Moving from Apple to an HP dm1z with upgrades?

[godwhomismike]

I have a Macbook, which I will be giving back to the college I teach at after this semester ends. It broke on me midsemester, Apple made me wait 5 days for an appointment to drop it off, and then told me it would be 4-5 days to fix it. Completely unacceptable.

I unfortunately have 5 years of iTunes purchases, music, and video - plus my iPhone sync. I also have lots of applications on my backup drives.

Even with all this, I am disgusted with the price of Apple, the outdated hardware, and absolutely appalling turnaround time for service.

I have been looking at the HP dm1z (E-450 CPU), and thinking about getting one and adding in 8GB ram and a 240GB SSD right from the get go. Between coupon codes, and all - it could be done for about $650 tops for everything.

How would this work? I am always on the go, and travel a lot. It will be banged around. I also like plugging my laptop into my TV for online video. Will this thing do ok for that?

I am currently running the last generation white Macbook with a 2.4 Ghz Core 2 Duo, 320M Nvidia graphics, upgraded with 8GB RAM, and a 500GB 7200 rpm hard drive.

Am I going to be disappointed?

 

[scottiemedic]

I don't think you're going to GAIN alot, except from the SSD. Like it or not, Macbooks are rather kick ass and if I could afford one, I'd dump my Dell in a second. NOW, if you found an HP with a Core i5 or i7, then you'll see a dramatic speed increase over the Core2Duo or the E-450.

The graphics is another consideration. The HP is going to have plain ole Intel graphics instead of a discrete solution like the 320M in your Mac. If you only want to output to TV you'll be fine, but don't expect much from it if you want to edit videos or photoshop with it.

 

[godwhomismike]

I don't think you're going to GAIN alot, except from the SSD. Like it or not, Macbooks are rather kick ass and if I could afford one, I'd dump my Dell in a second. NOW, if you found an HP with a Core i5 or i7, then you'll see a dramatic speed increase over the Core2Duo or the E-450.

The graphics is another consideration. The HP is going to have plain ole Intel graphics instead of a discrete solution like the 320M in your Mac. If you only want to output to TV you'll be fine, but don't expect much from it if you want to edit videos or photoshop with it.

I been considering a Macbook Air, but the 4GB ram ceiling is kind of a deal breaker.

The HP dm1z uses the Radeon 6310 GPU.

 

[scottiemedic]

Well, that is a plus. Next question, how much is it going to cost in addition to the $650 to replace the apps you use/have for OS X? So many considerations, so little time!!

The HP sounds like it's rounding out, but I'd still worry about the E-450. You might gain some battery life, but the Core series will give you more pop.