12-30-2009, 11:52 AM

My 1st post...I promise they all won't be this long winded....

There are 3 computer active people in my house. Unfortunately there are only 2 computers. I decided to bite the bullet and buy myself ahigh end laptop for myself. I have had very good luck with Dell in the past. The 2 computers in my house are a Dell XPS tower CPU (all the bells and whistles) with a 22" Dell monitor plus a Dell Inspiron laptop that I got for an great deal.

I decided to order this:
Dell XPS Studio 16 (Merlot Red w/ leather accents)
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T9900 (6MB cache/3.06GHz/1066Mhz FSB)
Memory: 8GB Dual Channel DDR3 SDRAM at 1067MHz (2 Dimms)
Hard drive: 500GB 7200 RPM SATA Hard Drive
Vid card: ATI Mobility RADEON™ HD 4670 – 1GB
Display: Edge-to-Edge FullHD Widescreen 16.0 inch RGBLED LCD (1920x1080) W/2.0 MP

My experience:

1) Received new Dell XPS Studio laptop.
2) Experienced a date/time error on the 3rd time I booted it up. The time reset to 5/23/08 at noon. Everytime.
3) I also noticed that there were lights on after I shut down the laptop. Subsequently the laptop would not reboot unless I removed the battery each time.
4) Tech was sent out...replaced motherboard.
5) Notice a flicker in the monitor (I had seen it before but was more pronounced after the new MOBO).
6) I said screw it..and returned it under the 30 day "no questions asked" policy.
7) Decided to take a risk and order another Dell in an even higher ended config (meets all my needs and wants).
8) Checked the order status on a whim. Discovered that what they were building and what I ordered were different.
9) Called Dell's customer service. Suffered thur 5 transfers to Indian gents working from their homes (complete with kids playing in the background).
10) 1 hour and 5 miutes later was told...bottom line...to cancel this order and reorder.
11) Realized that I would fall to the back of the line and see a 4 week slip in the ship date.
12) Told the final guy to "kiss my *ss"...give me a refund and that I would never order a Dell product again.
13) Order a Mac Pro Book 17"

2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
4GB 1066 MHz DDR3 SDRM 2x2GB
500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm

(Snow Leopard pre-loaded)

$2345 delivered

The person I dealt with while ordering was a software engineer....American...uber-friendly...we talked for 1/2 hour.

We talked about photography, BootCamp, monitors, etc. A true pleasure.

25+ years since I used a Mac.

WOW! I am in love with my new laptop. I am still fumbling around with shortcuts, etc...but I am thrilled to be using the Mac OS X operating system. Incredibly fast...stunning monitor....awesome touch pad.......rock solid aluminum body. I'm not even missing the mouse.

Working in Adobe's Lightroom 2 is a true pleasure. (I am big into photography).

I still have 2 Dells in the house...and don't plan on replacing them anytime soon.......but major props to Mac.

I look forward to learning from you good folks......

I am excited.

12-30-2009, 12:02 PM

Congrats on your new Mac.

Enjoy and welcome!