Should I get a mac?

UlTiMaTuMV9

Estimable
Oct 2, 2014
2
0
4,510
I've had a Dell inspiron 15r for about 5 years now, the battery has gone gone bad and it's getting extremely slow. Had to change to battery and charger in the past, but It's time to move on. I used to run a YouTube channel, so even though it was really frustrating because of my laptop's specs, I still did it. I'm getting back into YouTube soon and I'm looking for a decent laptop to edit with and possibly play some games every now and again(such as mw3, for nostalgic purposes). I'm wondering if I should invest in a mac, and if I could(or should) get a decent one for editing and gaming under $1000
 
Solution
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-17-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-hp-finish-in-natural-silver/5238500.p?skuId=5238500

You may be able to find better, and this is still only dual-core but it's still a good CPU.

1) 1920x1080 IPS monitor
2) 940M graphics
3) Windows 10
4) 16GB system memory

*I would investigate if it has any M.2 or similar slots to add an SSD (then clone the HDD to the SSD).

A lot of 4-core CPU's do not have hyperthreading, and have a slow frequency so they may be WORSE than the performance of this CPU. Don't even consider AMD.

Here's the performance if you want to compare to others:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-6500U+%40+2.50GHz

Single thread tends to be a...
Apple can be expensive to repair, and while possibly better than average quality for laptops in general they are NOT the quality they'd like you to think.

The OS is quite different, so you may not like using it. I tried it for a while and just didn't like it, but others love them.

$1000 isn't a lot for a new Apple laptop.

I recommend a Windows 10 screen:

1) 17"?
2) 1920x1080 or higher res screen (IPS?)
3) NVidia 900 series (not sure if "10" series like GTX1060 is out yet... will check)
4) 16GB system memory
5) look for quality device.

Anyway, I'll check.

UPDATE:
Just FYI, but Linus from Techtips did a test and discovered that the poorly-cooled Apple laptops with no fans throttled down to about HALF the performance very quickly as they overheat easily. For editing with a dual-core CPU that's going to be a lot slower than a 4-core CPU in Windows for a comparable price.

Perhaps 4x slower, and we aren't yet talking about software that can use CUDA in an NVidia GPU.
 
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/hp-envy-17-3-touch-screen-laptop-intel-core-i7-16gb-memory-1tb-hard-drive-hp-finish-in-natural-silver/5238500.p?skuId=5238500

You may be able to find better, and this is still only dual-core but it's still a good CPU.

1) 1920x1080 IPS monitor
2) 940M graphics
3) Windows 10
4) 16GB system memory

*I would investigate if it has any M.2 or similar slots to add an SSD (then clone the HDD to the SSD).

A lot of 4-core CPU's do not have hyperthreading, and have a slow frequency so they may be WORSE than the performance of this CPU. Don't even consider AMD.

Here's the performance if you want to compare to others:
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/cpu.php?cpu=Intel+Core+i7-6500U+%40+2.50GHz

Single thread tends to be a better score to use for gaming, whereas the TOTAL score is better for video editing, heavily multi-threaded games.

Good 4-core (not 2-core/4-thread) Intel CPU's usually raise the price quite a bit.
 
Solution

CelicaGT

Honorable
Jul 22, 2013
89
0
10,610
The only Mac in that price range is the Air iirc. For what you would like to do you need to at least double your budget, if not triple. Macs have regressed alot in the last few years, I bought and am trying one (know thine enemy). It's a charming little rig and I enjoy it, great for general surfing, Netflix and the like. I'm sure I could do actual work on it, but I have Windows rigs with exponentially more power that I paid about the same for. Stick with Windows, the price point can't be beat.
 

dudeman509

Estimable
Jan 23, 2015
416
1
5,210
At a $1000 price point, you are well into i5-6300HQ or i7-6700HQ and potentially 960m territory, which is WAY more power than any Mac at that price point.

My siblings both have Macbooks that are quite viable 4-5 years later, but then again, so is my old Dell i7, and it was 1/2 the cost. Theirs are just prettier.