I want to buy a new laptop.
can you recommend any good one?
I'm thinking the laptop good for maya and other graphics.
at least 1g ram & 128M graphic card
and price range from $2,000~2,500
if you have any advice, it will be a help.
thanks
if u r a student u get a discount which is significant but a mac will last the longest you should be abler to get a 15" powerbook around that price but i would opt for the 17" with 2 g memory and additional 500gb hard drive. ads to the price but its well worth it. this is what i find to work best price would be about 100 a month if you spend 4,000
macs are very easy to get accustomed to [much more intuitive].
also, you can use a multi-button mouse on macs [i've got 3 buttons].
i've always had atleast one mac and one pc, and i always recommend mac.
en if you go for a mac laptop, i have had the 17" titanium G4 for a few years and it still works great (extra memory installed). i will try to hold off to get a new mac until the intel chips get installed in a year or two. however it is about $2700. you can get a 15" in your price range.
what about pc laptops? i have a mac but want a pc laptop to run rhino on. something on the inexpensive side like $1000 since in a few years time i may be able to run it on macs. any advice?
My 17" PowerBook G4 is the only thing that keeps me warm at night...
Hell, it's the warmest thing that has ever been in my bed...
And I'm okay with that!
But seriously, it's quite the work horse. I've never owned a Mac until I got this (always had bad experiences with them at school) and it's been a really good experience thusfar. Now I'll transition back and forth (I've got a PC desktop), depending on what I'm doing.
What drafting program do y'all run on yer mac? Architectural Desktop or would I have to make a change to Vectorworks?
Cyn mentioned needing a pc to run rhino are there other PC programs that do not work on mac?
I am going to be working w/ CATIA soon so it would need to be able to run that.
Lastly, is there a lot of up front cost when switching? i.e. buying virtual desktop? Not being able to find cracked software as easily?
any other road bumps one might encounter on the journey to macville??
en: I think there must be a lot of these discussions here on archinect. Suggest you do a search if you haven't already. You have a lot of options in that price range. As for specs, you'd have to consider if the laptop will be your primary/only system. The 'workstation' models of all the major vendors, like HP or Dell, should be good options. You might want to consider AMD64 vs. P4-M now that this is available too.
popeye: I think you mean 'VirtualPC'? For filesharing on the Mac I'd recommend Limewire. As for switching, consider what are your primary apps. If they're Win only, then that should answer your question. Make a list and work your way through it. I wouldn't recommend you running any graphics intensive software through emulation. CATIA is Win only.
OSX is an extremely stable OS IMO - I've had one crash in 11 months, and that was due some poorly made kernel extension from a third party. Apps crash or hang sure, but they never take the whole system down. As for 'road bumps' you might want to get familiar with this new Apple buzz word - They call it 'transitions'...
macs run vectorworks and formz , photoshop, illustrator and maya well.
archicad 8 is mac os x compatible
rhino, autocad and 3ds max are pc only
as much as i love mac, the fact that autocad is pc only has been very limiting. most offices use pc, there is no getting around the fact that autocad is industry standard with consultants. i am very hopeful that with the intel macs i will be able to run the pc programs on the mac. it is so much easier to use than the pc, imo.
I dont want to buy a mac.
I'm thinking toshiba or alienware..
alienware is quite expensive...
but I think toshiba is good for the price..
what do you think?
Look at www.techbargains.com for a regular $750 off on $2k plus laptops. Get the 9300 with the 256mb Geforce 6800 and a gig of ram. It'll easily meet your price target.
if you get a name brand pc and want to save get a sony if not a sony get a velocity micro. stay away from alienware you dont need it. in general a pc is a pc piece of crap but if you insist then dont get a name brand unless its a sony because they all use cheap parts and it will break. autocad etc can be run on mac using virtual pc but it is slower.
Sony's laptop video cards suck. Dont get one for 3D. Great screens though. Not to mention you won't get that sweet $750 off (that is not on Dell's site, byt the way).
Alienware's new laptops are pretty sweet, too, and just won Computer Art's top choice for a portable workstation (they did not test the 9300).
Look at www.boxxtech.com for unlimited portable workstation options (it's the same laptop, basically, as the Alienware), but you'll pay for it.
Don't know about VM, but I do know that you can't beat that Dell for the price (with discount). That's the baby I am getting.
I've got a Dell 8600, with the processor and videocard upgraded to the best they would put in there. I bought it with the bare minimum of RAM, but then went to a computer show and got a gig to put in it for a MUCH better price than what Dell wanted. I was able to find a 20% off coupon code just by searching the net, so I only paid $2000 for it. Just don't get dell if you think you'll need to call their tech support, because it's all in India and the people don't usually understand what you're trying to ask. But it's great for people who know what they're doing. I've run AutoCAD, FormZ, 3DStudio Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. on it no problem. Doesn't take that long to render at all actually.
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800 [add $199 or $5/month1]
You can go for the XPS model and get a 6800 Pro card, too, but it's hard to find good coupons for those. Or go with the workstation model, M70 I think, and it's got a portable Quadro (but only a 15.4" screen).
I've considered the Sony's, and this card is much better than the one's that were offered a few months ago, but it's still inferior.
For tech support, get the models on the Business side. I wait no longer than 15mins, usually much less. They've helped me do everything from installing hard drives to reconfiguring my RAID setup - and it's all US only. Harder to find good coupons, though.
With regard to sony laptops video cards, an ATI radeon is definitely what to you want if you're running 3dsmax as the software is now optimized for these cards.
The sony VAIO VGN-A417M has the 256 ATI mobility radeon graphics card which currently is probably the best card you can get if you're running max with a laptop. If you're using Maya or Formz then it might be a different story. It might be a bit pricey too, although here in the UK they've got a financing option which allows you to pay for it interest free over the course of 12 months. It's about 120GBP/month ($215?), i'm sure you can get a much better deal in the states with similar financing.
It's got to do with the drivers you use with the card. ATI supply optimized drivers for max with their cards. You can also use microsoft Direct X drivers, it's a agreement ATI have with Autodesk i think. Sometimes it's better to buy a slower card with the right drivers rather than a super powerful one that you can't use to its full capacity because the drivers supplied are crap. I've got a very expensive graphics card at work but it's slower than the cheaper ATI ones other people use with the proper drivers, which is a real shame because they paid shitloads of money for that and the difference is zilch. The ALIAS website will probably tell you which cards are best with Maya.
the problem is that you want a laptop...bad idea...you can almost get two Desktops for the price of an equal laptop. In the past two year of gradschool I have seem more people crying over dell, HP and Sony. Sony is the sexiest but they dont really work out the bugs and plan on stuff breaking. oh and they love to keep stuff proprietary so things like ram is more expensive from what I hear. Stay far far away from Compact and HP from my experiance. Dell are hit or miss, but they seem to be going down in quality for laptops.
I went with a 12in power book and a dell desktop. That whole pentium 4 w/ hyperthreading is worth it if you are going to do any rendering or large 3d models. Moble chips have lots of problems from what I have seen around the studio.
Go read the reviews on the laptops, that's your best bet. Timing is everything as all the companies change the graphic cards frequently. I am a fan of nvidia and Maxtreme drivers, but that's just what I know.
I agree that a laptop is not the best way for 3D. But you can do it. I learned Max and Formz on a PII 120mghtz with 256mbs ram! It couldn't do much, of course, but you can do things.
Make sure you read the fine print. the mbs are not as important as the type of card.
if you really want a mac, then i would wait a while. apple is going to intel processors (just announced by steve-o himself), which means that macs will not only run osX, they will also run XP without an emulator. that gives you the best of both worlds...
"if you really want a mac, then i would wait a while."
A while is right . . . try like a year or two. Dunno if they are going to toss out a G5 laptop before the move to Intel (Steve Jobs said they had some great PPC products still coming), but it might be a gamble of a laptop.
if you get a mac no matter what it will be good even if they come out with a new model in a year. pcs usually change even quicker than that. oh and you can upgrade your mac to the intel if you really want but it wont make a difference. itel is not better than the g4 and you can always upgrade if you want.
it's almost two years old now and i've practically filled the 40gb hard drive. it's been trouble-free and smart enough to recognize almost any application/hardware, fast, etc.
you probably already know that they're heavy. this is my biggest complaint and it's not much of one because it hasn't kept me from carting the thing around everywhere - school, office, meetings, etc.
I don't know if I'm missing something, but that post doesn't make any sense. AFAIK an upgrade from XP Home to Pro is just a question of MS making a few more services available to you, that the average home user might not need (in their opinion). I have yet to see any drivers that are distinctly for Home or Pro and so I don't understand what this guy's problem is. Must be something else he doesn't get and he's just letting off steam on Sony, because he can't figure out the problem.
There is a huge difference between XP Pro and Home. Pro is significantly more stable and aimed at 'pro' work. If you are doing anything professional or want reliability, go with Pro.
No idea about drivers, but it does seem odd.
So what's this about Apple running windows? Why would they do that? They are just coming up with an updated os that looks good (although I still won't use a Mac, I still like 'em). Using intel is like using Hewlett Packard or another company, they are just the manufacturer.
I would highly doubt that they have any intention of using Pentium chips or Windows, but I really have no idea.
henrik--i spoke with someone who has a vaio today, he said the os was built in to a chip on the machine xp home. but he did say he upgraded it to xp pro with a registration code. i don't know...
trace: apple is switching to intel chips so the architecture of the mac machine will be able to run windows without an emulator. the company said they would do nothing to prevent windows software developers to make things for the apple hardware. however they will not allow the mac os to be run on a pc. makes good business sense to me. helps all us mac users be able to use the software we need without switching to a pc. and encourages the pc users to use their software on a mac. the reason for the switch is apparently ibm was not making fast enough chips.
Stay away from alienware! They are terrible! A coworker researched for 2 days on the best system for our software needs... we bought 4 - top of the line - alienware machines.... they crash all the time... and we call and call... they want nothing to do with us. We swapped out the machines and took them to different techs who can't figure out the problem... one thinks it might be the hard drive... and another thinks it is the video card. Our macs keep us running.... Our PC's are always crashing... we have bought several in the last 4 years... fast yet unstable.
crashed without even installing software.... crashed after installing software we own - and man, we even sent back a machine to them with all of our software installed.... they sent it back -wiped- and claimed it was fine... boo.
cyn:
Think about this: A manufacturer locking a machine to one particular OS for the lifetime of the machine? No, it doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry, but I have never heard such nonsense.
As for Apple and the switch to Intel, I think there are lots of uncertainties at the moment as to the actual intentions of Apple. So far, there's lots of guessing and rumours going round the web. The fact is that right now you can rent/buy a development system from Apple running a beta version of Tiger for Intel on a P4 system. This is to allow developers to port their software in time for the first Apple Intel systems due to be launched next year. Nobody AFAIK have published the detailed specs on these systems. However, there has been rumours of people running this development only release of Tiger on a standard PC kit. I haven't seen this confirmed in any major way, but I might have missed the stories. It does appear that the Tiger beta has been pirated already and made available as a torrent.
The big question is, whether the Intel version of Tiger will somehow be 'locked' to only run on the Apple PC hardware using CPU ID's or other method. I haven't seen any stories saying that Apple would be ok with Windows running on their Intel hardware. I really do not think this is their intention. But of course they'd be happy for any Windows developer to run/port their software to Tiger on Intel.
IMO, once Tiger for Intel is properly released, somebody somewhere will make it run on other Intel hardware too. And somebody somewhere will make Linux run on the Apple Intel hardware.
Where Windows ends up in all this, I don't know. But I think Jobs made it clear in his keynote speech, who the main target is: Longhorn.
In the same speech he also claims that the main reason for the switch to Intel is that the roadmaps for the Intel line and the PowerPC line when compared, shows that the Intel roadmap offers far superior performance in relation to power consumption (remember the current top of the line dual G5 is liquid cooled...). Others would argue that this roadmap comparison is flawed, but this is the reason they are giving us.
trace:
Why would MS make an OS for the 'pro' user that's stable and reliable and then make a shitty version for the 'home' user that isn't? Again, doesn't make any sense. Might make sense if you were comparing something like Win98 to Win2000, but not comparing two OS' that are basically Full and Lite versions of the same release.
hey henrik, your link did not work for me.
sony does alot of locking-in of software--i have one of their clie's and the built-in software takes up alot of memory. i can't get rid of it.
does not make sense? perhaps not to you logically, but i'm sure there is a marketing reason for it.
my understanding is that you can upgrade from xp home to pro, but the software is present as built in a chip, not as a separate cd to install.
as to the review i posted, that is merely one person's experience and i have no way of verifying it. i simply put it out there as info to be checked out by the person who was going to buy the vaio. are you able to verify?
I just got a dell with XP media center and it is as locked into my machine as possible. You cant purchase the media center os unless you get a new computer and i wasnt given the os on disk. as far as i know i cant even reformat the computer. Weird thing is that media center is basically just a program that runs off of xp home rather than a full os.
can you recommend for a laptop?
I want to buy a new laptop.
can you recommend any good one?
I'm thinking the laptop good for maya and other graphics.
at least 1g ram & 128M graphic card
and price range from $2,000~2,500
if you have any advice, it will be a help.
thanks
if u r a student u get a discount which is significant but a mac will last the longest you should be abler to get a 15" powerbook around that price but i would opt for the 17" with 2 g memory and additional 500gb hard drive. ads to the price but its well worth it. this is what i find to work best price would be about 100 a month if you spend 4,000
are macs that difficult to get accustomed to..? im in the same boat deciding over a mac or a pc not sure if i want to do the drastic switch though
there is only 1 button...i like macs but i have used pcs all the time
macs are very easy to get accustomed to [much more intuitive].
also, you can use a multi-button mouse on macs [i've got 3 buttons].
i've always had atleast one mac and one pc, and i always recommend mac.
en if you go for a mac laptop, i have had the 17" titanium G4 for a few years and it still works great (extra memory installed). i will try to hold off to get a new mac until the intel chips get installed in a year or two. however it is about $2700. you can get a 15" in your price range.
http://www.apple.com/powerbook/index17.html
what about pc laptops? i have a mac but want a pc laptop to run rhino on. something on the inexpensive side like $1000 since in a few years time i may be able to run it on macs. any advice?
If you insist on getting a pc check out www.velocitymicro.com
My 17" PowerBook G4 is the only thing that keeps me warm at night...
Hell, it's the warmest thing that has ever been in my bed...
And I'm okay with that!
But seriously, it's quite the work horse. I've never owned a Mac until I got this (always had bad experiences with them at school) and it's been a really good experience thusfar. Now I'll transition back and forth (I've got a PC desktop), depending on what I'm doing.
What drafting program do y'all run on yer mac? Architectural Desktop or would I have to make a change to Vectorworks?
Cyn mentioned needing a pc to run rhino are there other PC programs that do not work on mac?
I am going to be working w/ CATIA soon so it would need to be able to run that.
Lastly, is there a lot of up front cost when switching? i.e. buying virtual desktop? Not being able to find cracked software as easily?
any other road bumps one might encounter on the journey to macville??
en: I think there must be a lot of these discussions here on archinect. Suggest you do a search if you haven't already. You have a lot of options in that price range. As for specs, you'd have to consider if the laptop will be your primary/only system. The 'workstation' models of all the major vendors, like HP or Dell, should be good options. You might want to consider AMD64 vs. P4-M now that this is available too.
popeye: I think you mean 'VirtualPC'? For filesharing on the Mac I'd recommend Limewire. As for switching, consider what are your primary apps. If they're Win only, then that should answer your question. Make a list and work your way through it. I wouldn't recommend you running any graphics intensive software through emulation. CATIA is Win only.
OSX is an extremely stable OS IMO - I've had one crash in 11 months, and that was due some poorly made kernel extension from a third party. Apps crash or hang sure, but they never take the whole system down. As for 'road bumps' you might want to get familiar with this new Apple buzz word - They call it 'transitions'...
macs run vectorworks and formz , photoshop, illustrator and maya well.
archicad 8 is mac os x compatible
rhino, autocad and 3ds max are pc only
as much as i love mac, the fact that autocad is pc only has been very limiting. most offices use pc, there is no getting around the fact that autocad is industry standard with consultants. i am very hopeful that with the intel macs i will be able to run the pc programs on the mac. it is so much easier to use than the pc, imo.
I dont want to buy a mac.
I'm thinking toshiba or alienware..
alienware is quite expensive...
but I think toshiba is good for the price..
what do you think?
why don't you want to buy a mac?
get an NW8240. It's as bad and black as a mac is good and white... I have ordered one, Ill let you know about it when it arrives.
rootseven I know mac is good..
but I'm not mac user..
I want to use autocad too.
Dell
Save yourself a grand.
Look at www.techbargains.com for a regular $750 off on $2k plus laptops. Get the 9300 with the 256mb Geforce 6800 and a gig of ram. It'll easily meet your price target.
fair enough.
if you get a name brand pc and want to save get a sony if not a sony get a velocity micro. stay away from alienware you dont need it. in general a pc is a pc piece of crap but if you insist then dont get a name brand unless its a sony because they all use cheap parts and it will break. autocad etc can be run on mac using virtual pc but it is slower.
Sony's laptop video cards suck. Dont get one for 3D. Great screens though. Not to mention you won't get that sweet $750 off (that is not on Dell's site, byt the way).
Alienware's new laptops are pretty sweet, too, and just won Computer Art's top choice for a portable workstation (they did not test the 9300).
Look at www.boxxtech.com for unlimited portable workstation options (it's the same laptop, basically, as the Alienware), but you'll pay for it.
Don't know about VM, but I do know that you can't beat that Dell for the price (with discount). That's the baby I am getting.
"You might want to consider AMD64 vs. P4-M now that this is available too."
who makes these? are these chips or models, and what brand?
TIA
anyone use a vaio?
how does sonys video cards suck? theyre no different than any other.
how does sonys video cards suck? theyre no different than any other.
I've got a Dell 8600, with the processor and videocard upgraded to the best they would put in there. I bought it with the bare minimum of RAM, but then went to a computer show and got a gig to put in it for a MUCH better price than what Dell wanted. I was able to find a 20% off coupon code just by searching the net, so I only paid $2000 for it. Just don't get dell if you think you'll need to call their tech support, because it's all in India and the people don't usually understand what you're trying to ask. But it's great for people who know what they're doing. I've run AutoCAD, FormZ, 3DStudio Max, Photoshop, Illustrator, etc. on it no problem. Doesn't take that long to render at all actually.
These are gaming machines, and they offer incredible tech support and customization.
falcon northwest
This is what Sony uses for their highend graphic card (there are no options):
http://www.sonystyle.com/is-bin/INTERSHOP.enfinity/eCS/Store/en/-/USD/SY_CTO-Specification
Graphics : ATI Mobilityâ„¢ Radeonâ„¢ X600 128MB DDR SDRAM
Dell's: http://configure.us.dell.com/dellstore/config.aspx?c=us&cs=04&kc=6W300&l=en&oc=i9300sapp&s=bsd
64MB ATIsâ„¢ Mobility Radeonâ„¢ X300
128MB ATIsâ„¢ Mobility Radeonâ„¢ X300 [add $99 or $3/month1] Dell Recommended
256MB NVIDA® GeForce™ Go 6800 [add $199 or $5/month1]
You can go for the XPS model and get a 6800 Pro card, too, but it's hard to find good coupons for those. Or go with the workstation model, M70 I think, and it's got a portable Quadro (but only a 15.4" screen).
I've considered the Sony's, and this card is much better than the one's that were offered a few months ago, but it's still inferior.
For tech support, get the models on the Business side. I wait no longer than 15mins, usually much less. They've helped me do everything from installing hard drives to reconfiguring my RAID setup - and it's all US only. Harder to find good coupons, though.
and they cost an arm and a leg!
With regard to sony laptops video cards, an ATI radeon is definitely what to you want if you're running 3dsmax as the software is now optimized for these cards.
The sony VAIO VGN-A417M has the 256 ATI mobility radeon graphics card which currently is probably the best card you can get if you're running max with a laptop. If you're using Maya or Formz then it might be a different story. It might be a bit pricey too, although here in the UK they've got a financing option which allows you to pay for it interest free over the course of 12 months. It's about 120GBP/month ($215?), i'm sure you can get a much better deal in the states with similar financing.
if i'm running maya, how do i find out what Gcard is best?
what makes the difference?
It's got to do with the drivers you use with the card. ATI supply optimized drivers for max with their cards. You can also use microsoft Direct X drivers, it's a agreement ATI have with Autodesk i think. Sometimes it's better to buy a slower card with the right drivers rather than a super powerful one that you can't use to its full capacity because the drivers supplied are crap. I've got a very expensive graphics card at work but it's slower than the cheaper ATI ones other people use with the proper drivers, which is a real shame because they paid shitloads of money for that and the difference is zilch. The ALIAS website will probably tell you which cards are best with Maya.
the problem is that you want a laptop...bad idea...you can almost get two Desktops for the price of an equal laptop. In the past two year of gradschool I have seem more people crying over dell, HP and Sony. Sony is the sexiest but they dont really work out the bugs and plan on stuff breaking. oh and they love to keep stuff proprietary so things like ram is more expensive from what I hear. Stay far far away from Compact and HP from my experiance. Dell are hit or miss, but they seem to be going down in quality for laptops.
I went with a 12in power book and a dell desktop. That whole pentium 4 w/ hyperthreading is worth it if you are going to do any rendering or large 3d models. Moble chips have lots of problems from what I have seen around the studio.
what about a mac caffienejunk
what about a mac caffienejunk
Go read the reviews on the laptops, that's your best bet. Timing is everything as all the companies change the graphic cards frequently. I am a fan of nvidia and Maxtreme drivers, but that's just what I know.
I agree that a laptop is not the best way for 3D. But you can do it. I learned Max and Formz on a PII 120mghtz with 256mbs ram! It couldn't do much, of course, but you can do things.
Make sure you read the fine print. the mbs are not as important as the type of card.
if you really want a mac, then i would wait a while. apple is going to intel processors (just announced by steve-o himself), which means that macs will not only run osX, they will also run XP without an emulator. that gives you the best of both worlds...
"if you really want a mac, then i would wait a while."
A while is right . . . try like a year or two. Dunno if they are going to toss out a G5 laptop before the move to Intel (Steve Jobs said they had some great PPC products still coming), but it might be a gamble of a laptop.
if you get a mac no matter what it will be good even if they come out with a new model in a year. pcs usually change even quicker than that. oh and you can upgrade your mac to the intel if you really want but it wont make a difference. itel is not better than the g4 and you can always upgrade if you want.
How do people feel about the Toshiba Satellite Series? I'm leaning towards buying one in the next month or so. P35 product at $1,600.
Seems powerful enough to last me three years of grad school.
i love my toshiba satellite a25/s207!
it's almost two years old now and i've practically filled the 40gb hard drive. it's been trouble-free and smart enough to recognize almost any application/hardware, fast, etc.
you probably already know that they're heavy. this is my biggest complaint and it's not much of one because it hasn't kept me from carting the thing around everywhere - school, office, meetings, etc.
To all those in the know,
I was just offered a
new Sony VGN A230
pent. m 350
256mb ddrram
40gb hd
yadda yadda for 600 bucks.
I was going to wait and purchase a dell with higher capacity for all my graphics programs. Can I upgrade the sony?
Should i say f'it and purchase it??? I gotta let him know by tomorrow and can't really make up my mind... big purchases make me nervous.
apparently is problem to change or upgrade the os
???
cyn:
I don't know if I'm missing something, but that post doesn't make any sense. AFAIK an upgrade from XP Home to Pro is just a question of MS making a few more services available to you, that the average home user might not need (in their opinion). I have yet to see any drivers that are distinctly for Home or Pro and so I don't understand what this guy's problem is. Must be something else he doesn't get and he's just letting off steam on Sony, because he can't figure out the problem.
There is a huge difference between XP Pro and Home. Pro is significantly more stable and aimed at 'pro' work. If you are doing anything professional or want reliability, go with Pro.
No idea about drivers, but it does seem odd.
So what's this about Apple running windows? Why would they do that? They are just coming up with an updated os that looks good (although I still won't use a Mac, I still like 'em). Using intel is like using Hewlett Packard or another company, they are just the manufacturer.
I would highly doubt that they have any intention of using Pentium chips or Windows, but I really have no idea.
henrik--i spoke with someone who has a vaio today, he said the os was built in to a chip on the machine xp home. but he did say he upgraded it to xp pro with a registration code. i don't know...
trace: apple is switching to intel chips so the architecture of the mac machine will be able to run windows without an emulator. the company said they would do nothing to prevent windows software developers to make things for the apple hardware. however they will not allow the mac os to be run on a pc. makes good business sense to me. helps all us mac users be able to use the software we need without switching to a pc. and encourages the pc users to use their software on a mac. the reason for the switch is apparently ibm was not making fast enough chips.
Stay away from alienware! They are terrible! A coworker researched for 2 days on the best system for our software needs... we bought 4 - top of the line - alienware machines.... they crash all the time... and we call and call... they want nothing to do with us. We swapped out the machines and took them to different techs who can't figure out the problem... one thinks it might be the hard drive... and another thinks it is the video card. Our macs keep us running.... Our PC's are always crashing... we have bought several in the last 4 years... fast yet unstable.
crashed without even installing software.... crashed after installing software we own - and man, we even sent back a machine to them with all of our software installed.... they sent it back -wiped- and claimed it was fine... boo.
cyn:
Think about this: A manufacturer locking a machine to one particular OS for the lifetime of the machine? No, it doesn't make any sense. I'm sorry, but I have never heard such nonsense.
As for Apple and the switch to Intel, I think there are lots of uncertainties at the moment as to the actual intentions of Apple. So far, there's lots of guessing and rumours going round the web. The fact is that right now you can rent/buy a development system from Apple running a beta version of Tiger for Intel on a P4 system. This is to allow developers to port their software in time for the first Apple Intel systems due to be launched next year. Nobody AFAIK have published the detailed specs on these systems. However, there has been rumours of people running this development only release of Tiger on a standard PC kit. I haven't seen this confirmed in any major way, but I might have missed the stories. It does appear that the Tiger beta has been pirated already and made available as a torrent.
The big question is, whether the Intel version of Tiger will somehow be 'locked' to only run on the Apple PC hardware using CPU ID's or other method. I haven't seen any stories saying that Apple would be ok with Windows running on their Intel hardware. I really do not think this is their intention. But of course they'd be happy for any Windows developer to run/port their software to Tiger on Intel.
IMO, once Tiger for Intel is properly released, somebody somewhere will make it run on other Intel hardware too. And somebody somewhere will make Linux run on the Apple Intel hardware.
Where Windows ends up in all this, I don't know. But I think Jobs made it clear in his keynote speech, who the main target is: Longhorn.
In the same speech he also claims that the main reason for the switch to Intel is that the roadmaps for the Intel line and the PowerPC line when compared, shows that the Intel roadmap offers far superior performance in relation to power consumption (remember the current top of the line dual G5 is liquid cooled...). Others would argue that this roadmap comparison is flawed, but this is the reason they are giving us.
trace:
Why would MS make an OS for the 'pro' user that's stable and reliable and then make a shitty version for the 'home' user that isn't? Again, doesn't make any sense. Might make sense if you were comparing something like Win98 to Win2000, but not comparing two OS' that are basically Full and Lite versions of the same release.
Apologies, I'm going way off topic here.
Ok, somebody has posted slightly more detailed specs on the development system, and also claims that 'Windows runs just fine' on this. Here's the link
Sorry, let's try that link again
hey henrik, your link did not work for me.
sony does alot of locking-in of software--i have one of their clie's and the built-in software takes up alot of memory. i can't get rid of it.
does not make sense? perhaps not to you logically, but i'm sure there is a marketing reason for it.
my understanding is that you can upgrade from xp home to pro, but the software is present as built in a chip, not as a separate cd to install.
as to the review i posted, that is merely one person's experience and i have no way of verifying it. i simply put it out there as info to be checked out by the person who was going to buy the vaio. are you able to verify?
I just got a dell with XP media center and it is as locked into my machine as possible. You cant purchase the media center os unless you get a new computer and i wasnt given the os on disk. as far as i know i cant even reformat the computer. Weird thing is that media center is basically just a program that runs off of xp home rather than a full os.
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