Solved! HP Sandy Bridge or New Macbooks?

[Mahyar]

Hello,

I want to buy a new laptop, but i'm stuck between HP sandy bridge and new macbooks by Apple.

I do everything with my computer, including gaming/web browsing/... so I need a laptop that's good for everything.

I see that most HP sandy bridge new laptops and new macbooks have almost the same tech specs, but i'm still stuck between these two because some people say that don't waste your money for macbook if you wanna game on it.

Also I have one question to ask: Can you switch graphics (between Intel HD and AMD Radeon) on the new HP sandy bridges?

The design of both is also cool but i'm a bit tired of macbook design because i've seen it so much and now it's kind of monotonous for me. I have seen a few HP laptops and they've had cool design.

Do you think I will regret my decision if I buy a HP sandy bridge instead of a new macbook pro? What about the battery life? Do HP sandy bridges have good battery lifes like new macbook pros or not?

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[Mahyar]

1. What is your budget? Not more than 1200 pounds really.

2. What is the size of the notebook that you are considering? I prefer 15" but 13" if not available. Don't need a big 17" laptop that I can't carry with myself.

3. What screen resolution do you want? The higher, the better for me.

4. Do you need a portable or desktop replacement laptop? Kinda between both. Something that can nearly replace my desktop PC when it's not available and something that is also portable so I can take it around. But weight doesn't matter so much to me.

5. How much battery life do you need? Atleast 7 hours that I think is possible with both new macbook pros and HP sandy bridges.

6. Do you want to play games with your laptop? If so then please list the games that you want to with the settings that you want for these games. (Low,Medium or High)? I may just play World of Warcraft, and I want it running atleast on Good settings. It will be great if it can run it on Ultra settings too, but both with good fps.

7. What other tasks do you want to do with your laptop? (Photo/Video editing, Etc.) - I'm not such a photoshop or video editor guy. Photo/Video editing things for me is like seldom. I mostly browse the web and do other usual tasks. The thing that matters to me is a fast CPU and atleast 4GB ram (that I think all HP SBs and new macbook pros have that) so my laptop doesn't crash or freeze or even has delay on performing tasks when I need it to.

8. How much storage (Hard Drive capacity) do you need? 500gb atleast.

9. If you are considering specific sites to buy from, please post their links. - Yes, in the UK I like the site "pcworld.co.uk" that has the newest things with the cheapest price.

10. How long do you want to keep your laptop? - For a very long while. Maybe 2 years atleast.

11. What kind of Optical drive do you need? - DVD ROM/Writer,Bluray ROM/Writer,Etc ? Atleast DVD Writer, but would like Bluray too (however it doesnt matter so much for me if it doesn't have Bluray)

12. Please tell us about the brands that you prefer to buy from them and the brands that you don't like and explain the reasons. - I like to buy from HP & Apple only, because they have the most stylish and beautiful laptops and the best and newest hardware available in the industry. In my opinion, other brands such as dell and sony are completly crap so don't talk about anything except HP & Apple.

13. What country do you live in? UK

14. Please tell us any additional information if needed. - I'm gonna buy it in the UK so please don't talk about models only available in USA or other countries.

 

[Mahyar]

Anyone?

 

[BeeDeeOh]

Try this bro. Newest MacBook Air has got Sandy Bridge in it.

http/minilaptopzone.com/2011/07/newest-macbook-air-in-town/

 

[Mahyar]

Try this bro. Newest MacBook Air has got Sandy Bridge in it.

http/minilaptopzone.com/2011/07/newest-macbook-air-in-town/

Thanks but I don't think MacBook Air with Intel HD graphics can run World of Warcraft so good.

 

[RetiredChief]

Added,^ you are correct, see my last link. End added

(1) forget 7 Hrs on a PC laptop. Normal time on battery is less than advertized and will be strongly influenced by usage. The higer end dedicated GPU and time spend gaming can cut battery time to about 1/2 advertized.

(2) I prefer intel chipset SB note books, My son perfers the apple/mac.

(3) Don't rule out upto 17.3 In laptop based on weight - some are not much heavier than the 15", Infact my new SB 17.3" laptop weights about the same as my 15" when I shove it into my bag with accessories.

(4) As to which PC Laptop to get, can not help as you specified limited to HP. HP falls into the same grouping as Dell and Sony. For several reasons, most important being reliability, I never buy - nor recommend them!
In terms of reliability: Asus -> Toshibia -> Sony, HP and Dell are a poor 4th.

(5) as to other than gaming, no difference. As to switching between SB IGP and dedicated CPU, You can with the nvidia, not sure about AMD, But AMD seams to have the higher end for gaming on the mobile CPUs.
Here is a listing of relative performande: http/www.notebookcheck.net/Mobile-Graphics-Cards-Benchmark-List.844.0.html

For macbook pro, comparision of different GPus for WOW:
http/www.anandtech.com/show/4205/the-macbook-pro-review-13-and-15-inch-2011-brings-sandy-bridge/8

 

[Maziar]

Hello Mahyar and welcome to the forums !
If you plan to play games(casually),I'd recommend staying away from Apple notebooks because they aren't really built for gaming.(Bootcamp is an option but I don't see the reason why you buy a Mac and use Windows)

 

[Mahyar]

Hello, and salam Maziare aziz!

First of all, I would like to thank you all for the great answers.

Well I know that battery life depends on usage, but with normal usage doesn't it give 7 hours? (Not using cpu/gpu heavily)

And yeah Maziar it's exactly casual. I don't play WoW all time specially on laptop, but I want my laptop to have enough performance to handle WoW if I want to play it somewhere (like on a trip, where my PC is not available)

Also, in terms of durability, why you say HP doesn't last long? I say this because no other laptop has HP's cool design and I haven't seen any other brand except Samsung to have Intel's SB chips. I have a HP desktop myself right now here and I have kept it for 2 or 3 years and it's still working.

And I never will use Windows on a Mac. I think Macs are designed for the Mac OS, not Windows.

 

[RetiredChief]

(1) Read, then click on chart to enlarge. Note, even acer beats HP
http/www.pcworld.com/article/211402/reliability_and_service_laptops.html

(2) Title " Asus the best, HP the Worst"
http/www.laptopterbaru.info/update/notebook-reliability--asus-the-best-and-hp-the-worst--what.html

(3) A little old, but:
quote •ASUS and Toshiba were the most reliable manufacturers, with fewer than 16% having a hardware malfunction over 3 years.
end quote Ref: http/www.zdnet.com/blog/hardware/netbooknotebook-reliability-study-shows-that-technology-breaks-/6186

1st and 3rd are reliable source, never heard of #2

all That in a five min google search. Note, Dell make a good Business class notebook, HPs business class notebook is better than their than consumer grade, but still get poor marks. And Samsung's seems to score higher also.

My last laptop (Bought about a month ago) was the Samsung RF711-S)1, with blue-ray player. Previous 2 where both Toshibia's (Swapped the DVD drive out for a blu-ray drive in both) and they are still working great. ONLY reason I got the Samsung was that it was a 17" and allowed for 2 internal HDDs and was on sale otherwise I would have bought the Asus.

One of my other reasons is that not only do they have a poorer reliability rating, they normally cost MORE. This does not imply that every user will have problems, just a higher % will.

 

[Mahyar]

If I buy a HP, how long do you think I can use it maximum?

And you didn't answer my other reply to the other things I said

 

[Maziar]

Hello, and salam Maziare aziz!

First of all, I would like to thank you all for the great answers.

Well I know that battery life depends on usage, but with normal usage doesn't it give 7 hours? (Not using cpu/gpu heavily)

And yeah Maziar it's exactly casual. I don't play WoW all time specially on laptop, but I want my laptop to have enough performance to handle WoW if I want to play it somewhere (like on a trip, where my PC is not available)

Also, in terms of durability, why you say HP doesn't last long? I say this because no other laptop has HP's cool design and I haven't seen any other brand except Samsung to have Intel's SB chips. I have a HP desktop myself right now here and I have kept it for 2 or 3 years and it's still working.

And I never will use Windows on a Mac. I think Macs are designed for the Mac OS, not Windows.

As RetiredChief mentioned,HP has the worst reliability rate.It doesn't mean that all of their laptop are bad but it means they are less reliable than other brands.