After work at best buy... reactions to windows boxes

So, working at Best Buy (better buy, whatever you wanna call it) today, I was messing around with our PCs and trying to get a better feel for Win7. I was futzing around with this 2.8GHz i7 rig that had 8GB of DDR3 (for whatever reason didn't spec the ram speed in MHz) in it. Here are my reactions, not just to that machine but to all of the machines I played with.

1) Why does my penryn architecture core 2 duo at 2GHz macbook with 2GB of DDR3 (1066MHz) respond more quickly than EVERY machine I played with, including the i7, when my machine has both less RAM and a slower processor (we can ignore the pentium machines, because I know the answer there). All of these laptops that we sell excluding netbooks come with 3GB+ RAM, and a all our core 2 machines run at least 2.1GHz.

2) Windows 7 looks nice (for windows).

3) All of this hardware comes at a ridiculously cheap price, but doesn't perform for [insert appropriate word to describe what I mean here].

4) Dear God, why are these trackpads all so small?

5) Can I go home to my macbook yet?

I think I know why "PC" users scoff at the price of Macs. They think a core i7 should perform like my core 2 duo and that 4GB of RAM is barely capable of running their OS.

lol, number 5 made me LMAO!!

Man, they must think that a core 2 duo @ 2GHz with 2GB of RAM should perform like my old eMac 1.25GHz with 512MB. I totally see why windows users think my hardware sucks now. Just goes to show you, hardware certainly isn't everything. I felt like I was running a VM almost.

Was it that bad?

I had a Windows rig a year ago, which was watercooled.
It was a darn mess to look at, but it ran like crazy.
Intel DualCore E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA 8600GT 512 Mb
640 GB HDD devided in 3 HDD's



conclusion is still: I love my MBP!!

I also LOL at #5. Everytime I am on a computer call and have to take my Windows notebook, I can't wait to get back to OSX.

Windows 7 here really is very responsive even on my AWFUL Acer Aspire One Netbook with 1.6 Intel Atom, 1.5GB RAM. It's very snappy in fact. Vista was dog slow on the same machine. This is Windows 7 RC but the release should not be slower, at least I hope not!

Reason I am so negative about the Acer Netbook is last night it stopped working. People on the net are calling it the Black Screen of Death. You have to download a BiOS update to a Flash drive and blindly flash the thing. Why did it mess up in the first place? I was at the desktop in windows and bam. I found hundreds of people with the exact same issue.

It was that bad. Maybe Windows is snappy to you because you're used to older slower versions? Keep in mind, I'm used to Tiger, Leopard, and SL. I click something, and it pops open. Even the core i7 with Windoze ultimate felt like using Leopard on my eMac. Quick, but not immediate like SL on this rig.

Sur3Mac said:

Was it that bad?

I had a Windows rig a year ago, which was watercooled.
It was a darn mess to look at, but it ran like crazy.
Intel DualCore E8400 @ 3.0 GHz
4 GB RAM
NVIDIA 8600GT 512 Mb
640 GB HDD devided in 3 HDD's

conclusion is still: I love my MBP!!

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Did you ever spring a leak?

Number 4 and 5 is just lol. That's a nice rig by the way.

Did you ever spring a leak?

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No actually, it held it's fluid for a whole year after I filled it.
I bought all the appendages at Freezinghardware.com, so it was the goodstuff.

But it's gone now, I still have the watercooling set, but I sold the machine in parts.
Got good money for it too.

That's a nice rig by the way.

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Thanks M8;D

DarkestRitual said:

It was that bad. Maybe Windows is snappy to you because you're used to older slower versions? Keep in mind, I'm used to Tiger, Leopard, and SL. I click something, and it pops open. Even the core i7 with Windoze ultimate felt like using Leopard on my eMac. Quick, but not immediate like SL on this rig.

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Don't underestimate the performance-robbing potential of preloaded craplets and mainstream AV software. Also, display units are going to be hobbled by whatever fooling around customers have done to them.

Windows 7 is every bit as responsive as SL, given a clean install and no AV.

cwa107 said:

Don't underestimate the performance-robbing potential of preloaded craplets and mainstream AV software. Also, display units are going to be hobbled by whatever fooling around customers have done to them.

Windows 7 is every bit as responsive as SL, given a clean install and no AV.

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Yeah companies pack them to the brim these days, I remember my old Sony Vaio got it and spent almost 2 hours deleting the stuff that comes pre installed! lol

Best buy wipes their display units and keeps them off of the internet since people were downloading malware in store.

I work at Best Buy as well! I was doing the same thing with all the computers we have out currently and couldn't wait to get home to my macbook. It's a shame that our store doesn't sell macs because I can't even recommend them to people! Do you work in the PC department? I'm actually having a lot of fun working there. You get to meet a lot of people from different walks of life. My favorite was a guy who worked with the military for 30 years and hasn't used anything new since Windows 3.1. That was fun showing him how much things have improved. Anyway, your list made me laugh. I've felt the same way.

Trent out

I do work in the PC department. I'm a new hire, and our store doesn't sell macs either. But yea, I found out they're running Archie, but I don't care what's running in the background... 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a core i7 should outperform my core 2 duo 2ghz with 2GB.

Also, another observation I noticed today that was hilarious. Every 5 minutes, even not connected to the internet, all of our computers have these pop ups like, "performing health check," blah blah. Close out of them, and they're right back. The best part is they can't even perform the check because they're not hooked up to the net, so you get even more pop ups telling you that it failed.

DarkestRitual said:

I do work in the PC department. I'm a new hire, and our store doesn't sell macs either. But yea, I found out they're running Archie, but I don't care what's running in the background... 8GB of DDR3 RAM and a core i7 should outperform my core 2 duo 2ghz with 2GB.

Also, another observation I noticed today that was hilarious. Every 5 minutes, even not connected to the internet, all of our computers have these pop ups like, "performing health check," blah blah. Close out of them, and they're right back. The best part is they can't even perform the check because they're not hooked up to the net, so you get even more pop ups telling you that it failed.

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I'm surprised that doesn't detour people from purchasing them. >_>"

I know it. People are used to it, I guess.

CrimsonRequiem said:

I'm surprised that doesn't detour people from purchasing them. >_>"

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The thrill of fighting spies and malware doesn't detour them.

DarkestRitual said:

Best buy wipes their display units and keeps them off of the internet since people were downloading malware in store.

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They started doing that to the Mac computers at my local Best Buy. No internet access, and the MacBook they had on display had no battery.

Yea, it's not a bad idea. Especially when you have every little unsupervised kid going in and messing with things because their parents don't know how to keep an eye on them, and have no idea what is and is not appropriate to allow a child to do in an electronics store.

Some kid today was kicking boxes with desktop PCs in them with his dad watching, and he said nothing. Maybe they're Mac fans?

That makes it kinda okay, in my book....lol