Should I go Alienware or Macbook ?

rbmonosylabik · Post by **rbmonosylabik** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 11:27 am

RopeyPunter wrote:apple. bootcamp. apple. windows running better on apple machines then other generic pc machines......apple. apple only software. apple. pc only software. apple. apple. apple. appple.

by the way, how is this a YES or NO poll ?....call me crazy

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DKushner · Post by **DKushner** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:29 pm

<---Original Poster

1. Australia?!

2. Ropey Punter: stay out of my threads. Your advice, to me, is worthless.

3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

4. Can I take an external HD and shuttle data back and forth between a Mac and a PC? or do I have to reformat?

sweetjesus · Post by **sweetjesus** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 1:40 pm

DKushner wrote:<---Original Poster

1. Australia?!

2. Ropey Punter: stay out of my threads. Your advice, to me, is worthless.

3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

4. Can I take an external HD and shuttle data back and forth between a Mac and a PC? or do I have to reformat?

you can boot a mac up as a firewire drive by holding down T when you boot. you will need macdrive (a program) on the PC to read mac's file format.

alternatively you can network the two machines.

rikhyray · Post by **rikhyray** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 2:11 pm

DKushner wrote:<---Original Poster

1. Australia?!

2. Ropey Punter: stay out of my threads. Your advice, to me, is worthless.

3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

4. Can I take an external HD and shuttle data back and forth between a Mac and a PC? or do I have to reformat?

The problem with P4 is the heat, Clevo have probably the best cooling of them all that is why Allienware uses them ( you can find Clevo without Alien logo probably saving a grand) 4 fans. Still means lots of noise and in the end unusable if you want to ever record anything live with a mic.
AFAIK 3.8 P4 Allienw. is the live test winner. any 3.2 G or less are easily beaten by any 1.6 or faster Centrino.
On pc front very few notebooks are well built and all of them insult my esthetic sense, except Vaio. Look might not be most important to you but I hate to spend my money on ugly shit and see it 10-14 hours daily.
I moved to pc because of its superiority using Live, if the new Macs really work well, will get one. I dont see much difference Mac or PC as far as using is concerned, those virus, crushing stories, and how easier ,more elegant ( that is probably the most idiotic) Mac is apply only if you are intellectually challanged. Any person with avarage intelligence and some computer experience can learn to use other system in few minutes. I also believed this bullshit stories, have my music partition, with no internet, no network, nothing but music. Now, I use it only for performing, I work mostly on the other one,formerly only internet, installed Live and slowly everything else, have antivirus, firewall running do my work with Live rewired reason while same time talking on Skype and writing this post.

What I miss from Mac is the lighted keyboard and powered FW nothing else really.
So my final advice if it is AW or Mac- definitely Mac. If pc or Mac, get Vaio if the esthetical aspect is important, ASUS if it is not, Toshiba if you are on budget. Regarding cheapos like Dell, Acer BenQ .....better go straight for wooden abacus.
to move mac><pc HD must be FAT 32

P.S. Australia is great, Sydney probably worlds most charming city- lots of culture, I love the attitude of Australians, in fact even these answers,to highly provocative, rude, post shows that for what I love Aussies- egalitarian, easy going, human and fun to be with.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:14 pm

You know it's funny but I just entered this same debate at KVR, and the same damn thing happened, people stopped paying attention to the issue at hand, and went on their own respective platform diatribes, complete with name calling and other crap.

Alienware still use P4 chips, with three large fans, not really the best for music. You might get a slight amount more CPU right now out of the Alienware, but in a few months when Live 6 ships, the macbook will almost double in efficiency. In my experience, duals lose about 20% from each CPU, on my dual gig G4 it clocks in at about 1.6Ghz, so the Alienware will severely get it's ass kicked by the macbook once dual support hits Live.
Sony and others make nice PC laptops, but I would have to say without a doubt that the macbook is a better buy, simply because if you have a PC or mac desktop, the macbook supplies you with the other OS as a laptop, and allows you to choose which to use etc.
Personally I like the way the Alienware laptops look, and thought about getting one, but they still haven't switched to the core duo chips, and I already have a loud as hell desktop, and Memorymoog......

Australia rules, and easily has as many interesting and inspiring musicians as Detroit. Coming from Seattle and hearing locals talk out their ass about how Seattle is KING of all good music / indie music etc. I get a little sick of any hint of provincialism, it's a disease.

HD1 · Post by **HD1** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:15 pm

DKushner wrote:<---Original Poster

1. Australia?!

2. Ropey Punter: stay out of my threads. Your advice, to me, is worthless.

3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

4. Can I take an external HD and shuttle data back and forth between a Mac and a PC? or do I have to reformat?

<----- blow me

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 3:46 pm

rikhyray wrote:What I miss from Mac is the lighted keyboard and powered FW nothing else really.

Yeah, that kept me from purchasing a Toshiba or cheap HP last time out... the last show I did, you really notice any device that doesn't have lights.... the BCF2000 should have lights next to the faders, then it would be a better live device....
Also, outside of Live, I'm much more inclined towards Logic and Digital Performer than Sonar and SX3...

sqook · Post by **sqook** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 4:03 pm

Christ, this thread has once again been derailed by the usual suspects....

DKushner wrote:3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

There was an interesting article recently benchmarking the new macbooks with XP vs. OSX. The stats aren't really as complete as I'd prefer, but for the moment, it's the best straight-out comparitive article that I've seen.

As for your plugin/software compatibility questions, you'll need to do the research for each of those from the manufacturer's websites (or on KVR, as they now have a special "universal" category). You just gotta do your homework.

Regarding dual core, see this page. The macbook also does not have s-video out; just DVI and VGA (through an adapter).

4. Can I take an external HD and shuttle data back and forth between a Mac and a PC? or do I have to reformat?

Yes, but you need to be 'selective' about the file system you use. If you use Fat32, then both windows and mac will be able to read/write, but you'll be stuck with a filesize limit of 4Gb, not to mention being rather inefficient. If you use NTFS, then both mac and windows will be able to read from the drive, but only windows will be able to write to it. If you choose HFS/HFS+ (the native mac filesystem), then mac will of course be able to read/write to the drive, but you'll need 3rd party software like macdrive to read/write to the drive under windows. I have not actually tried out this software, but I hear it works well.

I hope this answers your questions... in the meantime, y'all can go back to arguing about australia, who has seen more computers, and which OS has a bigger penis.

john gordon · Post by **john gordon** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 5:34 pm

the keys on the new powerbooks are velocity sensitive though

hacktheplanet · Post by **hacktheplanet** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:44 pm

Just get the new Macware Alienbook. It's pretty badass.

Digi V · Post by **Digi V** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 8:46 pm

new macbooks (ibooks) are due out shortly.

so if you dont want to drop the cash on a top of the line macbook pro

the new macbooks (non pro) should offer you pretty good bang for the buck.

glitchrock-buddha · Post by **glitchrock-buddha** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:09 pm

DKushner wrote:<---Original Poster

3. The Alienware has great specs. I've been using a PC for a long time. Can anyone answer any of my original questions? Some of them maybe- if not all?

Reason is working fine on macbooks, Rp Bluelue and I'm sure the new Albino are intel ready. Obviously Live and Logic are going good. N.I.'s five biggies (Reaktor, absynth, kontakt, guitar rig, fm7) are due out shortly ("2nd quarter"), the rest later this year. Can't remember what else you mentioned.

But if you want my honest opinion, I think you should buy my top of the line powerbook 1.67 so that I can buy a macbook. It keeps you warm in the winter.

grb

warpus · Post by **warpus** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:16 pm

I have a few friends who have Alienware laptops. All of them had tons of problems with the hardware and the resulting support from Alienware. I would seriously avoid them. And now that they are owned by Dell, its only going to get worse.

Machinesworking · Post by **Machinesworking** » Sat Apr 08, 2006 10:22 pm

warpus wrote:I have a few friends who have Alienware laptops. All of them had tons of problems with the hardware and the resulting support from Alienware. I would seriously avoid them. And now that they are owned by Dell, its only going to get worse.

That's too bad, I like their corporate logo...

The idea of a top of the line PC laptop is a good one, too bad they aren't coming through with it.

DKushner · Post by **DKushner** » Sun Apr 09, 2006 3:33 pm

Wow. This thread really got helpful in the end. Thank you everyone.

I shall be cancelling my Alienware order and getting a Macbook pro.

Should I go Alienware or Macbook ?

Ditch Alienware and go Macbook?