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fradac

macrumors regular
Oct 24, 2003
127
0
Atlanta, GA
ya,

thats the XPS Range. they top end is 17 inch with pentium M 2.0Ghz, 2GB Ram, 60GB 7200RPM drive

going for about $3600
 

nanika

macrumors newbie
Mar 9, 2006
1
0
it is about quality and support

I finally upgraded to a macbook after many years of near problem-free operation of my 550 mhz titanium. After all these years, the only problem I had was a dead hard drive, which I consider normal. It still chugs along as a music server just fine.

Macs are more expensive because they use quality components and they have top-knotch support. Any question/problem I ever had was resolved rather quickly. On the other hand, I also own a Gateway laptop that I purchaced a year ago. Since then I have had all kinds of issues. First it just stopped working after about a month. Gateway fixed it. Then, the display started getting bright blotches. I sent it to gateway and they claimed that it was MY fault somehow. I tried to escallate, but to no avail. The rep was also unprofessional and rude, which is why I'll never own another gateway.

Of course the quality goes beyond the hardware. I can't take the constant problems I have with windows. Periodically the sound on my PC just stops working. The "fix", so I was told, was to re-install windows. What a monumental pain. I've just learned to live without sound.

And i'm tired of constantly worrying about viruses and spyware. I have a pretty secure system (software firewall, hardware firewall, antivirus, antispyware), but I am never sure that I am free of these problems. I don't have to worry about this on my mac (yet anyway)

So, for me, I just want my comptuers to function as they should. I don't think that is too much to ask, and I'm willing to pay more for the convenience. I just hope that someone comes up with a full-featured PC emulator so I can finally get rid of this damn gateway.
 

PDE

macrumors 68020
Nov 16, 2005
2,484
18
Many of the problems people have with windows machines are software and OS related rather than hardware. As Apple users, we pay for integration and for a product that delivers a largely reliable and smooth computer experience, including both hardware and software. This is something few mac users realize until they are forced to use a windows machine as their m ain computer. I happily pay the extra for because I know that I can be fairly confident that the computer will behave predictably most of the time. I didn't feel that way with my window laptop.

Apple tech support going to India, though, is something I can't accept. I fear it's the end of quality support from Apple. Let's hope Apple is able to figure out a way to be different from others in this respect because I've only had lousy experiences dealing with tech centers in india.
 

TBi

macrumors 68030
Jul 26, 2005
2,583
6
Ireland
I never had a problem with my 5 year old Dell Inspiron 8000 either. Except for a hard drive failure, which i consider normal.

It was built well, had a brilliant keyboard (i've not used one to this day that feels as good) and had excellent specifications for the time. The only thing i didn't like about it was the weight. Brilliant laptop and i was happy with it until i sold it.

Moral of the story: People have good experiences with macs, people have good experiences with PC's. Also People have bad experiences with macs, people have bad experiences with PC's. A lot of people on these boards have switched to a mac because of trouble with PC's. Which leads to a biased opinion that all pc's are crap which isn't true. I'm not talking about the software here really...

I'm moving to mac for the quietness though. It's cheaper to get a quiet mac today than it is to get a quiet PC. Actually off topic but that's something no one ever brings up. PC's are generally noisier and more power hungry than macs at the same price and thus over their life time end up costing you more.
 

California

macrumors 68040
Aug 21, 2004
3,885
90
SmurfBoxMasta said:
Since when was 1984 like 1984 ?
OTOH, Since when was 1984 NOT like 1984 ? :D

Orwell aside, i meant that consumers are lightning fast now with information about products. There is no lag time = Apple's got to be first out of the box with excellence. In the real 1984, there was no internet and Apple could take months to preen itself and its image as word of mouth was very slow. This has changed all business models to be more excellent and honest. Apple needs to realize their mystique is going to be shorter and shorter lived.
 

taylorpohlman

macrumors member
Mar 1, 2006
39
0
Music_Producer said:
The MBP retailing at $1999.. ouch. I am a macintosh fan, but honestly I find the prices crazy. If the MBP was $1299.. imagine how many would sell. I'd gladly buy two .. one for my wife and one for my folks.. but $1999?

What do you guys think? I don't want the "But macs are made so beautiful and the thickness is so ..etc etc" I mean where is all that extra money going? $1999-$729 = design and mac os x premium?
Re this, did anybody notice that shipment for the Dell is quoted out about 3 weeks, and you can't get XP Pro on this if you also want to get the remote control, plus a bunch of other caveats that I kept running into with the configurator - also, MacConnection is selling the MBP at net $2,344 (inc. $150 rebate) for the 2Ghz config (Dell with discount for a somewhat comp machine at $1,600). But the problem is that you can't get some stuff on the Dell at any price, and frankly, the Dell has the integrated graphics (like mini), which, per other forums (see posts on intel mac mini) has bad performance compared to the separate graphics card. That's another couple of $100 in value, plus all the other stuff previously mentioned. In short, if you want a cheap notebook, and don't care about mac hdw and OS advantages, buy a Dell - I use my machine for business, and need quality, and if you look at quality duo laptops, the Mac is very competitive. end of rant...
T
 

gnasher729

Suspended
Nov 25, 2005
17,980
5,566
Music_Producer said:
Just checked out http://www.dealnews.com and they had this:

"new: Dell Inspiron E1505 Core Duo 1.66GHz 15" Widescreen Notebook + printer for $729 after rebate

Shame on you for falling for Dell's bait and switch methods.

It doesn't come with a Core Duo processor. It comes with an optional Core Duo processor. For Core Duo, you have to pay more. It also doesn't come with a 15 inch screen. It comes with an optional 15 inch screen. For the 15 inch screen, you have to pay more. Also, you don't pay $729. You pay $979, and then you are giving a chance to fight to get $250 back from them. Many people don't manage to get that money. What makes you so sure that you can?
 
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