Macbookpro vs @XI Laptop vs ?????

[mikeshick]

Hi Fellows,

I'm at a bit of a crossroads, and wondering if anyone has walked this path yet. 

I'm looking for a new notebook, and I want power!.  I generally use Autodesk Architecture and Civil3d for my CAD applications.  I do renderings a few times a year, and am anticipating going to Revit and utilitzing 3D max in the next couple of years +/-.  I also use MS Office, Enercalc, Risa3D, & Retainpro as the nuts and bolts of my workflow.

I have heard over many years that Mac's are so much better tnan PC's...and most folks that I hear going to them never really desire windows again.  I don't know how valid this really is...but a friend of mine (a power user) recently made the and can't believe he didn't jump sooner. 

With that said, I'm curious if anyone in our industry using similar softwares have done likewise, and what are the results.

As a second part of this question, I had recently spec'd out a computer from @xi computers.  How would a top-of-the-line macbookpro lineup with the functionality of this machine.  I know spec for spec, the macbookpro doesn't match it.  But I've also heard that mac's don't require as much power because they are so much more effiecient...so this is a bit like comparing apples to oranges.

Lastly, if PC is really the realm I should stay with, are there any other competing vendors with @xi that I should consider looking at?  I know the one I'm specing is not run of the mill.  However, I don't see any other companies that I've come across with anything that competes in spec or price.

Here is the @xi computer I'm looking at:

00031	Xi® PowerGo™ XT (Base Configuration)	$2,449.00
01780	Intel® Core™ i7 3820 3.60GHz 3.90GHz Turbo Boost ( Desktop only) 10MB Shared L3 Cache 1x5GT/s QPI Quad-Core DMI (x79 MoBo only)	Incl. w/ Base
02252	16GB DDR3 @1333MHz SO-DIMM Dual Rank Interleave	$399.00
04420	nVIDIA® GeForce™ GTX 580M 2GB GDDR5 Video Memory Graphic Engine	Incl. w/ Base
05150	17.3" 1920x1080 Full HD (16:9) LED Backlit Glare, Super-Wide Viewing Angles Display	Incl. w/ Base
03146	240GB Solid State Drive Corsair® Force Series™ 3 (R2) SATA 6Gb/s 550/520MB/s Seq.R/W SandForce® SF-2200 Ctrl. <.3ms seek Shock Resistant 1500G.	$249.00
32103	Optional 500GB 7200 RPM SATAII-300MB/s	$99.00
06060	8X DVD±R/RW Burner with 4X Double Layer Write Capability	Incl. w/ Base
12039	Internal Wi-Fi Wireless, Gigabit Ethernet and Bluetooth Card	Incl. w/ Base
13029	Built-In Keyboard Only	Incl. w/ Base
14027	Logitech® Performance Mouse MX™ Cordless Laser	$65.00
16084	Genuine Microsoft® Windows® 7 Professional Edition 64Bit on DVD (32Bit & XP Pro downgrade avail. on request)	$59.00
20100	TARGUS 17" Laptop Backpack w/Padded Compartment & Shoulder Strap	$79.00
20116	Additional 8-Cell Lithium-Ion Battery Pack for notebook	$199.00
18001	Standard Xi Warranty w/Express Advance Parts Replacement, One Year on System, Mfg. on Monitor	Incl. w/ Base
47002	Grounded Power Cable	Incl. w/ Base

Sub Total:

$3,598.00

I appreciate your input ahead of time.

Sincerly,

Mike Shick

www.medesigns.us

[mikeshick]

Matt,Stachoni or any others have any thoughts on this?

[pendean]

While you wait...

You will always pay more for a MAC no matter how you spec it: but with that you get total control from the OS creator over the hardware running that OS. And the apps that go with it. For now, there is no REVIT or 3DMax versions for that OS, and no offense to anyone doing it, but running Windows on Apple hardware should be outlawed LOL

http://usa.autodesk.com/products/mac-compatible-products

Why did you select Xi?

[mikeshick]

Thank, Dean. 

Why spec Xi...I looked around a bit, and really couldn't find anyone with specs like these, even when prices were pretty similar.  Thus, my question...anyone aware of other vendors offering more competitive deals?  Personally, I've probably always paid slightly more for equipment than necessary.  But, in the engineering buisness, our overhead is so low compared to so many other jobs out there, the one tool I use to make a living off of for years is just not worth skimping on.

Sorry for the ramble.

[mikeshick]

Dean...as a followup to your comment about MACS...I have been a PC guy my whole life, and I think I understand why you might say something like that.  Could you elaborate a little on why. 

Some folks used to disdain getting dual cores for AutoCAD if you weren't into rendering, or even upgrading to 64 bit at at time when so many programs were not designed 64bit.  Of course, having 64bit gave far more potential when programs were developed, and dual cores still helped with running 13 programs at once 🙂  I'm wondering if this thought process applies to the MAC.  While there may not be specific mac based autocad programs, what I hear from some mac users is that mac running windows does cirlces around pc running windows (don't know if this is true). 

,,,So....looking for hard facts and experience on this matter 🙂

[pendean]

Apple tightly designs the OS and hardware that it runs on: they also tightly control the apps that you can purchase to run inside their OS and Computers. That is why Apple users, and those that switch to them become rabid fans.

What's there not to love about that. Microsoft does nothing similar to that extent: so why buy a superb well designed system and tgen kick it in the knees by running Windows on it? There is no magic to dual booting Windows on a Mac, it's just nit smart to partially adopt a Classy setup like Apple. Ask your Apple friends to tell you what they think about your idea.

[mikeshick]

Asking mac users is a good idea, only I don't honestly know any who is also in my industry using a mac.  Sure, plenty of architects, but they are generally using vecorworks or some other mac based software.  I don't know any that run bootcamp or parallels in order to run pc based autocad.

But still wondering. The way you've put it, sounds like having a mac for pc based software will not yeild great results for windows based software...but there are still other computing activities that may make the advantage worth while.  If computer size/weight, effeciency, and battery life are all superior on a mac - and windows based programs don't run worse on a mac than on a pc, then I'd still see this as a net gain, eh?

Other than not getting full potential out of a mac, what would be other disavantages?

[Anonymous]

I agree with most of Dean's points; but wanted to clarify that there is nothing special about mac hardware (anymore). Several years back they stopped using IBM processors and switched to Intel. Current mac computers are built on the same core-i series cpus as the pc computers are, they use the same northbridge, same memory architecture, etc.

What makes it a mac is that apple only makes/allows certain hardware to have driver support under OSX. There are benefits to this approach, its a big part of why macs are known to be so stable; they optimize well for the limited hardware selection that is allowed. An unpleasant side effect of this is that you will almost never find the bleeding edge hardware on a mac platform...

just my 2 cents.

[Anonymous]

I am really intrested in this as well becouse all of my friends just scream mac! mac ! mac! like a bnuch of zombies and this things aint cheap

[mikeshick]

I'm pretty surprised that more users haven't input here, or possibly tried going down this path.  Going mac is a pretty heafty price tag just to try this out ...but yes, I feel a little inticed.   

[Anonymous]

I'm a little late in here, but...

I've thought about this alot in the past, and still can't get past paying an extra $500 for a Mac and then run widows on it to run the software I use most and they don't support the Mac OS.  It's just never made fiscal sense to me.

Yes the Macs are sexy, but I'm a ROI guy all the way.  My current luga (I mean laptop), is a Toshiba Qosmio.  At $1200, it was a dance around price performance and screen size.  I will  never recommend a laptop with less than a 17" screen for adsk products, even with the higer resolution graphic cards & screens.  You just can't see enough of the drawing in decent detail to do production work.  You're adding too much overhead panning & zooming to get to see what you need to work on.  Yes, it's heavy, but I want to see what I'm working on.

So... I stil think Macs are nice, but overpriced for what you get (for adsk stuff).  If you've got money to burn - go for it.  They might be great if you're a graphics designer or digital artist, but overpriced for CADD.

Reid

[mikeshick]

I appreciate the response.  I still haven't purchased yet, been dragging my feet.  But....sexy....yes, true.  But when a one guy tells me he does video editing and rec-coding almost all day on a single charge of the battery...holy cow....that's amazing.  Would that effeciency rub off when using CAD in Windows w/n the Mac OS evironment.

My use for the laptop is to use for work about 1/2 time or less, and for personal the rest...so the sexy part is appealing, along with the battery capacity.  There has been many close opportunities where business travel may be necessary, so would need the laptop to perform more like a desktop....that's where this question comes I wonder how well the MAC and PC compare.

[dgorsman]

People say lots of things; I'd ask to sit down with said user for a day to see what is actually being done.