If you have Safari or iTunes installed on your computer, be it on Windows or OS X, you are insecure. Apple does not know how to develop applications with security in mind.

Best gaming performance: Alienware Area-51 m5750

With a 256MB discrete graphics card, a 2.33-GHz Core 2 Duo T7600 processor, and 2GB of RAM, the mobile Alienware really cooks at gameplay (though it cost $3269 when we tested it). It hit a frame rate of 126 frames per second in Far Cry at 1280 by 1024 resolution and 32-bit color, leaving most other desktops in the dust. It has since been superseded by the Area-51 m9750.

That was not a top of the line Alienware.

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/29392/review/alienware_area51m_5750.html

Nov 20, 2006

The 5750 excels in raw speed: It set new PC World performance records, blazing through business applications to produce a WorldBench 5 score of 125

http://www.pcworld.com/reviews/product/30190/review/macbook_pro.html

Jul 25, 2007

We loaded Windows Vista Home Premium on the Apple notebook, and it snagged a WorldBench 6 Beta 2 score of 88...

Equipped with a 2.4-GHz Core 2 Duo T7700 processor, the maximum 4GB of RAM...

They weren't benchmarked with the same version and the Mac Book had double the RAM and a faster version of the Core 2 Duo, neither had an Extreme.  And it was a 8 month old Alienware they were comparing it to.

I edit with final cut pro. Its exclusively on the mac. That is why I use macs. I also prefer the operating system, I wouldn't say its superior but I personally enjoy using it more. Also my mac is has 2 dual core cpu's so its pretty damn fast, sure you can buy faster pc's (and macs) but as soon as you buy any technology its outdated anyway.

BTW comparing a school mac to your home pc is unfair. Nearly all educational institutions don't maintain their computers well and they're almost always low end run of the mill models. The same can be said for windows pc's.

the 8 month old alien ware came out about the same time as that macbook pro, so there is nothing there to seem lopsided, and if i remember right the pro was sporting an extreme... though im going to have to go look up chip numbers listed, apple has a habit of not calling chips by the name that the manufacturers call them.  

while it does say this year, it also says ever if you read a little further, so both are covered and it rated the macbook higher.... 2 gigs was apples standered load out at the time.... you could get 3 gigs if you wanted now its been upped to 4... (prior ram limitation was chipset caused)

heh i do find it funny that the apple was 800 bucks less

That was the price in November 06, PCs constantly drop in price as new chips come out. And if the Macbook had a Extreme that makes it even more lopsided. The point: it was out of what they tested and the testing methods were not standardized.

well compareing it to just those units would, but they said ever tested, up to that time... so that would be every other laptop pc unit that went through there tests. 

I did some digging on the chip, and at the time it was not the extreme, but was an early release (when it first came out that summer) of a higher clocked chip

and yes i do know they drop (well pcs generally do macs dont until a refresh so buy when it first comes out or wait for a refresh), i was just commenting on your choice of units to compare.

Fixed

I didn't choose them, those are the two that they were comparing.

I would choose these two to demonstrate the problem.  One is a gaming PC, the other is a production PC.  Apple just doesn't make high end performance for gamers. (I only included prices for a reference, when you're in the high end a couple thousand bucks isn't that big of a deal)

Alienware

Intel® Core™ i7-965 Extreme 3.2 GHz 8MB Cache  

Dual 2GB GDDR5 ATI® Radeon® HD 4870 X2 with CrossFireX™ and Quad GPU Technology
PC GAMER Editors' Choice Award Winner!  

12GB DDR3 SDRAM at 1600MHz - 6 x 2048MB  

Intel® X-58 Motherboard- Socket 1366 Core i7 Ready, Dual Triple Channel DDR3 Memory

600GB (2 x 300GB) Velociraptor SATA 3.0Gb/s 10,000RPM 2 x 16MB Cache

4x Dual Layer Blu-ray Burner (BD-RE, DVD±RW, CD-RW)

$6500

Apple Mac Pro:

Two 3.2GHz Quad-Core Intel Xeon

8GB (4x2GB)

2X300GB 15,000 RPM

NVIDIA Quadro FX 5600 1.5GB

$10,699.00

16 GB

$13,499.00

There just completely different machines.  But if you look at notebooks, you will see what they are saying.

Top of the line Mac Book Pro available.

• Intel Core 2 Duo2.6
• 17-inch widescreen
• 4GB Memory 667MHz DDR2
  
• 320GB hard drive 7200RPM
• NVIDIA GeForce 8600M GT with 512MB

$3,049.00

Non-top of the Line Alienware Notebook

• Intel® Core™2 Quad Extreme 2.53
  
• Dual 512MB ATI Mobility Radeon™ HD 3870
  
• 4GB 1066MHz DDR3 Memory
  
• 500GB (250GB x 2) 7,200RPM (8MB Cache) RAID 0 or 1
  
• BluRay

$3,349.00

or Intel® Core™2 T9600 2.8GHz (6MB Cache, 1066MHz FSB) 

$2,649.00

okay then, they still said tested so far, im sure in the time since vista came out to that point in time (9 months) they tested more then two laptops now the specs of the others are not listed and it is a bit odd they used those two as units in the demo.

but they did say tested so far, and this is a pc magazine, not an apple/mac publication. so I take what they say a bit more seriously then what say mac addict says when it rates the mac vs pcs

now that might be a different story in current specs, especially since the macbook pro 17 inch has not been refeshed this year

apples are the best value and generally a good price for the money (to even a great price) when they first come out

as for the current 17 inch its not been refreshed it will have an extreme like the 15 inch when it does get it... the lack of refresh was explained as something to do with issues with the display manufacturer 

and if you do want blueray, yes pc is the way to go despite apple sitting on the blue ray board, Jobs, has stated his displsure with the current state of the media, so its a no go for now.... its kinda strange in that regard as apple was the first to ditch 3.25 floppies for cd only, and the first to push usb 2. and firewire. 

edit, aslo you can pimp out that mac pro tower to have 4 quad core cpus, at a faster clock speed... I would not buy ram from aple though they still charge an arm and leg for it, but you could pop 32 gb in there.

the mac pro is also in line for a refresh but dont expect it to happen until january... they have been streaching the pro line refresh time further and further out since the intel switch... you can no longer expect a refresh very 6 months now on some lines its a year, some 18 months (mac mini), others seem held up by lawsuits (apple is suing the makers of the displays for price fixing, dell joined in on the suit, and i think lenvano did too) or manufaturing issues (sony battery recall again)

I'm saying PC mag is hardly the place to go for top performance content and Mac Books, whether you think they're cool or not, are not performance machines.