[citation][nom]bosjee[/nom]I was recently looking for a notebook computer to replace my old one and the DELL M1330 was on the top of my list until I see the MacBook 2.4GHz. I have played with Tiger before in my current notebook and I am not a bit impressed. In fact, I triple-boot my notebook with Vista/Ubuntu/MacOSX and I always select Ubuntu! However, this time the look and the hardware spec of the MacBook really interest me. Now if I can dual boot the Mac with Ubuntu (and if all the Linux driver would work), then I will definitly get a Mac. It is interesting to see that the author of this article is comparing the same notebooks that I'm interested in and made the same conclusion that from the hardware perspective, the MacBook is better. From what I see now, if I get a MacBook, I would mostly use it as a regular PC instead of using OSX. In the market right now, there is just no PC manufacture can come up with a good looking notebook such as a Mac.[/citation]
Why?
A 13" aluminum macbook, 2.4GHz, with 4GB of RAM, a Geforce 9400M and a 320GB 5400RPM hard drive is $1850.
The Dell XPS M1330 with a 2.5GHz T9300, Vista Home Premium X64, an LED display with a webcam, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB 7200RPM drive,a Geforce 8400M, and 802.11n wireless is $1624
The Dell Studio XPS 13 with a 2.53GHz P9500, Vista Home Premium x64, LED display with webcam, 4GB of RAM, a 500GB 5400RPM drive, a Geforce 9500M, and 802.11n wireless is $1690
Both dell machines are at least $150 cheaper than the macbook, similarly sized, and faster. They have larger hard drives (the 1330 has a slight edge though with the 7200rpm), faster CPUs, just as much RAM, the same type of LED display, and in the case of the Studio, a noticeably better GPU (the XPS M1330's GPU is slightly behind the macbook, though both are miles ahead of intel integrated graphics). Basically, there is no reason to get the macbook, as the Dells are cheaper and faster in both cases (I like the Studio XPS personally, though both look nice).