hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

[Ohaider]

I'm starting college soon, and I've been looking at new laptops. Mostly alienware and mac.

Specifically this $1,350 alienware

http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-14/pd?oc=dkcwg02s&model_id=alienware-14

3.5 GHz
500 gb hybrid hard drive
i7
8g ram


and the $1,500 mac

http://store.apple.com/us/buy-mac/macbook-pro

i5
8g ram
3.1 GHz boosted
256g flash storage

I'm going into college for music technology, so all that's really important to me is durability/long lasting and good at processing a shit load of things at once. Graphics aren't too important to me.

All things point towards alienware, but i've always had an issue with keeping a pc for more than a year or two, whereas mac i've had 4 to 5+ years no problem

Thanks LOADS
<3

[Poison-]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Most people I know that produce music use Macs. Maybe that's a good sign?

[Gundam-Dude]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

In general, anything to do with the arts (graphic design, animation, video production, music composition, etc.) most people grab a Mac for its ease of use. Macs do in fact have certain advantages over PC counterparts in industries like graphic design (better screen to print output, font rendering, and more) but I don't really know about other fields. You can still do the exact same things on a PC regardless of which, so it's more of a personal preference.

If you like having the option to customize and upgrade your rig at your own discretion, go with PC. Otherwise once you invest in that Mac, you're practically stuck with what hardware you got unless you're willing to pour money out your wallet to upgrade anything through the Apple Store. And if anything should happen to your Mac, there goes a large wad of money down the drain because maintenance costs are expensive in comparison to PC counterparts where troubleshooting can be both cost efficient and fast.

tl;dr I'd probably grab the Alienware laptop out of the two choices. Chances are, other people going into your field are all grabbing Macbooks because the art industry in general loves them for its ease of use and design. As everyone else in the thread already stated, you can get much cheaper and better laptops from other brands if you aren't set on those two exclusively.

[Zageron]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Mac. Definitely go mac. Your life will be far easier and you will have an actual battery life.
Not to mention Alienware laptops are awful in my experience.
If you're going to go from a distributor, check out Asus.

[Fission]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

both of them are grossly overpriced for the hardware you get. find something on newegg with good reviews and the hardware you are looking for. turbo boost is really misleading by the way; most laptops that are ~$400+ cheaper can achieve nearly the same clock speeds.

you will have an actual battery life.

compared to what? do you have a source for this?

[Tyson ultima]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Yea not exactly sure why you are limiting yourself to the two brands. Alienware is just a nono as you are paying for all the fancy shit to come with it. Mac, which I am not a fan of, is obviously more geared toward music and the arts even though I feel PC's can do whatever Mac's can do at a cheaper price point. As Zageron said Asus is a good brand when going with laptop's.

[Izzy]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Alienware is just a nono as you are paying for all the fancy shit to come with it.

Except with mac you are paying for payings sake and nothing else.

[Zageron]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Now a day the cheaper macs are almost worth what you're paying for them. Plus you get the guaranteed reliability, high performance, and battery life.
It's when you start adding specs that the price gets outrageous. (Such as additional ram)

As for battery life, mac books are almost always guaranteed an operating time of over 8 hours even at intense usage. (As long as you're not watching movies or playing games.)
Again in my experience.

[Hateandhatred]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Macs limit your torrent library by a huge lot.

[Toxophilis]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

i'm gonna say neither because you are mostly paying for the name

i know a lot of music students who use macs though so i guess choose that if you have to go with one of them?

do not ever buy alienware there is so much more out there that is better and cheaper. custom build if you have to

[Ohaider]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Def going with the mac or some alternative that's not alienware, i love you all

[Calcium Deposit]

Re: hoping to get some help with mac vs. alienware

Well, if you havent decided already I'll throw out another option:

Custom laptop +

http://ubuntustudio.org

I'll be honest I havent actually gotten to try it out for myself yet, however I've been definitely meaning to. (The DAW and various audio apps look pretty sweet)
Linux in general already usually gives higher priority to audio and video much like macs do, but with the added bonus of being open source.