macbook pro or lenovo y500?

[joel]

Processor: 3rd Generation Intel Core i7-3632QM Processor( 2.20GHz 1600MHz )
Operating system: Windows 8 64
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GT650M 2GB
Memory: 16.0GB PC3-12800 DDR3 SDRAM 1600 MHz
display: 15.6" FHD LED Glare Wedge 1920x1080
Pointing device: Industry Standard Multi-touch 2 button touchpad
hard drive: 1TB 5400RPM+16GB SSD
Optical Drive: Blu-ray/DVD-RW
Battery: 6 Cell Li-Polymer
Network Card: Intel Centrino Wireless N-2230
Bluetooth: Bluetooth Version 4.0
Warranty:One year
$1149.99

or


15-inch: 2.3GHz
with Retina display
2.3GHz quad-core Intel Core i7
Turbo Boost up to 3.3GHz
8GB 1600MHz memory
256GB flash storage1
Intel HD Graphics 4000
NVIDIA GeForce GT 650M with 1GB of GDDR5 memory
Built-in battery (7 hours)2
$2,199.00

[nature boy]

whoa, huge difference in price.
for that alone i'd go with the lenovo.

but if you can afford the mac, then go for that as the jury's still out on windows 8.

[geForce]

The Lenovo y580 is the notebook I was considering if I was going to go the notebook route. That price you posted up there is the MSRP, which they rarely ever sell at straight MSRP through the website. The real price should be around $800-1000.

The one I saw was almost exactly the same specs, except with a bit lower CPU model (i7-3630QM), less RAM (8gb, but RAM is cheap), but higher vid card (GT660M) - sale price was $849.

You can downgrade to Win 7 very easily, legit and for free.

[geForce]

Oh yeah, and I agree with nature boy - with the huge price difference, I would most definitely go with the Lenovo. Unless you need a MAC for some special reason, or if money is no object for you.

[nature boy]

i find that macs are really good for media stuff and if you have other apple products. they're also easy, pretty and quite reliable (although winnie's imac had two major problems in the first year we had it... but mac warranty is also awesome).

but i'm not sure if i could ever get used to the one button mouse thing (yes i know you can just hit ctrl to get around it) and the whole way the os works.

[joel]

[geForce]

Oh, I know why yours is more expensive now.. You chose the 1tb/16gb ssd hybrid. That's an expensive option. I wasn't too interested in the ssd combo drive because 16gb is too small. Ask Jai about his problems with his 64gb ssd being too small for Windows.

[joel]

yeah i will likely replace the msata ssd with something larger at somepoint down the road. i did want the lower power rated cpu tho'. for some reason they don't really let you build your own and i was left picking at different bundles. i dont' mind have the bluray drive, 16gb ram is likely overkill but i guess it will good as i will likely but doing development work on the machine.

my concerns with the macbook pro beyond the price, is I am worried about the only 1gb of video mem which at those gaudy resolutions for the retina display i imagine would have been super useful to have that addtional 1gb more.

[joel]

the other one pro about going with the macbook pro was that I would have been able to offset some of the cost with a giftcard i have on hand.

[se7entse7en]

[joel]

yeah i got to be more patient. i do prefer the size/weight/look of the macbook pro vs the lenovo but i still can't really justify that price tag... especially knowing how much of a depreciating asset any computer is.

i just called my cc and asked them to make sure the order goes through this time.

[geForce]

If you absolutely want it now...
http://ncix.com/products/?sku=77809&vpn ... omoid=1285

Although, that's not the cheapest I've seen it.

[joel]

that's not the y500.

[geForce]

Yeah, but similar enough?

[nature boy]