Mac vs PC. My personal showdown

For a while now I've been contemplating getting a MBP(MacBook Pro), since I do, and will be doing a lot more graphic design work. Coupled with that, virtually every game I play now is offered on them too. Their sleek design and unibody shell are very appealing, especially since recently, they've upgraded their hardware specs. This is where I was almost impressed... Almost.


A 17" MBP's Specs: $2399.99

• 2.53GHz Intel Core i5 Processor
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 SDRAM - 2X2GB
• 500GB Serial ATA Drive @ 7200 rpm [Add $50.00]
• 17-inch Hi-Resolution Antiglare Widescreen Display [Add $50.00]
• NVIDIA GeForce GT 330M with 512MB

HP a while back introduced a "premium" line of laptops, to which they almost immediately hacked to pieces with their updates to them. Amidst the ruins of their revised ENVY lineup, the 17" stands as one of the sole survivors of that massacre. without drastic upgrades, this is what I came up with:

A 17" ENVY from HP: $1,474.99

• i5-460M Dual Core Processor (2.53 GHz, 3MB L3 Cache)
• 6GB DDR3 System Memory (2 Dimm)
• 500GB 7200RPM Hard Drive
• 17.3" diagonal Full HD HP Ultra BrightView Infinity LED Display (1920x1080[Add $100.00]
• 1GB ATI Mobility Radeon(TM) HD 5850 Graphics [HDMI]
One 6 Cell (standard) and One 9 Cell (over-sized) Lithium Ion Battery [Add $75.00]

The MBP lineup became instantly more appealing with their addition of the Intel I line, and the 330M switchable graphics cards. Unfortunately when i bench-marked the two graphics cards (330M vs 5850), I was sadly disappointed in this Nvidia card in the MBP. There are two HD 5850s, and since HP isn't specific on which one, I decided to bench both, although I'm fairly positive it's the lower of the two that they used. The test was 3dMark Vantage and found here: [Here]:

ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 (GDDR5) 6957
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 5850 (GDDR3) 5221
Nvidia GeForce GT 330M 2700

Sadface MBP, sadface. Even if the MBP wasn't almost $1,000 more, the specs make it hard to want to pass up a graphics card that is at least double the performance level. If i wanted a blue ray player/dvd burner, plus a bunch more accessories, I'd still be cheaper than the MBP.

I understand that MacBooks are for the cool kids, and it's a novelty computer to own, but come on; that's a lot of money on top of the really slick looking and performing envy lineup. I suppose if you absolutely have to have a mac, they've done a good job at increasing the hardware on the lineup for you, but you may want to take a second look at the lines from PC makers.