Alienware for Macbook Pro?

Hi, I am currently thinking about trading my Alienware M17X R4 for a 2012 Macbook Pro 15". The specs of each are as follows:

Alienware M17X R4
Intel i7 3720QM
16GB DDR3
256GB SSD
500GB HDD
ATI 7970M 2GB
17.3" Full HD 1920x1080
No Warranty

Macbook Pro 15 (Current)
Intel i7 2.6Ghz
8GB DDR3
128GB SSD
1TB HDD
Nvidia 650M 1GB
15.4" Anti-Glare 1680x1050
Applecare - 2 Years Remaining

I am also throwing in an additional $200 on top of my Alienware. Does this look like a fair trade? Something tells me that I may be getting the short end of the stick.

 

Macbook Pros are going to be updated within a week or so... so that will not be very "current" very long.

the Mac is smaller, slimmer... and probably will get better battery life with OSX.

Your alienware has a better GPU and more ram (you can always upgrade the ram in that Macbook Pro to 16GB if you choose though).

Wether or not its a good deal... comes down to what you are doing with the machine. If you mainly need Windows or play games, its a bad trade. If you really need OSX for something and cannot just outright buy a Mac that works, it may be a good deal for you... but its not looking like that impressive of a deal really, I'm not sure its something I'd do, especially with new models coming out in about 5 days... meaning the resale "value" of that Mac will go down slightly.

 

I would say it's a pretty lousy trade even if new MBP's weren't imminent. OP, what are you going to be doing with the Mac? Is it going to be your only computer? If you simply want to try OS X and won't be doing anything more than surfing, word processing, etc, you can pick up a refurbished or used MacBook Pro or Air for a decent price and still be able to keep your Alienware for games. Before you do this, wait until the new MBPs are made available as prices for older machines will drop.

 

Chappy trade. The mac is miles slower then your 17

Sent from my SPH-L900 using Tapatalk 2

 

I think more information about what you plan to do with it would help people make a better assessment. I am assuming you dont game or will not do any gaming. I switched to Mac's back when Vista came out and honestly gaming just sucks on a Mac, period. They run to hot, dont have the horsepower and just very limited. If your going for the email, web surfing, video editing, photo editing then they are great...

 

I think mobile workstations are better suited for video editing and photo editing.

Macs are great for web browsing , typing papers , and checking email.

 

Hey guys, I went ahead and did the trade. I'm pretty happy with it and was glad that I could help someone out (he really needed a powerful Windows laptop). I did some research prior and found that both computers are similar in resale value. I also didn't have to add any cash on top so that was nice.

I don't play games anymore so the AW was sitting in the corner. Not to mention, even if I did, I would do so on my desktop. The AW14 that I have is next on the chopping list .

 

Although mobile workstations can be more powerful than consumers notebooks, that isn't always the case. I can also assure you that my 15" MBP is well suited for tasks beyond "web browsing , typing papers , and checking email." The fact that it's a Mac doesn't cancel out the quad-core Intel CPU, 16GB of RAM, or the dedicated card in my system. It can accomplish any task that any Windows notebook can with the same hardware. I have edited 1080p 30fps and 60fps video content, done extensive Photoshopping, and run MATLAB code that would make most notebooks (Mac or not) struggle. That's a whole lot more simple tasks that a tablet and smartphone could conduct. Besides, the OP didn't have a workstation, they had a gaming notebook. That's a completely different type of notebook altogether. It isn't running a workstation GPU but rather a gaming one suited for media consumption, not creation.

 

I know..
I was partially kidding. The fact is that even high end TN panels don't match professional quality screens (e.g. DreamColor screens).
Macs are overrated for photoediting.
Why doesn't Apple use DreamColor screens? I guess because they would have to use a professional GPU and a good deal of battery life would be lost. Even the latest Intel GPU can still only drive 8 Bit panels (e.g. MacBook Pro Retina display).

You know do that your MBP maxes at out 16 GB of RAM , right? 32 GB is normally the max for most gaming and workstation laptops.
Workstation GPUs are great for CAD work and certain simulation programs but not for games.


I've seen many gaming laptops with faster GPUs and CPUs and even more RAM than any MBP.

The Alienware M17X R4 supports 32 GB of RAM unlike your MBP.

For VM work and certain image manipulations , more then 16 GB of RAM still makes a difference.

I find that even gaming laptops are more suitable for heavy workloads than MBPs are.

How many Mac laptops have a GTX 680M ?
How many Mac laptops have 32 GB of RAM?
How many Mac laptops support the fastest mobile quad core Intel CPUs on the market?

 

You took a huge downgrade in hardware.

Your AW could have taken 32 GB of RAM and had a much faster GPU.

Not to mention that the AW had a higher res screen.

You also lost the dedicated num pad (which I find very useful).

I also think that your AW is one of the few laptops that has an HDMI in (correct me if I'm wrong).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=kbFICW4S68w#t=22

IMHO , your AW is a much more interesting machine.

 

You do realize that units with such displays, along with proper scientific GPUs to drive them, cost a lot more than my system? You aren't comparing systems properly. The MBP was never meant to go up against a mobile workstation. It is a high end consumer laptop and Apple has never tried to disguise it as anything but that. I'm not sure why you bring up a mobile workstation especially when the OP obviously doesn't want that and never had one.

I do realize that my MBP maxes out with 16GB of RAM. However, most consumers don't even fully use 4GB of RAM. 32GB of RAM also won't help most gaming systems as they will be limited by their CPU and GPU (unless the gaming system has 2GB of RAM in it). The potential to have 32GB of RAM doesn't necessarily make a gaming notebook or a workstation better than what I have, it doesn't make them worse either. Macs aren't gaming notebooks. Again, they are high end consumer notebooks similar to the Dell XPS line, HP Envy line, etc. Apple is not advertising the MBP lines as workstations, gaming systems, or anything else like that. They have always advertised them as being consumer notebooks.

And? I would hope that a gaming notebook offers better hardware than a consumer level notebook. Your statement really has no merit behind it as numerous Macs feature faster CPUs and better specs than many Windows notebooks. So what? Oooo, my MBP has specs better than 90% of the notebooks you can find in a Best Buy store. Who cares? I'm comparing a $1500 system to a $300 Asus plastic notebook with a dual-core Pentium processor. My Mac should have better specs than a system that costs 5 times as less.

How many people actually need those obnoxious specs other than gamers? Again, you aren't properly comparing systems based on their class. It's like getting upset that a Honda Civic is slower than a Ford Mustang. Of course it will be! That's a completely different class of car made for a different purpose. You can't get mad that a Mac, a consumer level notebooks, doesn't offer gaming level hardware when it is not meant for gaming and hasn't been advertised as doing such. Some Macs can handle gaming on a certain level but that doesn't make them gaming notebooks. My old HP netbook from 2009 can playback music but that doesn't make it a mobile studio that should be used for recording and mastering albums.

 

My whole point in discussing mobile workstations was to compare how similar they are to gaming laptops.
Macs are further away due to their slower and less upgradable hardware.

Macs are general use machines but of course they can still have decent CPUs.

A MacBook "Pro" isn't a professional class machine. The "Pro" name is just for marketing.

If Apple didn't call any of their laptops "Pro" , then I couldn't say that Apple was falsely advertising.

 

Ugh, I'm done. Ridicule the MBP lines all you want, it doesn't change what they are. Apple has never once said that the "Pro" in the MacBook Pro name signified a professional workstation. Anyone who draws such nonsense similarities is just looking for something to nitpick at. The "Pro" moniker was always used to distinguish between their entry-level systems and their higher end models. Back in the day, Apple offered up a plastic MacBook configuration. They had a 13" plastic MacBook, 13" MacBook Pro (similar hardware but built using aluminum and having a glass display), the 15" MacBook Pro, etc. The "Pro" was used in order to label the difference between their lower end offering and their higher end models. It is absolutely no different than Dell using the "Inspiron" label and the "XPS" label or HP with their "Pavilion" and "Envy" lines. What is wrong with Apple using "Pro" to differentiate between those models and the MBA models? Besides, the MBP lines are in fact higher end consumer notebooks. They feature glass displays, aluminum construction, glass covered trackpads, etc. Dell slaps their XPS logo on their notebooks with the same feature yet I don't see you complaining that they don't have gamer level hardware or can't compete with a $3000 workstation.

You are just nitpicking Macs at this point in time as absolutely everything you have said can also apply to every single line of systems from every single other manufacturer. So what's the point? You keep bringing up workstations and gaming notebooks while comparing them to Macs when the same conclusion can be made when comparing them to Dell XPS systems, HP Envy labeled systems, Asus notebooks, Acer notebooks, models from Lenovo, etc. You are coming to the conclusion that a gaming notebook is going to be more powerful than most Macs just as a workstation is going to be more powerful than most Macs. OK, yeah, no one is going to argue that. It's like saying that the color black is in fact black in color. Who cares? You can say that an Alienware with maxed out specs is going to be more powerful than a mid-level XPS. Duh.

 

The OP basically got a downgrade.
That's the last thing I'm going to say.

 

Looking strictly at the hardware, you are correct. However, if you actually read what the OP said in a follow-up post, you would see that he was ultimately satisfied with the trade.

At this point, there is nothing more that needs to be said.

 

The problem with the 2012 & 2013 retina macBook Pro's is their lack of upgradeability, ram choices are 8 or 16GB and ram chips are soldered to the motherboard, this choice must be made at time of purchase. The SSD is upgradable but it's expensive, proprietary and limited to the 512GB and 768GB model offered by Apple. Even though I despise all things Alienware, it is a better choice when it comes to having a faster processor, more ram and larger HDD's or SSD's. Only downside is they're butt ugly and weigh a ton, the 14" is like 6-7 lbs, even more when you include the power brick. I'm no Apple fan boy, I also own the 14" Razer Blade and the 17" Razer Blade R2.

 

Only true for Haswell models. Ivy Bridge models can be upgraded to SSDs from OWC.

 

Is OWC the only company making the SSDs for the Ivy Bridge Retinas?

 

Wowza, didn't know that people were still posting in this thread.

I guess a small update. The Macbook was sold this past weekend. It was a great computer for the few weeks that I had it but I'm going back to my roots and picking up a Lenovo Y580 later today.

And boom goes the can of worms...

 

Paging HLDan. HLDan, please pick up the white courtesy phone...

 

Can't resist a gaming laptop , right?

 

Hah I was browsing CL and an opportunity presented itself. I rarely use my laptops since I'm at home most of the time and prefer my desktop. Can't turn down a good deal though . At the price that I'm getting it for, I'll be able to play with it for a year or so and sell it for what I bought it for.

 

This is most definitely not a fair trade!