Benchmarks: Psystar v. Mac mini (and all three MacBooks)

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You are going to have to face the truth.: Last I checked, the 2800.00 17" MBP was still sporting only 2 GB of RAM, and putting a 1 Giger in each slot. That is something you are likely to find in a 499.00 Walmart special.

The reality is, after just spending a lot of time early this year comparing 17" laptops, I could get a machine that went well above the MBP specs, with the same off the shelf commodity components for half it's price.

You have to throw in the coupons. Every OEM has monthly deals, some better than others, but unless you need a PC tommorrow, which you'd still save around 800.00, you can get an additional 300.00 to 500.00 off any higher end PC. I actually started looking a year ago but didn't plan on buying until this year.

Machines that were 1800.00 to 2400.00 a year ago, have dropped significantly, while the configurations continue to get better.

I am using a 17" laptop with a 2.5Ghz penryn core 2 duo, 4GB of high quality 800Mhz RAM, dual 160 7200 rpm drives and half a GB of discrete video RAM on a top shelf GPU.
It's only downside is the WSXGA 1650 X 1050 display, which is actually very high quality but I wanted something that would do full 1080i.

The MBP i looked at, at that time, had only 2GB of RAM, like i said done very cheaply with a GB in each slot instead of one 2GB module like any decent PC, and a single 5400rpm drive. It was yesterday's news quite honestly.

I got it for 1400.00 w/coupon. I discovered I had missed out on 200.00 additional savings the prior month, when i was searching for my coupon.

My Uncle has a newer MBP with a core 2 duo 2.4 Ghz. It is very much noticably slower than my machine running Leopard. I realize this is anecdotal and all, but it's the absolute facts. Mine came with Vista Ultimate x64 and I gotta tell you, it couldn't be faster. And it's the most stable OS I've ever used or seen for that matter. I can stack up as many IE and Office applications one could ever conceivably have open and using, around 20, and each one opened as fast as the prior instance. What I noticed it has over XP anyway, was how smoothly and quickly it is able to shut down that many programs. I know the 4GB of RAM has something to do with it, but it's a very nice OS. I've not touched my XP machine more than I've had to since I got this machine. It's a pleasure to use and the GUI is fantastic. Microsoft may have shared some code with Apple at one time, but I don't care. The GUI originated out of either company's hands and it's hard to say how much of what I'm looking at is "Apple" code. On the other side, Apple has relied on MS code over the years and got it's share in the deal. The earlier Apple machines sported Applesoft Basic, which was licensed from....you guessed it, Microsoft. Look at how MSO for the Mac has been a mainstay of the Mac world for so long and is apparently selling like crazy with the 2008 version.

And the great thing about any PC you buy is that you can just take the defaul RAM, then turn around get 4GB of high end RAM for 50 to 80 bucks and the most average of user can snap it in h/er/im/self, no problemo.

The MB 15" (not MBP) is the closest to what I have in price, not quite it's still more, and it's only half the machine based on configuration. Leopard does not scream on a MBP.

And Leopard is not a full 64 bit OS, even though Apple advertises it that way on their website. Shame on Apple! (seriously, if someone caught that tidbit about Vista x64, there would be no end to the trolling and nasty posts about how evil MS is to mislead it's buying public. that is also, a fact.; Posted by: xuniL_z Posted on: 05/14/08 You are currently: a Guest | Members login | Terms of Use