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New laptop - Retina Macbook Pro or Windows Gaming Rig?

  • 24-07-2012 9:42am
    #1
    Elessar
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 5,267 ✭✭✭


    I'm hoping to get some opinions from users here in the laptop forum.

    Ok so the time has come where I am considering upgrading my laptop.

    I have a 2010 15" Macbook Pro 2.4Ghz Core i5 with a 120GB Vertex SSD (becoming very hard to manage with such little space). It's a desktop replacement and for my own reasons, I want to stick to laptops instead of desktops.

    I've been a mac user since 2006, so I'm very familiar with it. However I'm willing to change.

    Right now, I can see two choices. If I stay with OSX it's the 15" MBP Retina with 2.6 Ghz i7 and 512GB SSD, and I can trade this one in, so it should cost me the same as the base retina model. In terms of gaming I play Left4Dead 2 occasionally, but mostly just use my xbox. I don't have the space to install windows, and regardless the 330m discreet gpu is a little dated to play anything recent at decent quality. With the RMBP I could install a 100GB Windows partition for games, and the 650m while not the top of the league, is a very good mid-range card which can handle many of todays games at high or ultra settings anyway. Plus there is overclocking....

    The other choice is a 17" Clevo gaming machine, rebranded as an XMG P702 by Schenker in Germany. Essentially it's a well regarded barebones case with good connectivity and an excellent screen and upgradability options. Each one is built to order with whatever CPU/GPU and others you want. Crucially, both the GPU and CPU are user-upgradable down the line so it's like a desktop in terms of customisation.

    I would build it with a 2.3Ghz Core i7, 8GB RAM, the AMD 7970M GPU (one of the best on the market atm, if not the best) and a 256GB Samsung SSD. It would come to €1850 or thereabouts.

    Obvious benefits are that it is significantly cheaper, much more powerful GPU, more connectivity, fully upgradable etc. Downsides would be, moving back to Windows (will I regret it!?), no OSX, no retina display (not much of a dealbreaker to me tbh), it's BIG, heavy and noisy at high load.

    I'm not sure what to do. My gut says stick with OSX, but my head says go with the Clevo as it's logically better, cheaper etc. Or just leave it a year or so. Not sure what to do.

    Any opinions?


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