Sony or Apple

[Garry_S]

Hey guys first time poster so i hope yous can help me out.

I have £1200 to spend on a new laptop for studying computer arts in september.

I have found a sony vaio at the top end of this budget at exactly 1200, it has a core i7 740qm 6gb ram, 500gb hard drive and blu-ray.

The lower end macbook pro comes in under budget at 1000 with 2.4 core duo, 4gb ram, and 320gb hard drive.

Spec wise the sony is miles ahead, but my main question is i have heard macs are really fast even on lower specs, but will it run as fast as the sony with th better specs.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Garry

 

[Hefemeister]

Does your school recommend using a Apple?

Check what they recommend for the courses you plan on taking. That will make the decision for you.

 

[kmote]

^Very good point. It's not so much of a huge deal now that Macs can run Windows as well but it does mean you may have to factor in the additional cost of a Windows license (although being a student may reduce or eliminate this).

That Mac will never outperform that Sony but out of the two of them I would still get the Mac in your position.

 

[Garry_S]

Hefemeister, I havent started yet but on a tour of the University they have a pc room and a mac room, and i believe the software is cross platform (adobe, autodesk etc)

kmote, thanks but could you possibly elaborate, I do know many industry professionals use macs but have never really used one for enough time to see the benefits of this platform.

Thanks guys

 

[kmote]

They are just really nice to use, I haven't got much experience with them but the trackpad and screen was really nice and the battery life is likely to be better than the Sony as well.

 

[Garry_S]

kmote, yeah there are definate advantages to the mac, being lighter with better battery life etc, but both have there plus points thats why its so dificult to choose, i might just do what hefemeister says and wait till i start and ask a lecturer lol

 

[KojiInari]

As a major in Animation and Media Arts I can tell you right now that I would get the Sony.

Power is what you are looking for when using art tools on the computer. You will probably be using programs like Photoshop and other tools that hog system resources quite well...Unless you need a mac-specific program, the windows unit is the way to go. While the mac might be lighter and have a longer battery life, it won't help you much if your system resources are bogged down with large files.

See what your school uses. Most will have a healthy balance of macs and PCs. Unless your school is exclusivly or mostly Mac, I would get the PC.

EDIT: There is no benefit of using one over the other. The software performs the same on both systems despite what people claim. If you will be using programs like Autodesk, and programs like After Effects of Premiere, you will LOVE the extra RAM and processing power the Sony will provide you. 3D and motion graphic rendering is a *****, and with the lower specs of the mac, you'll cost yourself time and cause yourself more headaches, especially if you start getting memory errors. I see it happen all the time at my school with people who bought macs because they are supposedly better for art.

They aren't any different than the PC. I say go with higher performance.

 

[BestComputerGeek]

What are you use to using?

In my opinion I would get the Sony, #1 I am use to Windows a PC Hardware, #2 for 200 more you get much more power.

 

[kmote]

You can run Windows on a Mac since they switched to Intel CPUs.

 

[KojiInari]

You can run Windows on a Mac since they switched to Intel CPUs.

Still doesn't answer the hardware question though.