Laptops with good sound cards - Page 3

Quote:

Originally Posted by Armaegis 

I had two Toshiba satellites (3 years old, 1 year old) and both had awful power supplies. My brother had an HP which was noisy as well. Maybe it's just the particular models.

Now, I haven't tested a Toshiba, since I've always hated the Satellite series.  Also, the HP I tested was $1800 at time of purchase, so it might be a higher-end model thing.  (Mind you, my Gateway was only $700.)

 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Juaquin 

10  Hours

 

I've tested it and the battery life is as quoted.

 

I'll agree that you'll get a better price/performance ratio out of the Asus than a 17" MBP (despite the Asus only having a 1.6Ghz i7 versus the MBP's 2.53Ghz i5 or 2.66Ghz i7). Personally I'd still be willing to pay extra for the Apple but if you don't think it's worth it no one's going to force you.

 

To say that Windows 7 is superior in "every other field" is patently wrong. Especially for power users. Have you used OSX on your personal machine before, to make that statement? I've used both for a few years now and I would say that they're both very good operating systems. Complementary, even. I use both on my MBP daily and love them both.

Real battery life tests clock in at around 7:45, using the screen at half brightness, and just web browsing.  (Source 1, 2)

The ASUS actually has a superior processor, as it's a quad core, vs the MBP's higher clock speed, but dual core nature.  This is more for gaming (as most modern games are starting to support multi-threading), but I do believe the TurboBoost speed matches, plus you'd gain massively in applications like Photoshop/SketchUp/CAD.

I'd really love to pay extra for the Mac.  I would love a Mac.  But being a student, it's not fiscally responsible to pay $1400 more for a worse machine.  I love the form factor, and the battery life, but that's all it has going for it.

I have used the OS for my personal computer.  I had a Hackintosh setup running a while ago, and used it for a year.  (We had to use Mac-only hardware in one of my classes)  I still feel that on Windows 7, I have more control over what happens.  Win7 is more secure, more robust, and more configurable/hacktogetherable.  Linux is ever more so in all three of those departments, but, I need the compatibility offered by Windows.

(Yes, Win7 is more secure than OSX.  Look it up.)