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Can I get MacBook Air 13" quality but for less?


Wasso

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

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Seriously though mate I used Mac at uni (lets say a few years back) then got into PCs building them, fixing them.... then EVERYBODY started doing it, prices came down etc and no point.... Then 2 years back I bought a Mac Mini instead of my usual bi-annual PC upgrade and honestly best thing I ever did....

Does it do anything a PC can't, no but that's not the point it isn't just better it's easier, faster (apart from gaming mostly)

Just get the best spec you can for what you can spend, even if it is a few years old it will be good for a fair few more :teeth:

If you get a PC you will think what if, if you get a Mac you will think thank god ;)

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

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Ian, if you want simplicity and ease and have the money then get a mac as I get the impression you wont be doing anything taxing or advanced on it. If you want to save some money and get the same performance then some of the Lenovo's are decent at the moment but as it is Windows, you will need to keep it updated and have anti virus programs etc. For me, I can't use a mac as it can't run a lot of CAD software and many other programs.

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

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Ian, if you want simplicity and ease and have the money then get a mac as I get the impression you wont be doing anything taxing or advanced on it. If you want to save some money and get the same performance then some of the Lenovo's are decent at the moment but as it is Windows, you will need to keep it updated and have anti virus programs etc. For me, I can't use a mac as it can't run a lot of CAD software and many other programs.

 

Name some CAD software that you can't use on Mac please.

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Solidworks (what I currently use), any Wildfire versions of Pro E (wildfire is the most common, Creo hasn't really taken off yet), Catia and more. In fact I can't think of any that work well with Mac. Can you name any? Also if you are working in a machine environment then you may need to port the CAD files to a CAM program and then export the CAM code to a machine and you can't do that on a MAC.

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

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SolidWorks works on Mac from what I can see:

 

http://www.solidwork...t/downloads.htm

 

AutoCAD too

 

http://www.autodesk....mpare-platforms

 

Have a look here also:

 

http://alternativeto...r/?platform=mac

Solidworks doesn't work on Mac OS http://www.solidworks.co.uk/sw/support/SystemRequirements.html only edrawings (a viewer) does. AutoCAD does but I don't know anybody who uses it now except for Architects. The final link you gave me, the only pieces of software I recognise are Sketch up (not a CAD program but similar) and AutoCAD as already mentioned

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

Yeah the OS's good, it's just the hardware that's old. And overpriced.

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

Yeah the OS's good, it's just the hardware that's old. And overpriced.

 

But can you put a price on sheer beauty? ;)

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? your fist link is an opinion by an Apple loving website (hence the websites name) and your second link even states itself that

"A main factor in this machine's metrics is the fact that every Windows installation on it is clean. With PC manufacturers loading so much crapware on new laptops, this is a bit of an unfair competition. But, on the other hand, PC makers should look at this data and aspire to ship PCs that perform just as well as a cleanly installed MacBook Pro." And also you will notice that the Acer laptop which is second in their list is way less then half the price of the mac. So do what I do and build your own so then you have no bloatware and save a lot of money.

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Last time i checked Catia didnt work on a mac and was a PC only software, but this is going back a while and this was when i was using Catia V4 and V5 CAD packages; not that its an issue as i don;t use it anymore and the version i have doesnt even run on the new windows either :lol: £70k of software and who said money buys you the best :lol:

 

macs are good if you like them,

 

if thats what wasso wants let wasso get one.

Edited by rtbiscuit
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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

Yeah the OS's good, it's just the hardware that's old. And overpriced.

 

But can you put a price on sheer beauty? ;)

What beauty? You mean the chassis? Honestly I helped in the development of the aluminium chassis (helicoil inserts were needed and I used to be an engineer for a manufacturer of them) and the inside of it is not very well machined at all, quite shocking in fact. There are also other manufacturers who make one piece alu laptops too (admittedly they copied) but with better hardware inside.

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

 

From what I understand, OSX is effectively a firmware rather than a typical operating system which runs on a bios. This means that OSX uses much less RAM and processing power to operate when compared to a Windows device, therefor leaving more resources available to run various programs :)

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Last time i checked Catia didnt work on a mac and was a PC only software, but this is going back a while and this was when i was using Catia V4 and V5 CAD packages; not that its an issue as i don;t use it anymore and the version i have doesnt even run on the new windows either :lol: £70k of software and who said money buys you the best :lol:

 

macs are good if you like them,

 

if thats what wasso wants let wasso get one.

Hey I'm not beating Wasso, as I said, if he wants simplicity of use then get a mac. Just saying that you can get laptops with better hardware for less money.

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From what you said you need the laptop for, why buy a mac? You can buy a non apple computer for around 60% of the price of the mac with the same specification. You can even get them made from billet alu like the mac. Unless you need to look cool, want to do lots of heavy video editing or are too noob with computers to know what you are doing then I would save your money and get a decent spec non Apple laptop.

 

The most important thing is the decent spec though, the £400 - £500 laptops you see in Tesco and the like are not good spec, they are mediocre for today and hence why they are useless in a few years. Buy high end now, and it will still be in the high mid range in 3 years time.

 

It'll be well broke in 3 years, probably taking 5-10 minutes to boot up :lol:

 

 

? really? Ever touched a good spec laptop? Mac's are always very out of date with hardware, have limited programs, very restricted in use. The only good thing about them is the same thing as the iPhone. They are so heavily restricted that you can't do anything wrong, although you also can't do what you want, only what Apple will let you do.

 

Hmmm same argument with Android, haha I can change almost ANYTHING!!!! Then 99.9% of people change nothing :p

 

The 5-10 minute boot up comment was designed to get a rise, with SSDs now even a clogged up PC can boot in seconds....

Yeah SSD#s were funny when they came out.. I had an OCZ one pretty much as soon as SSD's existed. Went to PC World about a year later and looked at the mac's for a laugh. The sales guy spent an hour telling me how the next gen mac was coming out in a few months and it had a SSD and it was the first computer in the world to have one and they were developed just for mac's and you couldn't run them in any other PC. The look on his face when I told him that my PC was a year old, already had a SSD twice the size and my year old PC specs were far better than what the new mac had to offer and cost half the price a year in advance.

 

I love my OCZ, recently installed one in a mate's new laptop, makes such a difference once you battle past "modern interface".

 

PC World guys crack me up, I'd be surprised if they could tell you if a toaster can heat a bagel :)

 

You're right about the specs though they do lag behind, strange that they feel so much snappier to use. Must be OSX.

 

From what I understand, OSX is effectively a firmware rather than a typical operating system which runs on a bios. This means that OSX uses much less RAM and processing power to operate when compared to a Windows device, therefor leaving more resources available to run various programs :)

Correct unless you buy a decent laptop with plenty of RAM, I'm running 32gb at the moment and never have an issue. Anyway, as I have said, the Mac OS is good. It's the hardware that I don't like and the Apple restrictions on software.

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Last time i checked Catia didnt work on a mac and was a PC only software, but this is going back a while and this was when i was using Catia V4 and V5 CAD packages; not that its an issue as i don;t use it anymore and the version i have doesnt even run on the new windows either :lol: £70k of software and who said money buys you the best :lol:

 

macs are good if you like them,

 

if thats what wasso wants let wasso get one.

Hey I'm not beating Wasso, as I said, if he wants simplicity of use then get a mac. Just saying that you can get laptops with better hardware for less money.

 

i dont disagree, macs and I don;t get on. my wife loves them, but thats becuase they're idiot proof.

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