Current Macbook Pro or Lenovo T500?

College Life
21

<p>I won't comment on the PC vs Mac decision - too many dimensions/factors in the decision for someone else to opine. They are both excellent laptops.</p>

<p>On the MacBook Pro, 4GB is nice, not essential. You will notice the difference mainly when running multiple apps or a RAM pig like Photoshop. I would not buy memory from Apple. I had no problem finding name brand 4GB (2 2GB sticks) of RAM for the MacBook Pro for just over 80. I would suggest trying 2GB and upgrading later if you feel the need.</p>

<p>Also I would not get the 7200rpm 200GB drive on the MacBook Pro. Stick with the 5400 rpm drive and save yourself 100 bucks. The 7200 rpm is noisier, hotter and drains the battery faster. Its only advanatge is for high throughtput applications like audio or video processing. For web/email/word processing/spreadsheets the real world difference in performance is neglible.</p>

<p>AppleCare - tough call. Depends upon your risk tolerance.</p>

22

<p>The Thinkpad Reserve Edition is just a regular laptop wrapped in cowhide. It's ridiculously expensive and the hardware itself has no benefits over a regular $1000 Thinkpad. Of course it makes sense to get the MBP in comparison to Thinkpad Reserve Edition.</p>

<p>However, if you compare actual power and battery life, a beefed up T500 or a W500 wins by far, at a significantly lower price.</p>

23

<p>Haha crap, too late. I ordered the Macbook Pro with the 7200RPM hard drive. ****, am I screwed?</p>

24

<p>If you want 4 GB, order your MBP with 2, get the 4 GB Corsair Low Latency memory for $99 (after rebate) and you're good to go. There are videos on YouTube that show you how to do the upgrade. I've done this and it is a piece of cake.</p>

25

<p>
[quote]
Haha crap, too late. I ordered the Macbook Pro with the 7200RPM hard drive. ****, am I screwed?

[/quote]
</p>

<p>No, 7200 RPM hard drives have their upsides, though I personally wouldn't pay the premium for a 7200 RPM drive</p>

26

<p>Since the hard drive tends to be the slowest component in your system, you will benefit by having faster startup times and application loading times. 7200 rpm is standard for desktop computers.</p>

27

<p>..as if Macs have problems with startup times?</p>

28

<p>
[quote]
..as if Macs have problems with startup times?

[/quote]
It's the same as any other OS...</p>

29

<p>well they're not, macs open in around 30 seconds whereas all pcs i have seen average at least 1,5 minutes</p>

30

<p>ummm PC's can start faster then that if you optimize them, but macs will be able to start up faster generally</p>

31

<p>if you start installing crap on your comp then yeah, your boot can take more than 1.5 minutes (linux, mac or windows). Seriously...</p>

32

<p>
[quote]
well they're not, macs open in around 30 seconds whereas all pcs i have seen average at least 1,5 minutes

[/quote]
This is incorrect. It all depends on the programs you have launching at startup. I've used a Mac where I've had numerous programs launching at startup, and it's significantly increased the time required for login. Conversely, I've used Windows and Linux machines without anything launching at startup, and they didn't have any problems with bootup time. There is no actual difference in bootup time, only a difference in the number of programs running at startup.</p>

<p>Apple's software is actually one of the main reasons that PCs start up so slow. iTunes on Windows runs 4 processes at startup, along with 2 system services. One process is actually dedicated to the iPhone, and it runs whenever your computer is on, whether you have an iPhone or not. And since a lot of people have iTunes installed, this is a common cause of increased bootup time. On my Windows installs (none of which have iTunes), I don't experience any of this lag.</p>