CS3 in Windows... Mac Book Pro vs Alienware

[erico564]

Hey there!

I've had an Alienware m7700 for a little over 2 years. On the plus side, it's been superfast, handled games like a charm, handled all my graphics and Flash stuff (I'm a web designer), and generally performed extremely well for the first year. On the negative side, it's huge, very heavy, had stability issues from the get-go, and most importantly has become increasingly unstable in the last year, with USB problems, video problems, and speed issues.

At this point, I kind of feel like an idiot buying Alienware again, but ALL my money has been spent on Windows software -- the full CS3 suite, all my fonts, etc. I simply can't afford to buy a new Mac PLUS all the software that I currently use all over again. I still lean toward Alienware because when it was running well, my laptop outpaced pretty much everyone else's PCs, including desktops, and judging from the forums, it kind of sounds like the laptop I got was a lemon and most people have had better experiences.

My question is twofold: first of all, for all you switchers out there still running Windows on your Mac Book Pro, how has it performed? Specifically, in my business I'm using Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Dreamweaver all the time, often with all of them running at the same time. Is the performance on the Mac (running Windows) better or worse than running on a standard PC?

My second question is: assuming I need to run CS3 in Windows, which of the following systems would be better?

MAC:
MacBook Pro
2.33GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
3GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM - 1x2GB, 1x1GB
160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 5400 rpm
SuperDrive 8x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
MacBook Pro 17-inch Glossy Widescreen Display
Backlit Keyboard/Mac OS - U.S. English
Accessory Kit
AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro/PowerBook (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll

PC:
Aurora™ m9700
Processor: AMD Turion™ 64 Mobile ML44 2.4GHz 800MHz FSB 1MB L2 Cache
Operating System (Office software not included): Genuine Windows® Vista Ultimate - Without Remote Control or TV Tuner
Chassis: 17" WideUXGA 1920 x 1200 LCD with Clearview Technology - Saucer Silver
Motherboard: Alienware® NVIDIA® Mobile SLi Chipset
Memory: 2GB Dual Channel DDR SO-DIMM at 400MHz - 2 x 1024MB
System Drive: Single Drive Configuration - 250GB Serial ATA 1.5Gb/s 5,400 RPM w/ 8MB Cache
Optical Drive: 24x DVD-ROM/CD-RW Burner w/ Nero Software
Video/Graphics Card: 256MB NVidia® GeForce™ Go 7900 GS

The price on these two systems comes out to being pretty much equal, so it really comes down to this question: which one is going to still allow me to run CS3 in Windows with the highest performance and consistency over a long period of time?

What do you guys think?

Thanks very much for your input!!

Best,

--eric
www.thecosmonaut.com

 

[Mantronix]

Welcome to the forums. I'm a recent switcher and I will have to say Mac book pro. But like many of the posters here their answers will be biased towards Macs.

 

[erico564]

Thanks for the reply! I just got off the phone with the guys at the Apple store and they said that running CS3 in Windows WOULD take a performance hit on a Mac Book Pro. Whether it is too much of a hit for my personal taste obviously he couldn't say.

Is anyone running CS3 (or CS2) on Windows on a MacBook Pro? Is the performance noticeably worse than on a PC?

 

[cwa107]

Thanks for the reply! I just got off the phone with the guys at the Apple store and they said that running CS3 in Windows WOULD take a performance hit on a Mac Book Pro. Whether it is too much of a hit for my personal taste obviously he couldn't say.

Is anyone running CS3 (or CS2) on Windows on a MacBook Pro? Is the performance noticeably worse than on a PC?

I've read that Adobe will give you a discount for purchasing the Mac version of CS3 if you already own the Windows version.

I think the performance hit would be based on the fact that Bootcamp doesn't support the 64-bit version of Windows and that Parallels doesn't support both processor cores (at the moment).

 

[erico564]

ooo -- discount might be able to help me afford the change! Does anyone else know about this or where I could find out more?

 

[D3v1L80Y]

Is the performance on the Mac (running Windows) better or worse than running on a standard PC?

Yes, there would be a decrease in performance.

My second question is: assuming I need to run CS3 in Windows, which of the following systems would be better?

A Windows system would be best for you, not a Mac.

 

[baggss]

If you are looking for a computer to strictly run Windows Apps, then don't buy a Mac. If you are looking for a computer to occasionally run a Windows app or two, then buy a Mac.

Pretty simple.

 

[technologist]

At least with past versions, Adobe offered cross-grades for "shipping and handling." I'd love to know if this is true for CS3; if you do call Adobe about this, please let us know what they say.

Your fonts will work fine on a Mac.

 

[Alexis]

It sounds like you'll only using the Mac to use Windows, which would have been the cause of all the problems you've been experiencing. There's no advantage in buying a Macbook just to run Windows on it - you might as well just save some money and buy a PC with Windows Vista preinstalled.

Specifically, in my business I'm using Photoshop, Illustrator, Flash, and Dreamweaver all the time, often with all of them running at the same time

Which leads me to my second point - very few professional businesses would run these programs on Windows! Why not do the whole thing properly and move to OS X on a Mac and run all these programs how nature intended!

 

[dtravis7]

Get the Alienware. Buying a MacBook Pro just to run Windows on is a waste. You will be better off with a PC Notebook for what you want to do.

 

[Blizare]

No, you'll be better off getting the macbook pro and getting a copy of cs3 suite as well.

In the long run, that is the way to go.

 

[EGGO]

Personal preference. It's like asking which chair would be better? Try it out for yourself, I know the Apple store has it. After that, weigh your budget.

You're in an apple forum,you're going to get nothing BUT bias here (and believe me I've seen quite the fanaticism here); you're best trying it out.

 

[bryphotoguy]

Year old thread. I don't think he's in need of assistance anymore.

 

[rob.h]

Question is... Did he go for the Mac and he's just so happy & productive now that he doesn't have time to visit this forum, or did he stick with Windows and he's now posting endless "Help, Windows is broken" messages on a Vista forum somewhere? ;D