Hi guys ive just bought a dell xps 17..i7 laptop...the only specs i know of are...i7-2670QM 2.20 GHz with Turbo Boost up to 3.10 GHz cpu...8GB ram...1TB (2x2 500GB) 17.3" screen...Nvidia graphics..hdmi bluetooth 3D tech...thats all i know up to now until it gets delivered tomorrow £550 thanks guys take care
It's fine for what most people use it for, but people who hate on it tend to be 'powerusers' and state, quite rightly, that you can get something more powerful that does the same thing for cheaper, ignoring the whole fashion accessory side of it, and its noob friendly nature It's a good laptop, especially for the price, lets just hope it works fine The trackpads a little annoying, bit wooly, but you'll get used to it, or use a mouse
See, this is part of the 'thing' that annoys me. I'm a "power user" of computers, and I use a Mac for pretty much everything except gaming. Yes, Macs can be a bit more friendly to new users, but they can also be incredibly powerful for those who know how to use them - it's basically 'nix with a snazzy UI. There's no need to write off a Mac user as a computer noob at all. Of course, they are more expensive. You're paying for the design, the badge and the OS. It just becomes part of the value equation that an individual decides upon. Not having a go at you, just the attitude of some people...by all means, buy the computer you're happy with!
Of course there are professionals and power users who use it, and most programs are cross compatible, with most consuming done on the web, which is the same regardless, and so for those purposes people can choose with their eyes, and they go with the mac. The majority of power users don't like the closed system apple has going on, so no tinkering and that's it really
Only down side is its sub par for BF3 as you need atleast a GT 555m. Other then that and at that price its a bargin.
No tinkering? Really? Terminal gives you far more system access than is possible in Windows, if you want to change the UI it can be done (GeekTool, ShapeShifter etc) etc etc. The closed system is iOS, not OS X, and even that can be jailbroken. Hardware is somewhat closed I agree, but even then there have been changes. NVIDIA just outed drivers for Mac support for all their GPUs, so you can drop in a 580 for your Mac Pro. ATI/AMD's 6xxx series have been unofficially supported for a long time now as well. There are also benefits to a restricted hardware pool - namely everything works! Anyway, not going to take this off topic anymore!
They're nice laptops, my brother has a similar one. At that price I'd say it was a pretty good bargain
I'm curious about it because I genuinely have no idea, but can you actually drop a high end card into a MacPro. I'm assuming that's the only model we are talking about anyway as the other ones are all in one or laptops. What is the layout, space, cooling inside that tower? What about the PSU? I'm asking because obviously I never see them reviewed on PC enthusiast websites and in the rare cases they do pop up, they are always reviewed in their stock configuration rather than a tinkering POV. IF this is too much off topic material for one thread then maybe a new thread or pm might be better for the reply
What about the superior build quality? It's not just a toy, I would never go back to windows based laptops after owning a macbook.
Mac Pros have a PCIe bay, 4 slots, one double-wide and the rest singles. Length will easily accommodate the longest cards. Apple will, right now, sell you a 5870 1GB or 5770 1GB to go in there - out of date, but there's an update due any day now with the new Xeon CPUs, which will also come with new GPUs. At the time they came out, the 5870 was top of the line. There are two PCIe power leads. You can, right now, drop in any NVIDIA card and it will work. I know people with 580/570s running in their Mac Pros. It's not officially supported by Apple, but NVIDIA have done the drivers, so it all works. AMD/ATI cards currently top out at the 6xxx series, but 7xxx support is expected soon. I'll freely admit that it's not the bleeding edge, and you have to wait for support to emerge, but it does. This is why I have a gaming PC, despite Windows being installed on one HD. PSU is 980W. Obviously it's designed for the case, with the devices that supports, so you're stuck with 2 PCIe power leads, but it provides plenty of juice. You can fit 4 HDs/SSDs, 2 optical drives and the aforementioned GPUs as standard, but third party solutions can boost it to 6 HDs. Cooling? Air cooled, but flipping amazing. My Nehalem Quad 2.93Ghz is currently sitting at 36C, and I've never seen it over 50C at full load. It's also silent. The case is divided in to 'zones', providing separate air flow route for each zone, Top is HD/optical, then it's PCIe bay, then CPU/RAM on a pull-out riser. Inside is immaculate.
