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Choosing the right laptop for live looping & PRICING EXPERIMENT



----- Original Message -----
From: "Qua Veda" <

> The Mac has about 3% market share of the laptops, so that's partly why they
> cost more. 

Good point. Some folks forget how little they have of the market share, but we should
see this jump up with their adoption of the Intel duo core, right? Maybe it has jumped
already.

> For the price of the MacBookPro, there are companies that will custom
> configure a PC laptop,  optimized for audio applications,  with multiple
> SATA hard drives (separating programs and audio files on different drives
> can speed performance),  and excellent support.  

Well, the pricing thing is getting interesting, and there may not be the same discrepancy
as there was before.  I just did an experiment for you all. I went to the apple, HP, Dell,
Toshiba, and Lenovo sites and pretended I was buying a notebook from each. I configured each notebook
as I would if I were buying it for myself today for music. The specs are exact apples to apples, but it
will give you a general idea of pricing comparisons of really top notch notebooks. The result
here could vary quite a bit if I had not have selected business class PC notebooks. The PC
prices would probably vary by at least $500, if I had configured a consumer model.
 
Price Summaries:
 
MacBook Pro - $3748.00 USD
Lenovo ThinkPadT61p - $2942.00 (I would not buy again pesonally, because they don't have firewire)
HP Compaq nc8430 - $3655.00
Dell Lattitude D8030 - $2975
Toshiba Tecra M9-ST5511 - $2564.00 (could not configure with 4MB of RAM or faster hard drive)


Mac

Model: MacBook Pro
Processor: 2.4GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Monitor/Display: 15" (Widescreen display, not glossy)
Memory: 4GB
Hard Drive: 160GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm
Services: AppleCare Protection Plan for MacBook Pro/PowerBook (w/or w/o Display) - Auto-enroll

TOTAL: $3748.00 USD

Lenovo (IBM)

Model: ThinkPad T61p Mobile Workstation (follow on to the unit I have now)
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.4GHz 800MHz 4MBL2)
Monitor/Display: 15.4 WUXGA TFT 
Memory: 4 GB PC2-5300 DDR2 SDRAM 667MHz SODIMM Memory (2 DIMM)
Hard Drive: 100GB Hard Disk Drive, 7200rpm
Services: 3 year depot 9x5 Next Business Day  & 3 Year Depot Upgrade with 3 Year ThinkPad Protection

TOTAL: $2942.00

HP (Under Business Class notebooks)

Model: HP Compaq nc8430
Processor: Intel Core Duo Processor T7600 2.33 GHz, 4MB cache, 667 MHz FSB
Monitor/Display: 15.4 inch WXGA
Memory: 4GB
Hard Drive: 100GB, 7200 rpm
Services: 9X5 pickup & return services w/ accidental damage protection, 3 years

TOTAL: $3655
 
Dell (large business class notebooks)
 
Model: Dell Lattitude D8030
Processor: Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T7700 (2.40GHz) 4M L2 Cache, 800MHz Dual Core 
Monitor/Display: 15.4 inch Wide Screen WSXGA+ LCD Panel
Memory: 4.0GB, DDR2-667MHz SDRAM, 2 DIMMS
Hard Drive: 160GB Hard Drive, 9.5MM, 7200RPM
Services: 3 Year Business Comprehensive Plan / Gold Technical Support, 3 Years
 
TOTAL: $2975
 
Toshiba (under business products)
 
Model: Tecra M9-ST5511
Processor: Intel® Core™2 Duo* Processor T7700 (2.40GHz, 4MB L2 Cache, 800MHz FSB)
Monitor/Display: 14.1" Diagonal Widescreen XGA display
Memory: 2048MB PC5300 DDR2 667MHz SDRAM (2048MBx1)
Hard Drive: 160GB HDD (5400rpm, Serial-ATA)
Services: 3 Years Standard Limited Warranty 
 
TOTAL: $2564.00