You guys are probably sick of my laptop threads so I'm sorry and I'll try to make this the last one <_<

I'm looking for a "desktop replacement"-type laptop -- that is, it doesn't have to be that mobile or have great battery life, but I need it to have some decent power behind it -- including enough for some moderate gaming (primarily Steam/Source games like L4D/TF2) at maxed settings at full framerate (which isn't saying much but still). For work-related stuff, I just need stuff that can do moderately intense image editing (mostly PS), maybe some video editing, and coding.

• I was looking at 'gaming' laptops originally and found some ones that could fit the bill at around $1000. But then I thought,
• Why not just build a desktop for less and with much more power? But then, the prospect of having to ship it back and forth cross-country (for school) or even just move it from one apartment to the next deterred me.
• Then, defying all rationality and my staunch belief that Macbooks are overpriced, I developed an inexplicable desire for a Macbook-family laptop and OSX. The Macbook Pro is the only such one that fits my criteria. I'd prefer the 15" one, but
• It starts at $2000
• It has a mediocre 9600M GT in it
• There are 17" laptops with video cards twice as strong for like $500 less or more.

And yet I still have this effing irrational desire for the MBP and OSX, probably due to Apple's voodoo brainwashing marketing.

So --

1. Someone convince me not to get a MBP
2. Is there somewhere where I can find a MBP for like. Less than $1500. Even though paying even $1500 for the MBP's specs is a travesty?

Thanks in advance :x

You might want to look around hardforum/anandtech's FS/T forums. I've gotten some really good deals on barely used Macs.

I bought my MBP for right around $1500 on some refurbished/sale promotion.

Thanks for the tip buck -- it was really helpful.

Also just a note I mean the new (Unibody) MBP. Bwah. >_<

Does anyone have any experience running windows / games on a MBP? People on notebookreview said there are cooling/fan issues in Vista =/

looks like the MBP comes with 2 graphics processors (the integrated + discrete), so that justifies the cost a little, and might give you the graphics performance you want.

I won't be persuading you not to get the MBP. Because I want one, and can't justify the cost

You said you considered a desktop but were wary of the idea of moving it around? Well, get a small form factor (SFF) PC then. Should be a lot cheaper, on account of using standard desktop PC parts. It was the choice I made over 5 years ago when I first went to uni and it worked out very well for me. Plus it gave me the option of upgrading the graphics card when, as I had expected, the 9800pro became outdated faster than my CPU did. I got myself a Shuttle XPC, but there's more choice in the market nowadays - you can get very small shoebox-style cases that will accept mATX (micro ATX) motherboards, of which there are a decent range, with good performance, flexibility in use and price - as you'd expect from desktop parts. As opposed to Shuttles, which to be fair are a bit too limited (they have a custom motherboard form factor so you don't have that much choice).

You might want to choose a slightly less-than-top-end processor, otherwise you'll find the smallish cooling fans will have to operate at a whiningly high speed, but you'll still have something faster than a laptop, for less money.

Alternatively I might as well mention this laptop, which I've seen some positive reviews on:
http://www.amazon.com/MSI-GT725-074US-17-Inch-Laptop/dp/B001N44U9E

Ahh, thanks. I actually have a sff PC right now and thought about it briefly, but I dunno. The one I have right now is sorta gimped in upgradability due to space/cooling/power supply and I said to myself if I'm gonna build a desktop I wanna make it a full-blown mid tower. I could be wrong, though (correct me if I am). In any case, I'd have to transport this thing on an airplane as aforementioned ... I guess I could just have it as carry-on and hug it ...

Thanks for the link to ghe GT725 -- that's actually one of the ones I was thinking of when I said "There are 17" laptops with video cards twice as strong for like $500 less or more." haha. I was set on the earlier version (GT735 ... has a 3850 instead of a 4850) for a while but then switched to the desktop thing. And now this. Mreh.

http://store.apple.com/us/product/FB470LL/A?mco=MjE0NDk5Mw

$1699 Macbook Pro 15". It's refurbished, but it has the same warranty and all the same equipment as a new box.

I carry my MBP to work and home, to the coffee house, to school, etc, every day. It gets thrown around the car, thrown on desks, moved around constantly, and it's worked pretty much perfectly for 2 years.

It's an amazing piece of laptop.

Haha thanks, I noticed that.

If I do decide to be illogical and get a MBP I'm probably gonna wait until WWDC and/or Snow Leopard comes out. And apparently Apple is going "cut prices" (haha.) on Macbooks in the coming months ... which probably won't include the MBP but eh who knows.

Well, i'm one of those with a MBP, not the unibody one, it was brought in Jan 2007 and is still going strong now,

I play WoW on it quite regularly, yeah it gets hot, sensors report mid 60's and the case gets damn hot to touch, but then it's doing it's job as the aluminum body is apparently part of the cooling. I say damn hot, you can still rest your palms on it, it's just after a while it becomes uncomfortable.

As for gaming on windows, can't comment on Vista as my boot camp partition is XP, I've run HL2, TF2, Civ4 and other various games on the windows partition with no problems what so ever. There are custom fan controls out there for the mac under windows and when gaming I just shove them to max and off I go, it's a little noisy but with the game music/sfx on hardly noticeable.

As for price, well the new ones are expensive, but the build quality on this thing is great (even if I've managed to wear out the silver on the WASD+ctrl keys and there is palm print of where my left hand sits :P), I also got an educational discount on mine so in the end I think I paid £1,200 for mine back in 2007 and that's the 2.33GHz C2D, 2 GB RAM and Ati x1600m.

I know the thing has limits, I wouldn't even try some of the newer games on it as I know it'd fail, (hence why I'm building a desktop) but as I was living aboard for a year and half and didn't fancy shipping my desktop at the time it served me well as both my work laptop (OS X + CernLinux (SLC4) ) and gaming machine in the evening. Also compared to other laptops of similar spec at the time it was the most compact one available, I still think even now it's probably the most compact out of all the "high" power laptops out there, although I can't say I've looked recently.

I've got the new 15" unibody, top of the line and all. It was a replacement for my 17" old MBP, since the video card went kaput on it 3 times and I was sick of dealing with it (ay, Apple's support is great).

My boot camp partition is XP, and I play games on it all the time. The 9600 GT can run most games on high settings completely fine. The laptop does get hot when running with the video card, but once the fans kick in, it will cool down definitely.

I use an external keyboard and mouse, so I can't tell you about the wear on the laptop, but yeah.

With AppleCare, a MacBook Pro is probably going to be one of your best computing investments (especially for mobility) you make (I know it has been for me). If anything goes wrong, they'll fix it or replace it, so you don't have to worry about protecting the investment additionally.

I find that I have a lot less frustration with OS X than Windows, but I use both equally and I don't really have much to complain about one or the other.

Something I did, and I suggest you do it to, buy when the new revision comes out, so you'll have the longest amount of time before the next revision comes out before you get frustrated about the new specs. I like that Apple updates their specs along the same price line instead of making a hundred combinations and dropping the price slowly. If they do end up replacing the laptop, they'll replace it based on the price level you paid for, which is how I ended up with the 15" fully upgraded (I now look back and realize that the 17" was unnecessarily big).

eu server?

Haha wow the Quad GT725 has finally reached the States

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152112

Well in terms of VFM I've got a nearly 4 year old PowerBook (I just missed out on intel) and it's still going strong. I've put in a bit of extra RAM, got it a new battery and it's due a new hard drive (it had an episode recently), but otherwise it still runs like a dream, looks damn sexy and does everything I want.

Apart from the fact I COVET a new macbook.

I think I'm going to start saving as much as possible, hope for a price drop after WWCD too, then donate this machine to Izzy and get a new unibody.

Hey buck

screw you

http://forums.anandtech.com/messageview.aspx?catid=45&threadid=2301506&highlight_key=y&keyword1=macbook+pro

Hahahah, indeed. Guess he didn't want the Acer Aspire One as a substitute for the Dell 9 Mini (although the Aspire One pretty much works with OSX just like the dell 9, with the addition of a few extra steps)

Get a ma--- oh

I feel it's still the case, in general, that graphics cards become "too slow" sooner than CPUs do. And in a laptop you can't replace the graphics hardware, plus laptops have particularly slow/old graphics chips. To me, as someone who plays a lot of games, the upshot of all that would be to get the laptop with the fastest possible graphics card for your budget. Your mileage may vary!

I find it quite surprising that there aren't more laptops with mobility 4850s in them... perhaps they're all just about to be released? Or even the 4770, which would be especially well suited for use in laptops.

I still don't see the reason to get one of these things. I bought a more powerful laptop for way less money, and don't regret it at all. In the end it comes down to what you're going to do with it, and how much you hate microsoft (because we all do to some extent.)

Well for one, it's stupidly thin, it's stupidly light, and it's made out of aluminum.

I would get something like these:

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834115539
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152100
http://www.buyxg.com/system/XG_Action_3000_Notebook/

Simply because I can't justify paying the "It's a Mac" tax and then purchasing Vista/XP ontop of it.

Seriously, don't knock it till you've tried it. And by tried it, I mean not just messing around with one for an hour.

Haha, yeah >_< I know. Or better yet, something like this

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16834152108&Tpk=msi%20ex625

(MSI seems to be really on the ball w/ these bang-for-buck semi-gaming machines).

Like I said, I really can't figure out why I'm even considering this. I guess it's because I'm not really a 'gamer' -- I just play TF2 and L4D occasionally and that's it (And the other games in the Orange Box which I haven't played). So I don't need it to be able to play Crysis or pretty much anything else that's not Source. And yet, there are all these machines that are vastly more powerful in hardware that cost like $500-$1000 less.

I don't need some of the biggest perks of the MBP (mobility and sleekness), since I need this computer as a desktop replacement that just won't be a huge pain to move around campus and on airplanes OCCASIONALLY. I have a tablet that I'm carrying around all day in the way of a netbook, so I just need something as a 'primary' computer to complement it.

I dunno. I don't hate Vista or MS but for some reason OSX is brainwashing me to want it. gRarghaf.

OSX wants your BRAINS. YOUR BRAINS!

Nice find, I didnt think there would be anything decent under $750. To be honest, I wish I could pick up a cheap Mac to play around with too.

Dude. What the hell?

http://forums.slickdeals.net/showthread.php?t=1351711

I'm seriously considering this.

Quick guys what do you think about that deal w/ RAID and processor upgrade for a total of $1,111 <_<

That looks pretty awesome.

Bah. Still can't decide whether or not to get it.

Just taking a 2nd look at this, I'm not sure how much increased performace raid would offer... your comparing a single 7200rpm drive to 2x 5400rpm drives. The processor upgrade is probably a good idea.

do it pommy! I have the xps m1530 and I love it

Well that's definitely a desktop replacement if I ever saw one. I'm surprised they even give them batteries.

Boo it looks like that might've been a price mistake since nobody's gotten confirmation emails from Dell yet and there are reports that they are / might get randomly cancelled =/

I decided to reconsider GHarris's suggestion of a SFF PC after realized I wrote them off as being un-upgradable based on my HP Slimline, which is un-upgradable because ... it's an HP Slimline.

I'm liking this case w/ a Phenom II X4 940 and a 4870 in it. Other people seem to have done it okay. The cooling is pretty decent for a SFF. Hopefully it won't blow up.

Or maybe I'll end up buying a MBP anyways after WWDC cuz OSX still has its voodoo grasp on me lololololo

Aye, that was one of the cases I had in mind. I'm not very up-to-date on the SFF market at the moment so I can't comment on whether that case is exactly what you'll want or whether there are marginally better alternatives... but it's at least pretty decent. Within reason you can pick a strong power supply, a strong graphics card etc. and it'll fit and work alright. Just be careful not to pick any components that are *too* fast (or rather, too hot) as you might end up with annoyingly loud fans (due to how fast they have to spin to shift all the heat, in the limited space, especially since the fans themselves are small). It's fan noise that you might have to worry about, rather than "blowing up"

Incidentally, have you heard about the tri-core phenoms IIs (the 710 and 720)? On certain motherboards there's a BIOS setting you can change which unlocks the "disabled" fourth core. AMD's tri-cores are just quad cores with one core switched off... sometimes because one core is defective and sometimes (often) because there's more market demand for the cheaper tri-cores than there is for the quad cores. If I happened to be in the market for a cheap PC at the moment I'd be considering buying a 710/720 and trying to unlock and overclock it up to the speed of a 940... perhaps that's just me though And at best, all you would've done is save a few dollars for the same performance as the 940 (heat output would be the same). The 4th core might just not work.