Fair trade?

I'm thinking of trading my Dell XPS M1730 for an apple macbook/macbook pro. I originally would have been happy with the 9400M in the macs, but having looked at performance it would seem I need an 8600M/9600M graphics card, as I want to dual boot windows and OSX and play source games.
Here's the specs of my M1730:
T7700 @ 2.5ghz
4GB RAM
8700M GT
160GB HDD
17" 1920X1200 screen
all in very good condition, comes with Dell XPS Premium warranty

So, do you think it'd be fair to trade for a mac with an 8600M/9600M?
Thanks

 

I sold my XPS M1530 for a temporary Macbook 6,1 with P7550 (2.26Ghz), and Nvidia 9400M, waiting to see what's going to be in the new Macbook Pro's, then I'm going to sell my Macbook and get a new MBP.

I also chose the Macbook over my M1530, because i wanted a 13", so when the new MBP's come out, I'm going to get the 13" one as well. 15" was a little big for me to carry around campus, also, i was hooked with Macbooks' 7-hour battery life.

 

Thanks for that info, +rep - looks like it'll be a fair trade then, as my laptop is more powerful than your old one.

 

I would go with a 15" 9600m gt if i were you. From the specs of your laptop, you seem like a casual gamer who likes to play from timw to time while on the move. Dont go for the 8600m because these gpus have a manufacturing defect which causes them to die when exposed to heat for long amounts of time.

 

I am Looking at prices though, the 9600M GT macbooks seem to go for more money, so I doubt anyone would want to trade with me (btw, if anyone viewing this thread fancies swapping, please do PM me ) I heard about the defect on the 8600M GT, but if I can't swap mine for a 9600M GT laptop, it looks like the 8600M GT is my only option. I have a reliatively high level of tech knowlege, so should be able to replace it if I have to.

 

Unfortunately, the 8600m gt is soldered on the board. So it is impossible to swap the card. You could do a swap + cash.

 

Sorry, I meant that I could replace it if it goes wrong, I realise the GPU is soldered onto the logic board

 

All the old gens mac have got 3 years default warranty because of this issue. However, i must warn you that if the warranty is over, then apple parts are pretty expensive (Perhaps more expensive than base notebooks being sold at best buy).

 

Yeah, I understand that, thanks for the info

 

you are welcome. if you have any other enquiries, you can come back to us.

 

Thanks, my only enquiry now really is "anyone want to trade?"

 

Now your better off going to the BST Forum/NBR Martketplace.

 

I will do later tonight, although as it seems to be pretty much 100% US only sales I don't think I'll have much luck.

 

I'd steer clear of the 8600s. If you want to trade that for a 9600 machine, you might be able to find one, but it will be after the new MBPs are released. More than likely you'll have to sell your machine, add a bit of cash to the pot and buy what you want.

 

yeah, I know I'll see what happens - I'd happily buy a mac with a faulty HDD for example, so maybe I could swap for one with a small fault

 

Laptop is now listed on NBR here

 

I traded my uMBP for the system in my sig. Macs hold their value well.

When I am not playing games i miss the mac though.

 

Sounds like you're on your way.

Just so you know, the 9400m doesn't always fare well in benchmarks, but I find the SOURCE engine games quite playable (25-40 fps at native) with my 13" MBP. You don't have to give up the compact form factor you're looking for for that kind of light gaming. Its the Crysis stuff you need the 9600 for, but with the system having DDR3 Ram clocked at over 1GHz, the shared/integrated memory is no slouch solution.

I'd find a friend who has one and can demo windows gaming for you.

If you don't find a friend, PM me and I'll try to tape some footage of Portal or HL2 on my MBP running Windows 7 through Bootcamp.

 

Wow thanks for the offer, YGPM, Most of my friends are on windows laptops

 

I get better FPS on WoW on WIndows on my 13in Macbook then I do under OSX, I'm not sure how much of that is drives, but it's enough that I play most games under Windows even if they have a OSX counterpart.

 

Oh yeah, I'll be playing all my games on windows