Price Wars! Apple MacBook Pro vs. Alienware Area-51 m9750

by Rich Menga on Aug 15, 2007 | 53 comments

Two premium-brand portable computers go head-to-head to see which one puts more drain on your wallet. Is the Mac more expensive? Watch and find out.

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nhoque
FYI the macbook pro does have a backlit key board which the alienware lacks. Even though the graphics card has less vram you also have to remember that the alienware only has the direct x 9 7000 series gpu whereas the macbook pro has the direct x 10 8000 series gpu. the casing to the macbook pro also is made out of aluminum and the alienware isn’t made out of any metal. speaking of cases the macbook pro is in a 1 inch high, with lid closed, where as the alenware doesn’t. Yeah sure the alienware has more ports it does not have the firewire 800 port. The macbook pro has many more things, but that doesn’t mean some pcs suck, they might be up to the same standards as the macbook pro, they might be below it.
ejen
I think that the last commenter made some very superficial comparisons between the two laptops. Who really cares about a backlit keyboard or how many ports the laptops have? As far as gamers are concerned, they don’t care about the glitzy junk that the macbook pro provides. Gamers only care about how well the laptop performs, not how thin it is. Alienware m9750 runs circles performancewise around the macbook pro. Go to notebookreview.com and search for the Alienware m9750 benchmarks compared to the macbook pro benchmarks. As you can clearly see, the benchmarks clearly indicate a HUGE gap in performance between the two notebooks. Yes, the 7950 GTX is DirectX 9 based, but the card is still WAY MORE POWERFUL than the 8600M GT DirectX 10 based card (Go to wikipedia to check that out; you might be surprised). I really doubt that Crysis, a game that will really seperate the weak GPUs from the strong, will perform well on a macbook at all. Also, Alienware has lowered the price of the m9750 by $100, whereas the macbook pro has not dropped one penny. Oh ya, the reason why Alienware doesn’t have a firewire 800 port is because Apple pioneered it and decided to make money off every single firewire port that is sold on any computer. Why should Alienware pay money to Apple for a port that many of Alienware’s customers don’t even use anymore? It doesn’t make any sense. One more thing: upgrading the laptop. Can you change the video card in a macbook pro: probably not. You’ll be stuck with what you configured. Can you change the video card in an Alienware m9750? Absolutely. You can rip out and put in new guts to make it more powerful “when that times comes”.
frank
ejen,
Not sure if your question was rhetorical or not, but the answer is, “I am.” Oh, yes, my name is Frank. Every item you cite as unimportant, and more prosaically as “glitzy junk” is something I actually use and appreciate.
You are correct about the MacBook Pro not dropping in price – the educator’s discount still leaves the 15.4″ machine pegged at $1799, though that did include a Canon photo printer last year and a 8GB iPod Nano this year, each selling for $199.
However, this year’s Spring version includes at the same price the 2.2GHz Core 2 Duo with Santa Rosa chipset, the nVidia graphics chip. and the LED backlit screen. I know, I know…superficial.
But, listen – I’m trying to be cooperative…I just can’t make myself feel “stuck.”
Frank
p.s. The “work world” does indeed understand the priorities of “gamers” and I’m sure most gamers understand the priorities of folks who use their computers primarily in other ways.
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
Get real! Mac rocks! Who would want an Alienware machine running Winblows. Disgusting Microsoft PC Clone industry! I hope they all go down in a heap of useless hardware. Apple Forever! Mac OS X is far superior to any Windows OS. Macbook Pro has better all around features, comes with more tasty add-ons… Macbook Pro 2.4GHZ Core 2 Duo wins the laptop of the year award in 2007. What else does one need? I’m playing Neverwinter Nights right now, and got all the other goodies, too. iTunes, iLife, iWorks ’08. Just got 08 the other day. Man, Apple pie is so sweet. Get real! Alienware tried to rip me off and so did Dell. Apple gave me my money’s worth and more. Apple for ever! Steve Jobs rocks!
ejen
Powershaker:
I would just like to comment on your comment. I would like to first rebut your claim that Mac OSX is the “best” operating system in the world. Why is Apple scared to license software away to PC manufacturers and tie the operating system to their own crummy computers with a TPM chip? Is Mac OSX completely rid of spyware and adware? Absolutely NOT! If Apple had a larger share of computers running Mac OSX, there would be plenty of exploits for the Mac operating system, because it would make sense to exploit the Mac. The only reason why Macs are not attacked very often is because it does not make sense to exploit a niche product so few people are using. If Windows were so bad, could you explain to me why would NINETY PERCENT of computers IN THE WORLD run Windows, huh? Think that Apple’s “It just works” campaign is true? Try to plug in that non-Mac approved USB Adapter. Does “it just work” now? Why does Apple have to design and use PC parts in order to make Macs? Does the Mac move to Intel ring a bell? Intel makes x86 chips for IBM PCs (that also ran Windows). Why did Apple decide to scrap Motorola for, what you prosaically term as “a heap of useless hardware”? Macs are designed around PC hardware. Your claim makes no sense at all. The number of developers on Mac dwarf compared to the number of Windows developers. This means that more software is written on the PC than it is on a Mac, so Mac people are still forced to run applications on a PC. In order to run your games, you still need Windows, not Mac OSX. Oh, and have you ever used Terminal? Is that user friendly? Windows kicks the Mac’s butt in the MS-DOS prompt as compared to the Mac’s Terminal. MacBook Pro’s hardware pales in comparison to the Alienware m9750. Not only is the 8600M GT a card HALF as powerful as the 7950GTX (wikipedia), Alienware has slashed prices again, now at $1799, which really is competitive with the price of a Mac. You said, “Alienware tried to rip me off and so did Dell.” How so? How did you get ripped off? You really need to explain yourself thoroughly, because as it stands right now, I have won this argument. Oh, and by the way, Bill Gates rocks!
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
First off, we have already seen a Macintosh computer running beside a Windows machine contenst and who lasts longer and endures through the toughest jobs. You are sitting there saying that Windows is more stable than OS X? I beg to differ. CANCEL. CANCEL. CANCEL! Bill Gates rocks? You incredibly naive. Even Vista was an attempt to copy the tasteful OS products of Apple. Why is 90% of the world using Windows? Easy! The reason for that falls in the same line as why do so many people not believe Jesus is the Son of God. Broad is the way that leads to destruction, and narrow is the way that leads unto life and few there be that find it! So, sit there, naive, and believe that Windows Operating Systems are made better and look better than OS OX, and I’ll sit here and laugh all day at your pathetic Alienware machine. What can you do on your Alienware machine I can’t do on my Macbook pro? If you judge a machine and it’s OS by whether you can run all the junk software out there, you surely need to look at the real reasons computers are produced in the first place. Also, Apple does have to use their hard drive constantly when running applications, so our hard drives hardly never crash and our there are Apple hard drives running still today after 10 years. That means Macintosh has better disk handling, and Windows can keep reading and writing back to the hard drive all day, and show us really what Windows OS is all about. Let’s get honest. Bill Gates copied OS X. He tried to capture the beauty and innovation of Jobs, and it cannot be done. I was a Windows user once. Yeah, I hate to admit it. I was. But, I woke up and realized a real computer runs a UNIX based operating system. Not Windblows!
http://powershaker.ifasnet.com POWERSHAKER
Apple DOESN’T have to read and write constantly back to the hard drive when running an application. I don’t have to delete DLL files. I don’t have to find the newest and best Direct X. I still play games on my Macbook Pro. I don’t have worry about uninstalling a program in Windblows and having extra pieces of it left over on the hard drive. I don’t have to depend on ADD/REMOVE! I just drag the single .app file to the trash. And, I ever can drag a word as a clip from TextEdit, whereas, try doing that in Notepahd. The pluses of Macintosh far outweigh the Windows PC Clone department. I am sorry, but if you have a Windblows PC Clone machine, you are a total idiot and a follow – not a leader.
http://powershaker.ifasnet.com POWERSHAKER
You just sit there all day and think an Alienware machine can even hold a candle to Macbook Pro. I’ll sit here with my Macbook Pro (almost having bought an Alienware and a Dell machine) and I’ll know just how I finally sidestepped the evil Microsoft empire. I’ll sit here and run Windows XP and VISTA with the Aero Interface and not have to run it as my Native OS. I’ll sit here and enjoy the beauty, taste and utter crispness of OS X Tiger. I’ll sit here and run Ubuntu Linux as well. I’ll sit here and run them all at once fluidly and enjoy the best of all worlds. I’ll sit here and stand on the Apple throne with Jobs and proclaims Apple computers the Alpha of Home Computing and the Omega of Home Computing. I’ll sit here and laugh at how flimsy Windows OSes are compared to Macintosh OSes! I laugh at you all! I laugh at you!
http://www.frostedside.com/blog/ Rich Menga
I feel the need to interject here (and this is the video author by the way):
Apple is proprietary by nature. They absolutely insist that all their computers be built by them, both hardware and software. This is their biggest mistake because it alienates more people from trying Mac computers (because not everyone has an Apple store or CompUSA in their backyard.)
Dell has wooed Apple several times to let them build Macs for them – per Apple directives mind you and not Dell’s. Dell could easily build a Mac with the exact same quality Apple does for less cost. Apple says no, so the price remains high – for no reason.
Lots of Apple users forget the fact that Microsoft gave Apple 150 million dollars ten years ago to help keep them alive. Proof of that is here: http://tinyurl.com/2zfuq6 All Mac users should thank Microsoft for that because helped drive Apple’s stock price up more than 40 percent. How “evil” do you think Microsoft is now?
Speaking of which, the best office suite on the Mac is actually made by Microsoft.
Apple’s choice to go with Intel chips was a smart choice. The Motorola, while nice, just couldn’t keep up.
Bill Gates doesn’t rock and neither does Steve Jobs. If you guys want to say anybody “rocks,” why not thank the software developers and programmers instead. They’re the ones who actually make things happen. Pointing fingers are figureheads doesn’t accomplish anything.
http://powershaker.ifasnet.com POWERSHAKER
Yeah, $150,000,000 so Bill Gates can buy some of the stock, because he knows Apple is at the cutting edge of technology. Let’s get real. What would you rather have: customized Mac Pro 3.0 GHZ 8 cores on board and a mess of filled drive bays or a Windblows PC machine. Get real.
http://powershaker.ifasnet.com POWERSHAKER
I’m just glad I don’t have a goofy Microsoft sticker on my Dell machine. Absolutely no taste! See what it’s really all about: http://youtube.com/watch?v=upzKj-1HaKw
ejen
Apple users are so naive (for Mac users, this is the definition: inexperienced). First of all, your comment on the hard drive can easily be negated. It just depends on which hard drive manufacturer makes the hard drive. It depends on a number of factors, such as quality of production, type of motor, hard drive wear leveling techniques, etc. Let me explain to you how a computer works. When you run an application, you send your CPU a request to the hard drive for a file. The hard drive finds it and loads it into MEMORY. The application runs in the MEMORY, and if the application needs more, then the CPU will act accordingly. I’m just trying to say that it really depends on the amount of memory you have. I have a hard drive that has, as you call it, “Winblows” 98. Freaking 98; TEN years ago! And let me tell you something: It still works as if I had just bought it yesterday. This means that FAT32 system file leveling and distribution of clusters on the hard drive works very well. However, I have Macs at my school. We had our twentieth server outage at my school this year that started seventeen days ago. And guess what? My school uses Mac Servers. I was unable to do anything during those crashes and my school is considering scrapping Apple for good. And you are trying to tell me that Macs are superior to PCs? You are so naive…who really gives a crap about the “looks” of the operating system? I am using Windows XP SP2, which may not have the “Genie” effect or eye candy that naive Mac users “enjoy”, but it has robustness, portability, stability, scalability, and agility to complete ANY task I throw at it. Mac users are FORCED TO RELY on Windows, because most applications ever developed are developed on Windows, for Windows. Mac users are forced to use Parallel to run exclusive Windows titles. Next, I have never seen this alleged “contest” between a mac and a pc. Even so, Windows performs calculations more efficiently than does a Mac. The reason why you have bits and pieces all over your hard drive is because you are a naive and careless user. You think that Windows will clean up after you like your mother, and thankfully, you found that a Mac does. What can a Mac do that my Windows machine can’t do better? If you believe that a computer is judged by how beautiful it is and how much it is like your mother, you too are an idiot and a follower – not a leader.
http://www.tona.wnyric.org frank
This might be the most inane and poorly argued discussion that I’ve had the misfortune of posting to.
Have a nice day!
Frank
http://www.frostedside.com/blog/ Rich Menga
Frank,
You’re absolutely right. Your comment is sincerely appreciated.
ejen
Sorry about all of this. I just can’t stand it when people say Macs are better than PCs. I do sincerely apoligize for everything posted here, but I just needed to let loose a little bit here, because a teacher of mine has bugged me about liking Windows last year, and it still rubs off on me. Sorry about everything.
nhoque
For post 13, you are right. this is a very worthless discussion. both macs and pcs have their ups and downs and quite frankly it depends on what makes you happy. If you are a p.c. fan thats great and if your a mac fan thats great to. we are all different people and there fore have different opinions. there is one thing most of us have in common is that vista sucks compared to both xp and os x. there is a reason that enterprises aren’t upgrading and there are articles suggesting that Microsoft should dump vista. then again no service packs have been released, but until then vista sucks.
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
Yeah, I know what you’re saying, post 16. Some people would rather own a Toyota Corolla rather than a Porsche. I just think everyone should have a Porsche like I do. I think the world would be a much better place without Windows to foul up the taste and cultural aspects of the computing industry.
frank
I’m glad to see this discussion turn rational. It’s an important topic. People sometimes “fall into” computers the way they do many things they develop preferences for, never coming to appreciate the full value of the other things they could have chosen.
If my few comments appeared to support Mac advocacy, let me clarify in the context of the above statement:
I picked up this MacBook Pro last October following a significant hardware upgrade by Apple. It was meant for my son who had just interviewed for a business position with a high-tech company were his good friend and former roommate at college manages the programmers, and who strongly advised him to get a Mac.
He got the job…and he got a laptop. I said, oh shit…what am I going to do with this laptop, grin. I purchased it for $1799, educator’s discount, had a copy of Office 2004 that was never used since we never had OS X, beta tested Parallels Desktop and got a free copy of that when the program ended, had my XP Pro SP2 from my Dell 470 Precision Workstation, and had access to the world of F/OSS through Darwin Ports and Fink.
I tricked the hell out of that MacBook. First conference I attended, I had XP and Ubuntu Studio running on separate desktops, having installed an OS X pager. People’s eyes popped out. The power, efficiency, and performance are phenomenal. Word 2003 is up in the VM and ready to rock in just about 1 second. All hardware on the laptop is accessible to the VMs.
On my Dell – two 3.0GHz Xeon processors, 2GB of ECC RAM, two 10,000RPM SCSI hard drives running in RAID under a PERC/320 buss mastering controller with it’s own microprocessor, workstation nVidia Quadro graphics, SB Audigy, 19″ hi-res digital flat panel, etc. (pretty obviously a KILLER workstation – expensive, but not crazy – just over $3000) I am running that XP Pro on one partition, and currently a derivative of Gentoo Linux on the other.
This distro is based upon Gentoo’s “compiled right on your computer just for you with perfect compatibility” philosophy, is fully 64-bit and absolutely screams.
Ubuntu Studio is for multimedia authoring – graphics, video, and music – the latter being supported in the extreme with some software tools to rival anything on the commercial market, and a low-lat kernel to ensure they work as required.
So, and please excuse the long and personal posting – its purpose was to make an important point – I was lucky enough to “fall into” some very enabling and powerful computing technology. Having come from early in the game – Atari 800, 6502 processor, assembly language, Forth, LOGO, C, etc. I was well positioned to see where all the benefits were to be found.
My primary OS is, and has been for 10 years, GNU/Linux, but EVERYTHING I do on this Mac works perfectly, and EVERYTHING I do in XP Pro, either on my Workstation, or more often in a VM on the Mac, works perfectly.
That’s the answer to the question implicit in this discussion. Go with whatever exists in your comfort zone, whatever you “fell into” that got you headed in that direction. Optimize the main usage you have for your computer if that’s an issue – and gaming certainly is, but don’t diss the rest unless you really know what you’re talking about, and only if you make clear what you mean and that there are other areas that you aren’t addressing.
In any event, virtualization makes much of this controversy a non-controversy. I haven’t got virtualization running in Windows but assume it works just fine. I can assure you that in OS X it works just fine.
Frank
Louis
Wow I love how he leaves out the dual hard drives and card reader. Plus You don’t have to buy Alienwares Memory just go to newegg and get it cheap. Also the 7950 video card blows away the 8600 forget DX 10 because your games will run slower on that card and look worse. Also you can upgrade the m9750 to have dual video cards and when they relase the upgrade to the 8700go cards you’ll be able to run DX 10 anyway. So you can have double the hard drive space and triple the video card memory. Plus Alienware has and upgrade program so that you can buy your system with lower specs now and then upgrade with a discount later. So really the Macpro does not compare at all. Nice try mac lovers lol!!!!!!!
Louis
I just looked over everything that he adds and noticed a few things that I had to point out. Not only is the video card a piece of crap but so is the 250 gb hard drive on the Mac. It is a 4200rpm hard drive on the MAC and a 250 gb 5400rpm on the Alienware. Plus the Alienware also has the option for a 320gb 7200rpm harddrive. Plus the Alienware screen upgrade cost more ($300) because it is a better screen just go look for yourself. Then there is the wireless cards which both are a/b/g cards so there was really no need to spend the money to upgrade. So I would like to know is the person who made this video understands computers at all. Since he picked a PC that way out classes the MAC in terms of hardware. If he wanted to be fair to the MAC this is the system he should have used and check out the price!!!
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Update Price & Ship DateDiscount DetailsPreliminary Ship Date: 10/9/20073Print SummaryMy Components
Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7600G (2.33GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Genuine Windows Vista® Home Premium
4GB DDR2 SDRAM at 667MHZ, 2 DIMM
Size: 250GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM)
8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability
512MB NVIDIA® GeForce™ 7950 GTX
Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N
Dell Wireless 355 Bluetooth Internal (2.0 + Enhanced Data Rate)
9-cell Primary Battery and 9-cell additional Lithium Ion Battery
Integrated Audio
My Software & Accessories
PC-cillin Internet Security: AntiVirus, Firewall, Spyware removal 15-months
No Productivity software pre-installed
My Service
1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor,24×7 Phone Support
1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection (CD Shipped Separately)
DataSafe Online Backup 10GB for 1 year
6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
Also Includes
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card and Modem
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Award Winning Service, Support
Inspiron XPS, Specialized Support
Windows Vista™ Premium
Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
No Entertainment software pre-installed
No Productivity software pre-installed
My Service
1Yr In-Home Service, Parts + Labor,24×7 Phone Support
1Yr LoJack for Laptops Theft Protection (CD Shipped Separately)
DataSafe Online Backup 10GB for 1 year
6 Months America Online Internet Access Included
Also Includes
17 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen UXGA Display with TrueLife™
Integrated 10/100/1000 Network Card and Modem
Adobe® Acrobat® Reader 8.1
Award Winning Service, Support
Inspiron XPS, Specialized Support
Windows Vista™ Premium
Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor
No Entertainment software pre-installed
Phil
Interesting comparison between the MacBookPro and AW laptop.
I notice the final price for the AW did not include any support (ie AppleCare)
in that price. Also the the MBP comes with a media remote to control
OSX’s built in media navigation. I think its called Front Row.
If you subtract AppleCare from the price the MBP is well below $4000
cheers
Phil
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
Yeah,plus you get a solid UNIX based operating system, cool little dock on the desktop, instant plug and play without having to install any drivers, a cool little glowing Apple on the back of your Macbook Pro reminding you of the good old days when Apple II was in every household, three cool little Apple stickers to put on Window’s PC monitors and really make them mad, the ability to run an infinite number of OSes in Parallels 3.0, cool little widgets and a you don’t have to download iTunes for Windows either. It comes with it, and all the stuff updates constantly. Apple is constantly improving their products. Plus, you can put Raid hard drives in your Macbook Pro just like Alienware. Just throw two 200 giggers in there. What’s the big deal? Just buy some extra external hard drives, too. I got me a 160 gig internal and a 300 gig Seagate at 7200RPMs. Oh, but don’t forget the iSkin. Every laptop should have one of those – especially the precious Macbook Pro. OH! And if you have an extra $50, throw in the applepeelz. It covers your whole Macbook, so it won’t get any scratches. You can always get the Apple Care plan within the year. Just get the one year and upgrade when you got enough money to buy Apple Care for Macbook Pro on ebay.
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
Oh yeah! I only paid $2,780 for my Macbook Pro with the following:
Macbook Pro 2.4 GHZ Core 2 Duo 17″ glossy wide screen, an iSkin, 160 gig 5400RPM hard drive (knock of $100 for this cuz I knew I wouldn’t be editing film or music anytime soon and if I do I have the patience to wait) and 2 gigs of 600MHZ DDR 2 memory in 1 gig pairs, Super-multi drive. Man, you wouldn’t believe the movies on this thing. I love it! I love it so much! I so love it! Just remember. I was a guy who use to own a Pentium II tower, about six Atari computers, a Commodore 64, an Atari 1040ST and two Macintosh LCs over the years. I’ve owned practically ever platform, and I’m telling the world this Macbook Pro is the best, prettiest machine I’ve ever had and I have thoroughly enjoyed it! I am not telling anyone this to persuade them. I am telling them this so that they can share in the Apple LOVE man!
http://powershaker.ifastnet.com POWERSHAKER
Just remember! Don’t let the evil Microsoft take you for an idiot. Explore the world of Apple today and breathe once again, smile once again, fondle your iSkin! Geez!
Jangle
Apple is going the way of PC’s, and if you don’t realize that take a look at benchmarks of people making pimped out versions of both. Both run Linux/unix/windows, the only real difference is Apple has OSX and propriety software. As of this date people still build faster PC comps than Apple at a lower price, but are generally comparable (not always.) Buy apple if you like thier programs.