- Joined
- Jan 17, 2005
- Messages
- 55
- Reaction score
- 0
- Points
- 6
- Location
- Toronto, Canada
- Your Mac's Specs
- Mac Pro 8 Core, MacBook Air 11
I'm considering switching to a 17" MacBook Pro from a Windows box and decided to do some research about its specs. At first I was taken aback by a trend I noticed with Apple underclocking some components and using less than the best components available. For example using the T2600 rather than the T2700 processor, SigmaTel Stac9221 instead of the Stac9274, or using the X1600 GPU rather than the x1800, Mobility FireGL or better yet Quadro FX 2500M. Considering the history of complaints about the SigmaTel Stac9221 I'd especially like to see Apple switch to the Stac9274. It offers more channels and Dolby Master Studio which seems better to me for mobile productions. I'm not a gamer but do appreciate ever faster production times on the go. For the sake of humour I decided to look at what the best portable PC could do. I expected something marginally better in terms of hardware specs for less money, but wow was I surprised. I couldn't help but laugh out loud when I found the 15 pound behemoth 19" Alienware Aurora with Dual 512 MB GeForce GO 7900 and 160 GB HDD for USD $5600. I love power but this is just impractical, don't the designers at Alienware know or care what heat does to components? What's next liquid cooled notebooks with ten pound batteries? C'mon..... Maybe Apple takes things a little too cautious hardwarewise but at least I know my $4000 portable won't burn itself out in six months. It's all a matter of practical balance, with Mac OS X on its side I think the 17" MacBook Pro is the best balance I'll find for now. Perhaps an external ExpressCard audio solution could make up for the 9221? Anyone know of a good one?