance of aesthetics, portability and power, but sub-par gaming ( gaming comes last go MacBook PRO)
If you want super portability and aesthetics at the cost of power (like an iPad, but a computer go MacBook AIR)


I tried to be as unbiased as possible and all I got was this wall of text! =P


Personally I would go for the Dell. It is a great hardware machine at the price of some portability. It won't scream unprofessional like a gaming laptop and it won't scream I throw money at a pretty and slow computer because it has an apple on it.

[ElfinHilon10]

In all honesty, I would highly recommend doing for the either the 13" inch MBP or a 15" MBP. They are expensive yes, and have worse stats than the alienware computers, BUT Alienware is a GAMING laptop, and when people see you pull out this huge laptop with all the lights and bells and whistles towards gaming, they might turn the other way or think less of your professionalism because you have a laptop made for gaming. It's a psychology issue. I would recommend getting the 15" due to the better specs in it, but either way, since it doesn't look like you'll be doing more then showing clientele your portfolio, you could get away with a MBP 13". Of course you're paying more for less (but isn't exactly different with alienware either..) but you do look more professional, because of the quality computer you will be working with.

That's my two cents, although I'm sure someone will bash this to hell since it's the internet and the windows fanboi's will come screaming out shouting "PC! PC!" I suggest you ignore them, and heed my advice. If you have questions you can message me. Good day!

[CookiesRawr]

The XPS is best for a designer. The Alienware and the XPS both have the same video chip and the XPS has a better and higher clock speed CPU, Which, as a designer, you will be using more. (If you are rendering and movie editing)
Listing WoW Preinstalled isn't really an advantage, It's not hard to use a Cat 5 cable to get it off your old laptop in about 20 minutes. Alienwares are over priced brandtrash, the same as a Mac.

For some personal opinions
-Anyone shouting "ALIENWARE ALIENWARE" is mostly likely a 12 year old kid whose mother as more cash then sense.
-The Macs both have integrated graphics. You will probably get less than 30FPS on anything higher than Low, That's for WoW which is mostly CPU based, Try playing any other game at a decent resolution or decent looking settings forget it unless you like your games to be like a slideshow at 2FPS

[Alvorea]

In all honesty, I would highly recommend doing for the either the 13" inch MBP or a 15" MBP. They are expensive yes, and have worse stats than the alienware computers, BUT Alienware is a GAMING laptop, and when people see you pull out this huge laptop with all the lights and bells and whistles towards gaming, they might turn the other way or think less of your professionalism because you have a laptop made for gaming. It's a psychology issue. I would recommend getting the 15" due to the better specs in it, but either way, since it doesn't look like you'll be doing more then showing clientele your portfolio, you could get away with a MBP 13". Of course you're paying more for less (but isn't exactly different with alienware either..) but you do look more professional, because of the quality computer you will be working with.

That's my two cents, although I'm sure someone will bash this to hell since it's the internet and the windows fanboi's will come screaming out shouting "PC! PC!" I suggest you ignore them, and heed my advice. If you have questions you can message me. Good day!

I got it, ty for ur two cents!

[Deleted]

That's my two cents, although I'm sure someone will bash this to hell since it's the internet and the windows fanboi's will come screaming out shouting "PC! PC!" I suggest you ignore them, and heed my advice. If you have questions you can message me. Good day!

Because shouting "Apple! Apple!" is not fanboism, amirite?

As for external drive, I had a weird experience recently - I connected my iOmega 1TB drive to my friend's Mac, and although it was able to read and copy files FROM the drive, it was unable to write any data TO it. A little googling told me that it's a question of formatting. Apple computers have trouble with NTFS-formatted drives. They can handle FAT32, but this has some serious limitations (4GB files tops). You can read more here - http://www.myfirstmac.com/index.php/mac/articles/1-external-hard-drive-for-your-mac-and-pc

I would support ElfinHilon10's notion of NOT choosing Alienware for the reasons stated - gaming laptop doesn't give off "professional" vibe. I am, however, against spending excessive amounts of money on inferior hardware just because someone painted an apple on it. So I'd go with Dell. I have good experiences with the brand, in my company we use all-Dell hardware, and at home I use a very nice IPS display (UH2311H), and am very happy with it.

[Alvorea]

1. Alienware's are made well, they are durable unless you like to press your keys with a hammer, etc...
2. Most likely it will work, you should look up the External HDD first online.
3. The MBP's i5 Dual Core is clocked quite a bit higher (500 mHz) than the MBA.
4. The Alienware can run a higher resolution/more monitors better (more VRAM.)

I will list some Pro's and Con's of each:

MBA:
+SSD (fast boot/program open)
+Light
+Looks good
+Super portable
-Awful for Gaming (No Vcard)
-Awful for video editing/photo editing (lag)
-Lowish RAM
-Low cloked CPU


MBP:
+Decent weight
+Looks Good
+Okay CPU
+Portable
-Bad for Gaming (No Gcard but at least better CPU)
-Slightly bad for video edit/photo editing (though not that bad in reality)
-Meh RAM
-Slow HDD

Dell:
+Powerful processor (excellent)
+1080P Screen
+Good RAM
+Large/fast enough HDD
+Decent Graphics card
-Not great durability (plastic)
-Big/Heavy
-Doesn't look as 'pretty'

Alienware:
+Good processor
+Good Gcard (and smaller screen, all settings to max)
+Good RAM
+Large/fast enough HDD
+Portable/durable
+Big possible down-clock (for when on battery to maximize life)
-**Quite small screen
-Intimidating/not friendly looking to customers

All in all it depends what is most important for you.

If portability/gaming is what you want (most comfortable for YOU personally go ALIENWARE)
If you want to sit down and have a workstation (sit down and you have a machine go DELL)
If you want a balance of aesthetics, portability and power, but sub-par gaming ( gaming comes last go MacBook PRO)
If you want super portability and aesthetics at the cost of power (like an iPad, but a computer go MacBook AIR)


I tried to be as unbiased as possible and all I got was this wall of text! =P

Thank you very much!

[Deleted]

I wouldn't touch the Alienware, as it's a bit overkill.

I personally would either go with the MBA or the XPS.

Arslay's post was good but not that great. MBA would be great for photo editing. You have a CPU in it that is on par with the previous round MPBs CPUs, plus the fact that it is NAND flash which is awesome for photoediting (and will far outweigh CPU lag, if there were to be any CPU lag at all). I'm still confused as to when 4GB became a lowish amount of RAM.

It's all about compromise. Do you want a more powerful laptop but have poorer quality build, higher weight, poorer battery, or less powerful laptop but have better quality build, better battery, lower weight.

[Arslay]

I wouldn't touch the Alienware, as it's a bit overkill.

I personally would either go with the MBA or the XPS.

Arslay's post was good but not that great. MBA would be great for photo editing. You have a CPU in it that is on par with the previous round MPBs CPUs, plus the fact that it is NAND flash which is awesome for photoediting (and will far outweigh CPU lag, if there were to be any CPU lag at all). I'm still confused as to when 4GB became a lowish amount of RAM.

It's all about compromise. Do you want a more powerful laptop but have poorer quality build, higher weight, poorer battery, or less powerful laptop but have better quality build, better battery, lower weight.

Neither mac has a graphics card!

[BicycleMafioso]

Since you want to run wow with 30fps+, no matter the settings, you will not be able to do it on the MacBooks.
Had this not been about games at all, recommending the MacBooks could've been easier.
But the DELL is superior in all the hardware, and does have a graphics card. It can run Wow.

I understand that you want people to convince you into buying the MacBooks, but if you want to run WoW, they are not the way to go. Impossibly so.

[Alvorea]

Since you want to run wow with 30fps+, no matter the settings, you will not be able to do it on the MacBooks.
Had this not been about games at all, recommending the MacBooks could've been easier.
But the DELL is superior in all the hardware, and does have a graphics card. It can run Wow.

I understand that you want people to convince you into buying the MacBooks, but if you want to run WoW, they are not the way to go. Impossibly so.

How brilliant, yeah, I heard the xps has 4kg tho and thats alot to be carrying around.

[Deleted]

Since you want to run wow with 30fps+, no matter the settings, you will not be able to do it on the MacBooks.
Had this not been about games at all, recommending the MacBooks could've been easier.
But the DELL is superior in all the hardware, and does have a graphics card. It can run Wow.

I understand that you want people to convince you into buying the MacBooks, but if you want to run WoW, they are not the way to go. Impossibly so.

Uhm, I think you're wrong. My MacBook Pro 13" from 2009 can run World of Warcraft at medium and maintain 30 FPS without effort. I haven't tried with the new MacBook Pro 13", but I doubt it would do worse.

[ispano]

I used to carry around my gaming laptop AND my normal laptop in my backpack. Gaming laptop is over 5.5kg without the AC adapter.

[Psii]

Uhm, I think you're wrong. My MacBook Pro 13" from 2009 can run World of Warcraft at medium and maintain 30 FPS without effort. I haven't tried with the new MacBook Pro 13", but I doubt it would do worse.

Where? out in the open with nothing around you?
Will it run 5 mans, maybe, probably okay.
Will it run 10 mans, unlikely, or if so painful.
Will it run 25 mans, not a chance in hell.

[BicycleMafioso]

How brilliant, yeah, I heard the xps has 4kg tho and thats alot to be carrying around.

It is. There's a clever pun with that in Swedish that isn't really translatable. (Seeing as notebooks are called portable computers, and gaming notebooks are referred to as draggable computers).
So no, moving one around isn't very fun.
But looking at the http://www.dellxps15z.com/ site which is a link to the computer from the link in your original post, it weighs "only" 2.51KG.
I got myself a laptop to not game on, yet it has similiar speccs, but weighs around 2.40KG, and that's easily portable. My old one, at 4.1KG 16" screen, wasn't. It's easily carriable every day.
It can handle games well enough for a non-gaming laptop (i5-2410m, 8GiB RAM, 160GB SSD, GT550M), but I don't think I'll ever use it for gaming.

---------- Post added 2011-07-23 at 06:45 PM ----------

Uhm, I think you're wrong. My MacBook Pro 13" from 2009 can run World of Warcraft at medium and maintain 30 FPS without effort. I haven't tried with the new MacBook Pro 13", but I doubt it would do worse.

Uhm, I know I'm right. The new one only sports an integrated graphics card that performs horrible in Wow.
Yours didn't.
New != Better.
You can't really argue with hardware.

[Deleted]

Where? out in the open with nothing around you?
Will it run 5 mans, maybe, probably okay.
Will it run 10 mans, unlikely, or if so painful.
Will it run 25 mans, not a chance in hell.

It did fine in even 40 man.

Uhm, I know I'm right. The new one only sports an integrated graphics card that performs horrible in Wow.
Yours didn't.
New != Better.
You can't really argue with hardware.

Fair point.

[Deleted]

For costumers sake, the MacBook is a solid choice. It looks elegant, and Apple is still sort-of a brag-brand amongst non-computer geeks. In contrary, the Alienware (given that they know what it actually is) will scream "GAMER" and might not give the professional image you want it to.

I personally (out of the 4 listed) would go for the XPS. It looks nice, has good performance and will last you 3 years (even though the last year might be slightly painful for high-end games). Taking gaming out of the equation, and having Windows 7 = OSX, I would go for the MacBook Pro just because it looks professional and gives a nice image towards potential clients, even though it isn't the best price/performance machine of the listed ones.

[Alvorea]

But looking at the http://www.dellxps15z.com/ site which is a link to the computer from the link in your original post, it weighs "only" 2.51KG.

I made a config for a dell xps 15z that i can afford for the price of the models listed here and ended up as:

> i5-2410m
> 4gb ram 1333mhz
> 720p screwn
> geforce gt 525m 1gb
> 500gb 7200rpm hd
> no bluray
>8cells battery

[Deleted]

I made a config for a dell xps 15z that i can afford for the price of the models listed here and ended up as:

> i5-2410m
> 4gb ram 1333mhz
> 720p screwn
> geforce gt 525m 1gb
> 500gb 7200rpm hd
> no bluray
>8cells battery

In short: go for it. It will outperform both the macs you consider by a very large margin.

[Deleted]

> geforce gt 525m 1gb

I would try to get a better GPU, even if that means breaking your budget. GT 525M benchmarks: http://www.videocardbenchmark.net/gp...eForce+GT+525M