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Computer help: Apple MacBook Pro 17" vs Asus G70s: the best of both worlds?
Apple MacBook Pro 17" vs Asus G70s: the best of both worlds?
by richardlai - 8/27/08 2:46 PMEarlier today I was in the London Regent Street Apple Store, playing with the top of the range MacBook Pro 17":
Intel Core 2 Duo (T9500?) 2.6GHz,
17" 1920x1200 LED-backlit,
2GB DDR2,
200GB 7200rpm,
NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT 512MB DDR3,
8x SuperDrive,
Apple Remote,
1-year warranty (worldwide?),
£1,754.28 (higher education student discount; there is also a slightly cheaper refurbished one).
Whilst I am impressed with the Mac software such as iLife and the cool hardware features like slot-in optical drive, I still don't know if the price is justified since for a slightly cheaper price I can get the top-range Asus G70S:
Intel Core 2 Duo T9500 2.6GHz,
17" 1920x1200,
4GB DDR2,
2x 320GB 5400rpm,
NVIDIA GeForce 8700M GT 512MB DDR3 x2, (yes, SLI)
Blu-ray RW,
Built in TV Tuner,
Numeric keypad,
Windows Vista Ultimate,
Bag & mouse,
2-year global warranty,
£1770.61,
which is a damn sexy beast and definitely owns the Dell XPS M1730 in terms of appearance, even though Dell offers a more powerful NVIDIA card.
Obviously, portability is not an issue for this class - I care more about the performance, practicality and appearance. I do some video and photo editing, with the occasional big 3D games when it's raining (this is England for you!).
With my previous DVD video documentary project I could have used iDVD, which looked fantastic on the MacBook Pro earlier and I can't think of any Windows software that can match it, but then again is it worth sacrificing the SLI graphics cards, Blu-ray and TV tuner?
Let the battle commence!
Apple MacBook Pro 17": http://store.apple.com/uk/browse/hom...ro?mco=MTE4MTM
Asus G70s: http://www.asus.com/products.aspx?l1...15&modelmenu=1
Have you owned a 17 inch laptop?
by R. Proffitt
- 8/27/08 3:02 PM
In reply to: Apple MacBook Pro 17" vs Asus G70s: the best of both worlds? by richardlai
I gifted mine to another family member in favor for a smaller HP dv6910us. It's all of 599 bucks on sale and is just what I need when I'm mobile. The 17 inch behemoth I had seemed to grow in size as the trips got longer.
Bob
No, but surely...
by richardlai - 8/27/08 3:13 PM In reply to: Have you owned a 17 inch laptop? by R. Proffitt
Thanks for the reply. My next laptop is intended to be a desktop replacement anyway - I don't want all the hassle with a desktop as I want to be able to take it back home with ease (I have to fly home!). And of course, surely you don't expect me to be carrying a 4.9kg 17" "laptop" to Starbucks.
I do have a ThinkPad X31 as my portable anyway - got it cheap off ebay. 
Well
by Jimmy Greystone - 8/27/08 4:11 PM In reply to: Apple MacBook Pro 17" vs Asus G70s: the best of both worlds? by richardlaiWell, I have to say that if you plan on gaming on a laptop, you are going to be sorely disappointed by the experience. Small screen sizes, high response rates, cramped keyboards, limited upgrade potential, not to mention cut down versions of the CPU and GPU for power consumption and heat reasons, all lead to a less than desirable experience for gaming.
Laptops should be seen for what they are... PORTABLE computers, where some power and flexibility is sacrificed in exchange for portability. At most, they should be seen as an EXTENSION of a desktop, not a replacement.
That all said... You buy Apple laptops for the overall experience that you can get from a vertical supplier like Apple which does the job right. If the Xbox is anything to go by, if Microsoft made computers, they'd make HP look like the epitome of quality. As far as desktop operating systems go, nothing out there even comes close to OS X. Half the changes in Vista's UI over XP are shamelessly copied from OS X, but done so in a way that feels more like an afterthought or something thrown in at the last minute.
I will say that slot loading optical drives are not all they are cracked up to be. They absolutely cannot handle those mini discs you sometimes see, even get with hardware on rare occasion. Also, if the eject mechanism breaks, you have to take the drive apart to get the disc out.
So, while the Asus certainly has the better overall specs, you've got to figure each and every one of those things is going to suck the battery dry in no time flat. Two video cards are going to draw a lot of power and generate a LOT of heat, heat being one of the biggest enemies of laptops since there's far less room for it to dissipate like desktops. A blu-ray drive will probably not require much additional power over a regular drive, but the added processing power needed to decode high def blu-ray video will. So in terms of the mobility aspect of the Asus system, you'll probably be lucky to get an hour out of the battery even if you switch off just about everything to conserve power.
Apple has long been known for phenomenal battery life in laptops, and while the shift away from the PPC platform put a pretty big dent in Apple laptop battery life, they still tend to be far above average. Yes the specs are lesser, and yes it's more expensive, but you're also paying for top notch build quality and the OS X experience.
It's up to you which one you want to buy, but I would say that if you're looking to do any kind of gaming beyond Solitaire, you really don't want a laptop. Get some low end laptop that can serve as a portable word processor and web browser, not much more. Then invest in a nice desktop system for gaming and all the serious work that needs to be done. Maybe even a nice, but very pricey, Mac Pro.
Compact workstation, not laptop...
by richardlai - 8/27/08 5:24 PM In reply to: Well by Jimmy GreystoneThose are definitely some useful tips, but I must stress that the sole reason for why I am getting a laptop rather than a desktop is because of convenience, not gaming - it's an absolute pain to carry a monitor and a tower around when going/returning from home. Also, where I work during the summer offers very little space for my computer, so I must have a powerful laptop.
Battery-wise the G70S had been tested as 1 hour 18 minutes on battery saving mode. I know this sucks compared to the 3-hours you get on a MacBook Pro, but then again I am prepared to sacrifice such feature anyway, and it's not like I will be using the battery much anyway. You say a laptop should be an extension of a desktop - well, that's kind of what I am doing except I am using my ThinkPad X31 as an extension to my DESKTOP REPLACEMENT.
I don't understand why you are analysing the Blu-ray power consumption - if it were an option for the current MBP I would choose it anyway. Anyway, these days if I were to watch movies on the move, it'd be flashed onto my iPhone.
As for heat, a reviewer said that "GPU only goes up to 75C, CPU around 65C", which is quite good for an SLI combo inside a laptop thanks to the twin fans. Surely a desktop equivalent would generate a lot more heat, but it's just that you won't feel it - on the G70S you can only feel the heat on the top right corner of the keyboard.
I understand your point in saying that I should get a proper laptop that offers at least some portability and battery life, but for me I have been a laptop guy for most of my life so far. You say gaming on small screens is no fun, but I think a 17" + high res (1920x1200, if the game supports it) is plenty for me. If I want to, I can always hook up a larger screen/TV and play with an external keyboard, but like I said, I want to keep the number of peripherals minimum.
The MBP may have good build quality, but what bugs me is its practicality: the screen doesn't allow you to open up 180 degrees, which is very risky if some muppet didn't know that and cracks the lid; don't know if the MBP has this problem but the MacBook has this very sharp edge at where you rest your wrist; for that price the MBP speakers can be better, IMHO (Altec Lansing? Harman/Kardon?); only 3 USB ports; and no e-SATA port.
Having said that, the MBP is still very tempting, yet I have a feeling that a refresh is coming soon (9th September?) which wouldn't surprise me as the spec needs updating. If I can wait until then, I will keep considering it. Hopefully they will offer a 9800M GT - I would buy it straight away!
That's fine
by Jimmy Greystone - 8/27/08 5:54 PM In reply to: Compact workstation, not laptop... by richardlaiThat's fine, but just realize that any gaming you want to do is not going to be a terribly pleasant experience compared to a desktop.
In any case, you can't really trust what is in a review. For all you know that person lives in the arctic circle where it may thaw out for 1-2 months a year, and then be snow and ice covered the rest. There are all kinds of environmental factors that will play in that are completely unpredictable. So one person might never see their system crack 65C, another person living closer to the equator might not be able to even turn the thing on some days because it's simply too hot.
I'm not going to tell you which to buy, I'm just going to try and point out a few things you may not have considered to help you make the decision yourself. You can get whichever one you want, makes little difference to me.
If it were me, I'd look at the sorts of things I wanted to be using this new system for, and then evaluate each one on how well it can perform those tasks. I wouldn't worry about the specs or price so much as how well each one fares in the tasks you expect to be doing most often. If you're doing a lot of video work, and you think something like iDVD would make life easier, I'd say that's a check in the MacBook category. If you think you'll be doing more gaming or movie watching, that would probably be a check for the Asus system.
One other thing to consider... Have you looked at Apple's iMac line? They make a pretty good compromise between laptop and desktop. Considering they're all one big unit, much like a laptop, they're quite a bit more portable than most desktops... Quite a bit in the way of space savings too, considering with a USB TV tuner, you could mount the iMac on the wall like a TV. They also have slightly better overall specs compared to the laptop lines, and considerably better displays, without costing too much more.
Discussion locked as now being discussed in Laptops
by MarkFlax - 8/28/08 2:08 AM
In reply to: Apple MacBook Pro 17" vs Asus G70s: the best of both worlds? by richardlai
richardlai,
We got your request to move/delete this thread as you were discussing this now in the Hardware/Laptop forum. I will lock it instead, so that the other replies you received here can still be seen. They may be useful to others.
The other discussion is here.
Good luck with your search for answers.
Mark
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